IQ VOYAGE TO THE 



Each mission has fifteen square miles of ground 

 allotted to it. The buildings are variously laid out, 

 and adapted in size to the number of Indians which 

 they contain ; some are inclosed by a high wall, as at 

 San Carlos, while others consist merely of a few rows 

 of huts, built with sun-burnt mud-bricks ; many are 

 whitewashed and tiled, and have a neat and comfort- 

 able appearance. It is not, however, every hut that 

 has a white face to exhibit, as that in a great mea- 

 sure depends upon the industry and good conduct 

 of the family who possess it, who are in such a 

 case supplied with lime for the purpose. It is only 

 the married persons and the officers of the establish- 

 ment who are allowed these huts, the bachelors and 

 spinsters having large places of their own, where they 

 are separately incarcerated every night. 



To each mission is attached a well-built church, 

 better decorated in the interior than the external ap- 

 pearance of some would lead a stranger to suppose : 

 they are well supphed with costly dresses for proces- 

 sions and feast days, to strike with admiration the 

 senses of the gazing Indians, and on the whole are 

 very respectable establishments. In some of these are 

 a few^ tolerable pictures, among many bad ones ; and 

 those who have been able to obtain them are always 

 provided with representations of hell and paradise : 

 the former exhibiting in the most disgusting manner 

 all the torments the imagination can fancy, for the 

 purpose of striking terror into the simple Indians, who 

 look upon the performance with fear and trembling. 

 Such representations may perhaps be useful in exhibit- 

 ing to the dull senses of the Indians what could not 

 be conveved in any other way, and so far they are de- 

 sirable in the mission ; but to an European the one is 



