New Norcia's Treasures:

Salvado's Correspondence - Years 1884-1890

SHORT VERSION OF - VERSION MODIFICADA DE: Teresa de Castro, "New Norcia’s Treasures: Salvado’s Correspondence as a Source for Western Australian and European History. Years 1884-1890", New Norcia's Studies Journal (Perth, Western Australia), 13 (2005), pp. 54-83. (Tesoros de Nueva Nursia: La Correspondencia de Rosendo Salvado como fuente para la Historia de Western Australia y Europa en el siglo XIX)
Teresa de Castro © 2009-2013. This paper is protected by Copyright Laws

In the pages that follow I intend to draw a sketch of the historical information that the researcher can find in New Norcia Correspondence for the period 1884-1890 and highlight some of the most interesting topics and documents. At the end of this paper I include a table with an alphabetical list of authors that will help, among others, Western Australian genealogical researchers.

New Norcia correspondence for the period 1884-1890 contains mostly letters sent to members of the New Norcia community from Australia and overseas, although it also includes copies and drafts of letters sent from New Norcia and documents enclosed with letters addressed to the Mission. Therefore, we can find telegrams, reports, circulars, bills, accounts, receipts, newspaper cuttings, different sorts of prints, drawings, sketches, invitation cards, a will and a sermon, as well as an extract of the no longer existent New Norcia Mission's Visitors Book. I would like to remark that the order of the letters in the microfilms is not completely accurate since many of them were wrongly dated, which explains the presence of documents written in 1865, 1872, 1875, 1880, 1883, 1891, 1892, 1897, 1924 and 1940. The letters have an extension between one to four pages, although there are letters with only a few lines and others 13 pages long.  
 

Half of the documents were written in Spanish, and forty per cent in English, which indicates a change from the period 1880-1883, during which most of the letters were written in English. This can be easily explained by the fact that Abbot Rosendo Salvado was in Spain in 1884 and part of 1885, and there was a corresponding increase in the Spanish letters not only from Salvado but also from other Spaniards writing to Salvado while he was at home. Salvado brought back his correspondence to Australia and deposited it in New Norcia Archive. The Archive also contains letters written in French, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese, and Latin, although the number of letters arriving from Italy and France declined compared to the previous period.
 

2.1. Letters Received at New Norcia from Western Australia
 

 2.1.1. Letters from the Colonial officers
 

A small number of letters come from colonial officers in this period, but some of them deal with private or semi-private affairs. The bulk of the letters come from the Newcastle Resident Magistrate’s office (dealing with the payment of the sheep contribution tax and the Greenough Relief Committee Fund) and by Anthony O’Grady Lefroy, Paymaster of Pensioners, who forwarded William Dennett’s pension to the Mission. Henry Bruce Lefroy’s letters focussed on the Victoria Plains Road Board, payment for destruction of wild dogs, the Trespass Act, and the Perth cricket team. A letter from the Governor’s secretary thanked Salvado for sending basil seeds. An invitation came from the colonial committee of the London Colonial and Indian Exhibition 1886, and some letters deal with land matters. The most interesting documents are the letters sent by politicians Samuel Hamersley, Timothy Quinlan, George Randell and Henry Prinsep asking or thanking Abbot Salvado for his support during the elections for the first representative Legislative Assembly held in Western Australia in 1890.
 

2.1.2. Letters from Western Australian Settlers
 

The most numerous sets are from Daniel James Avery (New Norcia’s agent for the export of horses to India) and Morrison & Crossland (New Norcia’s auctioneers in WA). However, letters from other businessmen and neighbours deal with the pedigree, purchase, and payment of horses. Especially interesting is the news about the confrontation between Salvado and Walter Padbury after the shooting of New Norcia’s horses in Padbury’s paddock; the firm Stone & Burt mediated between the parties, and eventually Padbury paid Salvado a reasonable compensation for each animal shot dead. Other letters focus on the price of silkworm cocoons in European markets, the renting of New Norcia lands and houses, the purchase of New Norcia honey and wax, the supply of seeds and cuttings from and to New Norcia, the supply of medicines and fabric to New Norcia, and many other things.
 

The letters not dealing with business matters allow a glimpse of the relations between Western Australians. Some people asked about their relatives, introduced friends going to New Norcia or sent gifts. Others wrote about loans, debts, appointments, invitations, etc. Peter Anthony Gugeri –a Perth wine merchant and friend of Abbot Salvado- wrote several letters about the operation performed on Br. Esteban Tomás’ cataract by Dr. Jameson; he was convinced that Dr. Daniel Kenny would have done better and advised Salvado to contact Kenny to examine the brother. Gugeri also included information about his vines and discussed the possibility of distributing New Norcia wine in Perth. Dr. Jameson and Dr. O’Connor’s letters deal with the illnesses of some Mission brothers, while ex-brothers Oriol and Sans’ letters deal with the leaving of the Mission by the latter. Also interesting are the letters written by the prisoner Aaron Kershaw asking Salvado to help him to get a pardon of his sentence and an early release from Fremantle Prison. Among the many curiosities is a letter from Hubert V. Cox to Salvado offering to open a temporary skating rink at New Norcia. 
 

2.1.3. Letters from Settlers in New Norcia’s Neighbourhood
 

I would like to point out that in the Colonial period neighbourhood was a concept whose meaning was intended for a larger area than now; colonisation had not developed much some areas of the colony, and the closest neighbours sometimes lived very far away. This especially applies to New Norcia, whose neighbours were not only settlers in the Victoria Plains but also in the districts of Toodyay and Northam and in the Greenough Flats (near Geraldton).
 

Most of this correspondence deals again with horses (branding, pedigree, paddocks, sales, purchases, horses lost) and the request for loans, advance of money or sale of New Norcia products (wine, honey, wax, flour, vegetables, lime, tobacco, tools, blasting powder, nails, leather, etc.) and services (use of the mill or people seeking medical attention and medicines). Letters also come from shepherds, sawyers, and fencers asking Abbot Salvado for a job and from people offering their properties and stock for sale. John Brown’s letters are mostly devoted to the supply of New Norcia wine for the Victoria Plains Hotel. A bunch of letters come from the Clinchs (I include here the ones by Emma Morrissey), the Clune, and Walter Padbury. I will point out some of the most interesting of the many other matters.

Charles Mortimer was the caretaker of “Dairy Creek”, a farm owned by the Fitzpatricks in the Gascoyne. Mortimer wrote five letters in a-pain-to-read English, a sort of “postcard” in which he described his own life and the lives of other pioneers in the isolated stations of the North. He commented on the weather, the lambs, Gascoyne wool, and gave news about his boss’ family and about some settlers (for example, Robert Eyre’s attempt to commit suicide). Charles Mortimer was a half-cast Aboriginal native of Gingin, educated and trained as a blacksmith at New Norcia. In this period Mortimer provided Salvado with cockatoos, emu eggs, and Aboriginal artefacts, while Salvado satisfied Mortimer’s request for religious and reference books.
 

Alfred James Clinch wrote two letters (dated 16 May 1884 and 5 January 1886) that show the precariousness of the wealth of some entrepreneurial farmers. Clinch had followed Padbury, Loton & Co’s advice regarding some improvements on his farm (“Berkshire Valley”), but after doing so he found that he had a debt of £1,500 with them, and they did not want to advance him any money to pay it. Loton was personally willing to advance an unspecified sum if Clinch handed over to him his leases, but Clinch did not want to do so because he could easily lose his property. Clinch’s letters give details of the state of his station, his plans for recovery, and the kind of help he needed to keep his farm afloat. Clinch wanted Salvado to contact his banker friends in secrecy to get a loan on certain conditions but asked Salvado to exclude the Western Australian Bank and the National Bank because, according to him, businessmen in Perth were freemasons, as was Loton, and they could easily inform  Loton of Clinch’s movements.
 

Mrs. Anne wrote a letter from Chittering on 1 December 1884 asking Salvado to organise a collection to help her to pay her husband’s creditors. This letter puts in the spotlight the hard life of some working-class women in colonial Western Australia and is a remarkable testimony of sexual abuse:  [quotation suppressed].
 

2.1.4. Letters from Clergy
 

In these years most of the letters came from the Bishop’s Palace in Perth, although an important number of letters came from different Diocesan parish priests and convents. The most interesting group of letters is the one related to the appointment of Fr. John O’Reily as Bishop of Port Augusta.

2.1.4.1. Letters from the Bishop’s Palace in Perth. Those letters deal with a wide range of ecclesiastical affairs: the work of the Diocesan priests, collections, subscriptions, pastoral visitations; supply of wine for Mass, holy oils and horses from New Norcia; Lenten regulations, visits to other colonies; introduction of new religious and sacerdotal orders, etc. Much information exists about the progressive physical and mental deterioration of Bishop Martin Griver from the beginning of 1886, his death, and the consecration of the Bishop Elect Matthew Gibney (23 January 1887), in which took part Cardinal Moran from Sydney, Bishop Reynolds from Adelaide and Abbot Rosendo Salvado (as Bishop of Port Victoria). Other frequent topics of the letters are the reorganization of The Western Australian Record (a Catholic newspaper founded in 1874) and the use of the newspaper as a platform for Catholic views about colonial politics, politicians, and laws.
 

Extremely interesting are the letters written by Bishop Matthew Gibney and other priests regarding the best candidates for Catholics in the elections for the Representative Legislative Council. Another noteworthy letter is the one sent by Gibney to Salvado on 12 January 1889 about the acceptance of a share of 300 acres of land in a coalmine in the Irwin District, because it shows the progressive involvement of the Catholic Church in projects that could be profitable for the diocese’s economy.
 

Also attractive are Fr. Anselm Bourke’s letters describing the problems that Fr. Adolphus Lecaille created after his arrival at the Vasse in September 1889. Lecaille excommunicated a group of people who had sent a petition to the Governor asking him to forbid Lecaille to dig up the bodies of two Protestants buried in the Catholic cemetery, an action motivated by the lack of space for the deceased; the newspapers in the eastern states published several news items about the Inquisition in Western Australia and Bishop Gibney was forced to visit the area to calm people. Fr. Bourke requested Salvado’s opinion regarding what to do in case they needed to bury somebody else, and Salvado sent some theological extracts that could apply to the case. Fr. Bourke also provided the only available information about the last days, death, and burial of demented Br. Gregorio Sotillos in York.
 

2.1.4.2. Letters from New Norcia Brothers written from Perth. Prior Fulgencio Domínguez’s letters to the Mission written when Salvado was in Europe are meticulous reports of his trips and stays in Perth and the work carried out in the government  and lawyers’ offices, banks, and stores. Domínguez commented on the lease and purchase of land and the provision of supplies for the Mission (seeds, food staples, clothing, tools, material, and medicines). However, the biggest source of troubles during these years was the resumption of the work on the Midland Railway Company. The project of building a line between Guildford and Geraldton through Victoria Plains threatened to take large areas of New Norcia land and dismember Marah station. After consulting with Abbot Salvado, Domínguez contacted government officers and Salvado’s agent, George Shenton, purchased some land, and applied for a government grant; Domínguez informed Salvado of the frenzied activity carried out regarding this affair and the obtaining of a temporary reserve at Marah granted by Administrator Onslow in an uncertain date between January and March 1885. Afterwards, Domínguez started working on obtaining a permanent reserve, a job that Salvado continued after his return to Western Australia.
 

Abbot Salvado’s letters from Perth deal with the same range of subjects, but they are more detailed. Unlike Prior Domínguez, Salvado provided precise information about his trips to the city (arrival and departure times, stops in the road, problems found, people met, news about the neighbours, the weather, his health, and accidents). Salvado mentioned searching for supplies, their purchase and sending, and the search for workers, and he informed Domínguez of the people going to visit the Mission. He also informed Domínguez about the attendance at meetings, banquets, and inaugural functions and mentioned his visits and the people who visited him. Salvado included news about colonial politics and politicians, the Catholic clergy, and any information or rumour surrounding the resumption of the works for the northern railway line. Salvado’s work and the help of his influential friends lead to the establishment of a permanent reserve around Marah lands on 20 April 1886. Especially interesting are Salvado’s comments on the Aboriginal cricketers’ matches and on some brothers arriving in 1885 and their departure soon after (Fr. Viñeta, Br. Juan Domenech, Br. Torruella, and Br. Sans).

Brother Montoya wrote several letters from Perth, all related to the operation performed on Br. Esteban Tomás’ eyes in 1885. Some letters from Br. Ramiro Landaluce concern the horse business.
 

2.1.4.3. Letters from Parish Priests in Western Australia. New Norcia Archive keeps letters written by parish priests working in Albany, Fremantle, York, Newcastle, Northam, Greenough, Geraldton, and Derby. This correspondence mentions their pastoral work (inauguration of new churches, baptisms, marriages, and sending of Aboriginal children to New Norcia), mundane matters (exchange of seeds, cuttings or books; purchase of horses; acting on behalf of settlers, introductory letters, and news about ex-missionaries), political affairs (candidates best suitable for the Catholics), and much more. Fr. Adolphus Lecaille (from the Greenough Flats and then from Vasse) and Fr. John O'Reily wrote the most; I examine the latter’s letters in section 2.1.4.5. Also noteworthy are a document containing a copy of the sermon delivered at the inauguration of the new Catholic church of Bindoon in 1886 and the harsh letter sent by Fr. Lecaille to Bishop Gibney about the payment of his salary.
 

2.1.4.4. Letters from Nuns in Western Australia. The number of sisters writing to New Norcia increased during this period. The Sisters of Mercy in Perth and Guildford wrote most of the letters, although other letters came from the Sisters of Mercy in Bunbury, the Sisters of St. Joseph in Albany and Fremantle, and the newly established community of Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition in Northam. These letters give news about the members of the community (illnesses, deaths, and trips), about the schools, charity bazaars, and the exchange of information and products.
 

2.1.4.5. Letters about the Creation of Port Augusta Diocese. Fr. John O’Reily was working as a parish priest at Fremantle and as editor of The Catholic Record when he was designated bishop of the newly created diocese of Port Augusta in South Australia. The letters that O’Reily sent to Rosendo Salvado are an account of the troublesome birth of the new diocese. O’Reily heard of his appointment as Bishop of Port Augusta through the newspapers, and from the beginning he considered himself unfit for the job; he commented to several people that he did not want such a burden on his shoulders. O’Reily received the official appointment on 3 August 1887, and on 14 August he wrote to Salvado asking whether to accept or not: 
 

[QUOTATION REMOVED]

Eventually O’Reily accepted the position and prepared his trip to Adelaide, where he would be consecrated. Salvado in a letter to Domínguez dated 6 October 1887 wrote that they travelled together and reached Adelaide on 1 October. O’Reily and Archbishop Reynolds exchanged information and documentation about Port Augusta Diocese, but O’Reily found the new diocese in such a bad state regarding area and initial capital that he postponed his consecration and went to Sydney to inform Cardinal Moran. On 7 October only two of the nine prelates who had arrived for the consecration remained in Adelaide. No information exists in New Norcia Archive about what O’Reily discussed with Moran, but the result was O’Reily’s decision to resign his diocese. On 16 November 1887 O’Reily told Salvado that Reynolds had argued with Moran and told him that it was impossible to create a new diocese in such conditions. O’Reily thought that Reynolds’ opinion would support his resignation in Rome, but Propaganda Fide enlarged the area of the diocese and asked O’Reily to proceed to consecration. On 17 April 1888 O’Reily stated that he was at peace because he had informed Rome of the many difficulties of his task and they had chosen him anyway. In this letter O’Reily criticised the ideas of Reynolds regarding the finances of the Port Augusta Diocese.
 

On 2 July 1889 O’Reily sent Salvado his first pastoral letter, devoted to issues related to Catholic schools, and commented on the precarious state of his diocese; in fact, the money raised by a special collection had only sufficed to pay for two thirds of one year’s interest on the Cathedral’s debt, so he had applied for financial help to Propagation de la Foi, a French institution that provided financial support to Catholic missions. On 18 August 1890 the news was quite different: O’Reily had written some articles in The Southern Cross about the financial state of the Church and the Catholics of the diocese had donated significant sums, and O’Reilly started a new collection. Nevertheless, O’Reily asked Salvado to recommend him to his friends in Propagation because they had decided not to help him.
 

2.1.5. Letters from New Norcia Brothers working in other Stations
 

New Norcia Mission had sheep stations spread through Victoria Plains, the most important ones being Marah and Wyening, which had also some basic buildings. The other so-called “stations” were well-watered pastoral areas where the shepherds used to stay to feed the stock. The sources do not state if the stock keepers had any sort of rudimentary accommodation or if they made do with tents and swags. The survival of the stock depended on the availability of fresh water, so the wells and tanks were periodically repaired, enlarged, or deepened. In these years letters came from Marah, Wyening, Damboring, and Monchary requesting rations and other supplies and containing news about people working there, movements of the shepherds, state of the stock, works going on (drilling and digging wells, deepening of wells, repairing tanks, etc.), and much more.  
 

2.1.6. Letters from New Norcia’s Workers
 

New Norcia Archive keeps mail from people working for New Norcia as shepherds, sawyers, well sinkers, shearers, and fencers. Most of the letters deal with payments, supply of rations and tools, sheep lost or sick, and work on tanks and wells. George Ikin was, as in the previous period, the most prolific writer. All the workers’ letters are remarkable because they were written by almost illiterate men in a rudimentary English (actually a phonetic transcription of their strong Irish or Scottish accents) and, most important, because they describe the daily life of working men in colonial Western Australia and discuss salary, food, work relations, daily worries, accidents, sickness and other matters. There are so many interesting episodes that it is impossible to mention them all here. One of the more interesting is a letter written on 22 August 1889 by Aborigine James Nindimar Cooper, a New Norcia’s shearer temporarily working for Alfred Clinch at Jibberding, in which he described the situation of the Aborigines in that part of the colony and their interaction with the “civilised” Aborigines and farmers. [suppressed quotation]

2.2. Letters sent from New norcia to Australia and Overseas
 

2.2.1. Letters from Abbot Rosendo Salvado
 

This period contained notable dates for the history of New Norcia. Salvado returned from Europe in September 1885 after more than three years overseas. The Pope approved Salvado’s request to appoint Prior Domínguez as Abbot Coadjutor, and Salvado delivered the news to the community on 15 August 1887. On 1 March 1888 Salvado celebrated his 75^th birthday and his sacerdotal Golden Jubilee. Important visits to the Mission include Cardinal Moran and Bishop Reynolds in January 1887 and Governor Broome and his wife in September 1889.
 

The letters that Salvado sent to settlers and government officials in Western Australia deal with a wide range of subjects but especially with the horse business, the renting of New Norcia runs (for use of the land, the water, or the sandalwood), and decisions regarding lands offered him for sale. A group of letters concern the first elections for the Representative Council and show the involvement of Salvado in colonial politics. Salvado and other settlers of the Moore District requested George Randell to stand as a representative of the district; however, after getting some information from Bishop Matthew Gibney about Randell’s actions towards the Catholic Schools while on the Board of Education, Salvado changed his mind and voted for Bernard Drummond Clarkson. Salvado refused to vote for another candidate, Samuel Hamersley, giving him an elegant excuse, and authorised James Hubbard to act on his behalf by proxy. Finally, some letters are devoted to helping prisoner Aaron Kershaw, jailed in Fremantle, to get an early release Abbot Salvado kept copies of letters he wrote to Fr. Anselm Bourke, Fr. Patrick Long, and Fr. Facundo Mateu. The letters to Mateu deal mostly with the reception of Aboriginal children sent to New Norcia. However, in one of them Salvado commented bitterly about Mateu’s statement regarding the Midland Railway project that the general benefit should be preferred to the private one, and that the railway would be an improvement for the Mission. Salvado answered that he was not happy because he knew that the future of New Norcia was very dark since the railway was not going to be built according to the European style or as the Fremantle-Beverly line was, and he ended by stating that he did not care what others thought about this matter. New Norcia Archive also keeps some copies of letters sent to the eastern states to Cardinal Moran, Bishop Murray, Bishop O’Reily, and Father Coué on different matters.
 

In this period Salvado made two visits to the eastern states. The first one, just after he returned  from Europe, was to attend the Plenary Synod of Australia held in Sydney (he left first week of November 1885 and returned to Fremantle on Christmas Day). Later Salvado travelled to Adelaide to attend the consecration of Father John O'Reily (he left on 24 September 1887 and returned on 20 October). In those letters Salvado gave details about his trips, the steamers in which he travelled, people he met on board, the mail, the activities he attended at his destinations, visits to Catholic communities and institutions, visits to agricultural exhibitions, the sending of seeds and flower plants to New Norcia, and many other things.
 

Since the correspondence under consideration was inward, it contains little news about what Salvado was writing to Europe. However, Salvado had the habit of writing a short summary of his response at the top of most of the letters received. Moreover, in this period he sent a letter to Charles Wainwright asking about a possible loan and another to ex-brother Bartolomé Ramis containing a certificate to allow him to get married; Salvado’s correspondence also contains a copy of his voting paper for the election of the members of the Melbourne Board of Education held on December 1886.
 

2.2.2. Letters from Prior Fulgentius Domínguez (Abbot Coadjutor since 1887)
 

Most of Domínguez’s letters in this period were addressed to Salvado in Spain and were devoted to two main problems affecting New Norcia: firstly, the lack of rains, the consequent scarcity of water for the fields and stock, and the work to deepen some wells and enlarge some tanks; and, secondly, the Midland Railway Company, as I have already mentioned in section 2.1.4.2. As in previous years Domínguez gave an account of what was happening at New Norcia and dependent stations (Marah, Wyening, Marbro, Damboring, Conduit, Wongan Hills, Dumbo, etc.) regarding agricultural works and stock, New Norcia produce (especially cereals and wool), and work on tanks and wells. Domínguez informed Salvado of the correspondence and goods arriving at the Mission, visitors received, and the need for supplies of fabric, medicines, and spare pieces. His letters contain plenty of news about the health and behaviour of New Norcia brothers and Aborigines and descriptions of the performance of the Aboriginal choir and brass band during Easter functions. Domínguez also commented on the news sent by Salvado from Spain and on the forwarding of documents. Finally, Domínguez acknowledged the celebration of paid Masses sent or celebrated, and informed Salvado of the mentions of New Norcia in speeches and books.
 

After the arrival of Salvado from Europe on 11 September 1885, Salvado made some trips to Perth and the Eastern colonies, and Domínguez once more kept him properly informed about the railway project, the Aboriginal cricketers, and the Aborigines’ fondness for horseraces. Domínguez several times mentioned the indiscipline or bad behaviour of some brothers, and he stated, “Twenty five or thirty years ago the Mission had problems from outside. Nowadays they come from inside”.
 

Domínguez’s correspondence also includes some information about the hatching of the silkworms, letters written to several settlers, accounts of some workers, lists of tools and goods sent to different stations, a reminding note about fabric needed at New Norcia, and a petition presented to the Victoria Plains Road Board.
 

2.2.3. Letters from Father Bernardo Martínez.
 

Martínez’s letters were all addressed to Prior Domínguez while the latter was in Perth dealing with the Mission’s affairs. As Domínguez before him, Martínez gave a chronicle of the work going on at New Norcia and dependent stations, asked for supplies, and included news about the mail received. In some of these letters Martínez commented on the pressure that New Norcia Aborigines placed on him to get their wages to buy clothes, shoes, or hats from an Indian pedlar who visited the Mission. Martínez also wrote a letter of reference for Thomas Clune that included a handwriting test by the 15 year-old youngster.
 

2.2.4. Letters Written by other Mission Brothers
 

Some of them are a request for supplies: fabric for dresses for the Aboriginal girls (Br. Miró), supplies for the guesthouse and a tooth remedy (Br. Beda Rodríguez), and rosaries, candles, kerosene oil, and petticoats (Br. Gasulla). Other letters deal with internal matters: the refusal of some brothers to do their job or to shift to a different work inside the Mission. (Br. Giménez), a request for money to pay for the work done at the new washing pool (Br. Larrea and others), and a request to ask for permission from the government to try liquor-making at the Mission (Fr. Bertran). The brothers also wrote letters to New Norcia’s neighbours, and most of these letters were from Br. Ramiro Landaluce on the horse business. Fr. Emiliano Coll wrote an interesting letter to Henry Bruce Lefroy commenting on the withdrawal of some children from New Norcia School, which could lead to its closure due to the lack of the minimum number of children needed to keep a school open according to the School Act. Some letters were written to friends of family in Europe (Br. Sala, Fr. Bertran), and a further miscellanea of letters exists.

 Many letters arrived from the eastern colonies in this period, especially from New South Wales and South Australia. Two-thirds of them are from clergy and deal with different matters: requests for photos, books, prospectus, and plants; requests for information or for prizes for charity bazaars; people wanting to join New Norcia and asking Salvado to compose a Funeral March. Four letters come from Cardinal Moran with information about the granting of the Abbot coadjutorship to Domínguez and the sending of two Trappist fathers to start a mission in the Kimberley. The most noteworthy letters come from O'Reily dealing with Port Augusta Diocese, already mentioned in section 2.1.4.5, Archbishop Reynolds from Adelaide and William Pidcock’s from Sydney.
 

 Archbishop Christopher Reynolds’ letters are very rich in information. Reynolds not only forwarded ecclesiastical documents from Rome and Australia but also commented on problems within his diocese (purchase or premises for the Church, works done in some churches, Catholic schools and the foundation of Baklava mission) and on the political, agricultural and economic situation of South Australia.
 

 William Pidcock wrote fewer letters in this period than in years 1880-1883. Half of Pidcock’s letters deal with his work at the Marist Brothers’ school of St. Joseph in Sydney and the illness and death of his wife. His correspondence contains honest opinions about Church politics and especially about the appointment of the first Cardinal of Australia (Moran) and his work to promote the flourishing of new religious orders in New South Wales. Pidcock, an ex-Anglican pastor who converted to Catholicism as a result of his conversations with Fr. Bernardo Martínez and Fr. Rafaelle Martelli, decided to become a Jesuit after the death of his wife, and despite his 48 years of age the Jesuits accepted him as a novice in Melbourne. Pidcock informed Martínez of his decision on 18 April 1888. 

 The group of letters arriving from Europe is not as numerous as in the period 1880-1883. The biggest group arrived from Spain for obvious reasons followed by Italy and France, although letters came from many other countries.
 

 4.1. Letters from Spain
 

 The locality of the letters from Spain shows that Salvado’s relations and area of work were located in the central northern half of the Iberian Peninsula: Madrid, Catalonia, Galicia –his home land– North Castille, Asturias, Basque Country, Navarre, and La Rioja. The letters written from the south are much scarcer, although some letters written came from Andalusia, Extremadura, Murcia, and the Balearic Islands. Most of the letters deal with the work to found the College of Benedictine Missionaries for Overseas (also called New Norcia noviciate) and the gathering of new postulants for New Norcia; Fr. Isidoro de Lope Moral’s letters are indispensable in this regard. Ex-prior Santos Salvado was the most prolific writer in this period, with 290 letters. 
 

 4.1.1. Abbot Rosendo Salvado’s Letters from Europe
 

After his long stay in Italy and his trips to France and Belgium, Salvado arrived in the Iberian Peninsula on 4 December 1883. The main purpose of Salvado’s stay in Spain was the foundation of a College for Benedictine Missionaries, which could serve as a nursery for New Norcia postulants. After many visits, offers, proposals, and study of the situation, Salvado made an agreement with Montserrat to establish the College there, and he started the legal procedure to obtain the approval of the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Ministry for Overseas (Colonial) Affairs.
 

After the issue of the Royal Decree authorising the foundation of a College on 13 November 1884, Salvado moved to Montserrat to choose where to locate the postulants and supervised the work needed before receiving them. Salvado had also to deal with an important problem: the complicated conditions of application of the law of exemption from military service. When everything was solved, Salvado and the postulants who decided to join New Norcia met in the French town of Perpignan, headed to London, and took the ship for Australia on 28 July 1885.
 

I would like to call the reader’s attention to the fact that most of the letters written to and from Montserrat regarding the negotiations for the establishment of the College of Missionaries for Overseas are kept in different files, a fact that explains the scarcity of news about such an important affair in this period’s correspondence. However, some letters from Salvado provide news of the long and stressful process that led to the opening of the College. This information needs to be complemented by the many details that Santos Salvado, Fr. Isidoro de Lope (see sections below), government officers, and Salvado’s friends included about the matter. In his letters Salvado commented on how the things were going, on the issue of the Royal Decree approving the establishment of the College, the works in Montserrat, the visit to Madrid with the Abbot of Montserrat and to introduce him to the Queen, the Ministry for Overseas’ authorities, and the Church’s hierarchy so that he would be officially recognised as Abbot and as Director of the College. Salvado also commented on the preparations for his departure and the waiting for the testimonial letters needed from the postulants’ diocesan prelates before leaving for Australia.
 

Two letters give an insight into Salvado’s thoughts on the College. In the first one, addressed to Fr. Ildefonso Bertran (dated 8 December 1884), Salvado confessed that he had obtained what he could and not what he wanted. In the second one, addressed to Prior Domínguez (dated 22 December 1884), he said that the new postulants would eventually serve in a mission in the Philippines (yet to be founded), and that they would stay in New Norcia, in theory, for a practical learning period. According to the Spanish Liberal laws, the only possible way to get exemption from military service for a religious man was to pay a fee (a very high sum) or to be member of a missionary order working in the Spanish colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines). To obtain the approval of the College of Missionaries from the government Salvado agreed to open a mission on a Philippine island in ten years; this was only a trick to allow the postulants for New Norcia to leave Spain without breaking the law on military service and without having to pay a fortune for them. The letter that Abbot Salvado sent to Fr. Isidoro on 17 October 1884 is of especial importance since it serves to explain many of the oddities surrounding the birth of the College for Missionaries in Montserrat in 1884.
 

Salvado’s letters also mention his trips to other monastic communities (Silos, Montserrat, San Payo, Samos)  and several cities (Burgos, Barcelona, Madrid, Santiago, Tuy) and the people he met, how he was treated, where he was staying, what he was doing, the weather, results of collections, celebration of Masses entrusted to them, and much more. Salvado’s trips had a quadruple aim: to visit old friends, to help the diffusion of his missionary work (and consequently increase the number of vocations and the collections of money for New Norcia), to contact owners of empty monasteries to evaluate the possibility of purchase or donation for the establishment of the College, and to discuss with some monastic communities the possibility of founding the College in their houses.   
 

Salvado’s letters, on the other hand, contain precise acknowledgements and comments on the news arriving from the Mission and about the preparations and sending of requested supplies. The letters of this period give the impression of a Salvado who no longer tried to control everything. Salvado was the Abbot and his opinion, guidance, and advice were necessary when dealing with important affairs, especially while trying to obtain a grant reserve for Marah lands to avoid any damage by the northern railway company. However, Prior Domínguez took decisions about the purchase of some areas of land at his own risk, and Salvado was satisfied with his decisions. Nevertheless, Salvado’s letters contains several complaints about the vague way in which Domínguez acknowledged Salvado’s requests. For example, on 18 August 1884 Salvado complained because Domínguez said that he had written down the celebration of paid Masses sent from Spain in a very general way; Salvado told Domínguez how to acknowledge Masses properly and added: “You probably will not tell me anything about this, because you haven’t specified anything on previous occasions, so I am not really happy, and I’m anxious because of the uncertainty [of knowing] if you have received or not all the Mass or celebrations that I have sent between 29 June 1883 and  9 June 1884”.
 

Finally, Salvado’s letters contain some notes about Montserrat (its restoration in 1844, its water deposits and a list of monks), about the newly appointed secretary of the Committee for New Norcia Affairs, and even a list of donors and a last comment on Fr. Joseph Moreau, the Belgian postulant that I mentioned in my previous paper, “He accompanied me for about four weeks, which were enough to lead me to take the decision I finally took. In my opinion, he had been too spoilt in each place he had been, which did him harm. A good young and very well educated man, no doubt, but not even three “peros” [variety of apple] make a [normal] apple”.
 

4.1.2. Letters from Ex-Prior Santos Salvado
 

The most numerous and interesting group of letters is the one written by Rosendo Salvado’s brother, ex-Prior Santos Salvado. In this period, Santos retired from his chaplaincy at the Royal Palace and left Madrid for La Guardia (in Galicia) on 6 October 1885. Despite his change of residency, Santos kept working as New Norcia’s agent and secretary and took care of the search, purchase and sending of any good required. He forwarded letters to and from Salvado, answered letters from people interested in contacting Salvado or asking about New Norcia, and exploited his circle of acquaintances among the Royal Family and Madrid and Galician gentry to advance New Norcia’s affairs.
 

As in the previous period, Santos’ letters deal with a range of mundane topics: his ailments, especially the progressive deterioration of his sight, old age and proximity of death, visits paid and received, guests, renting of their family house in Tuy, trips, and postal matters (Santos’ obsession). Santos informed Rosendo Salvado of many news items that appeared in the press regarding Spanish or European politics (especially the crisis within the Carlist Party and the conflict between Spain and Germany regarding the Caroline Islands) and anything published about New Norcia. Santos appears as a moderate Carlist and as an anti-Liberal opposed to the freedom of religion. Santos also commented on the social and cultural life in Madrid and La Guardia and obviously on religious matter such as the appointment of new hierarchy members, several Benedictine communities, missionary orders, and ecclesiastical ceremonies and celebrations. Santos periodically sent Catholic newspapers to New Norcia

These letters contain first-hand and extensive information about the intervention of Santos to advance the foundation of the College of Benedictine Missionaries for Overseas. Santos made use of all of his acquaintances in the Ministry for Overseas (especially in the Office for Ecclesiastical Affairs) to get unofficial information about how the case was going. New Norcia had official agents for the case, but they were not very efficient since they could not take steps except those permitted by the law. The highly bureaucratic Spanish administration took a long time to produce results, so the presence of a person asking (and annoying) about his case would encourage the officers to advance the case. In this respect Santos’ visits to the Ministry allowed him to push forward New Norcia’s file, to get privileged information about the activity of other parties involved, and to take steps in the right direction to solve any problem. Santos’ letters are very rich in detail about his visits to the Ministry and the obtaining of secret information, but also about his many contacts with other missionary orders’ superiors to get information regarding the application of the law on exemption from military service. Santos’ work was tireless and no study of the creation of the Montserrat College for Missionaries would be complete without the details contained in his correspondence.
 

Santos was always a very honest and passionate person when advising Salvado. In this period he tried to calm Salvado regarding the effects of the Midland Railway; he advised him to push on with viticulture and winemaking and showed his doubts regarding the benefits of sericulture for New Norcia’s economy. Santos was equally honest regarding the people and institutions he liked and disliked, especially evident in the case of Montserrat, a fact that made Salvado erase some of Santos’ most controversial paragraphs before depositing his letters in the Archive; some of them can still be deciphered with a little patience. To finish, his correspondence contains some curiosities: the sending of a set of mechanical toys for New Norcia’s Aboriginal children, the sending of seeds and fruit stones for the orchard, a recipe for making tomato preserve, and the mention of the menus he had on ordinary and extraordinary days, among many others.
 

4.1.3. Letters relative to the College for Benedictine Missionaries
 

In the paragraphs devoted to Rosendo and Santos Salvado, I have mentioned some of the aspects related to the creation of the College of Benedictine Missionaries in Montserrat, established as a way to guarantee the survival of New Norcia and to allow a group of postulants to leave Spain for the Mission without problems. In this section I present other letters dealing with the creation of the College for Missionaries and those devoted to the search for postulants in Spain.
 

4.1.3.1. New Norcia Archive keeps a few groups of letters written by government officers and Church hierarchies directly related to the creation of the College. The first group is formed by letters written by the Minister for Overseas (Earl of Tejada), the Director of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs (Perier), the chief of the section for Overseas Affairs (García de Otazo), and the Royal Chief Chaplain (Patriarch of the Indies), giving news of the issue of the Royal Decree authorising the re-establishment of the College as in the decree issued on 11 February 1868. This decree authorised Salvado to open a college for missionaries at El Escorial, but it did not work because of the triumph of the Liberal Revolution in Spain that year. The second group is formed by the letters of the Governor and the Bishop of Barcelona (Herce and Català) informing Salvado of the sending of their reports on the College’s project to the Ministry for Overseas. A third group is formed by the letters written by José Nacarino Bravo to Salvado on different matters related to the creation of the College and the exemption from military service.
 

4.1.3.2. As important as the re-establishment of the College was the search for postulants in Spain. New Norcia correspondence for the years 1884-1890 provides historians with precious information about the reality of religious recruitment for missions in Spain. It also allows researchers to answer important questions: Who were those young men willing to become missionaries? Why did they decide to become missionaries? Why missionaries in Australia? What kind of education did they have? Where were they from? How did they know about Salvado and his search for missionaries? How was Salvado able to find them? The answer to these questions will serve to demystify the belief –another myth surrounding New Norcia- that all those men came for the same reasons, with the same spirit and on the same conditions.

A) Father Isidoro de Lope Moral, parish priest at Barbadillo Del Mercado and later chaplain at the monastery of Las Huelgas (Burgos province), helped create a network of people and information that had as a result the finding of most of the postulants that entered Montserrat and went to New Norcia in 1885. Salvado met Fr. Isidoro after visiting Silos on his way to Burgos. Isidoro was parish priest at Barbadillo Del Mercado, a town very close to Silos. Isidoro and the other neighbouring priests were well known by the community of Silos, so Salvado certainly knew of him through Prior Guépin. While at Isidoro’s house (on 21 December 1883), Rosendo Salvado asked him to help look for postulants for both Montserrat College and New Norcia. Years after Salvado left for Australia, Isidoro was still providing Montserrat and other missionary and non-missionary orders in Spain and Latin America with postulants. We have to grant Fr. Isidoro a big part of the success that Salvado had getting applications for postulancy in these years. As requested, Isidoro started his work by launching an appeal to his neighbouring parish priests and asking them to spread the news through their parishes. To help attract vocations Fr. Isidoro worked to get some notes and letters on the matter published in Burgos Catholic newspapers, and he contacted his diocesan prelate to get permission to include some news in the Diocesan Bulletin. Fr. Isidoro, who initially had a general knowledge about Salvado’s project, asked for further information to improve the news published and to answer the many questions that the postulants were asking him.

The good results were undeniable. Once the people contacted Fr. Isidoro telling him about their wish to join New Norcia or the College for Missionaries, Isidoro passed Salvado a list with their personal details (name, age, place of birth and residence, parents, education, and skills) to help Salvado decide who to accept and who not. Salvado chose the postulants and informed Fr. Isidoro, who proceeded to inform the postulants and asked them to get testimonial (character) letters from their diocesan prelates. Once the application form was completed and the testimonial letters received, Fr. Isidoro sent the folder to Salvado. Then Salvado informed the postulants through Fr. Isidoro of the date of departure from Burgos, the price of the return ticket, the clothes and money they needed, and asked for their financial resources to pay for the trip. At the fixed date Fr. Isidoro accompanied the postulants to Montserrat.

Isidoro’s letters explain the difficulty in finding people willing to join the Mission older than 11 years, the lack of education and economic difficulties of many of the applicants, who had no money or not enough to pay for a single trip to Australia, not to mention a safety sum in case they returned to Spain. Isidoro organised collections to help the poorest postulants pay for their trips to Montserrat or Australia and in other cases pressured the family to help their sons pay for their trips. For example, Fr. Isidoro told Salvado on 19 December 1884: “I have written to a priest friend of mine, [who lives] close to the village in which resides the good Julio Martínez to see his parents and talk to them… about paying the College at least the travel expenses, as the father [of the postulant] organized [promised to do]. I have heard that the father has not many resources because he told me on 4 February that he was going to sell a vineyard to make the payment. I do not know what he will do”. Julio Martínez went to Montserrat, but he changed his mind and went back. As an extraordinary measure, Abbot Salvado decided to pay for the trips of those youngsters who did not have enough money and even to pay for all Isidoro’s expenses for accompanying them from Burgos to Montserrat. As important as Fr. Isidoro’s letters to Salvado are the letters that Rosendo Salvado wrote to Fr. Isidoro and to the Archbishop of Burgos on the matter. These thirty three letters (dated between 26 December 1883 and 14 June 1885) are kept at the Archive of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, although there are photocopies of them available at New Norcia Archive.

B) New Norcia Archive keeps a small number of letters written by people directly applying to become a postulant for New Norcia. All of them were literate people, mostly priests, asking for information about the Mission or expressing their wish to join New Norcia. They told Salvado about their age, profession, and studies, and provided him with details about their lives and the reasons for becoming a missionary. For example, Lorenzo Gilabert (who had been a police officer and, when writing, a sewing-machine agent) wanted to go to Australia to convert the Aborigines; Fr. Diaz Muñoz, a renowned preacher, had wanted to join New Norcia since he read the Memoirs, while Fr. Juan Espinosa did so after reading about New Norcia in the magazine Misiones Católicas of Barcelona.
 

These letters are not representative of the kind of people who eventually became New Norcia brothers, since most of them did not pursue further their Australian vocation, and the only one who did, Father Viñeta, did not remain at New Norcia for long. The reasons for not pursuing the missionary vocation were several, the most important being family burdens (taking care of old or sick parents), pressures on the priests not to leave their ecclesiastical duties, and what I call a romantic dysfunctional conception of what a mission, and New Norcia Mission, was. For example, Father Díaz, beyond the pressures on him not to leave his position, wanted extra time to solve this problem, to gather some money, to edit his sermons for publication, and to translate a French book into Spanish. Father Juan Espinosa said that he would like to leave everything for Jesus Christ, but he had nothing but duties, while his mother's properties had been distrained by the creditors, and she was living with him. Juan Rivas, on the other hand, expressed his wish to get a parish in Australia!
 

The clearest example of a person captured by the romantic idea of what New Norcia Mission was is Father Ramón Viñeta. He was a 43 years-old priest, ex-Redemptorist novice at Toledo, ex-chaplain of the Benedictine sisters at Talavera de la Reina, and Hieronymite postulant at the monastery of Guadalupe. He moved there in August 1884 with a small group of brothers to open a novitiate and to restore the monastery, but before even starting his noviciate he was in charge of the functioning of the monastery due to the age of the rest of the monks. He was unhappy at Guadalupe, and on 9 February 1885, he told Salvado that he wanted to join New Norcia; on 19 August 1885 he informed him that he had started to make his application. Salvado invited him to go to Madrid for an interview; once accepted, Viñeta went to Montserrat and then to Perpignan, where he was in charge of the group of postulants while Salvado was in London preparing the trip for Western Australia. Santos’ letters mention several times that Viñeta was seasick during his trip to England and to Australia, but he did not change his mind about joining the Mission as other postulants had done. Santos knew through Rosendo Salvado that Father Viñeta was happy at New Norcia, but on 9 March 1886 (five months after his arrival) Viñeta gave Prior Domínguez a letter for Salvado informing him that he intended to return to Spain. Domínguez had a long discussion with Viñeta and told him that his reasons (unknown to us) were childish, but Viñeta did not change his mind. Moreover, Domínguez told Salvado that Viñeta was creating problems at the novitiate because he did not follow the rules. It seems that Viñeta wanted Salvado to pay for his trip back to Spain, but New Norcia had a heavy debt with George Shenton at the time, and Salvado refused to do so. However, he advised Viñeta to wait for the money that the House for Overseas Mission in Spain owed him to pay for his trip back to Spain. Viñeta left Western Australia on 27 July 1886. When Santos knew of Viñeta’s desertion and that he was speaking badly about Salvado and New Norcia, he remained astonished, because Viñeta knew perfectly about the Mission before his departure and because when at Santos’ place Santos had told him everything without adornments. What really puzzles anybody is the fact that Salvado had received a testimonial letter on Viñeta that could have made him suspect that something like this could happen. The Vicar of Talavera de la Reina, Viñeta’s home town, said that he was humble and docile, but sometimes was overtaken by pride and had some faults regarding respect and subordination regarding his superiors; the vicar also mentioned that he had tried to enter different religious communities (S. Vincent de Paul, Trappists, and Jesuits) before becoming a Redemptorist novice.
 

Who were the people who applied to become New Norcia’s postulants and eventually joined the Mission? The correspondence gives news about priests, novices from other monasteries, shepherds, farmers, teachers, bakers, mason apprentices, clockmakers, and confectioners. Most of the people joining Western Australia in 1885 were mostly young people from rural northern Spain, especially Burgos, and Catalonia; in fact, the Archbishop of Burgos said on 2 December 1884 that if each Spanish diocese provided as many missionaries as Burgos did, Spain could provide missionaries for the whole of Australia. The letters sent from Rosendo Salvado to Fr. Isidoro de Lope provide a clearer insight into Salvado’s policy in this regard .Salvado preferred 1/ youngsters (not younger than 12 years of age, although he later decided not to accept those younger than 15), literate and with a basic knowledge of Arithmetic, good conduct and with a monastic and missionary vocation. 2/ Young men not younger than 22 and not older than 36-37 (except in exceptional cases) both a) students and b) people with basic skills such as carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, cobblers, masons, carters, brick makers, farmers and shepherds. Salvado did not want nuns, parish priests, couples without family, people wanting to join the Mission with an old family member, ex-convicts, illiterate people, novices from other orders, and people without basic skills and basic knowledge of Latin. We do not know if Rosendo Salvado preferred postulants from certain regions, but except for Fr. Juan Espinosa no Andalusians applied to join the expedition to New Norcia. However, Santos Salvado showed his preferences openly; he confessed that he did not like the Andalusians and preferred people from Burgos, Calahorra, Vitoria, León, Palencia, Valladolid, Zamora, and also Catalans because the last ones, living so close to Montserrat, would not have to pay much for their trip. Santos thought that they needed good farmers, artisans, and students from the seminaries.
 

C) Another group of letters contains correspondence from different people involved in the process of getting testimonial letters for the accepted postulants. Several letters are from or about Jesús Deu, a novice himself, who helped Salvado look for more postulants in different Catalonian dioceses and organise the stay of the postulants in Perpignan.
 

4.1.4. Letters from Spanish Monastic Communities
 

The bulk of letters arrived from the monasteries of Montserrat, Silos, and Samos and the convent of San Plácido (Madrid). However, additional letters came the monastery of San Payo (Santiago de Compostela) and the convents of Santa Clara (Gerona), San Daniel (Gerona) and the school of the Sacred Heart at Chamartín (Madrid). Most of the letters contain a description of the internal life of the communities, personal confessions of the authors about their spiritual worries, comments on the news about New Norcia, commissions entrusted to them, details about the schools, and much more. Silos, Montserrat, and Samos’ correspondence deserves further attention. 
 

4.1.4.1. Letters from Montserrat (Catalonia). First Abbot Miguel Muntadas and then Abbot José Deás (from 15 April 1885) wrote most of these letters. Both Abbots had a different writing style, Muntadas always shorter and less adorned. As I have already mentioned, there is not a significant number of letters regarding the establishment of the College of Missionaries for Overseas in the files under examination. However, Abbot Muntadas’ letters mention facts related to the early stages of the project: the sending of a brother to the monastery of Subiaco (Italy) to see if the Cassinese Congregation would approve the association of Montserrat and Salvado, the news about their approval, Muntadas’ request for Salvado’s proposal, and the approval of Salvado’s proposal by the Montserrat chapter.
 

Abbot Deás’ letters, sent to Rosendo and Santos Salvado, deal with four main topics: First, the recovery of the community’s population after the foundation of the College of Missionaries and the later incorporations of lay and clerical postulants; Deás mentioned the arrival or departure of postulants, the number of professed and unprofessed monks, and the number of students for the Montserrat, Valvanera and Treviño communities. Second, the recovery of Montserrat’s splendour through the work of refurbishment, restoration and adornment of some of the old buildings and the construction of new ones; to get the huge amounts of money needed for these works Deás turned Montserrat into a workshop that made and sold biscuits, dry anisette, chocolate, liquors, rosaries, and gilded and silvered ornaments. Third, the famous “Escolanía”, the children’s choir; Deás delighted in commenting about the improvements of the choir regarding the number of children, their selection, pieces they were preparing, performances during festivities, and the many changes made by the new choirmaster. Fourth, the Silos’ affair (see section below); Deás devoted three of his letters to this matter and offered a different version of the visit of Prior Guépin to Montserrat. Deás also provided news about visits of illustrious people to the monastery, his trips to other monasteries, personal worries, and other matters affecting the life of his community.
 

4.1.4.2. Letters from Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos province). French Benedictine brothers from the Abbey of Ligugé (Solesmes Congregation) moved to Spain after the expulsion of the religious orders from France, and they restored Silos on 18 December 1880. Most of the letters of this period were written by Prior Ildephonse Guépin and deal exclusively with the need of getting exemption from military service for the young members of the community. Guépin’s letters give details about these problems and offer an example of the difficulties that the monastic communities faced in Spain to increase their numbers, especially if they wanted, as in the case of Silos, to provide the postulants with an extensive erudite education. The matter was of relevance to Silos since the growth and progress of the monastery were based on the postulancy of the oblate children of whom the monks took care. However, as I have already mentioned, the military service laws only accepted exceptions for the missionary orders working in colonial territories and for those members whose community paid large sums of money. Guépin realised that the only way to get exemption from military service was turning Silos into a missionary college for overseas –like Montserrat- but Guépin believed that he would not get an ex-novo concession from the Spanish Government; therefore, he thought of turning Silos into a branch of Montserrat College. Guépin visited Montserrat to discuss this affair with the Abbot and to check the official documentation issued by the Government since the 1860s. However, Abbot Deás and Guépin had a personality clash that resulted in a lack of agreement and in an acrid irritation and hostility between Silos and Montserrat communities. Then Guépin requested Salvado to help Silos establish a second college for missionaries at Silos, and requested letters of recommendation and contacts in the government offices. Eventually Guépin’s project was successful thanks to the support of Salvado, who advised Silos to request the government for permission to become a college of missionaries for the Caroline Islands. However, the Montserrat community was very upset with Silos’ success since Montserrat thought that Silos had been established as a college for the Philippines too.
 

4.1.4.3. Letters from San Julián de Samos (Lugo province). Most of the letters were written by Abbot Gaspar Villarroel and deal with the supply of a new harmonium for the monastic chapel. Santos and Rosendo Salvado helped find, purchase, and send a good and cheap new one. One of the most interesting letters in this lot is the one dated 6 December 1884, in which Villarroel explained why this small community formed by old men did not want to join the Cassinese congregation and preferred to remain an independent Benedictine institution. 
 

4.1.5. Letters written by New Norcia Brothers’ Relatives
 

Most of the letters under this heading were written by Rosendo Salvado’s relatives (Arias Rotea, Comesaña Salvado, Troncoso Salvado, Rotea, Salgado, Santos Salvado), but other letters come from the relatives of Brother Romualdo Sala, Brother Anselmo Palou, and Brother Plácido Barbará. The correspondence informs of the state of the family members, relatives and friends, and of their personal and spiritual worries. Joaquín Troncoso’s letters are interesting because he took care of the purchase of the instruments for the Aboriginal Brass Band. I have mentioned Santos Salvado’s letters in section 4.1.2.
 

4.1.6. Letters by New Norcia’s Friends or Acquaintances in Spain
 

I include in this section a group of letters written by gentry or noble lay people with the only purpose of saying hello, giving personal news, showing deep affection, and offering their services to Abbot Salvado. José Buigas’ letters mentioning the Universal Exhibition held in Barcelona in 1889 are especially interesting. I also include here the letters written by Fr. Nofre to Fr. Ildefonso Bertran, the letter from Fr. Lladó to Br. Sala, and the letter written by Fr. Múgica to Salvado asking for news about Fr. Goicoechea.
 

The biggest lot was written by Fr. Juan Espinosa Junquito, an Andalusian priest, already mentioned, who became one of the biggest supporters of Salvado. Although most of his letters only contain greetings and congratulations, Espinosa was responsible for the sending of some paid Masses to New Norcia, the celebration –on New Norcia’s behalf and profit- of other Masses, and the diffusion of the Memoirs (Salvado’s history of the first years of the Mission and the Aborigines in Western Australia) among seminarists, religious and lay people in the places where he lived. One of the most interesting letters by Espinosa is the one about a controversial French religious, Fr. Aurelien de Saint Alode, who toured Spain trying to found agricultural monasteries and restore the Celestine order. Also interesting are the letters written by Fr. Isidoro de Lope after the departure of Salvado to Australia, especially those regarding the problems he suffered from some political bullies “caciques” in the village of Barbadillo, because they show the face of a growing anti-clericalism among certain social groups and parties.
 

4.1.7 Miscellaneous Correspondence
 

In this section are invitations to Salvado to take part in or to attend ceremonies or audiences at the Royal Palace, and invitations to preside at private ceremonies while in Spain. Several letters ask Salvado for recommendations to pass exams or to get chaplaincies or parishes, and others seek or offer donations. Some people sent information from different associations and the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País in Santiago granted Salvado an honorary membership. Two letters from ex-brother Ramis ask for a certificate to allow him to get married.

4.2. Letters from Italy
 

 Although most of the people writing from Italy were ecclesiastical people, sixty-eight per cent of the Italian letters were written by Emilia, Pietro, and Malvina Regnoli, and by Scipione and Rina Lupacchioli, all members of the same family. 
 

 4.2.1. Letters from the Regnolis
 

A common element of the Regnoli’s letters is the longing for Salvado, the joy at the reception of his letters, and the worry about Salvado’s long periods of silence. As in previous years, Malvina’s restlessness of soul and small talk are a constant in her letters; she commented on Salvado’s news, on her health, her trips and holidays, on Rome, on the nuns of Santa Caterina, and on her family (Pietro, her brother, Emilia, her niece, and Scipione, her son). The most important news of these years is the wedding of Scipione and the birth of her first granddaughter Carolina; few of her letters dealt with this matter at length. Malvina also collected information about sericulture for Salvado in Italy.
 

Emilia Regnoli’s short but intimate letters give a picture of her melancholic character and her deep religious feelings. Emilia’s letters deal mostly with Pietro and Malvina’s health. She lived as a recluse at home taking care of the household, her father and aunt, a situation that made Emilia an old-looking and pessimistic woman despite her age and fed her low self-esteem both regarding her spiritual and intellectual qualities. She talked about her family and about her best friend, Countess Renée D’Auvers, a French woman who also made a donation to New Norcia and became a Carmelite sister.
 

Pietro Regnoli’s letters decrease in comparison to the period 1880-1883 and they are mostly short greeting notes, but those from Scipione Lupacchioli increase, and he informed Salvado of his engagement, his wife’s pregnancy, and the birth of his first child. 

4.2.2. Letters from Ecclesiastical People
 

The authors of these letters were mostly religious belonging to Benedictine monasteries with which Salvado had a special relationship: La Cava, S. Callisto, and S. Paolo. The most prolific writer was Abbé Zelli. Most of the letters are an account of what has happened in those communities regarding novices, professions, sick and dead people, new appointments, news about the congregation, and remarks about the writers’ corporal and spiritual health. These letters also contain information about the Pontiff and the Vatican, the state of politics in Italy and their effect on religious matters, and even information about sericulture. Some of the letters forwarded donations, books, or gifts to New Norcia. Vincenzo Monzillo asked for information about becoming a postulant for New Norcia.
 

There are also two letters from the Benedictine Abbess of San Giacomo in Assisi and one from the Abbes of Fano, both asking for charity due to the extreme poverty of their communities. A bunch of letters was written by the Dominican sisters of the convent of Sta. Caterina in Rome, who had met him through Malvina Regnoli and loved Salvado and the Mission.  

4.3. Letters from France
 

Most of the letters from France arrived from Théophile Bérengier, Salvado’s unofficial agent in France. As in previous years, Bérengier’s letters provided information about his community and the French government’s policy about religious matters, the sending of celebration of Masses to New Norcia, and the management of the Mission’s account (from donations, Masses, and the sale of the Memoirs). Bérengier helped Salvado by searching for donations, by informing Catholic journals (especially Mission Catholiques) of the achievements and difficulties of the Mission, and by mentoring New Norcia regarding Propagation de la Foi.
 

Bérengier also supported Salvado’s re-born interest in sericulture and put him in contact with his friend Hippolith Giry, an important Marseilles businessman, who helped Salvado start his business. One letter from Giry evaluated the first cocoons sent by Salvado (using colonial “grain”), provided information about market prices and qualities preferred, and sent some papers and a book on how to rear silkworms and pack cocoons properly. Giry, in exchange, asked Salvado for prayers for his family.
 

One of the most interesting documents arrived from France was written by a group of Frenchmen led by E. Liautard trying to push forward the Marquis of Rays’ project to found a French colony in Port Breton (New Guinea). The letter, dated 26 October 1884, asked Salvado to support the project, which had initially failed due to the persecution and imprisonment of the Marquis and the obstacles put by the government for the departure of the first group of settlers. The Marquis’ supporters wanted Salvado to send some New Norcia fathers to start the colonisation and evangelisation of the new colony, which could also serve –according to them- to secure the future of New Norcia Mission just in a moment of financial difficulties. The letter is remarkable because it offers an insight into the so-called processes of evangelisation and Christianisation in Asia and Oceania in the nineteenth century, in which religious aims were tightly attached to processes of political domination and, most importantly, to processes of economical exploitation:
 

[QUOTATION REMOVED]

Abbot Salvado rejected the proposal on 13 November 1884, as he had done on 7 August 1880 in a letter directly to the Marquis, but Liautard sent further documentation on the same matter to try to change Salvado’s mind.
 

Other letters from France contained information about donations or subsidies from “Propagation” to New Norcia, requested charity from Salvado and information about the Aborigines. New Norcia Archive also keeps a letter from the Archbishop of Marseilles asking for Salvado’s support for the introduction of the cause of Anne-Madeleine Remuzat (the Marseilles virgin from the Order of the Visitation). 
 

4.4. Letters from Other Countries
 

 The biggest group of letters come from the United Kingdom, all from London, mostly from business firms (Wainwright’s, Salvado’s agents in London, Hughes & Sons, Ransome & Co, and Mr. Bethell); other letters asked for charity or snuff and forwarded a copy of a magazine. Two letters come from Belgium, one dealing with the process for the Servant of God Julia Billiart, founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of Namur, and another asking for information about Blessed Fr. Columba Marmion. The two letters from Portugal are both from an old friend of Salvado. The most interesting document is the letter that Fr. Vacondio sent asking for charity, in which he described the situation of the small Catholic community on Syra, a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea.  There is a miscellanea of letters from India, Philippines, New Zealand, and the United States, which deal with different matters.

The review of the correspondence kept in New Norcia Archive for the period 1884-1890 provides the historical and anthropological researcher with an astonishing amount of documentation, not only related to the history of the monastery and its missionary work with the Aborigines but also to the history of the Catholic Church in Western Australia and many different aspects of the history of Western Australia, Spain, France, and Italy. Despite the modern perceptions of the monastery and the belief of some researchers that all the documents were written in Spanish, the fact remains that the documentation generated by New Norcia in these years contains a significant number of letters from Western Australian settlers, especially from Perth, Victoria Plains, Northam-Toodyay area, and the Greenough Flats. Especially relevant are the letters written by shepherds, sawyers, shearers, and other working people (even Aborigines) employed by New Norcia, generally people of lowly birth and limited education, whose lives have left no trace in other Western Australian archives. The stories of those workers, with those of some pioneers in the northern regions, and the stories of those people who emigrated into the colony and left shortly after their arrival are as important for the history of Western Australia as the lives of those bourgeois pioneers whose letters fill  our State Library. No history of Western Australia is complete if it neglects using New Norcia records… and who wants to write a lame history of Western Australia?