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VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, fund which is entirely at the disposal of the padres. In some of the 
establishments this must be very large, although the padres will not 
it, and always plead poverty. The government has lately de- 
manded a part of this profit, but the priests who, it is said, think the 
Indians are more entitled to it than the government, make small dona- 
tions to them, and thus evade the tax by taking care there shall be no 
overplus. These donations in some of the missions are greater than 
in others, according as one establishment is more prosperous than 
another ; and on this also, in a great measure, depends the comforts 
of the dwellings, and the neatness, the cleanliness, and the clothing 
of the people. In some of the missions much misery prevails, while in 
others there is a degree of cheerfulness and cleanliness which shows 
that many of the Indians require only care and proper management to 
make them as happy as their dull senses will admit of under a life of 
constraint. 
The two missions of San Francisco and S4n Jose are examples of 
the contrast alluded to. The former in 1817 contained a thousand con- 
verts, who were housed in small huts around the mission ; but at 
present only two hundred and sixty remain — some have been sent, it 
is true, to the new mission of San Francisco Solano, but sickness and 
death have dealt with an unsparing hand among the others. The huts 
of the absentees, at the time of our visit, had all fallen to decay, and pre- 
sented heaps of filth and rubbish ; while the remaining inmates of the 
mission were in as miserable a condition as it was possible to conceive, 
and were entirely regardless of their own comfort. Their hovels afforded 
scarcely any protection against the weather, and w^ere black with smoke : 
some of the Indians were sleeping on the greasy floor ; others were 
grinding baked acorns to make into cakes, which constitute a large 
portion of their food. So little attention indeed had been paid even to 
health that in one hut there was a quarter of beef suspended opposite 
a window in a very offensive and unwholesome state, but its owners 
were too indolent to throw it out. S4n Jose, on the other hand, was 
all neatness, cleanliness, and comfort ; the Indians were amusing them- 
selves between the hours of labour at their games ; and the children, 
uniformly dressed in white bodices and scarlet petticoats, were playing 
