extracts from the membrete of the viceroy, count revilla-gigedo, dated april 12, 1793, contained in the work entitled “supplement to the history of the three centuries of mexico,” by father andres cavo; presented to lic. carlos maria bustamente, the author continuing the work.” volume 3, p. 112 et seq.
[April 12,
1793]
[The sections are numbered as in the original.]
pious fund of the missions.
- 9.
- Missions were erected and maintained with the funds which the zeal and apostolic labors of the above-mentioned fathers of the Society of Jesus acquired for the spiritual conquest of the Indians of California, the principal benefactors and founders of those pious funds being the Marquis of Villapuente and the Marquis de las Torres de Rada.
- 10.
- Although the remote territories of New Spain, known by the name of the outlying or western territories of California, have not been occupied with other organized establishments than the above-mentioned fifteen missions and the garrison of Loreto, all the territory lying along the coast of the continent as far north as explored is comprehended and considered under the Spanish dominion, and exploration has already been made as far as the forty-third degree of latitude, where the river called “Los Reyes” is found.
- 16.
- From this time missions began to be built adjoining the new garrisons of San Diego and Monterey, the expense being borne by the pious funds which the Jesuits had left invested at the time of their expulsion, and it was thought to be possible that the department of San Bias should be paid from the proceeds of the contiguous salt mines (which had already begun to be administered on account of the royal treasury), and with other means of lesser consideration.
- 17.
- This advantage has never been attained; the expenses of the department of San Bias have been continually increased, and those expenses caused by its establishment and the conquests of Sonora and the Californias were of necessity a. considerable drain upon the royal treasury from 1768 to 1771, notwithstanding that the large donations collected and the pious funds of the missions went towards defraying these heavy expenses.
- 200.
- I repeat, then, my opinion that, setting aside all costly and difficult projects, we necessarily confine our expenses to preventing the encroachments of the English establishments and of any other foreign power upon our peninsula of the Californias, by speedily occupying, as we have already determined on, the port of Bodega and if necessary the Columbia River, putting in a condition of good defense these two important places and the posts of San Francisco, Monterey, San Diego, and even that of Loreto, which garrison the above-mentioned peninsula, removing as soon as possible the seat of government (departamento) from San Bias to Acapulco, and looking to the preservation [Page 367] and encouragement of the Pious Funds and of the salt mines of Zapotillo, so that the royal treasury may not be burdened with future payment of missionaries of the Californias and that the net proceeds from salt may help to defray the expenses of the department of marine.
- 201.
- These five points are the ones that I shall submit and recommend, first of all giving due consideration to the design of foreign powers upon the coast lands in northwestern America, to the advantages of fur trade, and to good reasons for preventing illegal trade which the English may conduct in the Spanish harbors of the Pacific.
- 231.
- The fourth proposition of this communication should be regarded as incidental to the second and the fifth as incidental to the third, because the latter is directed towards the encouragement of the salt mines at San Bias, the proceeds from which are to be used for the expenses of the seat of government (departamento), and that the greatest care may be taken that the Pious Funds of the missions of California are not dissipated, entailing a new burden upon the treasury.
- 232.
- If these funds are preserved they will be sufficient to support the present missions; but since the expulsion of the Jesuits who administered the estates, the receipts, which were employed for the purpose of pious works have begun to diminish.
- 233.
- For this reason it seemed more advisable to take away from the department of church affairs the care of the said estates, placing them, by virtue of a royal order, in the charge of the former custodian of the royal treasury; but upon the death of the minister a greater falling off was noticed in the funds.
- 234.
- There were many claimants for this vacant trust, but my predecessor, Don Manuel Antonio Flores, thought that it would be safer to place the charge under the care and joint responsibility of two ministers of the above-mentioned treasury.
- 235.
- So he settled it, reporting to His Majesty, by copy of the despatch, No. 159, of the 27th of January, 1789; but, later, in a despatch of the 27th of the following March, No. 178, it was shown that far from this measure having produced a good result, the funds were speedily going to destruction, and that such disaster could only be prevented by an active, intelligent, and zealous general manager, who would frequently visit the estates, who would know how to increase the output, selling it with discretion, who would keep a watch upon the conduct of the local managers, who should be engaged in no other employment or work, and who should receive appropriate compensation.
- 236.
- These despatches he addressed to the Marquis of Bajamar, as I did by No. 22, of the 26th of November of the same year, 1789, concurring in the view of my predecessor concerning the confiding of the estate to a general manager of the Californias; because I had observed, among other important things in this administration, that improvements upon the estate known as Arroyozarco having been estimated at four or five thousand dollars, there had been expended upon it, without completing it, more than forty thousand.
- 237.
- Later, by a despatch, No. 202, of the 30th of November, 1790, I transmitted a copy of a report upon the matter, made with a view to carrying out the royal order of May 20, 1781, which ordered the sale of the country estates of the Pious Funds and the placing of their proceeds at assured interest.
- 238.
- These provisions were not put into effect because the treasurer, D. Francisco de Sales Carillo, interposed a lengthy protest, arguing that the Pious Funds would deteriorate more if the country estates should be sold, and that properly cared for those estates known as Ibarra would bring in forty thousand dollars annually, and that of the Arroyozarco four or five thousand.
- 239.
- Upon these flattering expectations the sale of the estates was suspended; and the solicitor of the royal treasury having been heard, and upon the consulting vote of the royal council the viceroy, Don Matias de Galvez, made a report to His Majesty, by despatch No. 670, of April 27, 1784, whereupon it was decided by a royal order of the 14th of December, 1785, to approve the recommendations of Carrillo until its results could be observed.
- 240.
- They (the results) were very evident; as, far from there being shown an annual net income of forty thousand dollars from the estates of Ibarra, it yielded, in the five years from 1784 to 1788 (when Carrillo died) thirty thousand one hundred and twenty-three dollars, there being lost on the estate of Arroyozarco in the five-year period from 1785 to 1789 one thousand three hundred and twenty-four dollars.
- 241.
- For these reasons the solicitor of the royal treasury requested, the counsellor-general approved, and I directed accordingly, that the country estates of the Pious Funds of the missions of California should be placed at public auction, knocking them down to the best bidder or bidders, upon the express condition of receiving for them a perpetual annuity, without requiring any payment on account of the principal; but securing the annuity by proper guarantees, and in the same manner the value of the cattle and other live stock.
- 242.
- I thus stated it in my said letter No. 202, proposing, also, that in the case the suggested sale of the haciendas could not be favorably accomplished they be put under the charge of a general manager of the qualifications recommended by my predecessor, even though his salary should cost three times the amount that the administrators of this treasury receive for the management and care of the Pious Funds, which they can not free from debt, because the more engrossing requirements of their employments prevent them entirely from making the visits and personal investigations of the country property, whose decline is every day becoming more apparent, since the expenses were already $98,800, and more than one hundred and forty thousand dollars were still necessary in order that the improvements of the Arroyozarco might be completed, as the engineer Don Miguel Costanzó had calculated.
- 243.
- This estate has suffered most on account of its crops being worthless and the large expenditures required to continue it in operation, it having become necessary to rent it, contracting thereby other interminable expenditures on account of the insufficiency of the bondsmen of the tenants, now dead, and on account of the frequent complaints and discontentment of the “colonos” or under tenants of the same estate.
- 244.
- Of these latter events the Marquis de Bajamar also gave account in letter No. 283, of July 26, 1791, repeating the proposition that the properties be sold, which was taken note of by my predecessor and myself, and asking that I be advised as promptly as possible of the supreme determinations of His Majesty, in order to guard against the general funds of the treasury being burdened with a considerable part [Page 369] of the expenses caused by the California missions, when they can not be supported by the Pious Fund.
- 246.
- Their rural properties are valued at $526,700; its invested capital or irregular deposits amount to $188,500, and all amount to the large sum of $711,500, whose annual interest, regulated at 5 per cent, should be $35,575; so that it would be paying each year a little more than $22,000 on account of salaries of the missionaries. There should also be a surplus every year of from $12,000 to $13,000, to go towards the expenses of new missions and the equipments and journeys on land or sea of the same missionaries.
- 246.
- These two last items, not being of frequent occurrence or very costly, would average yearly about $2,000 or $3,000, which, deducted from what has been considered as a surplus, the remainder would go towards increasing the Pious Fund, and as properties of greater value they could be securely invested, so that the present expenses could not only be paid, but also those which would be incurred in the future by reason of the spiritual conquest or suppression of the heathen Indians, but all of these desirable conditions will disappear if the rural properties are allowed to decrease.
- 247.
- The proposed sale of the properties can be obviated and likewise the suggestion of placing them in the charge of an intelligent, honest, and zealous general manager, although in my opinion it would be better to sell them under the conditions proposed by the solicitor of the royal treasury, whose resolutions are and will have to be definitely suspended until your excellency advises me of His Majesty’s wishes or of the course of action I am to pursue in accordance with his royal pleasure.