THE CHURCH IN THE INDIES 105
social conscience could still be found among both
the secular and regular clergy.
The missionary impulse of the fi rst friars sur-
vived longest on the frontier, “the rim of Chris-
tendom.” Franciscans fi rst penetrated the great
northern interior of New Spain, peopled by hostile
Chichimecs, “wild Indians.” Franciscans accompa-
nied the Oñate expedition of 1598 into New Mexico
and dominated the mission fi eld there until the end
of the colonial period; they were also found in such
distant outposts of Spanish power as Florida and
Georgia. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from the
Indies in 1767, the Franciscans took their place di-
recting missionary work in California.
The mission was one of three closely linked
institutions—the other two being the presidio (gar-
rison) and the civil settlement—designed to serve
the ends of Spanish imperial expansion and de-
fense on the northern frontier. The mission, it was
hoped, would gather the native converts into self-
contained religious communities, train them to till
the land, herd cattle, and practice various craftsuntil
they became fully Christianized and Hispanicized.
The presidios would provide military protec tion for
the neighboring missions and ensure a cooperative
attitude on the part of indigenous novices. Finally,
attracted by the lure of free land, Spaniards of mod-
est means would throng to the area and form civil
settlements that would become bustling centers
of life and trade. By all these means, the frontier
would be pushed back, pacifi ed, and maintained
against foreign encroachment.
This three-pronged attack on the wilderness
was not very successful. Certain tribes on the
northern frontier, such as the powerful Apaches of
Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and the Coman-
ches of Texas, were never reduced to mission life.
The missionaries had greater success among such
sedentary peoples as the Pueblo of New Mexico,
the Pima and Opata of Sonora in northwest Mex-
ico, and the Hasinai of east Texas. Even among
these peaceful communities, however, revolts and
desertions were frequent. In 1680 the supposedly
Christianized Pueblos of New Mexico revolted,
slaughtered the friars, and maintained a long, te-
nacious resistance against Spanish efforts at recon-
quest. The rise of native leaders who proclaimed
that the old gods and way of life were best often
sparked wholesale desertions. Mistreatment by
soldiers in nearby presidios and the terror inspired
by Apache and Comanche raiding parties also pro-
voked frequent fl ight from the missions.
The civil settlements proved no more success-
ful. By the end of the colonial period, there were
only a few scattered towns on the northern fron-
tier, and the continuous raids made life and prop-
erty so insecure that in New Mexico settlers who
petitioned for permission to leave outnumbered
recruits coming to the area. Ultimately, the whole
task of defending Spanish claims fell on a chain of
presidios that stretched approximately along the
present border between the United States and Mex-
ico. Successive military defeats compelled Span-
ish troops to take refuge behind the security of the
high presidio walls. In the end, Spain was forced to
adopt a policy of neutralizing the Apaches and Co-
manches by periodic distribution of gifts to them.
When the outbreak of the wars of independence
stopped the fl ow of gifts, however, they again took
to the warpath, driving by the useless line of presi-
dios into the interior of Mexico.
The most notable instance of successful mis-
sionary effort, at least from an economic point of
view, was that of the Jesuit establishments in Par-
aguay, where, favored by a genial climate and
fertile soil, the Jesuits established more than thirty
missions; these formed the principal fi eld of Jesuit
activity in America. Strict discipline, centralized or-
ganization, and absolute control over the labor of
thousands of docile Guaraní producing large sur-
pluses enabled the Jesuits to turn their missions into
a highly profi table business enterprise. Great quan-
tities of such goods as cotton, tobacco, and hides
were shipped down the Paraná River to Buenos
Aires for export to Europe. Rather than “Christian
socialism,” the Jesuit mission system could more
correctly be described as “theocratic capitalism.”
Jesuit rule in Paraguay and Jesuit mission ac-
tivity everywhere in the colonies ended when a
royal decree expelled the order from the colonies
in 1767. Among the motives for this action were
the confl ict between the nationalistic church pol-
icy of the Bourbons and Jesuit emphasis on papal
supremacy, suspicions of Jesuit meddling in state