Mission 2000 Database

Notes: While "La Vieja Escribana" (the old female scribe) may forever remain nameless, she has been included in Mission 2000 in hopes that someday a connection may be made that will tell us who she was. The only thing that we presently know for certain about her is that she was a woman (escribana), that she was old (vieja), and that she died on October 28, 1770.

There are some things about her, however, that are likely:

1. She probably died either at or near Pitic, Sonora. Captain Anza had been on a campaign against the Seris since the last day of August, 1770. Returning to Pitic on the evening of October 28th, he did not open his mail from Governor Pineda until the next morning. Two days after that he was back on the campaign trail when he wrote this letter, informing the Governor that the old scribe had died on the 28th. He likely could not have known that fact if she had died somewhere else in Sonora.

2. She evidently went to various locations with Anza to write his correspondence for him, but did not go on the actual campaigns with him. This theory comes from the fact that there are various letters signed by Anza between 1766 and 1770 that were written by a scribe. These letters are all written in the same hand but are always written from a specific location (i.e. Pitic, San José de los Pimas, Tubac, etc.), never from the campaign trail. If La Vieja Escribana is, in fact, the one who wrote these letters, she was likely waiting at Pitic for Anza to return when she died.

3. She most likely lived at Tubac. A majority of the above mentioned letters written by a scribe were written at Tubac. It is probable that the scribe, whoever she was, would not have followed Anza home if she had lived somewhere else in Sonora. However, if her residence was at Anza’s presidio and she was working for him, she may have followed him other places on his many travels to do his writing for him.