PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 15 



San Antonio Bucna Vistura 



San Miguel San Fernando 



San Luis San Gabriel 



De la Purissima San Juan Capistram 



Santa Ignes San Luis Rey 3000 



Santa Barbara San Toniaso 



I could not learn the number of Indians which are 

 in each of the missions to the southward of Soledad, 

 but they were stated collectively to amount to 20,000 : 

 on this head I must observe that the padres either 

 would not say, or did not know exactly, how many 

 there were, even in their own missions, much less the 

 number c jntained in those to the southward : and the 

 accounts w^ere at all times so various that the above 

 computation can be only an approximation. Almost 

 all these establishments cultivate large portions of 

 of land, and rear cattle, the hides and tallow of which 

 alone form a small trade, of which the importance may 

 be judged from the fact of a merchant at Monterey 

 having paid 36,000 dollars in one year to a mission, 

 which was not one of the largest, for its hide, tallow, 

 and Indian labour. Though the system they pursue 

 is not calculated to raise the colony to any great pros- 

 perity, yet the neglect of the missions would not long 

 precede the ruin of the presidios, and of the whole of 

 the district. Indeed, with the exception of two pueb- 

 los, containing about seven hundred persons, and a 

 few farm houses widely scattered over the country, 

 there are no other buildings to the northward of Mon- 

 terey : thus, while the missions furnish the means of 

 subsistence to the presidios, the body of men they con- 

 tain keeps the wild Indians in check, and prevents 

 their making incursions on the settlers. 



