Kino, Father Eusebio (1644-1711)

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Father Eusebio Kino (1644-1711)

Southwest missionary

Education. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino was born in the Valley of Nonsburg in the Austrian province of Tyrol, but he spent most of his adult life living in the borderlands claimed by a Spanish king. Kino was well educated. At a time when many could not read or write he studied at the universities of Ingolstadt and Freiburg, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics. Although offered a professorship in mathematics at the University of Ingolstadt, Kino had already made his decision about his life. In 1665 he joined the Jesuits in order to become a missionary, as did one of his relatives. He hoped to go to China but was sent to Mexico instead, although he stayed there only a short time.

California. Spain claimed present-day California but had been unable to do much in the way of securing this land. The conquest of the Philippines in the 1560s had paved the way for a Pacific Ocean trade between Mexico and Manila. The ocean route to the Philippines skirted the California coast because of the currents, and therefore Spain looked for a harbor there as a way of making the voyage shorter and thus healthier. Both English and Dutch pirates also sailed this coast, hoping to pick off heavily laden Spanish ships, so a safe harbor would be welcome. California itself offered a pearl fishery for the Crown to grant to private patentees to exploit. Unfortunately, the Spaniards had alienated the Indian tribes living there. By 1678 there were as yet no permanent Spanish settlements in California. That year the Crown was willing to grant the rights to try again. The spiritual responsibilities for the enterprise fell to the Jesuits, and Father Kino became one of two missionaries to California. His mathematical abilities also made him a royal astronomer, surveyor, and mapmaker. The expedition sailed in 1683 to what is now part of Baja California in Mexico. For the next two years Kino and various others explored the region, making frequent reports. In 1685 the whole enterprise was dropped. Father Kino was sent to the area known as Pimería Alta, now northern Sonoma, Mexico, and southern Arizona.

Pimería Alta. Father Kino’s work in Pimeria Alta began in March 1687 and was wholly concerned with living and traveling among the mainly Yuma and Pima Indians. There were no European settlers initially. He explored, built a mission, and attended to his religious duties. Moving beyond the last mission at the town of Cucurpe, he founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. Here he would stay for almost twenty-five years, and from this outpost he established new missions, pushing north to the Gila and Colorado Rivers. In April 1700 he founded the first mission within the present state of Arizona, San Xavier del Bec, now Tucson. Kino did more than just direct the establishing of missions. His explorations confirmed that California was a peninsula and not an island. It could therefore be reached and explored by land, and this is what Father Kino did. Kino traveled thousands of miles on horseback, sometimes with Europeans and other times with Native Americans. In 1695 he rode to Mexico City, taking fifty-three days to make the fifteen-hundred-mile journey.

Ranching. Father Kino was more than just a priest, an explorer, and a cartographer. He was also responsible for establishing ranching as a viable economic enterprise in Pimeria Alta. The older missions had supplied him with a few animals, but Kino went on to establish cattle ranches in at least six river valleys in northern Mexico. The missions bred cattle, horses, mules, and sheep. Indeed, one historian credits him with establishing the cattle industry in at least twenty places where it still exists, including Tucson. These animals belonged to the church, not Father Kino, and not only fed Indians but also enabled the missions to be self-sufficient. This last factor was most important because it meant that they could survive regardless of what was happening politically and economically elsewhere in the Spanish domains. It also allowed Father Kino to develop new missions without relying on help from anybody else. For example, when creating San Xavier del Bac he was able to send along seven hundred animals—a large herd for the time.

Simplicity. Father Kino seems to have exemplified the simplicity and faith that marked the most devout of those in holy orders. He took his vows of poverty seriously and owned little. He ate and slept sparingly. He was unafraid to die, secure in his belief in the promise of salvation. His companion for the last eight years of his life, Father Luis Velarde, wrote of his death, which occurred on a visit to his mission at Santa Magdalena where he had gone to dedicate a chapel:

He died as he had lived, with extreme humility and poverty. In token of this, during his last illness he did not undress. His deathbed, as his bed had always been, consisted of two calfskins for a mattress, two blankets such as the Indians use for covers, and a pack-saddle for a pillow.

He was sixty-seven years old.