The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 137

Book Reviews

Texans. Anne and her husband were key figures in the "fledgling foreign mis-
sions movement which gradually broke Texas Baptists out of their native provin-
cialism (p. vii)." Both Bagbys were children of pioneer Texas families. When
they sailed for Brazil, they left a state still harassed by Comanches, a wild fron-
tier, itself considered a "mission field" by churches in more settled regions.
With little theological training, the Bagbys studied the Book of Acts to learn
how the apostles did it. Like Paul, they concentrated their efforts in urban areas
where the simple evangelistic service of the Texas frontier was effective. They
also distributed tracts, established schools, and trained native Brazilians to take
over the work as soon as possible.
The Bagbys and other Texans were recruited for Brazil by Gen. A. T. Haw-
thorne, who, with other disillusioned Confederates, had migrated to Brazil at
the end of the Civil War. Initially, the missionaries tried to "minister" to these
expatriates but found it "rocky soil" due to the high incidence of alcoholism,
drug abuse, and "other social vices." Ultimately, the young couple turned with
relief to Brazil's vast native population.
If Anne and Buck Bagby seem, at times, larger than life, Lancaster makes it
clear they were not saints. Anne was "high strung" and threw temper tantrums
that could last for days. They were possessive with their work, engendering ran-
corous quarrels with their peers. At times, these conflicts threatened to undo the
"harvest of their labors." So, too, did the misdeeds of co-laborers who struggled
with "sins of the flesh."
The Bagbys'personal history is poignant. They felt the separation from family
and friends keenly. Two of their nine children died while toddlers, another
drowned. One son, Oliver, apparently ran away rather than return to the mis-
sion field. One year before he would have graduated from Galveston Medical
College, he asked a friend to look after his things, then vanished without a trace.
Lancaster's careful research has provided a readable book illuminating a little-
known segment of Texas history. He carefully avoids "pedantry" and producing
a "panegyric"(p. vii). The Bagbys would have been uncomfortable with a pane-
gyric anyway. But they would doubtless be content to claim at least some credit
for the forty to fifty million evangelicals living in modern Latin America.
Somerville, Texas Kathryn Thompson Presley
Portraits of Basques in the New World. Edited by Richard W. Etulain and Jeronima
Echeverria. (University of Nevada Press, 1999. Pp. xiii+3o5. Illustrations,
preface, acknowledgments, appendix, notes, selected readings, contribu-
tors, index. ISBN o-874-17332-9. $31.95, cloth.)
The Basques hail from Spain and France, their homeland tucked into the
daunting Pyrenees, the mountain chain straddling both countries. In Portraits of
the Basques in the New World Richard Etulain and Jeronima Echeverria present a
series of essays on the immigrants who found niches in Mexico and the United
States. They serve almost as an apologia for an ethnic group that has no feature as
unique as its language and an unusual tenacity to maintain an old-world identity.

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