350 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
with a wall, while the huts of the Indians stand unprotected 
outside. 
They are generally constructed of large unburnt bricks, 
and roofed with tiles. Some of the churches and priests’ 
houses are of stone; and being whitewashed by way of pre¬ 
eminence among the Indian dwellings, make an imposing 
appearance upon the lofty hills, on the borders of the sea, or 
the rich spreading plains among the green highlands. 
Each of the establishments is designed to have two priests. 
This intention, however, is not always carried out. More 
commonly one priest, with his major-domo, and several sub¬ 
ordinate officers to overlook the labor of the Indians, consti¬ 
tute the official court of a Mission. 
The married Indians, and the officers and priests of the 
Missions, occupy houses. The unmarried Indians of all ages 
are put into large rooms at night, which are well grated and 
locked, to prevent them from escaping to the wilderness and 
their former habits of life. The unmarried females and males 
thus imprisoned in their separate apartments at night, and 
kept separate at their duties during the day, never associate 
much together until they are married. This is deemed neces¬ 
sary to preserve their virtue. 
The churches of these missions are well supplied with the 
paraphernalia of the Roman Catholic worship, the altar, the 
receptacle of the host, the censer, the cross, the images of 
the Saviou-r and the Saints, pictures of Paradise and Hell. 
These, the costly dresses of the priests, and the imposing 
processions and ceremonies of the church, were well calcu¬ 
lated to arrest the attention of those most stupid of all the 
Noith American Indians; and give them their first impulses 
toward the paths of moral virtue. 
The religious exercises of the Missions are those common to 
Catholic churches throughout the world. Morning and evening 
Mass; the commemoration of the Patron Saints; High Mass 
on extraordinary occasions ; religious processions on Corpus 
Christi and other great festal occasions; at which times the 
