by Richard Senate
The Native American population declined when California came under Spanish control. This is a historical fact. An estimated 75% of the Native People perished in the time of the Missions leading some to classify them as “death camps.”
This distinction is misleading because the last thing the Spanish wanted was the death of the local peoples. If they should die all the efforts to bring them to the Christian Faith was for nothing, and in a broader economic sense, if the natives died, who would do all the work? The culprit wasn’t the Spanish but something they accidentally brought with them; germs. The Native Americans had no immunities for the illnesses brought by the Europeans. They died in great numbers despite the best efforts of the Padres to stem the tide of sickness.
At Mission San Buenaventura an estimated four thousand died but the number must be a conservative one for it lists only converted Natives and not those who lived in the surrounding villages. Disease hit those in daily contact with the Spanish and those in the villages as well. It must have been a terrible thing for the missionaries to see their converts perish in such numbers. In the latter Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries medical science had not advanced to the level of Ancient Egypt (who at least understood the need for sterilization and cleanliness). There were few accepted treatments for the diseases that were decimating the Native peoples. Even if the padres had the best medical knowledge of their time, there was little they could do.
The problem was so great that the Padre’s built a hospital at Mission San Buenaventura. They were proud of the facility and wrote of its 100-bed capacity, the fact that it had running water and an attached apothecary shop to make and distribute medications. The Spanish turned to local medicine men in an attempt to understand the powers of local herbs. They also used medical books to try to make their own cures and, lastly, they ordered drugs from Mexico and Spain.
One of the most requested medications was deadly Mercury, then the only known cure for Syphilis. The secret was to give enough of the toxic Mercury to the patient to kill the disease but not enough to kill the patient! It was a balancing act that took both skill and luck. Did it work? Some of the time it did. Why did people take the Mercury? Left untreated syphilis advances into madness and a hideous death.
One of the biggest killers to strike was smallpox. An immunization was developed early in Europe for smallpox. It was discovered that people who had cowpox (a non-deadly form of smallpox) wouldn’t catch smallpox. The Spanish Crown paid to have the immunization brought to the new world and had the Native Americans treated. This was done for both economic and humanitarian reasons. Still, the only Natives given the inoculation were those under Spanish control. Ironically, about this same time Americans were giving out smallpox infected blankets in an attempt to destroy the Native Americans Tribes.
The Mission Converts received the inoculations late but, this was an attempt to stem the terrible plagues that were taking so many lives.
What of the hospital at Mission San Buenaventura? Today it is lost. The Spanish never wrote where it was located. They knew that isolation was good for containing some sicknesses so the hospital would have been some distance away from the settlement.
So, somewhere, under a building or parking lot, in downtown Ventura is that foundations of the lost Mission Hospital. If It’s ever discovered, archaeologists will have a major discovery on their hands.
