PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 19 



card, clean, and spin wool, weave, and sew ; and those 

 who are married attend to their domestic concerns. 



In requital of these benefits, the services of the In- 

 dian, for life, belong to the mission, and if any neo- 

 phyte should repent of his apostacy from the religion 

 of his ancestors and desert, an armed force is sent in 

 pursuit of him, and drags him back to punishment 

 apportioned to the degree of aggravation attached to 

 his crime. It does not often happen that a voluntary 

 convert succeeds in his attempt to escape, as the wild 

 Indians have a great contempt and dislike for those 

 who have entered the missions, and they will fre- 

 quently not only refuse to re-admit them to their tribe, 

 but will sometimes even discover their retreat to their 

 pursuers. This animosity between the wild and con- 

 verted Indians is of great importance to the missions, 

 as it checks desertion, and is at the same time a pow- 

 erful defence against the wild tribes, who consider 

 their territory invaded, and have other just causes of 

 complaint. The Indians, besides, from political mo- 

 tives, are, I fear, frequently encouraged in a con- 

 temptuous feeling towards their unconverted country- 

 men, by hearing them constantly held up to them in 

 the degrading light of h^stias ! and in hearing the 

 Spaniards distinguished by the appellation of g^nte de 

 raz6n. 



The produce of the land, and of the labour of the 

 Indians, is appropriated to the support of the mission 

 and the overplus to amass a fund which is entirely at 

 the disposal of the padres. In some of the establish- 

 ments this must be very large, although the padres 

 will not admit it, and always plead poverty. The go- 

 vernment has lately demanded a part of this profit, 

 but the priests who, it is said, think the Indians are 



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