FATHER MARTIN’S VISIT TO BUBAL, 1805
Fray Juan Martin to P. P. Fray José Señan
San Miguel, April 26, 1815
(Santa Barbara Arch., VI: 85-89)
My venerated Father President Fray José Señan: good health!
Under date of 4 April, this year, the Reverend Father Prefect requested us to inform Your Reverence concerning the state of the heathen Indians near this mission, particularly as pertains to their inclination to receive Holy Baptism.
In complying with my orders I will state with candor that the desire of the neighboring heathens is great, for twelve years have already passed during which they have manifested good will, now to the soldiers on the various occasions when the troops have gone out, now to the Fathers who have likewise gone, and now also to the neophytes on the very numerous occasions when they have gone visiting to the Tulares. Their favorable disposition will continue if the fugitives from the north do not set them against us. Thus the most recent mission Indians to return from leave, who came from one of the Valley villages called Tache, informed us that Indians had arrived on horseback from the north saying that the Fathers were simply going to kill the Indians. Satan will do his utmost to gain possession of more than 4,000 souls[2] who will be started on the road to salvation if a mission is established in the nearby Tulare Valley. This I said in substance many times to Governor Don José Joaquin de Arrillaga, may he rest in peace.
Although I saw him to be inclined to establish missions on the rivers, and in spite of the high regard in which I held this gentleman, nevertheless on one occasion when he asked me what I thought about new foundations in the Tulare Valley, I spoke thus: “Sir, why do you wish to place missions where they are not wanted? And why do you neglect the villages of Bubal, Tache, Chuntache, Notonto, and Telame, which do want them? So that they may kill soldiers and priests and thus deprive us of the spiritual conquest? Aside from the primary reason that they are sons of God, if those who wish and beg for missions do not receive them, they will take up arms against all the soldiers who enter their territory.” Witnesses to this truth are Father Pedro Muñoz, Señor Moraga and in part I myself. In order that Your Reverence may fully understand this I shall set forth what I saw in the year 1804 in the village of Bubal where I went with no more protection than two soldiers.
Repeatedly I was informed by the neophytes who had been inhabitants of the villages of the Tulare Valley that the people of the region wanted to see me, that they were well disposed, and that they would give me their children to baptize. Finally they said that I might go without fear and I confess that I went with no permission from anyone.
So I left in the month of November in the year mentioned and at the end of the third day I arrived at the first suburb of the village Bubal, to which I gave the name La Salve. On first seeing us the heathen concealed their women in some little huts but as soon as they saw that we were coming in peace they brought the women out in order to make a fire and cook food for the Father.[3] This they did, using sticks which had been brought for more than eight leagues for the purpose of farming the [Zª ..., meaning unintelligible] when they gathered with their neighbors for some ceremony. They did not burn these sticks although they knew it was certain to be very cold, because for many leagues around one cannot find even small brush.
In the evening the people from the main village came to invite me to the place where they lived, saying that where I was there were no people, nor children to give me, and therefore I should come without fail. I promised I would go the following day, and I did so. As soon as I arrived they presented me with their little sons so that I might carry them away to be baptized. There were so many that the soldiers who accompanied me objected strongly, pointing out that there were no fewer than two hundred children, and that we must leave them. Seeing such a harvest, Your Reverence may well imagine how happy I was at the prospect of gaining so many infant souls for paradise. But Satan, always the fiend, brought it about that for the moment we did not gain a single one.
It happened that the chief was not at this place (which I called La Dolorosa). It was necessary for me to send for him for I did not venture to take them [the children] away without his sanction. There arrived a heathen, whom I took to be the chief. As the reason for my coming was made clear to him, which was to make them Sons of God, my request affected him very badly. He began to rail against the soldiers and their weapons in such a crazy fashion that the poor people who had given me their children, probably scared, fled in a body and I was left with no one. This man was one of those who with a bow in his hand fears nobody. His name is Chapé. The following day I condemned as vigorously as I could his wicked way of acting and was even tempted to order him punished. However, thank God, I satisfied myself with what I had done, in consideration of the fact that one of the soldiers was the commander of the garrison [at the mission] and that both priest and soldiers might expect a just reprimand if any injury resulted. I relaxed my determination not to return home without visiting the villages mentioned above and without taking with me as many small children as they would give me. Finally I went home quite disappointed at having lost, because of one villain, such a harvest for Heaven.