248 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



the American pioneers found a most lofty purpose in 

 the mission sheep husbandry, and were so exalted by 

 it that they forgot the services of the sheep in pro- 

 viding food for hungry soldiery and Indians and in 

 supplying vast numbers of pelts and much tallow for 

 sale to coast trading ships from Atlantic seaports. 

 They looked on the padres' sheep as a direct Chris- 

 tianizing agency, for one writer says : "The Mission 

 fathers reared their sheep solely for the purpose of 

 obtaining a textile from which to fabricate garments 

 for the savages as an auxiliary means of proselyting. 

 Therefore they undertook sheep husbandry on such a 

 scale, that in no long time, the rude inhabitants who 

 flocked to the missions were clothed in garb more 

 fitting their advent among those of Christian civiliza- 

 tion/' 



Here, too, the picturesque conception of the pio- 

 neers has been pierced by later historians, who have 

 rummaged through the narratives of travelers adven- 

 turing among the California sheep farmers of a hun- 

 dred years ago. Not only do they forget to record 

 the existence of any such tailoring establishments as 

 would be required to fabricate for the Indians the 

 elaborate and ornate costuming of the Spanish dons, 

 but they distinctly repudiate the capability of such 

 weaving outfits as they saw to produce Christian 

 apparel. Though these narrators say that they saw, 

 "at the larger missions, as many as two hundred 

 or more women and girls at a time, spinning and 

 weaving," they pronounce the resulting fabric suit- 

 able for coarse blankets, but unsuitable for clothing, 



