856 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP. They have under them a major domo, and several subordinate officers, 
generally Spaniards, whose principal business is to overlook the labour 
Nov. of the Indians. 
] 826 
The object of the missions is to convert as many of the wild Indians 
as possible, and to train them up within the walls of the establishment 
in the exercise of a good life, and of some trade, so that they may in 
time be able to provide for themselves and become useful members of 
civilised society. As to the various methods employed for the purpose 
of bringing proselytes to the mission, there are several reports, of which 
some were not very creditable to the institution : nevertheless, on the 
whole I am of opinion that the priests are innocent, from a conviction 
that they are ignorant of the means employed by those who are under 
them. Whatever may be the system, and whether the Indians be 
really dragged from their homes and fiimihes by armed parties, as some 
assert, or not, and forced to exchange their life of freedom and wander- 
ing for one of confinement and restraint in the missions, the change 
according to our ideas of happiness would seem advantageous to them, 
as they lead a far better life in the missions than in their forests, where 
they are in a state of nudity, and are frequently obliged to depend solely 
upon wild acorns for their subsistence. 
Immediately the Indians are brought to the mission they are placed 
under the tuition of some of the most enlightened of their countrymen, 
who teach them to repeat in Spanish the Lord’s Prayer and certain 
passages in the Komish litany ; and also, to cross themselves properly 
on entering the church. In a few days a willing Indian becomes a 
proficient in these mysteries, and suffers himself to be baptized, and 
duly initiated into the church. If, however, as it not unfrequently 
happens, any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to conversion, 
it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then to allow 
them to breathe a little fresh air in a walk round the mission, to observe 
the happy mode of life of their converted countrymen ; after which they 
are again shut up, and thus continue to be incarcerated until they 
declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers. 
I do not suppose that this apparently unjustifiable conduct would 
be pursued for any length of time; and I had never an opportunity of 
