BULL. 30] 



MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA 



873 



Mission Indians of California. The liiHt 

 settlenu'iits in California were not made 

 until more tlian a century after tlie ear- 

 liest colonizalion of tlie peninsula of 



VICTORIANO, MISSION INDIAN (lUISENo), CALIFORNIA 



Lower California. The mission of ^an 

 Diego, founded in 1769, was the first per- 

 manent white settlement within the limits 

 of the present state; it was followed by 

 20 other Franciscan missions, founded at 

 intervals until the year 1823 in the re- 

 gion between San Diego and San Fran- 

 cisco bay and just n. of the latter. With 

 very few exceptions the Indians of this 

 territory were brought under the influ- 

 ence of the missionaries with compara- 

 tively little difficulty, and more by per- 

 suasion than by the use of force. There 

 is scarcely a record of any resistance or 

 rebellion on the part of the natives re- 

 sulting in the loss of life of even a single 

 Spaniard at any of the missions except at 

 San Diego, where there occurred an insig- 

 nificant outbreak a few years after the 

 foundation. 



The influenceof the missions was proba- 

 bly greater temporal!}^ than spiritually. 

 The Indians were taught and compelled 

 to work at agricultural pursuits and to 

 some extent even at trades. Discipline, 

 while not severe, was rigid; refusal to 

 work was met by deprivation of food, 

 and absence from church or tardiness 

 there, by corpora] punisliments and con- 

 finement. Consequently the Indians, 

 while often displaying much personal af- 

 fection for the missionaries themselves, 

 were always inclined to be recalcitrant 



toward the system, which amounted to 

 little else than beneficent servitude. 

 TluTO were many attempts at escape from 

 the missions. ( Jenerally these were fruit- 

 less, both on accoinit of the presence of a 

 few soldiers at each mi.«sion and through 

 the aid given these by other Indians 

 more under the fathers' infiuence. The 

 Indians at each missicm lived at and 

 alxiut it, often in houses of native type 

 and construction, but were dejiendent for 

 most of their food <lirectly on the authori- 

 ties. They consisted of the trilx'S of the 

 region in which the mission was founded 

 and of more distant tribes, generally from 

 the interior. In some cases these were 

 easily induced to settle at the mission and 

 lo subject themselves to its discipline and 

 routine, the neophytes afterward acting 

 as agents to bringin their wilder brethren. 

 The nund)er of Indians at each mission 

 Taried from a few hundred to two or three 

 tiiousand. There were thus in many cases 

 settUnnents of considerable size; they pos- 

 sessed large herds of cattle and sheep 

 and controlled many square miles of land. 

 Theoretically this wealth was all the prop- 

 erty of the Indians, held in trust for them 

 by the Franciscan fathers. In 18.34 the 

 ]\iexican government, against the protests 

 of the missionaries, secularized the mis- 

 sions. By this step the property of the 

 missions was divided among the Indians, 

 and thev were freed from the re.straint and 



UISENO), CALIFORNIA 



authority of their former masters. In a 

 very few years, as might have been ex- 

 pected and as was predicted by the fath- 

 ers, the Indians had been either deprived 



