A Mission Record of the California Indians: Introduction

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A MISSION RECORD OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS

From a Manuscript in the Bancroft Library.

BY

A. L. Kroeber.

[1908]

In 1811 the Spanish viceregal government of Mexico sent to Alta California a list of questions regarding the Indians at the missions, their customs and disposition in their native state, and their condition under missionary influence. This "interrogatorio" was answered at the various missions, the replies collected, and prefaced by the president of the missions with a short general statement or abstract of the answers received to each question. The compilation was presumably forwarded to Mexico, and a copy retained in the Archives of the mission Santa Barbara. There a copy was made in 1877 by E. F. Murray for Mr. H. H. Bancroft. On the acquisition of the Bancroft Library by the University of California, this copy became available for study. Through the courtesy of Professor Henry Morse Stephens, and the Commission on the Bancroft Library, the writer is enabled to present the following translation of extracts from this document. 1

Footnotes

1:1 The copy at the University of California is in the Archives of the Mission Santa Barbara, Miscellaneous Papers, volume VII, beginning at page 112, as this series of documents is at present bound and paged, and is entitled: Contestation al Interrogatorio del año de 1811 por el Presidente de las Misiones de esta Alta California, y los Padres de la Misiones de San Miguel, San Antonio, Soledad, etc. The heading of the document itself is: Interrogatorio dirigido al Il^mo S^or Obispo de Sonora, a 6 de Octubre del año 1811, por el Ex^mo S^or Dⁿ Ciriaco Gonzales Carvajal, S^rio inter^o de la gobernacion del Reyno de Ultramar, y circulado por mi, de orⁿ del S^or Bⁿ Dⁿ José Joaquin Calvo, Gobernador de la expresada sagrada Mitra, y de los padres ministros de las misiones de San Miguel, etc.