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Sale 74: The Westpex Auction

Table of Contents

Monterey - Early Documents & Letters

Lot 813    

(Monterey) 1775 (Jul.) Mission of San Carlos de Monterey, California to Mexico, two-page front and back Autograph Letter Signed by Father Francisco Palóu to Father Fray Francisco Pangua at College of San Fernando, letter concerning church business reads in part "…Through the hands of Father Fray Vincente Santa Maria I received the letter of Your Reverence of November 24, last, in which you told me you had received the letter which Don Juan Bautista de Anza brought, and that you would gladly send the power of attorney to Don Manuel de Monte Aoyda, resident of the town of San Miguel de Horcasitas. In this matter I thank you for the benefits that can come from this for the minsters of these missions, having a brother on the frontier of Sonora who aids us in the needs from which we suffer. This is the first notice I have had that the Holy Community with great wisdom has elected Your Reverence as our Guardian…I place myself from that time on in obedience to Your Reverence as one of your subjects, though unworthy, and I await your precepts and lightest wishes in order to express my complete obedience. I am grateful for your kind words and for the ardent desires you have to aid in the growth of these new missions. The knowledge I have of your well-known zeal and affection tells me this and I do not doubt that you will aid in so far as you can in their progress as well as in the great credit that will accrue to this Apostolic College. Please bear with patience the impertinences of the ministers of these missions, with which it is their custom to trouble you. They are motivated at least by the purpose of a heart-to-heart contact with their religious superior…From this Mission of San Carlos de Monterey, July … 1775"; some reinforcing and light staining, Fine.
Estimate    $7,500 - 10,000.

ONE OF THE EARLIEST CALIFORNIA MISSION LETTERS IN PRIVATE HANDS, WRITTEN ONLY 5 YEARS AFTER THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSION.

Father Palóu and Capt. Juan Bautista de Anza established mail service over the Anza Trail from Mission to Mission to Mexico City from Monterey in 1774 along what is now called El Camino Real. This letter refers to "that which was carried by Juan Bautista de Anza…". Francisco Palóu was a friar who founded of the S.F. mission in 1776, and the successor of Junipero Serra as president in 1784. He retired in 1785 and became guardian of S. Fernando college until his death about 1790. He is best known as the author of of the first great California biography and standard works on the early mission history, "Villa de Junipero Serra and Nolickut de las California".

Realized: $12,500

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