Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas

Misión Santa Rosa de las Palmas, also known as Todos Santos Mission, was founded by the Roman Catholic Jesuits in 1733 and dedicated to Saint Rose of Lima.

In 1724, Jesuit priest Jaime Bravo, stationed at the Misión de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de La Paz Airapí at present day La Paz, Baja California Sur, founded a visita (subsidiary post to a mission) at a place he named Todos Santos, which was near the Pacific Ocean.

In the deserts of Baja California, Todos Santos was attractive because of a relative abundance of water, tillable land, and good grazing for livestock.

Agriculture at Santa Rosa was successful, but the area was contested between warring bands of the Guaycura, including the Uchiti and Pericues peoples.

Syphilis, although known in America before the Europeans, was also a serious disease and may have been spread widely in Baja California by visiting or castaway Spanish and English sailors.

The Indians killed Jesuits at two of the four southern missions, several Spanish soldiers, and, in January 1735, 13 sailors who had come ashore from a merchant vessel.

With assistance from a large Spanish and Indian military force sent from the mainland, the rebellion was mostly put down and the Todos Santos mission was reestablished in 1737 under Jesuit Bernardo Zumziel.