7fi THE SEKI INDIANS [eih.ann.17 



infoniiiitioii of the viceroy, that the ravages of tlie Seri and other 

 Indians " had caused the ahnost total abandonment of Piuieria and 

 Sonora provinces", and proposed plans for protection which were 

 apparently never car'ried out.' 



The aggressive and bloody i)olicy of Parilla, Mendoza, and Cuervo 

 undoubtedly widened the divergence between the civil and ecclesiastical 

 authorities, and brought to nought tlie pacific policy of the latter. 

 Inspired by fervid zeal, the good padres stretched the mantle of char- 

 ity to its utmost over their converts, bringing into the fold all whom 

 they could coax or coerce, and clinging unto all whom they could sub- 

 sidize or supi)ress. Uninformed or misinformed concerning the extent 

 of Seriland and the numbers and real traits of its inhabitants on their 

 native heath, and professionally prone to see the most favorable side of 

 the situation, they imagined themselves making ('onquest over a cruel 

 and refractory tribe ; yet careful review of the records indicates that they 

 deluded themselves, and in some measure distorted history, through 

 overweening notions concerning their progress in evangelizing the 

 Seri. Actually, their converts were the lame and halt and blind left 

 behind in the harder-pressed raids, captives taken in battle by the 

 intreijid Escalante and other soldiers, apostates and outlaws ostracized 

 and driven off by their fellows, spies sent out to find the way for fur- 

 ther rapacity,- and the general riffraff and offscouring of the tribe, 

 who esteemed parasitism above the hereditary independence of their 

 kin. This condition is attested by later examples ; it is also attested by 

 the rapidly growing divergence of the ecclesiastical and civil policies; 

 it is equally attested by at least partial recognition of the situation on 

 the part of several of the padres: Villa-Senor, writing about 1745, 

 jjarades the mission and two pueblos of the tribe, and Siiys, "All the Oeris 

 Indians are Christians" ("Todos los Indios Ceris, son Cristianos");^ 

 yet he adds that "it is rare to And one who does not cling to the idol- 

 atry of tlieir paganism", and elsewhere describes the great "des- 

 poblado" extending to the coast as inhabited by pagan Seri and Tepoka 

 Indians ("liabitadodelos Indios Seris.y Tepoca, Gentiles"). < Venegas, 

 writing about 1750, reters to"theSeris and Tepocas, who are either 

 infidels or imperfectly reduced, and tho' Father 8alva Tierra civilized 

 them and the missionaries have baptized many, they still retain such . 

 a love for their liberty and customs as all the labours of the mission- 

 aries have not been able to obliterate, so that it is impossible to incor- 

 porate them with the missions by mildness";'" and his last word of them 

 notes their massacre of Padres Tello and Rohen in Caborca, and ends 



• Bancroft, op. cit., p. 565. 



^Captaiu Feriiauflo Sanchez Salvador, in his official Representacionos to the Crown in 1751, com- 

 jjlaina that these Indiana "are alIo\ved on I'rivcdon.s iiTetext.s to visit the presidios, and they'make use 

 of the privilege to discover wealt points and to phm attacks" (Bancroft, op. cit., p. 542). 



3 Theatre Americano, .segnnda j>arte, p. 401. 



•■Ibid., p. :192. 



'History of California, vol. ii, p. lao. 



