File:The Open court (1887) (14779958564).jpg

Identifier: opencourt11_1897caru (find matches)
Title: The Open court
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Carus, Paul, 1852-1919
Subjects: Religion
Publisher: Chicago : The Open Court Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: The Newberry Library
Digitizing Sponsor: CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

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permit-ted the friars to accompany the first colonising expedition underPortalla in 1769. Even had the expressed policy of Spain beencarried out, which was that each settler should have lands, thatthe inherent rights of the Indians should not be disturbed, andthat the missions should be reduced to towns after ten years ex-istence, the country would have become thickly populated withina comparatively short time, and might be now the home of Span-ish-speaking people. Gold and silver was found in the dry beds of streams and inthe foothills as early as 1836, but the friars warned the peopleagainst digging for the precious metal, telling the simple-mindedMexicans that adventurers would flock into the country and dis-possess them of both gold and their lands. This is exactly whatdid happen a decade later. There are left only about 5,000 Indians now. They live ontheir ranches, in brush huts, near the missions, having been dis-possessed of their lands. A small number cultivate crops, but the
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6l2 THE OPEN COURT. majority move from place to place, working on the farms of thepaleface. There are several schools for Indians in this State, Govern-ment and private, and the Indian pupils show a remarkable apti-tude in study and a high degree of intelligence, capable of furtherdevelopment. In order to defend their own conduct in holding the Indiansin slavery for so many years the priests have misrepresented thephysical and mental condition of the aborigines. They uniformlyreport that the California Indians, when the missions were estab-lished, were the lowest in the scale of humanity—inferior to theAustralian Bushmen. Because the California Indian eats herbsand wild fruits, which his native land furnished in abundance, itdoes not follow that he was irredeemably sunk in sloth and idle-ness. He built huts of tules, because the mild climate did not de-mand anything more substantial, and he wore very little clothingbecause it was the fashion of his race, and furthermore the climatep

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