80 - THE SERI INDIANS [eth.axn.17 



augmented without corresponding increase in incentive to writing, and 

 it is little wonder that the custom of writing, copyiug, manifolding, and 

 printing the contemporary records fell into desuetude. 



Despite the meagerness of the Franciscan chronicles, the friars of 

 this order are to be credited with making and recording one of the most 

 noteworthy essays toward the subjugation of the Seri — an essaj' involv- 

 ing the first and last actual attempt to found a Caucasian establishment 

 within Seriland proper. The ecclesiasti(;al corps, sent out from Quere- 

 taro college under the presidency of Fray Mariano Antonio de Buena 

 y Alcalde, reached Sonora early in 1768, and were distributed among 

 the missions to which they were respectively assigned before the end of 

 June; and Fray Mariano participated in the efforts to subdue the Seri 

 ensconced in Cerro Prieto. After some months of apparently nominal 

 siege, the hostiles straggled out of their retreat, whereupon "the gov- 

 ernor, seeing them assembled and peaceful, besought the friar to instruct 

 and baptize them";' the friar promptly acquiesced, with the provision 

 that he should be furnished with tlie requisite appurtenances of a mis- 

 sion, including not only a church aiul sacred ornaments, but a house and 

 living for a resident minister. The requirements delayed procedure, 

 but resulted in the appointment of Fray Juan Crisostomo Gil de Ber- 

 uabe (already designated by the Querctaro college as Fray Mariano's 

 successor) to take charge of the Seri mission. "The new president, 

 desiring to gratify his proper zeal and the insistence of the gov- 

 ernor as to the need of those miserable Indians for the bread of doc- 

 trinism", obtained candles and wine from private benefactors, and, 

 despite his inability to find even a hut for shelter, established a sanc- 

 tuary in the Rancheria de los Seris (Pueblo Seri) on November 17, 1772: 



It was impossible to satisfy the ambition of the missionaries to catechize all the 

 Indians, because, although the whole nation was peaceable, no small portion of 

 them were devoid of desire to hear doctrinism, as many of them had withdrawn to 

 their ancient lurking haunts, principally on Isla Tiburon, whence they came to the 

 Presidio Horcasitas, making false displays to the governor of great fidelity and 

 obedience, petitioning that they should not be taken from the island, but should be 

 given a minister to baptize them the same as those at Pitic; and they did not wish 

 to join those nor to leave the rocky fastness of their libertiuage and asylum of their 

 crimes. ... To conceal their purposes, they petitioned th.at a town for them 

 should be established on the opposite coast, where they might assemble on leaving 

 the island. Their request was embarassiug because on examination of the coast 

 there was found only a single scanty spring in a carrizal in a playa-like country 

 [toda la tierra como de playa], with little fuel and no timber. 



Not unnaturally Fray Crisostomo hesitated to locate a mission on the 

 practically uninhabitable site, in which, moreover, "the mission would 

 be of no utility because the Indians did not really wish to leave their 

 island and submit to religious iTistruction, nor could the coast supply the 

 necessary food, as it was a barren sand-waste, so that it would become 



' Cninica Serilfica y Apostolica del Colegio (le Propag-iml-a Fide de la Santa Cruz de Queretaro en 

 iu Nueva Espafia. . . . eacrita por el Padre Fray Juan Domingo Arricivita. 2» parte, Mexico, 

 1792, p. 426. 



