prepare himself for death. But he found strength to return to San Carlos
at Monterey, and there, on Saturday, August 28, 1784, he passed to his
eternal reward, at the ripe age of seventy years, nine months and four
days. His last act was to walk to the door, in order that he might look
out upon the beautiful face of Nature. The ocean, the sky, the trees,
the valley with its wealth of verdure, the birds, the flowers--all gave
joy to his weary eyes. Returning to his bed, he "fell asleep," and his
work on earth ended. He was buried by his friend Palou at his beloved
Mission in the Carmelo Valley, and there his dust now rests.[1]

[1] In 1787 Padre Palou published, in the City of Mexico, his "Life and
Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Padre Junipero Serra." This has never
yet been translated, until this year, 1913, the bi-centenary of his
birth, when I have had the work done by a competent scholar, revised by
the eminent Franciscan historian, Father Zephyrin Englehardt, with
annotations. It is a work of over three hundred pages, and is an
important contribution to the historic literature of California.



CHAPTER IV

THE MISSIONS FOUNDED BY PADRE FERMIN FRANCISCO LASUEN

AT Padre Serra's death Fermin Francisco Lasuen was chosen to be his
successor as padre-presidente. At the time of his appointment he was the
priest in charge at San Diego. He was elected by the directorate of the
Franciscan College of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico, February 6,
1785, and on March 13, 1787, the Sacred Congregation at Rome confirmed
his appointment, according to him the same right of confirmation which
Serra had exercised. In five years this Father confirmed no less than
ten thousand, one hundred thirty-nine persons.

Santa Barbara was the next Mission to be founded. For awhile it seemed
that it would be located at Montecito, now the beautiful and picturesque
suburb of its larger sister; but President Lasuen doubtless chose the
site the Mission now occupies. Well up on the foothills of the Sierra
Santa Ines, it has a commanding view of valley, ocean and islands
beyond. Indeed, for outlook, it is doubtful if any other Mission equals
it. It was formally dedicated on December 4, 1786.

Various obstacles to the establishment of Santa Barbara had been placed
in the way of the priests. Governor Fages wished to curtail their
authority, and sought to make innovations which the padres regarded as
detrimental in the highest degree to the Indians, as well as annoying
and humiliating to themselves. This was the reason of the long delay in
founding Santa Barbara. It was the same with the following Mission. It
had long been decided upon. Its site was selected. The natives called it
_Algsacupi_. It was to be dedicated "to the most pure and sacred mystery
of the Immaculate Conception of the most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of
God, Queen of Heaven, Queen of Angels, and Our Lady," a name usually,
however, shortened in Spanish parlance to "La Purisima Concepcion." On
December 8, 1787, Lasuen blessed the site, raised the cross, said mass
and preached a sermon; but it was not until March, 1788, that work on
the buildings was begun. An adobe structure, roofed with tiles, was
completed in 1802, and, ten years later, destroyed by earthquake.

The next Mission founded by Lasuen was that of Santa Cruz. On crossing
the coast range from Santa Clara, he thus wrote: "I found in the site
the most excellent fitness which had been reported to me. I found,
beside, a stream of water, very near, copious, and important. On August
28, the day of Saint Augustine, I said mass, and raised a cross on the
spot where the establishment is to be. Many gentiles came, old and
young, of both sexes, and showed that they would gladly enlist under the
Sacred Standard. Thanks be to God!"

On Sunday, September 25, Sugert, an Indian chief of the neighborhood,
assured by the priests and soldiers that no harm should come to him or
his people by the noise of exploding gunpowder, came to the formal
founding. Mass was said, a _Te Deum_ chanted, and Don Hermenegildo Sol,
Commandant of San Francisco, took possession of the place, thus
completing the foundation. To-day nothing but a memory remains of the
Mission of the Holy Cross, it having fallen into ruins and totally
disappeared.

Lasuen's fourth Mission was founded in this same year, 1791. He had
chosen a site, called by the Indians _Chuttusgelis_, and always known to
the Spaniards as Soledad, since their first occupation of the country.
Here, on October 9, Lasuen, accompanied by Padres Sitjar and Garcia, in
the presence of Lieutenant Jose Argueello, the guard, and a few natives,
raised the cross, blessed the site, said mass, and formally established
the Mission of "Nuestra Senyora de la Soledad."

One interesting entry in the Mission books is worthy of mention. In
September, 1787, two vessels belonging to the newly founded United
States sailed from Boston. The smaller of these was the "Lady
Washington," under command of Captain Gray. In the Soledad Mission
register of baptisms, it is written that on May 19, 1793, there was
baptized a Nootka Indian, twenty years of age, "Inquina, son of a
gentile father, named Taguasmiki, who in the year 1789 was killed by the
American Gert [undoubtedly Gray], Captain of the vessel called
'Washington,' belonging to the Congress of Boston."

For six years no new Missions were founded: then, in 1797, four were
established, and one in 1798. These, long contemplated, were delayed for
a variety of reasons. It was the purpose of the Fathers to have the new
Missions farther inland than those already established, that they might
reach more of the natives: those who lived in the valleys and on the
slopes of the foothills. Besides this, it had always been the intent of
the Spanish government that further explorations of the interior country
should take place, so that, as the Missions became strong enough to
support themselves, the Indians there might be brought under the
influence of the Church. Governor Neve's regulations say:

"It is made imperative to increase the number of Reductions (stations
for converting the Indians) in proportion to the vastness of the country
occupied, and although this must be carried out in the succession and
order aforesaid, as fast as the older establishments shall be fully
secure, etc.," and earlier, "while the breadth of the country is unknown
(it) is presumed to be as great as the length, or greater (200 leagues),
since its greatest breadth is counted by thousands of leagues."

Various investigations were made by the nearest priests in order to
select the best locations for the proposed Missions, and, in 1796,
Lasuen reported the results to the new governor, Borica, who in turn
communicated them to the Viceroy in Mexico. Approval was given and
orders issued for the establishment of the five new Missions.

On June 9, 1797, Lasuen left San Francisco for the founding of the
Mission San Jose, then called the Alameda. The following day, a brush
church was erected, and, on the morrow, the usual foundation ceremonies
occurred. The natives named the site _Oroysom_. Beautifully situated on
the foothills, with a prominent peak near by, it offers an extensive
view over the southern portion of the San Francisco Bay region. At
first, a wooden structure with a grass roof served as a church; but
later a brick structure was erected, which Von Langsdorff visited
in 1806.

It seems singular to us at this date that although the easiest means of
communication between the Missions of Santa Clara, San Jose and San
Francisco was by water on the Bay of San Francisco, the padre and
soldiers at San Francisco had no boat or vessel of any kind. Langsdorff
says of this: "Perhaps the missionaries are afraid lest if there were
boats, they might facilitate the escape of the Indians, who never wholly
lose their love of freedom and their attachment to their native habits;
they therefore consider it better to confine their communication with
one another to the means afforded by the land. The Spaniards, as well as
their nurslings, the Indians, are very seldom under the necessity of
trusting themselves to the waves, and if such a necessity occur, they
make a kind of boat for the occasion, of straw, reeds, and rushes, bound
together so closely as to be water-tight. In this way they contrive to
go very easily from one shore to the other. Boats of this kind are
called _walza_ by the Spanish. The oars consist of a thin, long pole
somewhat broader at each end, with which the occupants row sometimes on
one side, sometimes on the other."

For the next Mission two sites were suggested; but, as early as June 17,
Corporal Ballesteros erected a church, missionary-house, granary, and
guard-house at the point called by the natives _Popeloutchom_, and by
the Spaniards, San Benito. Eight days later, Lasuen, aided by Padres
Catala and Martiarena, founded the Mission dedicated to the saint of
that day, San Juan Bautista.

Next in order, between the two Missions of San Antonio de Padua and San
Luis Obispo, was that of "the most glorious prince of the heavenly
militia," San Miguel. Lasuen, aided by Sitjar, in the presence of a
large number of Indians, performed the ceremony in the usual form, on
July 25, 1797. This Mission eventually grew to large proportions and its
interior remains to-day almost exactly as decorated by the hands of the
original priests.

San Fernando Rey was next established, on September 8, by Lasuen, aided
by Padre Dumetz.

After extended correspondence between Lasuen and Governor Borica, a
site, called by the natives _Tacayme_, was finally chosen for locating
the next Mission, which was to bear the name of San Luis, Rey de
Francia. Thus it became necessary to distinguish between the two saints
of the same name: San Luis, Bishop (Obispo), and San Luis, King; but
modern American parlance has eliminated the comma, and they are
respectively San Luis Obispo and San Luis Rey. Lasuen, with the honored
Padre Peyri and Padre Santiago, conducted the ceremonies on June 13, and
the hearts of all concerned were made glad by the subsequent baptism of
fifty-four children.

It was as an adjunct to this Mission that Padre Peyri, in 1816, founded
the chapel of San Antonio de Pala, twenty miles east from San Luis Rey:
to which place were removed the Palatingwas, or Agua Calientes, evicted
a few years ago from Warner's Ranch. This chapel has the picturesque
_campanile_, or small detached belfry, the pictures of which are known
throughout the world.

With the founding of San Luis Rey this branch of the work of President
Lasuen terminated. Bancroft regards him as a greater man than Serra, and
one whose life and work entitle him to the highest praise. He died at
San Carlos on June 26, 1803, and was buried by the side of Serra.



CHAPTER V

THE FOUNDING OF SANTA INES, SAN RAFAEL AND SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO

Estevan Tapis now became president of the Missions, and under his
direction was founded the nineteenth Mission, that of Santa Ines, virgin
and martyr. Tapis himself conducted the ceremonies, preaching a sermon
to a large congregation, including Commandant Carrillo, on September
17, 1804.

With Lasuen, the Mission work of California reached its maximum power.
Under his immediate successors it began to decline. Doubtless the fact
that the original chain was completed was an influence in the decrease
of activity. For thirteen years there was no extension. A few minor
attempts were made to explore the interior country, and many of the
names now used for rivers and locations in the San Joaquin Valley were
given at this time. Nothing further, however, was done, until in 1817,
when such a wide-spread mortality affected the Indians at the San
Francisco Mission, that Governor Sola suggested that the afflicted
neophytes be removed to a new and healthful location on the north shore
of the San Francisco Bay. A few were taken to what is now San Rafael,
and while some recovered, many died. These latter, not having received
the last rites of religion, were subjects of great solicitude on the
part of some of the priests, and, at last, Father Taboada, who had
formerly been the priest at La Purisima Concepcion, consented to take
charge of this branch Mission. The native name of the site was
_Nanaguani_. On December 14, Padre Sarria, assisted by several other
priests, conducted the ceremony of dedication to San Rafael Arcangel. It
was originally intended to be an _asistencia_ of San Francisco, but
although there is no record that it was ever formally raised to the
dignity of an independent Mission, it is called and enumerated as such
from the year 1823 in all the reports of the Fathers. To-day, not a
brick of its walls remains; the only evidence of its existence being the
few old pear trees planted early in its history.

There are those who contend that San Rafael was founded as a direct
check to the southward aggressions of the Russians, who in 1812 had
established Fort Ross, but sixty-five miles north of San Francisco.
There seems, however, to be no recorded authority for this belief,
although it may easily be understood how anxious this close proximity of
the Russians made the Spanish authorities.

They had further causes of anxiety. The complications between Mexico and
Spain, which culminated in the independence of the former, and then the
establishment of the Empire, gave the leaders enough to occupy
their minds.

The final establishment took place in 1823, without any idea of founding
a new Mission. The change to San Rafael had been so beneficial to the
sick Indians that Canon Fernandez, Prefect Payeras, and Governor
Argueello decided to transfer bodily the Mission of San Francisco from
the peninsula to the mainland north of the bay, and make San Rafael
dependent upon it. An exploring expedition was sent out which somewhat
carefully examined the whole neighborhood and finally reported in favor
of the Sonoma Valley. The report being accepted, on July 4, 1823, a
cross was set up and blessed on the site, which was named New San
Francisco.

Padre Altimira, one of the explorers, now wrote to the new padre
presidente--Senan--explaining what he had done, and his reasons for so
doing; stating that San Francisco could no longer exist, and that San
Rafael was unable to subsist alone. Discussion followed, and Sarria, the
successor of Senan, who had died, refused to authorize the change;
expressing himself astonished at the audacity of those who had dared to
take so important a step without consulting the supreme government. Then
Altimira, infuriated, wrote to the governor, who had been a party to the
proposed removal, concluding his tirade by saying:

"I came to convert gentiles and to establish new Missions, and if I
cannot do it here, which, as we all agree, is the best spot in
California for the purpose, I will leave the country."

Governor Argueello assisted his priestly friend as far as he was able,
and apprised Sarria that he would sustain the new establishment;
although he would withdraw the order for the suppression of San Rafael.
A compromise was then effected by which New San Francisco was to remain
a Mission in regular standing, but neither San Rafael nor old San
Francisco were to be disturbed.

Is it not an inspiring subject for speculation? Where would the modern
city of San Francisco be, if the irate Father and plotting politicians
of those early days had been successful in their schemes?

The new Mission, all controversy being settled, was formally dedicated
on Passion Sunday, April 4, 1824, by Altimira, to San Francisco Solano,
"the great apostle to the Indies." There were now two San Franciscos, de
Asis and Solano, and because of the inconvenience arising from this
confusion, the popular names, Dolores and Solano, and later, Sonoma,
came into use.

From the point now reached, the history of the Missions is one of
distress, anxiety, and final disaster. Their great work was
practically ended.



CHAPTER VI

THE INDIANS AT THE COMING OF THE PADRES

It is generally believed that the California Indian in his original
condition was one of the most miserable and wretched of the world's
aborigines. As one writer puts it:

"When discovered by the padres he was almost naked, half
starved, living in filthy little hovels built of tule,
speaking a meagre language broken up into as many different
and independent dialects as there were tribes, having no laws
and few definite customs, cruel, simple, lazy, and--in one
word which best describes such a condition of
existence--wretched. There are some forms of savage life that
we can admire; there are others that can only excite our
disgust; of the latter were the California Indians."

This is the general attitude taken by most writers of this later day, as
well as of the padres themselves, yet I think I shall be able to show
that in some regards it is a mistaken one. I do not believe the Indians
were the degraded and brutal creatures the padres and others have
endeavored to make out. This is no charge of bad faith against these
writers. It is merely a criticism of their judgment.

The fact that in a few years the Indians became remarkably competent in
so many fields of skilled labor is the best answer to the unfounded
charges of abject savagery. Peoples are not civilized nor educated in a
day. Brains cannot be put into a monkey, no matter how well educated his
teacher is. There must have been the mental quality, the ability to
learn; or even the miraculous patience, perseverance, and love of the
missionaries would not have availed to teach them, in several hundred
years, much less, then, in the half-century they had them under their
control, the many things we know they learned.

The Indians, prior to the coming of the padres, were skilled in some
arts, as the making of pottery, basketry, canoes, stone axes, arrow
heads, spear heads, stone knives, and the like. Holder says of the
inhabitants of Santa Catalina that although their implements were of
stone, wood, or shell "the skill with which they modelled and made their
weapons, mortars, and steatite _ollas_, their rude mosaics of abalone
shells, and their manufacture of pipes, medicine-tubes, and flutes give
them high rank among savages." The mortars found throughout California,
some of which are now to be seen in the museums of Santa Barbara, Los
Angeles, San Diego, etc., are models in shape and finish. As for their
basketry, I have elsewhere[2] shown that it alone stamps them as an
artistic, mechanically skilful, and mathematically inclined people, and
the study of their designs and their meanings reveal a love of nature,
poetry, sentiment, and religion that put them upon a superior plane.

[2] Indian Basketry, especially the chapters on Form, Poetry, and
Symbolism.

Cabrillo was the first white man so far as we know who visited the
Indians of the coast of California. He made his memorable journey in
1542-1543. In 1539, Ulloa sailed up the Gulf of California, and, a year
later, Alarcon and Diaz explored the Colorado River, possibly to the
point where Yuma now stands. These three men came in contact with the
Cocopahs and the Yumas, and possibly with other tribes.

Cabrillo tells of the Indians with whom he held communication. They were
timid and somewhat hostile at first, but easily appeased. Some of them,
especially those living on the islands (now known as San Clemente, Santa
Catalina, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa
Cruz), were superior to those found inland. They rowed in pine canoes
having a seating capacity of twelve or thirteen men, and were expert
fishermen. They dressed in the skins of animals, were rude
agriculturists, and built for themselves shelters or huts of willows,
tules, and mud.

The principal written source of authority for our knowledge of the
Indians at the time of the arrival of the Fathers is Fray Geronimo
Boscana's _Chinigchinich: A Historical Account, etc., of the Indians of
San Juan Capistrano_. There are many interesting things in this account,
some of importance, and others of very slight value. He insists that
there was a great difference in the intelligence of the natives north of
Santa Barbara and those to the south, in favor of the former. Of these
he says they "are much more industrious, and appear an entirely distinct
race. They formed, from shells, a kind of money, which passed current
among them, and they constructed out of logs very swift and excellent
canoes for fishing."

Of the character of his Indians he had a very poor idea. He compares
them to monkeys who imitate, and especially in their copying the ways of
the white men, "whom they respect as beings much superior to themselves;
but in so doing, they are careful to select vice in preference to
virtue. This is the result, undoubtedly, of their corrupt and natural
disposition."

Of the language of the California Indians, Boscana says there was great
diversity, finding a new dialect almost every fifteen to twenty leagues.

They were not remarkably industrious, yet the men made their home
utensils, bows and arrows, the several instruments used in making
baskets, and also constructed nets, spinning the thread from yucca
fibres, which they beat and prepared for that purpose. They also built
the houses.

The women gathered seeds, prepared them, and did the cooking, as well as
all the household duties. They made the baskets, all other utensils
being made by the men.

The dress of the men, when they dressed at all, consisted of the skins
of animals thrown over the shoulders, leaving the rest of the body
exposed, but the women wore a cloak and dress of twisted rabbit-skins. I
have found these same rabbit-skin dresses in use by Mohave and Yumas
within the past three or four years.

The youths were required to keep away from the fire, in order that they
might learn to suffer with bravery and courage. They were forbidden also
to eat certain kinds of foods, to teach them to bear deprivation and to
learn to control their appetites. In addition to these there were
certain ceremonies, which included fasting, abstinence from drinking,
and the production of hallucinations by means of a vegetable drug,
called pivat (still used, by the way, by some of the Indians of Southern
California), and the final branding of the neophyte, which Boscana
describes as follows: "A kind of herb was pounded until it became
sponge-like; this they placed, according to the figure required, upon
the spot intended to be burnt, which was generally upon the right arm,
and sometimes upon the thick part of the leg also. They then set fire to
it, and let it remain until all that was combustible was consumed.
Consequently, a large blister immediately formed, and although painful,
they used no remedy to cure it, but left it to heal itself; and thus, a
large and perpetual scar remained. The reason alleged for this ceremony
was that it added greater strength to the nerves, and gave a better
pulse for the management of the bow." This ceremony was called
_potense._

The education of the girls was by no means neglected.

"They were taught to remain at home, and not to roam about in
idleness; to be always employed in some domestic duty, so
that, when they were older, they might know how to work, and
attend to their household duties; such as procuring seeds,
and cleaning them--making 'atole' and 'pinole,' which are
kinds of gruel, and their daily food. When quite young, they
have a small, shallow basket, called by the natives 'tucmel,'
with which they learn the way to clean the seeds, and they
are also instructed in grinding, and preparing the same for
consumption."

When a girl was married, her father gave her good advice as to her
conduct. She must be faithful to her wifely duties and do nothing to
disgrace either her husband or her parents. Children of tender years
were sometimes betrothed by their parents. Padre Boscana says he married
a couple, the girl having been but eight or nine months old, and the boy
two years, when they were contracted for by their parents.

Childbirth was natural and easy with them, as it generally is with all
primitive peoples. An Indian woman has been known to give birth to a
child, walk half a mile to a stream, step into it and wash both herself
and the new-born babe, then return to her camp, put her child in a
_yakia_, or basket cradle-carrier, sling it over her back, and start on
a four or five mile journey, on foot, up the rocky and steep sides of
a canyon.

A singular custom prevailed among these people, not uncommon elsewhere.
The men, when their wives were suffering their accouchement, would
abstain from all flesh and fish, refrain from smoking and all
diversions, and stay within the _Kish_, or hut, from fifteen to
twenty days.

The god of the San Juan Indians was Chinigchinich, and it is possible,
from similarity in the ways of appearing and disappearing, that he is
the monster Tauguitch of the Sabobas and Cahuillas described in The
Legend of Tauguitch and Algoot.[3] This god was a queer compound of
goodness and evil, who taught them all the rites and ceremonies that
they afterwards observed.

[3] See Folk Lore Journal, 1904.

Many of the men and a few women posed as possessing supernatural
powers--witches, in fact, and such was the belief in their power that,
"without resistance, all immediately acquiesce in their demands." They
also had physicians who used cold water, plasters of herbs, whipping
with nettles (doubtless the principle of the counter irritant), the
smoke of certain plants, and incantations, with a great deal of general,
all-around humbug to produce their cures.

But not all the medicine ideas and methods of the Indians were to be
classed as humbug. Dr. Cephas L. Bard, who, besides extolling their
temescals, or sweat-baths, their surgical abilities, as displayed in the
operations that were performed upon skulls that have since been exhumed;
their hygienic customs, which he declares "are not only commendable, but
worthy of the consideration of an advanced civilization,"
states further:

"It has been reserved for the California Indian to furnish
three of the most valuable vegetable additions which have
been made to the Pharmacopoeia during the last twenty years.
One, the Eriodictyon Glutinosum, growing profusely in our
foothills, was used by them in affections of the respiratory
tract, and its worth was so appreciated by the Missionaries
as to be named Yerba Santa, or Holy Plant. The second, the
Rhamnus purshiana, gathered now for the market in the upper
portions of the State, is found scattered through the
timbered mountains of Southern California. It was used as a
laxative, and on account of the constipating effect of an
acorn diet, was doubtless in active demand. So highly was it
esteemed by the followers of the Cross that it was christened
Cascara Sagrada, or Sacred Bark. The third, Grindelia
robusta, was used in the treatment of pulmonary troubles, and
externally in poisoning from Rhus toxicodendron, or Poison
Oak, and in various skin diseases."

Their food was of the crudest and simplest character. Whatever they
could catch they ate, from deer or bear to grasshoppers, lizards, rats,
and snakes. In baskets of their own manufacture, they gathered all
kinds of wild seeds, and after using a rude process of threshing, they
winnowed them. They also gathered mesquite beans in large quantities,
burying them in pits for a month or two, in order to extract from them
certain disagreeable flavors, and then storing them in large and rudely
made willow granaries. But, as Dr. Bard well says:

"Of the Vegetable articles of diet the acorn was the
principal one. It was deprived of its bitter taste by
grinding, running through sieves made of interwoven grasses,
and frequent washings. Another one was Chia, the seeds of
Salvia Columbariae, which in appearance are somewhat similar
to birdseed. They were roasted, ground, and used as a food by
being mixed with water. Thus prepared, it soon develops into
a mucilaginous mass, larger than its original bulk. Its taste
is somewhat like that of linseed meal. It is exceedingly
nutritious, and was readily borne by the stomach when that
organ refused to tolerate other aliment. An atole, or gruel,
of this was one of the peace offerings to the first visiting
sailors. One tablespoonful of these seeds was sufficient to
sustain for twenty-four hours an Indian on a forced march.
Chia was no less prized by the native Californian, and at
this late date it frequently commands $6 or $8 a pound.

"The pinion, the fruit of the pine, was largely used, and
until now annual expeditions are made by the few surviving
members of the coast tribes to the mountains for a supply.
That they cultivated maize in certain localities, there can
be but little doubt. They intimated to Cabrillo by signs that
such was the case, and the supposition is confirmed by the
presence at various points of vestiges of irrigating ditches.
Yslay, the fruit of the wild cherry, was used as a food, and
prepared by fermentation as an intoxicant. The seeds, ground
and made into balls, were esteemed highly. The fruit of the
manzanita, the seeds of burr clover, malva, and alfileri,
were also used. Tunas, the fruit of the cactus, and wild
blackberries, existed in abundance, and were much relished. A
sugar was extracted from a certain reed of the tulares."

Acorns, seeds, mesquite beans, and dried meat were all pounded up in a
well made granite mortar, on the top of which, oftentimes, a basket
hopper was fixed by means of pine gum. Some of these mortars were hewn
from steatite, or soapstone, others from a rough basic rock, and many of
them were exceedingly well made and finely shaped; results requiring
much patience and no small artistic skill. Oftentimes these mortars were
made in the solid granite rocks or boulders, found near the harvesting
and winnowing places, and I have photographed many such during
late years.

These Indians were polygamists, but much of what the missionaries and
others have called their obscenities and vile conversations, were the
simple and unconscious utterances of men and women whose instincts were
not perverted. It is the invariable testimony of all careful observers
of every class that as a rule the aborigines were healthy, vigorous,
virile, and chaste, until they became demoralized by the whites. With
many of them certain ceremonies had a distinct flavor of sex worship: a
rude phallicism which exists to the present day. To the priests, as to
most modern observers, these rites were offensive and obscene, but to
the Indians they were only natural and simple prayers for the
fruitfulness of their wives and of the other producing forces.

J.S. Hittell says of the Indians of California:

"They had no religion, no conception of a deity, or of a
future life, no idols, no form of worship, no priests, no
philosophical conceptions, no historical traditions, no
proverbs, no mode of recording thought before the coming of
the missionaries among them."

Seldom has there been so much absolute misstatement as in this
quotation. Jeremiah Curtin, a life-long student of the Indian, speaking
of the same Indians, makes a remark which applies with force to these
statements:

"The Indian, _at every step_, stood face to face with
divinity as he knew or understood it. He could never escape
from the presence of those powers who had made the first
world.... The most important question of all in Indian life
was communication with divinity, intercourse with the spirits
of divine personages."

In his _Creation Myths of Primitive America_, this studious author gives
the names of a number of divinities, and the legends connected with
them. He affirms positively that

"the most striking thing in all savage belief is the low
estimate put upon man, when unaided by divine, uncreated
power. In Indian belief every object in the universe is
divine except man!"

As to their having no priests, no forms of worship, no philosophical
conceptions, no historical traditions, no proverbs, any one interested
in the Indian of to-day knows that these things are untrue. Whence came
all the myths and legends that recent writers have gathered, a score of
which I myself hold still unpublished in my notebook? Were they all
imagined after the arrival of the Mission Fathers? By no means! They
have been handed down for countless centuries, and they come to us,
perhaps a little corrupted, but still just as accurate as do the
songs of Homer.

Every tribe had its medicine men, who were developed by a most rigorous
series of tests; such as would dismay many a white man. As to their
philosophical conceptions and traditions, Curtin well says that in them

"we have a monument of thought which is absolutely
unequalled, altogether unique in human experience. The
special value of this thought lies, moreover, in the fact
that it is primitive; that it is the thought of ages long
anterior to those which we find recorded in the eastern
hemisphere, either in sacred books, in histories, or in
literature, whether preserved on baked brick, burnt
cylinders, or papyrus."

And if we go to the Pueblo Indians, the Navahos, the Pimas, and others,
all of whom were brought more or less under the influence of the
Franciscans, we find a mass of beliefs, deities, traditions,
conceptions, and proverbs, which would overpower Mr. Hittell merely
to collate.

Therefore, let it be distinctly understood that the Indian was not the
thoughtless, unimaginative, irreligious, brutal savage which he is too
often represented to be. He thought, and thought well, but still
originally. He was religious, profoundly and powerfully so, but in his
own way; he was a philosopher, but not according to Hittell; he was a
worshipper, but not after the method of Serra, Palou, and their priestly
coadjutors.



CHAPTER VII

THE INDIANS UNDER THE PADRES

The first consideration of the padres in dealing with the Indians was
the salvation of their souls. Of this no honest and honorable man can
hold any question. Serra and his coadjutors believed, without
equivocation or reserve, the doctrines of the Church. As one reads his
diary, his thought on this matter is transparent. In one place he thus
naively writes: "It seemed to me that they (the Indians) would fall
shortly into the apostolic and evangelic net."

This accomplished, the Indians must be kept Christians, educated and
civilized. Here is the crucial point. In reading criticisms upon the
Mission system of dealing with the Indians, one constantly meets with
such passages as the following: "The fatal defect of this whole Spanish
system was that no effort was made to educate the Indians, or teach them
to read, and think, and act for themselves."

To me this kind of criticism is both unjust and puerile. What is
education? What is civilization?

Expert opinions as to these matters vary considerably, and it is in the
very nature of men that they should vary. The Catholics had their ideas
and they sought to carry them out with care and fidelity. How far they
succeeded it is for the unprejudiced historians and philosophers of the
future to determine. Personally, I regard the education given by the
padres as eminently practical, even though I materially differ from them
as to some of the things they regarded as religious essentials. Yet in
honor it must be said that if I, or the Church to which I belong, or you
and the Church to which you belong, reader, had been in California in
those early days, your religious teaching or mine would have been
entitled, justly, to as much criticism and censure as have ever been
visited upon that of the padres. They did the best they knew, and, as I
shall soon show, they did wonderfully well, far better than the
enlightened government to which we belong has ever done. Certain
essentials stood out before them. These were, to see that the Indians
were baptized, taught the ritual of the Church, lived as nearly as
possible according to the rules laid down for them, attended the
services regularly, did their proper quota of work, were faithful
husbands and wives and dutiful children. Feeling that they were indeed
fathers of a race of children, the priests required obedience and work,
as the father of any well-regulated American household does. And as a
rule these "children," though occasionally rebellious, were
willingly obedient.

Under this regime it is unquestionably true that the lot of the Indians
was immeasurably improved from that of their aboriginal condition. They
were kept in a state of reasonable cleanliness, were well clothed, were
taught and required to do useful work, learned many new and helpful
arts, and were instructed in the elemental matters of the Catholic
faith. All these things were a direct advance.

It should not be overlooked, however, that the Spanish government
provided skilled laborers from Spain or Mexico, and paid their hire, for
the purpose of aiding the settlers in the various pueblos that were
established. Master mechanics, carpenters, blacksmiths, and stone masons
are mentioned in Governor Neve's Rules and Regulations, and it is
possible that some of the Indians were taught by these skilled artisans.
Under the guidance of the padres some of them were taught how to weave.
Cotton was both grown and imported, and all the processes of converting
it, and wool also, into cloth, were undertaken with skill and knowledge.

At San Juan Capistrano the swing and thud of the loom were constantly
heard, there having been at one time as many as forty weavers all
engaged at once in this useful occupation.

San Gabriel and San Luis Rey also had many expert weavers.

At all the Missions the girls and women, as well as the men, had their
share in the general education. They had always been seed gatherers,
grinders, and preparers of the food, and now they were taught the
civilized methods of doing these things. Many became tailors as well as
weavers; others learned to dye the made fabrics, as in the past they had
dyed their basketry splints; and still others--indeed nearly all--became
skilled in the delicate art of lace-making and drawn-work. They were
natural adepts at fine embroidery, as soon as the use of the needle and
colored threads was shown them, and some exquisite work is still
preserved that they accomplished in this field. As candy-makers they
soon became expert and manifested judicious taste.

To return to the men. Many of them became herders of cattle, horses and