Kino Birthplace
Segno, Province of Trent, Italy

Kino 's Journey From Segno to Mexico City
Frank C. Lockwood
Main Article

Tyrolian Heritage and Birth  0046 - 1645

Eusebio Kino, was born in the Province of Trent, Italy, at the village of Segno in the Valley of Anaunia. He was presented for baptism at the parish church of Saint Eusebius at Torra August 10, 1645; and, as it was the custom in Italian families to baptize infants immediately after birth, we may be assured that he was born on that day. Segno and Torra are a short distance apart. ...

The name Anaunia is very ancient and its history interesting. In the year 46, A. D., the Anauni were granted Roman citizenship by Emperor Claudius. The decree conferring the privilege upon them was engraved on a bronze tablet, and hung on the door of a pagan temple. After many centuries the temple was destroyed and the tablet was buried in the ruins. When work was being done in the Black Fields near Cles in 1869, the memorial was unearthed, and was found to be undamaged. I have a photograph of this relic. Anaunia was so named for the people who first inhabited this valley. In the course of nineteen centuries the name has undergone various changes and abbreviations, from the Latin and the medieval Italian forms to the present modern Italian spelling Val di Non. In 1291, the Counts of Tirolo took forcible possession of the County Sporo-Flavon in which were included the villages of Torra and Segno. Until 1803, these villages belonged to the County previously named. ....

The valley of Kino's nativity was converted to Christianity in the fourth century by Saint Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, who later suffered martyrdom. The boy Eusebio came of a very ancient line, and one not undistinguished. He was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Dr. Simone Chini, Notary and Imperial Judge, who on March 15, 1529 obtained from Charles V a grant of nobility. He was able to trace his lineage back four generations to Bartolameo, who was living in 1380. The descendants of Dr. Simone Chini, in 1600, became proprietors of the greater part of the taxes of Segno and much of the property of Mezzocorona. They had a tomb of nobility in the church of Torra. It is a circumstance of no little interest that the house in which Eusebio was born is the very one in which his ancestor Doctor Simone lived, and that it is still standing. .... The charter of privilege authorizing Simone Chini to make use of the Insignia and Ornaments pertaining to his order of nobility, issued by the Imperial Council of Charles V, is a document steeped in the spirit of the past - an echo from the borderlands of the Feudal Age. ....

There seems to be almost nothing known about Kino's parents or about his boyhood activities. Presumably, he began his serious studies in the Jesuit College at Trent - at a fairly early age, no doubt, for we know that he was a student of rhetoric at eighteen.

Munich
Home of the Elector of Bavaria

Missionary Call in Jesuit Germany  1645 - 1678

It was while here at Freiburg, on November 20, 1665, that Kino obtained entrance to the Society of Jesus. ...... How ardent his desire was to carry the light of the Gospel to the benighted natives of California and Mexico we shall read in the six letters that he wrote to the Father General between 1670 and 1678.

For the present it is best to follow the educational career of this gifted and devout young man. In 1667, he began his philosophical studies at Ingolstadt. When he was just about to complete this three-year course he writes as follows to the Father General:

_________

"Very Reverend Father in Christ
The Peace of Christ

Seven years have now passed since the time when I, a student of Rhetoric, confined as I was to my bed because of a serious wound followed the advice of one of our Fathers, to whom was known my purpose already most ardent to seek admission to the Society and to undertake the Indian mission, and made a vow that, if I should recover my health, I should seek both admission to the Society and appointment to the Indian Mission. And now, since through the matchless kindness of divine bounty I was received into the Society five years ago, and since that most earnest desire of obtaining the Indian Mission or one similar to it has not diminished in the least but rather has increased day by day to such an extent that even if I were entirely freed from the vow made seven years ago, I should still most persistently seek a Mission of that sort, I have decided, now that my study of Philosophy is almost finished, to place my prayers before Your Reverence.

And so, while I feel that by the grace of God my attitude of mind is such that, in whatever place or office even the most humble I may be placed by the direction of any superior, I shall be content with that, I am most earnestly asking, nevertheless, from Your Reverence the Indian Mission or the Chinese or some other like those and very difficult, if anything under divine favor is difficult. But He knows, He who has graciously increased my eager desire to endure and to suffer many severe toils for the greater glory of God, and the salvation of men, God, I say, knows that never will a fulfillment be granted more in accordance with my prayers than to be permitted to pour forth my blood and my life in love of Christ Jesus and for the benefit of the Church and the Society; but because now and until the kindly providence of God shall decide otherwise I deem myself altogether unworthy of a blessing so desirable and excellent, most eagerly in my ardent soul do I yearn to perform |23| the more usual duties of the Society in the midst of the varied experiences of toils, prisons, pains, poverty and scorn.

Since this would be attained most fully of all places in the Indian Missions, I again and again ask and pray Your Reverence that you do not hesitate in accordance with your watchful and more than paternal kindness toward your servants to grant these prayers of mine; and this will be the more fully shown, the more quickly these prayers of mine, that I be sent to the Indies or to another Mission of that sort, are granted. Certainly this favor once received, seeing that it is priceless, I shall never be able to forget in time or eternity, unless I am ungrateful. And so myself and my being sent I most humbly commend to the most holy Sacrifices of the Mass of Your Reverence, I write and most humbly ask that my prayers be granted, falling on my knees before the image of the most holy and indivisible Trinity, of the Blessed Virgin, and of Our Most Holy Father.

Ingolstadt, June 1, the festival of the same most Holy Three, 1670.
Of Your Most Reverend Paternity
The Most unworthy Servant
Eusebius Chinus. S. J. "
_________

Chini's request was not granted at that time. Instead, he was sent to Innsbruck to be instructor in letters at the College of Ala. But so great was his desire for missionary work on the dangerous frontiers of the world that, on January 31, 1672, from Innsbruck, he renews his most earnest prayer to the Father General.

Again his prayer was denied. So in 1673, he returned to Ingolstadt to begin his regular four-year course in Theology; not, however, without again urging that he be sent to some remote and dangerous mission field. This third letter is dated July 18, 1673, and like the previous one is written from Ala on the Inn. ....

This letter, like the others, failed to convince his superiors at Rome that the time had arrived for him to take up the missionary labors that he longed so earnestly to begin. So back to Ingolstadt he went; and it is from that city that he next writes, February 25, 1675. He is now almost thirty years of age. He has proceeded far in his studies, having completed his three years in philosophy and being now in the second year of the four-year theological course.

Among other interesting items to be found in this letter |25| is the reference to his fondness for mathematics and the facility with which he pursued the study of the mathematical sciences. More than once his future career was to be influenced in no slight degree by the fact that he was proficient in these branches. He taught mathematics while he was in the University; and, he states that in 1676 he entered into a discussion of mathematics with the Duke of Bavaria and his father when they were visiting Ingolstadt on a sort of tour of inspection. So strongly were they impressed with Kino's ability that they invited him to remain in Europe and teach his favorite sciences in the University. ...

Three more years go by, and now, having completed his course in theology, he passes on to Old Oettingen, Bavaria, for his third and final probation before the assumption of the solemn vows. It is while at Oettingen that, for the fifth time, he requests the Father General to send him as a missionary to the Indians. In this letter he reveals an excited and confident expectancy; for he has learned that missionaries for the Indians are actually being enrolled. ...

Trail in Dolomite Alps
From Bavaria Over Brenner Pass To Tyrol

Journey From Germany to Genoa Via Tyrol

Almost before the letter just quoted was out of his hands, word came to him that the Father General had at last acceded |27| to his desire. He barely took time to prepare what things were required for his long journey. For this purpose he stopped a few days at Munich. There was little to hold him in the Trentino, for he had no worldly goods to dispose of. Long ago he had said farewell to any craving for material things; and, as the last male of the family, he had conveyed his entire property to the Company of Jesus - this transaction having been completed on December 10, 1667, while he was at Ingolstadt. Of his separation from his mother country, to which he was never afterward to return, Dr. Eugenia Ricci writes very touchingly: "There remained only the patrimony of his soul - the love of his native spot carried with him in his heart."

Here is the last of his six fervid letters to the Father General.

_________

"Very Reverend Father in Christ,
The Peace of Christ.

I present to Your Reverence my heartiest thanks that you have deemed it proper to give assent so kind and so timely to my prayers for securing the Indian Mission. I shall be the most ungrateful of mortals, if, as long as I shall live, I shall not be most constantly and steadfastly mindful of the matchless favor which I have received. May I be able to act in a way befitting the special graciousness herein shown to me. May the most potent love of Christ Jesus cause that I never wish, do, speak, or think anything which shall be inconsistent with an appointment so eminent. About six weeks ago I sent a letter to Your Reverence in which I commended to you my appointment to the Indians, and scarcely had my letter left Germany, when our Reverend Provincial Father came to the House of the Third Probation at Oettingen. He told me that assent had been given to my prayers by Your Reverence.

And so having received from the same Reverend Provincial Father an official letter of appointment directing me to Genoa, Father Antonius Kersparner and I, on March 30, left Oettingen for Munich. We stayed at Munich six days until the things necessary for our journey should be prepared, and leaving there on the seventh of April we took the road into the Tyrol to Hal and Innsbruck. We arrived at Innsbruck on the twelfth of April, at Trentino on the eighteenth, at Brixia on the twenty-fourth, at Milan on the twenty-seventh, and on the second of May we reached Genoa, being, praise to God, at all times safe, at all times unharmed; especially were we everywhere most kindly received and treated by our brothers.

Of the missionaries ordered here to Genoa we arrived first of all, although two days after our arrival seven others from Bohemia also reached here, and four others are expected to arrive within two days. There is, however |28| ever at present no opportunity for going by sea to Cadiz; we hope that God will soon furnish a way; otherwise we shall undertake the journey by land or in what way shall seem best to our Superiors. And so with the repetition of my most sincere thanks, most humbly and most earnestly I again commend myself and my Mission to the most Holy Sacrifices of the Mass of Your Reverence.

Genoa, May 6, 1678.
Of Your Very Reverend Paternity
The bond-servant in Christ.
Eusebius Chinus, S. J. departing for Mexico. "
|29|

Duchess d'Aveiro, de Arcos, y de Maqueda
"The Mother of the Missions"

Delay in Spain & Correspondence with The Duchess  1678 - 1681

June 12, 1678, in company with eighteen other Jesuit missionaries, Kino took ship at Genoa, expecting to embark at Cadiz for the New World. The passage to Cadiz was slow, as the Fathers encountered dangerous seas in the early part of the voyage and were later becalmed for several days. At the end of two weeks they put in at Alicante on the southeastern coast of Spain. A good many vessels were seen between Genoa and Cadiz, and so warlike were the times that the sailors constantly held themselves in readiness for action. They were unmolested, however, and at last reached Cadiz - though too late to catch the Royal Fleet for the West Indies. At Seville they were taken ashore, and here they had to wait many months. But the time was not spent fruitlessly, for the younger priests continued their studies and the older ones devoted themselves to the mastery of the Spanish language, to the study of mathematics and astronomy, and the manipulation of various instruments of navigation, such as the compass and the sun-clock.

In the early spring of 1680, the Fathers went to Cadiz hoping for an early embarkment; but it was not until July 10 that they were able to take ship. At that time, the Fleet for the Indies being in readiness for the voyage, the missionaries were taken aboard "The Nazarene."

We are able at this point to pick up the thread of Kino's fortunes through a wonderfully interesting series of letters written by him between August 18, 1680, and February 15, 1687, to the rich, devout, and renowned lady, the Duchess d'Aveiro, de Arcos, y de Maqueda. She was one whose whole heart and soul was bound up in missionary work among heathen people in all the remote parts of the earth. The Fathers called her "Mother of Missions," and priests all over the world corresponded freely with her concerning their labors and the progress of the numerous missions which she fostered. ...

Kino wrote the first of his many letters to the Duchess d'Aveiro August 18, 1680. In it he tells her that after living two years in Seville waiting for passage to their field in the New World, he and his companions embarked July 10, on "The Nazarene," one of the vessels of the Royal Fleet bound for the Indies. He explains that immediately after setting sail "The Nazarene" came to grief among the rocks and almost foundered. He goes on to say that after awhile:

"The sea became calm and we returned safe and sound to the city and our college towards the evening. Our Proctor |33 | of the Indies proceeded to ask throughout that night what hope we had of returning on board; whereupon, when he learned that the vessel would not be seaworthy for some weeks, he returned to the college; and at two o'clock that night he roused us to go and embark on the other vessels of the Fleet, which we reached at about seven of the following morning. We were nearly all without cloaks, caps, or breviaries as we had been on leaving the shipwrecked vessel "Nazarene"; but in spite of many prayers and supplications, they would not receive on board any of the vessels more than eleven missionaries; the others, amongst whom were the writer and three novices, were obliged to return to Cadiz and to the College."

At first it was hoped that "The Nazarene" could be repaired in time to continue with the Fleet. But this expectation proving vain Kino, with Father Thomas Revell, was left in Cadiz to do the work of the College there, while the Proctor and the other missionaries who had been left behind went to Seville. ...

In a second letter to the Duchess, written September 15, 1680, while he is still waiting at Cadiz, uncertain what the decision of the Father General might have been with respect to him ... He tells her Grace that there is still some expectation that he may be able to set out for New Spain before the end of the year, either in ships from Honduras that are expected to arrive soon, or in a dispatch boat bound directly for Vera Cruz, or in ships destined for the Leeward Islands that she had told him about.

Before the letter is posted, he adds this fresh bit of news from the wide seas:

"During the last four days the ships have arrived from Honduras, and they bring bad news - that the French and English and other pirates have sacked Porto Bello, and that they wish to proceed to Lima. They also report that between Panama and Cartagena some rich gold mines have been discovered; and within the last three days three ships have put in from Biscay, which, they say, are ships from the Indies or windward squadron."

In a letter to the Duchess dated November 16, 1680, Kino reverts to her passionate interest in the mission to the Mariana Islands and the quest for the "Unknown Land of Australia"; and, after mentioning that Father Theofilo and other missionaries are now on their way there, adds: "If we cannot follow these lucky Fathers on their journey to the Eastern Church with our bodies, we can at least follow them mentally and pray for them and their success continuously, as well as for their successors in the whole of the Orient and in the "Unknown Lands of Australia."

He continues:

"God knows how eagerly some ten years ago I endeavored to obtain at Rome and elsewhere a Portuguese grammar so that I might learn Portuguese, or at least its chief elements while I was still in Germany, in order that |35| I might, in due course if it pleased God and my Superiors, go to the East Indies. In the letter which I received four days ago from Rome, the Father General confirms, as does also the Assistant Father of the German Province, Charles de Noyelle, that we were to go either to Paraguay, or to the New Kingdom. But since the chance is gone of going to Paraguay, we may be going to the New Kingdom as there is a despatch boat which will leave Europe with the Fleet, and will take us to the Port of Vera Cruz, as the Father Procurator of the Indies has warned us, who wishes that those Fathers who are destined for the Philippines, or the Mariana should follow the others who are going to Mexico with the Fleet, so that they may be able to take a boat in Acapulco for the Philippines." 

In this same letter Kino, in reply to inquiries made by the Duchess as to his nativity, has this to say: "What your Grace wishes to know about me I will write most willingly about my nation and my country; I am a Tyrolese from Trento, but I don't know whether I can say whether I can call myself an Italian or a German, because the town of Trento makes use of the Italian language, laws and habits, but although it is situated in the very extremity of the Tyrol, and although our College of Trento is the college of Upper Germany, it is usual to speak Italian there." ...

It is now mid-December, 1680, and Kino still at Cadiz, is in constant readiness to set sail for his unknown field in the far seas.

He writes:
 
"I have received your letters with those enclosed intended for Mexico, and I shall do my utmost that they shall reach their addresses safely.

"As regards my mission, I desire my eternal salvation, but value equally and desire even more the conversion and salvation of the heathen Indians. But, with the help of God, I shall always be obedient to God's will and my Superiors.  

"Your Grace's prayers will procure for me that great joy and reward, however, and whenever it appears good to God to send me I shall go. If I consider Japan, and the victories of its martyrs which have been obtained by the love of God, then your letters which I have recently received, and which mention Japan, seem to me most pleasing. If, however, I look at China with my mind's eye I am delighted that I spent so many years in the study of mathematics and other sciences, which were so pleasing to me that it has always been a delight to me to live in rooms in the colleges which had windows to the East so that the aspect of the East, where I always intended to go to convert to God, delighted me."

In a letter to the Duchess d'Aveiro written from Cadiz on December 28, 1680, Kino makes mention of the famous comet of 1680-1681, which he had been carefully observing for some days. ...

He promises that in his next letter he will tell more about the comet - its size, its distance from the earth, "Its exact locality, and its unhappy effects upon the Kingdoms of Europe." So, on January 11, 1681, after some comment upon the possibility that some missionaries who had already been designated for the New Kingdom would have to remain in Spain owing to lack of funds for the journey, and

A reference to the rumor that the Fleet was to sail within a few weeks, he goes on to say:

"With regard to the great Comet which is visible here (and as I believe throughout the world) we saw it in the evening at the hours of 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, and later, and you will have understood from my (previous) letter that this Comet has been observed by me almost every day in the sky, except the last three days when the obscurity of the sky prevented us from observing the Comet. Notwithstanding, I think, that, even in these last three days, the Comet ascended by its own motion towards the Arctic Pole in a slight declination towards the East, and that it will pass the Tropic of Cancer. And although the longitude of the Comet's tail from the 5th of January when it almost reached as far as the seventieth degree has been diminishing daily, I firmly believe that the Comet will last the whole month of January, and a considerable part of next month."

Finally the time is at hand when Kino is to set sail for Mexico. He conveys this news to the Duchess in a letter of January 26. For eight days the galleons had seemed to be on the point of departure. The Viceroy and the Vicereine had even gone on board their ship, and the missionaries, three days before, had sent all their bags and boxes aboard. But, writes Kino, there is still a possibility that their departure may be delayed three more days on account of the strong wind which has prevailed. The missionaries bound for Mexico most eagerly await the Father Procurator, cheered by the report that he has already reached Seville on his journey from Madrid. So Kino closes his letter with the words: "The end of my letter is this, to say good-bye in Europe." |38|

A month later, aboard ship near the Canary Islands, he writes again, giving some details of the voyage up to that point. The passage consumed three months - to be exact, ninety-five days if we count both the day of departure from Cadiz, January 29, and the day of arrival in Vera Cruz, May 3.

Mexico City Arrival and Destiny in the Missions  1681

Upon reaching Mexico, Kino at once sent a full account of his long voyage to the Duchess d'Aveiro. .... 

As to his own probable destination he has this to say: 

"Father Baltasar is trying to send me to China, and several days ago he mentioned the matter to the Father Provincial of the Province of Mexico, endeavoring to obtain me for the Far East. But the Father Provincial has not given Father Baltasar his definite consent, on the contrary, he intends to send me with another veteran missionary father to California whither in a few months ships and soldiers and a magnificent expedition are being sent to discover whether this be indeed an island or a large, vast peninsula. It may, however, be that the Father Provincial will yet give his consent ..... In the meantime, however, I do not listen to one more than the other, nor do I let myself wish one thing more than the other. On the 23rd of June at 6 o'clock in the evening, we had a great earthquake here. Many public prayers had taken place, in order to obtain rain. I suspect that this extraordinary drought had somewhat caused the earthquake, because afterwards there was a great inundation." ...

Birthplace of Eusebio Fransciso Kino
Val di Non in the Province of Trent, Italy
"Valley of Canyons"
Lake Santa Giustina Dam Built in 1950

Kino's European Travels (1645-1681)
Edward J. Burrus
Summary Article

|16|
Eusebio Francisco Kino was born on August 10, 1645, in Segno, near Trent, Italy. [1] After elementary schooling at home and in the village school, he continued his studies in Trent from about 1656 to 1662. [2] Inasmuch as Segno is some twenty-one miles directly north of Trent, it is obvious |17| that little Eusebio had to live at the Jesuit school during the school year, and could come home only for the longer vacations such as Christmas, Easter, and the summer.

In the autumn of 1662, he undertook the first recorded long trip of his life. [3] He had shown exceptional ability in his studies at the school in Trent and was offered a scholarship at the Jesuit College in Hall, Austria, a town situated a few miles east of Innsbruck. The large Tyrolese city lies about eighty miles directly north of Segno. We are not told how Kino reached it. He could have either ridden on horseback or taken the post diligence which linked Trent with Innsbruck via Bozen; even today, the traveler follows the old Roman highway that threads the Brenner Pass. [4]

Hall was to be his home for the next three years (1662-1665). [5] "Falling desperately ill here, he promised that, if he should recover, he would enter the Society of Jesus and volunteer for the foreign missions. He added Francis to his name in gratitude for the recovery which he attributed to Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Orient". [6] Most likely he returned to Segno only once a year during summer vacations.

In 1665, he was accepted in Freiburg, Germany, by Father Servilianus Veihelin for the Jesuit Order, and began his training at Landsberg, Bavaria, on November 20, 1665. [7] After the usual two years of formation as a Jesuit novice, he went to study philosophy in Ingolstadt. [8] In 1670, he left |18| Bavaria and crossed the high Alps into northern Tyrol; he had returned to teach literature for the next three years at his Alma Mater in Hall, Austria. [9]

He went back to Ingolstadt in 1673 for four years of theology. [10] Young Kino had shown such exceptional talent in his studies that two radical changes were allowed in his favor. He was assigned to teach mathematics and various branches of the natural sciences to his fellows Jesuits at the University of Ingolstadt; and, before completing the full theological course lasting four years, he was sent to the University of Freiburg in order to take up more advanced studies in his special fields. [11] Even with ordination to the priesthood in Eichstatt, Bavaria, on June 12, 1677, his long course of training had not yet ended; in Oettingen, Bavaria, a final year of formation awaited the young priest so impatient to be on his way to distant missions. [12]

The 1678 Bavarian Province catalogue records in a most matter of fact way a prospective adventure which must have caused two hearts to beat faster and two imaginations to conjure up dreams of boundless conquests: "April, 1678. The following two men are on their way to other Jesuit Provinces - Father Anton Kerschpamer has been assigned to the Philippines; and Father Eusebius Chinus, to Mexico". [13] The two missionaries left Oettingen on March 30, 1678. They again crossed the Alps at Innsbruck, visited Hall for, the last time, followed the Sill River to the Brenner Pass, and traveled southward over the old Roman road along the Etsch to Bozen in Tyrol. They then crossed over to Salorno, where Kerschpamer was to enjoy a final visit with his family; Kino continued to nearby Segno. [14]

They could not tarry long in their native towns because they had to reach the harbor of Genoa by May 2, 1678, |19| although it was not until June 12 that the nineteen Jesuit missionaries actually set sail. [15]

Thirteen long days in crossing the Mediterranean to Alicante, Spain, initiated the fledgling sailors in the hardships and perils of sea travel. From June 25 to July 3, the missionaries visited the harbor city and its wonders, and practiced their many and strange varieties of Latin and Spanish on their fellow Jesuits and townspeople. [16]

Bad weather and poor seamanship conspired to delay their ship from reaching Cadiz in time to board the fleet for the Indies. On July 14, as they neared the Spanish harbor, they saw before them the flotilla as it slipped over the horizon with the setting sun. [17]

First Cadiz for a few days, then Seville for nearly two years, and then Cadiz again - this time for some ten months - were to be Kino's home in Spain. The long wait was not lost in useless fretting: he perfected his knowledge of Spanish, he read more widely in mathematics and science, and made many instruments he would need in the mission field, especially compasses and sundials. [18]

On July 11, 1680, almost two years to the day after his arrival in Spain, he set sail from Cadiz on the Nazareno. Before the ship could clear the harbor, it ran into a sand bar. Rescue came soon, but passage on another ship to the Indies would make Kino wait more than six months. [19]

It was during this period of forced waiting that Kino began his correspondence with the Duchess of Aveiro in the hope of getting early passage and of being reassigned to the Far |20| East, the goal of his boyhood dreams. [20] His scientific interests received new impetus from the appearance of an extraordinary comet, which he first sighted and studied in November of 1680. [21]

Finally, on January 27, 1681, the stranded Jesuit contingent set sail from Cadiz in a special dispatch boat. [22] Despite the terrible risk of sailing without the protection of a convoy, all the missionaries felt fortunate at not having to wait at least a year and a half longer before they could board the next regular fleet for the New World.

Their voyage from Cadiz, Spain, to Vera Cruz, Mexico, took them through the Canary Islands. On May 1, they put into the Mexican harbor - a trip of over ninety days. [23]

After a short rest in Vera Cruz to recuperate from the voyage, Kino was once more on his way. He realized that he was now truly in a " new world ", amazed at the wonders which awaited him along the route Cortes had taken 162 years earlier. He visited en route Puebla with its numerous Jesuit schools, its splendid cathedral, and fine churches. A short trip brought him to famed and tragic Cholula. Then came unforgettable Huejotzingo with its superb Franciscan monastery and church. The route now climbed dizzily as he neared the high passes leading into the valley of Mexico and the capital of New Spain. He reached Mexico City about June 1, 1681, more than three years after leaving Oettingen, Bavaria, and even his native Segno. [24]

|21|
Kino was slow to abandon a cherished ideal; but when he was forced to do so, he could always adapt himself to circumstances, and seemingly could create an even higher ideal than that which he was compelled to sacrifice. The latter would be his new vision. As the reader will often have the occasion to observe, each successive vision embraced the earlier ones. Hence, his life was one of amazing growth, not a series of sterile disappointments at lost opportunities. As a young man he had for several years set his heart on working in China ; it was for this vast empire that he studied mathematics and the natural sciences. While in Spain, he resorted to every means to get to the Orient. He continued to do so in Mexico City. But on being appointed by the Mexican Provincial to the Lower California enterprise, Kino devoted himself to his new ideal with an energy and enthusiasm worthy of a lifetime aspiration. We shall see that he can again adjust himself to changed circumstances when the attempts at the conquest of California are so unreasonably abandoned.

The Conde de Paredes, Viceroy of Mexico, designated Kino royal cosmographer to Admiral Atondo's expedition to Lower California. Father Bernardo Pardo, Jesuit Provincial Superior, appointed him and Father Goñi chaplains of the fleet and missionaries to the natives of the lands to be discovered and explored. [1] 

Kino and Manje:
Explorers of Sonora and Arizona, 1971
Edward J. Burrus

First Part: The Trips And Expeditions
Chapter 1 Kino's European Travels (1645-1681)
Excerpt from Chapter 2: On To California (1681-1686)

To download above chapters with footnote text
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Burrus: Kino in Europe