" Whereas under what nation were Indians or unenlightened
natives christianized, allowed to remain in their lands or treated with
more humanity than under Spain or her missionaries, wherever they
explored and wherever they went?
"Harsh, oppressive, endeavoring to keep the Indians in ignorance," if
such actions mean all that these saintly missionaries accomplished, if
they mean their leaving refinement, christianity, fond home and kindred
in distant Spain to brave untold hardships, nay, martyrdom, to rescue
souls from paganism, and if such conduct as "harshness, oppression,
endeavoring to keep the Indians in ignorance" could be compatible with
the practice of heroic virtue and acts of mortification of mind and body
which to the spiritual man or woman appear beyond words of admiration,
to the scoffer and frivolous (but for this latter class we are not
writing) foolish and impossible. The missions too, with their honest
wealth and industry were California's first centers of enlightenment and
refinement. The Spanish missionaries were scholars as well as religious,
and their institutions were California's cradles of literature, music
and learning hand in hand with religion.
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