Patterns of Demographic Change in the Missions of Southern Baja California

This report examines the degree of demographic collapse in the southern missions. A study of population change in the region, however, poses a number of problems of interpretation. The early Jesuit figures came after a number of epidemics had already attacked the population and after the 1734- 1737 rebellion, so there is little indication of mission population levels prior to 1734. Secondly, few sacramental registers survive, so the analysis is largely based on censuses. Nevertheless, the data summarized below adequately convey a sense of the demographic disaster which overcame the Guaycura, Pericu, and other ethnic-linguistic groups in southern Baja California. Finally, little quantitative information on the population of La Paz Mission (1720-1749) exists, so that mission is not discussed here