Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-09-14
NlTIYE CALIPOEKIAES At HOME.
TRIALS AND TRIUMPHs OF THE ORDER
OF JESUS IN AMERICA.
Who Never Slept Three Nights
in One Place.

Who Never Slept three Nights
in One Place.
Especial Correspondence of the REcoRD-USIoN
LOWER CALIFORNIA, 1889.
The student of ethnology, however ultra
Protestant his religious views, must admit
that he owes great deal to the Jesuits for
their zeal in propagating knowledge of
the lands they visited. Especially is this
true of America, and the numerous writ
ings of the early fathers form the founda-
ton upon which are based all subsequent
researches. They gave the first faithful
accounts of the New World; and under
their motto: I'D Mgorem Del Gloriam'
(''To Gods Greater Glory'') they not only
built chapels and cottages in the wilder
ness, but erected observatoris and made
maps. Few, indeed, are the districts in
America concerning which they have not
supplied the oldest and best works; and
one can scarcely attempt the study of any
aboriginal language without finding
that Jesuit has been there before
him and left grammar for his guild
ance. Besides possessing the courage
of martyrs, many of them were men
of great learning, the most enthusiastic
naturalists and geographers, the best as
trouomers and mathematicians of their
| time.
1t will be remembered that the Society
nf Iaclt 1Uh cd ~
| upon the fate of California, was founded in
1884, by Ignatius of Loyola, and five of
| his friends-its original purpose being
only visit to the Holy Land. Wars
with the Turks forbidding that mission.
the historic six turned their attention to-
ward the new issues that arose with the
Reformation-so effectually, that for two
hundred years the "Society" filled large
space in the ecclesiastical and political his
tory of the world until Pope Clement Y.
felt constrained to issue an edict, suppress
ing it in all the States of Christendom.
Viewed in the impartial light of history.
one is amazed to note how their numbers
increased; for, besides the threshold obi
CATION common to all Romish orders (of
chastity, poverty and obedience), these
| added before unheard-of austerities, and
bound themselves unreservedly to 90 as
missionaries to any remote corner of the
globe the Pope might indicate. Nor were
their ranks recruited from the poor and
ignorant, and after entering the Order,
twelve long years of strict seclusion hard
study, prayer and modification were re-
quired before one could aspire even to
the humble office of priest. Yet at their
second centennial they numbered %, $50
with nearly a thousand schools and col
leges, and 379 mission stations in various
infdel countries. Their decline was as
rapid as their rise-though only in France
and Spain were they subjected to the I'M
due severity Of being
DRIVEN INTO EXILE.
l think it was about the year 1867 that,
by edict of Carlos III, all members of the
Order of Jesus were banished from Spain
and her transatlantic colonies, including,
of course, those priests who had long been
laboring in Lower California. And bit
ter thing it must have been for those
faithful friars who had deprived them
selves of every comfort in this almost I'M
inhabitable wilderness, to be compelled to
resign the fruits Of their labors into the
hands of rival Order-the Dominicans-
and themselves go into the world home
less, digraced, through no sin of their own.
The story of Jesuitic explorations in
Lower California sounds like a romance or
an epic poem. Early as 1858 they had
pierced to the heart of the peninsula and
In few years had built up sixteen vii
lagos. Through learned Jesuit monk it
was first discovered that the country was
not an island, as Cortez and his followers
had falsely declared, and through these
same missionaries it was made known that
what the Spanish had represented as an
Ell Dorado, wonderfully rich in diamonds
and all precious metals lin order to gain
| greater glory and emoluments for their
discovery was mostly arid and barren,
without water or treasure of any kind.
The early fathers found the peninsular
Indians about the most degraded speci-
mems of humanity in existence, even
! lower than the beasts of the field, content
to lie all day upon their faces stark naked
in the sand basking, like snakes, in the
hot sun. They had no city, village, hut
or dwelling of any description, no laws,
no idols and most of them entertained no
religious ideas. A few of the tribes were
moon worshipers and few were imbued
with a secret horror of three invisible
diyinities, supposed to be moved by mortal
hatred and to wage perpetual war with
one another and to vent their rage upon
| helpless man.
| Among such creatures the learned and
| pious monks made what Baron Won Hum
boldt called "a peaceful conquest of the
country" using no force but disinterested
I kindness, united with God-like patience.
One of the banished Jesuits-a German
named Jacob Baegert-wrote book after
spending seventeen years on the peninsula,
which gives a detail account of this part of
| the American continent and its aboriginal
inhabitants, about whom less is known
than Of any other indigenous race. / have
lately secured this genuine treasure
probably not half dozen other copies
could be found on this side of the sea.
The quaint volume. of $50 pages (of course
in the German language), was printed in
| Mannheim in l773, and its translated title
reads, Gan Account of the American
Peninsula of California; with twofold
Appendix of False Reports. Written by
Priest of the Society of Jesus, who lived
there many years past"
Its author does not mention over which
| of the twelve peninsula missions he pre-
sided, but says that he lived under the 2Sth
degree, twelve leagues from the Pacific
or rather we should say twelve stunden, the
German stunde being little less than the
! French lieue There were two missions
under that latitude, those of Septem Do
lorum (Seven Sorrows), and of Saint Alloy
sius; and probably This was the latter, it
being nearest the sea. He gives
DoLEFUL ACCOUNT
OF the country, describing it as covered
with mountains rocks and sand, almost
destitute of water and trees, but Astounding
with thorny shrubs. Says he: "No one
peed he afraid to drown himself Int the