173 
 
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POPE-DAY EST AMERICA. 
 
 BY JOHN GILMAEY SHEA. 
 
 [Read before the United States Catholic Historical Society, 
 January 19, 1888.] 
 
 THE present Pope has recently had a day a day of Jubi 
 lee, commemorated in all parts of the world. The faithful tes 
 tified their joy at the celebration of his sacerdotal Jubilee, and 
 renewed the protestation of their heartfelt allegiance to the 
 See of Unity, to the one whom Christ has set to govern His 
 kingdom. Princes and rulers of all lands, Mohammedan and 
 heathen, as well as Christian, sent their courteous offerings 
 and congratulations to His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII. 
 
 The Pope has just had a day, and a glorious day. But is 
 this my topic ? No, I am going back into the past. 
 
 There was a time when, in New England and other colo 
 nies, the Pope had his day, which was very enthusiastically 
 celebrated. This, as a matter of history, will doubtless be 
 new to most of my hearers, for it is not brought into promi 
 nence in the current histories of the country, and few would 
 trace the only remnant left of the old-time celebration the 
 Fourth-of-July firecracker to its real origin. 
 
 The celebration of Pope-Day arose in a curious way. 
 After the overthrow of the English commonwealth, and the 
 restoration of Charles II., New England was in a dilemma. 
 
 M255770 
 
The English Crown was asserting its rights over New Eng 
 land, and State holidays had to be observed. But how were 
 the Puritans to keep Guy Fawkes Day, the 5th of Novem 
 ber ? A few misguided Catholics, driven to desperation by 
 the penal laws, had plotted to blow up King James I. and his 
 Parliament, led on by government detectives, in all probabili 
 ty. But how could the Puritans, who, as a body, drove the 
 son of James from the throne, and sent his head rolling from 
 the executioner s block how could they hold up Guy Fawkes 
 to public execration for an unaccomplished crime, when their 
 own hands were reeking with royal blood ? 
 
 The case was indeed a puzzling one. But New England 
 shrewdness saw a way out of the difficulty. A clergyman of 
 the Established Church in England, when he found his flock 
 growing listless and indifferent, or, what was w r orse, inclined 
 to criticise him, used to give them what he called "Cheshire 
 Cheese"; he began a series of philippics against the Pope. 
 This always roused them to zeal and friendly feeling. 
 
 New England, in the same way, resorted to "Cheshire 
 Cheese," and by a happy device pleased Court and people. 
 They would celebrate the 5th of November with all due noise 
 and honor ; but they had the Pope carried around in effigy, 
 instead of Guy Fawkes, amid the noise of firecrackers, and 
 finally committed it to the flames amid loud huzzas. 
 
 Thus, though they sang 
 
 " Let s always remember 
 The fifth of November," 
 
 the day became, on this side of the Atlantic, not Gunpowder 
 Treason, but Pope-Day. The contrast between that annual 
 insult of the last century, and the recent ovation of all loyal 
 hearts, the tributes paid by the rulers of English-speaking 
 lands, is striking enough. " Yiva il Papa-re ! " 
 
 Boston, being a city of great cultivation and refinement, 
 took the lead in celebrating Pope-Day. An effigy of the Pope 
 was made, and generally one of the Devil ; these were placed 
 
on a platform, and carried by the crowd, who kept firing 
 crackers, home-made at fir^t, but when New England enter 
 prise opened intercourse with China, the Chinese firecrackers 
 were imported for use on Pope-Day. 
 
 On the front of the stage was a huge transparency, wdth in 
 scriptions suited to the temper of the times. Boys below the 
 platform worked strings, causing the figures to face toward 
 the houses and make gestures. 
 
 At the head of the procession went a man ringing a bell, 
 and baw r ling a song, which ended : 
 
 " Don t you hear my little bell 
 
 Go chink, chink, chink ? 
 Please give me a little money, 
 To buy my Pope some drink." 
 
 Every house on the route of the procession was required to 
 contribute to the expense of the show, under penalty of hav 
 ing the windows broken, or being otherwise damaged. 
 
 The procession passed through the Common, past the State 
 House, and often ended on Copp s Hill, where the effigies 
 were consumed in a bonfire. 
 
 Such was Pope Day in Boston, which never dreamed in 
 that day of the Old South Church existing to see Boston ruled 
 by a Catholic mayor, the see of a Catholic archbishop, or its 
 celebrating with loud acclaim an anniversary of a Pope. 
 
 The newspapers of the day sometimes described these pro 
 cessions on Pope-Day as being carried on "with great decency 
 and decorum " ! But it was not always so. In the course of 
 time, one quarter of Boston thought itself badly treated in 
 the arrangements for the procession. Then North End and 
 South End each had a Pope, and the processions generally met 
 on Union Street, where a fight took place for the possession of 
 all the figures, the North Enders burning them on Copp s Hill 
 if they won the day, while their antagonists, when successful, 
 burned the Pope on the Common. 
 
In 1745, the celebration of Pope-Day was especially dis 
 graceful. A paper of the time says : 
 
 Tuesday last being the Anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, two 
 Popes were made and carried thro the Streets in the evening, one 
 from the North, the other from the South End of the Town, attended 
 by a vast number of negroes and white servants, armed with clubs, 
 staves and cutlashes, who were very abusive to the Inhabitants, in 
 sulting the Persons and breaking the windows, &c., of such as did 
 not give them money to their satisfaction, and even many of those 
 who had given them liberally; and the two Popes meeting in Corn- 
 hill, their followers were so infatuated as to fall upon each other 
 with the utmost Rage and Fury. Several were sorely wounded and 
 bruised, some left for dead, and rendered incapable of any business 
 for a long time to the great Loss and Damage of their respective 
 Masters. 
 
 And he prints a letter from a subscriber, condemning the 
 supineness of the authorities. This letter was as follows : 
 
 I hope you will not suffer the grand fray, not to say bloody, that 
 happen d before your Door last Tuesday evening to pass off without 
 a public rebuke ; and such an one as becomes a person zealous as 
 well for the Peace and Good Order of the State as the Church. 
 What a scandal and Infamy to a Protestant Mob, be it of the rudest 
 and lowest Sailors out of Boston, or even of the very negroes of the 
 Town, to fall upon one another with Clubs and Cutlashes in a Rage 
 and Fury which only Hell could inspire or the Devil broke loose 
 from chains there could represent ! Is this a meet or sufferable show 
 of Protestant zeal against Popery ? Is this to honor the Protestant 
 religion to the few French prisoners of war that are left among us ? 
 Or can our children or servants be safe in the streets at such a time 
 if such Rioters be permitted ? Or in a word, what madness must 
 seize the two mobs, united Brethren, as they would appear against 
 Popery, to fall upon each other, break one another s Bones or dash 
 one another s Brains out ? 
 
 Why this enormity above all others should be winked at, and the 
 Inhabitants of the Town with their Dwellings left to the mercy of a 
 rude and intoxicated Rabble, the very Dregs of the People, black 
 and white, and why no more has been done to prevent or suppress 
 such Riotous proceedings, which have been long growing upon us, 
 
and as long bewailed by all sober Persons, must be humbly left to 
 our betters to say.* 
 
 But the voice of " decency and decorum " could not stop 
 the celebration of Pope-Day. As politics grew tierce, first the 
 Pretender, then obnoxious English statesmen, were burned in 
 effigy with the Pope. 
 
 In 1755, " the Devil, the Pope, and the Pretender, at night 
 were carried about the city on a bier, their three effigies hid 
 eously formed, and as humorously contrived, the Devil stand 
 ing close behind the Pope, seemingly paying his compliments 
 to him, with a three-pronged pitchfork in one hand, with 
 which at times he was made to thrust his Holiness on the 
 Back, and a Ian thorn in the other, the young Pretender stand 
 ing before the Pope, waiting his commands." 
 
 The newspaper which gives these details adds: "In their 
 route through the Streets, they stop t at the French General s 
 Lodgings," this was General Dieskau, then lying wounded 
 and a prisoner in Boston, " where a guard was ordered to 
 prevent mischief by the M^b. The General sent down some 
 silver by the carriers, with which after giving three huzzas, 
 they marched off to a proper place, and set fire to the Devil s 
 tail, burning the three to cinders." f 
 
 The passage of the Quebec Act, by which Catholics in Can 
 ada and the country northwest of the Ohio were maintained 
 in the exercise of their religion, as it was under French rule, 
 excited a bitter feeling in the Thirteen Colonies. This re 
 vived the Pope-Day celebration, and gave it new zest. 
 
 We have accounts of the observance of the day in several 
 places in the year 1774 : 
 
 The last public celebration of " Pope Day," so called in Newbury 
 and Newburyport (Mass.), occurred this year. To prevent any tu 
 mult or disorder taking place during the evening or night, the town 
 of Newburyport voted October 24, 1774, "that no effigies be carried 
 
 * " Weekly Post-Boy," Nov. 18, 1745. 
 t "Annapolis Gazette," Dec. 4, 1755. 
 
6 
 
 about or exhibited on the 5th of November, only in the day-time." 
 Motives of policy afterwards induced the discontinuance of this cus 
 tom which has now become obsolete. This year (1774) the celebra 
 tion went off with a great flourish. In the day-time companies of 
 little boys might be seen in various parts of the town, with their lit 
 tle popes dressed up in the most grotesque and fantastic manner, 
 which they carried about, some on boards and some on little car 
 riages for their own and others amusement. But the great exhibi 
 tion was reserved for the night, in which young men as well as boys 
 participated. They first constructed a huge vehicle, varying at times, 
 from 20 to 40 feet long. 8 or 10 wide, and 5 or 6 high, from the lower 
 to the upper platform, on the front of which they erected a paper 
 lantern, capacious enough to hold in addition to the lights, five or 
 six persons. Behind that as large as life sat the mimic Pope and 
 several other personages, monks, friars and so forth. Last but not 
 least stood an image of what was designed to be a representation of 
 old Nick himself, furnished with a pair of huge horns, holding in 
 his hands a pitchfork and otherwise accoutred, with all the frightful 
 ugliness that their ingenuity could devise. Their next step after 
 they had mounted their ponderous vehicle on four wheels, chosen 
 their officers, captain, first and second lieutenant, purser and so 
 forth, placed a boy under the platform to elevate and move around 
 at proper intervals the movable head of the Pope.* 
 
 This same year, the two rival factions in Boston united in 
 one celebration of what they called a Union Pope. 
 
 Even down in the Carolinas the day was observed, feeling 
 being very strong there, as we may see by the fact that South 
 Carolina alone, of all the States, maa e Protestantism the es 
 tablished religion in her first Constitution. 
 
 A letter from Charleston in November, 1774, says: 
 
 We had great diversion the 5th instant in seeing the effigies 
 of Lord North, Governor Hutchinson, the Pope and the Devil, 
 which were erected on a moving machine, and after having been 
 paraded about the town all day, they were in the evening burnt on 
 the common with a large bonfire, attended by a numerous crowd of 
 people, t 
 
 * "History of Newburyport," p. 249. 
 t New York Journal," Dec. 15, 1774. 
 
General and enthusiastic as was the celebration of Pope- 
 Day in 1774, it was the last occasion of that crafty means to 
 excite the ignorant and brutal to hatred and violence against 
 Catholics, though it needs no philosopher to see in Pope- Day 
 the genesis of some events in our own time. 
 
 Pope-Day ended with 1774. 
 
 The next year the din of arms sounded through the land. 
 Protestant and Catholic alike shouldered their muskets, and 
 marched side by side in the cause of America. Yet in the 
 very eunip of Washington, in the army where Catholic sol 
 diers from Maryland and Pennsylvania were gallantly facing 
 the foe, it was proposed to celebrate Pope-Day. But from the 
 headquarters of the Army of Freedom came the words of 
 George Washington, already strong in the attachment of his 
 fellow-citizens : 
 
 November 5th. As the Commander-in-Chief has been apprised of 
 a design formed for the observance of that ridiculous and childish 
 custom of burning the effigy of the Pope, he cannot help expressing 
 his surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army so 
 void of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such a step at 
 this juncture ; at a time when we are soliciting, and have really ob 
 tained the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we 
 ought to consider as brethren embarked in the same cause, the de 
 fence of the Liberty of America. At this juncture and under such 
 circumstances, to be insulting their religion, is so monstrous as not 
 to be suffered or excused ; indeed, instead of offering the most re 
 mote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our 
 brethren, as to them we are indebted for every late happy success 
 over the common enemy in Canada.* 
 
 This was the funeral oration on the celebration of Pope- 
 Day. It was heard of no more. 
 
 It would be presumption in me to continue, after George 
 Washington has spoken. 
 
 But I will merely add that the firecrackers of Pope- Day 
 have been transferred to the Fourth of July. 
 
 * Washington s Works, iii., p. 144. 
 
UNITED STATES CATHOLIC 
 
 HISTORICAL MAGAZINE. 
 
 Vol. III.) (No. 10. 
 
 WHY IS CANADA NOT A PART OF THE (JOTTED 
 
 STATES ? 
 
 Read before the U. S. Catholic Historical Society, Nov. 25th 
 1889, by John Gilmary Shea. 
 
 Six score years ago England ruled supreme over all 
 the northern part of this continent. From Hudson Bay to 
 the Gulf of Mexico no flag but hers fluttered in the breeze. 
 From the region of perpetual snow to the region of Spring 
 in North America, no rule was recognized but George s 
 of England. 
 
 All, however, was not peace and calm. Discontent 
 pervaded the land. Men clamored for rights which they 
 claimed as the inalienable birthright of British subjects. 
 Delegates at last met from the various colonies. This body 
 assumed the title of Continental Congress, for it proposed 
 to represent not a few colonies only, but the Continent. 
 As the Continental Congress it finally met England in 
 battle and carried on a seven years war. Nothing less 
 than the Continent satisfied the aspirations of the grand and 
 noble minds who planned the union of the colonies into a vast 
 republic. Why then did the close of the war find their plan 
 defeated, the republic dwarfed, confined between the north 
 ern lakes and shut off from the Gulf of Mexico, with Eng 
 land holding Canada as a perpetual menace to her peace 
 and prosperity ? 
 
 Perhaps Canada was settled by men full of devotion to 
 the house of Hanover, grateful for favors, eager to show 
 her their loyalty. On the contrary, it was a colony where 
 England was hated as a power, alien in blood, alien in 
 
2 United States Catholic No. jo.) 
 
 language, alien In religion; a power submitted to only after 
 a struggle in which the Canadians, left almost unaided by 
 France, had tested the resources of England to crush them, 
 and after being beaten to the earth had in a last desperate 
 effort, almost regained the day. 
 
 Canada was writhing under the yoke, her people were 
 too numerous to be torn from their homes by England and 
 scattered far and wide like the unhappy Acadians of Nova 
 Scotia: but if England made concessions, she was only 
 biding her time, to crush them utterly. 
 
 Canada was ripe for revolt. The Continental Congress 
 and its wise leaders counted surely on the adhesion of the 
 Canadians in their struggle with England, at first simply a 
 struggle for the right to govern and tax themselves, a right 
 as essential to the prosperity of Canada as to that of any 
 other colony. 
 
 The Continental Congress issued "an address to the 
 inhabitants of the province of Quebec," inviting them to act 
 in concert with the other colonies. " We are too well ac 
 quainted," says this address drawn up by John Dickinson, 
 "we are too well acquainted with the liberality of sen 
 timent distinguishing your nation, to imagine that difference 
 of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us. 
 You know that the transcendant nature of freedom elevates 
 those who unite in her cause above all such low minded 
 infirmities. The Swiss cantons furnish a memorable proof 
 of this truth. Their union is composed of Roman Catholic 
 and Protestant States, living in the utmost concord and peace 
 with one another, and thereby enabled, ever since they brave 
 ly vindicated their freedom to defy and defeat every tyrant 
 that has invaded them." * 
 
 * See address of Congress to the Oppressed Inhabitants of Canada. 
 Pennsylvania Packet. June 19, 1775. " We perceive the fate of the Catholic 
 Colonies to be linked together." Evidences teem in the papers of the day 
 of the active sympathy of the Canadians. "There is advice from Canada that 
 Governor Carlton having in vain endeavored by fair means to engage the 
 Canadians in the service against the Colonies, he attempted to compel them 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 3 
 
 Among the Canadian clergy many were openly in favor 
 of the Colonies. One * was driven out of the province by 
 the British officials, others were kept under strict watch, 
 one a man of high social position, and member of a religi 
 ous order, threw himself into the movement, and when 
 Canadian regiments were raised for the Continental service 
 this priest, the Rev. Mr. Lotbiniere was commissioned by 
 Congress as chaplain, and served during the whole war of 
 the Revolution. f 
 
 The two Canadian regiments were constantly kept up 
 by recruits, and maintained their organization till the army 
 was disbanded at the peace. 
 
 Canada evidently was ready to join the cause of 
 American freedom. Jesuit and Recollect and Secular 
 priest favored it ; the Canadians themselves shouldered 
 the musket as the best proof. 
 
 In the outlying parts of the old French province the 
 same feeling prevailed. The Indians in the province of 
 Maine, who had been converted to Christianity by the 
 French missionaries from Canada, at once sided with the 
 colonies, and their Catholic Chief Orono had a commission 
 from Congress. 
 
 In the west, the French in Indiana and Illinois, with 
 
 by force, in which there was an insurrection of 3,000 men to oppose that 
 force. . . . It is said they are determined to observe a strict neutrality." 
 Pennsylvania Packet, Aug. 14, 1775 "A party of regulars went out in afloat, 
 ing battery " (near Ticonderoga,) " to drive off our Canadians about 500 in 
 number, who were at work on the east battery but were repulsed three days 
 successively." Pennsylvania Packet, Oct. 30, 1775. " A party of our troops 
 with the Canadians took possession of Chambly." Letter of Oct. 23d in 
 Pennsylvania Packet, Nov. 13, 177*5, "The Canadians in general, on this side 
 of the St. Lawrence are very friendly to us, almost unanimously so alongthe 
 river Sorel, where they are actually embodied and in arms, altogether to 
 the number of more than 1,000." Pen. Packet, Nov. 20, 1775. 
 
 * Rev. Peter H. de la Valiniere. See Gen. Haldimand s order expelling 
 him. U. S. Catholic Hist. Mag. III. p. 88. 
 
 \ Hamersly "Army Register," Washington, 1881, p. 32. "Life and Times 
 of Archbishop Carroll, 1 New York, 1888, p. 144. 
 
4 United States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 their priest, Rev. Pierre Gibault, received Clark with open 
 arms and aided him to drive the English out of that part of 
 the country. The flower of the young Frenchmen of the 
 West perished in gallant attempt to drive the English be 
 yond the lakes.* Even in the heart of Canada, the Indians, 
 converted by the French priests, were so friendly to the 
 Americans, that Burgoyne, who could use Brant to massacre 
 the settlers of Cherry Valley, Wyoming and Esopus, failed 
 to enlist these Catholic Indians in his work of blood, and in 
 an address of reproach he loaded them with abuse. 
 
 Why then, if the Continental Congress wished the co 
 operation of Canada, if Canada and her French and Indian 
 population were full of sympathy for the cause, why is it 
 that England was able to secure that province and so gain 
 its discontented people as to make it a stronghold against 
 us, the base of constant operations ? 
 
 The answer of history must be, that this great blow 
 to American hopes, this disastrous result was due to an 
 anti-Catholic bigotry fostered in New York, of which John 
 Jay was the prime mover and instigator, and which as a dele 
 gate to the Continental Congress he succeeded in foisting 
 into some of the acts of that body. That man stands out 
 in history as the embodiment of narrow and short sighted 
 views, who was willing to sacrifice to their unholy gratifica 
 tion, the best interests of America, 
 
 To see the man as he really was, we need only 
 open the Journal of the Convention which framed the 
 first Constitution for the State of New York in 1777, and fol 
 low the actions of Jay. 
 
 There was bigotry in New York. Public policy demanded 
 that in the struggle with England all such feelings should 
 be buried. Real statesmen sought to dispel this feeling, 
 but Jay fostered and stimulated it. He was in full accord 
 with those who ran up a flag in New York with " No 
 Popery" inscribed upon it. He was in full accord with 
 those whose anti-Catholic feeling led them to drive the 
 * In the Expedition of Mottin de la Balme. 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. $ 
 
 Catholic MacDonalds from the Mohawk and force them to 
 place themselves under the flag they hated, the flag of the 
 Hanoverian in full accord with those who sent those stal 
 wart Highlanders within the British lines when they would 
 gladly have avenged Culloden ! 
 
 In the Constitutional Convention of 1777, Jay appears 
 as the advocate of blind unreasoning bigotry, as Governeur 
 Morris was the champion of toleration, liberality and all that 
 is broad and farseeing in statesmanship. The County of 
 Westchester gave the leaders of the two policies. 
 
 When the question of naturalization came up, the para 
 graph in the proposed Constitution excited the wrath of Jay. 
 He sprang to his feet at once to offer an amendment re 
 quiring the applicant " to abjure and renounce all allegiance 
 and subjection to all and every foreign king, prince, potentate 
 and State in all matters ecclesiastical and civil." 
 
 Morris opposed the amendment with all his eloquence 
 and proposed a substitute committing naturalization to the 
 legislature : but Jay had evoked the hostile feeling, and his 
 amendment was carried. In vain did Morris, battling in the 
 cause of human freedom, endeavor to alter the clause, the 
 amended section was carried, and though Livingston ap 
 pealed for a reconsideration, the Constitution was adopted 
 with Jay s amendment, and till the Constitution of theUnited 
 States vested the entire control of naturalization in the Fed 
 eral government, no Catholic immigrant could become a citi 
 zen in the State of New York though he might show wounds 
 received in battle against England, for he could not on oath 
 renounce allegiance to the Pope, as head of the Church. 
 
 When the clause of the proposed Constitution came up 
 for debate, in which it was declared " that the free toleration 
 of religious profession and worship shall forever hereafter be 
 allowed to all mankind," Jay found it too broad. He intro 
 duced an amendment giving the legislature power at any 
 time to deny toleration to any denomination at its op 
 tion. 
 
 Debates followed, and a majority seemed loth to con- 
 
6 United States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 cede such a power; but Jay dropped the mask and proposed 
 a new amendment showing his real object : " Except the 
 professors of the religion of the Church of Rome, who ought 
 not to hold lands in or be admitted to a participation of 
 the civil rights enjoyed by the members of this State, 
 until such time as the said professors shall appear in the Su 
 preme Court of this State, and there most solemnly swear 
 that they verily believe in their consciences that no pope, 
 priest, or foreign authority on earth hath power to absolve 
 the subjects of this State from their allegiance to the same. 
 And further, that they renounce and believe to be false and 
 wicked, the dangerous and damnable doctrine that the Pope 
 or any other earthly authority hath power to absolve men 
 from their sins, described in and prohibited by the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ : and particularly that no Pope, priest or foreign 
 authority on earth hath power to absolve them from the obli 
 gation of this oath." 
 
 We can almost picture him to ourselves in wild frenzy, 
 with bloodshot eyes, foaming at the mouth and gesticulating 
 like a madman, as he read this proposed amendment, the rig 
 marole of stupid ignorance. 
 
 The amendment found advocates in the body, such 
 anti-Catholic feeling had Jay evoked, and it was lost by a vote 
 of 19 to 10, not two-thirds voting for it. 
 
 Still tmappeased, Jay moved another amendment; Liv 
 ingston insisted that it was virtually the same as the last; but 
 the house held otherwise, and though modified by an amend 
 ment of Morris, it was passed in a form which gave Jay 
 hope that Catholicity could never gain a foothold in this 
 State. The grand, broad charter of toleration as proposed at 
 first was blotted from the Constitution of New York. 
 
 When we consider that at this moment men, as Bancroft 
 drily remarks, had outgrown the silly anti-catholic raving 
 about the Quebec Act;* that the United States were using 
 
 * As soon as the Quebec Act was proposed in Parliament protests against 
 it appeared in the American papers. It was after the Boston Port Bill con- 
 
No 10.) Historical Magazine. ? 
 
 every effort to gain Catholic France as an ally, and that a 
 show of amity to professors of the faith of Rome in the sev 
 eral States would have aided the cause of Independence, 
 we can imagine what bitter hatred of Catholicity seethed 
 in the heart of John Jay, where no consideration of public 
 policy could whisper a counsel of moderation. 
 
 If his spirit showed itself in this shape in 1777, we 
 can imagine what it was three years earlier. And yet, 
 unfortunately, it was to this man that Congress gave a 
 fatal power by confiding to him the preparation of the 
 " Address to the People of Great Britain," and this at the very 
 time when the wise and judicious Dickinson framed the con 
 ciliatory address to the Canadian people, and Congress sent 
 Commissioners with a Catholic priest to influence Canadian 
 adhesion to the common cause. 
 
 A man of Jay s temper could not lose the opportunity 
 of introducing his favorite topic. The Quebec Act, by which 
 the Canadian French were left in the enjoyment of their re 
 ligion and their former laws, in Canada, and at the feeble set- 
 side red as the greatest of their wrongs. See Postscript to Philadelphia 
 Packet, Aug. 15, 1774. 
 
 The following stanza from a song shows the temper of the times, to the 
 tune of " my Kitten, my Kitten : 
 
 " Then heigh for the penance and pardons, 
 
 And heigh for the faggots and fires ; 
 And heigh for the Popish church wardens, 
 
 And heigh for the priests and the friars; 
 And heigh for the rare-e show relics 
 
 To follow my Canada Bill-e 
 With all the Pope s mountebank tricks ; 
 So prithee, my baby, be still-e 
 
 Then up with the papists, up, up, 
 And down with the Protestants down-e 
 Here we go backwards and forwards 
 And all for the good of the Crown-e," 
 
 Philadelphia Packet, Aug. 29, 1774. 
 
 The Act was given in full in the same paper in the Supplement to No. 
 150, Sep. 5, 1774 and in the paper itself, the violent Protest of the City of 
 London. 
 
United States Catholic No. jo.) 
 
 tlements of Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, afforded Jay 
 the means of counteracting the whole beneficent policy 
 of Congress. 
 
 He was one of thc.se who pretended that the act of 
 justice to the conquered French by which they were al- 
 allowed to enjoy religious freedom, and live at least for a 
 time under their own system of laws, was a subtle scheme 
 of Great Britain to compass the ruin of her old colonies.* 
 The experience of more than a century shows that England 
 acted wisely. 
 
 But Jay, then a young fanatic of twenty-nine, could see 
 nothing but the triumph of the Catholic religion. As to 
 his authorship of the Address there is no doubt. "The 
 Address to the People of Great Britain," says his biogra 
 phers, " was assigned to Mr. Jay. To secure himself from 
 interruption, he left his lodgings and shut himself up in a 
 room in a tavern, and there composed that celebrated 
 state paper, not less distinguished for its lofty sentiments, 
 than for the glowing language in which they are ex 
 pressed," 
 
 Unfortunately, we cannot agree with this opinion. The 
 Address is narrow-minded, bigoted, fanatical and short 
 sighted. Congress was at first led away by the silly preju 
 dice aroused by the Quebec Act, and it took some time 
 before it outgrew the feeling. Though Congress did at 
 last, Jay never did. 
 
 In this address, unfortunately issued in the name of 
 Congress, Catholicity is branded as "a religion fraught 
 with sanguinary and impious tenets." Then developing 
 
 * Influenced by men like him, Congress in Sept. 1774, said: "The late Act of 
 Parliament for establishing the Roman Catholic religion .... is danger 
 ous in an extreme degree." Philadelphia Packet. Sept. 19, 1774. The paper 
 3f the 12th, contained a contribution against the Act addressed to the Kinp- 
 But the subject was soon dropped with only an occasional reference to it and 
 in the papers of June 19, 1775, we find an address of Congress to the oppress 
 ed inhabitants of Canada, and that of July 10, gives a bill introduced into the 
 House of Lords by Lord Camden for the repeal of the Quebec Act. 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 
 
 his idea, Jay adds : " By another act the Dominion of 
 Canada is to be so extended, modelled and governed, 
 as that by being disunited from us, detached from our 
 interests, by civil as well as religious prejudice, 
 by their numbers daily swelling with Catholic emi 
 grants from Europe, and by their devotion to administra 
 tion, so friendly to their religion, they might become for 
 midable to us, and on occasion be fit instruments in the 
 hands of power to reduce the ancient free Protestant col 
 onies to the same state of slavery with themselves 
 
 " Nor (the address continues) can we suppress our astonish 
 ment that a British parliament should ever consent to 
 establish in that country a religion that has deluged your 
 island in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, 
 murder and rebellion through every part of the world." 
 
 " This being a true state of facts, let us beseech you 
 to consider to what end they lead. 
 
 "Admit that the Ministry by the powers of Britain, 
 and the aid of our Roman Catholic neighbors should be 
 able to carry the point of taxation, and reduce us to a 
 state of perfect humiliation and slavery. Such an enterprise 
 would doubtless make some addition to your national 
 debt," etc. 
 
 In a few words : nothing would satisfy John Jay but 
 penal laws against the Catholics in Canada, and the estab 
 lishment of English laws there. He wished no part or 
 fellowship with them, and would rather see the Canadians 
 remain under English rule, than have Catholics on our 
 side. 
 
 Such was not the view of Congress. On the i5th of 
 February, 1776, it was "Resolved that a committee of 
 three two of whom be members of Congress be ap 
 pointed to repair to Canada, there to pursue such instruc 
 tions as shall be given them by that body." 
 
 Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Car 
 roll, of Carrollton were chosen, and the last named was de 
 sired by Congress " to prevail on Mr. John Carroll to assist 
 
10 United States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 them in such matters as they shall think useful." 
 
 The Catholic priest responded to the call and accom 
 panied the Commissioners to aid them " to promote or to 
 form a union between- the colonies and the people of Can 
 ada." 
 
 The instructions to the Commissioners all tended to 
 this. "To convince the Canadians of the uprightness of 
 our intentions towards them, they were to declare that 
 it was the inclination of Congress that the people of 
 Canada should set up such a form of government as 
 would be most likely in their judgment, to promote their 
 happiness. And the commissioners were, in the strongest 
 terms to assure them, that it was our earnest desire to 
 adopt them into our union as a sister colony and to secure 
 the same system of mild and equal laws for them and 
 for ourselves, with only such local differences as might 
 be agreeable to each colony respectively." 
 
 " They were directed further to declare that that we 
 held sacred the rights of conscience; and should promise 
 to the whole people solemnly, in the name of Congress, 
 the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion; and 
 to the clergy the full, perfect and peaceable possession 
 and enjoyment of all their estates; that the government 
 of everything relative to their creed and clergy should be 
 left entirely in the hands of the good people of that 
 province, and such legislature as they should constitute; 
 provided however, that all other denominations of Chris 
 tians should be equally entitled to hold offices and en- 
 joy civil privileges, and the free exercise of their religion 
 as well as be totally exempt from the payment of any 
 titles or taxes for the support of religion." * 
 
 Congress had been forced by the bigotry of a few to 
 denounce the Quebec Act in terms which showed more 
 religious hate than sound political wisdom, but good sense 
 
 * This was asking Canada to give Protestants greater rights than Massa- 
 chusetts or New York gave Catholics in 1800 ; or New Hampshire did in 
 1876. 
 
No. JO.) Historical Magazine. u 
 
 was gaining the day, and the allusion to the Quebec 
 Act in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 is so obscure 
 that few now understand it, and on the point of religion it is 
 silent. 
 
 At the time of the appointment of the Commissioners 
 everything indicated the possibility of securing the co-op 
 eration or at least the neutrality of the Canadians. At 
 Montreal, the King s statue was smeared over and decorated 
 with a necklace of potatoes; a leading Canadian gentleman 
 was insulted and struck; and the feelings of the people in 
 favor of Congress was so clearly shown that the British 
 Colonel stationed there threatened to use the powder he 
 had to blow up the city. 
 
 The parishes around Chambly, openly joined the Am 
 erican cause ; those in the government of Three Rivers, 
 Nicolet, Becancour, Gentilly and St. Pierre refused to send a 
 man in response to the call for militia to fight against the 
 Americans. Carleton s proclamation was disregarded.)- The 
 Caughnawaga Indians sent all their warriors to the Ameri 
 can camp, and the British agent appointed to that tribe con 
 fesses that he could find no one to side with him, except one 
 miscreant who had been expelled from the village for 
 his notorious vices. 
 
 It might be thought that as the Canadians and colon 
 ists to the South had more than once served in arms 
 against each other, there must have been a feeling of 
 hostility. But it should be remembered that they never 
 took up arms for any quarrel of their own, they had both 
 been forced to expend their blood and their means, be 
 cause France and England chose to go to war, and Ameri 
 ca became the scene of hostility for disputes in which it 
 had no interest, and when it really needed peace. 
 
 The colonists, whether of French or English origin, 
 
 j- "This Proclamation so far from compelling the Canadians to take up arms, only 
 produced the greatest aversion and repugnance to his orders." Smith, History of 
 Canada," Quebec, 1815, p. 76. 
 
i* United States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 whether in Canadian or the old British colonies had com 
 mon interests, and had a common history. They had re 
 claimed the wilderness by their sturdy labor, reared their 
 modest homes, and spread their rich fields of grain, their 
 fisheries, their manufactures crippled only by the policy of 
 the home government. Both trained in the same hard nur 
 sery of frugal industry had been compelled to defend their 
 hard bought property against Indian foes; both saw advan 
 tages in peaceful trade and free intercourse. 
 
 From the first, Canada had sought to bind herself 
 closely to the English colonies by the bonds of com 
 merce, and amity; she had proposed a plan of neutrality 
 so that, though France and England might in the ambi 
 tious projects of their state-craft, make Europe one vast 
 charnel house, peace should reign amid the settlements in 
 America, and each man pursue his avocations undisturbed 
 by the sound or even the thought of war. Canada asked 
 that Indians should not be employed in war; and not till 
 the streets of her thriving town of Lachine were lighted 
 by the flames of the burning houses, and strewn with 
 the mangled corpses of men, women and children slaugh 
 tered by Indians sent from New York by the bigotry 
 roused by the English Revolution of 1688, did Canada 
 summon to her standard the multitudinous tribes to which 
 her influence reached. 
 
 Between Canada and the Colonies there was and never 
 had been but one bar, an insensate anti-Catholic feeling. 
 
 When the Commissioners appointed by Congress to 
 undo the mistakes of the past and form a close union reached 
 Canada, General Arnold was in command of Montreal; Cana 
 dians were flocking to the American standard, and all seemed 
 to promise the speedy union of Canada with the other col 
 onies, but just then Jay s handiwork, the Address of Congress 
 to the people of Great Britain, was translated and scattered 
 among the people of Canada. 
 
 There instead of flattering words of harmony, toleration 
 and union, they found themselves denounced, their religion 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. 13 
 
 execrated, the very idea of union with them scouted. A 
 general burst of indignation followed. " O the perfidious 
 double faced Congress ! " cried the people. " Let us bless and 
 obey our benevolent prince, whose humanity is consistent, 
 and extends to all religions; let us abhor all who would 
 seduce us from our loyalty." From that moment the tide 
 of opinion changed. Doubt and suspicion prevailed; the 
 leaders of the Canadians threw their influence in the British 
 scale, and Canada was lost. In vain did the Commissioners 
 labor to efface the impression produced by the spirit which 
 dictated the Address to the People of Great Britain 
 
 The Canadians as a body could not be induced to send 
 delegates to a Congress which could put forward two doc 
 trines so utterly irreconcileable, one all friendship and brother 
 hood; the other unjust, vindictive, oppressive and malignant. 
 Events soon occurred which made their conviction deeper, 
 that the colonies as a whole were imbued with bitter hatred of 
 Canada and her religion. The fugitive Scots from the 
 Mohawk told their tale; the debates in New York con 
 vention became known. Gradually all or nearly ali Can 
 ada became alienated, indifferent to our cause. Yet never 
 had there been a greater opportunity. As Colonel Barre 
 declared on the floor of Parliament reading from a letter 
 written by a military friend in Canada, the French there 
 would not fight against the Americans. When the British 
 authority summoned them to train as militia, they hid their 
 guns in the woods and came with sticks, declaring that if they 
 must fight, it would be against the English, and not for them. 
 
 Down to the Battle at the Cedars, the Caughnwagas 
 fought under the Continental flag, at severe loss. 
 
 Canada was assured to England. It became the basis 
 for operations against this country in the East and West. 
 Burgoyne was sent over with an army : the Canadians, over 
 awed and overpowered, were forced into service ; the hostile 
 Indians in New York and the West were organized against 
 our frontiers, and went forth to destruction led by white men 
 in English pay. From Quebec to Green Bay every post was 
 
14 United States Catholic No. 10.) 
 
 a fomenter of Indian raids on the homes of the hardy sett 
 lers. 
 
 A broad belt of fire and blood marks the scene of 
 their inhuman warfare, and all this misery and woe 
 were brought upon the country by the hostility to the 
 Catholic Church, a hostility which deprived us of Canada, and 
 esteemed the welfare of America, as of no account, when 
 weighed against the gratification of religious hatred. 
 
 When, by the aid of the army and fleet of a Catholic 
 ally, an English army was forced to yield at Yorktown and 
 Great Britain lost all hope of reducing the United States 
 to their old colonial condition, Canada might still have 
 been secured, and would have been, but for John Jay, who 
 was unfortunately one of those appointed by Congress to 
 negotiate with England. 
 
 Franklin and Adams were fully alive to the necessity 
 of securing Canada, for Americans ever to have a real 
 peace with England. This too, was the feeling in the Con 
 tinental Congress, which wrote to its envoys in August, 
 1779, "It is of the utmost importance to the peace and 
 commerce of the United States, that Canada and Nova 
 Scotia should be ceded." To secure Canada, Franklin 
 even proposed to indemnify the loyalists for their Josses, 
 but when John Jay joined the others in Paris, he threw 
 his whole weight on the English side. He was opposed to 
 the annexation of Canada, true to his old anti-Catholic in 
 stincts rather than to the welfare of America. He opened 
 correspondence with the English ministry without the 
 knowledge of his fellow negotiators, and he was not only 
 willing to give up Canada to England, but offered her an 
 equal right to the navigation of the Mississippi River, and 
 insisted on making the new republic assume the payment 
 of debts due by persons residing in the colonies to credi 
 tors in England before the war, although he was well aware 
 that the Continental Congress was utterly powerless under 
 the Articles of Confederation to compel the payment of 
 such claims. The very failure of the United States on this 
 
No. 10.) Historical Magazine. is 
 
 point was made by England a pretext, for maintaining a 
 hold on our western country, which cost thousands of lives, 
 checked settlements, and desolated the homes of the brave 
 frontiersmen.* 
 
 The result was soon seen. England held Canada, and 
 not only that, but from Canada maintained posts at Niag 
 ara, ] )etroit, on the Maumee and on Lake Michigan, which 
 by the treaty of peace were territory of the United States. 
 Her Indian agents gained the Western chiefs and supplied 
 the tribes with arms, while constantly fostering their hos 
 tility to the United States. The defeats of Harmar and St. 
 Clair were due to English arms and English guidance. 
 And if Wayne defeated the Indians on the soil of Indiana, 
 it was under the very guns of a fort which England had 
 planted on our soil. 
 
 At last John Jay, one of the most prominent among 
 those who caused this terrible and lasting scourge to Am 
 erica was sent to England, and he, in order to induce 
 England to retire within her own Canadian boundaries, signed 
 a treaty which excited universal execration. 
 
 Thirty-six years passed, and we were again at war 
 with England : Canada had become thoroughly submis 
 sive under the British yoke. Her increasing population 
 gave soldiers and officers to maintain English supremacy, and 
 to aid in repelling the forces we sent to reduce the province. 
 England still exercised an influence over our Western Indians 
 and again incited them to massacre and arson, while Tecum- 
 seh, with a royal commission, fought with his Indian braves 
 beside the British regulars. 
 
 Deeply, deeply has the country atoned in blood, for the 
 error of 1774. Had the liberal and Christian spirit of a Mor 
 ris and a Livingston been able to counteract the malignant 
 purblindness of Jay, the flag of the United States would have 
 floated for the last century over the Continent. 
 
 * Bancroft, History of the United States, v. pp. 537, 508, 371, 575. 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 kqd 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 NEW YORK, 
 
 1890. 
 
CATHOLIC BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 A Preliminary Catalogue of Councils, Synods and 
 Statutes which have obtained force in any part of the United 
 States. 
 
 COUNCILS. 
 
 Concilio Provincial celebrado en la muy noble y leal ciu- 
 dad de Mexico, presidiendo el Illmo y Rmo Senor D. Fray 
 Alonso de Montufar en el ano 1555. 
 
 Mexico Juan P. Lombardo, 1556. 
 
 Sanctum Provinciale Conciliam Mexici celebratum. 
 
 Mexico; J, Ruiz, 1622. 
 
 Sanctum Provinciale Concilium Mexici celebratum, 
 Paris. 
 
 Concilios Provinciales Primero, y Segundo, celebrados en 
 la muy noble, y muy leal ciudad de Mexico, presidiendo el 
 illmo, y rmo Senor D. Fr. Alonso de Montufar, en los anos 
 de 1555, y 1556. Da los a luz el Illmo Sr. D. Francisco An 
 tonio Lorenzana, Arzobispo de esta santa Metropolitana 
 Iglesia. Folio. 408 pp, Mexico, Hogal, 1769. 
 
 Concilium Mexicanum Provinciale III. celebratum Mexi 
 ci ano MDLXXXV. Preside D. D Petro Moya, et Contreras, 
 Archipiscopo ejusdem urbis, Confirmatum Romae die xxvij 
 Octobris anno MDLXXXIX. Postea jussu regio editum 
 Mexici ano MDCXXII sumptibus D. D. Joannis Perez de la 
 Serna, Archiepiscopi. Demum typis mandatum cura, et ex- 
 pensis D. D. Francisci Antonii a Lorenzana, Archipraesulis. 
 Folio. 332 pp. Mexico, Hogal. 1770. 
 
 Statuta ordinata a Sancto Concilio Provinciali Mexicano 
 III. anno Domini MDLXXXV, ex prescript Sacrosancti Con- 
 cilu Triclentini Decreto sess. cap 52 de Reform, verbo Cetera. 
 
Revisa a Catholica Majestate, et a Sacrosancta sede Apostoli- 
 ca confirmata anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo octua- 
 gesimo nono. 
 
 Folio. 145 pp. n. p. n. d. 
 
 Statuta Ecclesige Mexicanae necnon ordo in choro servan- 
 dus curante Vallisoletanae Ecclesiae capitulo sumptus sup- 
 peditante Illmo. ac Rmo D. M. D. F. Antonio a Sancto 
 Michaele Episcopo Mechoacanensi, Regis a Consilus, etc., 
 etc., denuo in lucem edita. 
 
 Folio. 143 pp. Mexica, Zuniga, 1797.* 
 
 PLENARY COUNCILS HELD IN THE 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 Concilium Plenarium Totius Americse Septentrionalis 
 Foederatae, Baltimori habitum anno 1852. 
 
 8vo pp 72. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1853. 
 
 Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis II. en Ecclesia Metropoli- 
 tana Baltimorensi a die vii ad diem xxi. Octobris A. D- 
 MDCCCLXVI habiti et a Sede Apostolica recogniti Acta et 
 Decreta, Preside Illustrissimo et Reverendissimo Martino 
 Joanne Spalding, Archiepiscopo Baltimorensi et Delegate 
 Apostolico, 
 8vo iv 346 xxviii, xxvi pp. J. Murphy & Co., Bait. 1867. 
 
 Title as above omitting "Acta et." 
 8vo viii, 274, xx*iii, John Murphy, Baltimore, 1808. 
 
 Title as above omitting "Acta ef but ending with "secun- 
 dis curis editum. 
 8vo viii, 274. xxviii pp. John Murphy & Co., Bait., 1868. 
 
 Decreta Conciliorum Provincialium et Plenarii Baltimo- 
 rensium, pro majori cleri Americani commoditate simul col- 
 lecta. 
 
 8vo pp 43. John Murphy & Co., Baltimore, 1853. 
 
 Acta et Decreta Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis Tertii A. 
 D. MDCCCLXXXIV. Preside Illmo. ac Revmo. Jacobo Gib- 
 
 * The preceding were in force in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Cali 
 fornia. 
 
bons, Archiepiscopo Bait, et Delegate Apostolico. 
 
 8vo cix, 329 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1886. 
 
 PROVINCIAL COUNCILS. 
 
 Baltimore Concilium Baltimorense Provinciale Primum, 
 habitum Baltimori anno reparatae Salutis 1829, mense Octobri. 
 8vo 30 pp. Baltimore, J. D. Toy, 1831. 
 
 Concilium Baltimorense Provinciale Secundum: Habi 
 tum Baltimori a die 20* a diem usque 27am Octobris 
 A. R. S. 1833, 
 
 8vo 18 pp. Baltimore, J. D. Toy, n, d. 
 
 Concilii Provincialia Baltimori habita ab anno 1829, 
 usque ad annum J840. 
 
 8vo 221 pp., Baltimore, John Murphy, 1842. 
 
 Fascisculus quo recensentur Acta ac Decreta Syno- 
 dorum Provincialium Baltimori habitarum ab anno MD- 
 CCCXXIX usque ad annum MDCCCXL qu^ Sacri Consilii 
 Christiano nomine propagando judicio subjecta, et ab Apos- 
 tolica Sede confirmata sunt. 
 
 8vo 162 pp., paper. n. p. n. d. (Rome). 
 
 Same in Bullarium Pontificium Sacrae Congregationis de 
 Propaganda Fide, Rome, 1841, vol. 5, 80 pp 4to. 
 
 Acta et Decreta Synodorum Provincialium Baltimori 
 habitarum ab anno MDCCCXXIX usque ad annum MD 
 CCCXL, que Sacri Concilii Christiano nomine propagando 
 judicio subjecta et ab Apostolica Sede confirmata sunt ; Re- 
 feruntur simul Sacri Consilii Decreta et Responsa de rebus 
 in qualibet Synodo pertractatis. Editio Secunda. 
 
 8 vo 160 pp. Rome, Propaganda, 1841. 
 
 Concilium Provinciale Baltimorense V. Habitum, anno 
 1843. 
 8vo 30 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy, 1844. 
 
 Concilium Baltimorense Provinciale VI. Habitum 
 anno 1846. 
 
 8vo 36 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy. 1847. 
 
6 
 
 Concilium Baltimorense Provincialc VII. Habitum an 
 no 1849. 
 
 8vo 33 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1851. 
 
 Concilium Baltimorense Provinciale VIII., Habitum 
 anno 1855. 
 
 8vo 40 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1857. 
 
 Concilium Baltimorense Provinciale IX, Habitum anno 
 1858. 
 8vo 42 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., n. d. 
 
 Concilii Provincialis Baltimorensis X. in Metropolitana 
 Baltimorensi Ecclesia, Dominica quarta post Pascha, quae 
 festo S. Marci Evangelistae incidit A. R. S. 1869 inchoati, et 
 insequenti Dominica absoluti, Acta et Decreta, Prseside Ill- 
 mo ac Revmo. Martino Joanne Spalding, Archiepiscopo Bal 
 timorensi. 
 
 8vo 78 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy, 1870. 
 
 CINCINNATI. Concilium Cincinnatense Provinciale I. 
 Habitum, anno 1855. 
 
 8vo pp 50. Cincinnati, John P. Walsh, n. d. 
 
 Concilium Cincinnatense Provinciale II. Habitum anno 
 1858. 8vo pp 32. Cincinnati, J. P. Walsh, n, d. 
 
 Concilium Cincinnatense Provinciale III. Habitum anno 
 1861. 8vo pp 4S. Cincinnati and N. Y. Benziger Bros. n. d. 
 
 Acta et Decreta Quatuor Conciliorum Provincialium 
 Cincinnatensium, 1855 1882 Adjectis pluribus Decretis, Re- 
 scriptis, aliisque Documentis. 
 
 8vo pp vii 319. Cincinnati, Benziger Bros.. 1886. 
 
 MILWAUKEE. Acta et Decreta Concilii Provincialis Mil- 
 waukiensis Primi. A. D. MDCCCLXXXVI. Preside Illmo. 
 ac Revmo. Michaele Heiss, Archiepiscopo Milwaukiensi. 
 8vo 53 pp. Milwaukee, Hoffman Bros., 1888. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS.- -Concilium Neo-Aurelianense Provin 
 ciale Primum, Habitum anno 1856. 
 
 8vo pp 35. New Orleans, H. Meridier, 1857. 
 
 Concilium Neo-Aureliancnse Tertium, Habitum mense 
 
Januario, A. D. 1873, cui addita sunt in appendice Duae Con- 
 stitutiones Vaticanae Epistola Encyclica Quanta Cura Syl 
 labus et Formula Juramenti pro ordinandis ad subdiacona- 
 tum sub titulo Missionis. 
 
 8vo pp 69. New Orleans, Propagateur Catholique, 1875. 
 
 NEW YORK.- -Concilium Neo-Eboracense Primum. Habi- 
 tum anno MDCCCLIV. 
 
 8vo pp 32. New York, E. Dunigan & Bro., 1855, 
 
 Concilium Neo-Eboracense III. mense Junii anno MD- 
 CCCLXI. celebratum. 
 
 8vo pp 37 New York, E. Dunigan & Bro., 18C2. 
 
 OREGON. Decreta Concilii Provincialis Oregonensis I. 
 Sancti Pauli habiti diebus 28, 29 Februarii et 1 Martii 1848, 
 8vo pp 7. New York. 1887. 
 
 Reprinted from the U. S, Catholic Historical Magazine, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. Decreta Concilii Provincialis Philadel- 
 phiensis I. anno MDCCCLXXX habiti. 
 
 8vo 36 pp. n. p. n. d, 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. Concilii Provincialis S. Francisci I. in 
 Ecclesia Metropolitana Sancti Francisci A. D. MDCCCLXXIV. 
 habiti, et a Sede Apostolica recogniti, Acta et Decreta. 
 8vo pp 91. San Francisco, Thomas & Co., 1875. 
 
 Concilii Provincialis S. Francisci II. in Ecclesia Metropoli 
 tana Sancti Francisci, A. D. MDCCCLXXXII. habiti, et a 
 Sede Apostolica recogniti, Acta et Decreta. 
 
 8vo pp 36, San Francisco, P. J. Thomas, 1883. 
 
 ST. Louis Concilium Provinciale Secundum. Mense 
 Septembris, A. D. 1858. Sancti Ludovici, Habitum. 
 
 8vo pp 1 6. St. Louis, G. Knapp & Co., 1859. 
 
 DIOCESAN SYNODS AND STATUTES. 
 
 ALBANY. Dioeceseos Albanensis Statuta quae in Synodo 
 Albanensi II A.D. 1869 lata ac promulgata fuere al Illustrisso. 
 et Reverendisso. Joanne Josepho Conroy, Episcopo Albanensi. 
 
8vo 28 pp. Troy, N. Y., A. W. Scribner & Co., 1869. 
 
 Synodus Dicecesana Albanensis Tertia quae anteceden- 
 tium etiam complectitur constitutiones, diebus 6 et 7 Febru- 
 arii, A. D. 1884 in Seminario S. Joseph!, Trojae habita ab 
 Illustrissimo et Reverendissimo Francisco McNeirny, Episco- 
 po Albanensi. 
 
 8vo 85 pp. New York Catholic Publication Society, 1884. 
 
 BALTIMORE. [Statuta Synodi anno 1791 celebratae II 
 Quidam ex articulis ecclesiacticae discipline quos 111, DD. 
 Archiepiscopus Baltimorensis et Episcopi Americae Foederatae 
 communi consilio, anno 1810, sanxerunt III Regulae ab Illo. 
 et Revmo. Ambrosio Marshal conditae.l 
 
 No title page. 8vo pp 34. apparently Baltimore, 1817. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis II. habita ab illustris- 
 simo ac Reverendissimo Jacobo, Archiepiscopo Baltimorensi. 
 Anno reparatae Salutio 1831. Mense Novembri. 
 
 8vo 10 pp. Baltimore, J. D. Toy, 1831. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis, mense Junio, 1853 
 habita. 
 
 8vo 18 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1853. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis, mense Junio, 1857 
 habita. 
 
 8vo 14 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1857. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis. mense Maii, 1863 
 habita. 
 
 8vo 1 8 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1863. 
 
 Acta Synodi Dioecesanae Baltimorensis Sextae: una cum 
 constitutionibus ab illustrissimo ac reverendissimo Martino 
 Joanne Spalding, Archiepiscopo Baltimorensi latis ac pro- 
 mulgatis; in feria quarta Rogationum, Die 24 Maii, A. D. 
 MDCCCLXV. 
 8vo 22 pp. Baltimore, Kelly & Piet, 1865. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis Septima; quae ante- 
 cedentium etiam complectitur constitutiones; die III Sep- 
 tembris. A, D. 1 868 in Ecclesia Collegiali S. Marias ad Semi- 
 narium S. Sulpitii, Baltimore habita : ab Illustrissimo ac 
 
9 
 
 Reverendissimo Martino Joanne Spalding, Archiepiscopo 
 Baltimorensi. 
 8vo 28 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy, 1868. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Baltimorensis Octava, quae antece- 
 dentium etiam complectitur Constitutiones, die xxvii Augus- 
 to, A. D. 1875 and B. M. V. en Seminario S. Sulpitii Baltimore 
 habita, ab Illustrissimo ac Reverendissimo Jacobo Roosevelt 
 Bayley, Archiepiscopo Baltimorensi. 
 
 i2tno 134 pp. Baltimore, John Murphy & Co., 1876. 
 
 Synodus I )icecesana Baltimorensis nona quae anteceden- 
 tium etiam complectitur Constitutiones; die xxiv Septembris, 
 A. D. 1880 ad B. V. M in Seminario S. Sulpitii Baltimorae hab- 
 itea ab Eminentissimo ac Reverendissimo Jacobo Cardinale 
 Gibbons, Archiepiscopo Baltimorensi. 
 
 i2mo 136 pp. Baltimore, Foley Brothers, 1886. 
 
 BOSTON. Synodus Dicecesana Bostoniensis I habita anno 
 1842. 8vo 1 1 pp,, no place, no date. 
 (2d ed,) 8vo 11 pp. Boston, P. Uonahoe, n. d. 
 
 Constitutiones Dioecesanae ab Illmo. ac Revmo. Domino 
 Joanne Josepho Williams, Episcopo Bostoniensi in Synodo 
 Dioecesana Secunda habita Bostoniae, A. D. 1868, latae et pro- 
 mulgatae. 
 
 8vo 59 pp. n. p. n. d. 
 
 BUFFALO. Synodus Dioecesana Buffalensis Secunda, hab 
 ita anno MDCCCXLIX. 
 
 8vo. Buffalo, Brunck & Domediou, 1850, 
 
 Synodus Dicecesana Buffalensis Decima Septima, quae 
 complectitur etiam Statuta lata in Synodis ab A.D. 1847 usque 
 ad 1886, die 13 a August!, A, D. 1871 in Ecclesia Cathedrali 
 Sancti Josephi in Civitate Buffalensi habita, ab Illustrissimo 
 ac Reverendissimo Stephano Vincentio Ryan, D. D., Episco 
 po Buffalensi. 
 
 8vo 50 pp. Buffalo, 1871. 
 
 BURLINGTON. Statuta Dioecesis Burlingtoniensis. Deus 
 providebit. 
 
 8vo 11 pp. St. Albans, 1878. 
 
10 
 
 CHARLESTON Statutaquce in Synodo Carolopolitana XVI 
 lata et promulgata fuere ab Illmo. ac Revmo. Dominio, Hen- 
 rico P. Northrop, Episcopo Carolopolitano. 
 
 T2mo 47 pp Charleston : Walker, Evans & Cogswell & Co., 
 n. d. 
 
 CINCINNATI, Statuta Dioecesana ab Illustrissimo ac Rever- 
 endissimo P. D. Joanne Baptista Purcell, Archiepiscopo Cin- 
 cinnatensi in variis synodis, quse hucusque in Ecclesia sua 
 Cathedrali, vel in Sacello Seminarii, celebratae sunt, lata et 
 promulgata. Una cum Decretis Conciliorum Provincialium 
 et Plenarii Baltimorensium, quibus interfuerunt omnes 
 Statuum Fcederatorum Episcopi, et decretis Conciliorum trium 
 Cincinnatensium, nunc primum in unum collecta et publici 
 juris facta. 
 
 8vo t>9, x, 15, 44, 14pp. Cincinnati, 18(55. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Cincinnatensis Secunda, diebus 19, 
 20, 21 Octobris A. D. 1808, in Ecclesia Metropolitana St. Petri 
 in Vinculis, Cincinnati habita, ab Illmo. ac Revmo. Gulielmo 
 Henrico Elder, Archiepiscopo Cincinnatensi. 
 
 8vo 82 pp. n, p. n. d. 
 
 CLEVELAND. Statuta Dioecesis Clevelandensis lata in 
 Synodo Dioecesana habita, A. D. 1852, et in aliis Synodis A.D. 
 1854 et A. D. 1857 aucta et emendata. 
 
 80 pp. Cleveland, H. Kramer, 1857. 
 
 DENVER. Synodus Dioecesana Denveriensis Prima juxta 
 norman a Cone. Bait. Ill praestitutam habita in Collegio S. S. 
 Cordis, Highlands, a Reverendissimo Nicolao Chryosostomo 
 Matz, Episcopo Denveriensi die ii Augusti MDCCCLXXXIX 
 8vo 59 pp. Las Vegas, 1889. 
 
 DETROIT. [Statuta, Dec. 25, I851J. 
 8vo 15 pp n. p. n. d. 
 
 Constitutiones Synodi Dioecesanae Detroitensis Primae, 
 habitae mense Octobri, A.D. 1859. 
 
 8vo 44 pp. Detroit, John Slater, 1859. 
 
 Synodus Dicecesana Detroitensis Secunda, habita mense 
 Septembri A. D. MDCCCLXII. 
 
11 
 
 8vo pp 1). Detroit, John Slater, 1802, 
 
 Acta et Constitutiones Synodi Dioecesanse Detroitensis 
 Sextae, habita in Collegio Assumptionis BMV. Sandwichensi, 
 diebus 20 et 21 mensis Julii A. D. 1885 Praeside Reverendis- 
 simo et Illustrissimo Casparo Henrico Borgess, Episcopo De 
 troitensis, 
 
 8vo 17 pp. Detroit, Kilroy & Brennan, 1881. 
 
 A. M, D. G. Sy nodus Dioecesana Detroitensis Septima; 
 antecedentmm etiam complectitur Constitutiones, die XIX 
 M. Augusti, A. D. 1880 in Collegio Assumptionis B. M. V. 
 Sandwichensi, habita; ab Illustrissimo ac Reverendissimo 
 Casparo Henrico Borgess, Episcopo Detroitensi II. 
 
 8vo x, 24, ii pp paper, Marshall, Mich,, 1880. 
 
 DUBUQUE. Statuta lata et promulgata ab Illmo ac Revmo 
 D. Clementi Smyth, Episcopo Dubuquensi in Synodo Primo 
 Dioecesana, Dubuquii, mense Mali 1871 habita. 
 
 8vo 19 pp. Dubuque; Rich & Ryan, 1871. 
 
 FORT WAYNE. Statuta Dicecesis Wayne Castrensis in 
 Synodo I >icecesana 1874 promulgata ab Illustrissimo ac Rev 
 erendissimo Joseph Dwenger. 
 
 Hvo 23 pp. Fort Wayne; Sentinel, 1875. 
 
 GREEN BAY. Constitutiones Dioecesos Sinus Viridis. 
 i2mo 12 pp. Milwaukee, P. V. Deuster, 1869. 
 
 Decreta edita in Synodo Dioecesana ima celebrata Sinu 
 Viridi a Revmo. ac Illustrissimo D. Domino Francisco Xav- 
 erio Krautbauer, diebus nmo et i2mo Julii A. D. 1870. 
 
 !2mo 30 pp. Green Bay, Robinson Brothers & Clark, 1877. 
 
 HARTFORD Decreta Synodi Hartfordensis Primae, mense 
 Octobris, anno MDCCCLIV celebratae. 
 
 8vo 20 pp. Providence: B. T. Albro, 1855. 
 
 Constitutiones Synodi Hartfordensis II, mense Septembri 
 anno MDCCCLXXVIII habite. 
 
 8vo 40 pp Hartford : Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1878. 
 Constitutiones Synodi Hartfordiensis IV. ab Illmo. et Revmo 
 Domino Laurentio Stephano McMahon, Episcopo Hartfor- 
 
12 
 
 diensi, mensi August! anno MDCCCLXXXVI habitse. 
 8vo 6 1 pp. Hartford: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1887. 
 LOUISIANA. Statutes of the Diocese of Louisiana and 
 the Floridas, issued 1 y the Rt.Rev.Luis Penalvery Cardenas, 
 1795, wit h a translation by John Gilmary Shea [Spanish and 
 English.] 8vo 29 pp. New York, 1887. 
 
 Reprinted from U. S. Historical Magazine for Oct. 87. 
 LOUISVILLE. Constitutions Dicecesis Ludovicopolitanae, 
 a Re verendissimo ac Illustrissimo Domino Martino Joanne 
 Spalding, Episcopo Ludovicopolitano, in Synodo Dioecesana 
 prima, habita mense Julii 1850 en Ecclesiao St. Josephi, Bard- 
 poli, latse et promulgate. 
 
 8vo 20 pp. Louisville: Webb, McGill & Levering, 1850. 
 [2d ed.] 8vo 16 pp. Louisville; Joseph F. Brennan, 1857. 
 
 Synodus Tertia Dioecesana Ludovicopolitana, habita die 
 27 Augusti J862, in ecclesia Sancti Joseph Bardensi. 
 
 Hvo 28 pp. Louisville; Bradley & Gilbert, 1862. 
 
 Synodus Dicecesana Ludovicopolitana IV. in Ecclesia 
 Cathedrali, die 21 Julii A, R. S. 1874 ab Illustrissimo ac Rev- 
 erendissimo D. Gulielmo McCloskey, Episcopo Ludovicopoli 
 tano, habita. 
 8vo 24 pp. Louisville; Bradley & Gilbert, 1874. 
 
 MOBILE. Statuta Synodi Mobiliensis Primse mense No- 
 vembris, anno Domini 1861 celebrata. 
 
 16mo 1 6 pp. Montgomery, 1862. 
 
 NATCHEZ Synodus Dicecesana Natchetensis Prima,habita 
 ab Illmo et Rmo Gulielmo Henrico Elder, Episcopo Natche- 
 tensi, hebdomada secunda post Pascha anno 1858. 
 8vo 14 pp. New Orleans: Propagateur Catholique, 1858. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Natchetensis mense Januarii 1862, 
 habita. 
 
 8vo 12 pp. New Orleans: Propagateur Catholique, 1862. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Natchetensis Quarta, habita diebus 
 i9a, 2oa et 21 a mense Januarii A. D. 1874 a Rev mo . Gulielmo 
 Henrico Elder, I^piscopo Natchetensi, in Monasterio cui no- 
 
men " St. Theresa s Retreat " Patrum Congregationis SS. Re- 
 demptoris, apud Chatawa, Mississippi. 
 
 16 mo 26 pp. n. p. n, d. 
 
 NEWARK Statuta Novarcensis Dioeceseos a Reverendis- 
 simo Domino Jacobo Roosevelt Bayley, Novarcensi Episcopo, 
 in Synodo Dioecesana Prima habita mense Augusto, 1856, in 
 Collegio Seton Hall, Madison, N. J., lata et promulgata. 
 16mo 52 pp. New York: E. Dunigan & Brother, 1857. 
 
 Statuta Dioecesis Novarcensis quae post Synodum I am 
 A.D. A. D. 1853, et II am A. D. 1868 a Rev rao . Jacobo Roosevelt 
 Bayley, fe. me., celebratas, in Synodo Dioscesana Tertia, die- 
 bus 8 et 9 Maji 1878 habita, tulit et promulgavit Illustr mus et 
 Rev mus Michael Augustinus Corrigan, Episcopus. 
 
 16mo 161 pp. New York, Benziger Brothers, 1878. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Novarcensis Quinta, A. D. 1886 cele- 
 brata ab Illustr" 10 et Rev mo Michael Venantio Wigger, 
 Episcopo. 
 8vo 45 pp. Arlington, N. J., J8S7. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS Synodus Dicecesana Neo-Aurelianensis 
 Secunda, habita mense Aprili anno 1844. 
 
 8vo 22 pp. New Orleans: H. Meridier, 1844. 
 
 NEW YORK Synodus Dioscesana Neo-Eboracensis Prima, 
 Habita anno 1842. 
 8vo 22 pp. New York, George Mitchell, 1842. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Neo-Eboracensis Tertia, quas ante- 
 cedentium etiam complectitur Constitutiones, die 29 etdie 30 
 Septembris, A. D. 1868 in ecclesia Metropolitana S. Patritii, 
 Neo-Eboraci habita ab Illustrissimo et Reverendissimo 
 Joanne McCloskey, Archiepiscopo Neo-Eboracensi. 
 
 8vo 23 pp. New York, Catholic Publication Society, 1868. 
 
 Synodus Dioecesana Neo-Eboracensis Quarta, quae ante- 
 cedentium etiam complectitur Constitutiones diebus 8 et 9 
 Novembris A.D. 1882, in Ecclesia Metropolitana S. Patritii,Neo- 
 Eboraci habita ab Eminentissimo et Reverendissimo Joanne 
 Cardinal! McCloskey, Archiepiscopo Neo-Eboracensis. 
 8vo 51 pp. New York, Catholic Publication Society, 1882. 
 
14 
 
 PHILADELPHIA Acta Synodi Dioecesanae Philadelphiensis 
 Primae, habitae in Ecclesia Cathedral! S. Mariae Philadelphia, 
 anno Domini 1832, mense Maji a Reverendissimo Francisco 
 Patritio Kenrick, Episcopo Arathensi et Coadjutore Episcopi 
 Philadelphiensis. 
 
 8vo 1 6 pp, Philadelphia, E. Cummiskey, 1832, 
 
 Constitutiones Dioecesanae in Synodis Philadelphiensibus, 
 annis 1832 et 1842 latae et promulgatae. 
 
 8vo 1 8 pp, Philadelphia, M, Fithian, 1842. 
 
 Constitutiones Dioecesanse in Synodis Philadelphiensibus, 
 annis 1832, 1842, 1847, 1853 et 1855 latae et promulgatae. 
 8vo 50 pp. Philadelphia; J, B, Chandler, 1855. 
 
 Acta Synodi Dicecesanse Philadelphiensis Sextae, habitae 
 a Revmo. Joanne Nepomuceno, Episcopo Philadelphiensi, 
 diebus 28 et 29 Octobris A. D. 1857. 
 
 8vo. Philadelphia. 
 
 PITTSBURGH. Statuta Dioecesis Pittsburgensis, lata in 
 Synodo Dioecesana habita A. D. 1844 et in aliis Synodis A. D. 
 1846 et A. D. 1854 emendata. 
 8vo 26 pp. Pittsburgh; George Quigley, 1854. 
 
 Statuta Dicecesis Pittsburgensis lata in Synodo Dioece 
 sana habita A. D. 1844 cum decretis in aliis Synodis A. 0.1846, 
 1854, 1858 et 1869 promulgatis. 
 8vo 43 pp. Pittsburgh: James Porter, 1870. 
 
 PROVIDENCE. Acta et Decreta Synodi Dioecesanse Pro- 
 videntiensis Tertiae habitae in Ecclesia Cathedrali ab Ill mo 
 et Rev* Matthaeo Harkins, Episcopo Providentiensi die 21 
 Decembris, 1887. 
 
 8vo 64 pp. Woodstock College, 1888. 
 
 QUEBEC.* Statuts publics dans le premier Synode, tenu 
 k Quebec le 9 Novembre, 1690. 
 
 * These Synods were in force in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, etc., 
 before the creation of the See of Baltimore. 
 
15 
 
 Avis et Reglements publics dans 1 Assemble tenue k Ville 
 Marie le 10 de Mars, 1694. 
 
 Statuts publics dans le troisieme Synode tenue a Quebec 
 le 276 Fevrier de 1 anne 1698. 
 
 Statuts publics dans le quatrieme Synode tenu & Que 
 bec, le 8 Octobre, 1700. 
 
 A 
 
 " In Mandements, Lettres Pastorales et Circulaires des Eveques de Que 
 bec," Quebec 1887, i p. 270, 325, 368. 
 
 RICHMOND. Statuta Synodi Richmondensis primae mense 
 Octobris Anno Domini 1856 celebratae. 
 
 8vo 39 pp. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1857. 
 
 ROCHESTER. Acta & Statuta Synodi Dioecesanae Roffen- 
 sis Primae habitae diebus 13 and 14 Octobris, A. D. 1875. 
 8vo36 pp. Rochester: Union and Advertiser Co., 1875. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. Synodus Dicecesana Sancti Francisci 
 habita mense Julii 1862. 
 
 8vo 1 6 pp. San Francisco : Towne & Bacon, 1862; 
 
 [2d edition]. 8vo 19 pp. San Francisco: Smyth & Shoaff, 72. 
 
 SANTIAGO DE CUBA. Constituciones Synodales de la 
 Iglesia de Cuba. Folio. 1682. 
 
 Constitutiones Synodales de la Iglesia de Cuba. 2d edition. 
 
 Synodo Dioecesano que de orden de S. M. celebro el Ilus- 
 trisimo Senor Doctor Don Juan Garcia de Palacios, obispo de 
 Cuba en Junio de 1684, Reimpreso por orden del Ilustrisimo 
 Senor Doctor Don Juan Jose Diaz de Espada y Landa, Se- 
 gundo Obispo de la Habana, y anotado conforme a las ulti 
 mas disposiciones eclesiasticas y civiles. Reimpreso. 
 8vo 229 pp. Habana, Imprenta del Gobierno, 1844.* 
 
 SANTA FE. Constituciones Eclesiasticas para la Diocesis 
 de Santa F N. M, Publicadas por el Il m Sr. Obispo D. 
 Juan B. Lamy. 
 
 *The Synod was in force in Florida till 1820. The Florida Constitutions 
 have been published in the U. S. Catholic Hist. Mag. 
 
16 
 
 8vo 37 pp. Albuquerque, N.M., Rio Grande Press, 1874. 
 
 ST. PAUL. Decreta Synodalia Dioeceseos Sti Pauli de 
 Minnesota. 
 8vo 36, 8 pp. St. Paul, Pioneer Co., 1874. 
 
 ST. Louis, vStatuta lata et promulgata ab Ill mo , ac 
 Rev mo . D. Petro Ricardo Kenrick, Archiepiscopo S. Ludo- 
 vici, in Synodo Dioecesana mense Augusti. A, D. i85ohabita. 
 8vo 19 pp. St. Louis: Richard Phillips, 1850. 
 
 Statuta Dioecesis S. Ludovici, promulgata ab Ill mo . ac 
 R mo . D. D. Joseph Rosati, Congregationis Missionis, Epis- 
 copo S. Ludovici, in Synodo Dioecesana habita in Ecclesia 
 Cathedrali. mense Aprili 1839. 
 
 8vo. St. Louis: C. Keemle, 1839. [2ded.] 8vo Rome, 1839. 
 
 SAULT ST. MARY. Statuta Dicecesis Marianopolitanae in 
 Michigan. 
 8vo 84 pp. Detroit: John Slater, 1863. 
 
 SYRACUSE. Synodus Dioecesana Syracusana Prima, die 
 xiv Septembris A.D. 1887 in Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae in Ccelos 
 Assumptse, Syracusis habita ab Illustrissimo ac Reverendis- 
 simo Patritio A. Ludden. Episcopo Syracusano. 
 8vo 113 pp. New York Catholic Publication Society, 1887. 
 
 WHEELING. Statuta ab Ill mo . ac Rev mo . Dom. Richardo 
 Vine. Whelan Episcopo Wheelingensi, in Synodo Dioecesana, 
 in Cathedrali, diebus 28 ac 29 Octobris an, 1873, habita, lata 
 et promulgata. 
 8vo 15 pp. Wheeling: James F. Carroll, 1873. 
 
THE FIRST EPIC OF OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 BY THE POET CONQUISTADOR OF NEW MEXICO, CAPTAIN 
 GASPAR DE YILLAGRA. 
 
 BY JOHN GIL MARY S H p] A . 
 
 IT may be a question in the minds of some whether in this 
 essay I purpose to address the literary with a criticism on 
 a poem, or whether it is my intention to depict some portion 
 of our history, a topic, apparently, more germane to the ob 
 jects of this Society. Yet, if I seek to lead the members into 
 the flowery meads of Parnassus, I am only going back to the 
 primitive days. The earliest historical accounts were chanted 
 by poets, not read as dull prose. The book of Job, perhaps 
 the oldest we possess, is a poem : Homer preserves histo 
 ries of events unwritten in prose, the glories of his tribe are 
 sung in the tent of the Arab sheik, as Druids chanted those 
 of the Celt ; and we look to the Edda and the strains of the 
 Minnesinger for many details of event and life that the prim 
 historian ne er consigned to any enduring form of record. 
 
 In English we have ballads, some of merit, a few graphic in 
 their pictures of events, but amid the mass of rubbish there 
 were but few to be culled by the lover of literature, and none, 
 we may say, to be treasured by the historian. On this side of 
 the Atlantic the Muse of History and the Muse of Poesy were 
 alike niggardly to our pioneers. The attempts at ballad writ 
 ing were even beneath the hymn standard, and that was bad 
 enough. The ballads gathered by Dr. Griswold and others 
 are absurdly curious ; indeed, it was only where ridicule could 
 be brought to bear that any writer of real ability lent him 
 self to the task of embodying some odd episode, as Andre 
 did in his " Cow Chase," and Hopkinson in his " Battle of the 
 Kegs." 
 
Our historians do not quote historical ballads in serious his 
 tory. In Spanish literature it is different. There the narra 
 tive poem has always held a recognized position, and works of 
 greater or Jess merit have come down to us, some maintaining 
 to this day their early reputation. A melodious language 
 easily lent itself to poetical numbers ; the long struggle with 
 the Moors called forth all knightly traits and exalted ideas, 
 perhaps often to an extravagant point. The soldier, like Man- 
 rique, solaced his hours of inaction by chanting in verse the 
 deeds of his ancestors or his commander. When the New 
 World opened to the warriors of the peninsula a wide untrod 
 den field for high emprize, strange in all its natural features, 
 its inhabitants, its grandeur, where all was redolent of ro 
 mance, the Spanish knight came with lyre and lance. Nar 
 rative poems were written in many forms, and under every 
 possible circumstance. Some were perpetuated by the press, 
 but an immense number still remain in manuscript, and are 
 known to few but the literary or historic antiquarian. The 
 highest of the poems, the only one recognized as a classic, is 
 the Araucana of Alonso de Ercilla y Zufiiga, the work of an 
 officer who recounted in metre the wars of the Spaniards 
 against the unconquerable Indians of Southern Chili, a theme 
 which inspired also the Arauca Domado of Pedro de Ona 
 printed at Lima in 1596, and the Puren Indomito of Alvarez 
 de Toledo, printed only in our day, but cited as an authority 
 by historians of Chili more than two hundred and fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 Spain thus brought to the New World her soldier narrative 
 poets, whose rhymed chronicles the historian cannot overlook 
 or despise, though his literary brother may treat them with 
 scant courtesy. 
 
 Although only our southern frontier was embraced in the 
 Spanish territory, it has its historic poems. I have seen one 
 in print on the overthrow of the French in Florida by Me- 
 nendez, probably sung as a ballad in the streets of Spanish 
 cities ; another of great length, but unpublished as yet, on the 
 
capture of Bishop Altarairano by a French pirate, his ransom 
 and the overthrow of the Corsair ; a curious poem of the last 
 century on the seizure of Bishop Morel, at Havana, by Lord 
 Albemarle, and his deportation to Florida. But of all, the 
 most curious and by far the most important is the little vol 
 ume I hold in my hand : 
 
 " Historia de la Nueva Mexico. Poema Epico del Capitan 
 Gaspar de Yillagra. En Alcala de Henares, por Luis Mar 
 tinez Grade, 1610." " The History of New Mexico. An 
 Epic Poem by Captain Gaspar de Yillagra. Published at 
 Alcala de Henares, by Luis Martinez Grade, 1610." 
 
 Written and printed before Henry Hudson had made wide 
 ly known our beautiful harbor as it appeared to his eyes ; be 
 fore the self-exiled Separatists in Holland had formed any 
 project of settling in America, this little work stands in the 
 collection of New Mexico books between the .Roman Relation 
 of Montoya, 1603, and the Memorial of Benavides, 1630. 
 
 It is a poem in 34 cantos, covering, independent of the pre 
 liminary matter, 287 leaves. We cannot claim for it brilliant 
 invention, rich poetical description, or ingenious fancy ; for 
 one of the censors of the work, Master Espinel, while admit 
 ting the correctness of the rhythm, yet, with almost brutal 
 frankness, tells the plain, unvarnished truth on this score. 
 
 u The History of New Mexico, an heroic poem by Captain 
 Gaspar de Yillaga, contains nothing against faith and morals, 
 it rather exalts and elevates it, to behold such a number of 
 souls brought to Catholic truth, and the crown of Spain, with 
 such immense toil by our Spanish race. The verse is correct 
 (numeroso like Pope i he lisped in numbers, ) and although 
 devoid of inventions and the flowers of poesy (from its being 
 a consecutive and true history), the variety of such new and 
 extraordinary events will please and inspire people of all con 
 ditions some to imitate, others to esteem them, and there 
 fore it is good that it should go into the hands of all. Ma 
 drid, December 9, 1609." 
 
 But though the censor thus cruelly disappoints us at the 
 
outset, the nine odes and sonnets to the author and to the 
 commander of the expedition, including one addressed in their 
 name to the king, show more poetical invention and richness ; 
 even Espinel there pays compliments in verse which he avoids 
 in prose, extolling alike the prowess and the poetry of our 
 Captain. 
 
 The poem is dedicated to the king, and addresses him 
 throughout ; and his Majesty, in the license, styles it " a work 
 which cost you much labor and care, both from having fought 
 and served us in the discovery, pacification, and settlement of 
 said New Mexico, the history whereof you treat, as well as 
 for reducing it to a veritable history, as you have done." 
 
 If, then, we cannot claim for Villagra s poem a rank among 
 the classics, it is nevertheless worth study as a poem written 
 here at such an early period on events in which the author 
 took part. It is devoted entirely to an American theme. 
 This would in itself be enough to invest Villagra s poem with 
 interest to any one given to literary research. But as an his 
 torical work it possesses remarkable value. The harmonious 
 prose of some writers like Fronde, for example treats his 
 torical facts with greater poetical license than Villagra allowed 
 himself; and while the muse of Froude prompts him to gar 
 ble documents to ensure poetic effect, our Spanish poet breaks 
 off at times to give us an important document in solid prose. 
 He does not make any sacrifices to the exigency of verse, and 
 apparently suppresses no name, differing in this from the 
 French poet Thomas, who wrote the poem " Jumonville," in 
 which Washington plays the part of arch-fiend. The whole 
 poem turns on his iniquity and its merited retribution ; but 
 as Washington s name defied the poet s ability to introduce it 
 into French verse, it never once occurs in the whole poem. 
 
 Villagra s poem is all the more important as an historical 
 document, because it is the only one that covers the whole 
 career of Don Juan de Onate from the first project of the 
 conquest of New Mexico down to the revolt of the pueblo of 
 Acoma, and the final reduction and destruction of that city on 
 
the beetling crag. It is the only key to the early history of 
 New Mexico. Documents of great value have been printed 
 in Mexico and Spain ; books were printed at an early day con 
 taining important matter relating to that curious cluster of 
 Pueblo Indians before and after the Spanish conquest ; but a 
 student finds himself groping blindly in his endeavor to trace 
 the series of events till he reads the poem of V illagra. 
 
 Any one who has read the accounts of the conquest of New 
 Mexico, by Onate, either in works especially devoted to that 
 territory, like those of Davis or Prince, or works in which the 
 subject is treated incidentally, must have seen that these writ 
 ers flounder in a most extraordinary manner as to the very 
 date of Ofiate s expedition, and betray complete ignorance as 
 to its earlier stages. They leave you in a delightful mist of 
 uncertainty whether the Spanish commander set out in 1591, 
 or in some year between that and the last year of the century. 
 Yet here was a work in print, not one of highest rarity, writ 
 ten by one of the very conquistadors of New Mexico, an offi 
 cer who served in the expedition and proved himself a gallant 
 man at arms a work in which he gives, with exact particu 
 larity, dates of events, names of officers, priests, and soldiers, 
 names of Indian chiefs and places, till the verse reminds one 
 of the second book of the " Iliad," or passages in Shakespeare s 
 historical plays. It may not be poetry, but we may thank the 
 poet for his poem. 
 
 Opening with a patriotic tribute to the Spanish monarch, 
 the first canto then proceeds to give an idea of the position of 
 New Mexico in the continent of North America, and of the 
 extent of the province. Next it relates the unanimous, con 
 sistent, and general tradition in Mexico, that two valiant broth 
 ers, issuing from a cave in the northern parts, led the Mexi 
 cans to their present land a story told, too, in their ancient 
 hieroglyphics] paintings. In the next canto the devil, in the 
 form of a frightful hag, meets these early Mexican emigrants 
 on their southward march, and bids them plant their city by 
 a lake, where they see an eagle on a prickly-pear devouring a 
 
6 
 
 serpent the emblem of our neighboring republic, now so fa 
 miliar to us. 
 
 In the third canto lie introduces us to the viceroy, Antonio 
 de Mendoza, and to Cristobal de Ofiate, and his kinsman 
 Juan de Zaldibar, who pushed the Spanish conquests north 
 ward. Then he begins properly the history of the explora 
 tions which led to the occupation of New Mexico, starting 
 with " that zealous, humble provincial of the order of the 
 Seraphic Francis, who is called Fray Mark of Nice." 
 
 The expedition of Francisco Yasquez de Coronado is next 
 described, from his camp at Compostela, 1,200 miles from 
 Mexico, to the pueblos of Cibola, recounting in stately verse 
 the prowess of some of his officers. 
 
 The fourth canto is one of moralizing, in which he stigma 
 tizes the infamy of commanders, officers, and soldiers who un 
 dertake new conquests, but lack spirit to carry them out. 
 
 In the fifth we come to the zealous exploration of the mission 
 aries, Fray Agustin Rodriguez and his companions, escorted 
 bv Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado, and seven other Spaniards 
 whom he names, giving the date of the expedition, 1581 : 
 
 And in the year, tis certain as the sun, 
 We reckon fifteen hundred eighty-one, 
 The Count whose scutcheon marks Corunna by the sea, 
 Sent forth Agustin, Juan, Francisco, friars three, 
 Devout Religious of the Saint who bore 
 On feet and side and hands in pity-moving gore 
 The stigmas of our suffering Lord portrayed. 
 To ope these heathen lands, with valor they essayed, 
 To guard their steps Francis Sanchez Chamuscado goes, 
 Philip de Escalante, Peter Sanchez de Chaves, and Gallejos, 
 Herrera, Fuensalida, Barrada, and John Sanchez too, 
 Whom all for valiant and stout warriors knew. 
 Much of the land this little corps explored, 
 Then leaving there the priests that God might be adored, 
 Their homeward way without mishap retrace, 
 ( Glad to have journeyed, seen, explored the place. 
 
That the names of the soldiers are accurate is attested by 
 the examinations of some of them jet extant. 
 
 These missionaries reached the pueblo of Puaray, near the 
 present Sandia, and began their Christian work after the sol 
 diers of the escort left them. For a time the prospect seemed 
 most flattering; and one of the priests, attempting to cross 
 the territory of the wild tribes and reach the Spanish settle 
 ments to obtain additional laborers and means, was treacher 
 ously slain. Then another priest, Father Francis Lopez, was 
 killed near Puaray ; and Brother Augustine Rodriguez, left 
 alone with a few young Indians who had accompanied him 
 from Mexico, was likewise butchered. 
 
 The Franciscans in Mexico were long in harassing doubt 
 as to the fate of their fellow-religious, and, in 1582, a wealthy 
 gentleman, Antonio de Espejo, set out with a force, raised 
 at his own expense, to ascertain the fate of the friars. The 
 people of Puaray fled, and a painted wall depicted only too 
 distinctly the fate of the three brave envoys of Christian 
 civilization. Espejo, disappointed in his hope of rescuing the 
 missionaries, then explored the country of the Pueblo Indians, 
 to which Friar Augustine had given the name of New Mexico, 
 and returned hoping to obtain a royal grant to reduce it. His 
 services were, however, set aside, and the conquest of New 
 Mexico was assigned to Juan de Onate. 
 
 Espejo s expedition was fully described in a work on China, 
 printed in 1586, but our poet being an adherent of Onate, de 
 scribes it very briefly ; he tells, however, of Father Diego 
 Marquez and his capture by the English ; of the attempt made 
 by Juan Bautista de Lomas in 1589 ; of the expedition under 
 Castanos the next year, with Cristobal de Heredia, which was 
 arrested by the viceroy; next of the attempt made by Cap 
 tain Leiva Bonilla in defiance of the viceroy s order, formally 
 announced to him. His party broke up, and finally submit 
 ted to the authorities. 
 
 Haying thus touched upon all the previous efforts to reduce 
 New Mexico, our poet, in the sixth canto, begins properly 
 
the history of Onate s expedition, which planted the power 
 of Spain on the upper Rio Grande. 
 
 The king had committed the conquest to Don Juan de 
 Dilate as early as 1588, doubtless from family influence, for 
 he was connected with the houses of Cortes and Montezuma. 
 And it was for this reason that the projects of more ex 
 perienced officers on the frontier were rejected, and their at 
 tempts suppressed. But Cedilla followed Cedula, and it was 
 not till August 24, 1595, that the viceroy of New Spain issued 
 the official authority for the expedition. Onate then called 
 around him several distinguished officers, who were to bring 
 retainers, and share in the perils and glory of the conquest. 
 
 lie appointed John de Zaldibar maese de campo, and Juan 
 Guerra his lieutenant, Vicente de Zaldibar sargente-major. 
 His officers set up their standards to enroll men for the expedi 
 tion, but amid all the din of preparation there came an order 
 from the Count of Monterey, who had just arrived as viceroy, 
 directing Ofiate to suspend his operations, and not proceed to 
 New Mexico. Jealousy had been at work, and it required 
 time for Ofiate to justify himself in Mexico and in Spain. 
 At last missionaries were assigned to the expedition, Fathers 
 Fray Eodrigo Duran, Fray Diego Marquez, Fr. Balthazar 
 
 , Fray Cristobal de Salazar, and others. A force of 
 
 1,500 men was at last assembled at Nombre de Dios, and a 
 royal officer sent to see that the expedition was properly equip 
 ped and supplied before it set out : but to the dismay of Onate, 
 this officer bore a letter from the Count of Monterey, dated at 
 Mexico, August 12, 1596, inclosing one from the king, dated 
 May 8th, forbidding Onate to enter New Mexico, or if he had 
 entered that province, to continue his expedition. If he or his 
 officers refused to obey, they were cited to appear in sixty days 
 before a tribunal, under penalty of being declared traitors. 
 Fora second time the expedition was thus thwarted, and Onate, 
 after expending 15,000 ducats in preparation, found himself 
 with a considerable force to be maintained at heavy expense 
 or disbanded. 
 
9 
 
 Seeing no immediate prospect of reaching New Mexico, 
 Father Rodrigo Duran, the Commissary, as the Superior of 
 the Friars was called, with F. Balthazar, and some others, re 
 turned to Mexico. Ofiate, with his soldiers, settlers, flocks, 
 and herds, remained encamped, daily losing men, and annoy 
 ed by royal officers, who caused him excessive injury by petty 
 persecutions, in which nearly all the live-stock of the array 
 was scattered far and. wide. Onate s representations finally 
 obtained a recall of the order, and he broke up his camp at 
 Noinbre de Dios, and began his march for the Rio de las 
 Conchas, eighty heavy wagons, with other vehicles, and herds 
 of cattle and smaller live-stock, retarding his progress. He 
 threw a bridge over the Conchas, and there the royal Visitor 
 left him, giving merely verbal permission for the expedition. 
 At this time only one clergyman, Father Diego Marquez, re 
 mained with the army as chaplain, and a cabal forced him to 
 leave the camp, perhaps regarding his answers in presence of 
 Queen Elizabeth, as dictated by fear of rack and thumb-screw 
 in the Tower, and unworthy of a religious. 
 
 A new Commissary, Father Alonso Martinez, with several 
 Franciscan priests, soon after overtook the force. After cele 
 brating Holy Week as became good Christians, the Spaniards 
 encountered some Indians, one of whom traced on the ground 
 with the point of his arrow, the route the expedition should 
 follow to reach the Rio del Norte and the pueblos of New 
 Mexico. The wife of this Indian, becoming anxious over her 
 husband s absence, came to the Spanish camp, and her devoted 
 affection afforded the poet a theme for his thirteenth canto. 
 
 After crossing a waterless tract, in which their horses nearly 
 perished. Onate s people reached the Rio Grande. It delight 
 ed them with its waters, as well as by the verdure and game 
 found on its banks. While seeking a ford to cross the river, 
 the Spaniards came upon an Indian village, and entered into 
 friendly relations with the people. 
 
 Within a dim and overarching wood, 
 
 A graceful church, with one broad nave soon stood, 
 
10 
 
 Its verdant walls afford unjostling space 
 
 To all who with the camp had reached the place. 
 
 Here in this hallowed and religious shrine 
 
 A very solemn Mass was offered. With study fine 
 
 The learned Gustos preached a sermon grave, 
 
 Then when the Church her final blessing gave, 
 
 A comedy by Captain Farf an writ to show 
 
 How holy Church by all New Mexico 
 
 Was welcomed, suppliant, eager for the light 
 
 That by baptismal waters all her children might 
 
 Be cleansed from sin, as on the march till now, 
 
 The sacred waters had touched many a brow. 
 
 Our poet thus ungrudgingly records the effort of his fellow- 
 poet Farfan to give solemnity to the day. 
 
 On Ascension day, April 30, 1598, Onate took possession 
 of New Mexico in an official act, which surpassed the powers 
 of his poetical captain to versify, and Yillagra accordingly 
 gives it in prose. None of our historians have yet copied this 
 document, which occupies twenty-six pages in the fourteenth 
 canto of the poem. 
 
 This document recites the royal orders of January 26, 1588, 
 July 19, 1589, January 17, 1593, June 21, 1595, and April 2, 
 1597, constituting Don Juan de Onate governor, captain- 
 general, and adelantado, and cites, as the just ground for the 
 invasion and reduction of New Mexico, "the innocent death 
 of the preachers of the holy gospel, true sons of St. Francis, 
 Friars John of St. Mary, Francis Lopez, and Augustine Ruiz, 
 first discoverers of this land after that great Father Friar 
 Mark of Nice, who all gave their lives and blood as the first- 
 fruits of the holy gospel therein, whose death was innocent 
 and undeserved." 
 
 This act was drawn up by a notary, and Onate then nailed 
 a cross to a tree, and, kneeling, recited a prayer to ask God to 
 open them a peaceful way into the land for the conversion of 
 the Indians. 
 
 The first pueblo town was reached in a terrible thunder 
 storm, described in sonorous verse. The natives received the 
 
11 
 
 Father Commissary and the General with marks of friend 
 ship. Here, on the eve of St. John s Day, the army rested, 
 admiring the paintings on the walls "of the houses and the 
 painted mantles. A kind of tournament was held to revive 
 the spirits of the troops, and, as the General was seated, look 
 ing on, an Indian came up and said solemnly, " Jueves, 
 Yiernes, Sabado, Domingo,"" Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 
 Sunday." Ofiate waited for a sequel to this strange exordi 
 um, but found that the Indian had exhausted his Spanish 
 vocabulary, except two words more, " Thomas, Christobal 
 Thomas, Christopher," which he pronounced, explaining by 
 signs that they were two days off. 
 
 At Puarai, the Spaniards beheld still painted on the wall, 
 the deaths of the missionaries, and finally discovered Thomas 
 and Christopher, Mexican Indians, speaking their own lan 
 guage and Spanish, as well as some Kew Mexican dialects, 
 having come into the country with Castaiio. From them 
 Onate acquired a definite knowledge of the country and the 
 people, their many-storied houses, their agricultural products, 
 weaving, fisheries, and customs. 
 
 A general weeping one day excited the wonder of the 
 Spaniard, and he found that the long drought menaced them 
 with famine, and their gods were deaf to their appeals. Onate, 
 through interpreters, bid them cease, assuring them that he 
 would invoke his Father to take pity on the land, and on them, 
 disobedient children though they were. Rains came, exalting 
 no little the Indian idea of the power of the new-comers. 
 
 Then Jusepe reached the camp, an Indian who had entered 
 the country with Bonilla s prohibited expedition. This man 
 reported that Eonilla, the commander of the party, had been 
 killed by Umana, whom he had left at the head of the Span 
 iards on the banks of a river six hundred miles distant from 
 Onate s camp, a river of such width and volume that it was a 
 full league across.* 
 
 * " Que riberas de un rio le dcxava 
 Tan ancho y caudaloso, que tenia 
 
12 
 
 The tragic fate of Bonilla, slain by one of his own com 
 mand, apparently on the banks of the Mississippi or Missouri 
 in 1598, strangely preludes and presages that of La Salle near- 
 ly a century afterward. 
 
 New Mexico did not seem inviting to all. Desertions be 
 gan in Ofiate s force, some soldiers making off with numbers 
 of horses. Our poet was detached in pursuit, and he tells how 
 he recovered the steeds and punished the men. 
 
 The expedition at last reached a pueblo, the position of 
 which seemed to Oiiate so attractive and so well fitted for a 
 settlement, that he resolved to plant his colony there, the In- 
 dians showing all friendship for the Spaniards. He named 
 the place San Juan de los Caballeros, as our poet expressly 
 states in his sixteenth canto, refuting in advance those who 
 state that the name was given after the revolt of 1680, in 
 consequence of the fidelity of the Indians at that time. *At 
 this place the Religious set to work to erect a church, which, 
 after some months labor, was completed and blessed under the 
 invocation of Saint John the Baptist. Here, evidently, prep 
 arations were made for permanent residence, and to the end 
 of the poem, San Juan appears as the Spanish settlement and 
 headquarters of Dilate, no allusion being made to San Gabriel 
 and Santa Fe, which were subsequently founded. 
 
 From San Juan, Ofiate sent a force to explore the bison 
 plains, while he visited Zuni, Cibola, and Mohoce, everywhere 
 receiving submission, no spirit of resisting being evinced ex 
 cept at Acoma, where Zutacapan, a man of low degree, against 
 the counsel of the oldest and best chiefs, urged the people of 
 the pueblo to attack the Spaniards; but when Onate arrived 
 before the town, no demonstration of hostility was made. The 
 
 Una cumplida legua, y quo distaua 
 De nuestro nuevo assiento y estalage 
 Seyscientos largas rnillas bien tendidas." 
 
 The expression "long well extended miles" would convey the idea that the 
 istance exceeded rather than fell short of six hundred .miles. 
 
13 
 
 town submitted like the rest. Ofiate had, apparently, reduced 
 all New Mexico without the use of force. 
 
 There was, therefore, no room for heroic exploit or thrill 
 ing episode, and the poem rises to exciting interest only in 
 the nineteenth canto, where Villagra tells us how Zutacapan 
 endeavored to entrap him as he passed by Acoma on his way 
 to San Juan. The Indian, finding the Spanish officer too 
 wary, pursued him, and Villagra underwent great hardships, 
 and was reduced to keen famine in his flight from the pur 
 suing braves. At last, to obtain food, he killed his faithful 
 dog, but he touchingly tells us that the dying animal licked 
 his hand with such marks of attachment, that he plodded on, 
 unable to eke out life by its aid. 
 
 Less cautious than Yillagra, the Maese de Campo Zaldibar 
 and some of his men entered Acoma. They were attacked 
 there by Zutacapan and his adherents. Three cantos are de 
 voted to this episode ; nearly all the Spaniards were killed, 
 Zaldibar falling by the hand of Zutacapan. In the next canto 
 we have Onate submitting to his religious guides the question 
 whether it would be just war to attack and punish Acoma. 
 The reply of the theologians is given at length in prose. Then 
 war was declared " a sangre y fuego " against Acoma. 
 
 The almost impregnable position of Acoma, and the recent 
 escape of Captain Villagra, showed that the work was to be 
 no child s play. Onate, who could not determine whether 
 this was merely an isolated outbreak or part of a general plan, 
 felt that he must hold most of his force at his camp city of 
 San Juan. To punish Acoma, he detached a force of seventy 
 men under Yincent de Zaldibar, accompanied by the Sergeant- 
 Major, the Comptroller, Commissary, and some brave officers, 
 our poet being one, and active from the first. 
 
 Every precaution was taken that their armor and weapons 
 should be in the best possible condition to stand the arrows 
 and stones that would rain down upon them, and in his de 
 scription we have a perfect description of the equipment of 
 Onate s men. 
 
14 
 
 At last the towering height was discerned, and the Spanish 
 approach was perceived by the men of Acoma. 
 
 No pilot long becalmed in torrid seas 
 
 E er saw his sails distended by the breeze, 
 
 With greater joy than lit each warrior s glance 
 
 To see the Spanish squadrons firm advance ; 
 
 Then rose at once from all that rocky height, 
 
 Looming above us like the throne of night, 
 
 So fierce a cry, such wild unearthly yell 
 
 As might be given by the hosts of hell ; 
 
 In serried line on moves our steady van 
 
 To where between two peaks a Titan s span 
 
 In haughty pride sat Acoma the queen, 
 
 Who never yet a conqueror had seen. 
 
 Between the peaks had Nature wanton thrown 
 
 A platform bristling with acutest stone ; 
 
 Thence Zutacapaii scanned with soldier s eye 
 
 The hostile force now open to descry, 
 
 Which formed in ordered line around the place. 
 
 Amazement at the scanty numbers filled his face. 
 
 The action with John de Zaldibar had lessened the Indian 
 estimate of Spanish superiority, and Zutacapan assured the 
 people that no such Spanish force as lay in the plain could 
 take Acoma. The walls were thronged with naked warriors 
 and women, hurling defiance and insult at their assailants. 
 
 The horse was still a mysterious animal to the Indians of 
 New Mexico, and Zaldibar resolved to give them a super 
 stitious dread of its powers. He sent a messenger and an in 
 terpreter to call upon the chiefs of Acoma to descend, and 
 in conference explain their recent hostilities, threatening, if 
 they refused, to ride up and destroy their town. 
 
 The Acomans answered with derisive shouts; but they 
 gathered in full force to defend the main approach to the 
 town. Foreseeing this, Zaldibar had selected twelve men, 
 whom he concealed from view of the city behind some rocks. 
 This picked band, to which Captain Villagra was assigned, 
 were quietly and stealthily to climb the height and reach the 
 
15 
 
 further peak, from which the Indians had temporarily de 
 scended, but which commanded the town. 
 
 To cover their operations he struck his tents and moved with 
 the rest of his men toward the path leading up to the town. 
 The Indians prepared for the onset, but the keen watch kept 
 on the horses, which Zaldibar kept curveting around, showed 
 that they almost expected to see them come flying through 
 the air. 
 
 Under cover of this the twelve, without any covering fire 
 or protection, scaled the height, and fleet as racers contending 
 for a prize, gained the commanding height, the key of the 
 position. 
 
 The towering- peak they gained without delay, 
 Then plunged adown the bristling flinty way ; 
 . Roused by the danger back the warriors sped, 
 To hold the pass or strew it with the dead. 
 But the brave twelve pressed down the narrow path, 
 As each good sword cut wide a bloody swath. 
 
 Bempol, a chief, first led up four hundred to attack them, 
 but the firearms and swords cut down the naked chiefs and 
 warriors in terrible slaughter. Other Indians came up, leav 
 ing the town almost undefended ; but the twelve held their 
 own, and were steadily gaining in spite of wounds and 
 bruises. 
 
 Meanwhile favored by this diversion Zaldibar had reached 
 the walls of the pueblo and had penetrated a house. 
 
 So ended the battle on St. Vincent s day, night descending 
 before the fate of Acoma was decided. The previous night 
 had been spent by the Indians in war-dance and carouse. 
 Now all was still. Before sunrise the Spanish chaplain said 
 mass, and nearly all the little force received communion to 
 prepare for the decisive struggle before them. 
 
 When the sun rose, those on the height saw that the town 
 was untenanted. The Indians had all drawn off to a cave in 
 the rocks, beyond two chasms, from which they hoped to 
 make a last sudden attack on the Spaniards. 
 
16 
 
 Zaldibar s whole force was soon moving on this, and a part 
 crossing the chasms on logs, opened fire into the cave with 
 musketry and two light field-pieces that had been dragged up 
 But the Indians, roused to desperation, forced them back, and 
 they with difficulty reached solid ground, one brave officer, 
 Salado, receiving several mortal wounds. 
 
 The slaughter of the Indians had been so terrible that Zu- 
 tacapan at last asked to surrender. He was told that the 
 Spaniards would accept their submission, but that the leaders 
 of the revolt would be punished. The chief preferred to die 
 fighting, and the battle went on, many Indians killing each 
 other. 
 
 Meanwhile the town had been set on fire, and the smoke 
 and flames came rolling up. The few surviving Indians 
 threw down their arms. Acoma was won, and Zaldibar had 
 avenged his brother s death. 
 
 As the Spaniards moved through the ruined town, they 
 came upon some women mutilating with savage fury the body 
 of one of their own warriors. They were wreaking vengeance 
 on the lifeless corpse of Zutacapan, source of all their woes. 
 
 Captain Villagra describes the battle at great length and 
 with some spirit, making Zutacapan, Bempol, and other of his 
 adherents utter Homeric speeches, answered by the sage and 
 venerable chief Chumpa, and by the noble Zutancalpo, son of 
 Zutacapan, who steadily opposed his father, but when the bat 
 tle came, fought and died like a hero. This chief the poet in 
 vests with peculiar interest, which is sustained till the scene 
 where we behold his four sisters lamenting over his dead body. 
 
 Such is the History of the Conquest of New Mexico as told 
 by Captain Yillagra. Such is the theme of the First Epic of 
 our land sung by the poet Conquistador. 
 
I 
 
DONGAN S CHARTER OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Read before the United States Catholic Historical Society 
 by John Gilmary Shea. 
 
 There is a subject which the Executive Council con 
 sidered too important not to be commemorated by at best a 
 brief mention in a meeting of a Society devoted by its very 
 charter to preserve and make known all that relates to the 
 history of Catholics in this country. 
 
 The act is that by which on April, 1686, New York was 
 raised to the rank of a city, endowed with property and fran 
 chises. It was the act of a Catholic Governor acting in the 
 name and by authority of a Catholic Lord Proprietor, who 
 after making New York English and the keystone of a great 
 colonial system that was to secure to our tongue the pre 
 ponderance on this continent, had ascended the throne of 
 England, the first and only Catholic to rule there during the 
 last three hundred years. 
 
 The Dongan Charter" is a theme that we hoped to have 
 treated here by the Irish Catholic Mayor of New York, as 
 some remarks would come appositely from his lips, filling as 
 he does the Chief magistracy of a city chartered two centuries 
 ago by an Irish Catholic Governor, 
 
 I regret that the topic does not fall to better hands than 
 mine, and as I too can plead ill health, I beg your indulgence. 
 
 Some years ago, a high city official listening to an im 
 portant debate in the Chamber or argument in Court heard 
 
constant reference to the Dongan Charter. At last he leaned 
 over to some other official near him and asked in a whisper ; 
 What is the Dongan Charter ? " His friend s blank visage 
 did not require even the movement of his head to show his 
 ignorance. An appeal to another City worthy resulted in no 
 more satisfactory elucidation of the problem, and the high 
 official resigned himself to the prevailing ignorance. But the 
 allusions to "Dongan s Charter" became too much for human 
 nature. He rushed out of the City Hall, secured a carriage 
 on Broadway and ordered the coachman to drive at once to 
 the New York Historical Society. Alighting, he mounted 
 the stairs, and the staircase of that venerable institution 
 was riot planned with an eye to the comfort of well fed city 
 offiicials and entering the Library asked of the Custodian of 
 books, his great conundrum ; "What is the Dongan Charter.?" 
 The answ r er came promptly: it was the charter making New 
 York a city and giving it extensive rights, granted April 22d, 
 1686 in the name of James II King of Great Britain and 
 Ireland by Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Irish Catholic Gen 
 tlemen, then Govenor of the province of New York. But 
 where is this great document. ! " was the next question. "The 
 original in several large sheets of parchment with its seals is 
 preserved in the office of the Comptroller." "What down in 
 the Park ? " "Undoubtedly." "And where can I see a copy ? " 
 "More or less correctly in the City Charter, in many col 
 lections of Laws relating to the City and in many of 
 Valentine s Common Council Manuals." 
 
 After examining a copy he hurried back, and studying 
 it at leisure set up as a pundit in regard to "Dongan s 
 Charter." 
 
 In the remarks about to be presented, I am far from 
 implying in my audience any such ignorance as to the Don 
 gan Charter, or the Governor who granted it, or of the reign 
 and the times in which he lived. Much less do I pretend to 
 give a full or comprehensive account, for it would require a 
 volume to present real facts and sweep away accumulated 
 dust and cobwebs that have long passed for history. 
 
 The elevation of New York to the rank of a citv was 
 
only one of a series of wisely planned and ably guided acts 
 looking to the future well being and greatness of America. 
 It was important not to the city only and the colony of New 
 York, but to the English empire in America, which the 
 house of Brunswick subsequently received, but lacked states 
 manship and honesty enough to retain. The Guelphs lost 
 and lost dearly what the Stuarts consolidated and secured. 
 This to some may be viewing history from a new standpoint, 
 but it is a correct view. 
 
 Any one who passes rapidly in mind over the list of 
 English monarchs whose rule extended to this country, will 
 see little interest displayed by any of them in its actual or 
 future prosperity. Elizabeth gave grants, James did the 
 same and wrote a book to injure tobacco, the great staple 
 of Virginia; Charles I made land concessions, but that was 
 all. Cromwell did nothing but involve Maryland and Vir 
 ginia in strife and confusion. Pleasure loving Charles II 
 of his own impulse would have done as little for America as 
 any of his predecessors; but his brother James was a man of 
 different stamp. Eminently a man of action and adminis 
 trative ability, James, Duke of York, applied himself during 
 his exile to acquire military experience and saw service under 
 the best general of his time. After the restoration he was 
 made Lord High Admiral of England, and he set to work to 
 increase the efficiency of the British navy. The rules drawn 
 up by him were so wise, so thorough and so practical that 
 they were maintained till our time, and the Nelsons, the 
 Rodneys and the Hoods, the men who made England mis 
 tress of the seas, were trained under the system introduced 
 by James, whom venal or careless historians persist in hold 
 ing up to us as a shallow, bigoted man. 
 
 In France he had learned from the numerous books 
 printed on Canada and Acadia, the extent of the French 
 empire in America, and saw how the indifference of the 
 English government was periling not only the future sway 
 of our continent, but the very existence of the two neglected 
 groups of colonies, Virginia and Maryland at the south, and 
 New England at the north, colonies posssessing no common 
 
bond or tie, colonies not homogeneous in government, re 
 ligion or policy. 
 
 Reviving an old English claim, James solicited from his 
 brother a grant of the territory colonized by the Dutch and 
 that was wrested by them from the Swedes. As head of the 
 navy he sent over the vessels and force necessary to take 
 possession. New Netherland disappeared from the map, 
 and New York, a new English colony became the con 
 necting link between New Engl-and and Maryland, and as 
 his grant included Maine, the British flag floated from the 
 Penobscot to Cape Fear, over a series of colonies in unbroken 
 line. We see his influence too in the grant of the Carolinas 
 to a number of noblemen, completing the occupation of the 
 coast and confronting the French in Acadia at the north, and 
 the Spaniards in Florida at the south. 
 
 That the credit is due to James and not to any settled 
 policy of English statesmen is evident, from the fact that 
 this plan had no precedent, and that for nearly half a century 
 after the fall of James not a step was taken to extend the 
 limits of the British coast line his genius had secured. 
 
 To develop the province he had himself acquired James 
 transferred the country between the Hudson and Delaware 
 to others who soon peopled New Jersey. His friend William 
 Penn, interested in that colony, soon became Proprietor of 
 Pennsylvania, as all know, by the aid and support of James. 
 In New York he established English laws, introduced English 
 settlers and developed the resources of the province. There 
 he established liberty of conscience, Bancroft says that "no 
 glimpse of it reached James," and that he was "an advocate 
 of toleration without a sense of the natural right to freedem 
 of conscience," but that James was in the full sunshine 
 instead of getting a mere glimpse is proved by his acts. He 
 established religious freedom in New York and lost his 
 throne for endeavoring to establish toleration in England. 
 
 Let me quote a more impartial writer, one not biased by 
 hereditary New England hate of James, never forgiven for 
 his endeavor to bring that part of America into harmony 
 with the British constitution. 
 
"Determined to give his American province the fran 
 chises its people desired, the Duke of York sought an able 
 colonial governor to take the place of Andros * * * * The 
 man chosen by James was Colonel Thomas Dongan, born in 
 1634, a younger son of an Irish baronet, Sir John Dongan, 
 and a nephew of Richard Talbot, afterward created Earl and 
 Duke of Tyrconnel in Ireland. Thomas Dongan, of course, 
 gained advancement by his brother s and his uncle s in 
 fluence at the English court. Dongan was quickly promoted 
 to be a colonel in the royal army, and having been assigned 
 to serve with his Irish regiment under Louis was stationed 
 for some time at Nancy. In 1678 he was ordered home from 
 France, to his pecuniary loss; but was rewarded by Charles 
 with a pension and the appointment of Lieutenant Governor 
 of Tangier, in Africa, under Lord Inchiquin, whence he was 
 recalled in 1680. Dongan was a Roman Catholic, enter 
 prising and active; coveting money, yet "a man of integrity, 
 moderation and genteel manners." His experience in France 
 was an important recommendation, because of the delicate 
 relations between New York and Canada, and the necessity 
 of managing them skilfully on the English side. Dongan 
 was accordingly appointed governor of New York." 
 
 Such is the language of John Romeyn Brodhead, his 
 torian of our State, a scholar and man of thought, with no 
 bias in favor of an Irishman or a Catholic. 
 
 Several new officers came over with Dongan. "The 
 Rev. Doctor John Gordon was also commissioned to be chap 
 lain of the soldiers in New York. An English Jesuit priest, 
 Thomas Harvey, of London, likewise accompanied Dongan, 
 who embarked for America in the old Parliamentarian 
 frigate * Constant Warwick. With a considerable retinue 
 Dongan arrived at Nantasket, and set out for New York 
 overland, accompanied some ten miles to Dedham, by a 
 troop of Boston militia, besides several other gents of the 
 town." Brodhead "History of the State of New York, ii pp. 
 37-375- This was in August, 1683. 
 
 About two weeks after his arrival on this island, Dongan 
 summoned the first assembly of the province of New York. 
 
f) 
 
 When James became proprietor, such a step with a people 
 ignorant of British laws and government, would have been 
 useless. To give the power to the handful of English who 
 came over, would have been to make a petty minority govern 
 the majority. New York had in twenty years years however 
 developed and James who wished the people to be governed 
 impartially now established a form of goverment in which he 
 aimed to give the legislation to the free-holders, securing on 
 their part a loyal dependence on the British crown, wiser in 
 his generation than the Georges in the next century. 
 
 On the i yth. of October. i684. the seventeen delegates to 
 the first New York Colonial assembly met with the Governor 
 and Council in Fort James, the English fort between the 
 Bowling-green and the bay. The first and grandest of its 
 acts was "The Charter of Liberties and Priviledges," se 
 curing the rights of British subjects and establishing 
 entire freedom of concience and religion to all peaceable 
 persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ." 
 
 Thus is Dongan s name linked with an act and a day 
 memorable in the annals of New York. 
 
 But this is not his only claim to a place in history. He 
 at once took a firm stand for New York Colony and its rights. 
 While Thomas Dongan was Governor of New York no in 
 fringement on its territoral or other rights, be it from the 
 French in Canada, the over reaching men of New England 
 or the Proprietor of Pennsylvania or the Governors of 
 Maryland and Virginia would be brooked. 
 
 He was the bold, skilful, polished but determined up 
 holder of the rights of New York. He was a splendid 
 exponent of state rights. 
 
 Towards the French he presented a firm front. The 
 noble missions of the Jesuits among the Five Nations had, as 
 a Catholic, Dongan s warmest sympathy, but France could 
 not make their pious labors the ground of a territorial claim- 
 The territory of the Iroquois was within the limits of New 
 York, and New York would not recognize any claim to a 
 single foot of land in their occupation. He upheld the line 
 of the great lakes as the natural border, and strove to keep 
 
the French from any foothold below that line. Seeing the 
 importance of Detroit, he endeavored to occupy it as a key 
 to the West. If the line of the lakes is now the northern 
 boundary of the United States, we owe it to James II and his 
 able lieutenant Thomas Dongan. 
 
 Maryland and Virginia had grounds of complaint against 
 the Five Nations. They sought to negotiate with that won 
 derful confederacy. Dongan put his foot down. They are 
 New York Indians. You can negotiate with them only in my 
 presence and by my sanction. Lord Howard of Effingham 
 came from Virginia to make terms with the Indians under 
 the eye of the Catholic Colonel. His negotiation gave for all- 
 time to the Virginians an Iroquois name. The Dutch inter 
 preter wishing to convey to the Mohawks the meaning 
 of Howard, took the nearest Dutch word he could find, one 
 meaning a hanger or short-sword. This to the Indians was 
 big-knife, and they called the Governor of Virginia Assarigoa. 
 Big-Knife ; and that henceforward became the name for 
 Virginians. Dongan s claim over the Five Nations endures 
 to this day. When the Federal Government was formed, it 
 attempted to pour its legion of Indian agents, contract 
 schemers, and plunderers on the Indians in New York State, 
 especially the Five Nations. Governor Clinton took his stand 
 on Dongan s strong position. "The Six Nations are New 
 York Indians. We tolerate no interference from the general 
 goverment," and this attitude has been maintained. 
 
 Towards New England Dongan was equally firm. In the 
 whole line of Colonial Governors there is not one who can be 
 ranked higher than Colonel Thomas Dongan. Brodhead, 
 indeed, accuses him of love of money, but more money was 
 freely voted to him than future governors could wring by 
 flattery or force. And Dongan freely spent the money in the 
 public service. He left office with arrears of salary due him 
 and large amounts advanced from his purse for public needs. 
 
 Among the memorable acts of his administartion was 
 that olF granting a Charter to the City of New York in the 
 name of the King. 
 
 New York had enjoyed a kind of vague existence as a 
 
city. It had the name without the substance. It had no 
 powers that courts would be bouud to recognize. 
 
 To place the rights of the city on a firm basis, Dongan in 
 April, 1686, in the name and certainly not without the sanc 
 tion of King James II, issued a Charter in the name of James 
 as King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, and also 
 as Supreme Lord and Proprietor of the Colony and Province 
 of New Yord. It recognized New York as an ancient city 
 confirmed all its rights whether by prescription or by any 
 grant, formal or informal, from the States General or himself, 
 or governors acting in their name. 
 
 Technically a city requires a bishop, but we were not 
 ready just then to begin our line of bishops. In fact we 
 had to wait sometime. 
 
 All lands granted to the city, the public buildings erec 
 ted, the streets, ferries and all privileges, franchises, rights, 
 royalties, free customs, jurisdictions and immunites exercised 
 by the city were declared to be irrevocably vested in the 
 Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New York. 
 Still more important perhaps was the grant to the City of all 
 waste, vacant, unpatented and unappropriated lands on the 
 island, with all rivers, rivulets, coves, creeks, ponds, waters 
 and water-courses, all land around the city down to low water 
 mark with power to fill in and reclaim 
 
 New York was to have a Mayor, six aldermen and as 
 many assistants, a town clerk, a chamberlain, a sheriff, a 
 coroner, a clerk of the market, a high constable and a mar- 
 shall. Nicholas Bayard was appointed the first Mayor, and 
 of the six Aldermen two bear English and four Dutch 
 names. 
 
 The Corporation thus created received power to regu- 
 ulate trade, markets and fairs, to open new streets and 
 ferries, and to pass ordinances for the government of the 
 city. 
 
 The Mayor with the Recorder or some of the Aldermen 
 was to preside in a Court of Common Pleas, and hold a 
 criminal court for the trial of offenders. 
 
 Such were the principal topics of this Charter which 
 
9 
 
 declares at its close " that such and no other construction 
 shall be made thereof, than that which may tend most to 
 advantage religion, justice and the public good; and to sup 
 press all acts and contrivances to be invented, or put in use 
 contrary thereunto." 
 
 That New York prospered under the Dongan Charter 
 is seen by the tenacity with which the citizens clung to it. 
 When further powers were sought and a new charter issued 
 under Governor Montgomerie in 1730, care was taken to 
 recite the Dongan Charter at full length and confirm it. 
 That was the corner stone. 
 
 The able governor Dongan held his office till James in 
 1688 united the province of New York to New England, and 
 placed all under the administration of Sir Edmund Andros. 
 
 Then Governor Dongan retired to his own estate, in the 
 colony. He had acquired lands on Staten Island and Long 
 Island; and had brought over two of his kinsmen, apparently 
 intending to make New York his home and establish the 
 Dongan family here. The fall of James II left New York in 
 confusion. A wild German fanatic, Leisler, seized the reins 
 of government in New York. Left by William Ill s in 
 difference and neglect to do his will he launched the New 
 York Indians on the French in Canada, and committed a 
 frightful massacre at Lachine, compelling the French on 
 their side to use Indians in war, as they did with fearful 
 effect on New England and New York for many a day. 
 
 Dongan had taken no part in favor of the fallen mon 
 arch, but Leisler hunted him like a wolf, and the best 
 governor New York had had was glad at last to escape to 
 Rhode Island, and sail to England from the port of Boston 
 where he had been so honorably received. 
 
 He reached England to find a foreigner on the throne, 
 his brother the Earl of Limerick in exile, the property of the 
 family confiscated. His own accounts as Governor had 
 never been settled, and New York owed him heavy arrears. 
 He petitioned in vain for the repayment of moneys which he 
 had with public spirit advanced, and for arrears due him. It 
 was not till after long delay that a pittance reached Dongan, 
 
10 . 
 
 a poor reward for long and able services to create a British 
 Empire in America. 
 
 When his brother died and the Earldom of Limerick 
 devolved upon him, he sought at least a portion of the im 
 mense estates in Ireland which had been confiscated, but 
 the same niggardly policy prevailed. 
 
 The great governor of New York, Thomas Dongan, 
 Earl of Limerick, died at last in the obscurity of poverty at 
 London, and was interred in Saint Pancras Churchyard, 
 the chosen place of repose of Catholics of rank. 
 
 The Charter is still preserved intact in the office of the 
 Comptroller of the city,but may easily be marred or destroyed. 
 It is one of the oldest and most interesting documents re 
 lating to the city and its rights, and yet one gentleman seeking 
 to consult it, found it used as a foot-rest by a clerk. 
 
 In the hope of being able to show the original Charter 
 to the members of the Society, I applied to the Hon. 
 W. Low, to permit it to be brought here this evening in cus 
 tody of one of the officers of his department, Walter Dongan, 
 a descendent of the great governor, being now one. He re 
 ceived our application with great courtesy, but expressed his 
 regret that he could not allow it to be removed from his 
 office except under a subpoena from a court of justice. 
 
 We are not prepared just yet to involve ourselves in liti 
 gation, even with a skilful lawyer for our president ; but I 
 question whether the comptroller has any right to the custody 
 of the Dongan Charter. He is not one of the ancient officers 
 created by the charter, while the chamberlain is : but there 
 seems no authority for any financial officer to hold the 
 charters and rolls of the city, to be its "Gustos Rotulorum." 
 
 When it was issued Dongan s Charter was surely com 
 mitted to the custody of the Mayor, Nicholas Bayard, and the 
 Clerk, John West. It would seem therefore that the clerk is 
 the proper holder of the same and responsible for its safe 
 keeping. 
 
SIR JOHN JAMES OF CRISHALL, ESSEX, BART. 
 
 THE BENEFACTOR OF THE PENNSYLVANIA MISSIONS. 
 
 BY JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 
 
 IT is a curious fact that an English gentleman who stands 
 pre-eminent as the founder of a fund for the support of mis 
 sions in this country, and whose benefactions continued for a 
 century, has been comparatively unknown. The fund bore 
 his name, but of him personally, little has been recorded. In 
 the last century the Rev. Patrick Smyth published an absurd 
 story in regard to it, and in our time strange theories have 
 been set up. 
 
 While writing " The Catholic Church in Colonial Days," 
 researches left me in doubt whether the benefactor of Cath 
 olics in Pennsylvania was Sir John James, of Heston, or his 
 namesake and contemporary of Crishall. Investigations not 
 then completed produce the conviction that he was Sir John 
 James of Crishall, Essex : and it is purposed gathering here 
 such facts in regard to him and the fund as may aid further 
 studies. 
 
 A family from Holland bearing the name of Haestrecht, 
 from a place of that name in the Low Countries, settled in 
 England about the reign of Henry VIIL, and in time adopted 
 the name of James. John James of this family acquired the 
 manor of Christhallbury, in the County of Essex, and erected 
 Christhall Hall. He was knighted by Charles II. on the 
 14th of May, 1665. His arms were argent, a chevron sable 
 between three fers de moulin, transverse of the second.* He 
 
 * Burke gives the arms of the Baronet as : Quarterly, first and fourth argent, 
 two bars crenelle or counter embattled gules ; second and third argent, three 
 fers de moulin barways, sa. 
 
left the estate to his nephew, James Cane, of London, who 
 assumed the name of James, and was created a baronet on the 
 28th of June, 1680. He died on the 19th of May, 1736, and 
 was succeeded by his son, Sir John James, Bart., who was 
 born, apparently, about 1694."* 
 
 Sir John, by reading the life of Saint Francis Xavier, prob 
 ably in Dryden s elegant translation, began to form a higher 
 idea of the Catholic religion. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Ch&l- 
 loner converted him to the Catholic faith, and Sir John, 
 by a secret trust in his will, as was then the custom, 
 gave four thousand pounds to the Vicar- Apostolic of London, 
 to be held as a fund, directing that of the income, 40 were 
 to be applied toward maintaining " two Priests for London to 
 assist the poor," and the rest for missioners in Pennsylvania. 
 Sir John James of Chrishall, who died Sept. 28, 1741, at the 
 age of 47,f is apparently the convert of Bishop Challoner, and 
 establisher of the fund, who is said to have died Sept. 28, 1742, 
 the discrepancy being of a single figure. 
 
 Sir John James of Crishall died unmarried, and was buried 
 at Crishall. He left his estate by will to charitable uses, but 
 the next heir, Haestricht James, after a long litigation, had 
 the bequests set aside as contrary to the statute of George II., 
 and obtained the estate.^ 
 
 As any bequest for Catholic purposes would have been void, 
 it would be necessary to make the bequest to some person ab 
 solutely. In this case it was in all probability made to Rich 
 ard Challoner, and accordingly, as a personal bequest, was 
 legal. The lawsuits would necessarily cause delay. This 
 seems to harmonize with the facts in relation to the fund. 
 
 * Philip Morant, "The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex," Lon 
 don, 1768, ii., pp. 603, 604. Townsend, "Catalogue of Knightn from 1660 to 
 1760," London, 1833, p. 38. 
 
 t " Gentleman s Magazine," London, 1741, p. 554. " Sep. 28. Sir John James, 
 Bart., aged 47." 
 
 % Burke, "A Genealogical ard Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant 
 Baronetcies," etc., London, 1844, p. 280. 
 
3 
 
 The first payment of income noted in Bishop Challoner s 
 Lodger was made by the Executors to him from Michaelmas, 
 1748, and the principal was paid to him in February, 1751. 
 
 The whole 1,000 was at first invested by the Bishop in 
 East India 3 per cents., but half of it was soon sold out and 
 invested at Paris in the French India Company s stock.* 
 
 After deducting the fixed amount set apart for the London 
 poor, the residue was forwarded in Colonial times to the Su 
 perior of the Jesuit mission in Maryland, who divided it be 
 tween the missions of St. Mary s at Philadelphia, St. Paul s 
 at Cushenhopen. St. John Nepomucene at Lancaster, and St. 
 John Francis Regis at Conewago. The first allusion to it is 
 in a letter of Father Henry .Neale from Philadelphia in 1716. 
 The amount sent to America was at first 100. 
 
 In 1765 each of the four Pennsylvania missions received 
 20 from the income of the fund, and this continued till the 
 beginning of the French Revolution, when the part of the 
 fund invested in French securities decreased so much in value 
 that it was sold and the amount reinvested in English securities, 
 the loss by the operation being about one-third of the Penn 
 sylvania portion. In consequence, the Pennsylvania income, 
 which till 1792 had been 80, became in 1793 only 59.10s.8d.f 
 
 * Letter of W. A. Canon Johnson. Bishop Challoner s Ledger brings the ac 
 count down to 1780. 
 
 t Memorandum it) handwriting of Father George Hunter, 1765; Memorandum 
 in handwriting of Bishop Carroll, 1795. Bishop Douglass wrote to Bishop Car 
 roll, Feb. 5, 1793 : " You are doubtless sensible that a great part of our property 
 was vested in the French funds. When things began to be violent in that coun 
 try, it was judged most advisable to sell out as much of that property as could 
 be sold, and place it in some more secure hands. Accordingly, amongst the 
 rest, we sold those actions from which near two-thirds of Sir John James , or 
 what we call the German funds derived their support. But the market price of 
 actions was then reduced so low, the English Funds had increased in value in 
 the same proportion as the French funds were depressed ; and the price of ex 
 change for bills of remittance of money to England was so very considerably 
 against us, that by one way or another the produce of those actions which in the 
 year 1785 and 1786 produced about 70 per annum, being now placed in one of 
 our stocks (4 p. cents.), produce only 48.10.8 p r annum, which, with 51 
 p. an. in the same hands it was in before, makes 99.10.8, the whole pro- 
 
It subsequently declined to 55, and for a long time never 
 exceeded it.* 
 
 The Rev. Patrick Smyth, an Irish clergyman who had been 
 for a time in the United States, published a pamphlet in 
 Dublin in 1788, in which he gives this queer account of Sir 
 John James fund : 
 
 About fifty or sixty years ago an English gentleman of the 
 name of James, a Protestant of the Church of England, had an 
 occasion to visit Philadelphia. Charmed with the admirable dis 
 cipline and regularity which was then established in that beauti 
 ful city, he lamented the deplorable state of religion among its 
 inhabitants. As a good Protestant he regretted that the Penn- 
 sylvanians rejected, in effect, the necessity of baptism. His ar 
 dent desire for their conversion did not cool on the extensive 
 bosom of the Atlantic. Upon his arrival in England their sad 
 infatuation engrossed his thoughts and wrung his heart with 
 anguish. 
 
 He spoke incessantly of his poor mistaken friends. He did 
 more. He chose twelve Protestant clergymen, whom he engaged 
 at a certain salary, to instruct his much esteemed acquaintances 
 in the New World. He entered into articles with them, and tied 
 them down to that strict degree of temperance still observable in 
 the Confederated States. The dishes were specified, and the 
 quantity of wine and other liquors mentioned with the utmost 
 scrupulosity. 
 
 The preliminary articles being thus ratified, Mr. James, after 
 having sold the greatest part of his property in England, em 
 barked with his apostles for the capital of Quakerism. His breast 
 glowed with ecstasy at the thoughts of his approaching success. 
 That fashionable indifference for all religion which is affected by 
 every deistical coxcomb, was then little known in the world, nor 
 was the abused name of universal benevolence perverted to the 
 
 worst purposes of infidelity The honest Quakers received 
 
 their visitors with unaffected tokens of cordiality. They ex 
 pressed their acknowledgments to their old friend for his zeal and 
 
 duce of Sir John James establishment. And as he ordered that in the first place 
 40 per annum should be paid to persons for services in London, you see there 
 will remain only 59.10.18 p r an. to be remitted tO3 ou for Pennsylvania." 
 
 * Campbell, "Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll," "U. S. Cath. Mag.," iv., 
 p. 255. 
 
5 
 
 heard his reverend associates enforce the grand object of their 
 mission. But they heard them unmoved. Whether it was owing 
 to the want of perseverance in the ministers, or to a levity of be 
 havior in some of them, they made little or no impression on 
 the meek disciples of Penn. Perhaps, too, the frugality of Mr. 
 James table and the necessary abstemiousness which became 
 irksome to English appetites, contributed to render this extraor 
 dinary project abortive. Be this as it may, the twelve mission 
 aries, like the Israelites of old, sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt, 
 and in a few months after their first landing re-embarked for 
 Europe, leaving their patron on the banks of the Delaware to 
 vent his disappointment to the waves. 
 
 In this dejected state of mind he met a German with whom he 
 had formerly some mercantile dealings. He complained to him of 
 the desertion of his missionaries. The blunt German replied that 
 it was not at all surprising if attention were paid to the many in 
 conveniences the gentlemen had to encounter; that English di 
 vines, accustomed, perhaps, to luxury, could but ill brook the 
 scanty provisions afforded at a Quaker s ordinary; that the Ger 
 mans, his countrymen, were rot so much in the habit of faring 
 sumptuously every day; that if the administration of the sacra 
 ment of baptism to the good Quakers was all he sought for, the 
 priests of his own religion (for the German was a Catholic) held it 
 also essential for salvation ; that, moreover, the Jesuits were 
 fitted by their peculiar education to accommodate themselves to 
 the manners of any moral people, and that if they were effect 
 ually encouraged in Pennsylvania, he would pledge himself they 
 should attend to their functions with assiduity and perseverance. 
 
 Foreign as this purpose may have been to Mr. James original 
 plan, he cheerfully acceded to it. He advanced a small salary to 
 enable four German Jesuits to preach in Pennsylvania, and signed 
 article s binding himself, his heirs, etc., forever to pay the same 
 annually out of his estate in England. I could only learn that 
 this good man shortly after returned to Europe, and that his 
 foundation, through the wise management of the Jesuits in Eng 
 land, is considerably increased.* 
 
 In the reply which the Very Rev. John Carroll, afterward 
 
 * Smyth, "The Present State of the Catholic Missions conducted by the Ex- 
 Je&uits in North America," Dublin, 1788. 
 
Bishop and Archbishop of Baltimore, prepared to Smyth s 
 virulent pamphlet, he says: 
 
 The relation of Mr. James foundation is likewise discordant 
 from the fact. From Mr. Smyth s account one would imagine that 
 Mr. James was a Protestant, and lived in America when he solic 
 ited for German Jesuits ; the fact was otherwise. He then was a 
 Catholic in England, and had become a Catholic by meeting ac 
 cidentally with the life of St. Francis Xavier, and afterwards by 
 conversing with the late excellent Dr. Challoner. It is unneces 
 sary to follow him thro all his mistakes on this subject.* 
 
 That so extraordinary an event as the arrival of an English 
 gentleman with twelve Anglican clergyman on a mission to 
 convert the Quakers, should have escaped the notice of all 
 historical scholars, is impossible. That is a pure romance. 
 
 That Sir John James entered into any arrangement with 
 the Jesuits in England -or paid salaries, must be slso relegated 
 to the domain of fable. Mr. Foley, in his exhaustive search 
 of the records of the English province, found no note of any 
 relation between Sir John James and the order, and a special 
 examination made for me at Stonyhurst came to a similar 
 result. 
 
 Converted by Bishop Challoner, Sir John left the fund to 
 him for two objects : the first, absolute ; the second, the Penn 
 sylvania mission, contingent. The fund never at any time 
 passed into the hands of the Jesuits. And of German Jesuits 
 in Pennsylvania prior to 1741 there is no trace. 
 
 What the exact terms of the trust were in regard to the 
 Pennsylvania mission is not known : but it was, apparently, 
 to the purport that it was to be applied to the mission at Lan 
 caster and others in Pennsylvania; for it has always been re 
 garded as attaching to Lancaster, and when in our time 
 (1886) Lancaster became part of the diocese of Harrisburg, 
 the Sir John James fund inured to the benefit of that 
 diocese. 
 
 * Carroll s Repty to Smyth. 
 
The whole establishment of the fund, therefore, seems to 
 point to some missionary work among the Germans at Lancas 
 ter prior to 1741, the year in which Sir John James died, for 
 the fund was known also as " The German Fund." 
 
 In 1874 the income of the fund applicable to Pennsylvania 
 had risen again to the old figure of 80 a year. In July, 
 with the approval of Bishop Wood, of Philadelphia, the cap 
 ital was sold in London ; and (together with all unpaid in 
 terest) the proceeds of the sale were paid to Bishop Wood, to 
 be invested by him for the purposes of the founder of the 
 fund. Now the Pennsylvania portion of the Sir John James 
 bequest is in the hands of the Bishop of Harrisburg. 
 
COLUMBUS AND THE MEN OF PALOS. 
 BY JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 
 
 THE little Spanish town of Palos, which receives scanty 
 mention in the pages of the historian, the geographer, or the 
 traveller, owes a temporary lustre to the great voyage of 
 Christopher Columbus, which reveled to Europe a new world. 
 In the history of that illustrious and unfortunate discoverer it 
 assumes a prominence that raises it from obscurity. 
 
 Palos and its people deserve the credit of having previously 
 opened for the explorer the way to a successful consideration 
 of his project at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella ; and 
 when Columbus came vested with authority from the Catholic 
 sovereigns, Palos has the additional credit of having afforded 
 him the men and the means, without which it would have 
 been impossible for him to make the experimental voyage. 
 
 Nay more, there are strong indications that in the expe 
 riences of the men of Palos, he had read more of the mysteries 
 of the great ocean than he had gleaned from the Imago 
 Mundi or from Solinus and the other works over which he 
 had pored ; and that he there added to the store of indications 
 which he had gathered as evidences of a continent within sail 
 ing distance westward. 
 
 Palos was at that time a busy port, with a long street of 
 Santa Maria la Rabida leading to a rocky pine-clad promon 
 tory crowned with a Franciscan convent, from whose roof 
 and dome a panorama of land and ocean met the eye, stretch 
 ing away northward beyond the frontier of Portugal. 
 
 The town had its men of means, owners of vessels that plied 
 on the ocean and the Mediterranean, traders in peace, and 
 when the tocsin of war sounded, ready to cope with Moslem 
 or Portuguese or Frenchman. 
 
It lived and prospered by the sea, and its inhabitants looked 
 to the ocean for their gain and prosperity. Naturally every 
 thing relating to navigation was a matter of study, and as 
 naturally the convent of Santa Maria la Eabida felt the 
 influence. 
 
 As such houses were generally in those times, this convent 
 not only afforded religious guidance and comfort to the peo 
 ple, but was at once the hostelry, hospital, and school for the 
 town near it, and we may well suppose that there was always 
 in the community of gray-robed religious, some friar versed 
 in the learning most required by the people of a seaport town, 
 cosmography, astronomy, and navigation. 
 
 No picture is more vividly impressed on our minds from 
 childhood than that of Christopher Columbus, knocking at 
 the portal of this convent of Santa Maria la Rabida in 1485, 
 to ask shelter for himself and his son Diego. But to those 
 who have studied his life, it is an unsettled question ho\v or 
 why he came to this spot. He had just left the Court of 
 Portugal after his long and fruitless efforts to induce the king 
 to send him out on a voyage of discovery, and after advantage 
 had been taken of his statements, by sending out a surrepti 
 tious expedition. 
 
 Having determined to lay his plans before the Spanish 
 Court, which was then at Cordova, Columbus was on his way 
 to that city, but the convent of La Eabida was not on his 
 direct route. 
 
 The port of Palos and the reputation of its pilots and cap 
 tains could not have been unknown to Columbus. Pedro 
 Correa, who had married a sister of his late wife, lived hard 
 by at Huelva ; and if this gentleman was not also known as 
 Muliar, Columbus had another kinsman of that name in this 
 immediate vicinity. 
 
 He had therefore friends in this part of the peninsula, but 
 he was destined to lind in this modest and secluded convent 
 near Palos, some of the most influential friends he ever had, 
 disinterested men, ready to support his theory as to a voyage 
 westward and to aid him at court to secure its fulfilment. 
 
From the convent of La Rabid a you now look down on 
 vineyards and stretches of sand, on the river Tinto and on the 
 Odiel. The little hamlet of Palos, with its few lahorers and 
 vineyard men, is hidden from the sight. The little city of 
 mariners and merchants has vanished. There is no semblance 
 of a seaport, and the thriving city which the monarchy of 
 Spain in the fifteenth century could order to furnish and 
 equip caravels for a long voyage, does not in the nineteenth 
 century possess even a fishing-smack. The ruins of a light 
 house alone suggest that ships once frequented its waters. 
 
 In the days of Columbus it had all the bustle of a seaport 
 town, and adventurous mariners trod its streets who could re 
 count voyages on all known seas. 
 
 When the wayfarer at the convent in 1485 began to talk to 
 his friar hosts of his project of sailing westward till he reached 
 Asia, he found more ready listeners than he had met at the 
 Court of Portugal. To the Franciscan friars of La Rabida 
 there was nothing very startling or impracticable in the the 
 ories and projects of Columbus. Two of the religious took 
 especial interest in him. Father Antonio de Marchena was 
 an " astrologer," as a student of astronomy was then styled. 
 To him the theory of Columbus presented no scientific difficul 
 ties ; and as to the practical test, there was a witness in Palos 
 who declared it feasible. 
 
 Such a voyage out into the ocean had already been at 
 tempted, and clear-headed mariners in Palos believed it could 
 be made successfully. Had not Martin Alonzo Pinzon. the 
 wealthiest ship-owner in the town below, talked in the same 
 strain, and had he not brought from Rome accounts of a Mapa 
 Mundi and of books in the Pontifical Library, that told of 
 land beyond the ocean ? Had not Pedro de Yelasco, a citizen 
 of Palos, discovered the Island of Flores ? Had not Pedro 
 Yasquez de la Frontera, whose roof-tree they could see, sailed 
 westward in the Portuguese service till the ship s course was 
 impeded by vegetable growth, which seemed so impenetrable 
 that the commander lost heart and turned back, though Vas- 
 
qnez sturdily maintained that he must soon have reached 
 land, had he but persevered ? 
 
 The friars, accustomed to hear such accounts, found no 
 difficulty therefore in looking with favor on the plans and 
 projects of their enthusiastic guest, who wished to devote the 
 wealth he might acquire to rescuing the holy land from the 
 hands of the unbeliever. The science of Marchena supported 
 the views of Columbus, and the heart of Father Juan Perez 
 was won by the religious fervor of the Italian navigator. 
 Though living in this retired cloister, he was not unknown at 
 court. Queen Isabella had been hi& penitent, and had confi 
 dence in his judgment. Catching the Crusader enthusiasm 
 with which Columbus exposed Ms projects, the two iriars re 
 solved to use their influence at court in his favor. 
 
 We can hardly suppose that a question of navigation and 
 the sea was decided in their minds at once; or that it was 
 not canvassed and examined by the aid of the experienced 
 mariners of Palos. They could scarcely have ventured to 
 present the project to the consideration of the court, without 
 being able to declare that it had been considered and deemed 
 feasible by the judgment of the practical seamanship of the 
 port from which they came. 
 
 It seems almost impossible to believe that the projected 
 voyage of exploration was not submitted to Martin Alonzo 
 Pinzon, the most influential man in the place, to Velasco, one 
 who had already revealed some secrets of the great ocean, and 
 to Pedro Yasquez de la Frontera, who had already attempted 
 what Columbus proposed. The voyage of this navigator un 
 der an Infante of Portugal, inspired perhaps by the very prop 
 ositions of Columbus to that court, has been strangely over 
 looked. Yet the evidence of it exists in the documents of a 
 lawsuit between the heirs of Pinzon and those of Columbus, 
 which were examined by Navarrete, by Irving, and others, 
 but of which a complete analysis lias only recently been given 
 by Captain Duro. The fact of his voyage is mentioned in 
 the testimony of Alonzo Yelez Allid, the Alcalde of Palos, 
 
who says lie sailed till embarrassed by the yerbas in the sea, 
 evidently the Sargasso Sea, which is covered for hundreds of 
 miles with a mass of the curious berry-bearing sea-weed, in 
 which peculiar fishes dwell and build their nests. The same 
 statement is made by another citizen of Palos, Fernando V^a- 
 liente, and another witness refers to a conversation between 
 Columbus and Pinzon in the very house of this discoverer of 
 the Sargasso Sea. 
 
 Las Casas, who generally follows Ferdinand s narrative, 
 mentions both the reasons alleged in his time for the visit of 
 Columbus to Palos ; that given by Ferdinand, that he was on 
 his way to the Spanish Court at Cordova, and turned aside to 
 Palos to leave his son with Correa ; and that maintained by 
 others, that he wished to question the experienced navigators 
 of Palos, and gather what further proofs or indications they 
 had met with of the existence of a continent beyond the At 
 lantic. Las Casas leaves it to his readers to decide, and with 
 the light of the testimony, we cannot believe that Columbus, 
 ever on the alert to seek out evidence of his theory, would 
 refrain from questioning men at this place, especially one 
 who had belonged to a recent Portuguese expedition. Tl:e 
 piety of Father Juan Perez, and the learning of the guardian 
 of the convent, Father Antonio de Marchena, as we know, 
 aided Columbus in his final appeal to the Sovereigns of Cas 
 tile and Aragon. 
 
 Columbus reached Palos utterly without means, as is gen 
 erally admitted, and we have now evidence not only that he 
 formed an acquaintance with Pinzon before he left the place, 
 but also received sixty ducats of gold from that generous man 
 to enable him to reach Cordova. 
 
 It seems, therefore, that the good friars and sturdy mariners 
 of Palos gave Columbus hospitality, encouragement, informa 
 tion, and substantial aid. To it he owed the favor he received 
 at court, and the ultimate success, when after the fall of Gra 
 nada, Isabel the Catholic resolved to undertake the proposed 
 discovery. 
 
6 
 
 That Columbus selected Palos as the port where the expe 
 dition was to he fitted out, could have been prompted only by 
 his remembrance of its welcome. But it so happened that the 
 people of Palos were in the position of culprits. For some 
 things done and committed by them, as the royal document 
 says, " in our disservice," they were condemned by the Royal 
 Council to serve their Majesties for twelve months with two 
 caravels, equipped at their own cost and expense, whenever 
 and wherever ordered, under heavy penalties. 
 
 Columbus had been ordered to sail with three caravels. 
 Palos was thus called upon to furnish two of them. The 
 order was read to the Alcaldes of the place, at a church still 
 standing in Moquer, the Church of St. George, in presence 
 of Columbus and Father Perez; and the magistrates bowed 
 in submission, professing their willingness to obey. 
 
 But the accomplishment of the royal command was not so 
 easy. The owners of vessels, alarmed at the prospect of a 
 voyage of unknown length and destination, sent their caravels 
 away in every direction to prevent their being seized. 
 
 The Queen iinally dispatched an officer, Juan de Penasola, 
 to enforce her orders. After meeting protests and delays, 
 Penasola seized the " Pinta," belonging to Gomez Rascon and 
 Cristobal Quintero, of Palos, but it was found impossible to 
 iit her for the intended voyage. 
 
 One vessel Columbus was to charter and fit out with the 
 means placed at his disposal ; with less difficulty he secured 
 as this vessel, a caravel known as the " Mariagalante," or 
 " Santa Maria," built in Galicia, in Northern Spain, and hence 
 often referred to as " La Gallega," the Galician vessel. 
 
 But without the other two caravels he could not proceed. 
 At this point Martin Alonzo Piuzon came forward. He had 
 already befriended Columbus ; his influence alone could solve 
 the present difficulties. There was some understanding be 
 tween him and Columbus, by which he not only furnished the 
 third caravel, the "Nina," or " Santa Clara," but equipped the 
 " Pinta," gave his own personal services to the enterprise, and 
 
summoned his brothers, kinsmen, and retainers to man the 
 vessels. They promptly rallied around a man who was a ter 
 ror to the Portuguese, of known determination and valor. 
 
 What the orders of the Court, and the sentence of the 
 Council, and the presence of a royal officer could not effect 
 was achieved almost instantly by the word of Martin Alonzo 
 Pinzon so great was his influence at Palos an influence the 
 family enjoys to some extent even now in those parts. 
 
 What was the agreement or understanding between Colum 
 bus and Pinzon ? It was not committed to writing, and in 
 the legal proceedings instituted by Pinzon s son, it is not 
 made very clear. Las Casas, recognizing the fact that the 
 fitting out of the expedition depended on securing the co-oper 
 ation of Pinzon, says : " We must undoubtedly believe that 
 he must have promised him something, because no man moves 
 except for his own interest and utility"; and he concludes by 
 declaring that it is very probable and near the truth, accord 
 ing to all that he could ascertain, that Martin Alonzo Pinzon 
 alone, or with his brothers, furnished for the expedition a sum 
 equal to that which Columbus had received from the Queen. 
 
 Without any distinct bargain he would thus be a partner, 
 and we may well believe that Columbus promised Pinzon, as 
 one witness declares, "half of all interest in the honor and 
 profit," or as another declared he heard, " that he would share 
 with him as with a brother." 
 
 Columbus fitted out the " Mariagalante," engaging such men 
 as he could find, and his crew was a motley one, made up of 
 men from all parts, not all Spaniards even, for an Englishman 
 and an Irishman figure on the list, with Portuguese and men 
 from various parts of Spain, but not a single man from Palos. 
 They were evidently not a crew on whom much dependence 
 could be placed. 
 
 But the caravel "Pinta," with Martin Alonzo Pinzon as 
 captain, and his brother Francis as master ; and the caravel 
 u Nina," with Vicente Yanez Pinzon as captain, had crews 
 almost to a man from Palos or the neighboring town of Mo- 
 
8 
 
 quer, kinsmen or adherents of the Pinzons, men who had sailed 
 and fought many a time under their command, arid were ready 
 to follow them literally to the ends of the earth. 
 
 The "Pinta" had, indeed, on board its discontented own 
 ers, who endeavored to cripple her, so that Columbus might 
 be forced to abandon all idea of retaining her in his service, 
 but after he refitted her in the Canary Islands all trace of this 
 feeling disappears. From thcHt time these vessels seem to 
 have been more easily and contentedly handled than the 
 " Mariagalante." 
 
 Accordingly, when on the 16tn of September they reached 
 the yerbas, or sargasso, the men of Palos, who had heard of 
 its existence, showed no alarm, but on board the vessel of Co 
 lumbus himself the crew showed great discontent, " mi gente 
 andaban muy estimulados." As some say, they became mu 
 tinous, and according to Hernan Perez Mateos, a witness in 
 the lawsuit, Pinzon offered to go with some of his crew and 
 compel submission. 
 
 The signs of land increased. Birds known never to be far 
 from land were recognized ; pieces of wood and cane cut by 
 human hands were seen floating. 
 
 As the sun was sinking on the 25th of September Martin 
 Alonzo saw what he took to be land in the southwest, and his 
 cry : Land ! Land ! was followed by his hailing Columbus and 
 claiming the honor. Men climbed the masts of the u Pinta, ? 
 as others did those of the " Nina "; all agreed that it was really 
 land. During the night the vessels ran south west wardly, and 
 in the morning no land was in sight. Columbus and Pinzon 
 had been studying a map, apparently Toscanelli s, and Colum 
 bus, believing the nearest land to be Japan, thought that they 
 had not sailed far enough, and preferred to make the mainland 
 of Asia. 
 
 Yet there is every reason to suppose that Pinzon actually 
 saw land, and was not deceived, as Columbus maintained, by 
 a bank of cloud. So experienced a seaman would not be 
 likely to make so grave a mistake, and Las Casas, who was 
 
9 
 
 too strongly attached to Columbus to be unjust to him, says 
 distinctly : " Till night all continued to affirm that it was 
 really land, and I certainly believe that it was so, because fol 
 lowing the route they had constantly taken, all the islands 
 which the admiral afterwards discovered on his second voyage 
 were then in that direction southwest." 
 
 Two weeks longer the vessels sailed on, making, however, 
 less than four hundred miles, and then on the llth of Octo 
 ber, Rodrigo Bermudez, of Triana, a sailor on Pinzon s vessel, 
 the "Pinta," which was in advance of the others, discovered 
 land beyond all dispute. Las Casas in his Journal of the 
 first voyage gives this credit fully to Pinzon s sailor ; but the 
 honor and the petty reward were claimed by Columbus, on 
 the ground that at night he had seen a light moving in the 
 darkness. 
 
 Up to this time the allusions to Pinzon in the diary show 
 no feeling. Columbus indeed nowhere bestows any praise 
 on his subordinates, and we, of course, look for none in regard 
 to the services of Pinzon. But from the discovery of land 
 which secured to Columbus his titles of Admiral of t!ie Indies 
 and Viceroy there is a marked change. A breach had taken 
 place between the admiral and the stout captain of Palos. 
 We have too scanty information to decide whether the fault 
 lay in the arrogance of Columbus in the iirst flush of his new- 
 won honors, or in the jealousy of Pinzon. The latter left us 
 no account or statement of his voyage ; but Columbus, in the 
 diary of this expedition, speaks of the great evil that Pinzon 
 had said and done, and in another place, alluding to him, 
 declares that he " will not suffer the acts of bad men, of little 
 virtue, who presume to do their own will with little respect, 
 against a man who had conferred that honor on them." 
 
 Pinzon probably felt that his all-important services in fit 
 ting out the expedition entitled him to some consideration at 
 the hands of his commander.* He may have felt, too, that 
 
 * " Eso merezco yo por haber os puesto en la honra en que estais." Tes 
 timony of Francisco Medel, as to Pinzon s reply to Columbus. 
 
10 
 
 his own claim to have first discovered land, arid the still* bet 
 ter established claim of one of his seamen, had been unjustly 
 set aside. 
 
 Some time after, according to Las Casas, in November, or 
 as others say, in October, he parted company with Columbus, 
 unintentionally as he declared, mutinously as his commander 
 maintained. It was not till the 10th of January, nearly two 
 weeks after the grounding and loss of the " Mariagalante," 
 that he rejoined the admiral, who was continuing his explora 
 tions in the " Nina." 
 
 They sailed for Europe in company, but in a storm the 
 " Pinta " again parted company with the " Nina," and the 
 caravels reached the peninsula at different points, the 
 " Nina " at Lisbon, the u Pinta " at Bayona in Galicia. 
 Each then proceeded to Palos ; Columbus in the " Nina," com 
 manded by Vicente Yafiez Pinzon, entered that harbor on 
 the 15th of March, and later on the same day the u Pinta " 
 also arrived, her commander broken in health and spirits. 
 
 The two Palos vessels thus returned in safety, after a voy 
 age of nearly seven months, and their captains and crews long 
 mourned as lost, were all restored to their homes and kindred. 
 Not a single man of Palos w T as left in the fort on the Island of 
 Santo Domingo, the garrison having been made up from the 
 crew of the <% Mariagalante." 
 
 Pinzon was conveyed from his house to the convent of La 
 Eabida, where he sank rapidly in spite of the care of the 
 friars, and when a messenger came from Queen Isabella to 
 summon him to the court to make his report of the voyage, 
 the staunch old captain of Palos had breathed his last, and 
 his body was already doubtless committed to the earth in the 
 little cemetery of Santa Maria de la Rabida. 
 
 During his stay at Palos Columbus was for at least a part 
 of the time in the house of Martin Alonzo Pinzon and also at 
 the convent. We can infer from this, at least, that a complete 
 reconciliation took place. The friars, Father Juan Perez and 
 Antonio de Marchena, friends of both, doubtless effected this 
 
11 
 
 restoration of friendly feelings between the two men, whom 
 they respected. 
 
 From this time Pinzon and the men of Palos were con 
 signed to oblivion. No reward, no honor, was paid to the men 
 who had volunteered to carry out the expedition, when the 
 powers at the command of Columbus had failed, and he was 
 utterly without means to effect his project, but was on the 
 point of disastrous defeat. 
 
 It was not till the Spanish monarchs finding themselves 
 hampered by the powers granted to Columbus, when the dis 
 covery itself was doubtful, and the extent of the New World 
 unknown, thought of the unrewarded services of Pinzon and 
 his brothers. The grant of a coat of arms to their descendants, 
 by the Emperor Charles V., acknowledged rather than paid 
 the debt ; and though the suit in behalf of the heirs of the 
 Pinzons against the heirs of Columbus had the influence of 
 Government, it brought nothing to the ancient family of 
 mariners. 
 
 A city in the north of Spain, for its gallantry in repel 
 ling the French, was once honored by making every 
 one of its inhabitants a nobleman ; Palos, where so many 
 from the discoverer of the Sargasso Sea had contributed to 
 
 O 
 
 the discovery of a new world, which furnished unrewarded 
 two of the vessels and their crews for the expedition of Co 
 lumbus, received no honor ; her commerce was allowed to 
 dwindle away, till the city which gave many of the best pilots, 
 like Aiaminos, the man who threaded the bays and inlets of 
 the American coast, vanished, and the mighty men of the 
 sea are in our day represented by a deserted harbor and a few 
 vine-dressers. 
 
 The port from which Columbus and the Pinzons sailed is 
 one of the dead cities of Spain. 
 
 A movement fur tardy reparation has been made by Cap 
 tain Cesareo Fernandez Duro, of the Spanish navy, an active 
 member of the Royal Academy of History of Madrid, to 
 close, careful, and judicious study of unpublished docu- 
 
12 
 
 merits, we owe an exhaustive work on the alleged expedition 
 of Governor Pefialosa from New Mexico towards the Missis 
 sippi in 1662, and more recently the first full analysis and 
 extracts of the Pinzon-Colon lawsuit, which had hitherto 
 been so uncritically used in researches as to the voyages of 
 Columbus. 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF TUB CAPUCHIN MISSION 
 IN LOUISIANA. 
 
 As early as 1717, Bishop Duplessis Mornay, Coadjutor of 
 Quebec and Vicar-General for Louisiana, arranged with the 
 Company of the West, which had control of the province, to 
 send Capuchin missionaries to attend the settlers. No ac 
 count has yet been found of the voyage of the first Fathers 
 or their early labors. The oldest known date is the entry of 
 the Capuchin Father, John Mathieu, in the parish register of 
 Mobile, January 18, 1721, and his assumption of the title of 
 Yicar-Apostolic seems to indicate that he was Superior. 
 
 In a recent French catalogue, several letters of Capuchin 
 Fathers relating to the Louisiana mission were offered for sale. 
 One was secured by the writer, but the rest were reported 
 sold. A second one, however, was purchased by a New Or 
 leans dealer, and before it passed out of his hands, Dr. G. 
 Devron copied it carefully, and has since published it in the 
 " Comptes Rendus de PAthenee Louisianais," restoring words 
 cut off or worn away. 
 
 These letters throw new light on the early history of the 
 Church in Louisiana and are here given in English : 
 
 I. 
 
 LETTER OF BRUNO DE LANGRES, CAPUCHIN, SUPERIOR OF THE 
 
 LOUISIANA MISSION. 
 SIR: 
 
 We are extremely sorry to have left Paris without paying 
 you our respects ; the gentlemen with whom we treated never 
 spoke to us about you. Apparently, sir, it was by our order, 
 and not to withdraw you from your serious occupations. But 
 we have not been less sensible of the fault which we have 
 
committed, when we recognized it at Orleans, where Monsieur 
 de Madier informed us that you were the head of the Com 
 pany of the Indies, for whose service we are going to Louis 
 iana, and it is to repair this fault that I do myself the honor 
 to write to you in the name of our Reverend Fathers, mis 
 sionaries, to make our apologies, to assure you of our duty and 
 of our prayers for you to our Lord. 
 
 We reached Nantes only on the 3d of March, because our 
 boatmen were detained a long time in the public offices. On 
 arriving, we found Mr. Fourtat laid up with gout, but his wife, 
 who is a woman of ability, accustomed to business, has labored 
 so attentively to expedite matters for us, that we have found 
 everything arranged to our wish, according to the statement 
 we have forwarded. If the agents who have charge of the 
 rest are as punctual or as charitable, we shall have reason to 
 be well satisfied. Recollect, if you please, sir, that we have 
 not yet the King s patents for our establishment in Louisiana, 
 arid that we need it in duplicate, one for the Reverend Father 
 Provincial, to be kept in the archives of the province, and the 
 other to serve as our authority in Louisiana. You will also 
 oblige us, sir, if in the orders you give the Governor of that 
 country to receive us, you beg him to supply some little nec 
 essaries which we shall undoubtedly need in those new estab 
 lishments, which are trifles, such as kitchen cranes, bedsteads, 
 paper, tables, chairs, and some other small articles of furniture 
 of that nature, of little consequence, and yet very useful. 
 
 Excuse me for dwelling so long on such trifles ; the situa 
 tion in which we are placed seems to require it. 
 
 Our Reverend Fathers, missionaries, present you their hom 
 age, wishing you the blessings of heaven, and I, who am more 
 particularly with a very profound respect, 
 
 Your very humble and very obedient servant, 
 
 F. BRUNO DE LANGRES, 
 Capuchin, Superior of the Louisiana Mission. 
 NANTES, March 5, 1722. 
 
This would seem to indicate that Father John Mathieu was 
 simply a pioneer, and that Father Bruno de Langres was the 
 first Superior of the Mission and took out several Fathers in 
 1722. 
 
 IT. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS, this 7th September, 1723. 
 (Rec d March 8, 1724.) 
 
 By the " Galatee." 
 SIR: 
 
 I flatter myself that you will not find it amiss if I take the 
 liberty of exposing to you the condition in which my compan 
 ions and myself have been-since our arrival in this colony, and 
 if I ask you to continue to honor us with your protection at 
 this time when we feel only too sensibly how much we re 
 quire it. We are here without church and without resi 
 dences, and it does not seem that any exertion is made to 
 erect any, although the orders of Messeigneurs, the Superior 
 Councillors, are formal. Every man thinks only of his own 
 comfort, which he finds means to obtain, while the establish 
 ments are entirely neglected. For six months we have had at 
 New Orleans only a small room, which served us as chapel and 
 kitchen, another to lodge four religious, and a third to store 
 our provisions and other effects. I will not tell you, sir, 
 what inconvenience we suffered during the sickness which 
 attacked us at that time. We have recovered from it only a 
 few days, and we are in a cabin, where I have arranged two- 
 cells, which are not even as large as the ordinary Capuchin 
 cells in France. We have besides this a kitchen where one 
 of our religious sleeps, and another room which serves as a 
 sacristy, where a fourth is lodged. The house which we have 
 converted into a church holds only about - - persons, which 
 is only half a quarter of the inhabitants of New Orleans. It 
 will be difficult for us to remain long in this state, our minis 
 try becoming almost useless for want of a church in which we 
 can assemble the people to instruct them, without which we 
 
cannot hope for any fruit of onr mission. Almost all the in 
 habitants live in the most scandalous conditions, and in such 
 a profound ignorance of the truths of our holy religion, that 
 they may be said to be ignorant even of the first elements. 
 No Easter Communion, no attendance at divine service, al 
 though we do all we can to attract them, both in public and 
 private. Those who wish to keep up a show of religion, con 
 tent themselves with a low mass on Sundays and holidays, 
 and carefully avoid any where there is a word of preaching. 
 The example of those who are at the head of the colony en 
 courages this disorder. They ask us for a low mass after the 
 high mass, which they attend, followed by a part of the peo 
 ple who have retained some religious principles, the parochial 
 mass being so neglected that generally scarcely thirty or forty 
 persons are found there. A better example on the part of the 
 authorities could not but produce a good effect. I hope, sir, 
 that you will endeavor to have our provisions increased, it be 
 ing almost impossible for us to maintain ourselves on what is 
 given us in a country where there is no other resource. The 
 ministry gives very little, and even that little can be expected 
 only at New Orleans, where there are a few offerings for 
 masses, some (fees for) parochial functions in copper coin, 
 which is valued so low that during our sickness I sent every 
 where to get a couple of eggs, offering as much as sous 
 apiece, but could not find them. Those who sold them re 
 plied that they could do nothing with our copper, and that if 
 we had white money to give them, they had eggs to sell us. 
 We have bought a few hens, which will be some help to us in 
 future needs. For the rest, we have for our ordinary only a 
 little pork, half a pound of bread, and the third of a chopine 
 of wine, after supplying that for mass. The fatigue we en 
 dure running night and day to visit the sick and carry the 
 sacraments to them, generally in mud knee deep, does not 
 accord with such scanty nourishment. Here at New Orleans 
 we can pay at the rate of France in copper money for a few 
 bottles of wine and some quarters of flour, which out of con- 
 
sideration they are willing to grant us, but in the other posts, 
 where our missionaries have no resource but the ration they 
 receive from the Company, it will he absolutely impossible 
 for them to live, unless the Company has the goodness to 
 grant them this allowance gratis. I beg you to consider, sir, 
 that our case is not like that of the missionaries who preceded 
 us. These often had three times as much as we have, and 
 when they were reduced to - - livres allowance yearly, they 
 found also means of subsistence by the traffic they carried on ; 
 they obtained from the storehouses goods which they then 
 sold at threefold and fourfold, which gave them means to 
 visit these same storehouses, where nothing was refused them 
 for copper money, three and four times the amount of goods, 
 which they had obtained for their original sum. "We are not 
 capable of such peddling, which we regard as ruinous to the 
 colony. Hence, it seems to me just that we should be assisted 
 from some other quarter. 
 
 You will have the goodness, sir, to remember that at Pans 
 you promised us two cows and a bull. If you will kindly give 
 orders that these cattle be delivered to us, we shall be deeply 
 obliged to you, for a little milk with our bit of pork and the 
 rice that we can find here will render our life less hard. 
 
 I take the liberty, sir, to address you papers in regard to a 
 cask of wine, of which we were deprived by an act of bad 
 faith on the part of the captain and - of the vessel " PAlex- 
 andre," who for five casks which have been delivered to us, put 
 six in the original of their manifest, and to deceive Father Bruno, 
 then Superior, noted on the copy delivered five casks, although in 
 the body of the copy there seem to be due us only three out 
 of the nine which the Company assigned us, and of which we 
 then received only five. I am convinced, sir, that you will 
 have the goodness to see justice done us. 
 
 Although it is foreign to my ministry to mingle in affairs, 
 I nevertheless think that I shall not overstep the bounds 
 which I draw for myself in this respect by informing you, sir, 
 that it is very necessary that some water-mills should be erected 
 
6 
 
 in places adapted for them, or wind-mills where proper streams 
 are wanting. Such mills will dispense with half the French 
 flour sent over, and will prevent the frequent bread famines 
 which now happen, for the common people will be content 
 with rice or Indian corn bread, and many even of those 
 better off will be glad to mix half French flour and half 
 rice or Indian corn meal, which makes very good bread. 
 Bread of this kind is made but by pounding the rice or In 
 dian corn in a mortar, which is very laborious and repulsive 
 work, because it takes a person a whole day to crack enough 
 for one or at most two days. Moreover, the laborer loses a 
 considerable time at this task, when he could be more use 
 fully employed in the Company s establishment, and as the 
 sick cannot be employed, they are left without food or pro 
 visions. 
 
 Suffer me, sir, in finishing my letter, to recommend to the 
 honor of your protection the Mayor, who will have that of 
 .presenting this to you. He has rendered us an essential ser 
 vice by ceding to us his house, to afford us a little better lodg 
 ing than that we occupied, as well as to afford us a larger and 
 less unbecoming chapel. He obtains no rent, but a free pass 
 age to France, and some repairs that have been made there, the 
 whole not amounting to half the rent the Company had pre 
 viously paid for us. He desires permission to ship some pro 
 visions on a vessel when he returns to this country. I trust 
 you will not refuse him this favor, nor me that of believing 
 myself with all possible respect and gratitude, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most humble and obedient servant, 
 F. RAPHAEL DE LUXEMBOURG, 
 
 Capuchin, Superior of the Mission. 
 
THIS BOOK ON THE DA DU 
 
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 LD2 l-lOOm-7, 40 (69368) 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY