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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



How many of them actually did survive can not be told, but 

 the number was relatively very small. The decree for the dises- 

 tablishment of the missions was made by the Spanish Cortes in 

 1813, but it was not carried into final effect until 1834. Between 

 1820 and 1830 there was a gradual but marked decline in mission 

 prosperity. In 1834 the twenty-one missions contained fifteen 

 thousand converts ; but earlier than this the constant drafts upon 

 the native tribes had about exhausted the supply, and by 1830 no 

 more converts were to be had within reach of most of the mis- 

 sions. In fact, most of the natives had been converted out of ex- 

 istence. 



The wealth of the missions was no mean dowry for the surviv- 

 ing neophytes, for collectively they now contained among other 

 property one hundred and forty thousand cattle, twelve thousand 

 horses, and one hundred and thirty thousand sheep ; which totals, 

 though reduced from previous years, will afford some idea of the 

 wealth resulting from convert labor and missionary overseeing. 

 The missions had been more successful in the accumulation of 

 property than in civilizing the Indians. 



As has been stated, the original plan of colonization contem- 

 plated the Indian as a citizen in individual possession of land, 

 each with his share of the accumulated mission property, consist- 

 ing of horses, cattle, sheep, etc. The experiment of giving the 

 Indian his freedom, so long contemplated, was now (1834) to be 

 tried. The fathers, facing the inevitable, recommended that a 

 partial trial be made first, as they believed that the Indian was 

 not ready for the experiment ; and, indeed, how was it possible 

 that he should be ? Had the intention from the very first been to 

 unfit him for independent existence, no better plan could have 

 been devised than the one actually followed. Educated he was 

 not, except in the necessary portions of the -ritual of the Catholic 

 Church, and in so far as a certain number spoke Spanish. Civil- 

 ized he certainly was not, since his knowledge of the art of hus- 

 bandry and of the manual arts was only sufficient to enable him 

 to be a producer under task-masters. He was, in fact, master 

 scarcely of the rudiments of civilization. In short, at the end of 

 mission rule, the Indian was really less capable of taking care of 

 himself than at the beginning : he was found a free man — he was 

 left a dependent. 



Could the provisions of the secularization act have been car- 

 ried out gradually and honestly by capable officers and with the 

 co-operation of the missionaries, even then it may be doubted if 

 the intelligence and civilized attainments of the Indian would 

 have been equal to the occasion. As it was, political considera- 

 tions prevented a fair trial of the plan, and the final act in the 

 mission drama is little else but a history of robbery and oppres- 



