Author Note

Father Eusebio Francisco Kino (1644-1711) grew up along the border of Austria, Italy, and Bavaria. At university he distinguished himself in mathematics but decided to become a missionary at age twenty-five. Kino arrived in Mexico in 1681, and within two years joined an expedition to attempt the conquest and conversion of Native Americans in California. When this enterprise failed, he returned to Mexico. He died in Magdalena in 1711.

Kino Expedition to Pimería Alta, 1687

After the failed California mission, Kino was sent to Pimería Alta in 1687 to establish the mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, in the valley of the San Miguel River, about a hundred miles south of modern Tucson, Arizona. Over the next twenty-four years, Kino made more than forty expeditions through the Southwest, established twenty-four missions, and carried his missionary work to Arizona, California, and northern Mexico.

This report is part five of Kino’s history of his life’s work. It is divided into four books and an epilogue. In book one, Kino explains that he is writing in response to requests from others that he describe his experiences. He begins book two by placing his missionary work within the context of two centuries of Spanish exploration and conquest of North America and briefly describes the unsuccessful California expedition of 1681-1685 in which he took part. Then he provides a survey of his travels and missionary work in Pimería Alta, including descriptions of specific incidents and conversions. In book three, Kino identifies the benefits to the Spanish crown by conducting missions and religious conversions in the territories he explored. In book four, he details the natural resources and peoples of Pimería Alta.

Document Note

Kino wrote this report in February 1710, near the end of his life. It is part of a longer history of his work and that of his companions between 1687 and 1710. The title of that longer history is Favores Celestiales de Jesus y de María SSma y del Gloriosissimo Apostol de las Yndias. Its manuscript is in the Archivo General y Público in Mexico. This English translation is from Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed., Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916).

Other Internet and Reference Sources

University of Arizona Libraries. “Religion: Missionaries to Mormons.” Southwestern Wonderland. http://www.library.arizona.edu/branches/spc/pams/relig.html

Polzer, Charles. A Kino Guide: His Missions—His Monuments (Tucson, Arizona: Southwestern Mission Research Center, 1968).

Smith, Fay Jackson, John L. Kessell, and Francis Fox. Father Kino in Arizona (Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Historical Foundation, 1966).