AN ACCOUNT 
OF 
THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS 
OF 
THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA, 
AS GIVEN BY 
JACOB BAEGERT, A GERMAN JESUIT MISSIONARY, WHO LIVED THERE SEVEN- 
TEEN YEARS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CENTURY. 
TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED BY CHARLES RAU. 
(Continued from the Smithsonian Report for 1863.) 
CHAPTER V.—THEIR CHARACTER. 
In describing the character of the Californians, I can only say that they are 
dull, awkward, rude, unclean, insolent, ungrateful, given to lying, thievish, 
lazy, great talkers, and almost like children in their reasoning and actions. 
They are a careless, improvident, unreflecting people, and possess no control 
over themselves, but follow, in every respect, their natural instincts almost like 
' animals. 
They are, nevertheless, like all other native Americans, human beings, real 
children of Adam, and have not grown out of the earth, or of stones, like moss 
and other plants, as a certain impudent, lying freethinker gives to understand. 
I, at least, never saw one growing in such a way, nor have I heard of any of 
them who originated in that peculiar manner. ~ Like other people, they are pos- 
sessed of reason and understanding, and their stupidity is not inborn with 
them, but the result of habit; and I am of opinion that, if their young sons 
were sent to European seminaries and colleges, and their girls to convents 
where young females are instructed, they would prove equal in all respects to 
Europeans in the acquirement of morals and of useful sciences and arts, as has 
been the case with many young natives of other American provinces. I have 
known some of them who learned several mechanical trades in a short time, 
often merely by observation; and, on the contrary, others who appeared to me 
duller, after twelve or more years, than at the time when I first became ac- 
quainted with them. God and nature have endowed these people with gifts 
and talents like others; but their rude life hinders the development of these 
faculties, and thus they remain awkward, dull, and so slow in their understand- 
ings that it requires considerable pains, time, and patience to teach them the 
doctrines and precepts of the Christian faith, insomuch that a sentence of only 
a few words must be repeated to them twelve times and oftener before they are 
capable of reciting it. 
It may not be out of place to corroborate here what Father Charlevoix says 
of the Canadians, namely, that no one should think an Indian is convinced of 
what he has heard because he appears to approve of it. He will assent to 
anything, even though he has not understood its meaning or reflected upon his 
answer, and he so does either on account of his indolence or indifference, or 
from motives of selfishness, in order to please the missionary. 
