The Mission of Nahuel Huapi was an intermittent Jesuit mission that existed in

colonial times The ''Colonial Times'' was a newspaper in what is now the Australian state of Tasmania. It was established as the ''Colonial Times, and Tasmanian Advertiser'' in 1825 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colon ...

on the shores of

Nahuel Huapi Lake Nahuel Huapi Lake () is an Andean lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The lake has a northwest-southeast elongated shape and complex geography with several branches, pe ...

, northern

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

. The exact locations of the missions are not known but it has been suggested, based on a Christian grave finding, that the mission of the early 18th century was located in Huemul Peninsula. file:Nahuel huapi lake Argentina.jpg, 250px,

on whose shore the successive missions lay. The Mission of Nahuel Huapi depended on administrative and religious matters on the Governorate of Chiloé but was nevertheless financed from the city of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

.Urbina Burgos, R. (2012)
Notas para el estudio del oficio de Gobernador de Chiloé durante el periodo indiano
'' Revista Chilena de Historia del Derecho'', (10), pp. 205-219. Historian Gabriel Guarda disagrees, claiming the mission was within the jurisdiction of Valdivia.

History

Early explorations

Nahuel Huapi Lake was known to Spaniards since the times of the

Conquest of Chile The Conquest of Chile is a period in Chilean history that starts with the arrival of Pedro de Valdivia to Chile in 1541 and ends with the death of Martín García Óñez de Loyola in the Battle of Curalaba in 1598, and the subsequent destruction ...

. In the summer of 1552–1553, the Governor of Chile

Pedro de Valdivia Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva (; April 17, 1497 – December 25, 1553) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' and the first royal governor of Chile. After having served with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in ...

sent

Francisco de Villagra Francisco de Villagra Velázquez (1511 – 22 July 1563) was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile. Early life Born at Santervás de Campos, he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not m ...

to explore the area east of the Andes at the latitudes of the city of

. Francisco de Villagra crossed the Andes through Mamuil Malal Pass and headed south until reaching

Limay River The Limay River is an important river in the northwestern Argentine Patagonia (the region of Comahue). It originates at the eastern end of the Nahuel Huapi Lake and flows in a meandering path for about , collecting the waters of several tributa ...

in the vicinity of Nahuel Huapi Lake. Another early Spaniard to visit the zone of

was the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest

Diego de Rosales Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. ...

. He had been ordered to the area by the

Governor of Chile The royal governor of Chile ruled over the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish colonial administrative district called the Captaincy General of Chile, and as a result the royal governor also held the title of a captain general. There w ...

Francisco Antonio de Acuña Cabrera y Bayona, who was concerned about the unrest of the native Puelche and

Poya Poya is the name given to the lunar month, Lunar monthly Buddhism, Buddhist holiday of Uposatha in Sri Lanka, where it is a civil and bank holiday. When earth makes Full Orbit of moon is normally considered as the poya day in Sri Lanka every mon ...

after the

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

-hunting expeditions carried out by

Luis Ponce de León Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

in 1649, who captured Indians and sold them into slavery. Diego de Rosales started his journey at the ruins of Villarica in Chile, crossed the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

through Mamuil Malal Pass, and traveled further south along the eastern Andean valleys, reaching Nahuel Huapi Lake in 1650.

The missions

In 1670

father Nicolás Mascardi, based in

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago (, , ) is a group of islands lying off the coast of Chile, in the Los Lagos Region. It is separated from mainland Chile by the Chacao Channel in the north, the Sea of Chiloé in the east and the Gulf of Corcovado in the s ...

, entered the area through the

Reloncaví Estuary Reloncaví Estuary (Spanish: Estuario de Reloncaví, archaic: Sin Fondo) is a fjord off Reloncaví Sound, located in the Los Lagos Region of Chile. Several National Parks and Wilderness Areas are situated in the vicinity of this fjord. Among th ...

and

Todos los Santos Lake Lake Todos los Santos (Spanish for "All Saints Lake") is a lake located in the Los Lagos Region of southern Chile, 96 km northeast of the regional capital Puerto Montt and 76 km east of Puerto Varas, within the boundaries of the Vicent ...

to found a mission at the

, which lasted until 1673. A new mission at the shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake was established in 1703, backed financially from

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Potosí Department, Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the list of highest cities in the world, highest cities in the wo ...

, thanks to orders from the viceroy of Peru. According to historic documents, the

of Nahuelhuapi requested the mission to be reestablished, apparently to forge an alliance with the Spaniards against the Puelche. Following the 1712 Huilliche rebellion in

some insurgents sought refuge from the Spanish reprisals with Father Manuel del Hoyo in the mission. The mission was destroyed in 1717 by the Poya following their disagreement with the superior of the mission. He had refused to give them a cow. Soon thereafter authorities learned that four or five people travelling to Concepción had been killed by the Poya. The colonists assembled a

punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beha ...

Calbuco Calbuco is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Calbuco. Administratively Calbuco belongs to the Llanquihue Province of Los Lagos Region. The origin of the city was the Spanish Fort Calbuco founded in 1603, ...

and Chiloé. Composed of both Spaniards and

indios reyunos During colonial times indios reyunos was a term to designate a group of huilliche ''yanakuna'' that settled in the area of Calbuco and Abtao, Southern Chile. This group originated from the indigenous peoples that stayed loyal to the Spanish after t ...

, the expedition did not find any Poya. Until the wreckage of '' HMS Wager'' in

Guayaneco Archipelago The Guayaneco Archipelago () is an archipelago in southern Chile. It consists of 2 main islands, Wager Island (to the east), :es:Isla Byron (to the west), and many smaller islands. It was heavily glaciated during the most recent ice age. Thes ...

in 1741, Jesuits clearly prioritized Nahuel Huapi Lake as an area to expand their missionary activity over the Patagonian islands south of Chiloé. In 1766 the head of the Mission of Ralún tried to reestablish the mission at Nahuel Huapi, but the following year, the Crown suppressed the Society of Jesus, ordering them out of the colonies in the Americas. The Franciscans who replaced the Jesuits in Chiloé sought to rediscover the route across the Andes to Nahuel Huapi Lake in order to establish a mission there. For that purpose they organised expeditions in 1778 and in 1779 which however failed to reach the lake.Urbina Carrasco 2009, p. 133. The conflictive Intendant of Chiloé Francisco Hurtado del Pino accused the Franciscans in 1787 of not being interested in missioneering, wrongly claiming the route to Nahuel Huapi was known. Although no new mission was established in Nahuel Huapi, Franciscans used Valdivia as starting point for the founding of a large network of missions, of which the

Mission of Río Bueno Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality *Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * O ...

(established in 1777) was the closest to Nahuel Huapi.Urbina Carrasco 2009, p. 223.

References

;Bibliography {{Spanish missions in the Americas

Nahuel Huapi Nahuel Huapi Lake () is an Andean lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The lake has a northwest-southeast elongated shape and complex geography with several branches, pe ...

Jesuit history in South America

Río Negro Province Neuquén Province 1703 establishments in the Captaincy General of Chile 1670 establishments in the Captaincy General of Chile

History

Early explorations

The missions

See also

References