CALIFORNIA. 185 



spoils of these missions ; and so great have been the drafts upon some 

 of these missions, that they have not been able to support their 

 neophytes. The mission of San Jose, for instance, during the year 

 of our visit, was obliged to order off five hundred of its proselytes, to 

 procure their subsistence as they best could. These acts seem to be 

 committed without any kind of consideration, or idea that there is 

 any injustice practised: the property acquired by the missions is 

 looked upon as belonging to the state ; the claims of the Indians are 

 entirely overlooked, and in the event of their taking the cattle that in 

 truth belong to them, they are severely punished. This naturally 

 irritates them, for not only can they perceive the injustice of others 

 appropriating the fruits of their labour, but are exasperated by seeing 

 them living upon the common stock, while they are obliged to seek 

 a precarious subsistence in the forest. 



In consequence of this state of things, depredations are continually 

 committed by the Indians; and, a month previous to the arrival of 

 the squadron, they had driven off three hundred horses. Retaliatory 

 measures on the part of the Californiaus were adopted ; a party was 

 collected and despatched to punish them, which proceeded towards 

 the interior, came to a village, and without any inquiry whether its 

 dwellers had been the aggressors, it was set on fire, and reduced to 

 ashes; some of the defenceless old men, who from their infirmities 

 could not escape, were put to death, and forty or fifty women and 

 children carried off as prisoners. This was not all : these prisoners 

 were apportioned as slaves to various families, with whom they still 

 remain in servitude, and receive very harsh treatment. Smarting 

 under such wrongs, it is not surprising that the Indians should reta- 

 liate. They openly assert that after taking all the horses, they will 

 commence with families; and many of those which are situated on 

 the frontiers, experience much alarm. In June 1841, an Englishman 

 was shot by an arrow at the door of his house, early in the evening. 

 The Indians enticed him out by making a noise near by, and the 

 moment he opened the door, with a candle in his hand, an arrow was 

 sent through his heart. 



The Indians at present rarely steal any thing but horses ; but so 

 daring are they, that they not unfrequently take them out of the 

 enclosures near the pueblos. Their reason for confining themselves 

 to this description of property is, that with them they are able to 

 avoid pursuit, which would not be the case if they took cattle. The 

 Californians, on detecting and apprehending the aggressors, show 



vol. v. 47 



