building and furnishing of Santo Tomas Mission. Al- 

 though the structure was completed in the first genera- 

 tion of settlement at Abiquiu, i 755 to 1 776, Dominguez 

 could report only tv\o contributions from colonists, both 

 loans: "In this room [sacristy] there is an ordinary table 

 with a drawer and key ... a loan from a settler called 

 Juan Pablo Martin .... the chalice is in three pieces, 

 and one of them, for it is a loan by the settlers, is used 

 for a little shrine they have." -* All mission equipment 

 was supplied by royal funds (sinodos) except some 

 religious articles provided by the resident missionary. 

 Fray Fernandez, who finished the structure raised half 

 way by his predecessor. Fray Juan Jose Toledo. Both 

 Franciscans found settlers busy with everyday prob- 

 lems of survival and resentful when called on to labor 

 for the mission. The settlers not only failed to supply 

 any objects, but when they were required to work at 

 the mission, all tools and equipment had to be supplied 

 to them.-^ 



Despite these detrimental influences, the mission at 

 Abiquiu continued to grow. Between 1760 and 1793. 

 the population increased from 733 to 1,363, making 

 Abiquiu the third largest settlement in colonial New 

 Mexico north of Paso del Norte [Ciudad Juarez]."^ 

 (Only Santa Cruz with 1,650 and Santa Fe with 2,419 

 persons were larger.) In 1795, the pueblo had main- 

 tained its size at 1,558, with Indians representing less 

 than 10 percent of the population.-' 



The increase in size brought the mission at Abiquiu 

 more important and longer-term resident missionaries : 

 Fathers Jose de la Prada, from 1 789 to 1 806, and 

 Teodoro Alcina de la Borda, from 1806 to 1823. Both 

 men were elected directors [custoses) of the Francis- 

 can mission field in New Mexico, "The Custody of the 

 Conversion of St. Paul." Custoses Prada and Borda 

 backed the Franciscans, who were fighting for a mis- 

 sionary field that they had -long considered their own. 

 Official directives (patentes) issued by Custos Prada 

 at Abiquiu warned all settlers against "new ideas of 

 liberty" and asked each friar for his personal concept 

 of governmental rights.^' In 1802, Fray Prada also 

 complained to the new Custos, Father Sanchez Ver- 

 gara, about missions that had been neglected under 

 the secular clergy.^'' In this period, Abiquiu's mission 



24. Domi'nguez, Missions, p. 122. 



25. Ibid., p. 123. 



26. Bancroft, p. 279. 



27. AASF, Loose Documents, Mission, 1795, no. 13. 



28. Ibid., I 796, nos. 6, 7. 



29. Ibid., 1802, no. 18. 



was a center of clerical reaction to the revolutionary 

 political ideas and clerical secularization that had re- 

 sulted from Mexico's recent independence from Spain. 



In the year 1820, the strained relations between 

 religious authorities and the laity at Abiquiu clearly 

 reflected the unstable conditions in New Mexico. 

 Eventually, charges of manipulating mission funds and 

 neglect of clerical duties were brought against Father 

 Alcina de la Borda by the citizens of Abiquiu.^" At the 

 same time. Governor Melgares informed the Alcalde 

 Mayor, Santiago Salazar, that these funds (sinodos) 

 had been reduced and that an oath of loyalty to the 

 Spanish crown would be required.^' This situation pro- 

 duced a strong reaction in Abiquiu's next generation, 

 which sought to preserve its traditional cultural pat- 

 terns in the penkente brotherhoods. 



The great-grandsons of Abiquiu's first settlers wit- 

 nessed a significant change in organization of their 

 mission — its secularization in 1826. For three years. 

 Father Borda had shared his mission duties with Fran- 

 ciscans from San Juan and Santa Clara pueblos, giving 

 way in 1823 to the last member of the Order to serve 

 Santo Tomas, Fray Sanchez Vergara. Santo Tomas 

 Mission received its first secular priest in 1823, Cura 

 Leyva y Rosas, who returned to Abiquiu in 1832. Offi- 

 cially the mission at Abiquiu was secularized in 1826, 

 along with those at Belen and Taos.^- 



The first secular priest assigned to Santo Tomas 

 reflected the now traditional and self-sufficient charac- 

 ter of Hispano culture at Abiquiu.^' He was the in- 

 dependent-minded Don Antonio Jose Martinez. Bom 

 in Abiquiu, Don Antonio later became an ambitious 

 spiritual and political leader in Taos, where he fought 

 to preserve traditional Hispano culture from Anglo- 

 American influences. 



The mission served by Father Martinez in Taos 

 bore resemblance to that at Abiquiu. Both missions 

 rested on much earlier Indian settlements, but the 

 Taos pueblo was still active. Furthermore, Taos and 

 Abiquiu were buffer settlements on the frontier, 

 where Indian raids as well as trade occurred. In 1827 

 a census by P. B. Pino listed nearly 3,600 persons at 



30. Ibid., 1820, nos. 15, 21, 38; also R. E. Twitchell, The 

 Spanish Archives of New Mexico (Cedar Rapids, 1914). vol. 

 2, pp. 630, 631. 



31. AASF, Loose Documents, Mission, 1820, nos. 12, 21. 



32. Ibid., 1826, no. 7. 



33. Don Antonio was less than eager to accept his first post; 

 he had to be ordered to report to duty (AASF, Accounts, book 

 Ixvi [box 6], April 27, 1826). 



128 



BULLETIN 250: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



