ion buildings it was necessary to bring to the sites chosen, beams
cut on mountains eight or ten leagues away, and to teach the Indians to
burn lime, cut stone, and make bricks.

"Around the mission," De Mofras continues, "are the huts of the
neophytes, and the dwellings of some white colonists. Besides the
central establishment, there exists, for a space of thirty or forty
leagues, accessory farms to the number of fifteen or twenty, and branch
chapels (chapelles succursales). Opposite the mission is a guard-house
for an escort, composed of four cavalry soldiers and a sergeant. These
act as messengers, carrying orders from one mission to another, and in
the earlier days of conquest repelled the savages who would sometimes
attack the settlement."

Of the daily life and routine of a mission, accounts of travelers enable
us to form a pretty vivid picture; and though doubtless changes of
detail might be marked in passing from place to place, the larger and
more essential features would be found common to all the establishments.

At sunrise the little community was already astir, and then the Angelus
summoned all to the church, where mass was said, and a short time given
to the religious instruction of the neophytes. Breakfast followed,
composed mainly of the staple dish atole, or pottage of roasted
barley. This finished, the Indians repaired in squads, each under the
supervision of its alcalde, to their various tasks in workshop and
field. Between eleven and twelve o'clock, a wholesome and sufficiently
generous midday meal was served out. At two, work was resumed. An hour
or so before sunset, the bell again tolled for the Angelus; evening
mass was performed; and after supper had been eaten, the day closed with
dance, or music, or some simple games of chance. Thus week by week,
and month by month, with monotonous regularity, life ran its unbroken
course; and what with the labours directly connected with the
management of the mission itself, the tending of sheep and cattle in the
neighboring ranches, and the care of the gardens and orchards upon which
the population was largely dependent for subsistence, there was plenty
to occupy the attention of the padres, and quite enough work to be done
by the Indians under their charge. But all this does not exhaust the
list of mission activities. For in course of time, as existence became
more settled, and the children of the early converts shot up into
boys and girls, various indust