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State of the Alta California Missions in 1804
Manuscript register in the form of a neatly arranged table recording the number of baptisms, marriages, and burials performed at 19 Alta California missions at the close of 1804. Also lists cattle, sows, horses (yeguas, caballos mansos), and mules (bestias mulars).
The table includes columns recording crops produced at each of the missions, including wheat (siembra y cosecha de trigo), barley (cebada), corn (maiz), beans (frijol), garbanzos, peas, lentils, and fava beans (chicharo, lentejas, y haba).
A note at the bottom explains why the population at the recently established Mission Santa Inés exceeds the number of baptisms performed there:
Nota. Los 113 Existentes que en la Mision de Santa Ynes exeden á los Bautismos son agregados todos de Santa Barbara, á exepción de uno que lo es de la Purisima, Voluntariamente quisieron trasladarse á la Nueva Mision, por estar fundada cerca de las Rancherias de su origen. Otro si: Las siembras de dicha Misión se hicieron antes de fundada, con auxilio de las Misiones inmediatas, y de otras.
Santa Inés was founded in September 1804, located midway between Mission Santa Barbara and Mission La Purísima Concepción, and was designed to relieve overcrowding at those two missions. It intended to serve Native Americans living north of the Coast Range.
The present table was prepared soon after the demise of Fermín de Lasuén (1736-1803), who, as Father President of the Alta California missions, fostered programs to improve self-sufficiency at the missions.
An important source document that sheds light on the progress of the Franciscan mission network before the Secularization Decree of 1834. The data on crops are of particular interest to food historians.
Rarity
Original manuscript documents dating from the Spanish period concerning the missions of Alta California are very rare in the market. UC San Diego has a similar statistical sheet for 1809. And OCLC locates another version of this 1804 sheet in the Bancroft Library.
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