BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-08

Intricately interviewer with the her
oic history Of the early Spanish mis-
sions is this strange tale Of tie "pious
fund of the Californias." Founded
more than two centuries ago tosa; d the
Jest1its in converting the Indians on the
Pacific slope and the southern penin-
sula, it survives the vicissi,udes of time
and the greed of pilfering monarchs.
Continued efforts BY the Roman Ca
tholic Church in California for more
than quarter Of a century failed to
provoke response from the "Land of
Mariana" until 1875. In that year Me
xico paid to fhe United States accrued
interest amounting to nearly $1,000 900.
1t was asserted by the dons that this
payment extingtnshed the claim, but
now interest amounting to nearly
ST 900 900 is due. Payment of prin-
cipal and interest is to be arbitrated.
Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco
has gone to The Hague to present the
Catholic Churchs claim.
Regarding the actual amount of the
pious fund no one can speak with Ger
tainty. The most reliable estimates
place it at S6.ooo,ooo, and upon a sum
approximating this figure the interest is
understood to be calculated. There are
varying estimates, however, of the orr
ginal value.
Mere figures can convey no idea of
the religious fervor, apostolic zeal and
human suffering that is bound up in
the history of this fund. It's origin is
shrouded in the glamour of antiquity.
Great men of the seventeenth century
freely gave of their worldly store to
hasten the evangelization of the Spanish
possessions. Mighty conceptions of re
l1gious conquest spurred those proud
and naughty hidalgos.
Few endowments have left such last
ing imprints on civilization as that of
the dons. Fortified by this fountain of
wealth, the Franciscan fathers pushed
through the wilds of California, esta-
blishing in the unexplored country
complete chain of missions. They bra
we'd the savagery and superstition of the
natives aud sent their expeditions from
Mexico as Far north as San Francisco.
Many tribes of Indians we're gather
ed into the fold and transformed by
their labors into neophyte children of
the church. What great hopes trials
and sorrows were experienced by these
intrepid men amid their almost super
human labors: But for the pious fund
these expeditions by land and sea would
have been impossible.
AT a later period, for want of its gol-
den strength, the missions-monuments
to the sufferings and privations of the
f1iars-were abandoned. They became
but piles of stone-historic ruins that
still excite the curiosity of tens of thous-
ands of tourists who yearly visit the Pa
cifc coast.
During the administration of Don Pho
Pico, the last Mexican governor of Ca
lifornia, the missions passed into priva-
te hands. Some were sold, others
rented. Father Narciso Duran, the last
of the F1anciscans to brave the poverty
of those dark days, died in want. The
g gringo" had come.
Imperious Santa Anna, greadly and
wilful in his sway as president of the
Mexican republic, indirectly caused the
control of the missions to pass tempo
rarily from the church. In 1S42 he
confscated the pious fund
II then consisted of real estate, urban
and rural, mortgages and collateral Sc
,urities representing more than CEN
Jury and half of careful adrninistra-
ion by. the friars and the Spanish
crown. By decree it was sold for ST.
100000 and the money turned into the
depleted Mexican treasury. The fund
lad been pillaged at invervals and Gre
hts amounting to ST. 900 900 were held
against the treasury.