BULL. 30] 



MISSIONS 



895 



decay of 70 years. Around each mission, 

 except in the extreme n., were groves of 

 palms, bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, 

 together with extensive vineyards, while 

 more than 400,000 cattle ranged the pas- 

 tures. Workshops, schoolrooms, store- 

 rooms, chapels, dormitories, and hospitals 

 were all provided for, and in addition to 

 religious instruction and ordinary school 

 studies, weaving, potters-making, carpen- 

 try, and every other most useful trade 

 and occupation were taught to the neo- 

 phytes, besides the violin and other in- 

 struments to those who displayed apti- 

 tude in music. There were fixed hours 

 for j^rayers and work, with three hours 

 of rest at noon, and dancing and other 

 amusements after supper and the angelus, 

 which was one hour before sunset. The 

 diet consisted of an abundance of fresh 

 beef, mutton, wheat and corn bread, and 

 beans, from their own herds and planta- 

 tions. From the sale of the surplus were 

 bought clothing, tobacco, and trinkets 

 for the Indians, and the necessary church 

 supplies. At seasonable intervals there 

 were outing excursions to allow the neo- 

 phytes to visit their wilder relatives in 

 the hills. The missionaries taught by 

 practical example at the plow, the brick- 

 kiln, andin the vineyard. DuHot de Mo- 

 fras, who made an official tour of the mis- 

 sions on behalf of tlie French govern- 

 ment shortly before their utter ruin, says: 

 "Necessity makes the missionaries indus- 

 trious. One is struck with astonishment 

 at seeing that with such small resources, 

 generally without any European work- 

 men, and with the aid of savage popula- 

 tions whose intelligence was of the lowest 

 order and who were often hostile, besides 

 the vast agricultural culture, they have 

 been able to execute such extensive 

 works of architecture and mechanical 

 structures, such as mills, machinery, and 

 workshops, besides bridges, roads, and 

 canals for irrigation. The construction 

 of almost all these missions required that 

 timber, often cut upon steep mountains, 

 should be brought 25 to 30 miles, and 

 that the Indians should be taught how to 

 make lime, cut stone, and mouhl bricks. 

 This fact can not be mistaken — it was 

 not merely by proselytisni that the old 

 missionaries succeeded in attracting the 

 Indians. In the work of their conver- 

 sion, if religion was the end, material 

 comfort was the means. The mission- 

 aries had re-solved the great problem of 

 making labor attractive." 



The Indiansthemselves, of many tribes 

 and dialects, were for the most part un- 

 warlike and tractable, but without native 

 energy, and probably, in their original 

 condition, lower in the scale of civiliza- 

 tion and morality than any others within 

 the limits of the United States. Infanti- 



cide prevailed to such a degree that even 

 the most earnest efforts of the mission- 

 aries were unable to stamp it out, the fact 

 showing how little the new teaching 

 really affected the deeper instinct of the 

 savage. Although there were frequent 

 raids by the wild tribes, there was little 

 serious opposition to mission discipline, 

 which was supported when necessary l)y 

 military assistance from the nearest gar- 

 rison. Despite regular life, abundance of 

 food, and proper clothing according to the 

 season, the Indian withered away under 

 the restrictions of civilization supple- 

 mented by epidemic diseases introduced 

 by the military garrisons or the seal hunt- 

 ers along the coast. The death rate was 

 so enormous in spite of apparent material 

 advancement that it is probable that the 

 former factor alone would have brought 

 about the extinction of the missions with- 

 in a few generations. 



But all this prosperity at last excited 

 the cupidity of the recently established 

 revolutionary government of Mexico, and 

 in 1833-34 decrees were passed to "secu- 

 larize" the missions and to expel the 

 missionaries, who, as Spaniards, were 

 hated by the revolutionists. The mission 

 funds and vast herds were confiscated, 

 the lands were distributed to eager polit- 

 ical adventurers, and minor vandals com- 

 pleted the work of destruction by taking 

 even the tiles from the roofs and digging 

 up the vines and fruit trees in the gar- 

 dens. Some al)ortive provision was made 

 for the Indians, of which in their help- 

 lessness they were unable to avail them- 

 selves, and in a few years, left without 

 their protectors, they liad again scattered 

 to the mountains and swamps or sunk 

 into the lowest degradati(m in the new 

 mining towns. In 1834, when the blow 

 came, the California missions had 30,650 

 Indians, with 424,000 cattle, 62,500 

 horses and mules; 321,900 sheep, goats, 

 and hogs; and produced 122,500 bushels 

 of wheat and corn. In 1842 there re- 

 mained only 4,450 Indians, 28,220 cattle, 

 and the rest in proportion. To-day, ac- 

 cording to official report, there remain of 

 the old Mission Indians only 2,855, whose 

 condition is a subject of constant seri- 

 ous concern to philanthropists. 



Two other California missions have a 

 briefer history. In 1780 tlie military 

 commander of the Sonora district deter- 

 mined to establish among the warlike 

 Yuma two garrison posts with colony and 

 mission attachments, despite the protests 

 of the missionaries concerned, who fore- 

 saw that the combination would be dis- 

 astrous to their own part of the work. 

 Two sites were selected, however, in the 

 lall ot the year on the w bank of the Col- 

 orado — the one, La Purisima Conccpcion, 

 occupying the site of old Ft Yuma, the 



