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PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THIS SERIES

Educational Foundations of the Jesuits

in Sixteenth-Century New Spain
By Jerome V. Jacobsen, S.J., Ph.D.
Pioneer Black Robes on the West Coast
By Peter Masten Dunne, S.J., Ph.D.

Pioneer Jesuits in Northern Mexico

By Peter Masten Dunne, S.J., Ph.D.
EARLY JESUIT MISSIONS IN TARAHUMARA
5arly Jesuit Missions
in TaraHumara

By Peter Masten Dunne, S.J.

U n i v e r s i t y of C a l i f o r n i a P r e s s
Berkeley a n d Los Angeles • 1948
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
B E R K E L E Y AND LOS ANGELES
CALIFORNIA

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON, ENGLAND

COPYRIGHT, 1 9 4 8 , BY
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BY THE GILLICK PRESS
 TO
F A T H E R C A R L O ROSSI
ONETIME PUPIL
EMINENT LINGUIST
AND D E L I G H T F U L T R A V E L I N G COMPANION
OVER OLD M I S S I O N T R A I L S
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE
HIS STUDY of another unit of the Jesuit mission system in northern
Mexico is the third made hy the author for this series of volumes
on the activities of the Jesuits in Spanish North America. It follows in
logical sequence the second monograph: Pioneer Jesuits in Northern
Mexico (1944). That volume dealt with the missions of the Sierra
Madre Occidental among the Acaxée and Xixime Indians, with the
tribes of the plains east of the divide in modern Coahuila, and espe-
cially with the trouhle-torn missions established among the Tepehuán
Indians who resided chiefly on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre
in what is now the state of Durango. The present book describes the
extension of the Jesuit mission system north of the country of the
Tepehuanes into the territory of the Tarahumares in modern Chihua-
hua. The facts herein have historical significance, for they form a
chapter in the northward advance of Spain's colonial frontier.
The Jesuits, expelled by the King of Spain from his dominions in
1767, were suppressed as a religious order by Pope Clement XIV in
1773. The order was restored by the papacy in 1814, and in the latter
part of that century the Jesuits returned to Mexico to take up again
their ancient mission work among the Tarahumares. Here they are
still working in the 1940's.
The author is indebted to the courtesy and cooperation of many
people in the preparation of this study. Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, editor
and inspirer of this series, has given the author generous privileges in
the use of his collection of documents. Father José Martínez Cabrera,
superior of the Jesuits in the city of Chihuahua in 1940, was most
helpful in facilitating a journey through northern Tarahumar country,
and Señores Silvestre Terrazas and Lorenzo Arellano Schetelig were
cordial and cooperative in the indication of local historical sources.
Señor José G. Rocha, custodian of the archives of Parral, kindly placed
this rich depository of documents at the disposal of the author. Finally,
gratitude is due to Mrs. Richard Jones of Los Angeles who went over
and over the manuscript and with infinite pains prepared the index.

P.M.D.
University of San Francisco
March 19, 1948
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Land and Its People 1

II. The Frontier Creeps North 9
III. Fonte, First Apostle of the Tarahumares . 14
IV. Fonte is Slain 25
V. Rebuilding a Broken Frontier . . . . 31
VI. A New Mission Unit 39
VII. Four Caciques Rebel 46
VIII. Another Jesuit Falls 59
IX. Appeasement, New Revolt, Massacre . . 66
X. The Pursuit of Chief Tepöraca . . . 75
XI. Jurisdictional Difficulties 81
XII. Recovery 88
XIII. Tarahumara Spreads Its Missions . . . 96
XIV. Two Great Apostles 104
XV. New Missions in Alta Tarahumara . . . 118
XVI. Zapata Visits Tarahumara 129
XVII. Neumann Begins a Career 137
XVIII. A Kaleidoscopic Twelvemonth . . . . 149
X I X . Storm, Treason, and Revolt . . . . 163
X X . The Uprising of 1697 172
X X I . Precarious Appeasement 186
X X I I . Tarahumara's Northern Home . . . . 198
X X I I I . The Last Great Apostle 206
XXIV. The Last Report 221
Epilogue 230
Appendix PAGE

I. Epitome of Zapata's Report, 1678 . . . 237

II. Comparative Statistics, 1725 and 1761 . . 239
Notes 241
Bibliography 259
Index 263
 ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Norogachic; the courtyard of
Jesús Cárichic; the old mission church of San Marcos
de Pichachic Facing 112
Church at Narárachic; the ruins of San Rafael de Máta-
chic; the bells of Yepómera Facing 128

MAP
Tarahumar Missions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries Following 276
 ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Norogachic; the courtyard of
Jesús Cárichic; the old mission church of San Marcos
de Pichachic Facing 112
Church at Narárachic; the ruins of San Rafael de Máta-
chic; the bells of Yepómera Facing 128

MAP
Tarahumar Missions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries Following 276
 Chapter I

T H E LAND AND T H E PEOPLE

A CROSS T H E yellow-flowing Rio Grande from El Paso in Texas lies

Lthe city of Juárez in Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. From
there a journey of more than two hundred miles, by rail or road,
almost directly south takes the visitor to the city of Chihuahua, capital
of the state. It is dry and dusty travel, for most of the district is desert
country and its broad reaches sweep off to the horizon in a seemingly
illimitable plain. T h i s does not say that there is no pleasurable relief
to the eye, for bold and rocky sierras lift rugged shoulders from the
desert floor, and in the clear atmosphere rise up far away in lavender
and blue. As the sun sets they are flushed to rose and in the far dis-
tance they seem to float upon the horizon's edge like argosies of mystic
promise. From Chihuahua southwest, and south is the country of the
Tarahumar, an ancient race which still lives upon the land. 1
T h e visitor from the United States thus enters the region where
the Tarahumares dwell. 2 N o t so the ancient missionary. H e trudged
into the land from the south, from Mexico the capital of N e w Spain,
passing through Zacatecas, famous for its mines of silver, and then on
to Durango where the Jesuits had a house and college. From this
base the padres used to travel north and a little west through moun-
tainous country where the already established missions of the Tepe-
huanes lay scattered in the glens and valleys. Soon the borderland
between Tepehuán and Tarahumar was reached very near to what is
now the southern boundary of the state of Chihuahua. T h e first
missionary among these Indians, Father Juan Fonte, went north into
Tarahumar country through a delightfully rolling valley which he
called the Valle de San Pablo, where is now situated the town of Bai-
lesa in south central Chihuahua. Later when Parral was founded not
many miles east, the missionaries used the frontier town as a base for
further penetration into the country of the Tarahumares.
These places lie on what is known as the Mesa Central or central
tableland of Mexico. T w o long and lofty cordilleras, one on the east
and one on the west, lift up this plateau like a great canvas stuck up
1 For notes to chapter i see page 241.

[1]
2 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
with points and peaks and ridges, and hold it high and taut. These
are called the Sierra Madre, the Mother Range, Occidental and Ori-
ental, respectively. From Zacatecas north and northwest the range,
more than eight thousand feet in elevation, gradually declines until
it reaches the broad plains of north Chihuahua and Texas. Around
Parral and the Valle de San Pablo the country is mild in aspect. It
rolls in gentle hills and spreads in vales and valleys. North and east
the hills straggle out into the great plain of the Mesa Central which
spreads to the Rio Grande. These high levels of the Mesa are watered
by rivers which carry down to the Rio Grande the waters of the Sierra
Madre Occidental. The central and main stream is the Río Conchos.
To the south are two main tributaries, the Río Parral and the Rio
Florido, and north is the Rio San Pedro. Here, in the seventeenth
century, on the banks of the streams of east central and southeast
Tarahumara, the Black Robes organized many thriving missions of
Tarahumar Indians. Northward lies the city of Chihuahua, capital
of the state, close to the northeast boundaries of ancient Tarahumara.
Roughly speaking, a line drawn from a point somewhat south of Parral
north to Chihuahua marks the eastern limits of the old Tarahumar
country.
In the west the aspect of the country is different. Northwest from
Parral or southwest from Chihuahua lie the eastern spurs of the Sierra
Madre Occidental. This great range extends northwest along the
coastline of the Gulf of California and reaches a height in southeastern
Chihuahua of more than eight thousand feet. Westward from the
more open land of eastern Tarahumara the traveler comes upon broad
and level uplands with wooded mountains in the distance.- These
distant peaks are the eastern spurs of the Sierra Madre. In the level
and slightly sloping uplands and in among the wooded mountain spurs
dwell many Tarahumares. In southwestern Tarahumara the summits
of the Sierra Madre Occidental reach their greatest elevation. Most of
the sierra here is of volcanic origin. The rock is composed of soft tufa
so that wind, rain, and melting snows have wrought curiously and
sometimes savagely upon this part of the earth's outer crust. W i n d
erosion has in places cut the rock into fantastic shapes, weird cliffs and
buttes, and needle-pointed pinnacles. Streams have bitten deep into
its easily yielding surface so that the rivers have cut formidable bar-
 THE L A N D AND ITS P E O P L E 3
raneas and precipitous gorges to a depth often of three thousand feet.
Amidst the gorges, where the mountain Tarahumares live, the
climate varies in summer from the coolness of the summits to a tropical
heat where mountain walls shut out the wind, and the sun of the
semitropical belt beats down with unprecedented heat. Vegetation of
course differs too. The cool summits are fringed with pine and clothed
with oak, down in the barrancas grow the flora of the warmer zones,
cacti, the century plant, the -palmilla, and the sotol from which the
Tarahumares obtain the fibers for their basket making. In summer
clouds of glossy gnats swarm upon man and cover his body with sting-
ing welts. Malaria and tropical intestinal diseases are common in this
country. Relief comes in the winter months.
Most of the Tarahumares are not exposed to these inconveniences
of life in the gorges and barrancas, for they live in the folds of the
wooded hills or along the broad savannas of their northeastern district,
or are scattered in villages farther westward on the great plain of the
Mesa Central. Western Tarahumara lies over the divide where the
rivers flow in a westerly direction after they have zigzagged their way
out of the barrancas and gorges. Ultimately they water the corridor
between the mountains and the sea and drop into the Gulf of Cali-
fornia. These streams, which have various names among the ranges,
contribute to the waters of the coastal Fuerte, Mayo, and Yaqui rivers.
The last named is enlarged by the inflow of the Rio Papigochic. This
stream gathers its waters from the eastern slope of the sierra, flows
northwest through a broad and beautiful valley, turns west, struggling
with many a wrench through the Sierra Madre, and finally on the
western slope joins the Rio Batuc to form the Yaqui. The old mission-
aries found here a rough divide over which they passed from one group
of missions to another.
The gorge of the Rio Uriqui is particularly famous for its sheer
and craggy walls. Juan María Salvatierra in 1684, previous to his
labors in Lower California, while working on the western fringe of
Tarahumar country, descended into the "stupendous gorge." About
halfway down, according to his own account, he got off his mule "on
the side opposite the precipice, sweating and trembling all over from
fright. For there opened on the left a chasm the bottom of which could
not be seen, and on the right rose perpendicular walls of solid rock."
4 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
On the eastern watershed the branches of the Río Conchos run far
up into the land and take the waters from the wooded eastern spurs
of the sierra. Thus the upper waters of the Conchos run close to the
sources of the streams of the western divide and they are augmented
lower down by the Rio Florido and the Río San Pedro. These waters
ultimately find their way to the Gulf of Mexico via the Rio Grande.
The Tarahumares are today among the most compact and unmixed
of any of the Indian tribes of Mexico. The men are swarthy and
stalwart, fleet of foot and strong of limb; this last characteristic the
missionaries noted three centuries ago. At the present day you can
still see the Indians in the market places of Parral and Santa Bárbara
wearing only a breechcloth; you meet them along the roads which
lead into Chihuahua, and as you watch you will see them suddenly
break into a run, an ancient habit. Swift and tireless runners they
were always regarded. Today they can still run down the deer and
the coyote. The old missionary, Herman Glandorff, left his name in
legend because of his own reputed qualities of fleetness on the trail.
The origin of this tribe is lost in the twilight of prehistory. Perhaps
thousands of years before the time of Christ the Tarahumares were
part of a great migration from the north, their ancestors having crossed
from Asia. Perhaps early in the Christian era they descended with the
Aztecs who settled farther south. Some ethnologists include the Tara-
humares with the Uto-Aztecan tribes, which according to one classi-
fication include ten groups with subdivisions. Of these, besides the
Tarahumares, the best known from the annals of the Jesuit missions
are the Pimas, the Mayos, the Yaquis, and the Tepehuanes. The lan-
guage and many of the customs of these tribes are kin to the Ópatas
and Cáhitas. To the latter belong the Mayos and Yaquis. South of the
Tarahumares live the Tepehuanes, north and east of the Conchos. On
the west the most numerous neighbors of the Tarahumares are the
Lower Pimas and smaller and less distinct groups such as the Varohios
and the Tubares.
There is some difference of habit and dress between the Tara-
humares who live in the high sierra and barranca country and those
who dwell in lower regions. The former groups are more primitive
and almost completely untouched by modern civilization, whereas
the inhabitants of the lower vales and plains have become somewhat
 T H E L A N D A N D ITS P E O P L E 5
Mexicanized. The costume of the highland men is of the simplest:
breechcloth, made more secure by a decorative girdle which is wrapped
twice about the body; headband, which keeps the long black hair
from falling over the face; and sandals for the feet. In winter the men
wear a blanket which they deftly carry flung over the left shoulder.
The women wear sandals, a coarse shirt, and an ample skirt with a
girdle somewhat like those of the men. To these articles they add a
shawl which is tied over the breast and hangs over the back. The folds
of the shawl serve to carry corn and vegetables and more often a baby.
Caves in the mountains and barrancas, or in the palisades which frame
some of the rivers such as the upper Papigochic, have served from time
immemorial as the dwellings of some of the tribe. However, since the
coming of the white man and the missionary three centuries ago, the
Tarahumar has learned to build for himself rude primitive huts made
of planks and timbers.
Besides the customary diet of corn, these people, especially those of
the highlands, eat fish, birds, and mammals of various kinds, lizards,
horned toads, snakes, and sundry insects and their larvae. Mention has
been made of how they can run down a deer. For two days they will
keep upon the animal's track with unfailing eye, but seldom catching
sight of the quarry. Finally the pretty beast has spent its energy, its
hoofs are worn away, and it collapses. When the creature thus falls
from exhaustion it will be throttled by the Tarahumar Indian or killed
by his dogs. Sometimes, however, the deer is snared. The Tarahumares
formerly used the sling in hunting, now they trap the gopher and
the coyote, but in the country of the headwaters of the Rio Conchos
they still shoot with bow and arrow. They will fell a great pine to
capture a squirrel which perches on its upper branches and they are
a sure hit in throwing a stone. Bird or animal within range will fall.
In more modern times the Tarahumar uses the rifle, a dangerous
luxury he never knew as a charge of the missionary or of the colonial
Spaniard. This weapon was introduced during the revolutions of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Many of the influences of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
missionary still persist among these people in the mid-twentieth cen-
tury. Local or village groups of Tarahumares still have their gober-
nador (the cacique or chief of ancient pagan days) whose prestige and
6 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN TARAHUMARA
authority were increased by the early missionaries. The gobernador
has his court to assist him in a criminal trial, but he is the final judge
of the guilt of alleged misdemeanors, and of the punishments which
should be meted out to the wrongdoer. Thievery is a common crime
and punishable by whipping. Drunkenness, as in the time of the padres,
has persisted into modern days and is looked lightly upon. In a Tara-
humar court it is a mitigating circumstance in any crime. The Tara-
humares still hold to monogamous marriage. Desertion and irregular
sex relationships are punishable in various ways. A straying husband
may be forced back to his wife. A single man may be forced to marry
a girl who has conceived by him or he may be whipped, which is the
more usual punishment for seduction. Charges of assault and battery
come into court, but the punishment is usually light.
It is a commonplace in mission history that when the missionary
departed and the mission was secularized or broken up, the neophyte,
even though he had long been a Christian, reverted to many of his
old practices of superstition and magic. The rosary was introduced by
the missionaries as an article of devotion and a facility to prayer, but
the habit of wearing it as an ornament around the neck passed through
all the tribe and today is worn by Christian and non-Christian alike.
Many of the men still wear the rosary around their necks at the present
time. The beads were often made out of Job's tears, a product of the
plant Coix Lachryma-Jobi. There is also a suspended cross often used
as decoration or amulet. The well to do and the medicine men (wizards,
shamans, or hechiceros as the missionaries called them) wear a large
crucifix which they buy from Mexicans. Though the rosary has often
been turned to superstitious use, as for instance in the cure of the sick,
many Tarahumar Christians wear the beads as a symbol of religious
devotion.
The manner in which ancient custom has crept into religious ob-
servance or religious celebrations is seen clearly in the native dances,
called the matachines, which are not necessarily superstitious and have
been permitted by the missionaries. The Tarahumares perform the
dances on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, at Christmas time, and
at the Pascua de Reyes, or what Anglo-Americans call Little Christmas,
the feast of the Epiphany. On such occasions the natives dress up in
gaudy and sometimes weird attire with bandana handkerchiefs, colored
 T H E L A N D A N D ITS P E O P L E 7
stockings and shoes, and bizarre headdress. Facing each other they go
through motions which somewhat resemble the Virginia reel, shaking
rattles and waving fans to the tune of the musicians who play on native-
made violins and guitars. Formerly they painted their faces for this
dance and carried skin bags of fox, squirrel, or opossum. T h e days of
Holy Week are of particular importance to the Christianized Tara-
humares of the plains and the lower mountains. T h e painted and
plumed fariseos (pharisees) make their appearance some time before
Holy Week begins. During the holy days the festal equipment con-
sists in whirl-rattles, painted swords, and plumed crowns. There are
the Judases and the pharisees wearing crowns decorated with chicken
or turkey feathers. Small boys are painted from head to foot in stripes
of red, white, and black, and the dancer of the fascol or Easter dance,
is adorned with belt and ankle rattles and daubed with paint on face,
hands, and head. In the barranca, during Holy Week and other fiestas,
appears the garbed clown and jig dancer who performs a rapid shuffle
with his feet to the music of cocoon rattles and violin. During Holy
Week in the lower country the guitar and violin (which the Tara-
humares make with surprising skill and accuracy) give place to the
flute and the drum. It is during this time in the organized missions
that, under the supervision of the padre, the gobernador and other
officials are elected, couples properly married, and children baptized,
for it is during the festivities of Holy Week that the Indians come into
the mission centers from far over hill and dale.
T h e bee has become an object of superstitious regard (not the
bumble bee which sleeps in the ground and stings, but does not work),
but the honey-gathering bee which labors and produces sweet honey
and useful wax. Unlike many of their fellows, the Tarahumar Indians
esteem work and therefore they esteem the working bee. One may
therefore never kill a bee. Its honey is used for food; its wax at the
burial services often held without benefit of Christian clergy. Fruit
trees, introduced of old by the missionaries, have become long since
incorporated into the Tarahumar economy, but have not been made
objects of superstitious regard.
T h e Mexican Jesuits, expelled by the king of Spain in 1767, have
in modern times come back to their ancient charges, and they have
organized a group of modern missions among the Tarahumares. In the
8 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
mid-twentieth century at such ancient mission centers as Carichic,
Sisoguichic (the great Neumann's old mission), and Pichachic, the
Black Robe is again sustaining or spreading Christianity and looking
to the education of the youth. 8 The modern missionary has introduced
nuns for the education of the little Tarahumares. The girls learn
to read and write in Spanish and to cook and sew. The boys become at
least literate, and are given a training in the dogma and morale of
Christianity which it is hoped will endure through life. But beyond
Sisoguichic in the high Sierra Madre, and in the well-nigh inaccessible
barranca country and among the gorges, the modern Tarahumar roams
and lives his primitive existence practically untouched by Christianity
or by modern civilization.
How the black-robed missionary first came to these people in the
1600's and how he worked among them for a century and a half,
Christianizing, organizing, and educating, is the story which the fol-
lowing chapters unfold.
 Chapter II

THE FRONTIER CREEPS NORTH

• THE END of the Middle Ages a New World appeared before the
eyes of Christian leaders and Christian workers. Since Queen
Isabella, who made possible the sailing of Columbus to the New
World, was an an ardent Christian, and since the interest of Pope
Alexander VI had been from the start definitely engaged, it is not
surprising that Christian missionaries came speedily in the wake of
discovery. Four friars of three different orders were companions of
Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493; with
Cortés in his Conquest of Mexico was the Franciscan, Fray Bartolomé
de Olmedo, as desirous as Cortés himself to make Christians of the
native populations.1 Furthermore, it is well known from various docu-
ments issuing both from the papal curia and the Spanish court that
the leaders of Christendom were equally as anxious for the spiritual
as for the material conquest of the Americas.8 As for Cortés, his ardor
for the immediate Christianization of the Mexican Indians was so im-
petuous that it had to be restrained by the Franciscan Olmedo.8
No sooner was the conquest of Tenochtitlán, the capital of Mexico,
achieved in 1521 than the missionary work, already begun during the
course of the Conquest, was permanently established in Mexico City
and a stabilized organization was soon set up. The Mercedarian, Father
Juan de las Varillas, and the Franciscans, Fray Pedro Melgarejo and
Fray Diego Altamirano cooperated with Fray Olmedo even before
the end of the Conquest. Two years later three other Franciscans en-
tered the capital, of whom the best known is the famous Pedro de
Gante, not priest, but lay brother, founder of education in New
Spain. Stabilization and methodic organization were formed with the
arrival of "the Twelve" in 1524, Friars Minors all, led by the illus-
trious Martín de Valencia.
Then began the absorption of the Mexican Indian into the Catholic
faith and the process was rapid indeed, so rapid that misgivings were
felt as to the advisability of conversion almost en masse. Martin de
Valencia in a letter to Charles V writes of one million two hundred
1 For notes to chapter ii see page 242.

[9]
ÍO J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
thousand brought into the Church between 1524 and 1532; Pedro
Gante in a letter of June, 1529, speaks of fourteen thousand baptized
in one day.4 What defects there were in the Christian education and
correct indoctrination of such wholesale numbers would, it was thought,
gradually and naturally correct themselves in the course of the next
immediate generations, for the children could then be instructed from
the beginning and possess the doctrinal completeness of one born
in the Faith.
The Franciscans did not long enjoy a monopoly. In 1526 twelve
Dominicans arrived in New Spain led by their superior Tomás Ortiz,
and in 1533 came seven Augustinians with Father Francisco de la
Cruz at their head.
Speaking of the Church, an enthusiastic prelate has written:
"Where armies and explorers stop, she goes forward, often enough
armies and explorers find that she has gone before them." 5 This was
frequently true in the first century of the history of Catholicism in
Mexico. W i t h the captains of Cortés, with Alvarado southeast, with
Orozco south, with Olid east, with Ñuño de Guzmán north and north-
west went the missionaries into Chiapas, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Jalisco,
and Sinaloa. The Dominicans established houses and missions south,
the Augustinians chiefly north, while the Franciscans spread to the
west and far to the northwest and northeast. Sentispac, on the coast
near the mouth of the Santiago River, was the farthest western Fran-
ciscan mission established in the sixteenth century, and Topia in the
rugged heart of the great Sierra Madre became their farthest mission
northwest. Into these mountain fastnesses the missionary preceded the
explorer.
So far as missionary activity is concerned, the work of the religious
orders of the half century from 1522 to 1572 forms a distinct period.
In 1572 the Jesuits came and introduced an era of somewhat different
form. In the first half century, especially from the 1540's, the frontier
of Mexico and of Christianity advanced north at a rather rapid pace.
The discovery of silver mines was the compelling factor. Silver was
discovered in Zacatecas in 1546 and two years later the town of Zaca-
tecas was founded. During these years there was a rush to the north.
Soon the metal was discovered in other districts still farther north, and
Fresnillo, Sombrerete, San Juan del Río, Durango, Indé, Topia, and
 THE FRONTIER CREEPS NORTH

Santa Bárbara, the latter founded in 1567, became within these twenty
years the "Mother Lode" country of Mexico, which in sheer extent
of geographical surface exceeded the Mother Lode country of modern
California. From Zacatecas to Santa Bárbara it is, as the crow flies,
three hundred and fifty miles.0 These were exciting "gold-rush" days
according to the slower tempo of the sixteenth century, and as the
frontier moved north a great new province was organized as a distinct
unit of New Spain. It was called Nueva Vizcaya and was given its own
organization, governor and inferior officers, subject to the Viceroy of
Mexico, the highest colonial authority.
The first governor of the new province was Francisco de Ibarra,
nephew of Diego de Ibarra, one of the mine-owning millionaires of
Zacatecas. This Francisco was fitted for his job. He had opened up the
new country in the 1560's by a series of explorations which took him
up to Indé and Santa Bárbara, across the rugged Sierra Madre to the
coast of the Gulf of California, and then north along that fertile cor-
ridor between the mountains and the sea as far as the Sonora River
and the Casas Grandes of modern Chihuahua. Famed in Mexico's
frontier history as Indian fighter and mine developer, Ibarra was yet
a close friend of the Franciscans and always had the friars with him
in his various expeditions. When they did not precede him, as in
Topia, the friars accompanied him, and they remained in many a new-
born town to found a mission.
Thus it was especially with the town of Durango. Before the Spanish
town was founded Fray Jacinto de San Francisco, who had been one
of Cortés' soldiers, together with Fray Pedra de Espinareda, worked
north from Nombre de Dios and preached Christianity to the Tepe-
huán Indians in the country which bordered on the Guadiana Valley
in which Durango was founded. Here sometime later Espinareda
founded a mission named San Juan de Analco near the spot where in
1563 the town of Durango was established by order of Francisco de
Ibarra.' The enduring Mexican city of Durango, then, was set upon
the spot in the lovely Guadiana Valley where the Franciscans had
planted a mission for the primitive Tepehuanes. Thus during the half
century from 1522 to 1572 the Franciscans not only established many
centers of spiritual influence, in and about Mexico City, but spread-
ing their labors far north they accompanied or preceded the secular
12 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
explorer; they stood at the birth of a province and of a city, the city of
Durango in the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.8
As the Franciscans aided in the birth of the capital of Nueva Viz-
caya, so were they the mothers and the nurses of San Juan del Rio,
Sauceda, Guatimapé, Topia, and San Juan de Carapoa west on the
Fuerte River. They had their martyrs too. This last town was no sooner
founded by Ibarra in 1564 than it was destroyed, and Fathers Azevedo
and Herrera were slaughtered with the rest. Father Juan de Tapia and
his companion, Lucas, were slain while returning to Zacatecas from
a missionary expedition in Guadiana. And in 1562 in the heart of the
Sierra Madre Occidental in the sequestered vale of Topia two un-
named friars met death at the hands of the wild Acaxées.
Thus the first half century closes an epoch in the ecclesiastical
annals of Mexico: the numerous and more cultured Indians for hun-
dreds of miles in and about the capital had been Christianized, and the
national foundations of a church had been laid. Then, in more dis-
tant provinces, the first permanent missions entre infieles had been
started among the more primitive nations of the west and northwest.
The arrival of the Jesuits in Mexico City in 1572 began an activity,
both educational and missionary, which was to continue for two cen-
turies. The men of this religious order introduced a note of greater
organization and system into the mission field, and their missionary
exploits, here as elsewhere, have caught the especial notice of his-
torians. It was not for nineteen years after their arrival in New Spain,
however, that the Jesuits inaugurated a permanent system of missions
among the primitives of the northern wilds. The story of these mis-
sionary exploits is becoming better known, for, like the Franciscans,
the Jesuits endured their trials and their dangers, torture and death,
all the while that they were baptizing hundreds of thousands of natives
of various tribes and tongues.9
It was good that the Jesuits came to New Spain when they did for
the cause of education needed them in the capital. It was good for the
missions that nineteen years later, in 1591, Gonzalo de Tapia and
Martín Pérez began their missionary labors at San Felipe on the banks
of the Sinaloa River, for the number of Franciscans was not sufficient
even to hold in continuity what mission stations they had begun.
Thus it was that although the mild Tahue Indians in and about
 THE F R O N T I E R C R E E P S NORTH 13
Culiacán on the coast had been Christianized by the friars, there was
in the late 1500's no missionary to continue to care for them. It was
the same with the Zacateco Indians near Cuencamé and in the country
of the lagoons.10
Though the Jesuit Tapia was slain by Indians in 1594, others came
to take his place, and with the succeeding years the missions spread
north along the coast of the Gulf of California and became famous in
the missionary and historical annals of the New World. The missions
were the beginning of a long period of missionary endeavor and of
frontier expansion which reached ultimately the fair province of
Alta California and its Bay of San Francisco. The Jesuit Black Robes
did not, it is true, carry these missions so far, for King Carlos III of
Spain expelled them from his domains in 1767. It was the Franciscan
Gray Friars with Junipero Serra at their head who again stepped into
the breach to carry the cross to the mission site of San Francisco in the
famous year of 1776.
East of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango, founded by Ibarra
and nursed spiritually by Franciscans, became in time the center of a
great Jesuit missionary activity. Residing here in the capital of Nueva
Vizcaya since 1593, the Black Robes began their missionary work east
among the Laguneros with Juan Agustín de Espinosa in 1594 and
north among the Tepehuanes by Gerónimo Ramírez in 1596. By 1598
Ramirez was beginning his baptisms on a large scale, and by that year
he was in permanent residence among these sullen primitives at a
pueblo he had founded eighty miles north of Durango and which he
called Santiago Papasquiaro. That same year Santa Catalina was
founded thirty miles farther north, later Zape, and an organized com-
munity of Indians at Guanacevi. In 1600 a helper came for Ramirez-
Father Juan Fonte. Still others arrived in 1603. Juan Fonte became the
first apostle of the numerous tribe of the Tarahumar Indians."
 Chapter III
FONTE, FIRST APOSTLE OF THE
TARAHUMARES

F ATHER JUAN FONTE holds the distinction in history of being the

primary apostle and protomartyr of the Tarahumares. The early
career of the missionary, as is usual with the Jesuit, was undisclosed
and uneventful. Fonte was born in Barcelona in 1574 and at the age
of nineteen entered the Society of Jesus in 1593. In Spain he passed
through the customary spiritual and intellectual training of a Jesuit,
and six years later, in company with Father Pedro Diaz, former Pro-
vincial of New Spain, he crossed the Atlantic, already a priest, a young
man of twenty-five. On his arrival in Mexico the young Black Robe was
sent immediately to the Tepehuán mission to aid Gerónimo Ramírez,
and he was there and with the Tarahumares from 1600 to his death.1
In 1604 Fonte took his last vows, four of them, becoming a professed
member of the Society. During the years immediately following the
missionary's arrival in the Tepehuán mission he gained valuable ex-
perience which, added to his native ability, was to serve him well with
the Tarahumares on the northern Tepehuán border. Baptism of the
Tepehuanes continued after 1600 at Santiago Papasquiaro, at Santa
Catalina, and farther north at Zape, which Gerónimo Ramírez was
able to found shortly after the arrival of his helper Fonte.
As the years passed, Father Fonte was assigned to these northern
pueblos, Zape, thirty miles north of Santa Catalina, and the community
of Christians at the mines of Guanacevi, fifteen miles beyond Zape.
Then he was sent east to another mining center, Indé, where between
1603 and 1607 another community and mission of Christian Tepe-
huanes was established. Some sixty miles north of Guanacevi begins
the country which was a border between the Tepehuanes and the
Tarahumares. Here were three districts comprising the fringes of the
two tribes frequently mentioned by Fonte and his successors on the
mission. They were Ocotlán, the Valle de Águila, and the Valle de San
Pablo. The last of these places can be identified today in the region
lying west of Santa Bárbara. The Valle de Águila was the farthest
1 For notes to chapter iii see pages 242-243.

[*4]
 FONTE, FIRST APOSTLE 15
north of the lands of the Tepehuanes; the Valle de San Pablo was
already on the fringe of the Tarahumares.
Father Juan Fonte made his first entrada into this border country
in 1607. The immediately practical motive of his apostolate among
the Tarahumares, besides the general desire to bring Christianity to
still another people, was the cessation of the all but continuous border
warfare which had existed between the Tepehuanes and the Tara-
humares. The Jesuit fathers were accustomed to such perpetual con-
flict between tribes and whenever possible they strove to put an end
to it. This same situation was present in another part of the vast area
of Jesuit missionary activity, for southwest in the mountains the
Xiximes and the Acaxées were constantly on the warpath. Their
Christianization, completed finally in 1610 by the conversion of the
Xiximes, brought peace to a border and to a province.
By the year of his entrada, 1607, Fonte had penetrated as far north
as Ocotlán and the Valle de Águila, and had evangelized the Tepe-
huanes. Some of these Tepehuanes were already Christians, and Fonte
was but rounding out the work of Father Gerónimo Ramírez, who had
come close to this region some years before. While Fonte was in the
Valle de Águila some pagan Tepehuanes came south to seek the aid
of their Christian tribesmen against the common enemy. One of the
Christian caciques, listening to this plea for aid in warfare, proposed
that the decision be left with the missionary. Fonte, of course, coun-
seled peace, and his advice was accepted. He was able to meet some of
the Tarahumares on this occasion and he gave them the same counsel.
Both the pagan Tepehuanes from the north, as well as the Tara-
humares, were impressed by the wise kindliness of Fonte's personality
and through his benign influence an enduring peace for the first
time in years placed its quiet hand over the border. Fonte with a com-
panion now proceeded north to the Valle de San Pablo.2 Here, through
a trusted Tepehuán cacique, Fonte was able to visit in friendly confer-
ence eight hundred and forty-two braves of the Tarahumar nation.3
Here was Fonte's chance to fulfill a desire of many years. He had
a great eagerness to go north among these people. Once while he was
at the mines of Indé there came to see him a group of savages, most
probably Tarahumares, traveling six or seven days' journey. Their
number was large, and they invited him to come to their country. It
l6 ' J E S U I T MISSIONS IN TARAHUMARA
was impossible for him at the time to do so, the formalities of the Span-
ish government and of the Patronato Real not permitting such inde-
pendent freedom of movement. He wrote at this time: "I feel keenly
my inability to go back with them as they were pressing me to do.
I said to myself: 'If only I could, without dependence upon the Viceroys
and without listening to them, go forward like our Father St. Francis
Xavieri to present the gospel of Christ even though it would be at
the risk of my life.' " 5
Such were Juan Fonte's desires a few years before the event we are
relating. No more propitious set of circumstances had ever before
offered themselves for the beginnings of the Tarahumar mission. The
border was at peace, and Fonte had met hundreds of Tarahumar braves
and found them ready for the gospel. The Jesuit made up his mind to
loosen the official bonds which restrained him from opening a new
mission and from admitting a new nation into the pale of the Church.
In the early spring of 1608, therefore, he went south to confer with
Francisco de Urdinola, Governor of Nueva Vizcaya, and through him
to influence the Viceroy himself in Mexico City, at this time Luis de
Velasco II, serving his second term.
Fonte himself informs us what happened at Durango. Since cer-
tain caciques of the Tarahumares were requesting the gospel and
baptism, he urged Governor Urdinola to ask Viceroy Velasco not only
for permission to extend the missions into this new nation, but likewise
for three additional workers, one for Ocotlan, the newest of the Tepe-
huan missions which had been inaugurated the year preceding, and
two for the proposed new mission in the Valle de San Pablo, which
would open the Tarahumar country.6
Fonte was satisfied with the success of his negotiations. The Gover-
nor had evidently told him he would obtain the necessary approval
from the Viceroy, for just two days before departing for the north
again, Fonte wrote from Durango under date of April 22, 1608: "I am
in a happy and enthusiastic state of mind, seeing the door now opened
to us for numerous conversions, especially since these developments
can go forward without the aid of captain and soldiers. This I have
always avoided and shall continue to avoid, for when progress is made
without extra expense the ministers of the King more readily concede
workers for the new fields, and the natives themselves are happy to
 FONTE, FIRST APOSTLE 17
see us in their lands unaccompanied, for at the sight of soldiers and
other Spaniards they flee."'
Fonte added some reflections on the profound change which had
come upon the former rebellious and warlike Tepehuan nation as a
result of the spread of the gospel and the influence of the fathers. 8 He
evidently hoped for the same fruit from the prospective Tarahumar
mission. Fonte now left for the north again, for the district of Ocotlan,
taking with him as fellow worker Father Juan del Valle. Here he
would keep in touch with his Tarahumar neophytes of the Valle de
San Pablo and await official permission to make a second entrada to
establish closer contact with the nation. "I will take this mission upon
my own shoulders," Fonte writes in his enthusiasm, "and since the
good Lord has given me health and I am not yet old [he was thirty-
four] I should suffer a scruple of conscience in shunning anything
even the most difficult and laborious."
Two years later all this constructive work was threatened with col-
lapse by the atrocity of a Tarahumar hechicero, as the Spaniards called
these Indian wizards or medicine men. This fellow persuaded a band
of ten of his henchmen to descend south into the Valle de San Pablo
and murder a cacique who was undergoing instruction for baptism.
The deed was perpetrated, with the result that the relatives of the
murdered neophyte were furious. The one circumstance which gave
pause to their desire for revenge was the fact that the fathers were in
the Valle, and to stir up war would endanger their lives. They there-
fore persuaded the missionaries to retire to the more secure pueblos in
the south. The Tepehuan avengers then made war upon the Tarahu-
mares. At the same time they sent south to Durango an embassy,
headed by the murdered chiefs son, to seek out Governor Francisco
de Urdinola and ask his aid against the criminals. But since the Gov-
ernor was absent on a campaign against the Xiximes the delegation
had to return without definite promise of assistance.
Whether, however, the murderous Tarahumar hechicero under-
went a change of heart, as the historian of these missions avers" or
whether the fear of the Spanish arm led him to relent, the fact is this
leader of evil went south on a mission of peace, sought out Juan Fonte,
apologized for his offense, and requested baptism.10 Such a step on the
part of one so important affected others of the Tarahumares, who now
l8 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
came to San Pablo seeking baptism. W a r was definitely over, the bap-
tism of a new nation had begun, and the Valle de San Pablo was
become the gateway to the Tarahumares.
But our missionary had to wait two years before fulfilling his desire
for an entrada deeper into Tarahumar territory. In December of 1610
Father Rodrigo de Cabredo, himself an old missionary in Nueva Viz-
caya and Jesuit Provincial of New Spain, 11 showed his interest in the
conversion of new nations by sending Fathers Juan del Valle and
Bernardo Cisneros southwest over the mountains to visit the isolated
Hinas and Humis. Cabredo also commissioned Fonte to go a second
time into Tarahumar country and to set the mission upon a solid
basis. Our knowledge of Father Fonte's missionary enthusiasm would
lead us to suspect that his eagerness would send him immediately to
the north, to the Valle de San Pablo and beyond.
Fonte started in December of 1610 or possibly early in January,
1611. The season is cold at this time of year, but it is usually dry. It
is fortunate that Fonte's letter telling of the happy advance and ad-
venture is extant.12 Our narration therefore can be highly authentic.
Fonte, seeing that his first contact with the Tarahumares had been
made in the Valle de San Pablo, the border where Tepehuan and Tara-
humar met, now planned to penetrate their territory and to persuade as
many of them as he could to migrate south and to take up their homes
in the valley, for it was a propitious spot and there they would enjoy
prosperity and peace.
Fonte in this design was following the customary practice of the
missionaries. It was practically impossible to influence and instruct the
natives in their primitive state, scattered as they were far over hill and
dale, precipice and crag. They must be brought together, thought the
missionary, to live in groups in more level and accessible spots. This
is the genesis of the formation of the mission pueblo.
With this purpose in mind, then, Fonte set out for the north accom-
panied by four Tarahumar chiefs, two of whom were Christians, and
a few others. One Christian Indian boy went along as the father's
servant and to assist at Mass. North from the Valle de San Pablo the
Black Robe traveled over low hills and along winding valleys, more
than fifty miles into Tarahumar country. The success of the advance
was reassuring for the padre was everywhere well received. The ele-
 FONTE, FIRST APOSTLE 19
ment of adventure too was enjoyable, since Fonte missed nothing
which was distinct in the personal habits of the Tarahumares and in
their mode of living.
These primitives, Fonte reported, were more docile than the Tepe-
huanes. Instead of huts, many of them lived in caves large enough to
comprise several ordinary dwellings.13 They buried their dead in ceme-
teries apart, and alongside the corpse they placed food and all his
clothes and possessions which were considered necessary for the jour-
ney into the great beyond. All other things belonging to the deceased
were destroyed and his dwelling was burned or razed. The women were
good weavers, making their clothes of the fiber of the agave or century-
plant. They were retiring, thought Fonte, and shy in the company
of men.
The Black Robe thus introducing himself to new peoples was evi-
dently impressed by his first contact with the Tarahumares deep in
their own country. ( T h e welcome they gave him undoubtedly aided
in his sympathetic report.) When Fonte and his group were nearing the
first Tarahumar pueblo, scouts descried him from a lookout and sent
word of it to the village. The men, women, and children came out a
great distance to welcome him, and as he approached they stood in
good order arranged in rows, and they greeted the padre and escorted
him to the pueblo. The cacique, decorated all in feathers, carried his
lance; the others held their hands over their heads in token of esteem
and respect. Arrived at the pueblo the Black Robe made them a speech.
"I am most happy at last to be here with you," he said in part, "for it
is only for love of you that I come into your country. . . Fonte said
not much more on this occasion. Introduction into the truths of the
Faith would come at a later opportunity for such development.
These Tarahumares seemed to have been completely won over.
Their pleasure at having the padre among them was manifest, and
their hospitality would have done honor to more civilized peoples, for
they brought food and refreshment for Fonte and his party. Many
returned a second time to visit him and to tell him of their joy at
seeing him in their land. Fonte writes: "The women at first shrank
away in bashfulness, but later seeing their men in free and easy con-
verse with me, and myself speaking with them as with my sons, they
too finally came up to speak with me as with their father. And they,
20 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN TARAHUMARA

as well as the men, asked that I might return to see them in their
country once again." 16
T h e Black Robe spoke to them of the necessity of baptism and of
the worship of the one God. They assented and told him of a child
dying in the vicinity. Fonte baptized the infant before death and later
on, to the contentment and even pride of the Tarahumares, he bap-
tized five other children, including a boy who was very ill with small-
pox. T h e father and mother had petitioned Fonte that he bless their
son with this Christian rite.
It had been understood from the beginning that Juan Fonte could
not tarry indefinitely at this time with these new friends. But before
departure he took cognizance of the fertility of the spiritual field and
left provision for its partial cultivation. Inquiring as to the number of
Tarahumares in this the most southern district of their nation, he was
told that there were three thousand one hundred and seventy, besides
certain isolated groups who could not be reached. Encouraged at the
prospect of so fine a harvest the missionary before departure left an
organization behind, so that the field might be made ready through
cultivation for eventual sowing of the seed.
In other words, in that mature way of those who are at the same
time intelligent and stable, Fonte provided for the continuity of this
his present influence. He appointed four men, called fiscals in the
ecclesiastical or mission parlance of the period, who, possessing already
a certain tincture of Christianity as the result of Fonte's earlier con-
tacts, would gradually instruct their people in the fundamentals of
the Faith. T o each fiscal was assigned a certain district. T h e padre,
acting as a primitive normal school teacher, instructed them how best
to introduce to their tribesmen the basic truths of the Christian reli-
gion and pointed out the proper psychology in the carrying on of so deli-
cate a work. These fiscals would come from time to time to the Christian
pueblos to report to Fonte concerning the progress of their work. Thus
leaving behind him something that would grow and develop in his
absence, Juan Fonte prepared to return south to the Valle de San Pablo.
Besides this contact, opening wedge for later apostolic endeavor, and
besides the organization just described, Fonte was able to accomplish a
work of definitely concrete development. W e have seen that the padre
had set his mind on populating the Valle de San Pablo with Tarahu-
 FONTE, FIRST APOSTLE 21
mares, inducing numbers of them to migrate south for this purpose.
Here they would mingle in a friendly manner with the Tepehuanes
and the border rivalry and warfare would become permanently a thing
of the past. Fonte was now able to accomplish his purpose. Fortunately
he had gained the admiration and confidence of a prominent hechicero
(it was these leaders the fathers set out primarily to win over*), a man
who was half Tepehuán and half Tarahumar. This leader knew both
languages and he agreed enthusiastically with the missionary's plan
for the settlement of the Valle. He used his influence to successful
purpose and it was chiefly through him that the Valle was peopled with
enough Tarahumares to form a goodly pueblo. This town was called
San Pablo. It has enjoyed a continuous existence and lies today in a
valley framed partly by rolling hills which straggle off from the Sierra
Madre. This ancient Christian settlement is today known as San
Pablo Bailesa.18
These newly won Tarahumares who had moved to the Valle would
not allow their attentions to their newly found spiritual father to
cease. For his journeys and visitations to various districts of the vicinity,
his Tarahumar neophytes furnished Fonte with an escort of eight or
ten men, placing over them a captain to whom they owed obedience. It
was shortly after his return to the Valle de San Pablo that Fonte had
opportunity to pay a needed visit to the mining center of Santa Bár-
bara. It was necessary that the Spaniards of the mines be made aware
of the recent developments among the Tarahumares in order that they
might be sympathetic to the movement and, above all, be careful not
to afflict these people with atrocity or oppression.
Father Gerónimo Ramírez did exactly the same thing in 1598 when,
upon founding the new Christian Tepehuán pueblo of Santiago
Papasquiaro far south of Tarahumar country, he visited the Spaniards
of the mines of Papasquiaro some miles up the Río de Santiago to gain
their cooperation and to be able to assure his Tepehuán neophytes that
the miners would not molest them.
Fonte then for the same purpose and under much the same circum-
stances paid a visit to Santa Bárbara. But his Tarahumar neophytes
would not let him go alone. Not only his usual escort of loyal Indians,
but an augmented body must accompany him on this especially im-
portant visit to the workers and owners of the mines. Fonte endeav-
22 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
ored to decline such attentions, but the Indians insisted that at least
thirty braves with bow and arrow should escort him to Santa Bárbara.
They desired, they said, to demonstrate to the Spaniards the quality of
their esteem for their father. They shrewdly desired too, of course, to
demonstrate to the Spaniards that the Jesuit was their protector. Nor
was this all. The new residents of San Pablo contributed provisions for
the journey, food and blankets for the father's comfort. It happened
that while they were on the road a terrific rain pelted down upon them.
The Tarahumares were attentive to their padre manifesting by various
kindly offices their true quality of sons.
Ramirez' mission twelve years before to the mineowners of Papas-
quiaro had been successful, so now in 1611 did Fonte's bear fruit with
the miners of Santa Bárbara and lead to an enduring settlement. It is
true that the Spaniard had often oppressed the Indian in various ways,
kidnapping his women, enslaving him to domestic service or to en-
forced labor in the mines. Such treatment had led to revolts of no
small proportions, such as the great Mixton rebellion of 1541 in Nueva
Galicia or the lesser uprising among the Acaxées in 1601. But by the
influence of the Black Robe the Spaniard also was induced to better
his ways. Besides, it was not difficult to persuade him that in addition
to the motive of Christian charity and religion, there was the more
immediate and concrete argument of self-interest. Certainly a rebel-
lious tribe was no advantage to the Spaniard, whether he be miner or
stockman; the frontier could be safe and prosperous only with the
Indian at peace. Thus Father Juan Fonte was able to persuade the
Spaniards of Santa Bárbara to respect his children new-born to the
Faith, and to promise to refrain from all molestations of the Tara-
humares of San Pablo.
The accomplishment of all of this work for the safe advancement of
the frontier and the expansion of Christian civilization and culture
consumed probably several months. W h e n it was completed Fonte
undertook again the long journey south to Durango, capital of Nueva
Vizcaya and head of this mission system. Just as he had provided on
the ground, by means of the fiscals, for the continuance of his Chris-
tian influence and teaching, so now, intelligent apostle, he had to
provide with his superiors and with the Spanish high officials for
future augmentation of workers in the field, lest this sowing be
 FONTE, F I R S T A P O S T L E 23
neglected and the promise of fruitage die before the blade had barely
sprouted from the ground.
Down to the valley of Guadiana then, to the capital Durango (at
that time also called Guadiana), Fonte went again to consult with
Francisco de Urdiñola, Governor of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya.
This able official by this time well appreciated the advantages of a
peaceful frontier. In office since 1603, he had to deal from the start
with the Acaxée revolt. Later in 1607 and again in 1610 he had trouble
with the cannibal Xiximes. The Governor shortly after his entrance
into office had visited the flourishing Sinaloa missions on the west
coast and witnessed the tremendous advantages accruing to this part
of his province from the peaceful and cooperative attitude of the
Indians of the valley of the Sinaloa. Now in 1611, with the promise of
the conversion of a new and numerous tribe, Urdiñola would be en-
thusiastic in his representations to the Viceroy in Mexico City and to
the Jesuit Provincial for additional workers for this northern vineyard.
Father Fonte was successful. Additional missionaries were now
sent to augment the personnel of the Tepehuán missions. By 1612 six
Black Robes were working in this field." Two years later there were
seven.18 An experienced missionary could now be released from the
south to help Fonte in the north. This man was an old co-worker with
Fonte, Gerónimo de Moranta. He was a kinsman of Ignatius Loyola's
intimate friend and secretary, Father Jerome Nadal. Entering the
Jesuit Order in 1595 at twenty years of age and coming to the New
World under the influence of the Jesuit saint, Brother Alphonsus
Rodriguez, who had also been the inspiration of the labors of St. Peter
Claver among the Negro slaves at Cartagena in South America, Mo-
ranta came to the Tepehuán mission in 1605 and on repeated occa-
sions had been Fonte's companion among the Tepehuanes.19
It was always a more or less patient wait for missionaries. They
could not always be sent immediately from Mexico City and other
southern centers where their services were likewise in demand. Un-
fortunately, too, in 1615 the north Tepehuán country lost one of its
missionaries, Father Juan Pérez de Córdoba, drowned while trying to
ford a branch of the Rio de las Nazas in flood. He was buried in Guan-
acevi where he was beloved.20 Nevertheless, by 1614 Fonte and Mo-
ranta both could work in the north.
24 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
After 1611, as is evident from the records, Fonte was giving more
and more of his time and presence to the Valle de San Pablo, where by
the hundreds Tepehuanes and Tarahumares continued to migrate
into the valley and to live together in peace. Progress was the note
during these years in the Valle.21 Fonte reported in 1615 that more and
more Indians were coming to him from the back country. A hechicero,
however, at Indé tried to cause some trouble. He told the Indians that
Fonte was a murderer and would kill their children with baptism. The
Indians laughed at the wizard and showed still greater confidence in
the padre. When a woman, after giving birth to a still-born offspring,
ran to a hechicero for help, Fonte taught her to go to God in prayer,
thus to obtain real solace. When the crops were ruined by pest Fonte
introduced the neophytes to the prayers of the Church composed for
just such vicissitudes. These people were consoled and asked for
baptism."2
Here, then, was another border brought to peace by the Christian
spirit and Christian civilization, a border which in the past, like
others in northwestern Mexico, had been ripped continually and torn
with war. The Tepehuán-Acaxée frontier had for some years enjoyed
an enduring peace; and just recently the Acaxée-Xixime border had
been brought to constructive development; and now, finally, the prob-
lem of the Tepehuán-Tarahumar fringe was being solved in a friendly
blending of the two nations to the exclusion of frontier raids and the
alarms and atrocities of war. Juan Fonte had been the angel of peace
and under his beneficent influence the Tepehuán tiger rested with
the lion of the Tarahumar.
 Chapter IV

FONTE IS SLAIN

W HILE ALL THINGS seemed to be ready for a deeper penetration

into Tarahumar country, with new men arriving in the Tepe-
huán mission and releasing others for work exclusively among the
northern Tepehuanes and the southern Tarahumares, a great setback
occurred which was to delay further progress in the conversion of the
northern tribe for more than twenty years. T h i s calamity occurred in
the year 1616, and is known in mission history as the Tepehuán Re-
volt. In this maelstrom of violence and massacre not only were the
Tepehuán missionaries slain, but there likewise fell two Jesuit trav-
elers from the west, and the two who were working among the Tara-
humares in and about the Valle de San Pablo, namely, J u a n Fonte,
and Moranta. T h e violent elimination of these two men and the near
ruin of the Tepehuán mission put a stop for two decades to further
advance of the Tarahumar mission.
T h e Tepehuanes had never been so generous and enthusiastic in
their acceptance of the Faith as some of the tribes over the Sierra
Madre on the west coast, the Ahornes, for instance, and the Mayos
along the Mayo River. Moreover, the hechiceros or medicine men,
always and everywhere a thorn in the side of the missionaries, seemed
to be more numerous and more powerful among the Tepehuanes.
T h e hechiceros were always the leaders of opposition against the
padres, since the missionaries on their entrance among the nations
deprived the hechiceros of their wonted leadership and prestige.
It was a hechicero, one Quautlatas, who went about the different
pueblos and missions of the Tepehuanes with a small stone idol, and
this rude divinity spoke to the Indians of revolt. T h e god was dis-
pleased with the Tepehuanes, said Quautlatas, because they had ad-
mitted the Spaniards among them and had become followers of the
God of the Christians. T h e y would do a good and pleasing thing to
the divinity did they slaughter all the Spaniards, the missionaries
included. Those Indians who fell in the fight would enjoy resurrec-
tion within seven days, and with the Spanish yoke shaken off, fresh
1 For notes to chapter iv see page 243.

[25]
26 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN TARAHUMARA
blessings and all the old joys of paganism would return. T h e god
would even see to it that no more Spaniards would be able to cross
the seas; storms churned up in the Atlantic would make shipwreck
of all their boats.1
Christianity did not keep the native Indian from remaining a child;
it did not prevent the Tepehuán from remaining credulous and fickle,
open to almost any stupid or extravagant leadership. Quautlatas,
therefore, beginning at Tenerape on the Rio de Santiago, and passing
with his idol through the other pueblos and missions of the Tepe-
huanes—Santiago Papasquiaro, Santa Catalina, Zape—and to other
villages nearer Durango, such as Sauceda and Tunal, was able to gain
so substantial a following that the bulk of the tribe agreed to join in
the conspiracy against the Spaniards.
W e can understand the success of the hechicero. W i t h many of
these Tepehuanes, Christianity had not gone beneath the skin. For
many, Christian morality was an abominable restraint and the dis-
cipline of the mission pueblo was irksome. They longed for their old-
time liberty and their wild, disorganized life. They had not asked for
the Spaniards who were, after all, intruders. Though the padre was
kind, the more serious breaches of mission discipline were punished
by flogging at the hands of Spanish soldiers. Spaniards had often ex-
ploited the Indian cruelly. T h u s it was not difficult for Quautlatas to
whip up a spirit of discontent and rebellion.
T h e plan of the rebels was to strike at Zape on November 21, the
Feast of Presentation of Blessed Mary the Virgin. A statue of Our
Lady brought up from Mexico City was to be dedicated at Zape on
this feast, and all the Tepehuán missionaries, including Fathers Fonte
and Moranta from the north, were invited and expressed their in-
tention to be present. Other Spaniards, with their slaves and servants,
from the vicinity, from the mines of Indé and Guanacevi, would like-
wise grace the occasion. These arrangements were known to the rebel
Tepehuanes. If at Zape on the twenty-first of November, a concen-
trated and successful attack could be made, many of the Spanish miners
and frontiersmen and all the missionaries could be felled at one blow.
Such was the plan gradually worked out among the rebels.
T h e Tepehuanes could not hide entirely their evil intent. T h e mis-
sionaries noted a growing coldness among their neophytes, and Father
 FONTE IS S L A I N 27

Andrés Pérez de Ribas, passing through the country on his way to

Mexico City from the thriving missions of the west, noted a sort of
sinister aloofness to which he was not accustomed among his devoted
Ahornes and loyal Suaquis of Sinaloa. Ribas made known his impres-
sions to Bernardo de Cisneros, missionary at Santiago Papasquiaro, and
the latter replied: "Who knows what demon of an idol has come into
this nation to render it changed and restless."2
Indeed, it was not only Cisneros who had noticed the change in
these Christian and formerly obedient and docile Tepehuanes. His
companion at Santiago, Diego de Orozco, and the two Jesuits working
at Zape, Luís de Alabez and Juan del Valle, experienced a vague
trouble in the altered attitude of their charges, and notified the new
governor, successor to Francisco Urdiñola, Gaspar de Alvear. The
missionaries sent repeated warnings, but without effect. Alvear in his
inexperience attributed the worry of the fathers to nervousness and
an over-stimulated imagination.
But the conspirators could not wait for the assigned day, November
21, and thereby spoiled their plans for total extinction of the Span-
iards in Durango. Five days before the set date, the rebels' smouldering
anger burst into flame on the morning of the sixteenth at Santa Cata-
lina. The occasion was the presence there of two travelers on their
way from Topia to Durango, over the ancient trail from the west
through the Sierra Madre. Santa Catalina is a natural stopping place
after the long trek down the backbone of the sierra into the upland
vales of western Durango. One of these travelers was a merchant with
his wares carried on the backs of a couple of burros; the other was a
Black Robe missionary, Hernando de Tovar, on his way from San
Andrés on the western slope of the divide to the mission center of
Parras far out on the plains to the east. These wayfarers arrived to-
gether at Santa Catalina the evening of November 15.
The presence of the merchant with his wares, which they might
spoil, and of the padre, whom they might kill, was too much for the
rebels. Dissembling their sinister intent that evening, the hostiles
fell upon the travelers the next morning as they were ready to depart,
striking down Tovar, the first victim of this uprising, and endeavoring
to slay the merchant. He escaped however, and, fleeing down the
Rio de Tepehuanes, gave the alarm at Atotonilco. He found the Span-

»
28 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
ish residents of the mining town prepared for defense, for the padres
of Santiago had warned them of the probabilities of trouble.
But their preparations were in vain. The settlement was attacked
on the morning of Thursday, the seventeenth, and, except for two
who managed to escape, the seventy inhabitants together with their
priest, the Franciscan Fray Pedro Gutiérrez, were slain. That same
day Santiago Papasquiaro, eight miles south was attacked. Here re-
sided two Jesuit padres and some hundred Spaniards. They took refuge
in the church and were able all that day, the seventeenth, to hold the
rebels off. But on the following morning, the eighteenth, with the
roof of the edifice burning and the besieged suffocating with the smoke,
they capitulated on terms of safety to their persons. The promise was
vain. They were slaughtered, some hundred of them, including the
two Black Robes, Cisneros and Orozco. Only six persons escaped to
carry the dreadful news to Durango.
Juan Fonte and his companion Gerónimo de Moranta were in-
cluded in the massacres of the north. Zape was more than fifty miles
north of Santiago, and preparations were being made there for the big
celebration of the twenty-first. Fathers Juan del Valle and Luís de
Alabez were resident here. On seeing the disturbed state of the In-
dians they sent a warning to Father Andrés López at Indé not to come;
the same warning was probably sent to Fonte and Moranta, but it
missed them. A number of Spaniards with their slaves and servants
had already arrived for the feast, and the two fathers were slowly
trudging their way south. Before they could arrive the fatal storm and
havoc had reached the mission, and this on the same day, the eight-
eenth, that the massacre was perpetrated at Santiago. The very morn-
ing that Orozco and Cisneros were martyred, another band of rebels
fell upon Zape while Mass was being celebrated in the mission church.
T h e pueblo was taken completely by surprise, there was no escape for
those within the church, and as at Santiago, though we know not the
details, they were all slaughtered, the two padres and close to a hun-
dred others. All unsuspecting, Juan Fonte and Gerónimo Moranta con-
tinued their journey. They were coming in good time for the feast,
for on the nineteenth they were approaching Zape, but were destined
never to arrive. They were about two miles north of the pueblo when
the murderers fell upon them and slew them.
 FONTE IS S L A I N 29
T h e only one of the seven Tepehuán missionaries to escape was
Father López. H e had been warned in time just as he was setting out
for Zape. H e retired to Indé where he spread the alarm, and the Span-
iards fortified themselves as best they could, but they were not at-
tacked. López, writing to his superior, bewails his loss of the martyr's
crown. But the energetic Santarén, pioneer missionary among the
Acaxées, coming in for the celebration at Zape, was slain in a lonely
arroyo near Tenerape, in the south. Taking this occasion to add to the
destruction of the tempests, two caciques of the Tarahumar tribesmen
rose against the Spaniards living near Santa Bárbara, effecting dis-
order and depredation. They were called Oñate and Oriante. A prob-
ably false report was later current that it was Oñate who slew Father
Juan Fonte. These two Indians were later captured and slain.3
Juan Fonte and Moranta lay for weeks where they fell. T h e cold
and the snow preserved their mortal remains. It was only in January
that Captain Montaño, scouring the country in search of the rebels,
approached Zape and there beheld the desolation and the hundred
corpses lying where they had fallen. His troop discovered likewise the
remains of Fonte and Moranta partly covercd with snow and lying
on the shoulder of a slight elevation which rises west from the banks
of the Rio del Zape. T h e corpses of the fathers' two dogs, faithful to
their masters even to death, were found near by.
At Zape the bodies of the other martyred padres, Del Valle and
Alabez, were identified. T h e bodies of the four Jesuits were carefully
enshrouded and at the orders of Governor Gaspar de Alvear prepared
for the long journey south to Durango. T h e body of Tovar, fallen at
Santa Catalina, could not be found, nor could the remains of Orozco
and Cisneros at Santiago Papasquiaro be identified amid the universal
slaughter, and it was only weeks later that the body of Santarén was
discovered. Late in February, when the Governor could join his cap-
tain at Zape, the long funeral procession trudged slowly to the capital
of Nueva Vizcaya.
This strange cortège made its way painfully over the mountainous
country south-southeast to Durango, escorted and guarded by Gov-
ernor de Alvear and his whole troop. On the approach to the capital,
during the first week of March, the funeral procession was augmented
by three hundred Indian allies, loyal Laguneros and Conchos from
30 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
the north and east. The entry was made on Sunday, March 5. Four
mules belonging to the Governor, richly caparisoned in brocades
which bore his coat of arms, carried the bodies of the Black Robed
martyrs. Luis de Bónifaz, superior of the Jesuits at Durango, together
with a group of other Jesuits and Franciscans, came out to escort the
honored dead. Civic dignitaries likewise participated, and Rafael de
Gasque, officer of the King's exchequer, offered his carriage to convey
the precious burden. The bodies were taken first to the church of the
Franciscans, where that Sunday evening, March 5, a solemn vespers
was intoned. All day Monday the bodies lay in state while throngs
from the city and the surrounding country came to gaze upon the
dead. Finally on Wednesday, March 7, Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas,
the martyrs were solemnly borne the few hundred yards to the Jesuit
church, preceded by one hundred and fifty soldiers, cowboys in gala
dress, loyal Indian allies, the clergy, and a concourse of townspeople
eager to honor the missionaries whom they considered martyrs for the
Faith. The bodies were laid in a vault under the gospel side of the
altar, verses were read over their remains, and the last rites were sol-
emnly performed.
Thus was buried in Durango on the Feast of Thomas Aquinas, 1617,
the first apostle of the Tarahumares, Father Juan Fonte, together with
his companion, Father Gerónimo Moranta. Fonte was only forty-two
years of age and would certainly in the ordinary course of events have
seen the gospel carried far into Tarahumar country. But for the time
being the costly Tepehuán revolt had ruined all. The Tarahumar
apostle himself was gone and five others had been swept from the
field by the hand of death. The Tepehuán mission, formerly so pros-
perous, lay in ruins and would have to be gradually rebuilt. The Tara-
humares, therefore, would have to wait many a long year for the men
and the organization which could be spared to them. But Jesuits in
the meantime would go up to Parral for the spiritual ministration of
the Spaniards in those mines. From there in due course, the Black
Robe would again go forth, to found the new mission of the Tarahumar.
 Chapter V

REBUILDING A BROKEN FRONTIER

O F THE SEVEN missionaries engaged among the Tepehuanes, only

one, Father Andrés López, escaped the massacres of the great
revolt. It was going to be López' task to rebuild a spiritual edifice upon
the scattered fragments of the destroyed mission. Only if the Tepe-
huán mission were reconstructed could further efforts be made in
favor of the Tarahumares. T h e lines of communication could not
remain broken. For the secure and enduring Christian penetration of
the Tarahumar country in the north, it was necessary that the long
stretch of territory from the base and center, Durango, be made safe
for the passage of the fathers.
Andrés López lost no time in his efforts to reorganize the fallen mis-
sion. There were, fortunately, materials at hand with which he could
work. Not every member of the Tepehuán tribe had joined the rebels.
Moreover, among those who did, some were constrained by fear of
the consequences of refusal. Many had remained loyal in their hearts
and might have returned immediately to the fold had not terror been
struck into their souls by the repeated punitive expeditions of Gov-
ernor Gaspar de Alvear.
Three times the Governor and his captains rode over the land, set-
ting forth from Durango with a repeatedly augmented troop in De-
cember, 1616, in March, 1617, and finally in February, 1618. In this
final and most successful expedition Alvear led an army of seventy
Spanish soldiers and two hundred Indian allies. T h e Jesuit Alonso
del Valle accompanied the troop as chaplain. It was then that Cogoxito
—the Little Lame One—the last of the great rebel leaders, was slain in
his mountain hide-out near the famous Del Diablo gorge of the Piaxtla,
southwest over the mountains from Durango. Quautlatas had been
delivered up by the repentant Tepehuanes themselves; Guixiuita had
fled so far southwest that he ceased to cause further trouble in the
Durango country. 1 Such military activities by the Spaniards, necessary
indeed and ultimately successful, struck fear for the present into
timid hearts.
1 For notes to chapter v see pages 243-244.

[3i]
32 J E S U I T M I S S I O N S IN T A R A H U M A R A
Father López began his work of reconstruction from Inde, whither
he had fled at the news of the uprising. There lived an old and aban-
doned Tepehuán woman of evil reputation and immoral life. Father
López thought that by trying to better her soul he might be able to
use her as an instrument for the spiritual repatriation of her fellow
tribesmen. The padre's kindness changed her from rebel to willing
instrument of peace. He sent her forth with gentle messages and kindly
assurances to go among the scattered and timid Tepehuanes and tell
them that the father was still their friend; that should they return to
the Faith and to quiet pueblo life punishment would not be theirs.
These things López said officially in the name of the Spanish govern-
ment. The message was conveyed in a written note which the woman
was to display to the different groups she might be able to reach. Thus
it was that numbers of Tepehuanes returned gradually to their old
pueblos, to Santiago Papasquiaro, to Santa Catalina, and to Zape.
Andrés López was now the sole worker among the penitent Tepe-
huanes. The Jesuit anua for 1616, in giving the number of mission-
aries among the various tribes of northwestern Mexico, four or six, as
the case might be, reports the lone figure of one for the Tepehuán
mission.2 The necessity of asking for helpers was then an encouraging
sign, and the end of 1617 witnessed efforts to supply the need. Father
José de Lomas was the first to be sent north. He had formerly worked
in the vicinity of Durango and understood Tepehuán speech. The mis-
sionary arrived at Santiago Papasquiaro February 8, 1618, and sent a
glowing account back to headquarters of his enthusiastic welcome by
the local Tepehuanes. 3 After Cogoxito was finally slain it became
safer for additional missionaries to take up again the apostolic work.
Andrés López did not ask in vain, and a later record gives the number
of missionaries in the area as seven.4
Indians and Spaniards came gradually back to their old centers.
The mines at Atotonilco and at Guanacevi became loud again with
human industry. The Indians were grouped, as formerly, into a pueblo
with their padre.
What facilitated all of this activity was the advent of a new and
strong governor of Nueva Vizcaya. Late in 1620 Gaspar de Alvear
was succeeded by Don Mateo de Vesga, called in the records El Amiral,
the Admiral. He was humane enough to win the peace through his
 REBUILDING A BROKEN FRONTIER 33
conciliation of the Indians and strong enough to hold it. The vigor
and successes of his administration have come down in a series of re-
ports, which, though possibly over-colored, give a detailed account of
how the country was recovering in the early 'twenties, not only with
respect to the missions, but in the civic life and prosperity of the Span-
ish settlers, frontiersmen, cattlemen, and miners. Durango was ex-
panding with additional inhabitants, and new homes were being built
in the capital by important people.5 W h e n in 1621 the new Governor
made a tour of the districts north of Durango, to the mining centers
of Indé and Guanacevi and to such missions as Santiago Papasquiaro
and Zape, he was received with loyalty and enthusiasm. At Zape the
Indians with their cacique, Don Lucas, rode out to bid him welcome
and renew their pledges of peace."
It is not surprising, therefore, that under these propitious circum-
stances Indians and Spaniards came gradually back to their old centers,
that the Indian pueblos returned almost to their former numbers, and
that the mines were again worked by the labor of Spaniard and of
Indian alike.
San Simón, near Zape, had formerly been a small village of scarcely
more than a dozen families, but it began to thrive in the early 'twenties
and to become, for that province and for the missions, an important
center. The place of most encouraging improvement was Zape itself.
This pueblo became more populous than ever before and more ardent
in its faith. It was renamed Santa Maria de los Mártires, because of the
hundred people, including the four Black Robes, who had been slain
there. Near Zape, besides San Simón, were the lesser pueblos of San
Ignacio and San Pablo. These four settlements were organized into a
unit called a partido, with Zape as its head.
The spirit of reconstruction was carried on still farther north into
Tarahumar country. Shortly after 1616 two of the missionaries of the
group which had been sent to reestablish the Faith among the Tepe-
huanes, Juan de Sanguessa of Navarre and Nicolás de Estrada, born
in Mexico City, penetrated into the Valle de San Pablo and remained
among the Tepehuanes and Tarahumares for several months. But a
disturbance among the Tepehuanes forced them to retire. These two
Black Robes were the immediate successors of Fathers Fonte and
Moranta. Father Sanguessa returned to the Valle de San Pablo in 1630."
34 JESUIT MISSIONS IN TARAHUMARA
In the meantime Zape was further honored by the installation of a
statue of Blessed Mary the Virgin. It was such a ceremony which had
offered the occasion, as we have seen, for the outbreak of the revolt in
November, 1616. This same statue of the Virgin Mary, mutilated dur-
ing the atrocities of the rebellion, was sent back to Mexico City to
be remade and refurbished and then reinstalled at Zape in commemo-
ration of the martyrs. This at the expense of a pious army captain of
Guanacevi. Four fresh missionaries had come to the Tepehuán mission
in 1620; two of them had been stationed at Santa María de los Már-
tires, or Zape. Conditions were therefore propitious and settled for the
celebration of the Feast of Our Lady and the installation of her statue.
T h e continuity of purpose is seen by the fact that whereas seven years
had elapsed since the revolt, the fathers and the Spaniards resolved to
hold now in 1623 a feast which should surpass in enthusiasm and in
splendor the originally planned fiesta of 1616. T h e Feast of the As-
sumption falls on August 15; the vigil of the feast was set for the
dedication of the statue.
T h e tragedy of 1616 gave background and offered poignancy to
the celebration of 1623. A procession of Spaniards and Indians
marched the fifteen miles from Guanacevi to Zape. Triumphal arches
were built at intervals along the road set off with foliage and fragrant
herbs. A mile and a half north of Zape, at the place where Fonte and
Moranta fell, there was placed an enramada or bower shrouded in
flowers to serve as the first stopping place of the procession. Here
prayers were said and a benediction given. T h e n the procession
marched into the town itself, which lies just across the freshly flowing
Rio del Zape. There was a solemn Mass, a sermon, and a benediction.
T h e following day, the fifteenth, Feast of the Assumption, celebrations
and ceremonies continued. Santa Maria de los Mártires became a
place of devotion and of pilgrimage, and for more than a century after
these events the statue was still revered. Even well into the twentieth
century the memory of the fallen Jesuits still clung to the countryside,
and the portraits of the four who were massacred at Zape still adorned
the walls of the ancient church. 9
T h u s progressed the recovery of the Tepehuán mission, which was
the necessary condition for the reopening of the missions among the
Tarahumares. Seven fathers lived among the Tepehuánes in 1624."
 REBUILDING A BROKEN FRONTIER 35
An official list of 1625 tells us that Fathers Nicolás de Estrada and
Guillermo de Solier were at Indé ministering to 514 Indians, that at
Santa Catalina Fathers Andrés López and Burgos cared for 634 neo-
phytes, and at Guanacevi Fathers Martin Larios and José de Lomas
watched over 264.11 This looks as if the number of missionaries had
been increased to eight, for both Zape and Santiago would each have
at least a padre.
All this activity was building up a foundation for the renewal of the
Tarahumar mission and was bound to lead to certain preliminary con-
tacts with these northern tribes. Just as formerly Juan Fonte had pre-
vailed upon certain families of the Tarahumares to migrate south into
the Valle de San Pablo, so now during this reconstruction work after
the revolt, some of them continued the migration south to live at San
Simón near Zape.12 Furthermore, José de Lomas was now able to get
in touch with the Tarahumares of the Valle de San Pablo. Lomas
praised their political instinct and their skill in weaving and building.
They were industrious too, reported the padre. They bred Spanish
fowl (aves de Castillo), raised sheep, and with the Spaniards they bar-
tered wool for cloth and other objects.18 Lomas seemed enthusiastic
about these Tarahumares.
It was during this period of reconstruction that the rebel chief Oñate,
who had risen with the Tepehuanes in 1616, was taken and slain.
Oñate was a Tepehuán and the reputed murderer of Father Juan
Fonte. Ever since the uprising he had been a source of trouble on the
border in the Valle de San Pablo and had lately caused a rebellion
there, forcing Father Lomas to retire. Twice expeditions from the
newly organized presidio at Santa Catalina had been sent north for
the purpose of capturing Oñate. The second time the captain was
successful. Oñate was taken alive and was executed. Father Martin
Larios accompanied at least the second expedition and prepared the
rebel for his last end. He died exhorting his fellow tribesmen to lead
a good life and to live in peace and harmony with the Spaniards.14
Good effects followed the removal of this thorn which had for so
long a time been lodged in the body of the missions. The southern
fringes of Tarahumara settled down more solidly to peace, and both
Tepehuanes and Tarahumares who were living in or near the Valle
de San Pablo evinced a desire to move closer to the highway by which
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Elegiac Lines on William Monson, late of Lynn,
an eccentric Character; commonly y’clept
Billy Boots.
Imperial Fate, who, with promiscuous course,
Exerts o’er high and low his influence dread;
Impell’d his shaft with unrelenting force,
And laid thee, Billy, ’mongst the mighty dead!
Yet ’though, when borne to thy sepulchral home,
No pomp funereal grac’d thy poor remains,
Some “frail memorial” should adorn thy tomb,
Some trifling tribute from the Muse’s strains.
Full fifty years, poor Billy! hast thou budg’d,
A care-worn shoe-black, up and down the streets;
From house to house, with slip-shod step hast
trudg’d,
’Midst summer’s rays, and winter’s driving sleets.
Report allied thee to patrician blood,
Yet, whilst thy life to drudg’ry was confin’d,
Thy firmness each dependent thought withstood,
And prov’d,—thy true nobility of mind.
With shuffling, lagging gait, with visage queer,
Which seem’d a stranger to ablution’s pow’r,
In tatter’d garb, well suited to thy sphere,
Thou o’er life’s stage didst strut thy fretful hour.
O’er boots and shoes, to spread the jetty hue,
And give the gloss,—thou Billy, wert the man,
No boasting rivals could thy skill outdo—
Not “Day and Martin,” with their fam’d japan.
On men well-bred and perfectly refin’d,
An extra polish could thine art bestow;
At feast or ball, thy varnish’d honours shin’d,
Made spruce the trader, and adorn’d the beau.
When taunting boys, whom no reproof could tame,
On thee their scoffs at cautious distance shed,
A shoe or brush, impetuous wouldst thou aim,
Wing’d with resentment, at some urchin’s head.
With rage theatric often didst thou glow,
(Though ill adapted for the scenic art;)
As Denmark’s prince soliloquiz’d in woe,
Or else rehears’d vindictive Shylock’s part.
 y p
Brushing and spouting, emulous of fame,
Oft pocketing affronts instead of cash,
In Iago’s phrase, sometimes thou might’st exclaim
With too much truth,—“who steals my purse steals
trash.”
Peace to thine ashes! harmless in thy way,
Long wert thou emp’ror of the shoe-black train,
And with thy fav’rite Shakspeare we may say,
We “ne’er shall look upon thy like again.”

The Drama.
“THE GREAT UNKNOWN”
KNOWN.
Friday the 23d of February, 1827, is to be regarded as remarkable,
because on that day “The Great Unknown” confessed himself. The
disclosure was made at the first annual dinner of the “Edinburgh
Theatrical Fund,” then held in the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh—Sir
Walter Scott in the chair.
Sir Walter Scott, after the usual toasts to the King and the Royal
Family, requested, that gentlemen would fill a bumper as full as it
would hold, while he would say only a few words. He was in the habit
of hearing speeches, and he knew the feeling with which long ones
were regarded. He was sure that it was perfectly unnecessary for him
to enter into any vindication of the dramatic art, which they had come
here to support. This, however, he considered to be the proper time
and proper occasion for him to say a few words on that love of
representation which was an innate feeling in human nature. It was
the first amusement that the child had—it grew greater as he grew
up; and, even in the decline of life, nothing amused so much as when
a common tale is well told. The first thing a child does is to ape his
schoolmaster, by flogging a chair. It was an enjoyment natural to
humanity. It was implanted in our very nature, to take pleasure from
such representations, at proper times, and on proper occasions. In all
ages the theatrical art had kept pace with the improvement of
mankind, and with the progress of letters and the fine arts. As he had
advanced from the ruder stages of society, the love of dramatic
representations had increased, and all works of this nature had been
improved in character and in structure. They had only to turn their
eyes to the history of ancient Greece, although he did not pretend to
be very deeply versed in ancient history. Its first tragic poet
commanded a body of troops at Marathon. The second and next, were
men who shook Athens with their discourses, as their theatrical works
shock the theatre itself. If they turned to France, in the time of Louis
XIV., that era in the classical history of that country, they would find
that it was referred to by all Frenchmen as the golden age of the
drama there. And also in England, in the time of queen Elizabeth, the
drama began to mingle deeply and wisely in the general politics of
Europe, not only not receiving laws from others, but giving laws to the
world, and vindicating the rights of mankind. (Cheers.) There had
been various times when the dramatic art subsequently fell into
disrepute. Its professors had been stigmatized: and laws had been
passed against them, less dishonourable to them than to the
statesmen by whom they were proposed, and to the legislators by
whom they were passed. What were the times in which these laws
were passed? Was it not when virtue was seldom inculcated as a
moral duty, that we were required to relinquish the most rational of all
our amusements, when the clergy were enjoined celibacy, and when
the laity were denied the right to read their Bibles? He thought that it
must have been from a notion of penance that they erected the drama
into an ideal place of profaneness, and the tent of sin. He did not
mean to dispute, that there were many excellent persons who thought
differently from him, and they were entitled to assume that they were
not guilty of any hypocrisy in doing so. He gave them full credit for
their tender consciences, in making these objections, which did not
appear to him relevant to those persons, if they were what they
usurped themselves to be; and if they were persons of worth and
piety, he should crave the liberty to tell them, that the first part of
their duty was charity, and that if they did not choose to go to the
theatre, they at least could not deny that they might give away, from
their superfluity, what was required for the relief of the sick, the
support of the aged, and the comfort of the afflicted. These were
duties enjoined by our religion itself. (Loud cheers.) The performers
were in a particular manner entitled to the support or regard, when in
old age or distress, of those who had partaken of the amusements of
those places which they rendered an ornament to society. Their art
was of a peculiarly delicate and precarious nature. They had to serve a
long apprenticeship. It was very long before even the first-rate
geniuses could acquire the mechanical knowledge of the stage
business. They must languish long in obscurity before they could avail
themselves of their natural talents; and after that, they had but a
short space of time, during which they were fortunate if they could
provide the means of comfort in the decline of life. That came late,
and lasted but a short time; after which they were left dependent.
Their limbs failed, their teeth were loosened, their voice was lost, and
they were left, after giving happiness to others, in a most disconsolate
state. The public were liberal and generous to those deserving their
protection. It was a sad thing to be dependant on the favour, or, he
might say, in plain terms, on the caprice of the public; and this more
particularly for a class of persons of whom extreme prudence was not
the character. There might be instances of opportunities being
neglected; but let them tax themselves, and consider the opportunities
they had neglected, and the sums of money they had wasted; let
every gentleman look into his own bosom, and say whether these
were circumstances which would soften his own feeling, were he to be
plunged into distress. He put it to every generous bosom—to every
better feeling—to say what consolation was it to old age to be told
that you might have made provision at a time which had been
neglected—(loud cheers)—and to find it objected, that if you had
pleased you might have been wealthy. He had hitherto been speaking
of what, in theatrical language, was called “stars,” but they were
sometimes fallen ones. There were another class of sufferers naturally
and necessarily connected with the theatre, without whom it was
impossible to go on. The sailors had a saying, “every man cannot be a
boatswain.” If there must be persons to act Hamlet, there must also
be people to act Laertes, the King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern,
otherwise a drama cannot go on. If even Garrick himself were to rise
from the dead, he could not act Hamlet alone. There must be
generals, colonels, commanding officers, and subalterns; but what
were the private soldiers to do? Many had mistaken their own talents,
and had been driven in early youth to try the stage, to which they
were not competent. He would know what to say to the poet and to
the artist. He would say that it was foolish, and he would recommend
to the poet to become a scribe, and the artist to paint sign-posts
(Loud laughter.) But he could not send the player adrift; for if he could
not play Hamlet, he must play Guildenstern. Where there were many
labourers, wages must be low, and no man in such a situation could
decently support a wife and family, and save something of his income
for old age. What was this man to do in latter life? Were they to cast
him off like an old hinge, or a piece of useless machinery, which had
done its work? To a person who had contributed to our amusement,
that would be unkind, ungrateful, and unchristian. His wants were not
of his own making, but arose from the natural sources of sickness and
old age. It could not be denied that there was one class of sufferers to
whom no imprudence could be ascribed, except on first entering on
the profession. After putting his hand to the dramatic plough, he could
not draw back, but must continue at it, and toil, till death released
him; or charity, by its milder assistance, stepped in to render that
want more tolerable. He had little more to say, except that he
sincerely hoped that the collection to-day, from the number of
respectable gentlemen present, would meet the views entertained by
the patrons. He hoped it would do so. They should not be
disheartened. Though they could not do a great deal, they might do
something. They had this consolation, that every thing they parted
with from their superfluity would do some good. They would sleep the
better themselves when they had been the means of giving sleep to
others. It was ungrateful and unkind that those who had sacrificed
their youth to our amusement should not receive the reward due to
them, but should be reduced to hard fare in their old age. They could
not think of poor Falstaff going to bed without his cup of sack, or
Macbeth fed on bones as marrowless as those of Banquo. (Loud
cheers and laughter.) As he believed that they were all as fond of the
dramatic art as he was in his younger days, he would propose that
they should drink “The Theatrical Fund,” with three times three.
 Mr. Mackay rose on behalf of his brethren, to return their thanks for
the toast just drank.
Lord Meadowbank begged to bear testimony to the anxiety which
they all felt for the interests of the institution which it was for this
day’s meeting to establish. For himself, he was quite surprised to find
his humble name associated with so many others, more distinguished,
as a patron of the institution. But he happened to hold a high and
important public station in the country. It was matter of regret that he
had so little the means in his power of being of service; yet it would
afford him at all times the greatest pleasure to give assistance. As a
testimony of the feelings with which he now rose, he begged to
propose a health, which he was sure, in an assembly of Scotsmen,
would be received, not with an ordinary feeling of delight, but with
rapture and enthusiasm. He knew that it would be painful to his
feelings if he were to speak of him in the terms which his heart
prompted; and that he had sheltered himself under his native modesty
from the applause which he deserved. But it was gratifying at last to
know that these clouds were now dispelled, and that the “great
unknown”—“the mighty Magician”—(here the room literally rung with
applauses for some minutes)—the Minstrel of our country, who had
conjured up, not the phantoms of departed ages, but realities, now
stood revealed before the eyes and affections of his country. In his
presence it would ill become him, as it would be displeasing to that
distinguished person, to say, if he were able, what every man must
feel, who recollected the enjoyment he had had from the great efforts
of his mind and genius. It had been left for him, by his writings, to
give his country an imperishable name. He had done more for that
country, by illuminating its annals, by illustrating the deeds of its
warriors and statesmen, than any man that ever existed, or was
produced, within its territory. He had opened up the peculiar beauties
of his native land to the eyes of foreigners. He had exhibited the
deeds of those patriots and statesmen to whom we owed the freedom
we now enjoyed. He would give “The health of Sir Walter Scott.”
This toast was drank with enthusiastic cheering.
Sir Walter Scott certainly did not think, that, in coming there that
day, he would have the task of acknowledging, before 300 gentlemen,
a secret which, considering that it was communicated to more than 20
people, was remarkably well kept. He was now before the bar of his
country, and might be understood to be on trial before lord
Meadowbank, as an offender; yet he was sure that every impartial jury
would bring in a verdict of “not proven.” He did not now think it
necessary to enter into reasons for his long silence. Perhaps he might
have acted from caprice. He had now to say, however, that the merits
of these works, if they had any, and their faults, were entirely
imputable to himself. (Long and loud cheering.) He was afraid to think
on what he had done. “Look on’t again I dare not.” He had thus far
unbosomed himself, and he knew that it would be reported to the
public. He meant, when he said that he was the author, that he was
the total and undivided author. With the exception of quotations, there
was not a single word that was not derived from himself, or suggested
in the course of his reading. The wand was now broken and the rod
buried. They would allow him further to say, with Prospero, “Your
breath it is that has filled my sails,” and to crave one single toast in
the capacity of the author of those novels, and he would dedicate a
bumper to the health of one who had represented some of those
characters, of which he had endeavoured to give the skeleton, with a
degree of liveliness which rendered him grateful. He would propose
the health of his friend Bailie Nicol Jarvie; (loud applause;) and he was
sure that, when the author of Waverley and Rob Roy drank to Nicol
Jarvie, it would be received with that degree of applause to which that
gentleman had always been accustomed, and that they would take
care that, on the present occasion, it should be prodigious! (Long and
vehement applause.)
Mr. Mackay, who spoke with great humour in the character of Bailie
Jarvie.—“My conscience! My worthy father, the Deacon, could not have
believed that his son could hae had sic a compliment paid to him by
the Great Unknown.”
Sir Walter Scott.—“Not unknown now, Mr. Bailie.”
After this avowal, numerous toasts were duly honoured; and on
the proposal of “the health of Mrs. Siddons, senior, the most
distinguished ornament of the stage,” Sir Walter Scott said, that if any
thing could reconcile him to old age, it was the reflection that he had
seen the rising as well as the setting sun of Mrs. Siddons. He
remembered well their breakfasting near to the theatre—waiting the
whole day—the crushing at the doors at six o’clock—and their going in
and counting their fingers till seven o’clock. But the very first step—
the very first word which she uttered, was sufficient to overpay him
for all his labours. The house was literally electrified; and it was only
from witnessing the effects of her genius, that he could guess to what
a pitch theatrical excellence could be carried. Those young fellows
who had only seen the setting sun of this distinguished performer,
beautiful and serene as that was, must give the old fellows who had
seen its rise leave to hold their heads a little higher.
Sir Walter Scott subsequently gave “Scotland, the Land of Cakes.”
He would give every river, every loch, every hill, from Tweed to
Johnnie Groat’s house—every lass in her cottage, and countess in her
castle; and may her sons stand by her, as their fathers did before
them, and he who would not drink a bumper to his toast, may he
never drink whiskey more.
Mr. H. G. Bell proposed the health of “James Sheridan Knowles.”
Sir Walter Scott.—Gentlemen, I crave a bumper all over. The last
toast reminds me of a neglect of duty. Unaccustomed to a public duty
of this kind, errors in conducting the ceremonial of it may be excused,
and omissions pardoned. Perhaps I have made one or two omissions
in the course of the evening, for which I trust you will grant me your
pardon and indulgence. One thing in particular I have omitted, and I
would now wish to make amends for it by a libation of reverence and
respect to the memory of Shakspeare. He was a man of universal
genius, and from a period soon after his own era to the present day,
he has been universally idolized. When I come to his honoured name,
I am like the sick man who hung up his crutches at the shrine, and
was obliged to confess that he did not walk better than before. It is
indeed difficult, gentlemen, to compare him to any other individual.
The only one to whom I can at all compare him, is the wonderful
Arabian dervise, who dived into the body of each, and in that way
became familiar with the thoughts and secrets of their hearts. He was
a man of obscure origin, and as a player, limited in his acquirements;
but he was born evidently with a universal genius. His eyes glanced at
all the varied aspects of life, and his fancy portrayed with equal talents
the king on the throne, and the clown who crackled his chestnuts at a
Christmas fire. Whatever note he took, he struck it just and true, and
awakened a corresponding chord in our own bosoms. Gentlemen, I
propose “The memory of William Shakspeare.”
Glee—“Lightly tread his hallowed ground.”
Sir Walter rose after the glee, and begged to propose as a toast
the health of a lady whose living merits were not a little honourable to
Scotland. This toast (said he) is also flattering to the national vanity of
a Scotchman, as the lady whom I intend to propose is a native of this
country. From the public her works have met with the most favourable
reception. One piece of hers, in particular, was often acted here of late
years, and gave pleasure of no mean kind to many brilliant and
fashionable audiences. In her private character, she (he begged leave
to say) was as remarkable as in a public sense she was for her genius.
In short, he would, in one word, name—“Joanna Baillie.”
Towards the close of the evening, Sir Walter observed:—There is
one who ought to be remembered on this occasion. He is indeed well
entitled to our great recollection—one, in short, to whom the drama in
this city owes much. He succeeded, not without trouble, and perhaps
at some considerable sacrifice in establishing a theatre. The younger
part of the company may not recollect the theatre to which I allude;
but there are some who with me may remember, by name, the theatre
in Carrubber’s-close. There Allan Ramsay established his little theatre.
His own pastoral was not fit for the stage, but it has its own admirers
in those who love the Doric language in which it is written; and it is
not without merits of a very peculiar kind. But, laying aside all
considerations of his literary merit, Allan was a good, jovial, honest
fellow, who could crack a bottle with the best. “The memory of Allan
Ramsay.”
Mr. P. Robertson.—I feel that I am about to tread on ticklish ground.
The talk is of a new theatre, and a bill may be presented for its
erection, saving always, and provided the expenses be defrayed and
carried through, provided always it be not opposed. Bereford-park, or
some such place, might be selected, provided always due notice was
given, and so we might have a playhouse, as it were, by possibility.
 Sir Walter Scott.—Wherever the new theatre is built, I hope it will
not be large. There are two errors which we commonly commit—the
one arising from our pride, the other from our poverty. If there are
twelve plans, it is odds but the largest, without any regard to comfort,
or an eye to the probable expense, is adopted. There was the college
projected on this scale, and undertaken in the same manner, and who
shall see the end of it? It has been building all my life, and may
probably last during the lives of my children, and my children’s
children. Let it not be said when we commence a new theatre, as was
said on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of a certain
building, “Behold the endless work begun.” Play-going folks should
attend somewhat to convenience. The new theatre should, in the first
place, be such as may be finished in eighteen months or two years;
and, in the second place, it should be one in which we can hear our
old friends with comfort. It is better that a theatre should be crowded
now and then, than to have a large theatre, with benches continually
empty, to the discouragement of the actors, and the discomfort of the
spectators.
Sir Walter immediately afterwards said, “Gentlemen, it is now
wearing late, and I shall request permission to retire. Like Partridge, I
may say, ‘non sum qualis eram.’ At my time of day, I can agree with
Lord Ogleby, as to the rheumatism, and say, ‘There’s a twinge.’ I hope,
therefore, you will excuse me for leaving the chair.”—(The worthy
baronet then retired amidst long, loud, and rapturous cheering.)

These extracts[80] contain the substance of Sir Walter Scott’s

speeches on this memorable occasion. His allusions to actors and the
drama are, of themselves, important; but his avowal of himself as the
author of the “Waverley Novels,” is a fact of peculiar interest in literary
history. Particular circumstances, however, had made known the
“Great Unknown” to several persons in London some months
previously, though the fact had not by any means been generally
circulated.

[80] From the report of the “Edinburgh Evening Courant” of Saturday, 24th
Feb. 1827; in “The Times” of the Tuesday following.
 Hot Meals.
POWELL, THE FIRE-EATER.

“Oh! for a muse of fire!”

One fire burns out another burning. The jack-puddings who
swallow flame at “the only booth” in every fair, have extinguished
remembrance of Powell the fire-eater—a man so famous in his own
day, that his name still lives. Though no journal records the time of his
death, no line eulogizes his memory, no stone marks his burial-place,
there are two articles written during his lifetime, which, being noticed
here, may “help his fame along” a little further. Of the first, by a
correspondent of Sylvanus Urban, the following is a sufficient abstract.
Ashbourn, Derbyshire, Jan. 20, 1755.
Last spring, Mr. Powell, the famous fire-eater, did us the honour of
a visit at this town; and, as he set forth in his printed bills, that he had
shown away not only before most of the crowned heads in Europe,
but even before the Royal Society of London, and was dignified with a
curious and very ample silver medal, which, he said, was bestowed on
him by that learned body, as a testimony of their approbation, for
eating what nobody else could eat, I was prevailed upon, at the
importunity of some friends, to go and see a sight, that so many great
kings and philosophers had not thought below their notice. And, I
confess, though neither a superstitious nor an incurious man, I was
not a little astonished at his wonderful performances in the fire-eating
way.
After many restless days and nights, and the profoundest
researches into the nature of things, I almost despaired of accounting
for the strange phenomenon of a human and perishable creature
eating red hot coals, taken indiscriminately out of a large fire, broiling
steaks upon his tongue, swallowing huge draughts of liquid fire as
greedily as a country squire does roast beef and strong beer. Thought
I to myself, how can that element, which we are told is ultimately to
devour all things, be devoured itself, as familiar diet, by a mortal man?
—Here I stuck, and here I might have stuck, if I had not met with the
following anecdote by M. Panthot, doctor of physic and member of the
college of Lyons:—
“The secret of fire-eating was made public by a servant to one
Richardson, an Englishman, who showed it in France about the year
1667, and was the first performer of the kind that ever appeared in
Europe. It consists only in rubbing the hands, and thoroughly washing
the mouth, lips, tongue, teeth, and other parts that are to touch the
fire, with pure spirit of sulphur. This burns and cauterizes the
epidermis, or upper skin, till it becomes as hard as thick leather, and
every time the experiment is tried it becomes still easier than before.
But if, after it has been very often repeated, the upper skin should
grow so callous and horny as to become troublesome, washing the
parts affected with very warm water, or hot wine, will bring away all
the shrivelled or parched epidermis. The flesh, however, will continue
tender and unfit for such business till it has been frequently rubbed
over again with the same spirit.
“This preparative may be rendered much stronger and more
efficacious, by mixing equal quantities of spirit of sulphur, sal
ammoniac, essence of rosemary, and juice of onions.
“The bad effects which frequently swallowing red-hot coals, melted
sealing wax, rosin, brimstone, and other calcined and inflammable
matter, might have had upon his stomach, were prevented by drinking
plentifully of warm water and oil, as soon as he left the company, till
he had vomited all up again.”
My author further adds, that any person who is possessed of this
secret, may safely walk over burning coals, or red-hot plough-shares;
and he fortifies his assertion by the example of blacksmiths and
forgemen, many of whom acquire such a degree of callosity, by often
handling hot things, that they will carry a glowing bar of iron in their
naked hands, without hurt.
Whether Mr. Powell will take it kindly of me thus to have published
his secret, I cannot tell; but as he now begins to drop into years, has
no children that I know of, and may die suddenly, or without making a
will, I think it is a great pity so genteel an occupation should become
one of the artes perditæ, as possibly it may, if proper care is not
taken; and therefore hope, after this information, some true-hearted
Englishman will take it up again for the honour of his country, when he
reads in the newspapers, Yesterday died, much lamented, the famous
Mr. Powell. He was the best, if not the only fire-eater in this world, and
it is greatly to be feared his art is dead with him.

Notwithstanding the preceding disclosure of Powell’s “grand

secret,” he continued to maintain his good name and reputation till
after Dr. Johnson was pensioned, in the year 1762. We are assured of
the fact by the internal evidence of the following article, preserved by
a collector of odd things, who obtained it he knew not how:—
Genius unrewarded.
We have been lately honoured with the presence of the celebrated
Mr. Powell, who, I suppose, must formerly have existed in a comet;
and by one of those unforeseen accidents which sometimes happen to
the most exalted characters, has dropped from its tail.
His common food is brimstone and fire, which he licks up as
eagerly as a hungry peasant would a mess of pottage; he feeds on
this extraordinary diet before princes and peers, to their infinite
satisfaction; and such is his passion for this terrible element, that if he
were to come hungry into your kitchen, while a sirloin was roasting,
he would eat up the fire, and leave the beef.
It is somewhat surprising, that the friends of real merit have not
yet promoted him, living, as we do, in an age favourable to men of
genius: Mr. Johnson has been rewarded with a pension for writing,
and Mr. Sheridan for speaking well; but Mr. Powell, who eats well, has
not yet been noticed by any administration. Obliged to wander from
place to place, instead of indulging, himself in private with his
favourite dish, he is under the uncomfortable necessity of eating in
public, and helping himself from the kitchen fire of some paltry
alehouse in the country.
O tempora! O mores![81]

[81] Lounger’s Common Place Book

Vol. I.—11.
March Fair, at Brough, Westmoreland.

March Fair, at Brough, Westmoreland

For the Table Book
This fair is held always on the second Thursday in March: it is a
good one for cattle; and, in consequence of the great show, the
inhabitants are obliged to shut up their windows; for the cattle and
the drivers are stationed in all parts of the town, and few except the
jobbers venture out during the time of selling.
From five to six o’clock the preceding evening, carts, chiefly
belonging to Yorkshire clothiers, begin to arrive, and continue coming
in until the morning, when, at about eight or nine, the cattle fair
begins, and lasts till three in the afternoon. Previously to any article
being sold, the fair is proclaimed in a manner depicted tolerably well in
the preceding sketch. At ten, two individuals, named Matthew Horn
and John Deighton, having furnished themselves with a fiddle and
clarinet, walk through the different avenues of the town three times,
playing, as they walk, chiefly “God save the King;” at the end of this,
some verses are repeated, which I have not the pleasure of
recollecting; but I well remember, that thereby the venders are
authorized to commence selling. After it is reported through the
different stalls that “they’ve walked the fair,” business usually
commences in a very brisk manner.
Mat. Horn has the best cake booth in the fair, and takes a
considerable deal more money than any “spice wife,” (as women are
called who attend to these dainties.) Jack Deighton is a shoemaker,
and a tolerably good musician. Coals are also brought for sale, which,
with cattle, mainly constitute the morning fair.
At the close of the cattle fair, the town is swept clean, and lasses
walk about with their “sweethearts,” and the fair puts on another
appearance. “Cheap John’s here the day,” with his knives, combs,
bracelets, &c. &c. The “great Tom Mathews,” with his gallanty show,
generally contrives to pick up a pretty bit of money by his droll ways.
Then “Here’s spice Harry, gingerbread, Harry—Harry—Harry!” from
Richmond, with his five-and-twenty lumps of gingerbread for sixpence.
Harry stands in a cart, with his boxes of “spice” beside him, attracting
the general attention of the whole fair, (though he is seldomer here
than at Brough-hill fair.) There are a few shows, viz. Scott’s sleight of
hand, horse performances, &c. &c.; and, considering the size of the
town, it has really a very merry-spent fair. At six o’clock dancing
begins in nearly all the public-houses, and lasts the whole of “a merry
neet.”
Jack Deighton mostly plays at the greatest dance, namely, at the
Swan inn; and his companion, Horn, at one of the others; the dances
are merely jigs, three reels, and four reels, and country dances, and
no more than three sets can dance at a time. It is a matter of course
to give the fiddler a penny or two-pence each dance; sometimes
however another set slips in after the tune’s begun, and thus trick the
player. By this time nearly all the stalls are cleared away, and the
“merry neet” is the only place to resort to for amusement. The fiddle
and clarinet are to be heard every where; and it is astonishing what
money is taken by the fiddlers. Some of the “spice wives,” too, stop till
the next morning, and go round with their cakes at intervals, which
they often sell more of than before.
At this festival at Brough, the husbandmen have holiday, and many
get so tipsy that they are frequently turned off from their masters.
Several of the “spice wives” move away in the afternoon to Kirby
Stephen, where there is a very large fair, better suited to their trade,
for it commences on the day ensuing. Unfortunately, I was never
present at the proclamation. From what I saw, I presume it is in
consequence of a charter, and that these people offer their services
that the fair-keepers may commence selling their articles sooner. I
never heard of their being paid for their trouble. They are constantly
attended by a crowd of people, who get on the carts and booths, and,
at the end, set up a load “huzza!”
W. H. H.

THE TWELVE GEMS

Of the Twelve Months.

For the Table Book.

It is a Polish superstition, that each month has a particular gem
attached to it, which governs it, and is supposed to influence the
destiny of persons born in that month; it is therefore customary
among friends, and lovers particularly, to present each other, on their
natal day, with some trinket containing their tutelary gem,
accompanied with its appropriate wish; this kind fate, or perhaps
kinder fancy, generally contrives to realize according to their
expectations.
January.
Jacinth, or Garnet denotes constancy and fidelity in every
engagement.
 February.
Amethyst preserves mortals from strong passions, and ensures
peace of mind.
March.
Bloodstone denotes courage and secrecy in dangerous enterprises.
April.
Sapphire, or Diamond denotes repentance and innocence.
May.
Emerald, successive love.
June.
Agate ensures long life and health.
July.
Ruby, or Cornelian ensures the forgetfulness or cure of evils
springing from friendship or love.
August.
Sardonix ensures conjugal felicity.
September.
Chrysolite preserves from, or cures folly.
October.
Aquamarine, or Opal denotes misfortune and hope.
November.
Topaz ensures fidelity and friendship.
December.
Turquoise, or Malakite denotes the most brilliant success and
happiness in every circumstance of life.
E. M. S.

Garrick Plays.
No. VIII.

[From the “Game at Chess,” a Comedy, by Thomas Middleton, 1624.]

 Popish Priest to a great Court Lady, whom he hopes to make a
Convert of.
Let me contemplate;
With holy wonder season my access,
And by degrees approach the sanctuary
Of unmatch’d beauty, set in grace and goodness.
Amongst the daughters of men I have not found
A more Catholical aspect. That eye
Doth promise single life, and meek obedience.
Upon those lips (the sweet fresh buds of youth)
The holy dew of prayer lies, like pearl
Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn
Upon the bashful rose. How beauteously
A gentle fast (not rigorously imposed)
Would look upon that cheek; and how delightful
The courteous physic of a tender penance,
(Whose utmost cruelty should not exceed
The first fear of a bride), to beat down frailty!

[From the “Virgin Widow,” a Comedy, 1649; the only production, in

that kind, of Francis Quarles, Author of the Emblems.]
Song.
How blest are they that waste their weary hours
In solemn groves and solitary bowers,
Where neither eye nor ear
Can see or hear
The frantic mirth
And false delights of frolic earth;
Where they may sit, and pant,
And breathe their pursy souls;
Where neither grief consumes, nor griping want
Afflicts, nor sullen care controuls.
Away, false joys; ye murther where ye kiss!
There is no heaven to that, no life to this.

[From “Adrasta,” a Tragi-comedy, by John Jones, 1635.]

Dirge.
 Die, die, ah die!
We all must die:
’Tis Fate’s decree;
Then ask not why.
When we were framed, the Fates consultedly
Did make this law, that all things born should die.
Yet Nature strove,
And did deny
We should be slaves
To Destiny.
At which, they heapt
Such misery;
That Nature’s self
Did wish to die:
And thank their goodness, that they would foresee
To end our cares with such a mild decree.

Another.
Come, Lovers, bring your cares,
Bring sigh-perfumed sweets;
Bedew the grave with tears,
Where Death with Virtue meets.
Sigh for the hapless hour,
That knit two hearts in one;
And only gave Love power
To die, when ’twas begun.

[From “Tancred and Gismund,” acted before the Court by the

Gentlemen of the Inner Temple, 1591.]
A Messenger brings to Gismund a cup from the King her Father,
enclosing the heart of her Lord, whom she had espoused without his
sanction.
 Mess. Thy father, O Queen, here in this cup hath sent
The thing to joy and comfort thee withal,
Which thou lovedst best: ev’n as thou wast content
To comfort him with his best joy of all.
Gis. I thank my father, and thee, gentle Squire;
For this thy travail; take thou for thy pains
This bracelet, and commend me to the King.
* * * *
So, now is come the long-expected hour,
The fatal hour I have so looked for.
Now hath my father satisfied his thirst
With guiltless blood, which he so coveted.
What brings this cup? aye me, I thought no less;
It is my Earl’s, my County’s pierced heart.
Dear heart, too dearly hast thou bought my love.
Extremely rated at too high a price.
Ah my dear heart, sweet wast thou in thy life,
But in thy death thou provest passing sweet.
A fitter hearse than this of beaten gold
Could not be lotted to so good a heart.
My father therefore well provided thus
To close and wrap thee up in massy gold
And therewithal to send thee unto me,
To whom of duty thou dost best belong.
My father hath in all his life bewrayed
A princely care and tender love to me,
But this surpasseth, in his latter days
To send me this mine own dear heart to me.
Wert not thou mine, dear heart, whilst that my love
Danced and play’d upon thy golden strings?
Art thou not mine, dear heart, now that my love
Is fled to heaven, and got him golden wings?
Thou art mine own, and still mine own shall be,
Therefore my father sendeth thee to me.
Ah pleasant harbourer of my heart’s thought!
Ah sweet delight, the quickener of my soul!
Seven times accursed be the hand that wrought
Thee this despite, to mangle thee so foul
Yet in this wound I see my own true love,
And in this wound thy magnanimity,
And in this wound I see thy constancy.
Go, gentle heart, go rest thee in thy tomb;
Receive this token as thy last farewell.
 She kisseth it.
Thy own true heart anon will follow thee,
Which panting hasteth for thy company.
Thus hast thou run, poor heart, thy mortal race,
And rid thy life from fickle fortune’s snares,
Thus hast thou lost this world and worldly cares,
And of thy foe, to honour thee withal,
Receiv’d a golden grave to thy desert.
Nothing doth want to thy just funeral,
But my salt tears to wash thy bloody wound;
Which to the end thou mightst receive, behold,
My father sends thee in this cup of gold:
And thou shalt have them; though I was resolved
To shed no tears; but with a cheerful face
Once did I think to wet thy funeral
Only with blood, and with no weeping eye.
This done, my soul forthwith shall fly to thee;
For therefore did my father send thee me.
Nearly a century after the date of this Drama, Dryden produced his
admirable version of the same story from Boccacio. The speech here
extracted may be compared with the corresponding passage in the
Sigismonda and Guiscardo, with no disadvantage to the elder
performance. It is quite as weighty, as pointed, and as passionate.
C. L.

Necromancy.
THE DEAN OF BADAJOS.
By the Abbe Blanchet.

The dean of the cathedral of Badajos was more learned than all
the doctors of Salamanca, Coimbra, and Alcala, united; he understood
all languages, living and dead, and was perfect master of every
science divine and human, except that, unfortunately, he had no
knowledge of magic. He was inconsolable when he reflected on his
ignorance in that sublime art, till he was told that a very able magician
resided in the suburbs of Toledo, named don Torribio. He immediately
saddled his mule, departed for Toledo, and alighted at the door of no
very superb dwelling, the habitation of that great man.
 “Most reverend magician,” said he, addressing himself to the sage,
“I am the dean of Badajos. The learned men of Spain all allow me to
be their superior; but I am come to request from you a much greater
honour, that of becoming your pupil. Deign to initiate me in the
mysteries of your art, and doubt not but you shall receive a grateful
acknowledgment, suitable to the benefit conferred, and your own
extraordinary merit.”
Don Torribio was not very polite, though he valued himself on
being intimately acquainted with the highest company below. He told
the dean he was welcome to seek elsewhere for a master; for that, for
his part, he was weary of an occupation which produced nothing but
compliments and promises, and that he should but dishonour the
occult sciences by prostituting them to the ungrateful.
“To the ungrateful!” exclaimed the dean: “has then the great don
Torribio met with persons who have proved ungrateful? And can he so
far mistake me as to rank me with such monsters?” He then repeated
all the maxims and apophthegms which he had read on the subject of
gratitude, and every refined sentiment his memory could furnish. In
short, he talked so well, that the conjuror, after having considered a
moment, confessed he could refuse nothing to a man of such abilities,
and so ready at pertinent quotations.
“Jacintha,” said don Torribio to his old woman, “lay down two
partridges to the fire. I hope my friend the dean will do me the honour
to sup with me to night.” At the same time he took him by the hand
and led him into the cabinet; when here, he touched his forehead,
uttering three mysterious words, which the reader will please to
remember, “Ortobolan, Pistafrier, Onagriouf.” Then, without further
preparation, he began to explain, with all possible perspicuity, the
introductory elements of his profound science. The new disciple
listened with an attention which scarcely permitted him to breathe;
when, on a sudden, Jacintha entered, followed by a little old man in
monstrous boots, and covered with mud up to the neck, who desired
to speak with the dean on very important business. This was the
postilion of his uncle, the bishop of Badajos, who had been sent
express after him, and who had galloped without ceasing quite to
Toledo, before he could overtake him. He came to bring him
information that, some hours after his departure, his grace had been
attacked by so violent an apoplexy that the most terrible
consequences were to be apprehended. The dean heartily, that is
inwardly, (so as to occasion no scandal,) execrated the disorder, the
patient, and the courier, who had certainly all three chosen the most
impertinent time possible. He dismissed the postilion, bidding him
make haste back to Badajos, whither he would presently follow him;
and instantly returned to his lesson, as if there were no such things as
either uncles or apoplexies.
A few days afterwards the dean again received news from Badajos:
but this was worth hearing. The principal chanter, and two old canons,
came to inform him that his uncle, the right reverend bishop, had
been taken to heaven to receive the reward of his piety; and the
chapter, canonically assembled, had chosen him to fill the vacant
bishopric, and humbly requested he would console, by his presence,
the afflicted church of Badajos, now become his spiritual bride.
Don Torribio, who was present at this harangue, endeavoured to
derive advantage from what he had learned; and taking aside the new
bishop, after having paid him a well-turned compliment on his
promotion, proceeded to inform him that he had a son, named
Benjamin, possessed of much ingenuity, and good inclination, but in
whom he had never perceived either taste or talent for the occult
sciences. He had, therefore, he said, advised him to turn his thoughts
towards the church, and he had now, he thanked heaven, the
satisfaction to hear him commended as one of the most deserving
divines among all the clergy of Toledo. He therefore took the liberty,
most humbly, to request his grace to bestow on don Benjamin the
deanery of Badajos, which he could not retain together with his
bishopric.
“I am very unfortunate,” replied the prelate, apparently somewhat
embarrassed; “you will, I hope, do me the justice to believe that
nothing could give me so great a pleasure as to oblige you in every
request; but the truth is, I have a cousin to whom I am heir, an old
ecclesiastic, who is good for nothing but to be a dean, and if I do not
bestow on him this benefice, I must embroil myself with my family,
which would be far from agreeable. But,” continued he, in an
affectionate manner, “will you not accompany me to Badajos? Can you
be so cruel as to forsake me at a moment when it is in my power to
be of service to you? Be persuaded, my honoured master, we will go
together. Think of nothing but the improvement of your pupil, and
leave me to provide for don Benjamin; nor doubt, but sooner or later, I
will do more for him than you expect. A paltry deanery in the remotest
part of Estremadura is not a benefice suitable to the son of such a
man as yourself.”
The canon law would, no doubt, have construed the prelate’s offer
into simony. The proposal however was accepted, nor was any scruple
made by either of these two very intelligent persons. Don Torribio
followed his illustrious pupil to Badajos, where he had an elegant
apartment assigned him in the episcopal palace; and was treated with
the utmost respect by the diocese as the favourite of his grace, and a
kind of grand vicar. Under the tuition of so able a master the bishop of
Badajos made a rapid progress in the occult sciences. At first he gave
himself up to them, with an ardour which might appear excessive; but
this intemperance grew by degrees more moderate, and he pursued
them with so much prudence that his magical studies never interfered
with the duties of his diocese. He was well convinced of the truth of a
maxim, very important to be remembered by ecclesiastics, whether
addicted to sorcery, or only philosophers and admirers of literature—
that it is not sufficient to assist at learned nocturnal meetings, or
adorn the mind with embellishments of human science, but that it is
also the duty of divines to point out to others the way to heaven, and
plant in the minds of their hearers, wholesome doctrine and Christian
morality. Regulating his conduct by these commendable principles, this
learned prelate was celebrated throughout Christendom for his merit
and piety: and, “when he least expected such an honour,” was
promoted to the archbishopric of Compostella. The people and clergy
of Badajos lamented, as may be supposed, an event by which they
were deprived of so worthy a pastor; and the canons of the cathedral,
to testify their respect, unanimously conferred on him the honour of
nominating his successor.
Don Torribio did not neglect so alluring an opportunity to provide
for his son. He requested the bishopric of the new archbishop, and
was refused with all imaginable politeness. He had, he said, the
greatest veneration for his old master, and was both sorry and
ashamed it was “not in his power” to grant a thing which appeared so
very a trifle, but, in fact, don Ferdinand de Lara, constable of Castile,
had asked the bishopric for his natural son; and though he had never
seen that nobleman, he had, he said, some secret, important, and
what was more, very ancient obligations to him. It was therefore an
indispensable duty to prefer an old benefactor to a new one But don
Torribio ought not to be discouraged at this proof of his justice; as he
might learn by that, what he had to expect when his turn arrived,
which should certainly be the first opportunity. This anecdote
concerning the ancient obligations of the archbishop, the magician had
the goodness to believe, and rejoiced, as much as he was able, that
his interests were sacrificed to those of don Ferdinand.
Nothing was now thought of but preparations for their departure to
Compostella, where they were to reside. These, however, were
scarcely worth the trouble, considering the short time they were
destined to remain there; for at the end of a few months one of the
pope’s chamberlains arrived, who brought the archbishop a cardinal’s
cap, with an epistle conceived in the most respectful terms, in which
his holiness invited him to assist, by his counsel, in the government of
the Christian world; permitting him at the same time to dispose of his
mitre in favour of whom he pleased. Don Torribio was not at
Compostella when the courier of the holy father arrived. He had been
to see his son, who still continued a priest in a small parish at Toledo.
But he presently returned, and was not put to the trouble of asking for
the vacant archbishopric. The prelate ran to meet him with open arms,
“My dear master,” said he, “I have two pieces of good news to relate
at once. Your disciple is created a cardinal, and your son shall—shortly
—be advanced to the same dignity. I had intended in the mean time to
bestow upon him the archbishopric of Compostella, but, unfortunately
for him, and for me, my mother, whom we left at Badajos, has, during
your absence, written me a cruel letter, by which all my measures
have been disconcerted. She will not be pacified unless I appoint for
my successor the archdeacon of my former church, don Pablas de
Salazar, her intimate friend and confessor. She tells me it will “occasion
her death” if she should not be able to obtain preferment for her dear
father in God. Shall I be the death of my mother?”
Don Torribio was not a person who could incite or urge his friend
to be guilty of parricide, nor did he indulge himself in the least
resentment against the mother of the prelate. To say the truth,
however, this mother was a good kind of woman, nearly
superannuated. She lived quietly with her cat and her maid servant,
and scarcely knew the name of her confessor. Was it likely, then, that
she had procured don Pablas his archbishopric? Was it not more than
probable that he was indebted for it to a Gallician lady, his cousin, at
once devout and handsome, in whose company his grace the
archbishop had frequently been edified during his residence at
Compostella? Be this as it may, don Torribio followed his eminence to
Rome. Scarcely had he arrived at that city ere the pope died. The
conclave met—all the voices of the sacred college were in favour of
the Spanish cardinal. Behold him therefore pope.
Immediately after the ceremony of his exaltation, don Torribio,
admitted to a secret audience, wept with joy while he kissed the feet
of his dear pupil. He modestly represented his long and faithful
services, reminded his holiness of those inviolable promises which he
had renewed before he entered the conclave, and instead of
demanding the vacant hat for don Benjamin, finished with most
exemplary moderation by renouncing every ambitious hope. He and
his son, he said, would both esteem themselves too happy if his
holiness would bestow on them, together with his benediction, the
smallest temporal benefice; such as an annuity for life, sufficient for
the few wants of an ecclesiastic and a philosopher.
During this harangue the sovereign pontiff considered within
himself how to dispose of his preceptor. He reflected he was no longer
necessary; that he already knew as much of magic as was sufficient
for a pope. After weighing every circumstance, his holiness concluded
that don Torribio was not only an useless, but a troublesome pedant;
and this point determined, he replied in the following words:
“We have learned, with concern, that under the pretext of
cultivating the occult sciences, you maintain a horrible intercourse with
the spirit of darkness and deceit; we therefore exhort you, as a father,
to expiate your crime by a repentance proportionable to its enormity.
Moreover, we enjoin you to depart from the territories of the church
within three days, under penalty of being delivered over to the secular
arm, and its merciless flames.”
Don Torribio, without being alarmed, immediately repeated the
three mysterious words which the reader was desired to remember;
and going to a window, cried out with all his force, “Jacintha, you
need spit but one partridge; for my friend, the dean, will not sup here
to-night.”
This was a thunderbolt to the imaginary pope. He immediately
recovered from the trance, into which he had been thrown by the
three mysterious words. He perceived that, instead of being in the
vatican, he was still at Toledo, in the closet of don Torribio; and he
saw, by the clock, it was not a complete hour since he entered that
fatal cabinet, where he had been entertained by such pleasant
dreams.
In that short time the dean of Badajos had imagined himself a
magician, a bishop, a cardinal, and a pope; and he found at last that
he was only a dupe and a knave. All was illusion, except the proofs he
had given of his deceitful and evil heart. He instantly departed,
without speaking a single word, and finding his mule where he had
left her, returned to Badajos.

Phrenology.
For the Table Book.
“You look but on the outside of affairs.”
King John.
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