65B. ROBINSON, Alfred (translator) & Gerónimo Boscana. Chinigchinich (Chi-ñích-ñich): A Revised and Annotated Version of Alfred Robinson’s Translation of Father Gerónimo Boscana’s Historical Account of the Belief, Usages, Customs and Extravagancies of the Indians of This Mission of San Juan Capistrano Called the Acagchemem Tribe [annotations by John Peabody Harrington]. Santa Ana: Fine Arts Press, 1933. 247 [2] pp., 11 plates and maps (5 vivid full-color linoleum-cut plates printed in oil paint by Jean Goodwin; other plates are black-and-white or on maize grounds), text illustrations, decorated and colored initials. Small folio, original tan cloth over brown boards stamped with gilt design, paper spine label printed in gilt. Other than light offsetting on title from frontispiece, very fine.
Limited edition of the primary treatise on the Acagchemem tribe of Mission San Juan Capistrano (present-day Orange County), originally written by Father Boscana in the 1820s, translated and first published by Alfred Robinson in 1846. Zamorano 80 #65 (J. Gregg Layne, referring to this edition): “A magnificent folio...edited by Phil T. Hanna, annotated by J. P. Harrington, with 157 pages of notes.” Father Boscana served as pastor to the Juaneño at Mission San Juan Capistrano from 1814 to 1826. Although Europeans observed and briefly described tribal groups of Southern California as early as the Cabrillo expedition (1542), the reports of Boscana and Hugo Reid (1852) were the first in-depth ethnological observations of these peoples. Boscana’s account and Harrington’s annotations, by way of comparison, contain valuable documentation on various other California tribes of the region, especially the Gabrieleño, with whom the Juaneño shared the jimson weed cult associated with the Chinigchinich religion.
This highly unusual press book is more than a mere colorful reprint of Boscana’s essay containing the standard view of California’s native peoples. What makes this edition so valuable are the lavish annotations and revisions by John Peabody Harrington, the extraordinary ethnographer and linguist employed in the 1930s by the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution to travel throughout California and document languages, narratives, and customs of the rapidly vanishing California tribes. Harrington worked extensively with the few remaining native speakers of Juaneño, the language of the San Juan Capistrano Mission group, and his research is one of the most immediate sources on Native American culture in California. (In recent years, members of the Juaneño band have been using Harrington’s documentation to help regain their traditional culture and language.) Father Boscana’s original treatise was influenced by his perception and standards as applied to a complex social group with a belief system profoundly different from his own. Harrington’s annotations bring balance to a primary source, making this version of Boscana’s narrative the most valuable from a scholarly viewpoint. See “John P. Harrington and His Legacy,” edited by Victor Golla, Anthropological Linguistics 33:4 (winter 1991). ($200-400)

Robinson’s California classic has been acclaimed as the most important published account of pre–Gold Rush California by an actual resident. It had a tremendous impact on the Americanization of California. Like Richard Henry Dana, Robinson came to California from New England, but unlike the more famous author, he settled permanently in this remote Mexican province in 1829 and had a more accepting view of Hispanic culture. He worked as the resident agent for the Boston firm of Bryant, Sturgis and Company and was active in the famed hide and tallow trade, exchanging Yankee-manufactured goods for California “banknotes” (cow hides). “Alfredo” Robinson, similar to several of his transplanted American contemporaries, embraced his new home by marrying into a prominent family (de la Guerra), converting to Catholicism, and becoming a person of influence in Californio society. Robinson not only described his own personal activities but also recorded in some detail the constant political machinations that beset Alta California. Foreshadowing the future, the merchant took the first shipment of California gold to the United States in 1842. His narrative is further enhanced by detailing everyday life and capturing the flavor of Mexican California through its amusements, festivals, and religious services. The personalities of the leading Californio grandees and their stylish ways particularly caught his attention. Robinson also included historical background along with extensive descriptions of the ranchos, pueblos, and missions. Because of this, he is an oft-quoted and frequently cited authority.
Published anonymously in 1846, Life in California covered the period 1829 to 1842. It enjoyed a wide readership and further stimulated the flood tide of immigration from the United States. When James Marshall discovered gold in 1848, anxious gold seekers snapped up copies of Robinson’s book to learn all they could about this new El Dorado. An English edition was published in 1851. Bancroft, although mildly criticizing the work in his History of California (vol. 4, p. 344), wrote “the book is worthy of much praise.” Robinson originally intended his narrative to serve as an introduction to the translation of Fr. Gerónimo Boscana’s Chinigchinich: A Historical Account of the Origins, Customs, and Traditions of the Indians of...Alta-California. By itself, Boscana’s history represents an important and early contribution to the ethnology of the native Californians.

——Gary F. Kurutz

Additional sources consulted: Andrew Rolle, Introduction to Life in California (Santa Barbara & Salt Lake City: Peregrine Publishers, Inc., 1970); James D. Hart, American Images of Spanish California (Berkeley: The Friends of the Bancroft Library, 1960).