44 REMARKS AND OPINIONS. 



like those in the convents of Europe. * They 

 direct a considerable agricultural establishment; 

 (always two in each mission,) perform divine service, 

 and converse with those committed to their charge, 

 by means of interpreters, who are themselves 

 Indians. All property belongs to the community 

 of the mission, and is administered by the fathers. 

 The savage Indian derives no immediate advantage 

 from his labours ; no wages, if he happens to be let 

 out as a day-labourer on the Presidio. The mission 

 receives the money which he earns. He acquires 

 no notion of property, and is not bound by it. We 

 do not deny the mildness, the paternal anxiety of 

 the missionaries, of which we have several times 

 been witnesses, t The relation still remains what 



* We were more offended than edified by a sermon preached 

 in the Spanish language, in the mission of San Francisco, on the 

 Saint's day ; and in which the patron saint was placed on an 

 equality with Christ. 



-j- The following is one example : The fathers sent the 

 Indians in their boat to our anchoring-place, merely that they 

 might look at our ship, which was a new object to them. The 

 Indian, in the mission, dances his national dances, on Sun- 

 day, in presence of the fathers, and plays, always for gain, his 

 usual game of chance ; he is only forbidden to stake his coat, 

 a piece of coarse woollen cloth, manufactured in the mission ; 

 he can also enjoy the hot-bath, to which he has been accus- 

 tomed. The dances are boisterous, different in each tribe, and 

 the tune generally without words. The game is played between 

 two antagonists, at " odd or even," with short sticks ; an um- 

 pire keeps the account with other sticks. The usual bath 

 of the Indians, like that of most of the northern nations, is the 

 following : at the entrance of a cave on the sea-shore, in which 

 the bathers are, a great fire i§ made ; they suffer it to go out. 



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