PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 17 



disgusting, and the other ludicrous. Each establish- 

 ment is under the management of two priests if pos- 

 sible, who in Upper California belong to the mendi- 

 cant order of San Francisco. They have under them 

 a major-domo, and several subordinate officers, gene- 

 rally Spaniards, whose principal business is to overlook 

 the labour of the Indians. 



The object of the missions is to convert as many of 

 the wild Indians as possible, and to train them up 

 within the walls of the establishment in the exercise 

 of a good life, and of some trade, so that they may in 

 time be able to provide for themselves and become 

 useful members of civilized societVc As to the various 

 methods employed for the purpose of bringing prose- 

 lytes to the mission, there are several reports, of which 

 some were not very creditable to the institution : ne- 

 vertheless, on the whole I am of opinion that the 

 priests are innocent, from a conviction that they are 

 ignorant of the means employed by those who are 

 under them. Whatever may be the system, and 

 whether the Indians be really dragged from their 

 homes and famihes by armed parties, as some assert, 

 or not, and forced to exchange their life of freedom 

 and wandering for one of confinement and restraint 

 in the missions, the change according to our ideas of 

 happiness would seem advantageous to them, as they 

 lead a far better life in the missions than in their 

 forests, where they are in a state of nudity, and are 

 frequently obliged to depend solely upon wild acorns 

 for their subsistence. 



Immediately the Indians are brought to the mission 

 they are placed under the tuition of some of the most 

 enlightened of their countrymen, who teach them to 

 repeat in Spanish the Lord's Prayer and certain pas- 



VOL. II. c 



