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011 - Chapter 11 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of the Famous Missions of California. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by matthew Reys, Cordova, Illinois. The Famous Missions of
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  Speaker 1: California by William Henry Hudson, Chapter eleven. The California Missions,
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  Speaker 1: though greatly varying of course in regard to size and economy,
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  Speaker 1: were constructed upon the same general plan, in the striking
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  Speaker 1: and beautiful style of architecture roughly known as Moorish, which
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  Speaker 1: the fathers transplanted from Spain, but which rather seems, by
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  Speaker 1: reason of its singular appropriateness, a native growth of the
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  Speaker 1: new soil. The edifices, which now, whether in ruins or
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  Speaker 1: in restoration, still testify to the skill and energy of
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  Speaker 1: their pious designers, were in all cases later, in most
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  Speaker 1: cases much later than the settlements themselves. At the outset,
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  Speaker 1: a few rude buildings of wood or adobe were deemed
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  Speaker 1: sufficient for the temporary accommodation of priests and converts and
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  Speaker 1: the celebration of religious services. Then, little by little, substantial
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  Speaker 1: structures in brick or stone took the place of these,
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  Speaker 1: and what we now think of as the mission came
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  Speaker 1: into being. The best account left us of the mission
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  Speaker 1: establishment in its palmy days is that given by De
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  Speaker 1: Mofras in his careful record of travel and exploring along
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific coast, and often quoted. As this has been,
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  Speaker 1: we still cannot do better here than to translate some
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  Speaker 1: portions of it anew. The observant Frenchman wrote with his
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  Speaker 1: eye mainly upon what was perhaps the most completely typical
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  Speaker 1: of all the missions, that of San Luis Ray. But
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  Speaker 1: his description, though containing a number of merely local particulars,
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  Speaker 1: was intended to be general, and for this reason may
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  Speaker 1: the more properly be reproduced in this place. The edifice,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, isa and about one hundred fifty meters long.
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  Speaker 1: In front the church occupies one of the wings. The
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  Speaker 1: facade is ornamented with a gallery or arcade. The building,
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  Speaker 1: a single story in height, is generally raised some feet
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  Speaker 1: above the ground. The interior forms a court adorned with
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  Speaker 1: flowers and planted with trees. Opening on the gallery, which
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  Speaker 1: runs round it are the rooms of the monks, major domos,
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  Speaker 1: and travelers, as well as the workshops, school rooms, and
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  Speaker 1: storehouses hospitals for men and women are situated in the
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  Speaker 1: quietest parts of the mission, where also are placed the
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  Speaker 1: school rooms. The young Indian girls occupy apartments called the
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  Speaker 1: monastery El Muhirio, and they themselves are styled nuns las moujas.
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  Speaker 1: Placed under the care of trustworthy Indian women, they are
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  Speaker 1: there taught to spin wool, flax and cotton, and do
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  Speaker 1: not leave their seclusion till they are old enough to
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  Speaker 1: be married. The Indian children attend the same school as
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  Speaker 1: the children of the white colonists. A certain number of them,
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  Speaker 1: chosen from those who exhibit most intelligence, are taught music,
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  Speaker 1: plain chant, violin flute, horn, violin cello, and other instruments.
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  Speaker 1: Those who distinguish themselves in the carpenter's shop, at the
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  Speaker 1: forge or in the field are termed alcaldes or chiefs,
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  Speaker 1: and given charge of a band of workmen. The management
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  Speaker 1: of each mission is composed of two monks. The elder
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  Speaker 1: looks after internal administration and religious instruction. The younger has
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  Speaker 1: direction of agricultural work for the sake of order and morals.
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  Speaker 1: Whites are employed only where strictly necessary for the fathers
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  Speaker 1: know their influence to be altogether harmful, and that they
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  Speaker 1: lead the Indians to gambling and drunkenness, to which vices
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  Speaker 1: they are already too prone. To encourage the natives in
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  Speaker 1: their tasks. The fathers themselves often lend a hand, and
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  Speaker 1: everywhere furnish an example of industry necessity has made them industrious.
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  Speaker 1: One is struck with astonishment on observing that with such
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  Speaker 1: meager resources, often without European workmen or any skilled help,
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  Speaker 1: but with the assistance only of savages, always unintelligent and
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  Speaker 1: often hostile, they have yet succeeded in executing such works
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  Speaker 1: of architecture and engineering as mills, machinery, bridges, roads and
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  Speaker 1: canals for irrigation. For the erection of nearly all the
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  Speaker 1: mission buildings, it was necessary to bring to the sites
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  Speaker 1: chosen beams cut on mountains eight or ten leagues away,
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  Speaker 1: and to teach the Indians to burn lime, cut stone,
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  Speaker 1: and make bricks. Around the mission, De Mafraus continues are
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  Speaker 1: the huts of the neophytes and the dwellings of some
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  Speaker 1: white colonists. Besides the central establishment, there exists, for a
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  Speaker 1: space of thirty or forty leagues accessory farms to the
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  Speaker 1: number of fifteen or twenty and Branch Chapels Chapelle Sucersales.
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  Speaker 1: Opposite the mission is a guard house for an escort,
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  Speaker 1: composed of four cavalry soldiers and a sergeant. These act
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  Speaker 1: as messengers, carrying orders from one mission to another, and
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  Speaker 1: in the earlier days of conquest, repelled the savages who
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  Speaker 1: would sometimes attack the settlement of the daily life and
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  Speaker 1: routine of a mission. Accounts of travelers enable us to
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  Speaker 1: form a pretty vivid picture, and though doubtless changes of
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  Speaker 1: detail might be marked in passing from place to place,
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  Speaker 1: the larger and more essential features would be found common
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  Speaker 1: to all the establishments. At sunrise, the little community was
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  Speaker 1: already astir, and then the Angelus summoned all to the church,
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  Speaker 1: where the Mass was said and a short time given
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  Speaker 1: to the religious instruction of the neophytes. Breakfast followed, composed
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  Speaker 1: mainly of the staple, dish atole or pottage of roasted barley.
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  Speaker 1: This finished, the Indians repaired in squads, each under the
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  Speaker 1: supervision of its alcalde, to their various tasks in workshop
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  Speaker 1: and field. Between eleven and twelve o'clock, a wholesome and
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  Speaker 1: sufficiently generous midday meal was served out at two, work
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  Speaker 1: was resumed. An hour or so before sunset, the bell
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  Speaker 1: again tolled for the Angelus. Evening mass was performed, and
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  Speaker 1: after supper had been eaten, the day closed with dance
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  Speaker 1: or music, or some symbol games of chance. Thus, week
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  Speaker 1: by week and month by month, with monotonous regularity, life
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  Speaker 1: ran its unbroken course. And what with the labors directly
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  Speaker 1: connected with the management of the mission itself, the tending
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  Speaker 1: of sheep and cattle in the neighboring ranches, and the
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  Speaker 1: care of the gardens and orchards upon which the population
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  Speaker 1: was largely dependent for subsistence, there was plenty to occupy
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  Speaker 1: the attention of the padres, and quite enough work to
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  Speaker 1: be done by the Indians under their charge. But all
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  Speaker 1: this does not exhaust the list of mission activities. For
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  Speaker 1: in course of time, as existence became more settled and
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  Speaker 1: the children of the early converts shot up into boys
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  Speaker 1: and girls, various industries were added to such first necessary occupations,
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  Speaker 1: and the natives were taught to work at the forge
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  Speaker 1: and the bench, to make saddles and shoes, to weave
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  Speaker 1: and cut and sew. In these and similar acts, many
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  Speaker 1: of them acquired considerable proficiency. It is pleasant enough to
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  Speaker 1: look back upon such a busy yet placid life. But
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  Speaker 1: while we may justly acknowledge its antique pastoral charm, we
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  Speaker 1: must guard ourselves against the temptation to idealization. Beautiful in
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  Speaker 1: many respects it must have been, but its shadows were
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  Speaker 1: long and deep. According to the first principles adopted by
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  Speaker 1: the missionaries, the domesticated Indians were held down rigorously in
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  Speaker 1: a condition of servile dependence and subjection. They were, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: as one of the early travelers in California put it,
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  Speaker 1: slaves under another name, slaves to the cast iron power
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  Speaker 1: of a system which, like all systems, was capable of
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  Speaker 1: unlimited abuse, and which at the very best was narrow
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  Speaker 1: and arbitrary. Every vestige of freedom was taken from them
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  Speaker 1: when they entered or were brought into the settlement. Henceforth,
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  Speaker 1: they belonged body and soul to the mission and its authority.
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  Speaker 1: Their tasks were assigned to them, their movements controlled, the
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  Speaker 1: details of their daily doings dictated by those who were,
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  Speaker 1: to all intents and purposes their absolute masters. And corporal
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  Speaker 1: punishment was visited freely, not only upon those who were
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  Speaker 1: guilty of actual misdemeanor, but also upon such as failed
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  Speaker 1: in attendance at church, or when there did not conduct
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  Speaker 1: themselves properly. From time to time, some unusually turbulent spirit
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  Speaker 1: would rise against such paternal despotism and break away to
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  Speaker 1: his old savage life. But these cases, we are told,
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  Speaker 1: were of rare occurrence. The California Indians were for the
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  Speaker 1: most part indolent, apathetic, and of low intelligence, and as
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  Speaker 1: under domestication, they were clothed, housed, and fed, while the
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  Speaker 1: labor demanded from them was rarely excessive. They were wont
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  Speaker 1: as a rule to accept the change from the hardships
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  Speaker 1: of their former rough existence to the comparative comfort of
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  Speaker 1: the man, if not exactly in a spirit of gratitude
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  Speaker 1: at any rate, with a certain brutal contentment. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. Recording by Matthew Reese, Cordova, Illinois,