UDK 929 Kappus M. A.: 910.4(7/8)
LETTERS OF MARCUS ANTONIUS KAPPUS FROM COLONIAL
AMERICA V.
Janez Stanonik
The letter of Marcus Antonius Kappus which we publish in our present — the fifth — continuation of his letters from Colonial America1 is the last of his letters in the Erberg Collection that is preserved in the Archives of Slovenia.2 The text is preserved on a single sheaf of paper, 25.5x20.3 cm, written on both sises. The preserved text is a copy of a now lost original. The copy was made at the latest in the beginning of the XIXth century. The text is now published for the first time.
Kappus wrote the present letter on 20. January 1691, that is on the same day on which he also wrote a letter to his brother which we have already published in the third sequence of his letters (AN XXI, 1988, 3—9). The present letter is addressed to Joannes Gregorius Thalnitscher de Thalberg (Kappus uses the original Slovene name Dolnitscher), a leading cultural figure in Ljubljana in his time. Kappus wrote it a few months after the suppression of the revolt of the Tarahumara Indians in 1690. The letter is therefore interesting because of the contemporary events in Sonora it mentions, and because it gives a wealth of information about Kappus' personal contacts at home before his departure for America.
I.
The revolt of the Tarahumara Indians which Kappus mentions in the present letter took place in March and April 1690. It started with an attack on the mission Yepomera on the 29th of March 1690 (this date is given by Kappus) which the Indians surrounded early in the morning and set on fire. This forced the missionary, Father Didacus Ortiz de Foronda, to come in front of the house where he was killed by the Indians with arrows shot at him. The second victim of this revolt, Father Emmanuel (Manuel) Sanchez, was killed on 7. April on his way, when he was returning to his mission from Jekhoro, where he had visited Father Maximillianus Amarell, after he had heard that his mission with its chalice and church robes was endangered by the plundering Indians: on his way he was surrounded by the Tarahu-
1	Cf. Janez Stanonik: Letters of Marcus Antonius Kappus from Colonial America, Part I, Acta Neophilologica XIX (1986), 35—56; Part II, AN XX (1987), 25—38; Part III, AN XXI (1988), 3—9; Part IV, AN XXII (1989), 39—50.
2	Cf. ib. AN XIX (1986), p.51.
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mara Indians. One Indian approached him and after several mock thrusts in front of him he pierced him with his blade several times, until he had stabbed him to death. The Tarahumaras afterwards destroyed several missions in their country while the 8 remaining Fathers saved their lives with flight, after they had been warned by the faithful Indians. The news of this revolt soon spread to the northern Sonora where the people began to fear for their lives. At Cucurpe the Opatas feared that Kappus would leave them alone, which he indeed never intended. Still, the Opatas made preparations for their defence. The revolt was finally suppressed by the Spaniards who quickly gathered in the Tarahumara territory. Here they killed and captured many revolting natives, among them also the Indian who first shot the missionary (Father Didacus Ortiz de Foronda?). After he had been captured the Indian wounded himself accidentally,, or perhaps intentionally, with a poisoned arrow and died. Those captured Tarahumaras who were not killed were afterwards deported to work as slaves on Spanish galleys.
Kappus' informations about the Tarahumara revolt that can be found in his two letters are important because they were written only a few months after its suppression, when the news of the revolt were still fresh. Kappus learned the details of this revolt from Father Juan Maria Salvatierra who was at that time as Padre Visitador responsible for the work of all the Jesuitic missions in Sonora and Sinaloa.3 Salvatierra came in December 1690 from Chinipas to visit the missions in northern Sonora.4 He brought with him the torn vest of Father Emmanuel Sanchez and showed it to Kappus. Salvatierra obviously told Kappus also all the details of the deaths of the two fathers.
The letters of Marcus Antonius Kappus give — for the first time — the exact dates of the deaths of Father Didacus Ortiz de Foronda and Father Manuel Sanchez which appear to be reliable.
So far it has been assumed that Father Didacus Ortiz de Foronda died on 11. April 1690. This date can be found in Burrus' edition of Alegre's History and in Burrus' edition of Kino's Biography of Francisco Javier Saeta, S.J. (op. cit., p. 252). That the date of 11. April 1690 can not be reliable shows the fact that the same date is also given for the death of Father Manuel Sanchez. Kappus's dating — 29. March 1690 — is supported by the fact that Kappus repeats twice the same date, in two of his letters.
Also as regards the date of the death of Father Manuel Sanchez Kappus gives another information than the one that has been accepted so far.
3	About Salvatierra, cf.: Miguel Venegas: Juan Maria de Salvatierra, S.J., Missionary in the Province of New Spain and Apostolic Conqueror of the Cafimornias. Translated into English, Edited, und Annotated by Marguerite Eyer Wilbur. The Arthur H. Clark Comp., Cleveland 1919. — Salvatierra was Padre Visitador for Sonora and Sinaloa since 1690: Cf.: Kino's Biography of Francisco Javier Saeta, S.J., ed. by Ernest J. Burrus, S. J., Jesuit Historical Institute, Rome, St. Luis 1971. Cf. p. 338.
4	According to Kino: Report and Relation of the New Conversions (written in
1710, published by Herbert Eugene Bolton in: Spanish Exploration of the South West 1542—1706 (Original Narratives of Early American History), New York, Barne
& Noble Inc. 1952, pp. 433—464, cf. p. 441), Salvatierra came to visit Kino in Northern Sonora in December 1691. The year of this visit, as given by Kino, is apparently wrong. It must have been in December 1690. In January 1691, as we see, Kappus writes that Salvatierra was with him »these days«.
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According to Kappus' letter published in the present issue Father Emmanuel Sanchez died on 7. April 1690. So far it has been believed that he died on 11. April 1690. For the same reasons as given in connection with the death of Father Didacus Ortiz de Foronda we must consider Kappus' information as more trustworthy.
Kappus' letter printed in the present issue is also interesting because it is the only letter in which Kappus gives a realistic report of his own health, while in the other letter from the same day, written to his brother Joannes (Letter III) Kappus characteristically does not mention the state of his health. From the present letter we learn that Kappus suffered from malaria, from the annually returning fevers and from the tertian fever (which breaks out every 48 hours). Because of his illness he was forced for long periods to stay in bed. This of course limited Kappus in his activity in Sonora. In his later letter, from 1699, to his brother Johannes (Letter IV), we learn that he was well; perhaps that his state of health had gradually improved.
The correspondence of Mareus Antonius Kappus also shows how long a letter took to come from Sonora to Central Europe, or back. During the first years of his life in Sonora Kappus led a vivid correspondence with his relatives and friends at home. Normally it took one to one and a half years that a letter sent from Slovenia reached Kappus in Sonora, occasionally two years. On 8. April 1690 Kappus received three letters together, sent from Slovenia on 15 March 1689 (from his brother Johannes), 1. April 1688 (Father Philippus Alberth) and 29. March 1689 (Father Joannes Meag). The present letter which Kappus wrote to Thalnitscher from Sonora on 20. January 1691 was received by the latter in Ljubljana on 2. June 1692.
II.
The letter published in the present issue is addressed to Joannes Gre-gorius Dolnitscher in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In Slovene cultural history he is better known as Joannes Gregorius Thalnitscher de Thalberg, although Dolnitscher is his original Slovene name which he used till 1688, when he became a nobleman. So it is not unusual that Kappus who left to America in 1686/87 uses the original Slovene name.
Joannes Gregorius Thalnitscher (in modern Slovene his name would he Janez Gregor Dolnicar)5 has a significant place in the Slovene cultural history at the time of the transition from the XVIIth into the XVIIIth century. He was almost exactly Kappus' contemporary: he was born in Ljubljana on 10. March 1655, and died at Vic (a suburb of Ljubljana) on 3. October 1719.6 He was thus two years older than Kappus. He attended first the Jesuit school in Ljubljana, and from 1673 till 1675 the Jesuit College in Graz where he obtained the title of a Master of Liberal Arts and Philosophy. For two years he studied law at Ingolstadt (1677—1679). This study he completed in Bologna with a doctorate in civil and ecclesiastical laws (doctor utriusque
5	The name Dolnicar is quite common in Slovene. The name is etymologically connected with the Slovene word dolina, i. e., the valley, cf. English the dale.
6	For an easier comparison let us here briefly mention the basic data of Kappus' life: born in Kamna gorica on 12. April 1657, went to America in 1687, and died in Sonora on 30. November 1717.
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iuris). After that he still remained in Italy to become better acquainted with the Italian life, arts, and learning. In 1683 he returned to Ljubljana where he married in 1684. His public life began around the year 1688 when he joined the Societas Unitorum, an association of local aristocracy, for which he wrote the biographies of its members. Towards the end of 1688 he was given the title of a nobleman, together with his father and with his brother Joannes Antonius. Since then he signed himself as Thalnitscher von Thalberg. Since 1689 he worked as secretary in the office of the Vice-Domus, and since 1694 as the notary of the town of Ljubljana. Since 1704 he had the function of a sworn in Councellor to the Court of Justice.
Joannes Gregorius Thalnitscher devoted much of his time to scholarly work. He was a member of several erudite societies in contemporary Italy: since 1679 of Academia Gelatorum in Bologna, since 1709 of Academia Arca-dum in Rome, since 1710 of the Academy of Forli and since 1711 in Venice. When in 1693 a similar Academia Operosorum was founded in Ljubljana, he was one of its founding members; this Academy continued with its work till 1725. As member of this Academy he had the pseudonym Providvis. During the last 20 years he kept a carefully written chronicle of events that took place in Ljubljana. In 1714 he published it under the title Epitome Chronologica which is his largest printed work. Besides works connected with the activity of the Societas Unitorum and Academia Operosorum he wrote studies connected with the history of his family, and of the town of Ljubljana and its institutions. The majority of these works is now preserved in manuscripts only.
Towards the end of his life, in 1715, Thalnitscher began to write a kind of a local literary history. This work, which he continued till his death, is now preserved as a manuscript in the library of the Ljubljana Theological Seminary under the title Bibliotheca Labacensis publica? In this text the authors are arranged into 21 groups. Kappus appears here in the fourth group, called Ascetae. Strangely enough, Marcus Antonius Kappus has here the wrong first name Laurentius. Also other data connected with Kappus are in this text only approximately correct: according to Thalnitscher Kappus was born in 1656 (in reality in 1657), he entered the Jesuit Order, in 1687 he applied for work as a missionary »in the Indies«, he worked at Cucurpe »in the country of Sonora in California« and died »killed by an arrow in 1692«. According to Thalnitscher, Kappus wrote »Fasciculum epistolarum Itineris in Indias relationes ■— De ritu paganorum et memoranda«.
It is not quite clear when and how Thalnitscher and Kappus became acquainted. Thelnitscher began his education in the Jesuitic schools in Ljubljana which he continued from 1673—75 at the Jesuitic College at Graz. For the corresponding early period in the life of Marcus Antonius Kappus we do not have reliable informations, but probably he got his earliest education at the Jesuitic schools in Klagenfurt in Carinthia. After that Kappus went to Vienna where he joined the Jesuitic Order in 1676. When Kappus was in Ljubljana in 1679, working here at the Jesuit College, Thalnitscher was at Ingolstadt, studying law (1677—79). After that Thalnitscher went to Italy,
7 About Thalnitscher and his Bibliotheca Labacensis publica we have already spoken in Part IV of our series (AN XXII, 1989, 39—50) where we gave a historical survey of texts which spoke about Kappus as an author. There we have also quoted literature on Thalnitscher.
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and Kappus worked at Leoben and Zagreb (until 1683). When Thalnitscher finally returned home to Ljubljana in 1683, Kappus was in Graz and afterwards in Milan. So there is no longer period in their lives during which they could have become more closely connected with each other.
The two probably met at the home of Thalnitscher's father, when Thalnitscher was on a shorter visit home, and Kappus was also in Ljubljana. From Kappus' letter published in our present issue we learn that Marcus Antonius Kappus was well acquainted with Thalnitscher's father, Joannes Baptista Thalnitscher. The latter (born in Ljubljana on 5. June 1626, died in Ljubljana on 24. October 1692) grew from humble origins to one of the central figures in contemporary Ljubljana. After studies in Vienna and extensive travels, he returned to Ljubljana where he married the daughter of Ludwig Schonleben, the mayor of Ljubljana. This marriage opened to him the way into high society. He held imcreasingly more important positions in the administration of the town, from 1663 to 1664 and from 1667 to 1670 he was the municipal judge and during three periods the elected mayor of the town of Ljubljana (1672—1676, 1679—1682 and from 1692 till his death in the same year). In 1688 he was, together with his two sons, given the title of a nobleman. It is interesting that on the occasion of his completion of the function of the municipal judge, a laudatory oration was held to his honour by Caro-lus Josephus Kappus, the nephew of Marcus Antonius who is mentioned in the present letter.
The correspondence between Thalnitscher and Kappus was started by Thalnitscher who wrote a letter to Kappus, obviously wishing to get authentic informations about America. To this letter of Thalnitscher, Kappus answered in haste, under the pressure of circumstances, with our present letter which Thalnitscher received in Ljubljana in summer 1692. In this letter Kappus promised Thalnitscher that he would send him later more extensive informations. Yet Kappus apparently never held this promise. Perhaps this was due to the increasing pressures of his daily duties (in 1694 Kappus became Rector of the Rectorate Nuestra Senora de los Dolores which covered the whole northern Sonora) and local events (the revolt of Pima Indians in 1695).
It is therefore not surprising that 25 years later, when Thalnitscher began to write his Bibliotheca labacensis publico., he could no longer correctly remember the first name of Marcus Antonius, giving now his name wrongly as Laurentius, and that he somehow began to think that Kappus had died in 1692 (the same year when he received the letter we quote in the present issue), killed by Indian arrows. The wrong informations, started by Thalnitscher, were later repeated at least partly, deep into the XXth century (that Kappus was killed by Indian arrows) although the correct date of his death became in Slovenia, too, known earlier.
III.
With the present letter Marcus Antonius Kappus sent his greetings through Thalnitscher to his nephew Carolus Josephus Kappus. The text of Kappus' letter clearly reveals that he was very proud of his nephew and vividly interested in his career. Carolus Josephus Kappus and Joannes Gre-gorius Thalnitscher were certainly closely connected with each other. In fact, Carolus Josephus Kappus held a social position in Ljubljana which
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could be compared to that of Joannes Gregorius Thalnitscher, yet the biographical data available about him are rather limited.
Carolus Josephus Kappus was born on 24. October 1664 (or perhaps 1668?) at Kamna Gorica to Joannes Kappus, the older brother of Marcus Antonius Kappus. He studied law and, like Thalnitscher, worked for a time in Ljubljana as secretary in the office of the Vice-Domus. He, too, was active as a member of the Academia Operosorum, the erudite society formed by the elite of the Ljubljana intelligentsia. In Academia he held the pseudonym Exquisitus. In 1693 he was given, together with his father, the title of a nobleman. He is known as the author of two Latin works: Jus statuarium Ducatus Carnioliae, observationes practicae and De immortalitate animi ad mentem Aristotelis, neither of which is now preserved.8 The date and place of death of Carolus Josephus Kappus are not known.
Other persons who are mentioned in Kappus' letter and to whom he sent his greetings — except his relatives — were all members of the Jesuit Order. They can be identified on the basis of data provided by che Catalogi breves Provinciae Austriae and the Catalogi triennales of the same Province, and are all listed in the doctoral dissertation by France-Martin Dolinar, Das Jesuitenkolleg in Laibach und die Residenz Pleterje 1591—1704, Ljubljana 1976, published by the Ljubljana Theological Faculty.
Fridericus Schwarz was a few years older than Marcus Antonius Kappus. He was born in 1653 at Radovljica, thus in the immediate neighbourhood of Kappus' birthplace, he joined the Jesuit Order in 1681, and had the position of a concionator in Ljubljana since 1687.9
Joannes Meag (his name is also written Meak, Meiak, in modern Slovene it would be Mejak) was born at Vipava in western Slovenia on 27. December, 1636. He joined the Jesuit Order on 2. December 1653 in Vienna, and was spiritual coadjutor in 1666. He died at Klagenfurt in 1699. In 1669 he was Rector of the Jesuit College in Ljubljana, and in 1679 Superior of the monastery of Pleterje which stood in close connection with the Jesuit College in Ljubljana.10
Philippus Alberth (Alberth is the family name) was born in Vienna on January 17, 1636, he joined the Jesuit Order in 1657, in 1668 he was spiritual coadjutor. He taught at the Jesuit College in Ljubljana in 1678 and 1679 (in 1679 was also Marcus Antonius Kappus teacher at the same College). He died in Vienna on 15. April 1709. It is interesting that it was to Philippus Alberth that Kappus sent in 1701 the famous map of Father Kino Paso por Tierra a la California y Sus Confinantes Nuevas Naciones y Nuevas Missiones de la Compa de Jesús en la America Septentrional which was published in Leipzig in 1707 in the journal Nova Litteraria Germaniae Aliorumque Europae Regnorum about which we are going to speak in our next issue.
" His works are therefore not mentioned in the bibliography by Primož Simo-niti: Sloveniae scriplores Latini recentioris aetatis, Ljubljana-Zagreb 1972, published by the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts and by the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. — About Carolus Josephus see also Slovenski biografski leksikon (Slovene Biographical Lexicon) Ljubljana 1925 ff.
9	France-Martin Dolinar, op. cit., p. 180.
10	lb. p. 172.
" lb. p. 152, 156.
3 Acta
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IV.
The style of Kappus' letter clearly shows that it was written in haste. The language of the letter is coloquial, richly supplied with impersonal pronouns and conjunctions. The logical construction of individual sentences is occasionally deficient, due to the loose usage of conjunctions and due to anacoluths. The selection of information supplied with this letter is certainly not cerefully thought out, it is anecdotal, and framed into a long introduction and conclusion.
The present letter was written to an intellectual and lay person. Perhaps due to this an ironic undertone repeatedly breaks out in it, as when he calls the revolting Indians the sons: this obviously stands in opposition to the title Father for the missionaries. It emphasizes the lack of gratitude of the rebels. The revolt itself is called »ferias«, i. e. celebrations incited by the enemy of Christ. Perhaps we must understand in this sense also the information that the »thankless« Indians, when captured, were sent as a punishment to secular galleys where of course they would no longer be under the ecclesiastical rule of their fathers missionaries.
The world of Marcus Antonius Kappus is a world directly ruled by God. Certain coincidences are quickly felt by Kappus as having a miraculous meaning. It was due to the Divine Providence that the eight remaining fathers missionaries remained alive in the Tarahumara country. Kappus is obviously pleased when the God punishes the sinner for committed crimes. When the first Indian who had shot his arrow into the missionary died like a »rabid dog«, Kappus makes the impression as feeling a certain satisfaction. The same is also true when he reports that the first of all Indians (perhaps their leader) died also first on the galley as a »victim to the Lucifer«.
We may conclude: the two letters of Father Kappus, dated both 20. January 1691, are two significant sources for the history of Sonora at the time of the Tarahumara revolt of 1690.
THE TEXT
Pernobilis ac Clarissime Domine, Domine usque ad mortem mihi amantissime
Summo mihi solatio fuere gratissimae Dominationis Vestrae Litterae, quas ego in extremo hoc orbis inferioris ángulo 8 Aprilis 1690 cum alijs multis Europaeis epistolis summa animi laetitia accepi. Gaudeo plurimum Dominationem Vestram optata perfrui valetudine, et gratias refero pro tam grata mihi uariorum nouorum communicatione. Estne Dominus Carolus Josephus factus meus inimicus, cum ne salutem mihi impertiri dignatur? Sed absit ut haec cogitem, cupio eum ualere, quam optime, et insigniter in sua professione excellere. Ego hie annuis febribus praesertim in Autumno insigne uexationis pendo tributum, et Íntegros etiam menses tertiana in lecto prostratus exagitor. Verum haec sunt legitima inconstantis huius uitae regalia. Viuo frequentissimé memor Dominationis Vestrae et mane quidem meis prommissis, et Dominationis Vestrae desiderijs satisfacere non possum. Scribo enim hasce veloriori calamo, quia heri intelexi commodam prae mani-bus haberi occasionem, qua litterae Mexicum expediantur, unde in Europam expe-diendae, unde uereor ne nisi elabatur improuisus cursor. Sed non deerit intra paucos menses alia aeque secura occasio, qua Dominationi Vestrae et alijs amicis fusiori calamo inseruiam. nunc breuiter duntaxat insinuó 19 Maij non procul ab hinc Hispanum quendam horridum facinus patrasse: repererat ille casu in quadam domuncula alium quendam Hispanum una cum Vxore sua occupatum fragranti delicto, quem furore et justo Zelo succensus illico trajecit, et uxorem sclopi repe-
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litis ictibus mactauit. Etiam alias in Tauromara ferias excitauit hoc anno Inimicus Crucis Christi Daemon, cuius instinctu magna eorum Indorum multitudo in sacri-legam conspirauit rebellionem, jugum Christianae fidei omni ex parte excutiendi. iamque duae ceciderunt in suo sanguine sacrificatae victimae, P. Didacus Ortiz de Foronda, et P. Emmanuel Sánchez, quas ingrati in suos Patres filij primum 29 Martij, alterum 7. Aprilis crudeliter occiderunt, quod quidem cum alijs 8. Pa-tribus missionarijs executori fuissent, nisi diuinä ita disponente prouidentia mature a fidelibus Indis praemoniti salutarj fugä uitam seruonissent. Quasi primus in unum Patrem sagittam euibrauit barbarus, postea captus, et pariter deduc-tus, ipse sibi manipulo sagittarum, quem manu deferebat, in eadem corporis parte, qua Patrem ferijt, uidelicet in femore vulnus lethale inflixit, et paulo post instar rabidi canis mortuus poenas sacrilegij dedit quas meritus fuerat. Plurimas missiones concitati hi Barbari in ciñeres et ruinas redigerunt, et alij Patrum Sotanas, alij albas, alij humeralia, alij casulas, aliamque templorum suppelectilem sacrilego abusu sibi induerunt, et unus quidem posito sibi in capite quadrato contra conuocatos in auxilium Hispanos in pugnam processit, Sed parum profuit, imö abfuit Barbaro illusori saec galea fuit enim scopus omnium, hinc etiam omnium primo cecidit prima Luciferö Victima. Nunc quidem accursu Hispanorum sedata uidetur concitatio Indorum, sed quanto tempore sese continebit Pacifica, témpora loquentur. Mei, meisque uicini Indi, gratias optimo Deo, in pace uiuunt, suntque semel susceptae Verae fidei longe amantiores, neque tarn feri et barbari, uti Tau-romarenses illi qui nunquam desinent insignem probere Patribus Missionarijs pa-tientiae campum. Retraho cupidum plura scribendi calamum, et Dominationem uestram conditus rogo dignatur ómnibus notis, et amicis peramanter exime salu-tem deponere, et in particularj meo Amico Patri Friderico Schwarz et Patri Joanni Meag, et si qui alij Labaci moran tur noti Patres: Etiam Domino Carolo Josepho mei commendo memoriae sed nullo modo praetereat Dominatio Vestra Dominum Parentem suum, et meum Dominum fratrem Georgium cui in martio scripsi, eisque me specialiter commendo. Ego Viuo omnium memor, et uiuarum, hoc unice a Diuina Caritate expectans, ut nos absoluto huis perbreuis Vitae cursu in coelo conjugat consortis fruituros aeterno. Viue, et Vale, et ora pro me
Cucurpe 20 Januarij 1691
Perillustris D(ominationis) V(estrae) Servus in Christo Marcos Antonio Kappus
Eadem die accepi unas Patris Philippi Albert datas Neostadij 1 Aprilis 1688 et Patris Joanni Meag alias datas Labaci 29 Martij 1689 sed perbreue tempus cernit exsoluere responsorias, quod próxima occasione factum eri confido
Inscriptio
PraeNobili ac Clarissimo Domino Domino Joanni Gregorio Dolnitscher domino ac amico suo
24 Junij 1692
Europa
Labaci in Carniolia
TRANSLATION
To the Most Noble and Illustrious Lord, To the Lord Unto Death the Dearest to Me
The most kind letter of Your Lordship which I received to the greatest pleasure of my heart together with many other European letters on the 8"1 of April, 1690, in this extreme corner of the lower world has been the greatest solace to me. I am very glad that Your Lordship fully enjoys the desired well-being and I give my thanks for the communication of various news so dear to me. Etas Sir Carolus Josephus become unfriendly to me that he does not deign to send me his
3*
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greetings? Yet it must not be that I think so, I wish him to be well, as best as possible, and that he eminently excels in his profession. I pay here great tribute of affliction to the annual fevers, especially in Autumn, and I suffer also whole months from the tertian (fever), lying in bed. These are indeed the legitimate royalties of this changeable life. I most frequently vividly remember Your Lordship and in the mornings my promises, and I cannot satisfy the desires of Your Lordship. For I write this with a faster hand12, because I have heard yesterday that there is at hands a favourable opportunity with which letters are to be sent to Mexico from where they will be sent to Europe, and so I fear that the unforeseen messenger does not escape me. Still, within a few months another equally secure occasion will not be absent, by the way of which I may serve Your Lordship and other friends with a more extensive writing. Now I only briefly indicate that on the 11th of May not far from here a Spaniard had committed a horrible crime: he had found by chance in a small house another Spaniard together with his wife involved in the very act of crime whom he, inflamed with rage and with the just jealousy, pierced on the spot, and killed his criminal wife with repeated strikes. This year the Daemon Enemy of the Cross of Christ has incited also other celebrations in the Tauromara (country) under whose instigation a large multitude of those Indians conspired in sacrilegious rebellion to shake off in all respects the yoke of the Christian religion. Two sacrificed victims have already died in their blood, P. Didacus Ortiz de Foronda and P. Emmanuel Sanchez whom the sons13, thankless to their Fathers, killed cruelly, the first on the 29,h of March, the other on the 7,h of April, which they would have done also to the other 8 Father
missionaries if they had not - with the divine providence which disposed it
so-preserved their lives with the salutary flight, warned betimes by the faithful Indians. The first barbarian who shot his arrow in a Father, when he was later captured and also led away, inflicted himself a deadly wound with a handful of arrows, which he had taken away, in that part of his body where the Father was hit, that is in his thigh, and a little later he died like a rabid dog, paying penalty for the sacrilege as he deserved. These roused barbarians reduced several missions into ashes and ruins, others put on themselves in sacrilegious abuse the soutanes of the Fathers, others the albs, others the humerals, others the chasubles and other outfit of the churches, and one put a quadrat on his head and went into the battle against the Spaniards who were called together for aid. Yet little did the mocking serve the barbarian, on the contrary, it harmed him, the secular galley was indeed the destination of all, where died also first of all the first victim to Lucifer. Now, with the arrival of the Spaniards, the tumult of the Indians seems to be pacified, yet the times will tell, how long it will remain peaceful. My Indians, and their neighbours, thanks be to the best God, live in peace, and are far more loving the once accepted True faith, and they are not so wild and barbarous like those Tauromaras who never stop to try the extraordinary extent of patience of Father missionaries. I hold back my pen which desires to write more and I kindly pray Your Lordship that you deign to give most lovingly my greetings to all known persons and friends, and especially to my friend Father Fridericus Schwarz and Father Joannes Meag, and if any other known Fathers are staying in Ljubljana: I also recommend myself to the memory of Sir Carolus Josephus, and in no way should Your Lordship omit your parent, and my Sir brother George to whom I wrote in March, to him I recommend me especially. I vividly remember all, and always all the living; I expect only this from the Divine goodness that after the end of this very short course of our lives we shall all be united together rejoicing in the eternal heaven. Live, and be well, and pray for me.
Cucurpe, 20. January 1691
Of Your most noble Lordship
Servant in Christ
Marcos Antonio Kappus
12	Veloriori calamo, literally: with a faster pen.
13	The sons, i. e. the Indians, as the sons of the Father missionaries.
" The secular galley, the secular perhaps stands here in opposition to the ecclesiastical, which was the rule of the Fathers over the Indians.
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On the same day I received a (letter) from Father Philippus Albert sent from Novo mesto on 1. April 1688, and another (letter) of Father Joannes Meag sent from Ljubljana on 29. March 1689, yet the very short time commands me to exclude my answers which I trust it will be done on the next occasion
Inscription
To the Most Noble and Illustrious Lord, Sir Joannes Gregorius Dolnitscher, his Lord and Friend
2. June 1692
Europa
Ljubljana in Carniolia
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