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VIVA JESUS. 



A historical account of the belief, usages, customs, and extravagancies 

 of the Indians of this Mission of San Juan Capistrano, called the 

 Acagchemem tribe. 



INTRODUCTION 



My having resolved to write this history, fabulous in itself, or in its 

 subject matter, but true as far as these Indians are concerned, has 

 been primarily with the aim of being able to fulfill to some degree my 

 duties as Apostolic Missionary, having their fulfillment ever present 

 and near at hand, as well as also of leaving to those who come after me 

 instruction and lights in order that they may be guided without such 

 labor as it has cost me, trying in every way, using all possible means, 

 to gain knowledge of the belief, usages, and customs which these na- 

 tives had in their gentile state. And by the mercy of God, through 

 labor and cunning during a period of more than ten years [marginal 

 annotation: from 1812 to 1822], I have been able to investigate to a 

 moral certainty everything that is related in the present book. 



Since I am of the persuasion that if we are ignorant of the belief 

 held by the Indians, of their usages and customs, it is very difficult to 

 take them out of the error in which they live and to give them to 

 understand the true religion, and to teach them the true way to their 

 salvation. I confess that it is difficult to be able to penetrate their 

 secrets, because the signification of their usages and customs is not 

 known to all of them. This [signification] is only for the chiefs and 

 certain satraps, who performed the work of priests, and [certain] 

 criers, and when these taught it to their sons (and that only to those 

 who were to succeed them), it was always with the admonition that 

 they should not divulge it to anyone, for if they told or divulged it, 

 they would have many misfortunes, and would die, etc., instilling into 

 them much dread and fear ; and for that reason so little is known about 

 their affairs, since those few who know and understand keep it to 

 themselves. 



Since these Indians did not use writings, letters, or any characters, 

 nor do they use them, all their knowledge is by tradition, which they 

 preserve in songs for the dances which they held at their great feasts. 

 But since these songs have their form or are in a language distinct 



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