MISSIONS AND MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 477 



found any loitering within them, they exercised with tolerable 

 freedom a long lash, with a broad thong at the end of it — a disci- 

 pline which appeared the more tyrannical, as the church was not 

 sufficiently capacious for all the attendants, and several sat upon 

 the steps without. 



" The congregation was arranged on both sides of the building, 

 separated by a wide aisle passing along the center, in which were 

 stationed several alguazils with whips, canes, and goads to pre- 

 serve silence and maintain order ; and, what seemed more difficult 

 than either, to keep the congregation in their kneeling posture. 

 The goads were better adapted to this purpose than the whips, as 

 they would reach a long way, and inflict a sharp puncture with- 

 out making any noise. The end of the church was occupied by a 

 guard of soldiers under arms, with fixed bayonets — a precaution 

 which I suppose experience had taught the necessity of observ- 

 ing." The spectacle presented of church doors guarded by sol- 

 diers, and of attendants provided with whips' and goads to prick 

 the unwilling or ignorant into kneeling, is certainly not a very 

 edifying spectacle according to later ideas, and savors far too 

 much of slavery. Indeed, the resemblance was suggested to more 

 than one eye-witness ; and Perouse finds in the system an unhappy 

 resemblance to the slave plantations of Santo Domingo. He says : 

 " With pain we say it, the resemblance is so perfect that we have 

 seen men and women in irons or in the stocks ; and even the sound 

 of the lash might have struck our ears, that punishment being 

 also admitted, though practiced with little severity." 



It is not improbable that there were occasional instances in 

 which undue severity was exercised in punishment, but it is safe 

 to conclude that cases of actual cruelty were not common. When 

 such occurred, it is probable that they were the acts of the sub- 

 ordinate officers of the missions, who were chiefly Indians, and 

 that they were not sanctioned by the priests. Nevertheless, the 

 charge was more than once made by the Government authorities. 

 Offenders were punished by fetters, the whip, and the stocks, and 

 by imprisonment. Estudillo says that the friars treated the ne- 

 ophytes as their children, correcting them with words, and for 

 serious offenses with from twelve to twenty-five lashes. Subse- 

 quently the latter number was the extreme limit fixed by author- 

 ity, the implication being that occasionally at least this number 

 had been exceeded. A deserter, says Langsdorff, was bastinadoed, 

 and an iron rod a foot or a foot and a half long was fastened to 

 one of his feet. 



From the very first the fathers adopted the policy of compel- 

 ling the neophytes to work. By this means not only were they 

 instructed in certain useful occupations and kept out of mischief, 

 but by the products of their labor the missions were largely sup- 



