20 VOYAGE TO THE 



more entitled to it than the government, make small 

 donations to them, and thus evade the tax by taking 

 care there shall be no overplus. These donations in 

 some of the missions are greater than in others, ac- 

 cording as one establishment is more prosperous than 

 another ; and on this also, in a great measure, depends 

 the comforts of the dwellings, and the neatness, the 

 cleanliness, and the clothiug of the people. In some 

 of the missions much misery prevails, while in others 

 there is a degree of cheerfulness and cleanliness which 

 shows that many of the Indians require only care and 

 proper management to make them as happy as their 

 dull senses will admit of under a Hfe of constraint. 



The two missions of San Francisco and San Jose 

 are examples of the contrast alluded to. The former 

 in 1817 contained a thousand converts, who were 

 housed in small huts around the mission ; but at 

 present only two hundred and sixty remain — some 

 have been sent, it is true, to the new mission of San 

 Francisco Solano, but sickness and death have dealt 

 with an unsparing hand among the others. The huts 

 of the absentees, at the time of our visit, had all fallen 

 to decay, and presented heaps of filth and rubbish ; 

 while the remaining inmates of the mission were in as 

 miserable a condition as it was possible to conceive, 

 and were entirely regardless of their own comfort. 

 Their hovels afforded scarcely any protection against 

 the weather, and were black with smoke: some of the 

 Indians were sleeping on the greasy floor; others were 

 grinding baked acorns to make into cakes, which con- 

 stitute a large portion of their food. So little atten- 

 tion indeed had been paid even to health, that in one 

 hut there was a quarter of beef suspended opposite a 

 window in a verv offensive and unwholesome state. 



