An exceptionally valuable research tool for scholars. The noted Jesuit historian has translated the rules and precepts that governed the mission expansion in the 1600s and 1700s in northwestern Mexico, and has added authoritative commentary to make this work literally a "manual on the missions."

Charles W. Polzer, S.J., has published widely on the life of Padre Eusebio Kino, the seventeenth-century Jesuit missionary in the Pimería Alta, and was instrumental in the discovery of Kino's grave in 1966. Trained professionally in theology, history, anthropology, and philosophy, he employs a useful combination of disciplines to delve into Southwestern studies. Polzer, a founder and associate director of the Southwestern Mission Research Center, in 1972 was named ethnohistorian of the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona.