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Of Isla Cedros, Baja California, As Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Obras Californianas

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Of Isla Cedros, Baja California, As Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Obras Californianas UC Merced Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology Title The Huamalgüeños of Isla Cedros, Baja California, as Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Obras Californianas Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9900444m Journal Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology, 26(2) ISSN 0191-3557 Authors Des Lauriers, Matthew R Des Lauriers, Claudia Garcia Publication Date 2006 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. Nn. 2 (2006) | pp. 123-152 THE HUAMALGUENOS OF ISLA CEDROS, BAJA CALIFORNIA, AS DESCRIBED IN FATHER MIGUEL VENEGAS' 1739 MANUSCRIPT OBRAS CALIFORNIANAS MATTHEW R. DES LAURIERS Department of Anthropology, California State University, Northridge CLAUDIA GARCIA-DES LAURIERS Department of Anthropology, Pomona College Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Obras Californianas is the most extensive and detailed document covering the first forty years of the Jesuit period in Baja California. In addition to providing discussions of historical events, Venegas wrote extensively on the natural world and on indigenous cosmology, social networks, and lifeways. The section translated and annotated here includes the bulk of Venegas' writing on Isla Cedros and its native people. The island, located on the Pacific Coast of central Baja California, was home to a large, maritime-adapted indigenous society. The period of time (1728-1732) covered in this section of the much larger Venegas manuscript details the tragic end of Cedros Island's indigenous society, but preserves an account of their culture that is of inestimable value. The annotations included provide not only clarifications of meaning, but critical evaluations of the text and of the significance of particular passages within the larger context of Baja California indigenous and colonial history. HE JESUIT-AUTHORED DOCUMENTS touching Father Miguel Venegas (1680-1764) spent 64 years Tupon the history, indigenous cultures, and of his life as a Jesuit, although due to poor health, he environments of Baja California are well known for their was never able to pursue missionary activities in the detail and quality. Some of these have been translated remote regions of northwest New Spain. He became into English (e.g., Baegert 1952 [1772]; Clavigero 1937 a great compiler of Jesuit history, penning several [1789]); however, some of the most detailed and in-depth histories of important individuals and even authoring discussions of events and native cultures are included in the Parochial Manual for the Administration of the Holy an original, unedited manuscript, Obras Californianas Sacraments and Exercise of Other Ecclesiastical Functions (Venegas 1979 [1739]), which has never been translated Conforming to the Roman Ritual, which was officially into Enghsh, and therefore (unfortunately) has been adopted in 1758 by the Church in New Spain as the seldom utilized by American scholars. Important infor­ standard text on the matter (Mathes 1978:5-6). Venegas mation relevant to Alta Cahfornia history is included began compiling the Obras Californianas in the course of in this document, whose passages contain possibly his research for other works on specific individuals, and the earliest descriptions of Chumash plank canoe it includes information drawn from a variety of sources. construction. It is hoped that this translation and the These include official reports, personal correspondence, accompanying annotations will draw attention to this and data drawn from both royal and ecclesiastical incredible source of information, and lead to additional archives. One of the more remarkable methods applied insights into the indigenous and colonial history of both by Venegas was the maiUng of a formal questioimaire the Baja California peninsula and Alta California, and to to those who had first-hand experience in the Jesuit a better integration of the two. mission system in Baja California (Mathes 1978:8). We 123 124 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26. No. 2 (2006) may assume that, for its day, the document from which largely due to introduced diseases (see Preston 1996). the following section was drawn was among the finest The richness of these documents cannot compensate examples of contemporary historical scholarship. for the loss of native cultures that occurred in Baja Venegas died before the expulsion of the Jesuits Cahfornia, and their absence from our world is a deeply- from the Spanish domains (Crosby 1994), and thus his felt tragedy. A rich archaeological record exists on Isla writings do not cover the final years of Jesuit activity Cedros, and although it has only recently begun to be on the peninsula. However, del Barco (1988) picked up systematically explored (Des Lauriers 2005a, 2005b, the history where Venegas left off, so together the two 2006a, 2006b), it will certainly provide insight into the authors provide a more chronologically complete history indigenous occupation of the island, which extends back of the Jesuit period in Baja California. The history of the 12,0(X) calendar years (Des Lauriers 2006b), and the end southern portion of the peninsula is discussed in great of which is described in the following pages. It was the detail by Crosby (1994) in his excellent synthesis Antigua present document, among others, that led Des Lauriers California, while the most interdisciplinary approach to initiate the Proyecto Arqueologico Isla Cedros in of all is Aschmaim's (1959) The Central Desert of Baja December of 2000. It is hoped that others will find this California: Demography and Ecology, a masterwork of document equally engaging and significant. geography in the tradition of Carl Sauer. For a much more detailed "Historical-Biographical Introduction" to the Obras Californianas, we refer the reader to Mathes BOOK 71 (1978), who should also be given credit for being the Of the Discovery of the Islands of the Sorrows,^ and editor of record for the 1979 publication of the facsimile Other Foundations and Successes in the Califomias. of this document, which was among the principal sources consulted for the present work of translation. Chapter I For this translation, an effort has been made to Some islanders come to the Mission San Ignacio preserve meaning rather than to produce a direct to request baptism, and tell of their islands. translation. Very little has been omitted or excised. Where words or phrases have been omitted or altered, 1170 Despite its importance and advantageousness, the we include ellipses to indicate the former and contain mission of Our Holy Father Ignacio was founded by our glosses within brackets for the latter. Our principal Father Juan Bautista Luyando at his own personal intentions were to maintain clarity wherever possible expense, through his careful work, and even at the and to maintain the tone and quahty of the text, but cost of his health, in the most remote regions of the the informational content was given priority over prose. north, for the numerous Christians, who increased in Wherever possible, it is recommended that the reader the new Church of the Califomias. Its foimdation is refer to the original source, since translation is inherently made even more significant for having left the door interpretive. For this reason, the original paragraph open for the reduction of the gentile islanders that numbers have been preserved in this version of the inhabit the new "Islands of the Sorrows," situated text. Annotations have been included to improve clarity in the Southern Sea, and corresponding with the and provide context within the larger document and furthest regions that have been discovered by within the overall history of Baja California, as well as to land in California.^ The accoimt of their discovery indicate where decisions have been made regarding the was as follows: In the first year that the Father'* usage of particular polysemic words or phrases founded that mission,^ among the many gentiles Isla Cedros is located on the Pacific Coast of the that came there to request baptism were those Baja California peninsula, 426 air miles south of San from the rancheria of the Holy Trinity, named in Diego, Cahfornia (Figs. 1 and 2). At contact, it was home their language Walime ce^ whose reduction has to a relatively large, maritime-adapted society that is at already been mentioned in the previous book least partially described in the following pages. Between (Chapter 18). With these came those of another 1540 and 1732, the population on the island collapsed. nearby rancheria,named AnaWa'^ who inhabit the ARTICLE I The Htiamalgmiis of Isla Cedros, Baja California, as Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Okas Calilomianas | Des Lauriers / Garcia-Des Lauriers 125 Figure 1. Map of the Baja California Peninsula, showing locations mentioned in the text 126 Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 26, No. 2 (2006) Punta Norte Isla Guadalupe San Quintin - El Rosario Region Islas San Benito (30 km W of Los Crestones) N 5KJV1 Isla Cedros ?• PUNTA SAN CARLOS Las Palmas" Likely Watering Place of Vizcaino. Baliia Sebastian Vizcaino ueblo ^"^^ Laguna Guerrero Negro Cedros • Punta Eugenia / (23 km SxSE from Punta Morro Redondo) Isla Natividad \( •^"The Salt Docks- (15 km S of Punta Prieta) Figure 2. Map of Isla Cedros. ARTICLE I The HuantalgiieHos of Isla Cedros, Baja California, as Described in Father Miguel Venegas' 1739 Manuscript Okas Californiaiias \ Des Lauriers
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