. To California and back;. ahard burnt brick that even now will turn the edge ofthe finest trowel. The labor of their constructionwas appalling. Brick had to be burnt, stone quar-ried and dressed, and huge timbers for raftersbrought on mens shoulders from the mountain for-ests, sometimes thirty miles distant, through rockycanons and over trackless hills. The Indians per-formed most of this labor, under direction of thefathers. These Indians were tractable, as a , or twice at most, they rose against theirmasters, but the policy of the padres was kind-ness and forgiveness, although it m
. To California and back;. ahard burnt brick that even now will turn the edge ofthe finest trowel. The labor of their constructionwas appalling. Brick had to be burnt, stone quar-ried and dressed, and huge timbers for raftersbrought on mens shoulders from the mountain for-ests, sometimes thirty miles distant, through rockycanons and over trackless hills. The Indians per-formed most of this labor, under direction of thefathers. These Indians were tractable, as a , or twice at most, they rose against theirmasters, but the policy of the padres was kind-ness and forgiveness, although it must be inferredthat the condition of the Indians over whom theyclaimed spiritual and temporal authority was a formof slavery, without all the cruelties that usually pertainto enforced servitude. They were the bondsmen ofthe padres, whose aim wjs to convert them to Chris-tianity and civilization, and many thousands of themwere persuaded to cluster around the missions, theirdaughters becoming neophytes in the convents, and72. the others contributing their labor to the erection ofthe enormous structures that occupied many acres ofground, and to the industries of agriculture, cattle-raising, and a variety of manufactures. There were,after the primitive fashion of the time, woolen mills,wood working and blacksmith shops, and such othermanufactories as were practicable in the existingstate of the arts, which could be made mission properties soon became enormouslyvaluable, their yearly revenues sometimes amountingto $2,000,000. The exportation of hides was oneof the most important items, and-merchant-vcsselsfrom our own Atlantic seaboard, from England andfrom Spain, sailed to the California coast for car-goes of that commodity. Danas romantic anduniversally read Two Years Before the Mast isthe record of such a voyage. He visited Californiamore than half a century ago, and found its quaintSpanish-Indian life full of the picturesque and ro-mantic. The padres invariably se
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Keywords: ., boo, bookauthorhigginscacharlesa, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
