animals was said to be so great, that they were given away to preserve the pasturage for cattle and sheep. This mission had about 70,000 sheep and 300 yoke of tame oxen :-San Antonio, in 1822, owned 52,800 head of cattle, 1,800 tame horses, 3,000 mares, 500 yoke of working oxen, 600 mules, 48,000 sheep, and 1,000 swine :-San Miguel, in 1821, owned 91,000 head of cattle, 1,100 tame horses, 3,000 mares, 2,000 mules, 170 yoke of

working oxen, and 47,000 sheep:-San Luis Obispo was reputed to have been one of the richest of the missions. At one time, it owned 87,000 head of grown cattle, 2,000 tame horses, 3,500 mares, 3,700 mules, and eight sheep farms, averaging 9,000 sheep to each farm. When its presiding priest, Luis Martinez, returned to Spain, he took with him $100,000 of mission property :La Purissima, so lately as 1830, had over 40,000 head of cattle, 300 yoke of working oxen, 2,600 tame horses, 4,000 mares, 30,000 sheep, and 5,000 swine :-Santa Inez, in 1820, possessed property valued at $800,000:-Santa Barbara, in 1828, had 40,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, 2,000 mares, 80 yoke of oxen, 600 mules, and 20,000 sheep:-San Buenaventura, in 1825, owned 37,000 head of cattle, 600 riding horses, 1,300

mares, 200 yoke of working oxen, 500 mules, 30,000 sheep, 200 goats, 2,000 swine, a thrifty orchard, two rich vineyards, $35,000 in foreign goods, $27,000 in specie, with church ornaments and clothing valued at $61,000:-San Fernando, in 1826, owned 56,000 head of cattle, 1,500 horses a mares, 200 mules, 400 yoke of working oxen, 64,000 sheep, and 2,000 swine. It had also in its stores about $50,000 in merchandise, and $90,000 in specie. Its vineyards yielded annually about 2,000 gallons of brandy, and as many of wine :-San Gabriel, in 1829, had 70,000 head of cattle, 1,200 horses, 3,000 mares, 400 mules, 120 yoke of working oxen, and 54,000 sheep. It made annually from four to six hundred barrels of wine, the sale of which produced an income of upwards of $12,000:-San Luis Rey, in 1826, had 70,000 head of cattle, 2,000 horses, 140 yoke of tame oxen, 300 mules, and 68,000 sheep :-San Juan Capistrano and San Diego were reputed to be among the most opulent of the missions, and their possessions were not inferior to those of the others named.

Let the reader contrast these statements with those of Mr. Forbes, and consider what havoc must have been produced among the missions in the short space of six or seven years. It was the impending secularization, or, in other words, the confiscation of their property, which seems to have produced this lamentable state of affairs, and made the Fathers quite careless in the management of their property. The large occasional grants, also, out of which the laity either wheedled or bullied the Fathers, mightily helped the disastrous result. The ravens had been long gathering round the carcass of the still breathing creature. In its last spasms, it recklessly threw aside all decorum, and thinking nothing of the future only endeavored to share in and for the moment enjoy its own spoils, along with the grasping and sacrilegious Mexican officials and their Californian favorites. Soon lands and stocks were all swept from the reach of the Fathers, the very Indian converts disappeared, and nothing was left but their huge empty churches, stripped of most of their valuable and gaudy ornaments, and fast crumbling into ruins. With the general disappearance of the stock of domestic cattle, those laymen who had acquired grants to the different parts of the mission. possessions now turned their attention more to tillage.

CHAPTER V.

Pious Fund of California-General description of the Missions-Patriarchal kind of life of the Fathers-Reflections on the subject-General description of the Presidios, Castillos, and their garrisons, and of the free Pueblos and Ranchos.

THE missions of Upper California were indebted for their beginning and chief success to the subscriptions which, as in the case of the missionary settlements of the lower province, were largely bestowed by the pious to promote so grand a work as turning a great country to the worship of the true God. Such subscriptions continued for a long period, both in Old and New Spain, and were regularly remitted to the City of Mexico, where they were formed into what was called "The Pious Fund of California." This fund was managed by the convent of San Fernando and other trustees in Mexico, and the proceeds, together with the annual salaries allowed by the Crown to the missionaries were transmitted to California. Meanwhile, the Spanish Court scarcely interfered with the temporal government of the country. It was true that some of the ordinary civil offices and establishments were kept up; but this was only in name, and on too small a scale to be of any practical importance. A commandantegeneral was appointed by the Crown to command the garrisons of the presidios, but as these were originally established solely to protect the missions from the dreaded violence of hostile Indians, and to lend them, when necessary, the carnal arm of offence, he was not allowed to interfere in the temporal rule of the Fathers. He resided at Monterey, and his annual salary was four thousand dollars.

In every sense of the word, then, these monks were practically the sovereign rulers of California-passing laws affecting not only property, but even life and death-declaring peace and war

against their Indian neighbors-regulating, receiving, and spending the finances at discretion-and, in addition, drawing large annual subsidies not only from the pious among the faithful over all Christendom, but even from the Spanish monarchy itself, almost as a tribute to their being a superior state. This surely was the golden age of the missions—a contented, peaceful, believing people, abundant wealth for all their wants, despotic will, and no responsibility but to their own consciences and heaven! Their horn was filled to overflowing; but soon an invisible and merciless hand seized it, and slowly and lingeringly, as if in malicious sport, turned it over, and spilled the nectar of their life upon the wastes of mankind, from whence it can never again be collected. The golden age of another race has now dawned, and with it the real prosperity of the country.

The missions were originally formed on the same general plan, and they were planted at such distances from each other as to allow abundant room for subsequent development. They were either established on the sea-coast, or a few miles inland. Twenty or thirty miles indeed seems all the distance the missionaries had proceeded into the interior; beyond which narrow belt the country was unexplored and unknown. Each mission had a considerable piece of the best land in the neighborhood set aside for its agricultural and pastoral purposes, which was commonly about fifteen miles square. But besides this selected territory, there was generally much more vacant land lying between the boundaries of the missions, and which, as the increase of their stocks required more space for grazing, was gradually occupied by the flocks and herds of the Fathers, nearest to whose mission lay the previously unoccupied district. Over these bounds the Fathers conducted all the operations of a gigantic farm. Their cattle generally numbered from ten thousand to twenty thousand, and their sheep were nearly as numerous-though some missions had upwards of thrice these numbers-which fed over perhaps a hundred thousand acres of fertile land.

Near the centre of such farms were placed the mission buildings. These consisted of the church-which was either built of stone, if that material could be procured in the vicinity, or of adobes, which are bricks dried in the sun, and was as substantial,

large, and richly decorated an erection as the means of the mission would permit, or the skill and strength of their servants could In the interior, pictures and hangings decorated the

construct.

walls; while the altars were ornamented with marble pillars of various colors, and upon and near them stood various articles of massy gold and silver plate. A profusion of gilding and tawdry sparkling objects caught and pleased the eye of the simple congregations. Around, or beside the church, and often in the form of a square, were grouped the habitations of the Fathers and their household servants, and the various granaries and workshops of the people; while, at the distance of one or two hundred yards, stood the huts of the Indians. The former buildings were constructed of adobes, and covered with brick tiles, frail and miserable materials at the best. The huts of the Indians were occasionally made of the same materials, but more commonly were formed only of a few rough poles, stuck in the ground with the points bending towards the centre like a cone, and were covered with reeds and grass. An adobe wall of considerable height sometimes inclosed the whole village. The direction of the affairs of the settlement was in the hands of one of the Fathers,