Ernest J. Burrus

Kino's Contributions to World Cartography
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By way of introduction to a better appreciation and understanding of Kino's contribution to the cartography of northwestern New Spain, it should prove helpful to recall the motive inspiring this phase of his work and observe a few of the characteristics common to all his maps.
For Kino a map was not merely a visual aid to understand a geographic reality, nor an independent graphic expression, but rather an effective illustration and helpful complement to his letters, reports and even lengthy diaries. His cartographical productions recorded his explorations as faithfully and as scientifically as his written word; as I shall have occasion to discuss, his last map reflects much that his pen did not have time to record.' The decisive advantages of maps over every other form and means of expression at his disposal inspired Kino to delineate the most numerous and significant cartographical series in the history of New Spain.

Kino felt the need of a map to give fuller and clearer expression to his thoughts. Thus, he added a map to the diaries of his overland journeys and sea voyages. Even in the allied excursion into astronomy, he charted the heavens to illustrate every point discussed in his written treatise." He helped build a chapel in San Bruno, Lower California, and assisted in constructing a protective fort for the small settlement; he was not content with writing to ecclesiastical and royal officials about them, nor with telling friends and benefactors that at long last a permanent foothold had been secured in California. No, he wanted all to "see" more fully the great reality; accordingly, he sketched the fort, chapel, dwellings, and even the small cannons."

This need that Kino felt for the more graphic expression furnished by a map, is evident even from his preaching. In the autumn of 1692 he was in the principal rancheria of San Xavier del Bac. "I spoke to the Indians of the word of God, and on a map of the world pointed out to them the lands, the rivers, and the seas over which we missionaries had come from afar to bring them the saving knowledge of our holy faith. I also told them how in ancient times the Spaniards were not Christians, how Saint James came to teach them the faith ... I showed them on the map of the world how the Spaniards and the faith had come by sea to Vera Cruz, and reached Puebla, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Sinaloa, Sonora, and now Nuestra Señora de los Dolores del Cosari, their own homeland, the country of the Pimas, where there were already many baptized, with the missionary's house, church, bells and images of the saints, abundant supplies, wheat, corn, and many cattle and horses. I assured them that they could go and see it all, and even ask at once of their relatives, my servants, who were with me. They listened with pleasure to these and other talks concerning God, heaven and hell, and told me that they wanted to become Christians."

It is significant that in all his maps the human element holds the first place. It is not the mountains, rivers, bays, nor the vast expanse of the plains, not so much the native settlements nor even the missions themselves which are of primary interest to Kino; it is the people. The names of their groups or tribes are written in the largest letters across his charts and in color. Even the geographic features are thought of and represented in relation to the inhabitants, villages, and groups of people. The missions serve the people. The cattle ranches and farms support the people. The rivers are referred to as means of communication between peoples; several are designated as "thickly populated," in the sense that in the valleys watered by them many people can dwell. Even the water holes are marked with the same psychological attitude: they are the indispensable minimum to allow the missionaries and travelers to come to the people; they are the difference between life and death for the people themselves.

Kino's maps are progressive in the sense that they are chronologically ever more inclusive and more accurate, eliminating earlier misconceptions, his own and those of others. ...

The proof of the peninsularity of Lower California and the mainland character of Upper California is merely one of Kino's many contributions to the geography and cartography of the north western frontier of Spanish America. It is Kino's best known discovery, or more correctly, his most widely publicized rediscovery.

Often overlooked are his numerous other contributions of a similar nature and of no less importance: the relative position of the main Colorado and Gila rivers; the correct location of the upper Sonora and lower Arizona streams, valleys and mountains; the rediscovery of the insular nature of Tiburon; the pioneer discovery of the Angel de la Guarda Island; a far more exact location of the Rio Grande del Norte flowing from New Mexico and emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Most important, Kino prepares the way to rid Spanish American geography and its expression in world-wide cartography of the endless designations of non-existent, vague and shifting features and elements......
Kino's 1701 map, first printed in 1705 and reissued so frequently and in so many different languages, deservedly brought him wide recognition as an explorer and cartographer. All the printed versions of this map with which I am acquainted, credit Kino with his authorship. Although the one manuscript copy of the 1710 map derived directly from the original likewise attributed the chart to Kino, all subsequent versions, printed and manuscript, omitted his name.

Little or no doubt, however, was entertained about its essential accuracy. If Kino's name was omitted, the unique nomenclature he chose shortly before his death invariably revealed the ultimate source as unmistakably as if he had signed every copy, adaptation and imitation with his own signature. Guillaume Delisle [1722], D'Anville (in whose collection I found the 1724 copy), Bonne [1780], Tomás López [1758], William Robertson [1796], Lewis , Humboldt [ 1822], Alzate [1768], García Cubas [1885]: these are the geographers, cartographers and historians who gave Kino's 1710 map currency throughout the European and American world of learning. If any of them doubted its accuracy he could have found manuscript ccopies in the key Spanish and French government collections....
The chart [Kino's 1710 Map] was reproduced with great accuracy by the world's outstanding map-makers, geographers and historians, with the result that for over a century and a half it was the standard cartographical representation of northwestern Spanish America and southwestern United States. ...

Of all the missionaries who came to the New World - whether they worked in New France, Brazil or in the more extensive Spanish dominions - Kino was the best prepared scientifically to delineate accurate maps of the areas where he carried on his intense activity.

Ernest J. Burrus, S.J.
"Kino and the Cartography of Northwestern New Spain." 1965
Editor's Note: dates of the maps pirated from Kino's 1710 map are added to the text as discussed in the book.… (mehr)