174 CALIFORNIA. 



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 hy 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 Cali- 

 fornia ns, on detecting and apprehending the aggressors, show them no 

 mercy, and their lives are made the forfeit. This constant foray on 

 one side or the other keeps up a continual embitterment, and as long 

 as the present imbecile government lasts, this state of things must everv 

 day grow worse, and will undoubtedly tend to affect the value of 

 property, as well as to prevent immigration, and settlement in the 

 country. 



To all strangers but those of the Spanish race, the Indians seem in 

 general well disposed, as they have usually received from the former 

 considerate and kind treatment. The character of these Indians is 

 not represented as savage, and they were little disposed to trouble the 

 whites until they had been themselves ejected from the missions, and 

 forced to consort with those who are yet in a wild state. The know- 

 ledge they have of the Californians, of the missionary establishments, 

 and the manner of conducting them, enables them to 'act more 

 effectively; and if it were not for the presence of the English and 

 Americans, they would either drive the Spanish race out of the country, 

 or confine them to the narrow limits of their villages. 



The number of Indians is variously stated, at from twelve to fifteen 

 thousand ; but it is believed by some of the best informed, that their 

 number, since the small-pox made its ravages among them, is not 

 much more than one-half of this number, or eight or nine thousand. 

 The principal part of these are the tribes on the Sacramento. 



In like manner, there has been an exaggeration in the computation 



