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 ( es, Lago Nahuel Huapí) is a lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The tourist center of Bariloche is on the southern shore of the lake. The June 2 ...

, northern

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

. 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 Cau-Cau R ...

.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 Gabriel Guarda (born Fernando Guarda Geywitz; 19 January 1928 – 23 October 2020), was a Chilean historian and architect. Career He studied architecture at the Catholic University of Chile. He was part of the editorial committee of the journal ' ...

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 historiography 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 destruction of ...

. 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 serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, wh ...

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 Mamuil Malal Pass (Mapudungun for ''corral of wooden sticks'') is an international mountain pass in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The pass connects Pucón and Curarrehue in Chile with Junín de los Andes in Argentina. The road passes j ...

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 tributari ...

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

was the Jesuit priest

Diego de Rosales Diego de Rosales (Madrid, 1601 - Santiago, 1677) was a Spanish chronicler and author of ''Historia General del Reino de Chile''. He studied in his hometown, where he also joined the Society of Jesus. He came to Chile in the year 1629, without ha ...

. He had been ordered to the area by the

Governor of Chile The Royal Governor of Chile ruled over the 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 were 66 such governors or captains du ...

Francisco Antonio de Acuña Cabrera y Bayona Francisco Antonio de Acuña Cabrera y Bayona (Spain; 1597 – Lima; 1662) was a Spanish soldier and governor of the Captaincy General of Chile between 1650 and 1656. He was son of Antonio de Cabrera y Acuña y de Agueda de Bayona, who was a knight ...

, who was concerned about the unrest of the native Puelche and

Poya Poya is the name given to the Lunar monthly Buddhist holiday of Uposatha in Sri Lanka, where it is a civil and bank holiday. Full moon day is normally considered as the poya day in every month. Poya A Poya occurs every full moon. ...

after the slave-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 archai ...

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 Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

through

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

The missions

In 1670 Jesuit father

Nicolás Mascardi Nicolás Mascardi (; Rome, 1625 – † Patagonia, 1673) was a Ligurian Jesuit priest and missionary in South America in the 17th century. He arrived to Chile in 1651. While active in Araucanía he gained notoriety for the exorcisms he practised ...

, based in

Chiloé Archipelago The Chiloé Archipelago ( es, Archipiélago de Chiloé, , ) 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 t ...

, entered the area through the

Reloncaví Estuary Reloncaví Estuary (Spanish: Esturario 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 t ...

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 Vicen ...

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, thanks to orders from the

viceroy of Peru The viceroys of Peru ruled the Viceroyalty of Peru from 1544 to 1824 in the name of the monarch of Spain. The territories under ''de jure'' rule by the viceroys included in the 16th and 17th century almost all of South America except eastern Braz ...

. 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 The Huilliche uprising of 1712 ( es, Rebelión huilliche de 1712) was an indigenous uprising against the Spanish ''encomenderos'' of the Chiloé Archipelago, which was then a part of the Captaincy General of Chile. The rebellion took place in the ...

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 beh ...

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, an ...

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 ( es, Archipiélago Guayaneco) is an archipelago in southern Chile. It consists of 2 main islands, :es:Isla Wager (to the east), :es:Isla Byron (to the west), and many smaller islands. It was heavily glaciated during ...

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 (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 National Park () is the oldest national park in Argentina, established in 1934. It surrounds Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes. The largest of the national parks in the region, it has an area of , or nearl ...

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