100 JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. [1702. 



brethren and friends occasionally made remittances to them, in 

 money or goods ; and the king was persuaded to assign, for their 

 use, a small annual allowance : but the Mexican treasury, which 

 was charged with the payment of this allowance, was seldom able 

 to meet their drafts when presented ; and the assistance derived 

 from all these sources was much diminished in value before it 

 leached those for whom it was destined. Embarrassments of this 

 nature occurred in 1702, at the commencement of the undertaking, 

 in consequence of the great costs of the expeditions from Mexico 

 for the occupation of Texas, and the establishment of garrisons at 

 Pensacola and other places in Florida, as checks upon the French. 

 By perseverance and kindness, however, rather than by any 

 other means, the Jesuits overcame all the difficulties to which they 

 were exposed ; and within sixty years after their entrance into Cal- 

 ifornia, they had formed sixteen principal establishments, called 

 missions, extending in a chain along the eastern side of the penin- 

 sula from Cape San Lucas to the head of the gulf. Each of these 

 missions comprised a church, a fort garrisoned by a few soldiers, 

 and some stores and dwelling-houses, all under the entire control of 

 the resident Jesuit ; and it formed the centre of a district containing 

 several rancherias, or villages of converted Indians. The principal 

 mission or capital was Loreto ; south of it was La Paz, the port 

 of communication with Mexico, probably the same place called 

 Santa Cruz by Cortes, where he endeavored to plant a colony in 

 1535 ; and near Cape San Lucas was San Jose, at which an attempt 

 was made to provide means for the repair and refreshment of vessels 

 employed in the Philippine trade. No establishments were formed 

 on the west coast, which does not seem to have been visited by the 

 Jesuits, except on one occasion, in 1716. The villages were each 

 under the superintendence of Indians selected for the purpose, of 

 whom one possessed the powers of a governor, another took care 

 of the church or chapel, and a third summoned the inhabitants to 

 prayers and reported the delinquents. The children were taught 

 to speak, read, write, and sing, in Spanish, and were initiated into 

 the doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. The 

 converts were directed in their labors by the fathers ; each being 

 generally allowed to retain the fruits of his industry, though he 

 was at the same time made to understand that he could not claim 

 them as his property. Immigration from other countries, except of 

 Jesuits, was as far as possible prevented ; the efforts of the mission- 

 aries being, in California as in Paraguay, devoted exclusively to the 



