But first let us see what the brave Spanish pioneers did for California.
We will begin with the missionaries. To them we owe the conversion of
the heathen and savage Indians, which work was super-human in itself,
and which contrary to the statements of libelers, the fathers
accomplished with heroic patience and charity, teaching the Indians
besides religion, useful trades, civilizing them, and taking such
conscientious care of them that they made a nightly round of their
quarters, not with whip in hand to punish imaginary misdemeanor, but to
see that the spiritual and temporal welfare of their converts and
neophytes, was guarded, and so great was the attachment of the Indians
to the fathers that if a father was called on business from one mission
to another, the Indians would follow him a long distance weeping. Very
few of the Indians were taught the art of reading, not because the
fathers were in any way unwilling to teach it, but because for this one
art most of the Indians showed no desire or willingness to learn, yet
this has given the ever ready, unscrupulous writer food for saying that
"the fathers endeavored to keep the Indians in ignorance" and the
healthy rule of the fathers with its hours of prayer, labor, instruction
and recreation for the Indian families in the mission quarters, has been
distorted by erroneous histories, and statements have been made by some
writers to the effect that "the Indians were treated harshly and
oppressed.
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