Friar Bringas Reports to the King: Methods of Indoctrination on the Frontier of New Spain 1796-97

ix+177 pages with frontispiece, maps, tables and index. Quarto (10" x 7 ") bound in original publisher's red cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original jacket. Translated and edited by Daniel S Matson and Bernard T Fontana. First edition. In recent years, gauged by the quickening pace of research, borderlands scholar have focused more and more attention on Spanish colonial Arizona and Sonora. Although the result of such concentration has been sporadic, the quality of the output for the most part has been noteworthy. An excellent example of this type of productivity is Friar Bringas Reports to the King, a mutual effort by linguist Daniel S Matson and anthropologist Bernard L Fontana. Admittedly, the book is not an original piece of scholarship in that the document was written by a Franciscan inspector of the borderlands nearly a hundred and eighty years ago at the close of the eighteenth century. All the same, the value of this contribution by Matson and Fontana lies in the informative and lucid introduction which critically palces Friar Bringas' document in historical perspective and in the meticulous evolution of the translation from raw English to polished content and style. Moreover, Fontana's copious explanatory notes to the report confidently guide the reader through the meandering flow of the Franciscan's discussion. Condition: Jacket price clipped; lightly rubbed; corners lightly chipped; some small closed edge tears, hinges rubbed else a near fine copy in like jacket.