320 VOYAGE TO THE 



CHAP. St. Carlos and St. Cruz for vegetables, which were 



__^__; afterwards served daily in double the usual proportion 



Nov. to the ship's company, who benefited so much by the 



diet that, with one exception, they very soon recovered 



from all indisposition. 



By some English newspapers, which were found in 

 this remote part of the world, we learned the melan- 

 choly news of the death of His Royal Highness the 

 Duke of York, and put the ship in mourning, by 

 hoisting the flag half-mast during the time she re- 

 mained in the port. 



In my former visit to this country I remarked that 

 the padres were much mortified at being desired to 

 liberate from the missions all the Indians who bore 

 good characters, and who were acquainted with the 

 art of tilling the ground. In consequence of their 

 remonstrances the governor modified the order, and 

 consented to make the experiment upon a few only at 

 first, and desired that a certain number might be 

 settled in the proposed manner. After a few months' 

 trial, much to his surprise, he found that these people, 

 who had always been accustomed to the care and dis- 

 cipline of schoolboys, finding themselves their own 

 masters, indulged freely in all those excesses which it had 

 been the endeavour of their tutors to repress, and that 

 many having gambled away their clothes, implements, 

 and even their land, were compelled to beg or to plun- 

 der in order to support life. They at length became 

 so obnoxious to the peaceable inhabitants, that the 

 padres were requested to take some of them back to 

 the missions, while others who had been guilty of mis- 

 demeanors were loaded with shackles and put to hard 

 work, and when we arrived were employed trans- 

 porting enormous stones to the beach to improve the 

 landing-place. 



