1774.] SPANISH COLONIES IN NEW CALIFORNIA. 113 



the descendants of the herds brought thither by the Spaniards in 

 1770 ; and the ground yielded, with little cultivation, as much 

 Indian corn, beans, and red pepper, as could be consumed. The 

 missions were, for the most part, in the vicinity of the military 

 stations, and, like those of the Jesuits, they each contained a church, 

 generally well built, with some ruder edifices, for the accommoda- 

 tion of the priests and their converts, and for store and work- 

 houses. The public farms were worked by the natives, under the 

 direction of the missionaries or soldiers, and merely produced the 

 food required in the establishments, and, in some places, a little 

 wine. Towns were afterwards formed, some of which were 

 endowed with the privileges of a corporation ; but none of them 

 attained a large size. 



The missionaries were, as already stated, of the Franciscan 

 order, the members of which are incapacitated, by their vows, from 

 holding any property as individuals. They were, for the most part, 

 plain, uneducated men — taken from the lower classes of society, and 

 knowing no books but their breviaries, and the biographies of their 

 saints — who devoted themselves conscientiously and heroically to 

 the task of reclaiming and guiding the barbarous natives of that 

 remote region — without any expectation of acquiring wealth or 

 honors — unsupported by the ambition and pride of order which 

 animated the Jesuits — and uncheered by those social pleasures and 

 consolations which our Protestant apostles derive from their fam- 

 ilies, wherever they may be placed. To their virtuous conduct and 

 self-denial all the enlightened travellers* who have visited their 

 missions bear unqualified testimony. 



These missionaries soon succeeded in reducing a large number 

 of the natives of California to a certain degree of conformity with 

 the customs of social life. The neophytes were obtained, gener- 

 ally when young, from their parents, by persuasion, or by purchase, 

 or, in some cases, by force, and were never suffered to return to 

 their savage friends, if it could be prevented. They were all, at 

 first, treated as children ; the nature and hours of their labors, their 

 studies, their meals, and their recreations, being prescribed by their 

 superintendents ; and they were punished when negligent or re- 

 fractory, though not with severity. After remaining ten years in 

 this state of pupilage, they might obtain their liberty, and have 

 ground allotted to them ; but comparatively few availed themselves 



* La Perouse, Vancouver, Kotzebue, Beechey, &c. 

 15 



