Both Vitoria and Arroyo died at this mission.[1] In neophyte population the loss to 1834 was about 15 per cent, and from that time to 1840 about 12 per cent; but at the end of the decade only 180 of the 300 Indians were living in community.[2] Agricul-
- ↑ Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta was born at the villa of Cubo, Castilla la Vieja, on April 30, 1780, becoming a Franciscan Aug. 3, 1796, at the chief convent of Burgos. He sailed from Cádiz Sept. 2, 1804, and left the college of S. Fernando on Dec. 14, 1807, for Cal., where he arrived early in 1808. His missionary service was at S. Juan Bautista in 1808-33, at S. Miguel in 1833-4, at S. Luis Obispo in 1834-5, at Purísima in 1835-6, and at Sta Inés in 1836-40, though it was only at San Juan that his bodily infirmities permitted him to work. His superiors accredited him with great merit, ability, and zeal. Autobiog. Autog. de los Padres, MS.; Sarría, Inf. de 1817, MS., 64-5; Payeras, Inf. de 1820, MS., 137. From about 1813 he suffered almost continually from rheumatism, and was repeatedly at the point of death. In 1809 he said the first mass in the new church of Mission San José. In 1826, though maintaining his allegiance to the king of Spain, he took a modified oath to republicanism. Father Arroyo was a scholar and always a student, giving special attention to the languages of the Indians of the San Juan region, of which he had already prepared a grammar before 1817, which and the padre's skill in the native idioms are mentioned in Sarria's report of that year. His Grammar of the Mutsun Language and his Vocabulary or Phrase-book were published by Shea in New York, 1861; and the original MSS. were at one time in my possession. In Larios, Vida, MS., 35, I have a curious table or perpetual calendar apparently made by him. The biographic notice (by A. S. Taylor) in the introduction to the Grammar is very erroneous. Robinson, Life in Cal., 108, describes him as closely confined to his chamber, and when tired of study he would have the children called in to play before him, calling them by such names as Cicero, Plato, Alexander, etc. All testify to his great learning and piety. Florencio Serrano, Apuntes, MS., 186-8, spent much time with the padre when he was at San Luis Obispo. At that time his legs were paralyzed, and he was moved about in a wheeled chair by attendants. He used to invent all kinds of pretexts for keeping Serrano at his side for days for the pleasure of conversation. Alluding to the difficulty of quitting the Californian service, he used to say:
'Si fueres á California
Encomienda á Dios la vida
En tu mano está la entrada
Y en la de Dios la salida.'Father Arroyo died at Sta Inés on Sept. 20, 1840, at the age of 60, and his body was buried on the 22d by P. Jimeno in the mission church on the gospel side near the presbytery. Sta Inés, Lib. Mis., MS., 22-4. The burial notice containing a biog. sketch was translated with some additional notes and printed in the S. F. Bulletin, 1865, being republished in the S. José Pioneer, Feb. 22, 1877.
For a biographic notice of Padre Vitoria, see Pioneer Register and Index, vol. v. of this work.
- ↑ Sta Inés statistics 1831-4. Decrease of pop. 408 to 344. Baptisms 63. Deaths 109. Decrease in live-stock 7,590 to 7,460; gain in horses and mules 390 to 460; sheep 2,160 to 2,000. Largest crop 2,373 bush. in 1832; smallest 1,623 bush. in 1834; average 1,962 bush., of which 1,525 wheat, yield 10 fold; barley only produced in 1834 125 bush., 11 fold; corn 382 bush., 54 fold; beans 20 bush., 5 fold.
Statistics of 1835-40. Inventory of Aug. 1, 1836, of the property turned over to Covarrubias by P. Jimeno. Credits $1,892; buildings $945; furniture, tools, and goods in store $14,527; live-stock 8,040 cattle $24,850; 1,923
