Selected Letters about Lower California

Jesuit Fathers Eusebio F. Kino and Juan M. de Salvatierra have become well known for their work in the Mexican Northwest through the efforts of Professors Herbert E. Bolton and Peter M. Dunne, s. J., both deceased, and the continued research and writings of Father Burras, s. J. Salvatierra’s prolific letter writing, spanning forty-seven years, 1670-1717, produced around a thousand messages of varying length; replies to them were almost as numerous. Out of all this some 250 items have survived, most of which are in the Bolton Papers of the Bancroft Library. In the present volume Father Burras has translated and annotated twenty-two letters, including two by Father Francisco M. Piccolo, s. J., written in the years of Salvatierra’s ministry and services in Loreto, 1697 to 1715. These are preceded by some seventy-five pages giving a concise biography of Salvatierra and an evaluation of his career, 1648-1717. Very useful lists of the civil and ecclesiastical officials important in Salvatierra’s career are accompanied by dates of their service. In the bibliography is a chronological list of the Salvatierra correspondence Burras located and examined in making his selections. The partly anotated bibliography of manuscript materials, books, and articles is impressive, and almost exhaustive. Twenty-two pages of index provide an excellent guide to the contents. Only 600 copies of the volume were printed. The reader not at all acquainted with Salvatierra can easily follow the account throughout this volume. The scholar thoroughly informed by extensive prior reading will yet gain much of value and delight from this latest Burras effort. In all, it is a thoroughly satisfactory contribution, and, as the author-translator-annotator states, “a tribute to the protagonist himself, on the third centennial of his generous offer [1670] to dedicate his life to his less fortunate brothers in far-off lands.”