ith a monthly correspondence,
or with any extraordinaries that may be necessary for government.

"All the missions in this California are under the charge of religious
men of the order of San Francisco. At the present time their number is
twenty-seven, most of them of an advanced age. Each mission has one of
these fathers for its administrator, and he holds absolute authority.
The tilling of the ground, the gathering of the harvest, the
slaughtering of cattle, the weaving, and everything that concerns the
mission, is under the direction of the fathers, without any other
person interfering in any way whatever, so that, if any one mission has
the good fortune to be superintended by an industrious and discreet
padre, the Indians disfrute in abundance all the real necessaries of
life; at the same time the nakedness and misery of any one mission are
a palpable proof of the inactivity of its director. The missions extend
their possessions from one extremity of the territory to the other, and
have made the limits of one mission from those of another. Though they
do not require all this land for their agriculture and the maintenance
of their stock, they have appropriated the whole; always strongly
opposing any individual who may wish to settle himself or his family on
any piece of land between them. But it is to be hoped that the new
system of illustration, and the necessity of augmenting private
properly, and the people of reason, will cause the government to take
such adequate measures as will conciliate the interests of all. Amongst
all the missions there are from twenty-one to twenty-two thousand
Catholic Indians; but each mission has not an equal or a proportionate
part in its congregation. Some have three or four thousand, whilst
others have scarcely four hundred; and at this difference may be
computed the riches of the missions in proportion. Besides the number
of Indians already spoken of, each mission has a considerable number of
gentiles, who live chiefly on farms annexed to the missions. The number
of these is undetermined.

"The Indians are naturally filthy and careless, and their understanding
is very limited. In the small arts they are not deficient in ideas of
imitation but they never will be inventors. Their true character is
that of being revengeful and timid, consequently they are very much
addicted to treachery. They have no knowledge of benefits received, and
ingratitude is common amongst them. The educatio