Massacre at the Yuma Crossing: Spanish Relations with the Quechans, 1779-1782 by Mark Santiago (review)

656BOOK REVIEWS about the direction which their Church, already weakened by a lack of priests and nuns, is taking as it enters a new millennium. The strength and the weakness of the work center around O'Connor's expertise on the Irish in Boston. Confusion emerges in three places where he speaks of the city's mayors: Hugh O'Brien is "the first Irish-born Roman Catholic mayor of the city" (p. 139); Patrick Collins is "Boston's first Irish-born Roman Catholic mayor" (p. 155); and John E Fitzgerald is "the city's first Boston-born IrishCatholic mayor" (p. 237). While the first two statements contradict one another , the third one contradicts the historical fact that a native of the West End of Boston, namely, Daniel A. Whelton (1872-1953), who immediately preceded Fitzgerald, was "the city's first Boston-born Irish-Catholic mayor." Nevertheless, O'Connor's book is an exceptionally fine one for anyone who wants to understand Boston Catholics. Vincent A. Lapomarda College ofthe Holy Cross Massacre at the Yuma Crossing: Spanish Relations with the Quechans, 1 7791782 . By Mark Santiago. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. 1998. Pp. xv, 220. $35.00.) Since the journeys of St. Paul, Christian missionaries have gone forth to convert the world, trusting in the Holy Spirit. The degree of that trust, compromised by human nature, informs their actions. When it is low, they are inclined to take matters into their own hands, publicly knocking down the idols of opposing cultures. When it is high, they rely more on example and friendly persuasion . Fray Francisco Garces (1738-1781), a Spanish Franciscan, trusted to a high degree and gave his life. More than that of any other individual, this is his story. From his chance meeting with Quechan (Yuma) headman Olleyquotequiebe (Salvador Palma) in August, 1771, just below the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers until his violent death nearby a decade later, Garces bound himself, with God's help, to bring the native peoples of the region to Christianity and at the same time to assure overland passage from Sonora to California. The story has been told before, but never with such focus. Mark Santiago of the Arizona Historical Society keeps his eye on the crossing. Utilizing all available primary and secondary sources, he crafts a straightforward, fast-moving chronicle that contains the requisite historical context but does not wander. After a heroic decade of exploration and reform, Spain's entry into the war against Great Britain in 1779 caused a debilitating shift in men and matériel from New Spain's northern frontier to the Mississippi Valley and Gulf of Mexico . Familiar proposals like extending missions, presidios, and towns along the Gila and Colorado rivers had to be scaled back or abandoned altogether. BOOK REVIEWS657 Abandonment might have saved Garces. Instead, Commandant General Teodoro de Croix endorsed a low-budget compromise: two isolated, makeshift communities, each with two Franciscan missionaries, ten soldiers, ten farmers, and five laborers, all with their dependents, set out in the winter of 1780-81 on the California side of the Colorado across from today'sYuma,Arizona. Using quotations to good effect, Santiago conveys the growing tension as two or three thousand Quechans, fewer than two hundred colonists, and four Franciscans jostled to survive in a spare environment. Although some Spaniards feared trouble, everyone relied on Father Garces to keep the peace. When the Quechan uprising erupted inJuly, 1781, it closely resembled a hundred others, down to the scheming, vindictive Hispanicized native interpreter who turned on his former masters. During the massacre, after scores of men, women, and children had been killed or taken captive, Salvador Palma allegedly ordered that Garces be spared. Francisco Xavier refused to listen. Hence, the overland road to California was closed. Several punitive expeditions failed to humble the Quechans or capture their rebellious leaders. Spanish officials masked their shame in the boast that thirty armed men could force passage anytime they chose, but they never did. John L. Kessell University ofNew Mexico Hispanic Catholicism in Transitional California: The Life ofJosé Gonzalez Rubio, O.EM. (1804-1875). By Michael Charles Neri. [Academy of American Franciscan History: Monograph Series, Volume 14...