PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
S81 
terrupting the good man’s enthusiasm, they endeavoured to persuade CHAP, 
the priest to allow them to proceed early in the morning, before the 
commencement of mass ; this, however, was impossible, and he shut Nov. 
them into their apartment, repeating the proverb, “ Oir misa y dar 
cebada no impede jornada,” (to hear mass and bestow alms will not 
retard your journey). 
When the morning came, it was a holiday, and the vaqueros, not at 
all disposed to lose their recreation, had decamped with the saddles, 
and the party were obliged to pass the day at SAn Juan. After a 
small cup of chocolate, and a strip of dry bread, the only meal ever 
served in the missions until twelve o’clock, the party strolled over 
the grounds, and visited about thirty huts belonging to some newly 
converted Indians of the tribe of Tooleerayos ( bulrushes ). Their tents 
were about thirty-five feet in circumference, constructed with pliable 
poles fixed in the ground and drawn together at the top, to the height 
of twelve or fifteen feet. They are then interwoven with small twigs 
and covered with bulrushes, having an aperture at the side to admit 
the inhabitants, and another at the top to let out the smoke. The ex- 
terior appearance of these wretched wigwams greatly resembles a bee- 
hive. In each dwelling were nine or ten Indians of both sexes, and 
of all ages, nearly in a state of nudity, huddled round a fire kindled in 
the centre of the apartment, a prey to vermin, and presenting a picture 
of misery and wretchedness seldom beheld in even the most savage 
state of society. They seemed to have lost all the dignity of their 
nature ; even the black-birds ( oriolus niger) had ceased to regard them 
as human beings, and were feeding in flocks among the wigwams. This 
was said to be the state in which the Indians naturally live, and the 
reader will not be surprised to hear that this party had voluntarily 
come from the mountains to be converted, and to join their civilized 
brethren at the mission. Happy would it be for these savages could 
they be once taught to make a proper use of that freedom which ought 
to follow their conversion to the pure religion of Christ, even under the 
restrained form of Catholicism, that their minds might become by this 
means sufficiently improved to allow of their settling in independent 
Christian communities; but, judging from their present mental capacity, 
