UDK 929 Kappus M. A.:910.4(7/8)
LETTERS OF MARCUS ANTONIUS KAPPUS FROM COLONIAL AMERICA II
Janez Stanonik
The letter of Marcus Antonius Kappus (1657—1717) from the Canary Islands, dated July 10, 1687, which we publish in the present study, is the earliest known letter by Kappus. We reprint it here an its Latin originail and English translation. As an introduction we give very briefly a general background to the Jesuit travels to New Spain. Kappus's letter from the Canary Islands is now published for the first time.1
I.
In Spanish colonies the state and the Church worked closely together for the christianiziation of its population. With the bull Inter Caetera, issued in May 1493 by Pope Alexander VI — who himself, as a member of the family Borja (italianized into Borgia) was of Spanish descent — Spain was given, at the request of Ferdinand and Isabella, all lands one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands which on December 25, 1492, had not been governed by a Christian ruler. The position of Spanish monarchs in ecclesiastical matters was quite exceptionally strengthened by the bull Universalis Ecclesiae, promulgated in 1508 by Pope Julius II, and by a series of related documents, which gave to Spanish monarch extensive rights in church affairs in Spain and in its colonies, including a decisive influence in the selection of candidates for all churchly offices, from the lowliest curate up to the archibishops. At the same time Spain took the responsibility for
the christianization of the newly discovered regions in her rapidly growing empire.
In 1519, with an expedition of an unbelievable daring, Hernando Cortés conquered the Aztec capital Tenochtitllan, now known, as Mexico City. Although forced to leave the town in 1520, he reconquered it definitely for the Spanish crown in 1521. The town almost at once developed into the capital of the new Spanish empire in Central America, at that time called Nueva España, which in the period of its greatest expansion covered the area from Panama City up to Monterey in California. Already in the following
1 The present contribution is a continuation to the study: Janez Stanonik: Letters of Marcus Antonius Kappus from Colonial America I, Acta Neophilologica XIX (1986), 33—56. The earlier study gave the biography of Kappus, as much as it can be reconstructed, and the bibliography of works dealing with Kappus's life and work.
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year, in 1522, the town Mexico was chartered as a city and its first council (cabildo) recognized. In 1524, in Madrid, the Council of the Indies was created which held the supreme judicial, legislative, and executive powers for the Spanish colonies in America and in the Pacific. In 1528 Juan de Zumárraga became the first bishop of Mexico. In 1529 Antonio de Mendoza was appointed the first viceroy of Mexico, which office he covered very successfully from 1535—1550. In 1539 Juan Cromberger started to work in Mexico as the first printer in America. In 1543 the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza sent López de Villalobos to the Philippines (so called by him in honour of the Spanish king Philipp) and in this way lard the foundations for the Spanish colonization of the Pacific. Mexico became an important transit area for the Spanish trade with the Philippines, with China, and with the Spanish colonies along the Pacific coast in Central and South Americas. The town Acapülco became the main Mexican harbour on the Pacific coast. In 1551 the University of Mexico was founded. In 1573 the building of the Cathedral of Mexico was begun; it was completed in 1667. All these data show an extremely rapid progress of Spanish colonization in Central America, much earlier and in many ways different from the British colonization of New England.2
The first missionaries who worked among the Indians of New Spain were Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians; the Jesuits came later (the Jesuit order was established only in 1534). In 1566 King Philipp II wrote to Franciscus Borgia, formerly the Duke of Gandia and viceroy of Catalonia, now the third General of the Jesuit Order, asking him to send Jesuits as missionaries to New Spain. Similar demands were also expressed by various ecclesiastical authorities in Mexico. The first Jesuits came to work in New Spain in 1572, by way of Florida, led by P. Pedro Sanchez, who became the first Padre Provincial of Mexico. Initially the Jesuits in Mexico worked in urban districts, among Spaniards and christianized Indians. In 1591, however, PP. Gonzalvo de Tapia and Martin» Perez were sent to Sinaloa as first Jesuit missionaries among pagan Indians, and in this way northwestern Mexico became the central sphere of the missionary work of Jesuits in New Spain. The line running north from Zacatecas to El Paso on the Rio Grande River was determined as the border between regions covered by Jesuits and the Franciscans: east of this line worked the Franciscans, west of it the Jesuits. The Jesuit missionaries became one of the most important factors in the spreading of the Spanish colonial system into the northwestern area of the present day Mexico. They laid foundations also for the Spanish expansion into Alta California: after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish colonies, in 1767, their work was continued by the Franoiscans, who in collaboration with Spanish civil servants, and led by Fray Junípero Serra finally reached the Golden Gate and esta blished there the Mission of Sam Francisco, the beginning of the town of San Francisco.3
2	William H. Prescott: History of the Conquest of Mexico, 1843; José Bravo Ugarte: Historia de México, 3 vols., Mexico City 1941—44.
3	Out of the enormous literature covering the subject of this paragraph I wish to quote here: Francisco Javier Alegre: Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en Nueva España, first ed. in three vols., edited by Carlos Bustamante, Mexico 1841—42; a new ed. by Ernest J. Burrus, S.J. and Félix Zubillaga, S.J., 4 vols., Rome and St. Louis, 1956—1960. John Francis Bannon: The Spanish Borderlands Frontier 1955—1821, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 1974.
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The coast of the northwestern Mexico and of Caifornia was of an exceptional importance for Spaniards: from it they could protect their trade with the Philippines and with China. In 1529 Nuno de Guzman crossed the Sierra Madre Occidental and in the area of the present day provinces of Sinaloa and Jalisco founded the state of Nueva Galieia — a name which did not last long — with the capital Cuiliacan, which he established in 1531. In 1562 Francisco de Ibarra was sent into this area as its governor by the viceroy Luis de Valasco. The province was now renamed into Nueva Vizcaya. It covered the present provinces Sinaloa, Sonora, and the central plateau. During the subsequent deoetmia the (»Ionization moved steadilly to the river Yaqui, thus reaching the border of the present Sonora. As already stated the Jesuits played in this expansion a leading role. In the late 1620's the first Jesuit missionaries entered the area of Sonora and here they rapidly progressed with their work along the main rivers of Sonora which flow here from north southwards into the Gulf of Mexico. In the Hate 1630's conditions were ripe to create Sonora as a new province, independet from Siinaloa, yet a part of Nueva Vizcaya. Its first governor, Don Pedro de Perea, came to Sonora in 1641 and established Real de San Juan Bautista as its capital. Ecclesiastically (until the middle of the XVIIIth century) the whole northwestern Mexico belonged to the bishopric of Durango.4
II.
Originally almost all Jesuits who worked in Spanish colonies were born Spaniards. The reason for this was above all political, the exdlusiionism of the Spanish colonial system which locked with suspicion on all foreigners. Nevertheless, there were even in the XVIth century a few exceptions from this general rule: a few Jesuitic missionaries came from Portugal (Portugal was since 1581 in personal union with Spain), from Holland (due to the Dutch background of Charles V), from Italy (there were large Spanish possessions in Italy) and even from Ireflland. By the beginning of the XVIIth century, however, it became increasingly clear that Spain could no longer provide all the personnel for the religious work in her enormous colonial empire in America and in the Pacific (besides Mexico also in Peru, Chile, New Granada, Paraguay, Mariannas Islanids, the Philippines). It was therefore logical that in June 1650 the following proposal was made by the XIIth Provincial Congregation (of the Jesuit Order) of Mexico:
A los padres congregados les pareció unánimamente, que se representare a nuestro padre general, para que interpusiese su autoridad con el rey católico y con el Consejo real de las Indias, para que permitan que de los paises europeos que están bajo el dominio de España, vengan religiosos de Nuestra Compañía a la Nueva España.5
4	John Francis Bannon: The Jesuits in Sonora 1620—1687, doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley 1939, typescript. Published in New York 1955.
5	Francisco Zambrano, S. J. Diccionario bio-bibliográfico de la Compañía de Jesús en Mexico, 16 vols., Editorial Jus, Mexico 1961 f., Cf. Vol. VI, p. 571.
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After repeated demands expressed in Mexico by a number of church officials and addressed to the General of the Jesuit Order in Rome, a positive decision das finally reached and in 1664 the General of the Order Gian Paolo Oliva informed the Provincials in Germany, Austria and Bohemia that one quarter of the missionaries in Spanish colonies could from now on be »subjects of the Catholic King, and aliso of the Emperor, and of any of the provinces of the House of Austria«. This opened the possibility for missionaries to work in Spanish America and in the Pacific who came from Austria, Bohemia, the Belgian provinces, a part of Upper Germany, and perhaps even from parts of Germany ruled by princes that were allied with the House of Austria.6
In 1680 the first group of missionaries from Central Europe was ready in Sevilla to depart for America. At that time the only Spanish harbour from which the ships sailed for America was Cádiz which in the middle of that century had replaced the harbour of Sevilla. Cádiz was a better harbour than Sevilla, yet dangerous. The missionaries who came to Sevilla from Austria or Bohemia usually went by land route from Vienna, travelling through Graz, Ljubljana, Trieste, and then across the northern Italian plain, visiting the towns of Venice, Padua, Milan, and Pavia, to Genoa. They journeyed usually in small! groups, using coaches. Genoa was in almost all cases the Italian port of departure for Cádiz. In Genoa the missionaries waited until a sufficient number of them gathered there and then they took a British or a Genoese ship with which they went to Cádiz. Frequently such ships made stops at Alicante or Cartagena. From Cádiz they went usually to Sevilla, sometimes to Puerto de Santa Maria (near Cádiz) where they waited for an opportunity to leave for America. Such waiting could last from one to six years.7
From Cádiz two fleets went yearly to America.8 They were escorted by two ships: in front went the so-caílied Capitana whose Captain commanded the whole fleet; in the rear was the second escort ship, called the Almiranta. The fleet consisted of twenty to thirty ships. They sailed usually to the Canary Islands, and from there, without making a stop at the Canary Islands, they crossed the Atlantic. In America they first visited one of the harbours of the Greater Antilles: Puerto Rico (now called San Juan), Aguada, or Santo Domingo. They entered Mexico at Vera Cruz. The part of the journey from Cádiz to the Canary Islands was considered as the most dangerous. Besides the fleet also individual merchant vessels maintained traffic between Spain and Mexico. The missionaries, however, usually travelled with the fleet, because such a travel was safer and cheaper.9
The first group which was ready to depart for America in summer 1680 from Cádiz consisted of 23 missionaries: 7 came from the Bohemian
4 Anton Huonder: Deutsche Jesuitenmissionare des 11. und 18. Jahrhunderts,
Freiburg im Breisgau 1899, cf. pp. 21, 111.
7	Theodore Edward Treutlein: Jesuit Travel to America as Recorded in the
Travel Diaries of German Jesuits, doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley 1934, typescript.
8	Clarence Henry Haring: Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs, Cambridge 1918.
9	Theodore Edward Treutlein, op. cit.
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Jesuitic Province,10 4 from the Austrian Province,11 2 from Tyrol,12 2 from Italy,13 and 2 from Spain.14 The missionaries had been selected for work in America, on the Philippines and on the Marian¡nas Islands. For the time of the journey, Didacus Zarzosa, before that Minister in the College at Cádiz, was nominated their Superior.
This journey nearly ended in disaster.15 On July 7, 1680, they boarded the ship the Nazareno. The fleet waited for several days in the harbour, then on July 11 the ships finally pulled themselves out of the harbour, using — because of the lack of wind — their anchors, boats, and ropes. The pilot of the ship the Nazareno, however, wished to avoid a submarine cliff at the entrance into the harbour, called Ei Diamante, he steered his ship too far into the opposite direction, and ran the ship on a rocky bar. Soon the ship was thrown on another cliff and began to leak water. The ship was considered lost, and the passengers feared the death by drowning. Nevertheless they were all saved by various boats which came to their aid, yet they had lost all! their belongings. They returned to their College in Cádiz. Soon after midnight, in stark darkness, however, they went, led by the Padre
10 These were Joannes Strobach, Simon Boruhradsky, Wenoeslaus Christman, Mathias Cuculinus, Josephus Neumann (actually bom in Brussels in 1648), Joannes Tilpe, and Paulus Klein. The Bohemian Province of the Jesuit Order was founded in 1623. It covered Bohemia, Moravia ,and Silesia, with the headquarters the palace Clementinum in Prague. Cf. Otakar Odlozilik: Czech Missionaries in New Spain, The Hispanic American Historical Review XXV (1945), 428—454.
" From the Austrian Province came Carolus Borango, Andreas Mancker, Thomas Revell (originally from Holland), and Joannes Ratkay. The Austrian Province covered at that time the eastern part of the present Republic of Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia. Croatia and Slovenia constitute now the northwestern part of Yugoslavia.
12	From Tyrol came Eusebius Franciscus Chino (later renamed into Kino) and Antonius Kerschbaumer. Tyrol at thrat time belonged to the Upper German Province.
13	From Italy came Carolus Calvanese and Theophilus de Angelis. The latter was a member of the family Piccolomini from Naples.
" From Spain came Franciscus Borgia and Didacus Zarzosa.
15 There are five reports on the disaster in the Cádiz harbour, the best can be found in the letter written by Adam Gerstl to his father, a state official in Vordernberg in Upper Styria, Austria, published by Joseph Stöcklein: Der Neue Welt-Bott, vol I, p. 90—102 under No. 31. Other reports on this disaster are: Letter of Andreas Mancker to the Vienna Procurator Constantinus Schiell, cf. Stöcklein, Der Neue Welt-Bott, vol. I., p. 85—90 under No. 30. — Letter of Joannes Ratkay to the Austrian Provincial Nicolaus Avancinus, Stöcklein, Der Neue Welt-Bott, vol. I, p. 77—81, No. 25. — Letter of Eusebius Franciscus Kino to the Duchess of Averio y Arcos, Cádiz, August 18, 1680. Original of Kino's letter is in Huntington Library. Cf. Herbert Eugene Bolton, Rim of Christendom, New York 1936, p. 55 note 1. Bolton in his book does not mention Mancker's letter.
The full title of Stöcklein's collection is: On the first front page: Der neue Welt-Bott mit Allerhand Nachrichten derer Missionariorum Soc. Jesu. On the second title page: Allerhand So Lehr-als Geist-reiche Brief, Schrifften und Reis-Beschreibungen, welche von denen Missionariis der Gesellschaft Jesu aus Beyden Indien, und andern Uber Meer gelegenen Ländern, Seit An. 1642 biss auf das Jahr 1726 in Europa angelangt seynd. Jetzt zum erstenmal Theils aus Handschriftlichen Urkunden, theils aus denen Französischen Lettres Edifiantes verteutscht und zusammen getragen von Joseph Stöcklein, gedachter Societät Jesu Priester. Cum Privilegio Caesareo & Superiorum Facúltate ac Indice locupletissimo. Augsburg und Grätz. In Verlag Philipp, Martin, und Johann Veith seel. Erben 1728 ff.
Joseph Stöcklein, the editor of this collection, was born on July 30, 1676, at Oettingen (Bavaria), and died on December 18, 1733, at Graz (Austria). In 1700 he entered the Society in the Austrian Province, he studied theology, later he became
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Procurador, in a small boat out of the harbour and back to the fleet, begging the captains of individual ships to accept the stranded missionaries as additional passengers. The captains were reluctant to accept them, their ships being already too much loaded with goods and they had accepted a large number of the passengers, several up to 500.16 Finally the fleet, consisting of 27 ships, departed, taking with it 11 missionaries (among them Joannes Ratkay, from Slovenia, who boarded the ship San Diego together with Theophilo de Angelis — Piccolomini), while the rest had to return to Sevilla to wait for another opportunity to get a passage for America. The first — successful -— group reached Vera Cruz on September 25, 1680, while the group which was left behintd (including Eusebius Franciscus Kino) reached Mexico more than 8 months later: they travelled with another fleet, boarding their ship in Cádiz on January 27, 1681, and arrived at Vera Cruz in early May, after a voyage lasting 96 days.18
III.
The second group of Jesuits from Central Europe, consisting of two companies, left Cádiz on July 1, 1687, with a fleet consisting of 23 ships and arrived in Vera Cruz on September 15, 1687. Marcus Antonius Kappus was a member of this group. There exist now three letters which give information about their journey across the Atlantic.
The most important description of this voyage was made by Adamus Gilg, from the Bohemian Province, in a letter written at Mexico City on October 8, 1687, amd sent to an unnamed Jesuit priest of the Bohemian Province at Prague. The letter was published by Joseph Stocklein in his collection Der Neue Welt-Bott, vol. I, p. 107—110, under No. 33 Gilg's letter gives a detailed description of events during the whole journey, from Cádiz to Vera Cruz and to Mexico City. Among his fellow travelers he mentions P. Johann Baptist Haller, from the Austrian Province, P. Frantz Davi, from the Province of Catalonia, P. Petrus Vantame, from Ghent in Belgium, and P. Superior Wilhelm (Illing). When the group came to Mexico City, Gilg gives an account of the distribution of some of his fellow travellers among various missions, mentioning in this connection also P. Hostinsky, P. Amarel,
Rector of the College at Neustadt. For seven years he worked as army chaplain with Austrian armies fighting against the Turks in Hungary, as such he stood in friendly contacts with Prince Eugen von Savoyen. Finally he worked at Graz as director of the Catechetical Library and at last as Prefect responsible for the publication of books. His collection Der Neue Welt-Bott published the letters of Jesuitic missionaries written from various parts of the world in the period from 1642 to 1758. The collection appeared in Augsburg and Graz in the years 1728—1758. Only the initial volumes were in fact published by Stöcklein himself. After his death his work was continued by Franz Keller, Peter Probst, and Karl Meyer. About Joseph Stöcklein cf.: Constant von Wurzbach: Biograpisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, vol. XXXIX (Wien 1879), p. 99—100; — Augustin et Aloys De Backer and Carlos Sommervogel, S. J.: Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, Bruxelles/Paris (reprint), vol. VII. p. 1585—1586.
16	Cf. Mancker's letter, I.e., p. 85.
17	Those who remained in Cádiz were: Mathias Cuculinus, Paulus Klein, Wanoeslaus Christman, Eusebius Franciscus Kino, Antonius Kerschbaumer, and Thomas Revell.
18	Cf. Herbert Eugene Bolton: Rim of Christendom, New York 1936, p. 72.
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P. Gai, and P. Marcus Kappus. Adam Gilg's letter ends with the copy of a letter by Eusebius Franciscus Kino in which Kino describes, writing in Spanish, his first year of work among the Himeris (Pima Indians). In one paragraph Gilg gives also the description of an earthquake in Mexico City.
The second letter covering the same journey across the Atlantic was written by P. Adamus Kaller who, like Gilg, also came from the Bohemian Province and was selected for work on the Mariannas Islands. Kaller wrote his letter in Mexico City on March 8, 1688, and addressed it to P. Joannes Ulke, a Jesuit priest in Prague. The letter was reprinted in Stocklein's collection Der Neue Welt-Bott, vol. II, p. 72—75, under No. 52. P. Kaller is our only source of information about the second company of missionaries, altogether 40, who travelled with the same fleet, yet on another, larger, ship, with the name of Garayo. Among his fellow travellers he mentions P. Wilhelm Illing only, who, however, as Pater Superior of the whole group travelled on »the other, smaller, ship« (i.e. the Campechan of San-Roman). P. Kaller's letter speaks little about the journey itself. He tells us how Spaniards disliked foreigners who could not speak Spanish. Most of his text, however, is devoted to the life of Catharina from Puebla, a woman of great devotion and prophetic power who had recently died in Puebla.
The third letter which has so far been unknown and which we now publish for the first time in transcript and in English translation at the end of the present study, is that by Marcus Antonius Kappus. Kappus wrote it on Juily 10, 1687, while his ship was passing the Canary Islands, and addressed it to P. Michael Dell Potae, a member of the Jesuit College in Ljubljana. Kappus's letter therefore covers the initial part only of the journey, from Cádiz to the Canary Islands. The letter is a unique example, as it is preserved, sent from the midway in the Atlantic. Among his fellow travellers he mentions P. Haller only.19 Kappus's letter describes primarily the conditions under which his group travelled on the ship the Campechan de San-Roman. As such it is very valuable, because the living conditions of different groups of missionaries who crossed the Atlantic varied greatly.20
IV.
The three letters eniable us to reconstruct in considerable detail the voyage of the fleet across the Atlantic Ocean with which traveled also Marcus Antonius Kappus.
The fleet of summer 1687 consisted of 23 ships. The commander of the whole fleet was the Captain of the Capitana, Colonel-General Don Ferdinand de Santiillan. The missionaries travelled with two ships: 23 missionaries, among them Marcus Antonius Kappus, boarded the ship Campechan de
" There were, according to the list quoted below, two Hallers with this group: Juan Bautista Haller and Juan Haller. Besides these there was also Adam Kaller.
20 About the conditions under which the Jesuits travelled across the Ocean, cf: Theodore Edward Treutlein: Jesuit Travel to America as Recorded in the Travel Diaries of German Jesuits, doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley 1934., typescript. Cf. especially the chapter IX: »Crossing the Atlantic«.
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San-Roman,21 with Don Pedro Ignatio Zoructa, a Basque, as its Captain. Some of these missionaries (12?) were selected to work in Mexico, the rest on the Philippines and on the Mariannas Islands. Another group of 40 misionarles, among them Adam Kaller, travelled with the larger ship, the Garayo; of these 18 were selected for work on the Philippines and on the Mariannas Islands.22 For the time of the journey Wilhelm Illing, from the Bohemian Province, was nominated Padre Superior of the whole group travelling on both ships. He himself boarded the ship Campechan de San-Roman. Quite surprising is the information that in this fleet was again the ship the Nazareno which was damaged, yet obviously not destroyed, in the accident in Cádiz harbour in July 1680 (see below).
On June 30 the fleet left the Cádiz harbour, yet as soon as they had passed the cliff El Diamante they cast anchor and waited until the next day, when the captains »who are always the last ones« (Gilg) boarded their ships. On July 1, the fleet started its journey. The progress of the fleet was somewhat slowed down by two ships bound together (»naves socias«) which had obviously suffered damage already during the initial phase of the journey. On July 10, the fleet reached the first of the Canary Islands. The
21	Kappus clearly states that they were 23 missionaires who travelled with the ship Campechan de San-Roman. He should have known it best. We must accept this statement as the authoritative information about the number of passengers in this group.
According to a letter by Don Ramiro Sanchez Garcia, Havana 1963 (using the information of the Capuchin Fray Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna) and quoted by Francisco Zambrano, S.J..: Diccionario bio-bibliográfico de la Compañía de Jesús en México, vol. VII (México, 1967), p. 225 (sub Goffredo, Esteban), the group consisted of the following missionaries: 1. Adam Gilg, 2. Jorge Hostinsky, 3. Guillermo Illing, 4. Maximiliano Amarell, 5. Juan Bautista Haller, 6. Marcos von Kapp, 7. Leopoldo Miiller, 8. Von Name, 9. Domenico Gribeli, 10. Esteban Goffredo, 11. Luis Maria Pinelli, 12. Francisco Ma. Grabina. These 12 missionaries were selected for work in Mexico. The remaining 9 missionaries were selected for work on the Philippines and on the Mariannas Islands: 1. Felipe Nuscat, 2. Rodolfo Beenski, 3. Jorge Hayar, 4. Daniel Prusner, 5. Adam Kahl, 6. Juan Wierdier, 7. Jorge Kamall, 8. Juan Schimaisen. — About this same group, cf. also Zambrano, op. cit., vol. VII, p. 280, sub Adan Kahl.
This list, although very ¡important, must be accepted with considerable caution. The list is obviously not complete: it gives 21 names, and not 23, as was the number of Jesuit passengers on the ship Campechan de San-Roman, according to Kappus. The person who made this list had no knowledge of German: the names are distorted, which actually is not too surprising. Marcos von Kapp is in reality Marcus Antonius Kappus. Adam Kahl is obviously Adam Kaller who travailed with the ship Garayo. The name »Von Name« is no name at all, it is only a much distorted phrase, meaning »By the name of«.
Adam Gilg gives in his letter, besides some names that occur also in Garcia's list (Juan Bautista Haller, Wilhelm Illing, P. Hostinsky, P. Amarel, P. Marcus Kappus) also three names which are not mentioned by Garcia: Frantz Davi, from the Province in Catalonia, Petras Wantame, from Ghent in Belgium, and P. Gai.
About the missionaries from this group some biographical data can also be found in: Vicente D. Sierra: Los Jesuítas germanos en la conquista espiritual de Hispano-America, Buenos Aires 1944.
About the members of this group who came from the Province of Bohemia, cf. also Otakar Odlozilik: Czech Missionaries in New Spain, The Hispanic-American Historical Review XXV (1945), 428—454. Odlozilik mentions in his study Adam Gilg, Jiri Hostinsky, Maximilian Amarell, Vilém Illing, and Juan Verdier. Most of them worked later among the Tarahumaras.
22	I have no further knowledge about this group of 40 missionaries from the ship Garayo.
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living conditions under which the missionaries travelled on the ship Campechan de San-Roman23 were very good, with the exception of accomodation: all 23 missionaries had to share one large room in the stern of the ship.24
For the journey from the Canary Islands to Vera Cruz and to Mexico City our only source of information is Adam Gilg's letter which, fortunately enough, gives quite a detailed report. The crossing of the Atlantic was not marked by any unusual event. July 31, the day of St. Ignatius, was celebrated with religious services, with shots of guns, and with the hoisting of flags. In the evening the crew performed a play in which the passengers were called before a mock court of justice which condemned them for their shortcomings to pay penalties. Towards the end of July they saw the first sea-grass and poisonous jellyfish. Tired birds came to- sit on the masts of ships. In the night they observed flashes of lighting. All this announced the approach of land. On August 4 they first saw the land in distance. In the evening of August 5 the ships cast their anchors for the night in front of the island of Anguilla in the Lesser Antilles. The fleet had the plan to visit the harbour of Puerto Rico (now San Juan), yet »by a happy mistake« they entered instead the harbour of Aguada.25 Here they took drinking water and other fresh supplies, above all pork. The passengers were allowed to visit the town where they admired the rich southern vegetation and tropical fruits. On August 10, while still in the harbour, they had a whole day of rain. In Aguada PP. Johann Baptist Haller, from the Austrian Province, and Franciscus Davi, from the Catalonian Province, left te group to go to Cuba.
On August 13 the fleet left Aguada and continued its journey along the coast of Hispaniola (Haiti). Om August 15, P. Petrus Wantame, from Ghent in Belgium,26 made the profession of four vows. In the region between the islands of Jamaica and Cuba the passengers were awed by the -unusual intensity of lightnings. In the distance they saw various ships which they feared could be those of the pirates, and so the fleet continued its journey cautiously. In the sea they saw huge sharks (»Dibarones«) surrounded by swarms of smaller fish. Far in the distance they could discern the Cayman Islands and the Isla de Pines. Finally they passed the promontories of San Antonio (at the westernmost end of Cuba) and San Juan and entered into the Gulf of Mexico.
Here the progress of the fleet was stopped for six days by a calm during which they caught, for amusement, fish. The calm was followed by a bad storm, with huge waves and dark clouds, with lightning and thunder. The storm scattered the fleet and some ships began to throw their goods into the sea in order to save themselves. The storm continued for eight days.
On September 15 they finally entered the harbour of Vera Cruz. Here »the same unhappy ship, which nine years ago, carrying our Patres, had run
23	The same of the ship Campechan de San-Roman: Campechan means a person or a ship from Campeche. Campeche is a province and a town on the Yucatan peninsula.
24	One minor, yet interesting and unexpected piece of information in Kappus's letter is his statement that he wrote his letter on the board of the dice box. This means that dice were available in the room and that dice could be played as a pastime.
25	Aguada is a small village south of Aguadilla in Aguadilla Bay, western Puerto Rico.
26	Adam Gilg calls him »a Dutchman from Gent«.
3 Acta
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in the harbour of Cadiz into the cliff Diamond, was again stranded and began to leak water, but was saved by other ships of the fleet that quickly came to help her, and took her load, thus to free her«.27 As soon as the ships cast anchor in the harbour of Vera Cruz, a boat of the Padre Rector arrived and took the missionaries to the shore. They were welcomed in a friendly and courteous manner. After that they started their journey to the Mexico City.
In Puebla they were again kindly received. Padre Provincial came two hours out of the Mexico City to greet them. They were brought in caleshes infto the suburbs of Mexico City, and from there into the centre of the town in three splendid coaches. Here P. Gilg learned that he was chosent to go and help P. Eusebio Kino in his work in Sonora. He would go with P. Marcus Antonius Kappus who had been selected to work at »Cucurpe as a successor to P. Josephus de Aquilas.«
V.
Kappus's letter from the Canary Islands is preserved on a single sheet of paper, dimensions 22 x 32 cm. The manuscript can be found in the collection called Dolski arhiv (the Archives from Dol) which is owned by the Archives of Slovenia (Arhiv Slovenije). The collection is called Dolski arhiv after a village, Dol, in\ the surroundings of Ljubljana, where this collection was first deposited. It is a collection of documents related to the history of the County of Carniola which were brought together by Joseph Kalasanc Erberg (1771—1843), a collector of antiquities and cultural historian.28
The paper is written on both sides. It was formerly folded in the middle horizontally. At the fold the writing is partly damaged and not easy to read. Damaged is ailso the right edge of the paper (seen from the front page), which is slightly rolled up, with minute pieces torn off: because of this in one place a short passage, consisting of one or at the most two words, can not be reconstructed. In our transcript we have indicated this passage with three points. Probably the text here stated that the Spanish ships, after they had passed the Canary Islands, have no longer had the fear of... or of the Barbarians as far as Puerto Rico. Yet who was meant here that was dangerous to the Spanish ships, besides the Barbarians, as far as the Canary Islands, can not be said with certainty.
The letter is preserved in copy, while the original is now lost. Judging by the quality of the paper and the type of writing the copy was made soon after Kappus's letter had arrived in Ljubljana, probably in the first half of the XVIIIth century. The writing is comparativly olear and not too difficult to read. The copyist uses occasional abbreviations which in the present transcript have been decoded and the text given in full. The transcript also repro-
27	This can be no other ship that the ship the Nazareno which was stranded in the harbour of Cadiz on July 11, 1680, actually seven years before Gilg wrote his letter. Thus the ship the Nazareno was not completely destroyed in 1680 as it has been believed so far. The expression »our Patres« can only mean the Padres from Gilg's own Province.
28	About Erberg: cf. Slovenski biografski leksikon, Ljubljana 1922 ff, vol. I, p. 162—166, sub Erberg, Jožef Kalasanc.
34
duces the punctuation of the original, instead of the slant it uses the comma. The punctutation of the original, however, is quite often misleading and distorts the real borders of sentences. Also as regards initials the copy tries to follow the original.
Kappus wrote his letter in haste and under difficult writing conditions. Nevertheless the letter is well constructed and gives in a good systematic order a series of concrete informations about Kappus's voyage from Cádiz to the Canary Islands, which Kappus thought could interest his readers. Kappus was obviously well versed in Latin. He writes Latin with ease and sufficient elegance. He has an excellent mastery also of the more complex verbal forms and sentence structures and a rich vocabulary which enables him to choose the right words from a wide variety of synonyms (cf. his usage of adjectives: bonus, felix, favens, fortunatus, faustus, prosperus). The text opens with a greeting formula known from the classical literature. His language is based on the classical Latin, enriched — necessarily — by new words or words which had obtained a new meaning during the late classical period and during the Middle Ages. Such words are connected with the Christian liturgy (sacrifico, rosarium, sacrum, ¡litaniiae), with the new structure of society (secularis, sanctimonialis, cavallier) or with the advancement of knowledge and technology (»leuca« for league, »comitiva« for an organized group, convoy, »tormentum bellicum«, »fritillus,« »tempus« in the sense of weather, climate: Cf. French »11 fait beau temps«, etc.).29
The level of Kappus's mastery of Latin is certainly higher than the level of his written German. This is not surprising for the XVII. century. As we have seen in our previous study,30 his German is more characterized by the needs of daily life, it is more marked by colloquialisms and localisms. This is not the case with his Latin, as shown in the Latin letter:
LITTERAE P: MARCI CAPPUS, CARNIOL. S. J.: IN CANARIJS 10 JULIJ 1687 AD PATREM MICHAELEM DELL POTAE
Quod bonum, felix, faustum, fortunatumque sit,3 cedatque ad Majorem DEI gloriam fauentibus admodum uentis iam Insulas Canarias olim fortúnalas, tene-mus ducentis et 70 facile Leucis dissitas Gadibus. Nos hie ancoram non iacimus, sed prospero uento iter nostrum prosequimur Americam uersus; Literas duntaxat
expedire licuit per reducem Gades nauim nunciam de felici flotae transitu per
Canarias. Iter hujusque felicissimum erat, etsi non nisi tribus explicatis velis, uentum fauorabilem excipere fas fuerit. Habemus enim duas in comitiua naues socias, remoras certe omnium aliorum quae 9 et 10 expansis uelis continuo sequun-tur; et uix assequuntur unquam, iamque geminatis viribus optimum alias cursum interrumpere, illasque expectare ac succurrere opportuit: quid autem passae fue-rint, adhuc ignoramus, quia nondum capitaneara uel admirantiam ita conuenimus, ut de ijs quae acciderant, quaerere potuissemus. Nudius tertius, dum nos sub
29	All these words can be found in Du Cange: Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis. Unveränderter Nachdruck der Ausgabe von 1883—7. Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1954.
30	Janez Stanonik: Letters of Marcus Antonius Kappus from Colonial America I, Acta Neophilologica XIX (1986), 33—57, cf. p. 52.
31	Cf. Cicero: De Divinatione ad M. Brutum, I, 45, 102: quod bonum favstvm felix fortvnatvmque esset praefabantur. This formula can repeatedly be found in classical authors.
3"
35
solis occasura ad recitandum de more rosarium accingeremus, datum erat ab una earum navium signum tormento bellico, et illico a capitanea (: etsi spiraret faventissimus a puppi uentus :) contracta uela: steteruntque ad eius, ut debent, exemplum caeterae; admirantia uero, quae semper solet esse postrema sicut capitanea prima illico uela uertit uersus implorantem suppetias Nauim et post 4 tandem in seram noctem horas rursus explicandi uela signum a Capitanea datum est exoneratis tormentis geminis: forte illam per oceanum, uti, et aliam sui similem. reiinquemus solam; quia Canarias praeteruectae non est quod... et Barbaras metuunt usque in portum Riccum, quo si ab his ita dantibus liberi erimus appendicibus, ante medium Augustum omnium consensu appellemus fau-ente Deo. Nostra nauis valde bona, fortis, et Velox est, et a quo Gadibus disce-ssimus semper a sinistris pari cursu cum capitanea caeteras ut plurimum praeuo-lat, etsi nunquam nisi tria ordinaria uela explicat: comoditas sola dormiendi instar carceris est, alias omnia caetera supra spem, et expectationem nostram, puppis cameram principalem vnacum ambitu toto nos soli viginti tres possidemus, sed quia tam multi sumus angustiis opus est ut nos ad quietem componamus: nos decumbimus in ipsa puppi, caeteri alibi, missas per ordinem dicimus singulis diebus 4 uor, et a quo migrauimus ex portu Gaditano quotidie nobis sacrificare licuit, rosarium sub vesperam recitatur ab omnibus publicé, presente nauis Capitanea, et alijs suis quibusdam in Indias pergentibus hospitibus ualde insignibus, inter quos unus Cauallier de S: Jago, qui primae dignitatis sunt in Hispania post aurei Velleris equites, et dein pariter cantatur ab omnibus Salue Regina et Litaniae Lauretae, et hoc quotidie: etiam quotidie aliqui ex secularibus communicant, diebus festis plurimi, proximo die Domenico ego sub meo tauernaculo sacro 19 habui communicandos; Eadem die communicauit Capitaneus Nauis cum filio suo qui etiam uni e nostris confitetur, etsi suum, ut omnes deberit habere naues, Cape-tanea habeat qui 5 turn quotidie sacrum celebrat. Reficiendi tempus duplex est: mane sub 8 uum uel 9 um uesperi sub 3 cam uel 4 tam hactenus ualde bene habiti sumus, mané 3 uespere 4, uel 5 ferculis, et quidem bene, et sapide paratis, interueniente quotidie saccharo, aut alijs ex saccharo confectis citrinis, et cottanijs etc. Vinum, quoque aquam, et biscotum candidum panem, quantum cupimus, habemus: uespere antequam decumbamus, aquae haustae, et panem, de saccharo nos reficimus Recepto apud Hispanos more, uti, et mane quotidie póculo choco-iatae, quod mihi summe mirum videtur, est. Tempus aeremque per totos hos dies adeo recentem esse, ut palij usu nobis quotidie opus sit, et etsi ita constricti simus noctu tamen non patiamur excessum, sed potius defectum caloris, etsi nunc circa 28 eleuacionis gradum, hoc nempe uentorum frequentia efficit; non deerunt tamen praesertim sub ingressum Americae tortores iilli aestus famosissimi, quos uti hoc uernum aerem, ita libenti animo a manu Dei excipiemus gaudentes. Omnes Deo sint laudes bene ualemus, primis, et per decursum diebus aliquot male senserunt patrum aliquot Hispani 3, vel 4, duo Itali, unus Pater ex Bohemia, et Pater Haller ex nostra prouincia, qui ante tres dies etiam medico opus habuit, sed nunc iterum melius habet, uti, et caeteri omnes praeter Patrem unum Belgam: cui nimis uidetur inimicum mare, et uix eum aiiquando lecto surgere patitur: attamen cum Diuina gratia spero nos omnes saluos, et incólumes ad optatum terminum nostrum deferendos: hoc raptissimé scilicet supra genua sceipta quia dum intelligeremus occasionem expedienai literas: omnes nos ad scribendum accinximus, sed non omnibus suffecit locus: mihi mensae loco seruit fritili tabula genibus super imposita: ita nunc quoque Rat Vestrae ualedico postremum pro hoc anno, si nos Dei bonitas, uti spiramus feliciter deducet Menicum: inde rursus licebit nouum ex Indijs aue mittere: Interim rogatur Rac Vestrae homilli-mé, dignatur hoc, quo scribo meis Dnis fratribus. P. Zachariae Capucino, et Dominabus Sanctimonialibus Locopolim nunciare, atque una ijs, omnibusque notis salutem sua occasione ex me deponere, quibus ob temporis, et loci defectum scribere, uti cupio non possum. Voleat R" Vestrae meique in St""s suis Sacrificijs meminisse non obliuiscatur. R. P. Rectorem cum toto Collegio Labacensi reuereor. In Canarijs Insulis 10 julij 1687.
Reua= Vestrae
Servus in Xto
Marcus Chappus. S: J:
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TRANSLATION
A LETTER OF FATHER MARCUS CAPPUS, CARNIOLANUS, S.J.: IN THE CANARIES, 10. JULY, 1687, TO FATHER MICHAEL DELL POTAE
May it be good, happy, lucky, and fortunate, and may it develop to the major glory of God. With very favourable winds we have already reached the Canary Islands, formerly (called) fortunate32, easily 270 leagues distant from Cádiz. Here we do not cast anchor, but with the prosperous wind we continue our journey towards America. It has only been permitted to send letters by the returning messenger ship from Cádiz about the happy passage of our fleet by the Canaries. And its33 journey has been most fortunate although we have been allowed to catch the favourable wind with only three spread sails. We have namely in our convoy two ships bound together, certainly obstacles to all others, which they continuosly follow with 9 and 10 spread sails, yet hardly ever reach, although it was necessary for others to interrupt with double forces their best course and to wait for them and help them: so far, however, we do not know what they had suffered, because we have not yet approached so much the Capitana or the Admiranta that we could have asked them what had happened. The day before yesterday, when at the sunset we made ready to recite, as usually, the Rosary, one of those ships gave signal with a war shot, and at or.ce the Capitana (although there blew the most favourable wind from the stern) struck sail, and others stood, following — as they must — her example. The Admiranta, however, which is always usuatly the last one, as the Capitana is the first, immediately turns her sails towards the ship asking help, and finally, after 4 hours, late at night, the Capitana gave signal with the delivered double shots to set sail. Perhaps we shall leave her alone on the Ocean, like the other one resembling her, because when the Canaries are sailed past there is nothing which they fear... and from the Barbarians as far as Puerto Rico where we shall arrive, God willing, according to the consensus of all, before the middle of August if we shall be free from these in this way given appendages. Our ship is very good, strong, and fast, and since we had departed from Cádiz it sails usually ahead of others with the same speed, left of the Capitana, although she never sets more than three ordinary sails. Only the sleeping convenience resembles that of a prison, everything else, however, is beyond what we had hoped for and expected. We twenty three possess alone the main room in the stern together with the whole surrounding space, yet because we are so numerous we must adjust ourselves in the narrow place to peace. We sleep in the same stern, others are absent. We read four masses by turns on individual days, and since we had started out from the port of Cádiz we may daily offer the Sacrifice. Towards the evening the Rosary is recited publicly by all, in the presence of the ship Capitana, also by her very distinguished guests who travel to the Indies, one of whom is a Cavalier of St. Jago who are
in Spain of the highest rank after the knights of the Golden Fleece. Afterwards
Salve Regina and Laurentine litanies are equally sung by all, and that every day; also every day some of the laymen take the communion, on the festive days the majority: the last Sunday I had under my sacred Tabernacle 19 persons receiving Communion. On the same day the Captain of the ship took Communion
32	Canary Islands were called Insulae fortunatae by Romans. Canary Islands were probably first discovered by the Phoenicians. A semi-mythological notion of Fortunate Islands, lying somewhere in the Atlantic, can be found in the earliest Greek literature: Homer, Odyssey IV, 563 ff; Hesiod, Brga kai hemerai 167 ff. First concrete information about the Canary Islands was provided by the seafarers from Cadiz (cf. Plutarch: Sertorius 8), by Iuba from Mauretania and Statius Sebo-sus (cf. Pliny, Historia naturalis VI; Geographer from Ravenna 443 ff; Ptolemy 6, 14). Cf. Georg Wissowa and Wilhelm Kroll: Paulys Real-Encyclopaedie der classi-schen Alterlumswisssenschaft, XIII Halbband, Stuttgart, p. 42—43, sub Fortunatae Insulae.
33	i.e. of the fleet
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together with his son who had also confessed to one of us, although the Capitana has her own (priest) — as all ships must have — who every day celebrates the fifth mass. There are two times for meals: in the morning about 8 or 9, in the evening about 3 or 4. So far we have been served very well, in the morning with 3, in the evening with 4 or 5 dishes which are prepared well and savorily, and in between sugar, or other citron or fig confects prepared with sugar, etc. We have, as much as we desire, wine as well as water, and twice baked white refresh ourselves in the manner accepted among the Spaniards, and in the morning every day with a cup of chocolate which seems to me most wonderful. During all these days the weather and air are so bracing that we must use every day our coats, and although we are in such a way constrained by night, still we do not suffer because of too much, but rather because of the ¡lack of heat, in spite of the fact that we now travel at approximately 28 degrees of latitude: this is namely caused by the frequency of winds. Especially at the entrance of America, however, the torturers of that most famous heat will not be absent which we shall accept rejoicing from God's hand with the same willing spirit as the present vernal air. All praise be to God, we are well. At first, and after the passage of some days, some fathers fell ill, 3 or 4 Spaniards, two Italians, one Father from Bohemia, and Father Haller from our Province, who three days ago also needed the doctor, but now he is better again, as well as all others, with the exception of a Belgian Father to whom, it seems, the sea is too inimical, and it hardly ever allows him to rise from bed. Nevertheless I hope that with God's grace we shall be brought healthy and undamaged to our desired destination. This has, of course, been written most quickly upon my knees, because when we learned of the occasion to send letters we all made ready to write, but the place did not suffice to all: to me a plate of dice-box placed over my knees served in stead of a table. And thus I greet now Your Reverence the last time for this year if God's goodness brings us, as we hope, happily to Menico: where it will again be possible to send new greetings from the Indies. In the meantime I beg most humbly Your Reverence to deign to inform about what I write my lords brothers, P. Zacharia, the Capuchin, and the ladies nuns at Škof j a Loka, and to each of them, and to ail I know, to whom I can not write as I wish because of the lack of time and place, give on occasion my greetings. And may Your Reverence not forget to remember me in your most holy Sacrifices. My respect to the Reverend Father Rector and to the whole Collegium of Ljubljana. In the Canary Islands, 10 of July, 1687.
Your Reverence's
Servant in Christ Marcus Chappus, S. J.
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