TheMission of Río Bueno (Spanish:Misión de Río Bueno) was aFranciscan mission in theHuilliche lands inRío Bueno, next toBueno River, southern Chile.
The establishment of the mission was by 1767 being planned by theJesuitAndrés Febrés.[1] As the Jesuit order wasexpelled from Spanish America in 1767 the project was continued by Franciscans who established the mission in 1777.
In 1792 events related to the mission led to aHuilliche uprising that year. According toDiego Barros Arana "an Indian" called Felipe was said to have obtained a letter from theGovernor of Valdivia to the head of the mission.[2] This letter would have revealed that the purpose of the mission was to "lull the Indians in the confidence of peace, to give death to their warriors and reduce more easily the peoples into slavery".[2] Albeit these claims are deemed false by Barros Arana in 1792, they were enough to ignite an uprising.[2] The uprising begun in September 1792, with a series of assaults against Spanish settlers inRío Bueno andLago Ranco.[2] Houses were torched and animals stolen. Ten Spanish settlers are reported to have been killed.[2]Friar Antonio Curcoa (or Cuzcoo) who ran the mission was "tied naked to the tail of a vigorous horse and dragged around in the countrysideuntil he ceased to exist".[3][4]