Lot
814 
(Monterey) 1788 (Jul. 30) Mission San Carlos de Monterey to Mexico City, two-page front and back Autograph Letter Signed by Fray Fermin Francisco de Lasuén to Father Francisco Palóu of Mexico City, letter concerning church business, Palóu reads in part "My most venerated Father. I passed on to all the missionaries the news Your Reverence sent me in your last very much appreciated letter of October 15, 1787. Many of them told me they had said the Mass Your Reverence asked them to say for the soul of our brother, His Excellency, the Marquis of Sonora… At present all I can say generally is that there is no lack of sites for the six missions our Reverence desires and which are absolutely necessary. Yet there is no word of the registry which should come first. I have told Your Reverence of what has been done with regard to that, and what is planned, with God's help. We will continue sending the annual inventories of the missions to the College. As for those to the government, these need not be sent in oftener than two or three years according to the royal decree of March 24…Confidentially I agreed to make a very detailed inventory of these missions the governor requested, and entrusted the job to a friend. It is good and if I can get a copy made I wall send it to Your Reverence for the information and news you would wish to have. I do not have any spare time, nor any pen but my own. Still I wish to satisfy Your Reverence to the smallest detail and I will do what I can. I wish, as Your Reverence does, that our relationships were solely with the viceroyalty. I have had a very minimal correspondence with the commandancy general in the matter of the patent for administering Confirmation. In the letter that Your Reverence sent me I see that His Lordship says I should send him the instructions Your Reverence gave for the administering of the Sacrament, and should explain why I had not sent in the patent itself. I received the letter with the superscription which I sent to Your Reverence from Santa Barbara. I have had no letter from Arispe - it has strayed or been lost as usual. What a situation! A thing which Rome grants, Madrid sends on, Mexico facilitates, and only Arispe refuses us! Since the report I gave Your Reverence l a s t month about the missions of La Purisima and Santa Barbara nothing of importance has happened up to the present, except that there has been a serious shortage of water. We have had few rains this winter. We are digging wells here at San Carlos for drinking water. The river is dry and neither the corn nor beans can be irrigated. They write me from La Purisima that the Santa Rosa River is dry but that a creek on which the mission depends has continued without failing. Thank God for that. They have 62 converts, 43 children and the rest adults; 11 marriages; and their cornfields are in good shape as are the workshops. The mission established at Encino at the same time as Santa Barbara had to be moved because of the limited area and placed at the end of the valley of San Juan Bautista toward the coast. They say it is doing well and they hope to expand it, thank God. They draw troops for it from the presidios. These escoltas of ours are of one or two men on long assignment; and we benefit from the income…There is no more news. All the fathers send good wishes to Your Reverence and I repeat I am at your higher commands. Praying that God Our Lord may keep you in his Holy Grace for many years. San Carlos of Monterey, July 30,1788"; some reinforcing and light staining, Fine. Estimate $6,000 - 8,000.
AN IMPORTANT EARLY CALIFORNIA MISSION LETTER, ONE OF ONLY A HANDFUL IN PRIVATE HANDS.
Father Fermin Francisco Lasuen at the Carmel Mission near Monterey California to Father Francisco Palou at the College of San Farnando in Mexico, July 30, 1778.
A very interesting and important letter documenting the state of several of the California Missions. Lasuen was head of the California Missions at the time of writing and Palou the previous head then retired to Mexico. Palou is known for being Father Serras successor but also as the author of one of the earliest histories of California.
Realized: $12,500