PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
S57 
ascertaining the fact, as the Indians are so averse to confinement that CHAP, 
they very soon become impressed with the manifestly superior and ' 
more comfortable mode of life of those who are at liberty, and in a very Nov. 
few days declare their readiness to have the new religion explained to 
them. A person acquainted with the language of the parties, of which 
there are sometimes several dialects in the same mission, is then selected 
to train them, and having duly prepared them takes them to the padre 
to be baptized, and to receive the sacrament. Having become Christians 
they are put to trades, or if they have good voices they are taught 
music, and form part of the choir of the church. Thus there are in 
almost every mission weavers, tanners, shoemakers, bricklayers, car- 
penters, blacksmiths, and other artificers. Others again are taught 
husbandry, to rear cattle and horses ; and some to cook for the mission : 
while the females card, clean, and spin wool, weave, and sew ; and those 
who are married attend to their domestic concerns. 
In requital of these benefits, the services of the Indian, for life, be- 
long to the mission, and if any neophyte should repent of his apostacy 
from the religion of his ancestors and desert, an armed force is sent in 
pursuit of him, and drags him back to punishment apportioned to the 
degree of aggravation attached to his crime. It does not often happen 
that a voluntary convert succeeds in his attempt to escape, as the wild 
Indians have a great contempt and dislike for those who have entered 
the missions, and they will frequently not only refuse to readmit them 
to their tribe, but will sometimes even discover their retreat to their 
pursuers. This animosity between the wild and converted Indians is 
of great importance to the missions, as it checks desertion, and is at the 
same time a powerful defence against the wild tribes, who consider their 
territory invaded, and have other just causes of complaint. The Indians, 
besides, from political motives, are, I fear, frequently encouraged in a 
contemptuous feeling towards their unconverted countrymen by hearing 
them constantly held up to them in the degrading light of bSstias ! 
and in hearing the Spaniards distinguished by the appellation of gmte 
lie razon. 
The produce of the land and of the labour of the Indians is ap- 
propriated to the support of the mission, and the overplus to amass a 
