Salvado's Correspondence - Years 1880-1883

SHORT VERSION WITHOUT NOTES OF - VERSION MODIFICADA Y SIN NOTAS DE: Teresa de Castro, "New Norcia Archives Revisited: Correspondence from years 1880-1883", New Norcia's Studies Journal (Perth, Western Australia), 12 (2004), pp. 30-45. (El Archivo de Nueva Nursia revisitado (1): La correspondencia de los años 1880-1883)
Teresa de Castro © 2009-2013. This paper is protected by Copyright Laws

The Archives of New Norcia keeps one of the most interesting sources for the study of the processes of colonization in Western Australia. However, the absence of any detailed catalogue of the correspondence for the period 1846-1900, makes it very hard for the researcher to search for specific information without going through every single document. To counteract this situation, in August 1996 the Archives started a project to summarize that correspondence and to introduce the data in an electronic catalogue. At present, this project involves Ron Keightley (retired professor of Monash University, Melbourne), Fr. David Barry, and myself. This article is a report of the work done in my first five months of work.

From 20 October 2003 until 26 March 2004, I have examined five files of documentation covering four complete years of correspondence (1880-1883), plus a little file with information about the Jesuit Aboriginal Mission in Palmerston (1880-1886); the files are about 3,000 folia long. During this period, I have introduced 1,114 new forms in New Norcia Archives’ catalogue, and I have made a Word edition of the summaries 176,000 words long. Most of the letters have an extension between one and four pages, although there are letters shorter than a page and others covering 25 pages:

Most of these documents are letters sent to members of the New Norcia community from Australia and overseas. However, in this correspondence there are also some copies of letters originally not sent to New Norcia, and some copies of outward letters. There are, too, lists of monks from different monasteries, receipts and accounts, dog licenses, certificates of quarantine for sheep, certificates of cleanliness of scab, registrations of sheep’s ear marks, circular letters, leaflets and newspapers cuttings.
 

 As table number two shows, almost half of the letters were written in English and a third in Spanish, and there are also letters written in French, Italian, Latin and German. Generally, the letters written by Spaniards include sentences or words in English, and the ones written by ecclesiastical people also have sayings in Latin; moreover, authors who had multilingual skills, included words in different languages.

 The assumption –obviously wrong- that the whole documentation is written in Spanish or deals with matters only related to the life of the monastery keeps Norcia Archives empty of historians and university researchers. There is no doubt that a multilingual knowledge is needed to peruse the documentation as a whole, but it is also true that the perusal of the documents in English provides rich information about colonial Western Australia and Europe in the 19^th Century.

In the paragraphs that follow I give a quick look at the information contained in the letters I have summarised. I do not intend to be exhaustive, but to give a general idea of the matters that can be found in the documentation. At the end of this report I include an appendix with a list of authors, which could be of service to the genealogical researcher.

2.1. Letters to New Norcia from the Colony
 

The letters received in New Norcia from Western Australia came obviously from ecclesiastical people of Perth Diocese, but also from colonial officials, from Perth area people, from New Norcia neighbours (in Victoria Plains), from New Norcia’s workers, and even from members of New Norcia community. 
 

A) Letters from the colonial officials. The majority of this correspondence concerns the reinforcement of the “Scab on Sheep Act” in the colony. The letters from the Colonial Secretary (Lord Gifford) and the private and official letters from the Inspector of Sheep (J. M. Craig and W. T. Craig) deal with the prevention, existence, treatment and quarantine of flocks; the Resident Magistrate of Newcastle (Octavius Burt) wrote several times to the Prior about the payment of the sheep tax. The Archives also keep some letters from the Pensioners Office, from the Crown Lands Office and from the Western Australian Bank.
 

B) Letters from people from Perth and Swan River areas. The biggest number of letters are the ones from Daniel James Avery and James Morrison, which have to do with the purchase, auction and export of New Norcia horses, and the sale of pedigree horses to the Mission; also on horses are M. Smith, Sloan and Snell’s letters. Peter Anthony Gugeri’s letters are all related to Camille Thibaudat’s case. He was a young Frenchman involved with New Norcia, first, and with Gugeri, later, who created many troubles in Perth because of his ability to lie, manipulate and spread gossip. The rest of the letters have to do with many different subjects: personal matters, information about lands, supply of musk, provisions, an illusionism show, and so on.
 

C) Letters from ecclesiastical people. In these years, most of the letters from Perth came from Martin Griver, the Catholic Bishop of Perth; Griver’s letters (and, after his departure for Europe in February 1882, Matthew Gibney’s) deal with a wide rage of ecclesiastical affairs: marriage banns, mixed marriages, work of the Diocesan priests, arrival and departure of priests and/or missionaries in Western Australia, functions at the Cathedral, collections and donations, pastoral visits, rogations, supply of mass wine and oils from New Norcia, and much more. The letters from Adolphus Lecaille –the parish priest at Greenough- deal mostly with the purchase and possession rights of a block of land called “Urianna”, although there is a misplaced letter, written in 1870, in which Lecaille proposed to Salvado the opening of a new branch of New Norcia aboriginal mission near Geraldton. Some letters from the Sisters of Mercy in Perth (especially Sister M. Aloysius) kept in the Archives are especially interesting in regard to the news about their girls’ school and about the Aborigine Teresa Ponan.
 

 In this group are the letters that Rosendo Salvado or Fulgentius Domínguez wrote to the person in charge of the Mission when they were in Perth. These letters contain information about their meetings with colonial officers and settlers, visits to the Lands Office to pay for old land leases or to lease new blocks; search and purchase of items requested from New Norcia, or the settlement of the mission accounts with the WA Bank or George Shenton’s.
 

 D) Letters from New Norcia brothers working in dependent “stations”. Most of the messages written by them have to do with the care of sheep, cattle and horses, but also with the work of finding water (digging of wells or making of tanks). Ildefonso Bertran’s letters contain news about an experiment with couch grass developed at Marah, and comments about the repercussions on New Norcia properties around Marah of Anthony Hordern’s project to construct a new railway line.
 

 E) Letters from New Norcia’s neighbours in Victoria Plains. Most of this correspondence deals with the trade of mares and horses, but also with the search for animals bought from New Norcia which left their new owners’ paddocks. There are letters from people offering their lands and animals for sale or offering their services to work; there are letters from people wanting to buy timber, glass, flour, bricks, shingles or lime from New Norcia; letters from people asking for medical help, and, also payments and accounts. It is also possible to find some curiosities, like a letter about a troupe of entertainers from the London Circus offering their services to perform at New Norcia for Victoria Plains neighbours (Fitzgerald), a letter on cricket (Thompson) and one on a vine disease (Maguire).
 

 F) Letters from New Norcia’s workers. Although the Archives keeps mail from different workers (Arnold, Kelly, Stubbs, Taylor, Wells, Wilkinson), the most attractive letters are William Diamond and George Ikin’s. They describe with the vivacity of their own words the life of shepherds at the time: their problems with water and poisonous plants, their rations, their wandering, and also their rapport with their employer (in this case with Brother Joseph, who was in charge of New Norcia flocks). Ikin’s case is truly exceptional. He was an illiterate Irish or Scottish, who wrote as he spoke, i. e. phonetically; his writing is a fossilization of the speech of the working classes from Irish or Scottish origin at the time. Moreover, Ikin’s letters are a portrait of his personality. Here is a part of a letter he sent to Salvado from Youlgerin on 2 April 1881:  

[QUOTATION REMOVED]

2.2. Letters sent from New Norcia

The largest number of letters is from Prior Fulgentius Domínguez to Salvado during his stay in Europe (Salvado left New Norcia on February 1882). Domínguez’s letters are a chronicle of the work going on in New Norcia, Marah, Wyening and other “stations”. Firstly, he gives news about the weather –the rainfall or the lack of rains in New Norcia and WA-, the availability of grass and water resources on their lands; the work in the fields (ploughing, sowing, harvest) and the state of the sheep and cattle (feeding, lambing, washing, shearing, dipping, killing, and the packing and sending of the wool). There is also information about the construction of the new wing of the monastery, the end of the work on the new mill and the arrival and setting on of the mill steam engine. Domínguez informs Salvado of the lands leased or purchased by the Mission, and the work done on them (payments, improvements, fencing, digging of wells and tanks, border agreements, etc.), and about New Norcia’s accounts (donations, expenses, sales, purchases, balance). The Prior also gives news on the meetings of the Victoria Plains Road Board, on the cricket matches between the New Norcia Aboriginal team and other colonial teams, and the visitors received, including the description of the visit of Governor Frederick Napier Broome and his wife Lady Barker on 9 October 1883. Domínguez tells Salvado about the births, marriages, sickness and death of New Norcia people (Aborigines and brothers), neighbours, and friends from Perth; he also comments on colonial politics and gives news on Perth diocese. Finally, Domínguez requested things needed at the Mission (fabric, machinery, etc.) and acknowledges the information (and seeds) sent or asked by Salvado.

There are not many letters from the Eastern colonies in this period arriving at New Norcia. There are some ecclesiastical ones from the Bishop of Adelaide, from Dean Fr. Dwyer of Sydney (asking for information about New Norcia and Perth Diocese) and the Bishop of Sydney (on Pidcock’s case), from the Pro-Vicar of Queensland (regarding a troublesome Irish priest) and from Morgan O’Connor (asking for masses). However, the most worthy of note are W. H. Pidcock and Anthony Strele’s letters. 
 

 3.1. W. Hugh Pidcock was the Anglican clergyman in charge of Toodyay’s parsonage and Victoria Plains between 1874 and 1882. His contact with the Mission and his conversations with Fr. Martínez led him convert to Catholicism. Pidcock left his position in WA to start a new life as a Catholic in the Eastern colonies. His letters relate Mr. & Mrs. Pidcock’ trip from Fremantle (they left on 18.8.82), their settlement in Sydney –a city with which they fell in love-, their formal reception into Catholicism, and Pidcock’s  work for the French Marists and other Catholic institutions. Beyond his personal history, Pidcock’s letters provide many details about the Catholic Church in colonial NSW: he mentions the differences and tensions existing among different catholic groups; he tells about the members of the local Church hierarchy; he gives news about ecclesiastical politics and on the problems of the educational system in the colony. Moreover, as an Englishman, he witnessed the creation of the first elements of Australian identity in New South Wales. For example, in a letter dated 17 December 1883 he wrote: “We are very glad indeed that our lot has been cast among them [the Marist Fathers], for they have been very kind to us. Neither the Irish, nor the colonials care much about English people; in fact, the former hate them, and the latter look with a jealous rage on all ‘foreigners’, i. e. people coming from any other country. They want to keep the country to themselves, and I suppose that is very natural they should”. In the same letter he mentions that the Australian children perform better that the English do; according to him, this is because the colonial children are very precocious and arrive at maturity sooner, and they have great modesty and good behaviour.  
 

 3.2. Anthony Strele and the Aboriginal mission at Palmerston. File number 38a contains a selection of correspondence exchanged between Fr. Anthony Strele (Jesuit from Sevenhills in the Clare Valley, SA) and Rosendo Salvado (then Bishop of Port Victoria, in which diocese was Palmerston located) regarding the establishment of a mission for the Aborigines in the Northern Territory. Strele’s letters inform with detail about his preparation before the departure, how the settlement was organised and his first problems there. Strele tells about the 2 tribes living near Palmerston (the Woolneers and the Larakyers) and about the cultural problems that he had to face to start their evangelisation; he talks about the characteristics of the location of the Mission, the activities developed by the Aborigines in the Mission, including their diet, complains about the lack of hands and money to “harvest” ripe souls, and expresses his hope of success.
 

The most noteworthy document is a report (19 pages long) written by Strele on 27/1/1885, a sort of ethnographical study of the Aboriginal peoples of the area. The first part of the report is devoted to the Aboriginal tribes and their mutual relations: territories, differences with other Australian Aborigines, physical appearance, mental capabilities, ability to learn and to work, the work done at the Mission with them, relations man-woman, behaviour regarding their children, diet, music, defects, and prejudices of the white people about them. The second part of the report analyses the relations between Aborigines and the white people, and the Aborigines and the Chinese, the way in which they saw each other, and also the way the white people treated the Aborigines. The third part, a short one, mentions how to teach the principles of faith using repetitive melodies.
 

Strele’s letters also give information about the difficult situation and isolation of the white Catholics in the Northern Territory at the time. Salvado and Strele also exchanged their views regarding the effect of the European colonisation in the Australian colonies, without noticing that their intervention was one of the elements that accelerated the modification of the Aboriginal traditional ways of life.

The correspondence from overseas in New Norcia was mostly sent from Spain, Italy, France and Belgium, but there are letters from England, Ireland, the United States of America, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and the Philippines.  

 4.1. Salvado’s letters from Europe

Salvado offers in his letters a diary of his trips, with dates of departure and arrival, and way of locomotion since he left WA on March 1882 until he got to Madrid at the end of year 1883. Then, he narrates with detail his activities in each place he stayed. During his stay in Rome his main activity was to prepare a report for Propaganda Congregation –a department of the Vatican in charge of Missions- about the Diocese of Port Victoria, and another about New Norcia. The work lasted more than a year. During this period, Salvado’s missives are an answer to the news sent by Domínguez; although Salvado is far away, he is omnipresent at New Norcia with his advices, orders and “recommendations”. These letters also contain information about the weather, Italian politics (sometimes about Spanish and European, too), ecclesiastical designations, public works, details about his excursions to different abbeys in Italy, sending of seeds and intentions of masses. Once he finished his stay in Rome, he started a trip through Europe to collect money and to resolve affairs related to New Norcia, in which he visited Namur and the monastery of Maredsous in Belgium; the monasteries of St. Pierre de Solesmes, Ligugé and the brothers of La Magdeleine from Marseilles, and the headquarters of Propagation de la Foi –an institution to provide financial support for Missions- in Lyon, in France: and Sto. Domingo de Silos and Madrid in Spain. He gives details of these trips, the people he meets, the monastic communities he visited and their situation, the weather, his health and many other things.
 

4.2. Letters regarding Fr Joseph Moreau

Joseph Moreau was a Belgian priest, postulant to New Norcia, who prepared for 5 years to join the Mission and was eventually rejected by Salvado. Moreau spent two years in the college of Propaganda Fide (Rome) studying to become a priest, a year and half in the monastery of Maredsous (Belgium) doing his noviciate, six months in the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos (Spain) and three more with the Marseilles Benedictines (France) awaiting Salvado’s arrival to leave for Australia. Moreau’s long letters are a portrait of his personality (childish, honest, enthusiastic, and entrepreneurial), a reflection of his tormented and restless soul, a witness of the evolution of his vocation, but also an indicator of Salvado’s character. Through his letters we see his preparation as a postulant, his hopes, expectations, fears and crisis; his virtues and defects, his academic and linguistic studies. Moreau’s passion for New Norcia made him comment to his friends and relatives about the Mission and, thanks to him, Salvado was contacted by Fr. Joseph Marmion, an Irish priest (he’s now Blessed Columba Marmion), Fr. Andre Amrhein, Fr. Arthur Baudhuin. Moreover, Moreau’s Belgian friends and family collected important sums of money, vestments and liturgical ornaments for New Norcia (which are listed). The letters that Salvado received from Moreau’s superiors also favoured the contact with Placidus and Maurus Wölter (restorers of the Benedictines in Beuron, Germany, and then in Prague and Belgium) Bonifacius Wolff, Ildefonso Guépin (Superior of Silos) and Théophile Bérengier (Benedictine from Marseilles).
 

4.3. Letters from Spain

The correspondence arriving in New Norcia from Spain includes letters from the monks’ families and friends, from religious people, and from New Norcia agents in Barcelona.
 

A) The biggest lot is the one from Santos Salvado addressed to Rosendo Salvado and to Fulgentius Domínguez. Santos was Salvado’s brother and the previous Prior of New Norcia, and after he returned to Spain in 1879 he continued to work for New Norcia’s affairs from Madrid. Santos’s letters are easy and enjoyable to read, always full of news, opinions and gossips. He was keen to talk about himself, his illnesses or infirmities, symptoms and medication. He also gives details of his work as chaplain at the Royal Chaplaincy and of his relationship with the other chaplains. Santos informs of the visits he receives and he makes, and the activities of people directly or indirectly related to the mission (Martin Griver or Benito Serra, for example). Santos delighted in commenting on any social activity in Madrid, and he is always a good source of gossip about the royal court (including the monarchs), the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the Spanish gentry. Santos’ letters comment on Spanish politics and politicians and shows his repulsion towards republicans, liberals and freemasons in Spain and Europe. In fact, Santos’ letters are also a mirror of the attitudes that the Spanish gentry of the time showed regarding the peak of Liberalism and Anticlericalism in Europe and Spain. For example, regarding the secret association “The Black Hand” he said: