PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
a particular period of the year, also, when the Indians can be spared 
from the agricultural concerns of the establishment, many of them 
are permitted to take the launch of the mission, and make excursions 
to the Indian territory. All are anxious to go on such occasions, some 
to visit their friends, some to procure the manufactures of their bar- 
barous countrymen, which, by the by, are often better than their own ; 
and some with the secret determination never to return. On these 
occasions the padres desire them to induce as many of their uncon- 
verted brethren as possible to accompany them back to the mission, of 
course, implying that this is to be done only by persuasion ; but the 
boat being furnished with a cannon and musketry, and in every respect 
equipped for war, it too often happens that the neophytes, and the 
gente de raz6n, who superintend the direction of the boat, avail them- 
selves of their superiority, with the desire of ingratiating themselves 
with their masters, and of receiving a reward. There are, besides, 
repeated acts of aggression which it is necessary to punish, all of which 
furnish proselytes. Women and children are generally the first objects 
of capture, as their husbands and parents sometimes voluntarily follow 
them into captivity. These misunderstandings and captivities keep 
up a perpetual enmity amongst the tribes, whose thirst for revenge is 
almost insatiable. 
We had an opportunity of witnessing the tragical issue of one of 
these holyday excursions of the neophytes of the mission of San Jose. 
The launch was armed as usual, and placed under the superintendence 
of an alcalde of the mission, who, it appears from one statement (for 
there were several), converted the party of pleasure either into one of 
attack for the purpose of procuring proselytes, or of revenge upon a 
particular tribe for some aggression in which they were concerned. 
They proceeded up the Rio S4n Joachin until they came to the territory 
of a particular tribe named Cosemenes, when they disembarked with 
the gun, and encamped for the night near the village of Los Gentiles, 
intending to make an attack upon them the next morning ; but before 
they were prepared, the Gentiles, who had been apprised of their in- 
tention, and had collected a large body of friends, became the assailants, 
and pressed so hard upon the party that, notwithstanding they dealt 
3 a 
