PREFACE. ^C*UFORH\*^ IX 



to the military and civil authorities soon, after the Mexican flag was 

 hoisted. The Indians ceased to obey their teachers, neglected their 

 work, and plundered the Mission property. In 1835 the Missions were 

 secularized that is, orders were issued that part of the herds and agri- 

 cultural implements should be distributed among the neophytes and 

 rancheros, and the remainder should be disposed of for the benefit of 

 the public treasury ; but most of the property was soon in the possession 

 of the chieftains and their friends. In 1842 only 4,500 Indians remained 

 at the Missions, some of which had been deserted by the friars. 



The Mexican Calif ornians lived an idle, easy life. Their only income 

 was derived from the hides and tallow of their neat cattle, which throve 

 on the wild grass in the open country. They had no work and little 

 worry. They were happy ; they did not know any better. They had 

 few excitements, and many of them had no anxieties. Most of them, 

 and some of the old American residents, have regretted the change 

 which has since taken place. From various miseries of life, common 

 elsewhere, they were exempt. They had no lawyers, doctors, tax- 

 gatherers, or newspapers ; no steamboats, railroads, stage coaches, post- 

 offices, regular mails, or stove-pipe hats. Bedsteads, chairs, tables, 

 wooden floors, and kid gloves, were rarities. They were a large, active, 

 hardy, long-lived race, who made up by their fecundity for the failure 

 of the friars to contribute to the population of the territory. It was 

 fashionable in those days to have large families. Ignacio Vallejo had 

 twelve children ; Joaquin Carrillo, (of Santa Barbara) twelve ; Jose 

 Noriega, ten ; Jose Arguello, thirteen ; Jose Maria Pico, nine ; Fran- 

 cisco Sepulveda, eleven ; Jose Maria Ortega, eleven ; and Juan Bandini, 

 ten. These were all the founders of the large families of their respect- 

 ive names, and in most cases the progenitors of all of their name in the 

 State. In the second generation there was no decline. Nasario Berrey- 

 esa had eleven children ; Jose Sepulveda, twelve ; Guadalupe Vallejo,. 

 twelve ; Josefa Vallejo, eleven ; Feliciano Soberanes, ten ; and Jose" 

 Antonio Castro, twenty -five. An old lady, named Juana Cota, died some 

 years ago, leaving five hundred living descendants at the time of her 

 death. There have been wonderful changes in California. 



