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352              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
AN ACCOUNT
OF
THE ABORIGINAL INHtABITANTS
OF
TEE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA,
AS GIVEN BY
JACOB BAEGERT, A GERMAN JESUIT MISSIONARY, WHO LIVED THERE SEVENTEEN
YEARS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CENTURY.
TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED FOR THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BY CHARLES RAU, OF NEW YORK CITY.
INTRODUCTION.
WHEN, in 176.7, by a decree of Charles III, all members of the order of the
Jesuits were banished from Spain and the transatlantic provinces subject to that
realm, those Jesuits who superintended the missions established by the Spaniards
since 1697 in Lower California were compelled to leave their Indian converts, and
to transfer their spiritual authority to a number of fiiars of the Franciscan order.
One of the banished Jesuits, a German, who had spent seventeen years in the
Californian peninsula, published, after his return t'o his native country, a book
which contains a description of that remote part of the Americafi continent, and
gives also quite a detailed account of its aboriginal inhabitants, with whom the
author had become thoroughly acquainted during the many years devoted to
their conversion to Christianity. This book, which. is now very scarce in
Germany, and, of course, still more so in this country, bears the title: Account
of the American Peninsula of Calfiornia; with a twofold Appendix of False
Reports.  TVTritten by a Priest of the Society of- Jesus, who lived there many
years past. Published with the Permission of my Superiors. Mannheim, 1773.*
Mlodesty, or perhaps other motives, induced the author to remain anonymous,
but with little success; for his name, which was Jacob Baegert, is sometimes
met with in old catalogues, in connexion with the title of his book. That his
home was on the Upper Rhine he states himself in the text, but further particulars relative to his private affairs, before or after his missionary labors in
California, have not come to my knowledge. He does not even mention over
which of the fifteen missions existing at his time on the peninsula he presided,
but merely says that he had lived in California under the twenty-fifth degree,
and twelve leagues distant from the Pacific coast, opposite the little bay of St.
Magdalen. On the map accompanying his work there are two missionary stations marked under that latitude-the mission of St. Aloysius and that of the
* Nachrichtehn -on der Amerlkanischen HIalbinsel Californien: mit einem zweyfachen
Anlhang Falseher Nachrichten. Geschrieben von einem Priester der Gesellschaft Jesu,
welcher lang darinn diese letztere Jahr gelebet hat. Mit Erlaubnuss der Oberen. Mannheim, 1773.




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.
Seven Dolors, (Septem Dolorum,) of which the first named evident!~ was his
place of residence.
The work in question constitutes a small octavo volume of 358 pages, and is
divided into three parts. The first division (of which I will give a short
synopsis in this introduction) treats of the topography, physical geography,
geology, and natural history of the peninsula; the second part gives an account
of the inhabitants, and the third embraces a short but interesting history of the
missions in Lower California. In the appendices to the work the author refutes
certain exaggerated reports that had been published concerning the Californian
peninsula, and he is particularly very severe upon Venegas' "Noticia de la
California," (Madrid, 1757, 3 vols.,) a work which is also translated into the
English, French, and German languages. He accuses the Spanish author of
having given by far too favorable, and, in many instances, utterly false
accounts of the country, its productions and inhabitants, which is ratlher a
noticeable circumstance, since Venegas is considered as an authority in matter4
relating to the ethnology of California.
While reading the work of the German missionary, I was struck with the
amount of ethnological information contained in it, especially in the second
part, which is exclusively devoted to the aboriginal inhabitants, as stated
before; and upon conversing on the subject with some friends, members of the
American Ethnological Society, they advised me to translate for publication if
not the whole book, at least that part of it which relates to the native population, of which we know, comparatively, perhaps less than of any other portion
of the indigenous race of North America. As there is a growing taste for the
study of ethnology manifested in this country, and, consequently, a tendency
prevailing to collect all materials illustrating the former condition of the American aborigines in different parts of the continent, I complied with the request
of my friends, and devoted my hours of leisure to the preparation of this little
work, supposing that the account of a man who lived among those Californians
a century ago, when their original state had been but little changed by intercourse with Europeans, might be an acceptable addition to our stock of
ethnological knowledge.
I have to state, however, that the following pages are not a translation in
the strict sense of the word, but a reproduction of the work only as far as it,
refers to ethnological matters. The reasons which induced me thus to deviate
from the usual course of a translator are obvious; for even that portion of the
text which treats of the native race contains many things that are not in the
least connected with ethnology, the good father being somewhat garrulous and
rather fond of moralizing and enlarging upon religious matters, as raight be.
expected from one of his calling; and, although he places the natives of the
peninsula exceedingly low in the scale of human development, he takes, nevertheless, occasion to draw comparisons between their barbaric simplicity auld t1le
over-refined habits of the Europeans, much in the manner of Tacitus, who seizes
upol every opportunity to rebuke the luxury and extravagance of bis counntrymen, While he describes the rude sylvan life of the ancient inhabit;ants of Germany. 3Iy object being simply to rescue fiom oblivion a nuimber of' icts
relating to a portion of the American race, I have omitted all superfluous com1
mentaries indulged in by the author, and, in order to bring kindred nsubjects
under common heads, I have now and thenL used some freedom in the airranl,',ment of the matter, which is not always properly linked in the original.
Although the second part of the book has chiefly furnished the mafterial for
this reproduction, I have transferred to the English text, and inserted in the
proper places, all those passages in the other divisions, and even in tie two
appendices that have a bearing upon etlhnology, giving thus unity and completeness to the subject, which induced me to prepare these pages. For thle
rest I have preserved, so far as feasible, tlhel iaigua-g  of the author.. Not
23 s




354                THE  ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
much can be said, hlowever, in favor of the style exhibited in the original, and
even the spelling6 of the words defies all rules of orthography, which were
adopted a ce(ntu:y ago in the German language; nor is our father unaware of
his deliciencies, but honestly states in his preface that " if his style was none
of the smoothest, and his orthography incorrect in some places, the reader
might consider that during the seventeen years of his sojourn in California,
comprising the l)eriod from  1751 to 1768, he hardly ever had conversed in
German, and, consequently, almost forgotten the use of his mother language."
0' the peninsula Father Baegert gives a rather woeful account.  lie describes
that region as an arid, mountainous country, covered with rocks and sand,
deficient in water, and almost witlout shade-trees, but abounding in thorny
plants and shrubs of various kinds.  The sterility of the soil is caused by the
scantiness of water.  " No one," says the author, " need be afraid to drown
himself in water; but the danger of dying fi'om thirst is much greater."  There
~alls some rain, accompanied by short thunder-storms, during the months of
July, August, September, and October, filling the channels worn in the hard
ground.  Some of these soon become dry after the showers; others, however,
hold water during, the whole year, and on these and the stagnant water collected in pools and ponds men and beasts have to rely for drink.  Of running
waters, deserving the name of brooks, there are but six in the country, and of
these six only four reach the sea, while the others lose themselves not very far
fiorm their sources among rocks and sand.'T'here is nothing to be seen in
Lower  California that maly be called a wood; only a few straggling oaks,
pines, and some otlher kinds of trees unknown in Europe, are met with, and
these are confined to certain localities.  Shade and material for the carpenter
are, therefore, very scarce. lThe only tree of any consequence is the so-called
mesquite; but besides that it always grows quite isolated, and never in groups,
the trunk is very low, and the wood so hard that it almost defies the application of iron tools.  The author mentions, further, a kind of low Brazil wood,.a
tree called paloblanco, the bark of which serves for tanning; the palohierro or
iron-wood, which is still Larder than the mesquite; wild fig trees that bear no
fruit; wild willows and barren palms, "all of which would be asliamed to
appear beside a European oak or nut-tree." One little tree yields an odoriferous
gum that was used in the Californian churches as frankincense.  But in compensation for the absence of large trees, there is a prodigious abundance of
prickly plants, some of a gigantic height, but of little practical use, their soft,
spongy stems soon rotting after being cut.  Among the indigenous edible productiois of the vegetable kingdom  are chiefly mentioned the tunas or Indian
figs, the alo'i, and the pitahayas, of which the latter d6serve a special notice
as forming an important article of food of the Indians.  There are two kinds
of this firuit —the sweet and the sour pitahaya.  The former is round, as large
as a llen's eg-g, and has a green, thick, prickly shell that covers a red or white
flesh, in which the black seeds are scattered like grains of powder.  It is
described as being sweet, but not of a vei'y agreeable taste without the addition
of lemon juice and sugar.  There is no scarcity of shrubs bearing this fruit,
and from some it can be gathered by hundreds.  They become mature'in the
middle of June, and continue for more than eight weeks.  The sour pitahaya,
which grows on low, creeping bushes, bristling with long, spines, is much
larger than the other kind, of excellent taste, but by far less.abundant; for,.although the shrubs are very plentiful, there is hardly one among a hundred
that belrs fi'uit.  Of the alo  or miescale, as the Spaniards and Mexicans call
it, the fibres are used by the aborigines, in lieu of hemp, for making threads
and strirngs, and its fi'uit is eaten by them.
A very curious portion of the book is that which treats of the animals found
in Califlornia.  The author is evidently not much of a naturalist, and, in classifyhlg, animials, he manifests occasionally a sovereign independence that would




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                       355
shock the feelings of a Blumenbach or Agassiz; yet his remarks, resulting from
actual observation, are for the most part correct, and evince undeniably his
love of truth.  In the list of wild quadrupeds are enumerated the deer, hare,
rabbit, fox, coyote, wild cat, skunk, (Sorillo,) leopard, (American panther,)
oiiza, and wild ram. In reference to the last-named animal the author remarks:
"Where the chain of mountains that runs lengthwise through the whole peninsula reaches a considerable height, there are found animals resembling our
rains in all respects, except the horns, which are thicker, longer, and much
more curved.  When pursued, these animals will drop themselves fiom  the
highest precipices upon their horns without receiving any injury.  Their number, however, cannot be great, for I never saw a living specimen, nor the fur
of one in the possession of an Indian; but many skins of leopards and onzas."
This animal is doubtless identical with the Rocky Miountain sheep, (Ot:is
7montana.)
T'I'he feathered tribe does not seem to be very plentiful in California, since,
according to Father Baegert, a person may travel one or two days without seeing other birds but occasionlally a filthy vulture, raven, or "bat."  Among the few
which he observed are the red-bird, (cardinal) blue-bird, huminrilg-bird, and
an "ash-colored bird with a tail resembling that of a peacock iand a beautiful
tuft on its head;" also wild ducks and a species of swallow, the latter appearing only now and then in small numbers, and therefore considered as extraneous.
There are some small fish fbund in the waters of California; but they do not
amount to much, and during lent the father obtained his supply fiomz the
Pacific, distant 12 leagues from his habitation.  On the other days of abstinence
hbis meal usually consisted of a "little goat-milk and dry beans, and if a few
eggs were added, he cared for nothing else, but considered himself well entertained."
Under the comprehensive, but not very scientific head of " vermin," the author
enumerates snakes, scorpions, centipedes, huge spiders, toads, wasps, bats, ants,
and grasshoppers.  These vermin seem to have been a great annoyance to the
good missionary, especially the snakes, of which there are about twenty different kinds in California, the rattlesnake being, of course, the most conspicuous
among them.  This dangerous reptile, which seems to be very numerous in that
region, is minutely and correctly described, and, as might be expected, there
are also some "snake stories" related.  One day when the author was about
to shave and took his razors fiom the upper board of his book-shelf, he discovered there, to his horror, a rattlesnake of large size. He received. likewise in
his new dwelling-house, which was a stone building, frequent visits from scorpions, large centipedes, tarantulas, ants and toads, all precautions being unavailing against the intrusion of these uninvited guests.  The grasshoppers are represented as a real public calamity.  3Migrating from the southern part of the
peninsula towards the north, they deluge the country, obscuring the sun by
their numbers, and causing' a noise that resembles a strong wind. Never deviating from their line of march, they will climb houses and churches encountered
during their progress, laying waste all fields and gardens over which their pernicious train passes.
Of the climate in California the author speaks well, and considers it as both
healthy and agreeable. Being only one degree and a half distant from  the
Tropic of Cancer, he lived, of course, in a hot region, and he remarks with reference to the high temperature that some thought the name " California" was
a contraction from the Latin words calida fornax, (hot oven,) without vouching,
however, for the correctness of the derivation, though he is certain that the appellation is not of Indian origin. The greatest heat begins in the month of
July and lasts till the middle of October; but there is every day in the year
quite a refreshing wind blowing, which begins at noon, if not sooner, and continues till night. The principal winds are north west and south west; the north




35 G              THE  ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
windl blows only now and then during the winter months, but the east wind
hardly ever, the litter circumstance being somewhat surprising to the author,
who observed that the clouds are almost invariably moving from the east.  He
never found thle cold severer than during the latter part of September or April
on the banks of the lIthine, where, after his return, the persevering coldness of
winter and clouded atmosphere during that period made him long for the mild
temperature and always blue and serene sky of the country he had left.  Fogs
in the morning- are frequent in California, and occur not only during fall and
winter, but also sometimes in the hot season.  Dew is said to be not more fiequent nor heavier than in middle Europe.
Tho'logh the author represents California as a dry,,sterile country, where but
little rain falls, lie admits that in those isolated parts where the proximity of
water imparts humidity, the soil exhibits an astonishing fertility.  "There," he
says, " one may plant what he chooses, and it will thrive; there the earth yields
fruit a hundred-fold, as in the best countries of Europe, producing wheat and
maize, rice, pumpkins, water-and other melons of twenty pounds' weight, cotton, lemons, oranges, plantains, pomegranates, excellent sweet grapes, olives
and figs, of which the latter can be gathered twice in a summer.  The. same
field yields a double or threefold hlarvest of maize, that grows to prodigious
height, and bears sometimes twelve ears on one stalk.  I have seen vines in
California that produced in the second year a medium  sized basket full of
grapes; in the third or fourth year some are as thick as an arm, and shoot forth,
in one season, eight and more branches of six feet length.  It is only to be regretted that such humid places are of very rare occurrence, and that water for
irrigating a certain piece of land sometimes cannot be found within a distance
of sixty leagues."
In the last chapter of the first part the author gives an account of the pearl
fisheries anld silver mines carried on in Lower California while he was there.
Both kinds of enterprise are represented as insignificant and by no means very
profitable.  "Every summer," lie says, "eight, ten or twelve poor Spaniards
ifom Sonora, Cinaloa or other parts opposite the peninsula, cross the Gulf'in
little boats, and encamp on the California shore for the purpose of obtaining
pearls.  They carry with them  a: supply of Indian corn and some hundred
vweight of dried beef, and are accompanied by a number of M[exican Indians,
who serve as pearl fishers, for the Californians themselves have hitherto shown
io inclination to risk their lives for a few yards of cloth.  T'lhe pearl fishers
are let down into the sea by ropes, being provided with a bag for receiving the
pearl oysters which they rake from the rocks and the bottom, and when they
can no longer hold their breath, they are pulled up again with their treasure.
The oysters, without beinrg opeced, are counted, and every fifth one is put aside
for the king.  Most of them are empty; some contain black, others white pearls,
the latter being usually small and ill-shaped.  If a Spaniard, after six or
eight weeks of hard labor, and after deducting all expenses, has gained a hundred American pesos (that is 500 French livres, or a little more than 200 lRhenish florins —  e cry small sum itn America!) lie thinks lie has made a little fortune which he cannot realize every season.  God knows whether the fifth part
of the pearls fished in the Californian sea yields, on an average, to the Catholic king 150 or 200 pesos in a year., even if no frauds are committed in the
transaction.  I lheadl of only two individuals, with whom I was also personally
acquainted, who had accumulated some wealth, after spending twenty and more
years in- that line of business.  The others remained poor wretches, with all
their pearl fishing."
Tlhere were but two silver mines of any note in operation at the time of
Baegert's sojourn in California, and those had been'opened only a few years
previous to his arrival.  They were situated in the districts of St. Anna and
St. Antonio, near the'southern end of the peninsula,  and only three leagues




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                     357
distant from each other. Digging for silver in California is not represented as
a lucrative business, the owner of one of the mines being so poor that he had
to beg for his travelling money when he was about to return to Spain. The
proprietor of the other mine was in better circumstances, but le owed his wealth
more to other speculations than to his subterranean pursuits. The mining
population in the two districts amounted to 400 souls, women and children included, and the workmen were either Spaniards born in America, or Indians
firom the other side of the Californian gulf. The external condition of these
people is represented as wretched in the highest degree. The soil produced
almost nothing, and not having the necessary money to procure provisions fiom
the M3exican side, they were sometimes compelled to gather their food in the
fields, like the native Californians. The author speaks of a locality between
the twenty-eighth: and twenty-ninth degree, called Rosario, where some supposed gold to exist, but even admitting the fact, he thinks it would be almost
impossible to work mines in that region, where neither food for men and beasts,
nor water and wood, can be procured. Near the mission of St. Ignatius (2Sth
degree) sulphur is found, and on the islands of El Carmen and St. Joseph in
the Californian gulf, and in different places on both coasts salt of very good
quality is abundant.
Having thus given an abstract of the first part of the book, I cannot conclude these introductory remarks without saying a few words in favor of the
Jesuits. Whatever we may think, as Protestants, of the tendencies of that
order, we cannot- but admit that those of its members who came as missionaries
to America deserve great credit for their zeal in propagating a knowledge of
the countries and nations they visited in the New World. To the student of
American ethnology particularly, the numerous writings of the Jesuit fathers
are of inestimable value, forming, as it were, the very foundations upon which
almost all subsequent researches in that interesting field of inquiry are based.
" 1IThe missionaries and discoverers whom the order of the Jesuits sent forth
were for the most part not only possessed of the courage of martyrs, and of
statesmanlike qualities, but likewise of great knowledge and learning. They
were enthusiastic travellers, naturalists, and geographers; they wvcre the best
mathematicians and astronomers of their time. They have been the first to
give us faithful and circumstantial accounts of the new countries and nations
they visited. There are few districts in the interior of America concerning
which the Jesuits have not supplied us with the oldest and best works, and we
can scarcely attempt the study of any American language without meeting with
a grammar composed by a Jesuit. In addition to their chapels and colleges in
the wilderness, the Jesuits likewise erected observatories; and there are few
rivers, lakes, and mountains in the interior, which they have not been the first
to draw upon- our maps."
With this well-deservod eulogy, which is quoted from 3Sr. J. G. Kohl's recent work on the discovery of America, I leave to Father Baegert himself the
task of relating his experiences among the natives of Lower California.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF THE
CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.
CHAPTER I.-THE STATIUE, COMPLEXION, AND NUMBER OF THE CALIFORNIANS;
ALSO, WHENCE AND HOW THEY MAY HAVE COME TO CALIFORNIA.
In physical appearance the Californians resemble perfectly the Mexicans and
other aboriginal inhabitants of America. Their skin is of a dark chestnut or
clove color, passing, however, sometimes into different shades, some individuals
being of a more swarthy complexion, while others are tan or copper colored.




358               THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
But in new-born children the color is much paler, so that they hardly can be
distinguished fiom white children when presented for baptism; yet it appears
soon after birth, and assumes its dark tinge in a short time.  r'The hair is black
as pitch and straight, and seldom turns gray, except sometimes in cases of
extreme old age. They are all beardless, and their eye-brows are but scantily
provided with hair. The heads of children at their birth, instead of being covered with scales, exhibit hair, sometimes half a finger long.  The teeth, though
never cleaned, are of the whiteness of ivory. The angles of the eyes towards
the nose are not pointed, but arched like a bow.  They are well-formed and
well-proportioned people, very supple, and can lift up from the ground stones,
bones, and similar things with the big and second toes. All walk, with a few
exceptions, even to the most advanced age, perfectly straight.  Their children
stand and walk, before they are a year old, briskly on their feet.  Some are tall
and of a commanding appearance, others small of stature, as elsewhere, but no
corpulent individuals are seen among them, which may be accounted for by their
manner of living, for, being compelled to run much around, they have no chance
of growing stout.
In a country as poor and sterile as California the number of inhabitants cannot be great, and nearly all would certainly die of hunger in a few days if it
were as densely populated as most parts of Europe. There are, consequently,
very few Californians, and, in proportion to the extent of' the country, almost
as few, as if there were none at all; yet, nevertheless, they decrease annually.
A person may travel in different parts four and more days without seeing a
single human being, and I do not believe that the number of Californians from
the promontory of St. Lucas to the Rio Colorado ever amounted, before the
arrival of the Spaniards,- to more than forty or fifty thousand souls.*  It is
certain that in 1767, in fifteen, that is, in all the missions, from the 22d to the
31st degree, only twelve thousand have been counted. But an insignificant
population and its annual diminution are not peculiar to California alone; both
are common to all America.  During my journey overland along the east side
of the Californian gulf, from Guadalaxara to the river Hiaqui, in the Mexican
territory, a distance of four hundred leagues,t I saw only thirteen small Indian
villages, and on most days I did not meet a living soul. Father Charlevoix,
before setting out on a journey through Canada or New France, writes in his
first letter, addressed to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, tihat he would have to
travel sometimes a hundred and more leagues without seeing any human beings
besides his companions.t
With the exception of Mexico and some other countries, North America was,
even at the time of the discovery, almost a wilderness when compared with
Germany and France; and this is still more the case at the present time.
AVWhoever has read the history of New France by the above-named author, or
has travelled six or seven hundred leagues through Mexico, and, besides, obtained reliable information concerning the population of other provinces, can
easily form ain estimate of the number of native inhabitants in North America;
and if the southern half of the New World does not contain a hundred times
more inhabitants than the northern part, which, relying on the authority of nme.n
who have lived there many years and have travelled much in that country, I
am far from believing, those European geographers who speak in their books of
300 millions of Americans are certainly mistaken.  Who knows -whether they
* Washington Irving states they had numbered from 25,000 to 30,000 souls when the first
missions were established; on what authority I do not know.-Adventurcs of Captain Boeznedille, (ed. of 1851,) p. 332.
t Stunden.-I translate this word by "league," though the French lieue is a little longer
than the German stunde.
t Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par le P. de Charlevoix. Paris, 1744; vol. v, D. 66




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                         359
would find in all more than fifteen or twenty millions?  The many hundred
languages which are spoken in South America alone are a sure evidence of a
scanty population, although the contrary might be inferred at first sight; for, if
there were more people, there would be more community among them, the tribes
would live closer together, and, as a result, there would be fewer languages.
The Ikas in my district speak a language different from that of the other people
in my mission; but I am pretty sure that the whole nation of these Ikas never
amounted to five hundred persons.
It is easy to comprehend why America is so thinly populated, the manner of
living of the inhabitaints and their continual wars among, themselves being the
causes of this deficiency; but how it comes that, since tile discovery of the fourth
part of the world, its population is constantly melting down, even in those provinces where the inhabitants are not subjected to the Europeans, but retain their
full, ulnrestrained liberty, as, for instance, according to Fl'ather Charlevoix, in
Louisiana, (that is, in the countries situated on both sides of the Mississippi,) is
a question, the solution of which I leave to others, contenting myself with what
is written in the Psalms, namely, that the increase or diminution of the human
race in different countries is a mystery which man cannot penetrate.
However small the number of Californians is, they are, nevertheless, divided
into a great many nations, tribes, and tongues.*  If a mission contains only one
thousand souls, it may easily embrace as many little nations amnong its parishioners as Switzerland counts cantons and allies.  MIy mission consisted of
Paurus, Atshdemes, Mitshirikutamdis, Mitshirikuteurus, TMitshirikutaruanoajyres,
Teackwas, Teeniguabebes, Utshis, Ilkas, Anjukwares, Utshipujes; all being
different tribes, but hardly amounting in all to five hundred souls.
It might be asked, in this place, why there existed fifteen missions on the
peninsula, since it appears that 12,000, and even more, Indians cotild be conveniently superintended and taken care of by three or four priests.  The answer
is, that this might be feasible in Germany as well as in a hundred places out of
Europe, but is utterly impracticable in California; for, if 3 or 4,000 Californians were to live together in a small district, the scanty means of subsistence
afforded by that sterile country would soon prove insufficient to maintain them.
Besides, all of these petty nations or tribes have their own countries, of which
they are as much, and sometimes even more, enamored than other people of theirs,
so that they would not consent to be transplanted fifty or more leagues from
the place they consider as their home.  And, further, the different tribes who
live at some distance from each other are always in a mutual state of enmity,
which would prevent them from living peaceably together, and offer a.serious
obstacle to their being enclosed in the same fold.  In time of general contagioms
diseases, lastly, which are of no unfiequent occurrence, a single piest could noU,
perfbrm his duties to their full extent in visiting all his widely scattered patients,
and administering to their spiritual and temporal wants.  My parish counter.
far less than a thousand members, yet their encamlpments were often more than
thirty leagues distant fiom each other.  Of the languages arnd dialects in this
country there are also not a few, and a missionary is glad if he has mastered
one of them.
It remains now to state my opinion concernlin'  the placer where the Californians came from, and in what manner they effected their migration to the country
they now occupy.  They may have come from different localities, and either
voluntarily or by some accident, or compelled by necessity; but that people
The author probably fell into the very common error of confounding dialects with languages. Dr. Waitz, relying on Buschmann's linguiscic researches, mentions only three principal languages spoken by the natives of Lo^wer California, viz., the Pelicu, Monqui, alud
Cochimi languages.-Antlhropologie der Naturvollecr von Dr. Theodor TWaitz. Leipzig, 186(4;
vol iv, p. 248.




360               TIHE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
slhould have migrated to California of their own free -will, and without-compulsion, I am unable to believe. America is very large, and could easily support
fifty times its number of inhabitants on much better soil than that of California.
How, then, is it credible that men should have pitched, from free choice, their
tents amidst the inhospitable dreariness of these'barren rocks? It is not impossible that the first inhabitants may have found by accident their way across the
sea from the other side of the Californian gulf, where the provinces of Cinaloa
and Sonora are situated; but, to my knowledge, navigation never has been
practiced by the Indians of that coast, nor is it in use among them at the
present time. There is, furthermore, within many leagues towards the interior
of the country no kind of wood to be had suitable for the construction of even
the smallest vessel. 1Prom the Pimeria, the northernmost country opposite the
peninsula, a transition might have been easier either by land, after crossing the:lio Colorado, or by wa.Lter, the sea being in this place very narrow and full of
-islands. In default of boats they could employ their balsas or little rafts made
of reeds, which are also used by my Californians who live near the sea, either
for catching fish or turtle, or crossing over to a certain island distant two leagues
fiom the shore. I am, however, of opinion that, if these Pimerians ever had
gone to California induced by curiosity, or had been driven to that coast by a
storm, the dreary aspect of the country soon would have caused them to return
without delay to their own country.  It was doubtless necessity that gave the
impulse to the peopling of the peninsula.  Nearly all neighboring tribes of
America, over whom the Europeans have no sway, are almost without cessation
at war with each other, as long as one party is capable of resistance; but when
the weaker is too much exhausted to carry on the Ifeud, the vanquished usually
leaves the country and settles in some other part at a sufficient distance fiom
its foes.  I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the first inhabitants, while
pursued by their enemies, entered the peninsula by land from the north side,
and having found there a safe retreat they remained and spread themselves out.
If they had any traditions, some light might be thrown on this subject; but no
Californian is acquainted with the events that occurred in the country prior to
-his birth, nor does he even know who his parents were if he should happen to
have lost them during his infancy.
T'o all appearance the Californians, at least those toward the south, believed,
lbefore the arrival of the Spaniards in their country, that California constituted
the whole world, and they themselves its sole inhabitants; for they went to
nobody, and nobody came to see them, each little people remaining within the
limits of its small district.  Some of those under my care believed to be derived from a bird; some traced their origin from a rock that was lying not far from
my house; while others ascribed their descent to still different, but always
equally foolish and absurd sources.
CHAPTER II.-THEIR HABITATIONS, APPAREL, IMPLEMENTS, AND UTEINSILS.
With the exception of the churches and dwellings of the missionaries, which
every one, as well as he could, and as time and circumstances permitted, built
of stone and lime, of stone and mud, of huge unburnt bricks, or other materials,
and besides some barracks which the Indians attached to the mllssions, the few
soldiers, boatmen, cowherds, and miners have now erected in the fourteen stations, nothing' is to be seen in California that bears a resemblance to a city, a
village, a human dwelling, a lhut, or even a dog-house. The Californians themselves spend their whole life, day 2and night, in the open air, the sky above them
forming their roof, and the hard soil the couch on which they sleep.  During
winter, only, when the wid blows sharp, they construct around them, but only
opposite the direction of'the wind, a half moon of brush-wood. a few spans high,




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                        361
as a protection against the inclemency of the weather,* showing thus that, notwithstanding their simplicity, they understand pretty well " how to turn the
mantle towards the wind." t It cannot be otherwise with them; for, if they
had houses, they would be compelled to carry their dwellings always with
them, like snails or turtles, the necessity of collecting food urging them to wander constantly about.  Thus they cannot start every morning fiom  the same
place and return thither in the evening, since, notwithstanding the small number of each little people, a small tract of land could not provide them with
provisions during a whole year. To-day the water will fail them; to-morrow
they have to go to some locality for gathering a certain kind of seed that serves
them as food, and so they fulfil to the letter what is written of all of us, namely,
that we shall have no fixed abode in this world.  I am certainly not much mistaken in saying that many of them change their night-quarters more than a
hundred times in a year, and hardly sleep three times successively in the same
place and the same part of the country, always excepting those who are connected with the missions.  Wherever the night surprises them  they will lie
down to sleep, not minding in the least the uncleanliness of the ground, or apprehending any inconvenience from reptiles and other vermin, of which there
is an abundance in this country.  They do not live under the shade of trees, as
some authors have said, because there are hardly any trees in California that
afford shade, nor do they dwell in earth-holes of their own making, as others
have said, but, sometimes, and only when it rains, they resort to the clefts and
cavities of rocks, if they can find such sheltering places, which do not occur
as frequently as their wants require.
Whenever they undertake to construct shelters for protecting their sick from
heat or cold, the entrance is usually so low that a person has to creep on hands
and feet in order to get in, and the whole structure is of such small dimensions
as to render it impossible to stand erect within, or to find room to sit down on
the ground for the purpose of confessing or comforting the patient.  Of no better
condition are the huts of those Indians who live near the missions, the same
being often so small and miserable that man and wife hardly can sit or lie down
in them.  Even the old and infirm are utterly indifferent as to their being under
shelter or not, and it happened often that 1 found old sick persons lying in the
open air, for whose accommodation I had caused huts to be built on the preceding day.  So much for habit.
As the blue sky forms the only habitation of the Californian Indians, so they
wear no other covering than the brown skin with which nature has clothed them.
This applies to the male sex in the full'sense of the word, and even women have
been found in the northern parts of California in a perfect state of nudity, while
among most nations the females always covered themselves to a small extent.
They did, and still continue to do, as follows: They understand how to prepare from the fibres of the aloe plant' a white thread, which serves them for
making cords.   On these they string hundreds of small sections of water-reed,
like beads of a rosary; and a good number of these strings, attached by their
ends to a girdle, and placed very close and thick together, form  two aprons,
one of which hangs down below the abdomen, while the other covers the hind
part.  These aprons are about a spanl wide, and of'different length.  Among
Captain Bonneville gives a cheeriess account of a village of the Root Diggers, which he
saw in crossing the plain below Powder river. "They live," says he,," without any further
protection froml the inclemency of the season than a sort of' brealk-weather, abjout three feet
high, composed of sage, (or wormwood,) and erected around theln in the shape of a half
moon." — Washinzgton Irvin;g: Adventures of Captain Bonneville, p. 259.
t German proverb.
t It may not be out of place to mention here that in Mexico the dried fibres of the aloe or
maguey plant ( 1gave Americanas) are a universal substitute for hemp in the manufacture of
cordage and packing-cloth.




362              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
some nations they reach down to the knees; among others to the calves, and
even to the feet. Both sides of the thighs, as well as the rest of the body, remain perfectly naked. In order to save labor, some women wear, instead of the
back-aprons, a piece of untanned deer-skin, or any woollen or linen rag which
they can now-a-days obtain. Of the same untanned skin they make, if they
can get it, their shoes or sandals, simply fiat pieces, which they attach to the
feet by coarse strings of the above-mentioned aloe, passing between the big and
small toes and around the ankles.
Both sexes, the grown as well as the children, wear the head always uncovered, however inclement the weather may be, even those in a certain mission
who understand how to manufacture pretty good hats from palm-leaves, which,
on account of their lightness, were frequently worn by the missionaries while
on their travels. The men allow the hair to grow down to the shoulders. Women, on the contrary, wear it much shorter. Formerly they pierced the ears of
new-born children-of the male sex with a pointed stick, and by putting bones and
pieces of wood into the aperture they enlarged it to such a degree that, in some
grown persons, the flaps hung down nearly to the shoulders. At present, however, they have abandoned this unnatural usage. It has been asserted that
they also pierce the nose. I can only say that I saw no one disfigured in that
particular manner, but many middle-aged persons with their ears perforated as
described above. Under certain circumstances, and on their gala days, they
paint different parts of the body with red and yellow color, which they obtain
by burning certain minerals.
The baptized Indians, of course, observed more decency in regard to dress.
The missionaries gave each male individual, once or twice in a year, a piece of
blue cloth, six spans long and two spans wide, for covering the lower part of
the body, and, if their means allowed it, a short woollen coat of blue color. The
women and girls were provided with thick white veils, made of wool, that covered the head and the whole body down to the feet. In some missions the
women received also petticoats and jackets of blue flannel or woven cotton
shirts, and the men trowsers of coarse cloth and long coats. But the women
throw aside their veils, and the men their coats, as soon as they leave church,
because those coverings make them feel uneasy, especially in summer, and impede the free use of their limbs, which their mode of living constantly requires.
I will mention here that all these goods had to be brought from the city of
Mexico, since nothing of the kind can be manufactured in California for want
of the necessary. materials. The number of sheep that can be kept there is
small, and, moreover, they lose half their wool by passing through the thorny
shrubs, of which there is an astonishing abundance in this ill-favored country.
It is not to be expected that a people in as low a state of development as the
Californians should make use of many implements and utensils. Their whole
furniture, if that expression can be applied at all, consists of a bow and arrows,
a flint instead of a knife, a bone or pointed piece of wood for digging roots, a
turtle-shell serving as basket and cradle, a large gut or bladder for fetching
water and transporting it during their excursions, and a bag made like a fishing
net from the fibres of the aloe, or the skin of a wild cat, in which they preserve
and carry their provisions,' sandals, and perhaps other insignificant things which
they fiay happen. to possess.
The bows of the Californians are more than six feet long, slightly curved,
and made from the roots of wild willows. They are of the thickness of the
five fingers in the middle, round, and become gradually thinner and pointed
towards the ends. The bow-strings are made of the intestines of beasts. The
shafts of their arrows consist of common reeds, which they straighten by the
fire. They are above six spans long, and have, at the lower end, a notch to
catch the string, and three or four feathers, about a finger long, not much projecting, and let into slits made for that purlpose. At the upper end of the shaft




THE  CALIFORNIAN  IPENINSULA.                      363
a pointed piece of heavy wood, a span and a half long, is inserted, bearing
usually at its extremity a flint of a triangular shape, almost resembling a serpent's
tongue, and indented like the edge of a saw.*  The Californians carry their
bows and arrows always with them, and as they commence at an early age to
use these weapons many of them become very skilful archers.
in lien of knives and scissors they use sharp flints for cutting almost everything —cane, wood, aloe, and even their hair-and for disembowelling and skinnifig animals.  With the same flints they bleed or scarify themselves, and
make incisions for extracting thorns and splinters which they have accidentally
run into tleir limbs.
The whole art of the men consists in the manufacture of bows and arrows,
while the mechanical skill of the females is merely confined to the making of
the above-mentioned aprons.  Of a division of labor not a trace is to be found
among them; even the cooking is done by all without distinction of sex or age,
every one providing for himself, and the children commence to practice that
necessary art as soon as they are able to stir a fire. The time of these people
is chiefly taken up by the search for food and its preparation; and if their physical
wants are supplied they abandon themselves entirely to lounging, chattering, and
sleep. This applies particularly to the roaming portion of the Californian Indians, for those who dwell near the missions now established in the country are
sometimes put to such labor as the occasion may require.
CHAPTER III.-OF THEIR FOOD AND THE MANNER OF PREPARING IT.
Notwithstanding the barrenness of the country, a Californian hardly ever dies
of hunger, except, perhaps, now and then an individualthat falls sick iin the wilderness and at a great distance fiom the mission, for those who are in good health
trouble themselves very little about such patients, even if these should happen
to be their husbands, wives, or other relations; and a little child that has lost
its mother or both parents is also occasionally in danger of starving to death,
because in some instances no one will take charge of it, the father being sometimes inhuman enough to abandon his offspring to its fate.
The food of the Californians, as will be seen, is certainly of a mean quality,
yet it keeps them in a healthy condition, and they become strong and grow old
in spite of their poor diet.  The only period of the year duiing which the Californians can satisfy their appetite without restraint is the season of the pitahayas, which ripen in the middle of June and abound for more than eight weeks.
The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the native inhabitants.  They can eat as much of it as they please, and with some this food
agrees so well that they become corpulent during that period; and for -this reason I was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals, otherwise
perfectly familiar to.me, who visited me after having fed for three or four weeks
on these pitahayas. They do not, however, preserve them, and when the season is over they are put again on short rations. Among the roots eaten by
the Californians may be mentioned the yuka, which constitutes an important
article of food in many parts of America, as, for instance, in the island of Cuba,
but is not very abundant in California.  In some provinces it is made into a
kind of bread or cake, while the Californians, who would find this process too
tedious, simply roast the yukas in a fire like potatoes. Another root eaten by
the natives is that of the aloe plant, of which there are many kinds in this
country. Those species of this vegetable, however, which afford nourishment
-for not all of them are edible-do not grow as plentifully as the Califoirnians might wish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water; the prepara* In the collection of Dr. E. H. Davis, of New York, there are a number of arrows obtained from the Indians of the island of Tiburon, in the Californian gulf. They answer, in
every respect, the description given in the text.




3 64               THE  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS OF
tions, moreover, which are necessary to render this plant eatable, require much
time and labor, as will be mentioned hereafter.  I saw the natives also frequently
eat the roots of the common reed, just as they were taken out of the water.
Certain seeds, some of them not larger than those of the mustard, and different
sorts in pods that grow on shrubs and little trees, and of which there are, according to Father Piccolo, more than sixteen kinds, are likewise diligently
soughtL; yet they furnish only a small quantity of' grain, and all that a persou!
can collect with much toil during a whole year may scarcely amount to twelve
bushels.*
It can be said that the Californians eat, without exception, all animals they
can obtain.  Besides the different kinds of larger indigenous quadrupeds and
birds already mentioned,t they live now-a-days on dogs and cats; horses, asses
and mules; item, oinowls, mice and rats; lizards and snakes; bats, grasshoppers and crickets; a kind of green caterpillar without llhair, about a finger long,
and an abominable white worm of the length and thickness of the thumb, which
they find occasionally in old rotten wood, and consider as a particular delicacy.
The chase of game, such as deer and rabbits, furnishes only a small portion of
a Californian's provisions.  Supposing that for a hundred families tlhree hundred deer are killed in the course of a year, which is a very favorable estimate,
they would supply each family only with three meals in three hundred and
sixty-five days, and thus relieve but in a very small degree the liunger and the
poverty of these people.  The hunting for snakes, lizards, mice and field-rats,
which they practice with great diligence, is by far more profitable and supplies
them with a much greater quantity of articles for consumption.  Snakes, especially, are a favorite sort of small game, and thiousands of them  find annually
their way into the stomachs of the Californians.
In catching fish, particularly in the Pacific, whicll is much richer- in that respect than the gulf of California, the natives use neither netsj nor hooks, but
a kind of lance,-that is, a long, slender, pointed piece of hard wood, which they
handle very dexterously in spearing and killing their prey.  Sea-turtles are
caught in the same manner.
I have now mentioned the different articles forming the ordinary food of the
Californians; but, besides these, they reject nothing that their teeth can chew
or their stomachs are capable of digesting, holwever tasteless or unclean and
disgusting it mauy be.  Thus they will eat, the leaves of tile Indian fig-tree, the
tender shoots of certain shrubs, tanned or untanned leather; old straps of' raw
h de with which a, fence was tied together for years; item, the bones of poultry,
slieep, goats and calves; putrid meat or fish swarming with worms, damaged
wheat or Indian corn, and many other things of that sort which may serve to
appease the hunger they are almost constantly suffering.  Anything that is
thrown to the hogs will be also accepted by a Californialln,  and he takes it
wiiehout feeling offlendild. or thinking for a moment that he is treated below his
dignity.  F1or this reason no one took the trouble to clean the wheat or ma;ize,
which was cooked for them in a large kettle, of the black worms and little bugs,
even if the numbers of these vermin had been equal to that of the grains.  By
a daily distribution of about 150 bushels of bran, (which they are in the habif
of eating without any preparation,) I could have induced all my parishioncili
* One malter, in German, which is about equivalent to twelve bushels.
t In the introduction.
Y Venegas mentions fishing-nets made of the pita plant, (Noticia de la California, vol. i, p.
52.) According to Baegert, (Appendix i, p. 322.) no such plant exists in California, and the
word "pita " only signifies the thread twisted fiom the aloe. In refuting Venefgas, F'ather
Baegert hardly ever refers to the original,Spanish Work, nor mentions the name of its author,
but attacks the Prench translation, which was published in Paris in the year 1767. He
probably acted so from motives of delicacy, Venegas himself being a priest and brother
Jesuit. The effect of this proceeding, as can be imagined, is comical in a high degree.




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                       365
to remain permanently in the mission, excepting during the time when the pitahayas are gathered.
I saw one day a blind man, seventy years of age, who was busily engaged in
pounding between two stones an old shoe  made of raw deer-skin, and whenever he had detached a piece, he transferred it promptly to his mouth and swallowed it; and yet this man had a daughter and grown grand-children. As
soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is spread out on the ground
to dry, half a dozen boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to
work with knives, flints and their teeth, tearing and scratching off' pieces, which
they eat immediately, till the hide is full of holes or scattered in all directions.
In the mission of St. Ignatius and in others further tow~.ards the north, there
are persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull
it out again a dozen times in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste.
I must here ask permission of the kind reader to mention something of an
exceedingly disgusting and almost inhuman nature, the like of which probably
never has been recorded of any- people in the world, but which demonstrates
better than anything else the whole extent of the poverty, uncleanness and
voracity of these wretched beings.  In describing the pitahayas,* I have already stated that they contain a great many small seeds resembling grains of
powder. Flor some reason uinknown to me these seeds are not con.~umed in the
stomach, but pass off in an undigested state, and in order to save them  the
natives collect, during the season of the pitahayas, that which is discharged
from the human body, separate the seeds from it, and roast, grind and cat them,
maktting merry over their loathsome meals, which the Spaniards therefore call
the second harvest of the Califotnians.t  When I first heard that such a filthy
habit existed among them, I was disinclined to believe the report, but to my
utter regret I became afterwards repeatedly, a witness to the proceeding, which
they are unwilling to abandon like many other bad practices.  Yet I must say
in their favor that they have always abstained from human flesh, contrary to
the horrible usage of so many other American nations who can obtain their
daily food much easier than these poor Californians.
They have no other drink but the water, and Heaven be praised that they
are unacquainted with such strong beverages as are distilled in many American provinces from Indian corn, the aloe and other plants, and which the
Americans in those parts merely drink for the purpose of intoxicating themselves.  When a Californian encounters, during his wanderings, a pond or pool,
and feels a desire to quench his thirst, he lies flat on the ground and applies
his mouth directly to the water.  Sometimes the horns of cattle are used as
drinking vessels.
Having thus far given an account of the different articles used as aliment by
the aborigines of the peninsula, I will now proceed to describe in what manner
they prepare their victuals. They do not cook, boil, or roast like people
in civilized countries, because they are neither acquainted with these methods,
nor possessed of vessels and utensils to employ for such purposes; and, besides,
their patience would be taxed beyond endurance, if they had to wait till a.
piece of meat is well cooked or tlioroughly roasted.  Their whole process
simply consists in burning, singeing, or roasting in an open fire all such victuals
as are not eaten in a raw state.  Without any formalities the piece of meat,
the fish, bird, snake, field-mouse, bat, or whatever it may be, is thrown into
the flames, or on the glowing embers, and left there to smoke and to sweat for
about a quarter of an hour; after which the article is withdrawn, in most cases
Introduction.
tThis statement id corroborated in all particulars by Clavigero, in his Storia della California, (Venice, 1789,) vol. i, p. 117.




3GG              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
only burned or charred on the outs;de, but still raw and bloody within. As
soon as it has become sufficiently cool, they shake it a little in order to remove
the adhering dust or sand, and eat it with great relish. Yet I must add here,
that they do not previously take the trouble to skin the mice or disembowel
the rats, nor deem it necessary to clean the half-emptied entrails and maws of
larger animals, which they have to cut in pieces before they can roast them.
Seeds, kernels, grasshoppers, green caterpillars, the white worms already mentioned, and similar things that would be lost, on account of their smallness, in
the embers and flames of an open fire, are parched on hot coals, which they
constantly throw up and shake in a turtle-shell, or a kind of frying-pan woven
out of a certain plant.  What they have parched or roasted in this manner is
ground to powder between two stones, and eaten in a dry state. Bones are
treated in like manner,
They eat everything unsalted, though they might obtain plenty of salt; but
since they cannot dine every day on roast meat and constantly change their
quarters, they would find it too cumbersome to carry always a supply of.salt
with them.
The preparation of the aloe, also called mescale or maguey by the Spaniards,
requires more time and labor. The roots, after being properly separated from
the plants, are roasted for some hours in a strong fire, and then buried, twelve
or twenty together, in the ground, and well covered with hot stones, hot ashes,
and earth. In this state they have to remain for twelve or fourteen hours, and
wvhen dug out again they are of a fine yellow color, and perfectly tender,
making ait very palatable dish, which has served me fiequently as food when I
had nothing else to eat, or as dessert after dinner in lieu of fruit. But they
act at first as a purgative on persons who are not accutstomed to them, and
leave the throat somewhat rough for a few hours afterwards.
rTo light a fire the Californians make no use of steel and flint, but obtain it
by the friction of two pieces of wood. One of them is cylindrical, and pointed
on one end, which fits into a round cavity in the other, and by turning the
cylindrical piece with great rapidity between their hands, like a twirling stick,
they succeed in igniting the lower piece, if they continue the process for a
sufficient length of time.
TLhe Californians have no fixed time for any sort of business, and eat, consequently, whenever they have anything, or feel inclined to do so, which is
nearly always the case. I never asked one of them whether he was hungry,
who failed to answer in the affirmative, even if his appearance indicated the
contrary. A meal in the middle of the day is the least in use among them,
because they all set out early in the morning for their foraging expeditions,
and retllrn only in the evening to the place from which they started, if they
do not choose some other locality for their night quarters. The day being
thus spent in running about and searching for food, they have no time left for
preparing a dinner at noon. They start always empty-handed; for, if perchance something remains from their evening repasts, they certainly eat it
during the night in waking moments, or on the following morning before
leaving. The Californians can endure hunger easier and much longer than
other people; whereas they will eat enormously if a chance is given. I often
tried to buy a piece of venison from them when the skin had but lately been
stripped off the deer, but regularly received the answer that nothing was left;
and I knew well enough that the hunter who killed the animal needed no
assistance to finish it. Twenty-four pounds of meat in twenty-four hours is
not deemed an extraordinary ration for a single person, and to see anything
eatable before him is a temptation for a Californian which he cannot resist;
and not to make away with it before night would be a victory he is very
seldom capable of gaining over himself.




THE  CALIFORNIANT PENINSULA.                      367
One of them requested from his missionary a number of goats, in order to
live, as he said, like a decent man; that is, to keep house, to pasture the goats,
and to support himself and his family with their milk and the flesh of the kids.
But, alas! in a few days the twelve goats with which the missionary had presented him were all consumed.
A priest who had lived more than thirty years in California, and whose
veracity was beyond any doubt, assured me repeatedly that he had known a
Californian who one day ate seventeen watermelons at one sitting; and another
native who, after having received from a soldier six pounds of unclarified siugar
as pay for a certain debt, sat down and munched one piece after another till
the six pounds had disappeared. He paid, however, dearly for his gluttony,
for he died in consequence of it; while the melon-eater was only saved by
taking a certain physic which counteracted the bad effects of his greediness.
1 was called myself one evening in great haste to three or four persons, who
pretended to be dying, and wanted to, confess. These people belonged to a
band of about sixty souls, (women and children included,) to whom I had given,
early in the morning, three bullocks in compensation for some labor.  When
I arrived at the place where they lay encamped, I learned that their malady
consisted merely in belly-ache and vomiting; and, recognizing at once the
cause of their disorder, I reprimanded them severely for their voracity, and
went home again.
CHAP'rER IV.-OF THEIR MARRIAGES AND THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN.
As soon as the young Californian finds a partner, the marriage follows immediately afterwards; and the girls go sometimes so far as to demand inipetuously a husband from the missionary, even before they are twelve years old,
which is their legitimate age for marrying.  In all the missions, however, only
one excepted, the number of men was considerably greater than that of the
females.
Matrimonial engagements are concluded without much forethought or scruple,
and little attention is paid to the morals or qualities of the parties; and, to confess the truth, there is hardly any difference aImong them in these respects;
and, as far as good sense, virtue, and riches are concerned, they are always
sure to marry their equals, following thus the old maxim: Si vis numbere, nube
pari. It happens very often that near relations -want to join in wedlock, and
their engagements have, therefore, to be fiustrated, such cases excepted in
which the impedimentum affinitatis can be removed by a dispensation from the
proper authorities.
They do not seem to marry exactly for the same reasons that induce civilized people to enter into that state; they simply want to have a partner, and
the husband, besides, a servant whom he can command, although his authority in
that respect is rather limited, for the women are somewhat independent, and
not much inclined to obey their lords. Although they are now duly married
according to the rites of the Catholic church, nothing is done on their part to
solemnize the act; none of the parents or other relations and friends are
present, and no wedding feast is served up, unless the missionary, instead of
receiving his marriage fees, or jura stolae, presents them with a piece of meat,
or a quantity of Indian corn. Whenever I joined a couple in matrimony, it
took considerable time before the bridegroom succeeded in putting the wedding
ring on the right finger of his future wife. As soon as the ceremony is over,
the new married couple start off in different directions in search of food, just as
if they were not more to each other to-day than they were yesterday; and in
the same manner they act in future, providing separately for their support,
sometimes without living together for weeks, and without knowing anything
of their partner's abiding place.




368              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
Before they were baptized each man took as many wives as lie liked, and if
tlere were several sisters in a family he married them all together. The son.
in-law was not allowed, for some time, to look into the face of his mother-inlaw or his wife's next female relations, but had to step aside, or to hide himself,
when these women were present. Yet they did not pay much attention to consanguinity, and only a few years since one of them counted his own daughter
(as he believed) auliong the number of his wives. They met without any
formalities, and their voclabulary did not even contain the words "to marry,"
which is expressed at the present day in the WaTcuri language by the paraphrase tik/cee undiri —that is, "to bring the arms or hands together."  They
had, and still use, a substitute for the word " husband," but the etymological
meaning of that expression implies an intercourse with women in general.
They lived, in fact, before the establishment of the missions in their country,
inl utter licentiousness, and adultery was daily committed by every one without
shame and without any fear, the feeling of jealousy being unknown to them.
Neighboring tribes visited each other very often only for the purpose of spending
some days in open debauchery, and during such times a general prostit;Ltion
prevailed. Would to God that the admonitions and instructions of those who
converted these people to Christianity and established lawful marriages among
them, had also induced them to desist entirely from these evil practices i! Yet
they deserve pity rather than contempt, for their manner of living together engenders vice, and their sense of morality is not strong enough to prevent them
from yielding to the temptations to which they are constantly exposed.
in the first chapter of this book I have already spoken of the scanty population of this country. It is certain that many of their women are barren, and
that a great number of them bear not more than one child.  Only a few out of
one or two hundred bring forth eight or ten times, and if such is really the case,
it, happens very seldom that one or two of the children arrive at a mature age.
I baptized, in succession, seven children of a young, woman, yet I had to bury
them all before one of them had reached its third year, and when I was about
to leave the country I recommended to the wfdman to dig a grave for the eighth
child, with which she was pregnant at the time. The unmarried people of both
sexes and the children generally make a smaller group than the married and
widowed.
rThe Californian women lie in without difficulty, and without needing any
assistance. If the child is.born at some distance from the mission they carry
it thither themselves on the same day, in order to have it baptized, not minding
a walk of two or more leagues.  Yet, that many infants die among them is not
surprisinlg; on the contrary, it would be a wonder if a great number remained
alive. For, when the poor child first sees the light of day, there is no other
cradle provided for it but the hard soil, or the still harder shell of a turtle, in
which the mother places it, without much coverinL, and drags it about wherever
she goes. And in order to be unencumbered, and enabled to use her limbs with
greater freedom while running in the fields, she will leave it sometimes in charge
of some old woman, and thus deprive the poor creature for ten or more hours of
its natural nourishment. As soon as the child is a few months old the mother
places it, perfectly naked, astraddle on her shoulders, its legs hanging down onr
both sides in fiont, and it has con,sequently to learn how to ride before it can
stand on its feet. In this guise the mother roves about all day, exposing her
helpless charge to the hot rays of the sun and the chilly winds that sweep over
the inhospitable country. The food of the child, till it cuts its teeth, consists
only ill the milk of the mother, and if that is wanting or insufficient, there is
rarely another woman to be found that would be willing, or, perhaps, in the
proper condition, to take pity on the poor starving being. I cannot say that
the Californian women are too fond of their children, and some of them may
even consider the.loss of one as a relief from a burden, especially if they have




TflE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA                       369
already some small children. I did not see many Californian mothers who
caressed their children much while they lived, or tore their hair when they
died, although a kind of dry weeping is not wanting on such occasions.  The
father is still more insensible, and does not even look at his (or at least his
wife's) child as long as it is small and helpless.
Nothing causes the Californians less trouble and care than the education of
their children, which is merely confined to a short period, and ceases as soon
as the latter are capable of making a living for thcmselves —that is, to catch
mice and tokill snakes. If the young Californians have once acquired sufficient skill and strength to follow these pursuits, it is all the same to them
whether they have parents or not.  Nothing is done by these in the way of
admonition or instruction, nor do they set an example worthy to be imitated
by their offspring. The children do what they please, without fearing reprimand or punishment. however disorderly and wicked their conduct may be.
It would be well if the parents did not grow angry when their children are
now and then slightly chastised for gross misdemeanor by order of the missionary; but, instead of bearing with patience such wholesome correction of
their little sons and daughters, they take great offence and become enraged,
especially the mothers, who will scream like furies, tear out the hair, beat their
naked breasts with a stone, and lacerate their heads with a piece of wood or
bone till the blood flows, as I have frequently witnessed on such occasions.*
The consequence is, that the children follow their own inclinations without
any restraint, and imitate all the bad habits and practices of their equals, or
still older persons, without the slightest apprehension of being blamed by their
fathers and mothers, even if these should happen to detect them in the act of
committing the most disgraceful deeds. The young Californians who live in
the missions commence roaming about as soon as mass is over, and those that
spend their time in the fields go wherever, and with whomsoever, they please, not
seeing for many days the faces of their parents, who, in their turn, do not manifest the slightest concern about their children, nor make any inquiries after
them. These are disadvantages which the missionary has no power of amending,
and such being the case, it is easy to imagine how little he can do by instruction,
exhortation, and punishment, towards improving the moral condition of these
young natives.
Heaven may enlighten the Californians, and preserve Europe, and especially
Germany, from such a system of education, which coincides, in part, with the
plan proposed by that ungodly visionary, J. J. Rousseau, in his " Emile," and
which is also recommended by some other modern philosophers of the same
tribe. If their designs are carried out, education, so far as faith, religion, and
the fear of God are concerned, is niot to be commenced before the eighteenth or
twentieth year, which, if viewed in the proper light, simply means to adopt the
Californian method, and to bring up youth without any education at all.
(TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT REPORT.)
* This statement does not seem to agree well with the alleged indifference of the Californian
rvomen towards their children, and the formalities which the Californians were obliged to
observe, when meeting with the mothers and other female relations of their wives, renders a
total absence of jealousy among them rather doubtful. Dr. Waitz has also pointed out the
latter discrepancy while citing a number of facts contained in our author's work, (Anthropologie der Naturvcelker, vol. iv, p. 250.) My object being simply to give an English version of Baege] t's account, I abstain from all comments on such real or seeming incongruities.
24 s




AN ACCOUNT
OF
THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
OF
THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA,
AS GIVEN BY
JACOB BAEGERT, A GERMAN JESUIT MISSIONARY, WTHO LIVED THERE SEVENTEEN YEARS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE LAST CENTURY.
TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED BY CHARLES RAU.
(Continued from the Smiihsonian Report for 1863.)
CHAPTER V.-THEIR CHARACTER.
IN describing the character of the Californians, I can only say that they are
dull, awkward, rude, unclean, insolent, ungrateful, given to lying, thievish,
lazy, great talkers, and almost like children in their reasoning and actions.
They are a careless, improvident, unreflecting  people, and possess no control
over themselves, but follow, in every respect, their natural instincts almost like
animals.
They are, nevertheless, like all other native Americans, human beings, real
children of Adam, and have not grown out of the earth, or of stones, like moss
and other plants, as a certain impudent, lying freethinker gives to understand.
I, at least, never saw one growing in such a way, nor have I heard of any of
them who originated in that peculiar manner. Like other people, they are possessed of reason and understanding, and their stupidity is not inborn with
them, but the result of habit; and I am of opinion that, if their young sons'
were sent to European seminaries and colleges, and their girls to convents
where young females are instructed, they would prove equal in all respects to
Europeans in the acquirement of morals and of useful sciences and arts, as has
been the case with many young natives of other American provinces.  I have
known some of them who learned several mechanical trades in a short time,
often merely by observation; and, on the contrary, others who appeared to me
duller, after twelve or more years, than at the time when 1 first became acquainted with them. God and nature have endowed these people with gifts
and talents like others; but their rude -life hinders the development of these
faculties, and thus they remain awkward, dull, and so slow in their understandings that it requires considerable pains, time, and patience to teach them the
doctrines and precepts of the Christian faith, insomuch that a sentence of only
a few words must be repeated to them twelve times and oftener before they are
capable of reciting it.
It may not be out of place to corroborate here what Father Charlevoix says
of the Canadians, namely, that no one should think an Indian is convinced of
what he has heard because he appears to approve of it. He will assent to
anything, even though he has not understood its meaning or reflected uponr his
answer, and he so does either on account of his indolence or indifference, or
from motives of selfishness, in order to please the missionary.




ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.  379
The Californians do not readily confess a crime unless detected in the act,
because they hardly comprehend the force of evidence, and are not at all
ashamed of lying. A certain missionary sent a native to one of his colleagues
with some loaves of bread and a letter stating *their number.  The messenger
ate a part of the bread, and his theft was consequently discovered; another
time, when he had to deliver four loaves, he ate two of them, but hid thie
accompanying letter under a stone while he was thus engaged, believing that
his conduct would not be revealed this time, as the letter had not seen him in
the act of eating the loaves.
In the mission of St. Borgia the priest ordered his people one day to strew
the way with some green herbs, because he was about to bring the holy sacrament to a sick person, and his order was promptly executed by them, but to
the great damage of the missionary's kitchen-garden, for they tore up all the
cabbages, salad, and whatever vegetables they found there, and threw them on
the road.
Yet, notwithstanding their incapacity and slow  comprehension, they are,
nevertheless, cunning, and show, in many cases, a considerable degree of craftiness.  They will sell their poultry to the missionary at the beginning of a
sickness, and afterwards exhibit a disposition to eat nothing but chicken-meat,
till none of the fowls are left in the coop. A prisoner will feign a dangerous
malady and ask for the last sacrament in order to be relieved from his fetters,
and'to find, subsequently, a chance to escape.  They rob the missionary in a
hundred ways, and sometimes in the most artful manner.  If, for instance, one
has pilfered the pantry and left it open in his haste, another one forth'with
requests to be admitted to confession, in order to give the thief time for closing
the door, and thus to remove all cau'se of suspicion on the part of the missionary.  They also invent stories and relate them to their priest for the purpose of frustrating a marriage engagement, that some other party may obtain
the bride. These and many hundred similar tricks have actually been played
by them, and show conclusively that they are well capable of reasoning when
their self-interest or their needs demand it.
The Californians.are audacious and at the same time faint-hearted and timid
in a high degree. They climb to the top of the weak, trembling stems, sometimes
thirty-six feet high, which are called cardones by the Spaniards, to look out for
game, or mount an untamed horse, without bridle and saddle, and ride, during
the night, upon roads which I was afraid to travel in the daytime. When new
buildings are erected, they walk on the miserable, ill-constructed scaffoldings
with the agility of cats, or venture several leagues into the open sea on a bundle
of brushwood, or the thin stem of a palm-tree, without thinking of any danger.
But the report of a gun makes them forget their bows and arrows, and half a
dozen soldiers are capable of checking several hundred Californians.
Gratitude towards benefactors, respect for superiors, parents, and other relations, and politeness in intercourse with fellow-men, are almost unknown to
them.*  They speak plainly, and pay compliments to no one. If one of thein
has received a present, he immediately turns his back upon the donor and
walks off without saying a word, unless the Spanish phrase, Dizos te lo pague,
or, " God reward you," has been previously, by a laborious process, enforced
upon his memory.
Where there is no honor, shame is ever wanting, and therefore I always
wondered how the word "ie," that is, "to be ashamed," had been introduced
According to Baegert's' own statement, (p. 309,) the forced departure of the Jesuit missionaries from the peninsula caused great distress among the Indians, who expressed their
grief by a general howling and weeping, which shows that the feelings of gratitude and
attachment were not entirely wanting in their character, although selfishness may have had
a large share in the demonstration. The parting scene is well described in a few lines by
WV. irving.-Adv; of Captain Bonneville, p. 332.




380               THE ABORIGINAL INIIABITANTS OF
into their language; for, among thamselves, no one would blush on account of
any misdeed he had perpetrated.  If one had killed, his father and mother,
robbed churches, or committed other infamous crimes, and had been a hundred
times whipped and pilloried, he would, nevertheless, strut about with a serene
brow and an erect head, and without being in the least degraded in the eyes of
his people.
Laziness, lying, and stealing are their hereditary vices and principal moral
Jefects.  They are not a people upon whose word any reliance can. be placed,
cut they will answer in one breath six times " yes" and as many times " no,"
without feeling ashamed, or even perceiving that they contradict themselves.
Tlhey are averse to any labor not absolutely necessary to supply them with the
means of satisfying hunger.  If any work occurred in the mission, it was
necessary to drive and urge them constantly to their task, and a great number
complained of sickness during the week-days, for which reason I always called
the Sunday a clay of miracles, because all those who had been sick the whole
week felt wonderfully well on that day. If they were only a little more industrious, they might improve their condition, to a certain extent, by planting
some maize, pumpkins, and cotton, or by keeping' small flocks of goats, sheep,
or even a few cattle; and., having now learned to prepare the skins of deer,
they could easily supply themselves with garments.  But nothing of this kind
is to be expected of them.  They do not care to eat pigeons, unless they fly
roasted into their mouths. T''o0 work to-day and to earn the fruit of their
labor only three or six months afterwards seems to be incompatible with their
character, and for this reason there is little hopie that they will ever adopt a
different mode of life.
Books could be filled with accounts of their thefts.  They will not touch
gold or silver; but anything that can be chewed, be it raw  or cooked, above
the ground or below, ripe or unripe, is not more safe friom them than the mouse
fiom the cat, if the eye of the owner be only diverted for a moment.  The
herdsman will not even spare the dog that has been given to him to watch the
flock of sheep or goats intrusted to his care.  While one day observing, unseen, my cook, who was engaged in boiling meat, I noticed that he took one
piece after another out of the kettle, bit off a part, and threw it again into the
vessel.  The meal on the missionary's table, wxhen he is suddenly called away,
is not safe from their thievery, and even the holy wafers in the sacristy are in
danger of being taken by them. Yet they sometimes lay their hands on thhings
of which they can make no use whatever, in a way really surprising, Twhich
shows to what degree stealing has become a habit with them.
For eight years I kept, ranging at large, from foub to five hundred headl of
cattle, and sometimes as many goats and sheep, until the constant robberies of
the Indians of my own -and the neighboring mission comnpelled me to give up
cattle-breeding. t  In the bodies of nineteen cows.and oxen, that had beea
killed in one day in the mission, there were found, after the removal of the skin,
more than eight flint-points of arrows, the shafts of which had been broken off
by the wounded animals while passing through the rocks and bushes.  I
believe that more of these animals were killed and eaten by the natives than
were brought to the mission for consumption, and horses and asses suffered in
like manner.
* German proverb.
t The cattle, as well as the goats and sheep, are described as small and lean, owing to the
scanty pasturage. The horses, though small, were of a good breed and enduring, but they
did not sufficiently multiply, and fresh animals had to be imported every year to mount tho
soldiers and cowhelrds. "The ass alone," says the author, "which is nowhere choice, but
always contented, fares tolerably well in California. He works but little, and feeds on the
prickly shrubs with as much relish as if they were the most savory oats." The number of
hogs on the whole peninsula hardly amounted to a dozen.




THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.                        381
In order to be exempt from labor, or to escape the punishment for gross
misdeeds, the Californians sometimes counterfeit dangerously sick- or dying
persons.  MIany of those who were carried to the mission in such a feigned state
by their comrades received a sound flogging, which suddenly restored them to
health.  Without mentioning all the cases that fell under my notice, I will
speak of two individuals who represented dying persons so well that I did not
hesitate to give them  extreme unction.  Another really frightened me by pretending to be infected with the smallpox, which actually raged in the neighboring
mission, causing its priest for three months, clay and night, a vast deal of trouble
and care, and keeping him almost constantly on horseback.  A fourth, whose
name was Clement, seemed also resolved to give up the ghost.  With him,
however, the difficulty was that he had never seen a dying person, not even his
wife, whom I had buried, and often visited during her sickness, without ever
finding the husband at home. But having witnessed the death of many cows
and oxen, which his arrows had brought down, he imitated the dying beast so
naturally, by lolling out his tongue and licking his lips, that he went afterwards
always by the name of C(lemente vacca or Cow Clement.
Nothing excites the admiration of the Californians.  They look upon the
most splendid ecclesiastic garments, embroidered with gold and silver, with as
much indiference as though the material consisted of wool and the galoons of
common flax.  They would rather see a piece of meat than the rarest manufactures of Milan and Lyons, and resemble, in that respect, a certain Canadian
who had been in France, and remarked, after his return to Canada, that nothing
in Paris had pleased him better than the butcher-shops.*
They are not in the least degree susceptible of disgust, but will touch and
handle the uncleanest objects as though they were roses, killing spiders with
their fists, and taking hold of toads wit'lout aversion.  rLThey use as a covering
the filthiest rag, and wear it until it rots on their bodies. In person they are
exceedingly dirty, and waste hardly any time in decorating and embellishing
themselves.  I must mention here, also, that they are in the habit of washing
themselves with urine, which renders their persons very disagreeable, as I have
often experienced when I had to confess them.  I was informed by reliable
people that they eat a certain kind of large spiders, and likewise the vermin
which they take fiom  each other's heads; but I never saw them  doing it:
whereas I saw them frequently fetch their maize porridge at noon in a halfcleaned turtle-shell which they had used the whole morning to carry -the dung
from the folds of the sheep and goats.
Concerning their improvement by the introduction of the Christian religion,
I am unable to bestow much praise upon those among whom I lived seventeen
years, during which period I had sufficient opportunity to become thoroughly
acquainted with their character; but I must confess, to my greatest,affliction,
that the sqed of the Divine Word has borne but little fruit among them; for
this seed fell into hearts already obdurated in vice fiom their very infancy by
seduction and bad example, which all pains and exertions on the part of the
missionary were unavailing to remove.  The occasions for evil-doing, among
young and old, are of daily occurrence, and numberless.  The parents themselves give the worst example, and the Spanish soldiers, cowherds, and a few
others who come to the country for the purpose of pearl-fishing and mining,
contribute not a little to increase vice among the native population.  The moX Mr. Catlin relates a similar circumstance of a party of Iowa Indians that were exhibited
in London. After their first drive through the city, "they returned to their lodgings in
great glee, and amused us at least for an hour with their first impressions of London, the
leading, striking feature of which, and the one that seemed to afford them the greatest satisfiction, was the quantity of fresh meat that they saw in every street hanging up at the doors
and windows."-Catlin's Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence irn Europe. New
York, 1848: vol. ii, p. 9.




[ 8j2             THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
tives, on the other hand, which act elsewhere as checks upon the conduct of
the people, and keep them within the bounds of decency, are not at all understood or appreciated by the Californians, for which reason the teachings of
religion can make but.little impression upon their unprepared minds; and being
thus unrestrained by any considerations, they easily yield to the impulses of
their character, -in which a strong passion for illegal sexual intercourse forms a
prominent feature.  In all bad habits.and vices the Californian women fully
equal the men, but surpass them in impudence and want of devotion, contrary
to the habit of the female sex in all the rest of the world. There were certainly
some among the Californians who led edifying lives and behaved in a praiseworthy manner after having embraced the Christian faith; but their number
was very small; the reverse, on the contrary, being the general rule to such a
degree that the wicked and vicious formed the great majority of the natives.
CHAPTER VI.-THEIR CHARACTER, CONTINUED. —-AN ACCOUNT OF THE ASSASSINATION OF THE JESUIT FATHERS TAMARAL AND CARRANCO.*
To all other bad qualities of the Californians may be added their vindictiveness and cruelty.  They care very little for the life of man, and an insignificant
cause will stimulate them  to commit a murder.  Among other cases which
happened while I lived in their country, I will mention that of the master of a
small ship loaded with provisions for two poor missions.  This man had scolded
a number of natives for some cause or other, which they resented by breaking
lis skull with a heavy stone, while he was eating his supper 911 the shore. His
ship they abandoned to wind and waves. In the year 1760, a boy of about
sixteen years stabbed another of the same age with a knife in the abdomen, and
struck him on the head with a heavy, club, almost within sight of the whole
tribe, and only a stone's throw from the church and the house of the missionary.
The murderer had already selected a horse on which to escape, and intended to
save himself within a church thirty leagues distant from the place where the
crime was committed; but he failed to effect his flight. t /
Up to the year 1750 the Californians had revolted at different times and
places, and compelled several missionaries to abandon their stations, and to seek
safety in other quarters.  The natives were stirred up to these insurrections
either by their conjurers or sorcerers, whose influence had been considerably
reduced, or because it was requested of them to keep those promises which they
had made when receiving the holy baptism.
The most extensive and dangerous revolt of all began in the year 1733, in the
southern part of the peninsula, among two tribes called the Periczes and Coras,
who are to this day of a very fierce, unruly, and untractable character, and who
gave much trouble to Father Ignatius Tirs, from Kommotau, in Bohemia, the
last Jesttit missionary who resided in their district. 
In the year 1733 there existed in that part of the country, which was inhabited by several thousand natives, four missions, with three priests, who had in
all only six soldiers for their protection.  The missions were the following:
La Paz, without a resident priest, and guarded by one soldier; St. gRosa, under
Father Sigismund Taraval, a Spaniard, born in Italy, protected by three soldiers; St.' Yago, over which Father Lorenzo Carranco, a 3lexican, of Spanish
* This episode in the missionary history of California forms a separate chapter in the third
part of our author's work; but as it throws much light on the temperament of the natives, I
have inserted it in this place.
t This church was probably considered as an asylum or place of safety.
t He was one of those who shared with the author, in 1767, the fate of banish~ment. At
that time there were in all sixteen Jesuits in Lower California-fifteen priests and one lay
brother. Six of them were Spaniards, two Mexicans, and eight Germans. The names of
the latter are given on page 3i2 by the author, who omits, however, his own name in order
to preserve his anonymous character.




THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.                       383
parentage, resided, with two soldiers; and St. Joseph del Cabo, under Father
Nicolas Tamaral, from Sevilla, in Spain, without any guard.
The motives leading to this insurrection, which were afterwards freely divulged
by the natives, consisted in their unwillingness to content themselves with one
wife, although they had promised to renounce polygamy, and their displeasure
at being reprimanded for certain transgressions deserving the censure of their
spiritual advisers. The ringleaders and principal movers of the rebellion were
two individuals, Boton and Chicdri by name, who exerted a great influence
among the natives, and prepared everything in secret for the outbreak. Their
object was to kill the three priests, to exterminate all traces of Christianity,
which most of them had adopted ten years before, and to resume their former
loose and independent manner of living. Their design became, however, known,
and the fire was extinguished before it could blaze up in full flames. The Indians feigned a friendly disposition, and a kind of peace was established towards
the beginning of the year 1734. But as this peace was not concluded with
sincerity, it could not be of a long duration. The treacherous rebels soon again
made attempts to carry out at all hazards the objects they had in view, and
really succeeded in the following October, though not so completely as they
wished, since Father Taraval found the means to escape their murderous hands.
The six soldiers were their principal obstacle. Meeting in the field with one
of them of the mission of St. Rosa, they assassinated him, and sent word to the
mission that he was very ill, requesting the priest either to come to the place in
order to confess him, or to order the two remaining soldiers to transport the
patient to the station, their intention being to decoy the one or the others, and
to take their lives. But fortunately the messenger delivered his commission in
such an awkward manner that the crime they had already perpetrated, as well
as their further designs, could be easily divined, for which reason neither the
priest nor the soldiers complied with their request. A few days afterward they
killed also the only soldier belonging to the mission de la Paz.
The rumor of these two murders, and other indubitable signs of an impending
mutiny and general uprising in the south, were spread abroad, and soon reached
the ears of the Superior of the missions, who was. then at that of the Seven
Dolors, nearly ninety leagues from the place where these events had occurred.
lHe sent orders immediately to the three priests whose lives were endangered to
save themselves by flight, but the letters fell into the hands of the mutineers,
and would, besidMes, at any rate have arrived too late to avert the peril.
It was the intention of the conspirators to strike the first blow against the
mission of St. Joseph and Father' Tamaral; but learning that Father Carranco
had already received intelligence of their plans, they rushed with all speed
upon his mission before he could make any preparations for defence, or effect
his escape from the place. It was on a Saturday, and the 2d of October, when
they arrived at the mission of St. Yago. The father had just said mass, and
had locked himself in his room to perform his private devotions. Mlost unfortunately the two soldiers, who formed his whole body-guard, had left the place
on horseback in order to bring in some head of cattle for the catechumens and
other people of the mission. After a while the returned messengers, whom
Father Carranco had despatched to the mission of St. Joseph to warn Father
Tamaral of the danger to which he was exposed, entered the room. Father
Carranco was reading hid answer, when the murderers entered the house and
fell upon him. Some threw him on the ground and dragged him by his feet to
the front of the church, while others pierced his body with many arrows, and
beat him with stones and clubs till he expired.
A little native boy, who used to wait upon the father when he took his meals,
was a witness to the act, and shed tears when he beheld his benefactor's
mournful fate; npon which one of the barbarians seized the boy by the legs
and s.imashed his head against the wall, saying, that since he showed so much




384              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
regret at the death of his master, he should also serve him and bear him company in the other world. Among the murderers were some whom the father
had considered as the most reliable of his flock, and whose fidelity he never had
doubted.
Having torn the garments from the lifeless body, they treated it in a most
abominable manner in order to wreak their vengeance, and they finally threw
it on a burning pile. After this they set the church and the house on fire, and
burned to ashes the utensils of the church, the altar, the representations of our
Saviour and of the Saints, and everything else that they could not apply to
their own use. In the mean time the two unarmed soldiers, who had been sent
after cattle, returned.  They were compelled to dismount and to kill the cows
for the malefactors, after which the savages despatched them with a shower of
arrows.
On the following day, the same fate befell Father Tamaral, the priest of the
mission of St. Joseph, twelve leagues distant from that of St. Yago, for as soon as
the villains had committed their crime at the one place, they directed their
march to the other. Father Tamaral, not believing the report of his colleague,
was quietly sitting in his his house, when the savage crowd, considerably increased
by members of his own parish, made their appearance in the mission. In their
usual manner, they demanded something from the missionary, for the purpose
of finding a pretext for quarrelling and commencing their hostilities, in case the
priest should disappoint them in their wishes. But their behavior, and the
arms which they all carried with them, soon convinced the missionary that they
had other designs, and he consequently not only complied with their requests,
but gave them even more than they demanded. Being thus baffled in their
attempt, and full of eagerness to carry out their bloody plan, they put aside all
dissimulation and attacked the missionary without further delay. They threw
him on the ground, dragged him into the open air, and discharged their arrows
upon him.  One of their number, whom the father had a short time before presented with a large knife, added ingratitude to cruelty by burying the weapon
in his body.
Thus the Fathers Tamaral and Carranco were led to the shambles by their
own flock, and closed their,days in California, after they hCad spent many years
in that country, and, by a blameless life and great zeal, proved themselves
worthy to die the death of martyrs. The abuses to which the savages subjected the body of the deceased priest were greater, in this instance, and they
exhibited more wantonness in the destruction of the church and other property
than on the preceding day, because the crowd was larger and had become more
infuriated by previous success.
Father Ta'raval, of St. Rosa, the third priest of whom they intended to make
a victim, succeeded in making good his flight. He sojourned for the moment
on the western coast of California, at the station of All Saints, which formed an
adjunct to his own mission, and was a two days' journey distant from St. Joseph.
Beinlg warned in due time by some faithful Indians of the danger that threatened him, he packed up in great haste his most needful things and rode at full
speed, in company with his two soldiers, during the night of the fourth of October towards the opposite shore of the peninsula, where he embarked near the
mission of La Paz in a small vessel, which had been despatched to that place
when the first news of the impending rebellion. becamie known. He landed in
safety at; the mission of the Seven Dolors, then situated near the sea; leaving
behind him the smoking ruins of four missions that had been totally destroyed
in less than four days, but which could only be rebuilt and raised to their former
importance with great sacrifices of time, labor, and human life.
The rebels, however, fared badly, and had no cause to glory in their triumph.
The southern tribes, whose number was four thousand souls at the outbreak of
the revolt, are now reduced to four hundred, for not only was war waged against




THIE CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                       3855
them by the Californian and foreign militia, but they had also quarrels among
themselves.*  Yet these causes were less effective in their destruction than the
loathsome diseases and ulcers by which -they were visited, and among the four
hundred that now remain, only a few are free from the general malady and
enjoy the blessing of sound health.
On the other hand, be that grace of Heaven a thousand times praised, which,
in our day also, inspires among the members of the Catholic priesthood, and
especially in the Society of Jesus, men of superior courage who,. without the
slightest self-interest and for the sole purpose of propagating the Christian faith,
not only brave all dangers to which they are exposed in wild countries and
amidst barbarous tribes, but who also willingly give up their lives when occasion demands such sacrifices! For besides these two Californian missionaries,
many others belonging to the same society have suffered death in the course
of this century, while engaged in the conversion of heathen nations.  Among
the great number of these victims, I will only mention Father Thomas Tello,
a Spaniard, and Father Henry Ruhen, a German from Westphalia, both Jesuits,
who were killed as late as 1751, by the mutinous Pimas, on the other side of
the Californian gulf. With Father Ruhen, I had crossed the Atlantic ocean a
year before, and we made also in company the journey overland as far as the
Pimeria, where he closed his days six months after his arrival.
CHAPTER VII.-THEI[R TREATMENT OF THE SICK.-FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
With all their poor diet and hardships, the Californians are seldom sick.
They are in general strong, hardy, and much healthier than the many thousands
who live daily in abundance and on the choicest fare that the skill of Parisian
cooks can prepare.  It is very probable th'at most Californians would attain a
considerable age, after having safely passed through the dangers of their childhood; but they are immoderate in eating, running, bathing, and other matters,
and thus doubtless shorten their existence. Excepting consumption and that
disease which was brought from America to Spain and Naples, and firom thence
spread over various countries, they are but little subject to the disorders common in Europe; podagra, apoplexy, dropsy, cold and petechial fevers being
almost unknown among them.  There is no word in their language to express
sickness in general or any particular disease. "To be sick," they signify by
the phrase alemba-tie, which means " to lie down on the ground," though all
those in good health may be seen in that position the whole day, if they are
not searching for food or otherwise engaged. When I asked a Californian what
ailed him, he'usually said, "I have a pain in my chest," without giving further
particulars.
For the small-pox the Californians are, like other Americans, indebted to
Europeans, and this disease assumes a most pestilential character among them.
A piece of cloth which a Spaniard, just recovered from the small-pox, had given
to a Californian communicated, in the year 1763, the disease to a small mission,
and in three months more than a hundred individuals died, not to speak of many
others who had been infected, but were saved by the unwearied pains and care
of the missionary.  Not one of them would have escaped the malady, had not
the majority run away from the neighborhood of the hospital as soon as they
discovered the contagious nature of the disease.
In the month of April of the same year, 1763, a young and strong woman
of my mission was seized with a very peculiar disorder, consisting in eructaThis is the only instance in which the author alludes to wars among the natives in the
body of his book, thoug-h the first appendix contains, on page 328, the following remark in
refutation of a passage in the French translation of Venegas's work: "All that is said ift
reference to the warfare of the Californians is wrong. In their former wars they merely
attacked the enemy unexpectedly during the night, or from an ambush, and killed as many
as they could, without order, previous declaration of war, or any ceremonies whatever."
25 S




38G              THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
tions of such violent character that the noise almost resembled thunder, and
could be heard at a distance of forty and more paces. The eructations lasted
about half a minute, and followed each other after an interval of a few minutes.
The appetite of the patient was good, and she complained of nothing else. In this
condition she remained for a week, when she suddenly driopped down in such a
manner that I thought she would never rise again; but I was mistaken, for the
eructations and the peculiar fits continued for three years, until she became at
last emaciated and c~_ed in the month of July, 1766. A few days after the
outbreak of her malady, her husband was attacked by the same disorder, and
on my departure, in 1768, I left him without hope of recovery.  Subsequently
the woman's brother and his wife suffered in like manner,' and after these
several other Californians, principally of the female sex. Neither the oldest of
the natives, nor missionaries living for thirty years in the country, had hitherto
been acquainted with this extraordinary and apparently contagious disease.
The patience of Californians in sickness is really admirable. Hardly a sigh
is heaved by those who lie on the bare ground in the most pitiable condition
and racked wvith pain. They look without dread upon their ulcers and wounds,
and submit to burning and cutting, or make incisions in their own flesh for extracting tlhorns and splinters, with as much indifference as though the operation
were performed on somebody else. It is, however, an indication of approaching death when they lose their appetite.
Their medical art is very limited, consisting almost exclusively, whatever
the character of the disease may be, in the practice of binding, when feasible,
a cord or coarse rope tightly around the affected part of the body.  Sometimes
they msake use of a kind of bleeding by cutting with a sharp stone a few small
openings in the inflamed part, in order to draw blood and thus relieve the
patient. Though every year a number of Californians die by the bite of the
rattlesnake, their only remedy against such accidents consists in tightly binding the injured member a little above the wound towards the heart; but if the
part wounded by the reptile is a finger or a hand, they simply cut it off,. and I
knew several who had performed this cure on themselves or on individuals of their
families. Now-a-days they beg in nearly all cases of disease for tallow to rub
the affected part, and also for Spanish snuff which they use against headache
and sore eyes. Excepting the remedies just mentioned, they have no appliances whatever against ulcers, wounds, or other external injuries, and far less
against internal disorders; and though they may repeatedly have seen the
missionary using some simple for removing a complaint, they will, either fiom
forgetfulness or indolence, never employ it for themselves or others, but always
apply to the missionary again.
They do not, however, content themselves with these natural remedies, but
have also recourse to supernatural means, which certainly never brought about
a, recovery. There are many impostors among them, pretending to possess the
power of curing diseases, and the ignorant Indians have so much faith in their
art that they send for one or more of these scoundrels whenever they are indisposed. In treating a sick person, these jugglers employ a small tube, which
they use for sucking or blowing the' patient for a while, making, also, various
grimaces and muttering something which they do not understand themselves,
until, finally, after much hard breathing and panting, they show the patient a
flint, or some other object previously hidden about their persons, pretenlding to
have at last removed the real cause of the disorder. Twelve of these liars
received one day, by my orders, the punishment they deserved, and the whole
people had to promise to desist in future from these practices, or else I would
no more preach for them. But when, a few weeks afterwards, that individual,
who first of all had engaged to renounce the devil, fell sick, he sent immediately again for the blower to perform the usual jugglery.




THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.                       387
It is to be feared that some of those who are seized with illness far from the
mission, and not carried thither, are buried alive, especially old people, and
such as have few relations, for they are in the habit of digging the grave two
or three days before the patient breathes his last. It seems tedious to them to
spend much time near an old, dying person that was long ago a burden to them
and looked upon with indifference. A person of my acquaintance restored a
girl to life that was already bound up in a deer-skin, according to their custom,
and readv for burial, by administering to her a good dose of chocolate.  She lived
many years afterwards. On their way to the mission, some natives broke the
neck of a blind, sick old woman, in order to be spared the trouble of carrying
her a few miles further. Another patient, being much annoyed by gnats, which
no one felt inclined to keep off from him, was covered up in such a manner
that he died of suffocation. In transporting a patient from one place to
another, they bind him on a rude litter, made of crooked pieces of wood, which
would constitute a perfect rack for any but Indian bones, the carriers being in
the habit of running with their charge.
Concerning their consciences and eternity, the Californians are perfectly
quiet during their sickness, and die off as calmly as though they were sure of
heaven. As soon as a person has given up the ghost, a terrible howling is
raised by the women that are present, and by those to whom the news is communicated, yet no one sheds tears, excepting, perhaps, the nearest relations,
and the whole proceeding is a mere ceremony. But who would believe that
some of them show a dislike to be buried according to the rites of the Catholic
religion? HIaving noticed that certain individuals, who were dangerously sick,
yet still in possession of their faculties, objected to being led or carried to the
mission, in order to obtain there both spiritual and material assistance, I inquired the cause of this strange behavior, and was informed they considered it
as a derision of the dead to bury them with ringing of the bells, chanting, and
other ceremonies of the Catholic church.
One of them told me they had formerly broken the spine of the deceased
before burying them, and had thrown them into the ditch, rolled up like a ball,
believing that they would rise up again if not treated in this manner. I saw
them, however, frequently putting shoes on the feet of the dead, which rather
seems to indicate that they entertain the idea of a journey after death; but
whenever I asked them why they observed this probably very ancient custom,
they could not give me any satisfactory answer. In time of mourning, both
men and women cut off their hair almost entirely, which formerly was given
to their physicians or conjurers, who made them into a kind of mantle or large
wig, to be worn on solemn occasions.
When a death has taken place, those who want to show the relations of the
deceased their respect for the latter lie in wait for these people, and if they
pass they come out from their hiding-place, almost creeping, and intonate a
mournful, plaintive, /h, hzu, Ah! wounding their heads with pointed, sharp
stones, until the blood flows down to their shoulders. Although this barbarous
custom has frequently been interdicted, they are unwilling to discontinue it.
When I learned, a few years ago, that some had been guilty of this transgression after the death of a certain woman, I left them the choice either to
submit to the fixed punishment or to repeat this mourning ceremony in my
presence.  They chose the latter, and, in a short time, I saw the blood trickling down from their lacerated heads.
CHAPTER VIII.-THEIR QUALIFICATIONS AND MANNERS.
From what I have already said of the Californians, it might be inferred that
they are the most unhappy and pitiable of all the children of Adam. Yet
such a supposition would be utterly wrong, and I can assure the reader that,
as far as their temporal condition is concerned, they live unquestionably much




388                THE ABORIGINAL INHABITAN1TS OF
happier than the civilized inhabitants of Europe, not excepting those who seem
to enjoy all the felicity that life can afford.  Habit renders all things endurable
and easy, and the Californian sleeps on the hard ground and in the open air
just as well and soft as the rich European on the curtained bed of down in his
splendidly decorated apartment.  Throughout the whole year nothing happens
that causes a Californian trouble or vexation, nothing that renders his life cumbersomle and death desirible; for no one harasses and persecutes him, or carries on a lawsuit against him; neither a hail-storm nor an army canl lay waste
his fields, and he is not in danger of having his house and barn destroyed by
fire.  Envy, jealousy, and slander embitter not his life, and he is not exposed
to the fear of losing what he possesses, nor to the care of increasing it.  No
creditor lays claim to debts; no officer extorts duty, toll, poll-tax, and a lundred other tributes.  There is no woman that spends more for dress than the
inacome of the Ihusband allows; no husband who gambles or drinks awxay the
moiney that should serve to support and clothe the family; there are no children
to be established in life; no daughters to be provided with husbands; and no
prodigal sons that heap disgrace upon whole families.  In one word, the Californians do not know the meaning of meum and tuum, those two ideas which,
according to St. Gregory, fill the few days of our existence with bitterness and
uncountable evils.
Though the Californians seem to possess nothing, they have, nevertheless,,II that they want, for they covet nothing beyond the productions of their
l>oor, ill-fxavored country, and these are alvways within their reach.  It is no
WoilIder, then, that they always exhibit a joyful temper, and constantly indulge
in merriment and laughter, showing thus their contentment, which, after all, is
the real source of happiness.
The Califbrnians know very little of arithmetic, some of them being unable
to counlt further than six, while otihers cannot number beyond three, insomuch
thalt nonIe of them can say how many fingers he has.  They do not possess
anything' that is worth counting, and hence their inldifference.  It is all the
samne to thelu whether the year has six or twelve months, and the month three
or thirty days, for every day is a holiday with them.  They care not whether
they have one oer two or twelve children, or none at all, since twelve cause
them no more expense or trouble than one, and the inheritance is not lessened
by a plurality of heirs.  Any number beyond six they express in their lalguage by much, leaving it to their confessor to make out whether that number
amounts to seven, seventy, or seven hundred.
They do not know what a year is, and, consequently, cannot say when it
begios and ends.  Instead of saying, theefore, " a year ago," or' clurin:g this
yeaar," the Californli.ans who speak the Waicuri language use the expressions,
U'~ is aclreadcty    an  mi'c pas't, or, dering th/is anln2a, the latter word signifying
tllhe pitohaya firuit, of which l description has been given on a previous page.
A space of three years, itherefoe, is expressed by the term " three pitahayas;"
yet they seldoml in-lKe use of such phrlases, because they hardly ever speak
an-lo:-  theni elves of years, but merely say, " long ago," or, " not long ago,"
toeinog utterly i::dilerent iiwheth:ler two or twenty years have elapsed since the
ccculrnce of at certain  event.  For the same reason they do not speak oft
lmonths, and hLave lnot eveln a name for that spaCe of' time.  A week, however,
thley cill at pre ent ambznja, that is, " a house," or " a place where one resides,"
whicli name they llhave now, per Lantonomasiatmn, bestowed upon the church'they ae divicided into bands, which alternately spend a week at the mission,
wlherle they ha-.ve to aLttend church-service, and thus the week has become':niolg them synonymous -with the church.
NIWhen thle Californians visit the missionary for any purpose, they are perfectly sient at first, and when asked the cause of their visit, their first answer
isa,,ira, which means "nothing."  Having afterwards delivered their speech,




11-E1ii  CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA.                  3:.
they sit down, unasked; in doing which the women stretch out their legs, whllile
the men cross them  in the oriental fashion.  The same habits they observe
also in the church and elsewhere.  They salute nobody, such a civility being
unknown to them, and they have no word to express greeting.  If something
is communicated to them which they do not like, they spit out sideways anld
scratch the ground with their left foot to express their displeasure.
The men carry everything on their heads; the women bear loads on thleiir
backs suspended by ropes that pass around their foreheads, and in order to
protect the skin from injury, they place between the forehead and the rope a
piece of untanned deer-hide, which reaches considerably above the head, anl
resembles, from afar, a helmet, or the high head-dress worn by ladies at tlhe
present time.
The Californians have a great predilection for singing and dancing, which
are always performed together; the first is called amber'a diti, the latter age'nari.
Their singing is nothing but an inarticulate, unmeaning whispering, murmuring, or shoutingl, which every one intonates according to his own inclination, in
order to express his joy. Their dances consist in a foolish, irregular gesticulatting and jumping, or advancing, retreating, and walking in a circle. Yet, they
take such delight in these amusements that they spend whole nights in their
performance, in which respect they much resemble Europeans, of whom certainly  more have killed themselves during Shrovetide and at other times by
dancing, than by praying and fasting.  rl'hese pastimes, though innocent ill
themselves, had to be rigidly interdicted, because the grossest disorders and
vices were openly perpetrated by the natives during the performances; but it
is hardly possible to prevent them from indulging in their sports. While
speaking of these exercises of the natives, I will also mention that they are
exceedingly good runners.  I would gladly have yielded up to them my three
horses for consumption if I had been as swift-footed as they; for, whenever I
travelled, I became sooner tired with riding than they with walking. They
will run twenty leagues to-day, and return to-morrow to the place fiom whence
tiey started without showing much fatigue. Being one day on the point of
setting out on a journey, a little boy expressed a wish to accompany me, and
when I gave him to. understand that the distance was long, the business pressing, and my horse, moreover, very brisk, he replied with great promptness:
"Thy horse will become tired, but I will not."  Another time I sent a boy of
fourteen years with a letter to the neighboring mission, situated six leagues
from my residence.  He started at seven o'clock in the morning, and when
about a league and a half distant from his place of destination, he met the missionary, to whom the letter was addressed, mounted on a good mule, and on his
way to pay me a visit. The boy turned round and accompanied the missionary,
with whom he arrived about noon at my mission, having walked within five
hours a distance of more than nine leagues.
With boys and girls who have arrived at the age of puberty, with pregnant
women, new-born children, and women in child-bed, the Californians observed,
and still secretly observe, certain absurd ceremonies of an unbecoming nature,
which, for this reason, cannot be described in this book.
There existed always among the Californian'; individuals of both sexes who
played the part of sorcerers or conjurers, pretending to possess the power of
exorcising the devil, whom they never saw; of curing diseases, which they
never healed; and of producing pitahayas, though they could only ealt them.
Sometimes they went into caverns, and, changing their voices, made the people
believe that they conversed with some spiritual power.  They threatened also
with famine and diseases, or promised to drive the small-pox and similar plagues
away and to other places.  When these braggarts appeared formerly in their
gala apparel, they wore long mantles made of human hair, of which the missionaries burned a great number in all newly established missions. The object




390                THE  ABOR1IGINAL   INH-ijAlAlNTA'      U'r
of these impostors was to obtain their food without the trouble of gathering it
in the fields, for the silly people provided them with the best they could find,
in order to keep them ill good humor and to enjoy their fiavor.  Their influence
is very small now-a-days; yet the sick do not cease to place their confidence in
them, as I mentioned in the preceding chapter.
It might be the proper time now to speak of the form of government and
the religion of the Californians previous to their conversion to Christianity;
but neither the one nor the other existed among them.  They had no magistrates, no police, and no laws; idols, temples, religious worship or ceremonies
were unknown to them, and they neither believed in the true and only God,
nior adored false deities.*  They were all equals, and every olle did as lihe
pleased, without asking his neighlbor or caring for his opinion, and thus all vices
and misdeeds remained unpunished, excepting  such cases in which the offended
individual or his rela:tions took the law  into their own hanld  and revenged
themselves on the guilty party.  The different tribes represented by no means
communities of rational beings, who  submit to hltws and regulations and obey
their superiors, but resembled fcr more herds of wild swine, which run about
according to their own liking, being together to-day and scattered to-morrow,
till they meet again by accident at some future time.  In one  word, the Ca.lifornians lived, salca vtenia, as though they had been freetllinkers and mat-erialists. t
I made diligent inquiries, among those with whom  I lived, to ascertain
Iwhether they had any conception of' God, a future life, and their own souls, but
I never could discover the slighltest trace of such a knowledge.  Tllheir language
ihas no words for "God" and'' soul," for which reason the 1m-issionaries were
compelled to use in their sermons anid religious insiructions the Spaiish words
Dies and alma.  It could hardly be otherwise with people  who thougllt of
notlillg  but eating and merry-making and never reflected on serious maltters,
but dismissed everytlling that lay beyond the narrow compass of their conceptions with the phrase aipcke'riri, which means'-lwho know-s tha.t?"  I often
asked them whether they had never put to themselves the question who might
be the creator and preserver of the sun, moon, stars, and other objects of' nature,
but was always sent home with a vcdra, which means "no" in their language.
CHAPTER IX. —-OW  THIEY LIVED  BEFORE  AND AFTER  THEIR  CONXVERSION.
I will now  proceed to describe in a few words in what manner the unlbaptized Califolrnians spent tlheir days.
In thle evening, when they had eaten their fill, they either lay down, or sat
together and chatted till they were tired of talking', or h:ad communicated to
each other all that they knew for the moment.  In thle morning they slept until
hunger forced them  to rise.  As soon as they  awakenled, the eating' recoimmencecd, if anything remained; alnd the laughing, talking, and jokilng were
likewise resumed.  After this morninig-prayer, when the sun was already somewhat high, the men seized their bows and arrows, and. the women lhitched on
their yokes and turtle-shells.  Some went to the right, others to the l ft; here
six, there four, eight, or three, anid sometimes one alone, the diffbrent bands
always continuing the laughing and chattering on their way.  They looked
around to espy a mounse, lizard, snake, orI perhaps a hare or deer; or tore up
here and there a yuka or other root, or cut off some alo/is.  A part of the day
* According to Father Piccolo, the Californians worshipped the moon; and Veneoas
mentions the belief in a good and bad principle as prevailing among the Pericues and
Cotchimiies.-( Yaitz, Antlropologie der Naturrc6lker, vol. iv, p. 230.) These, statements
are emplhatically refited by Baegert in his first appendix, p. 315, where he says:' It is not
true that they worshipped the moon, or practiced any kind of idolatry."
t This is literally his expression.




THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSSULA.                      391
thus spent, a pause was made. They sat or lay down in the shade, if they
happened to find any, without, however, allowing their tongues to come to a
stand-still, or they played or wrestled with each other, to find out who was the
strongest among them and could throw his adversaries to the ground, in which
sport the women likewise participated. Now they either returned to the camping-place of the preceding night, or went a few leagues further, until they came
to some spot supplied with water, where they commenced singeing, burning,
roasting, and pounding the captures they had made during the day. They ate
as long as they had anything before them and as there was room in their stomachs, and after a long, childish or indecent talk, they betook themselves to
rest again. In this manner they lived throughout the whole yEar, and their
conversation, if it did not turn on eating, had always some childish trick or
knavery for its subject. Those of the natives who cannot be put to some useful labor, while living at the mission, spend their time pretty much in the same
way.
Who would expect, under these circumstances, to find a spark of religion among the Californians'?  It is true, they spoke of the course taken by a
deer that had escaped them at nightfall with an arrow in his side, and which
they intended to pursue the next morning, but they never speculated on the
course of the sun and the other heavenly bodies; they talked about their pitahayas, even long before they were ripe, yet it never occurred to them to think
of the Creator of the pitahayas and other productions around them.
I am not unacquainted with the statement of a certain author, accordling to
which one Californian tribe at least was found to possess some knowledge of
the incarnation of the Son of God and the Holy Trinity; but this is certainly
an error, considering that such a knowledge could only have been imparted by the.
preachers of the Gospel. The whole matter doubtless originated in a deception
on the part of the natives, who are very mendacious and inclined to invent
stories calculated to please the missionary; while, on the other hand, every one
may be easily deceived by them who has not yet found out their tri.cks. It is,
moreover, a very difficult task to learn anything fiom  them  by inquiry; for,
besides their shameless lies and unnecessarily evasive answers, they entangle,
from inborn anwkwardness, the subject in question in such a pitiable manner, and
contradict themselves so frequently, that the inquirer is very apt to lose his
patience. A missionary once requested me to find out whether a certain N.
had been married before his baptism, which he received when a grown man,
-with the sister of M. A simple "yes" or "no" would have answered the
question and decided the matter at once. But the examination lasted about
tlhree-quarters of an hour, at the end of which I knew just as little as before.
I vwrote down the questions and answers, and sent the protocol to the missionary,
who -was no nmore successful than myself in arriving at the final result, whether
iN. had been the husband of the sister of M. or not. So confused are the mninds
of these Californian Hottentots.
Of baptized Indians, there resided in each mission as many as the missionary
could support and occupy with field-labor, knitting, weaving, and other work.
Where it was possible to keep a good number of sheep, spinning-wheels and
loomns were ihn operation, and the people received more frequently new clothing
than at other stations.  In each mission there were also a number of natives
appointed for special service, namely, a sacristan, a goat-herd, a tender of the
sick, a catechist, a superintendent, a fiscal, and two dirty cooks, one for the
missionary and the other for the Californians. Of the fifteen missilns, howvever, there were only four, and these but thinly populated, which could support
and clotle all their parisioers, and af their parishioners, and affbrd them a home durin-g tle whole
year. In the otlher missionary stations, the whole people were divided into
three or four bands which appeared alternately once in a month at the mission
dlcl encamped there for a week. -




THE ABORIGINAL  INIIAI3ITANYTS OF
Every day at sunrise they all attended mass, during which they said their
beads.  Before and after mass they recited the Christian doctrine, drawn up
for them in questions and answers in their own language.  An address or exhortation delivered by the missionary in the same language, and lasting from
hlalf an hour to three-quarters of an hour, concluded the religious service of
the morning.  This over, breakfast was given to those who were engaged in
some work, while the others went where they pleased in order to gather their
daily bread in the fields, if the missionary was unable to provide them  with
food.  T Towards sunset, a signal with the bell assembled them all again in the
church to say their beads and the litany of Loretto, or to sing it on Sundays
and holidays.' The bell was not only rung three times a day, as usual, but
also at three o'clock in the afternoon, in honor of the agony of Christ, and also,
according to Spanish custom, at eight o'clock in the evening, to pray for the
faithful departed.  When the week was over, the parishioners returned to their
respective homes, some three or six, others fifteen or twenty leagues distant
from the mission.
On the principal holidays of the year, and also during passion-week, all
members of the community were assembled at the mission, and they received
at such times, besides their ordinary food, some head of cattle and a good supply of Indian corn for consumption; dried figs and raisins were also given them
without stint in all missions where such fruit was raised.  On these occasions,
articles of food and apparel were likewise put up as prizes for those who were
winners in the games they played, or excelled in shooting at the target.
F'iscals and superintendents, appointed from among the different bands, preserved order within  and without the mission.  It was their duty to lead all
those wh0o were present to the church when the bell rung, and to collect and
drive in to the mission that portion of the community which had been roaming
for three weeks at large.  They were to prevent disorders, public scandals and
knaveries, and to enforce decent behavior and silence during church-service.
It was further their duty to make the conlverts recite the catechism  morning
a1nd evening, and to say their beads in the fields; to punish sligoht tranlsgressions, and to report more serious offences at the proper place; to take care of
those who fell sick in the wilderness, and to convey them to the mnision, &c.,
&c.  As a badge of their office they carried a cane which was often silverheaded.  Miost of them  were very proud of their dignity, but only a Rfew performed their duty, for which reason tlihey received their floggin'  oftener tllan
the rest, and had to bear the blows and cuffs, which. it was their dcluty to administer to otliers.*  There were also catechists appointed upon whom  it iwas incumbent to lead the prayers, and to give instruction to the most ignorant of
the catechllumnens.
Evemr} day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, either the missionary himself, or some one appointed by him, distributed boiled  ilwheat or
maize to the pregnant women, the blind, old and infirm, if' he was unable to
feed thema all; anld for those who were sick, meat was cooked at least once
every diay.  AWhen any work was done, all engaged in it were fed three times
a dLy.  Yet their labor was by no means severe.  \NTould to God it had been
* On a preceding page thle author gives, not exactly in the proper place, the following
particulars (oncerenitg the penal law establisled camonfg the Calitornians: "In cases of
extlraordinary crinacs, the puaishment of the nati ves w-as fixed by the lroyal officer wh lo commanded the Calilornian squadron; common mlisdeeds fe'l within the jurisdiction of the
corporal of' the soldicls stationed in each mission. Capital punishment, by shooting, was
only resorted to in casess of murder; all other transgressions were either punished  by a
number of lashes administered with a leather iwhip on the bare skin of the culprit, or iis
feet put in irons for SOln0e days, weeks, or imonths. As to ecclesiastical punishments, the.Rloiman pontiffs did not think proper to introduce them.among the Americans, cand fines were
likewsise out of the question, in accordance with the old German proverb:' Where there is
nothing, the emperor has no rights.'




THE CALI-OORIA-N PENINSSULA.                     393
possible to make them work like the country people and mechanics in Germany!
How many knaveries and vices would have been avoided every day! The
work always commenced late, and ceased before the sun was down. At noon
they rested two hours. It is certain that six laborers in Germany do more
work in six days than twelve Californians in twelve days. And, moreover, all
their labor was for their own or their countrymen's benefit; for the missionary
derived nothing but care and trouble from it, and might easily have obtained
elsewhere the few bushels of wheat or Indian corn which he needed for his
own consumption.
For the rest, the missionary was the only refuge of the small and grown,
the sick and the healthy, and he had to bear the burden of all concerns of the
mission. Of him the natives requested food and medicine, clothing and shoes,
tobacco for smoking and snuffing, and tools, if they intended to manufacture
anything. He had to settle their quarrels, to take charge of the infants who
had lost their parents, to provide for the sick, and to appoint watchers by the
dying. I have known missionaries who seldom said their office while the sun
shone, so much were they harassed the whole day. Fathers Ugarte and Druet,
for instance, worked in the fields, exposed to the hot sun, like the poorest
peasants or journeymen, standing in the water and mire up to their knees.
Others carried on the trades of tailors and carpenters, masons, brick-burners
and saddlers; they acted as physicians, surgeons, organists, and schoolmasters,
and had to perform the duties of parents, guardians,.wardens of hospitals,
beadles, and many others. The intelligent reader, who has so far become
acquainted with the condition of the country and its inhabitants, can easily
perceive that these exertions on the part of the missionaries were dictated by
necessity, and he will, also, be enabled to imagine in what their rents and revenues, in California not only, but in a hundred other places of America, may
have consisted.
CHAPTER X.-THEIR LANGUAGE.
The account thus far given of the character and the habits of the Californians will, to a certain extent, enable the reader to form, in advance, an estimate of their language. A people without laws and religion, who think and
speak of nothing but their food and other things which they have in common
wituh animals, who carry on no trade, and entertain no friendly intercourse with
neighboring tribes, that consist, like themselves, only of a feiw hundred souls
and always remain within their own small district, where nothing is to be seen
but thorns, rocks, game, and vermin, such a people, I say, cannot be expected
to speak an elegant and rich language. A man of sixty years ran away fiorm
my mission with his son, a boy of about six years, and they spent five years
alone in the Californian wilderness, when they were found eand brought back to
the mission. Every one can imagine how and on what subjects these two hermits Imay have conversed in their daily intercourse. The returned lad, who
hiad then nearly reached his twelfth year, was hardly able to speak three -words
iii succession, and excepting.water, wood, fire, sna/ce, mouse, and the like, lie
could name nothing, insomuch that he was called the dull and dumb Pablo, or
Paul, by his own countrymen. The story of this boy may almost be applied
to the whole people.
Leaving aside a great many dialects and offshoots, six entirely different
hanguages have thus far been discovered in California, namely, the.Lagn/omna,
about the mission of Loreto; the Cotshimi, in the mission of St. Xavier, and
others towards the north; the Uts/iti and the Periclia in the south; the still
unknown language spoken by the nations whom Father Linc]k visited in 1766,
during his exploration of the northern part of the peninsula; and, lastly, the
WVaicuri language, of which I am now about to treat, having learned as much
of it as was necessary for conversing with the natives.




39 4               THE ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS OF
The Waicuri language* is of an exceedingly barbarous and rude description,
by which rudeness, however, I do not mean a hard pronunciation or a succession of many consonants, for these qualities do not form  the essence of a
language, but merely its outward character or conformation, and are more or
less imaginary, as it were, among those who are unacquainted with it.  It is
well known that Italians and Frenchmen consider the German language as
barbarous, while the Germans have the like opinion of the Bohemian or Polish
languages; but these impressions cease as soon as the Frenchmen or Italians
can converse in German, and the Germans in the Bohemian or Polish tongues.
In the Waicuri alphabet theletters o,f g, 1, x, z are wanting, also the s, excepting in the tsh; but the great deficiency of the language consists in the total
absence of a great many words, the want of which would seem  to render it
almost impossible for reasonable beings to converse with each other and to
receive instruction in the Christian religion.  For whatever is not substantial,
and cannot be seen or touched or otherwise perceived by the senses, has no
name in the Waicuri language.  There are no nouns whatever for expressing
virtues, vices, or the different dispositions of the mind, and there exist only a
few adjectives of this class, namely, merry, sad, lazy, and angry, all of which
merely denote such humors as can be perceived in a person's face.  All terms
relating to rational human and civil life, and a multitude of words for signifying other objects, are entirely wanting, so that it would be a vain trouble to
look in the Wa'icuri yocabulary for the following expressions: 7ife, death,
weather, time, cold, heat,'world, rain, understanding, will, memory, knowled,;ge
honor, decency, consolation, peace, quarrel, member, joy, imputation, mind,
friend,friendsl/dp, truth, bashfdlness, enmity,faith, love, hope, wish, desire, hate,
ang,er, gratitude, patience, meekness, envy, industry, virtue, vice, beauty, shape,
sickness, danger, fear, occasion, i, thg, punishment, doubt, servant, master, virgin, judgment, sutspicion, hi appiness, ha]ppcy, reasonable, bas/ful, decent, clever,
modierate, pious, obedient, rich, poor, young, old, agreeable, lovely, friendly,
ha/f  guickl, deep, round, co'ntended, more, less, to greet, to thank, to )anish, to
be silent, to psromenzade, to complain, to worsvhl', to doubt, to buy, to Jlatter, to
caress, to persecute, to dwiell, to breathe, to'imagine, to idle, to insult, to console,
to live, and a tlhousatnd words of a similar character. t
The word living they have neither as a nouni nor as a verb, neither in a
natural nor a moral sense; but only the adjective alive.  Bad, narrow, short,
distant, little, &c., they cannot express unless by adding the negation ja or
raf to the words good, wide, long, near, and muzch.  T'hey have particular
words for signifying an old man, an old woman, a young man, a young woman,
and so forth; but the terms old or young do not exist in their language. The
Waicuri contains only four words for denoting the different colors, insomuch
that the natives cannot distinguish in their speech yellow  from  red, blue from
green, black from brown, white from ash-colored, &c.
Now let the reader imagine how difficult it is to impart to the Californians
any knowledge of European affairs; to interpret for them some article from a
TWaicuri. Father B3egert's very curious account of the language is contained on pages
177-194 of the "Nachrichten."  It comprises, besides the general remarks on the characteristic features of the language, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, both with literal and
fiee translations, and the conjugation of a verb.-NV. V. T.- The Literature of A wlerican
Aloriginrl Laguages,   by ttermlan, E. Ludlewig, with Additions and Corrections, by Professor
Wtillita  WIF. Turzner. London, 1858, p. 245.
It may be remarked in this place, that the author's name is printed in three different ways,
viz: Blger, B1egcrt, and jBaegert. In writing "Baegert," I follow Waitz, who probably
gives the correct spelling of the name.
t The author adds; "And all nouns in general that end in German in heit, keit, niss,
ung, and schaft."
$ It will hardly be necessary to mention that the Waicuri words must be pronounced as
German. Excepting the tsch, which is replaced by the equivalent English sound tsh, the
orthography of the author has strictly been preserved.




THE CALIFORNIAN  PENINSULA.                        395
Madrid newspaper, if one happens to be seen in California a year or more after
its appearance; or to enlarge upon the merits of the Saints, and to explain, for
instance, how they renounced all vanity, forsaking princely possessions and
even kingdoms, and distributed their property among the poor; how their lives
were spent in voluntary poverty, chastity, and humility; and, further, that
they subjected themselves for years to the severest penances, conquered their
passions and subdued their inclinations; that they devoted daily eight and
more hours to prayer and contemplation; that they disregarded worldly concerns and even their own lives; slept on the bare ground, and abstained from
meat and wine. For want of words, the poor preacher has to place his finger
to his mouth in order to illustrate eating; and concerning the comforts of life,
every Californian will tell him that he never, as long as he lived, slept in a
bed; that he is entirely unacquainted with such articles as bread, wine, and
beer; and that, excepting rats and mice, he hardly ever tasted any kind of
meat.
The above-mentioned and a great many other words are wanting in the
Waicuri language, simply because those who speak it never use these terms;
their almost animal-like existence and narrow compass of ideas rendering the
application of such expressions superfluous.  But concerning heat or cold, rain
or sickness, they content themselves by saying, it is warm, it rains, this or
that person is sick, and nothing else.  Sentences like the following: " The
sickness has much weakened a certain person;" or, 1" cold is less endurable
than heat;" or, "after rain follows sunshine," &c., are certainly very simple
in themselves and current among all peasants in Europe, yet infinitely above
the range of thought and speech of the Californians.
They cannot express the degrees of relationship, for instance,fathzer, mother,
son, brother, nor the parts of the human body, nor many other words, such as
word or speech, breath, pain, comrade, X-c., singly and without prefixing the
possessive pronouns my, thy, our, L-c. They say, therefore, beddre, edadre, tidre,
kepeddre, /c., that is, nmy, thy, his, our fatter; and he'cue, e'cue, ticue, kepe'eue,
that is, my, thy, his, our mother.  So also mapd, etapa, taph, that is, my, th.y,
hzis forehead.  Minam'zz, einam u, tinam~2, that is, my, thy, /is nose; betania,
etania, tishania, my, thy, his word; menembei, enembedz, tenembeui, my, thy, his
pain, 4-c. But no Californian who speaks the Waicuri is able to say what the
words are, cue, apad, namei, tania, and nemnbez2, express, for father, forehtead,
wevord, or pain are significations which they never thouglht of using in a general
sense, and far less has it ever entered their minds to speak, for instance, of the
duties of a father, of a gloomy, a serene, a narrow or large forehead, or to make
a long, a flat or an aquiline nose the subject of their conversation.
rhle Waicuri language is exceedingly deficient in prepositions and conjunctions.  Of the first class of words, there exist only two that have a definite application, namely, tina, on or upon, and de've or tipitshewi, which is equivalent
to the phrase on account of or for (propter.)  The prepositions out, in, be/;bre,
through, with, for (pro,) against, by, 3-c., are either represented by the words
me, pe, and te, which have all the same meaning, or they are not expressed at
all.  The article is entirely wanting, and the nouns are not declined.  The
cornjunction tshie, and, is always placed after the words which it has to connect;
the other conjunctions, such as that, but, than, because, neither, nor, yet, as,
though, arc., are all wanting, and likewise the relative pronouns which and who,
so frequently occurring in other languages.  They have no adverbs derived
from adjectives, and hardly any of the primitive class. T he comparative and
superlative cannot be expressed, and even the words more and less do not exist,
and instead of saying, therefore, Peter is taller and has more than Paul, they
have to use the paraphrase, Peter is tall and has much, Paul is not tall and
has not much.




'3< Q              THE ABORIGINAL  INHFABITANTS OF
Passing to the verbs, I will mention that these have neither a conjunctive
nor a mandative mood, and only an imperfect optative mood, and that the passive form is wanting as well as the reciprocal verb, which is used in the Spanish
and French languages.  The verbs have only one mood and three tenses, viz.,
a present, preterit, and future, which are folrmed by affixing certain endings
t(, the root of the verb, namely, in the present re or rele; in the preterit rkilri,
rvjelre, ras~f ie, or roaier e; in the future me, mzee or'neme.*
Sometimes the natives prefix the syllable k?6 or a k alone to the plural of the
verb, or change its first syllable into uZ; for example, piabahke, to fight, umnutd,
to remember, jake, to chat; but kzpiahbake,, kmntI, and?thdhe, when they
will indicate that there are several persons fighting, remembering, or chatting.  A
few of their verbs have also a preterit passive participle; for example, tsh/.palhe,
to beat, tshipitshiiorre, a person that has been beaten, plural:?utpaui..  Some
nouns and adjectives are likewise subject to changes in the plural number, as,
for instance, cdai, woman, kcdnai, women; entzudits, ugly or bad, and enti ditcimma,t bad or ugly women.  Be expresses I, me (mihi,) me (me) and my;
ei means thou'b, thee (tibi,) thee (te) and thy, and so on through all the personal
and possessive pronouns.  Yet bech.n or beticudnl signifies also mzy, and ecin or
eitichn, tAy.
They know nothing of metaphors, for which reason the phrase blessed is the
fzauit (f thyi womzb in the'"Hail Mary" has simply been replaced by thy child.
On the other hand they are very ingenious in giving names to obiects with
-which they were before unacquainted, calling, for instance, the door, mo0?th;
bread, the light; iron, the hieaicy; wine, band water; a gun, bow; the functionaries of the mission, bearers of canes; the Spanish captain, wild or cruel; oxen
and cows, deer; horses and mules titsheznu-tshza, that is, child of a wise?mothier;
and the missionary, in speaking of or to him, ti&-pa-tlz, which means one uwiho
has his hout6se in thte north, Cc.
In order to converse in such a barbarous and poor language, a European has
to chan1ge, as it were, his whole nature and to become almost a Calformian himself; but in teaching the native.s the doctrines of the Christian religion in their
ownl language, lie is very often compelled to make use of paraphrases which,
when translated into a civilized language, must have an odd and sometimes
even ridiculous sound to Europeans; and as the reader may, perhaps, be curious to know a little more of this peculiar language, I will give as specimens
two articles from the Waicuri catechism, namely, the Lord's Prayer and the
C rced, each with a double interpretation, and also the whole conjungation of tlie
verb amn??ziri. 
Concerning this Californian Lord's Prayer and Creed and their interpretations, the reader will take notice of the following explanatory remarks:
1. The first translation, which stands immediately under the Californian text,
is perfectly literal and shows the structure of the Waicuri lang'uage.  This
version must necessarily produce a bad effect upon European ears; whereas the
second transla tion, which is less literal and therefore more intelligible, may selrve
to convey an idea how the Waicuri text sounds to the natives themselves as
well as to those who understand their idiom, and have become accustomed, by
long practice, to the awkward position of the words, the absence of relative
pronouns and prepositions, and the other deficiencies of the language.
* From  the conjugation of the verb ainukiri, given at the end of this chapter, it is evideint
that these endings have no reference to the person or number of the tenses, but imay be indifferently employed.
t This compound aword illustrates well the polysynthetic character of the Waicuri lan1affge.
I We cannot, be too thankful to Father Baegert., who, with all his oddity and eccentricity,
has had the philological taste to 3preserve and explain a specimen of the Waicuri-a favor
the greater, as neither Veuegas nor the polished Clavigero has preserved any specimen of
a Californian language, much less a verb in full.




THE  CALIFORNIAN  PENINSUTLA.                             39 7
2. The words Aoly, church, God, ghost, commuinion, grace, wuill, cross, v2igin,
name, hell, kingdom, bread, trespass, tempt atiou, creator, foigiveness, ife, r'esurrection, Lord, dazly, Almighty, third,  -c., are wanting in the WX:icuri language,
and have either been paraphrased, when it was feasible, or replaced by corresponding Spanish words, in order to avoid too lengthy and not very intelligible
sentences.  Some words that could be omitted without materially changing the
sense, such as daily in the Lord's Prayer, and Lord in the Creed, have been
entirely dropped.
3. The sentence " he shall come to judge the living and the dead" could not
be literally translated, because the Califbornians are unable to comprehend the
moral and theological sense of that passage and others of simil;llar character.
Nor could they be taught in the Creed that the flesh will live again, for by
"flesh" they understand nothing but the meat of deer and cows.  They would
laugh at the idea that men were also flesh, and consequently be led to believe in
the resurrection of deer and cows, when they were told that the flesh will rise
again on the day of judgment.
4. In thle Wticuri language Heaven is usually called aena, that is, th e aboe,
and also, but less frequently, tekerekdclatemba, which means currved or arched
earth. or land, because the firmtment resembles a vault or arch.  Hell they have
been taught to call the fire that never expires; but this expression is not employed in the Waicuri Creed.
TLhe LorVds Prayer in the Waicuri language, with a literal translation, showoing the exact
succession of the words.
Kepeb-d.re  tekerekddatemba    dai,      ei-ri       akdtuike-pu-me,   tshAkarrakeOur Father   arched earth  thou art, thee 0  that acknowledgec all will,    praise
pu-mle   ti  tshie: ecuin  gracia-ri    atidme  cate tekerekidatcembtl     tshie;    eiall will people andl: thy grace 0! that have will wie  arched earth-   and;   thee
ri  jebarrakeuto ti  phi jaftpel datembA, pie ei jebarrak6re, a6rna kCa; kepechn blie
O! that obey will men all here  ea-rth,   as thee   obey,   above are;    our  food
kepe klen jatftpe untAiri; cate kuitsharrakU tei tshie kepechn atacllmara, phie kuitsharrak&ie
us give  this  Cday;  us   forli-ve  thou and   our    evil,    as    forgive
cate tshie cdvape atulkihra kepetujake; cate tikakambh t6i tshie   cuvumera cate   u5e
we also  they    evil    us do;    us    help  thou and desire will not we anything
atukiara; kepe kaklunja pe atacrra tshie.  Amen.
evil;    us   protect from  evil  and.  Amen.
Th7e same in a less literal translation.
Our Father, Thou art in the Heaven; 0 that all people may acknowledge and praise Thee!
O trhat we may have Thy gracet and Heaven!  0 that all men mlay obey Thee here in the
world as obey Thee who are above! Ouir food give us on this day, and forgive us our sins,
as we also fOrgive those who do us harm; and help us that we may not desire anything
sinfiul, and protect us firom evil. Amen
The twelve articles of the Creed literally translated.
Irimfinjure   ph   Dies   Tiare   ureti-pu-pudu6ne,  thupe   me   buarl   uraetilikiri
I believe   in   God his Father malke all  can,      this    of  nothing   h.s maitlde
tekerekldatembah  atembhl tshie. Irinudnjure tshie  pe Jesu  Christo  titshdinu  ibe  te
arched earth    earth   and.   I believe   also  in Jesus  Christ  his son aloneti[-re,   6te punjere I)e  Espirita Santo,  pedara tshie mle Santa  Maria vir-gen.
his father's, usan  made  by   HIoly  G-host,  born   and   of  Saint Mary  virgin.
Irlimnjure tshie thu-v6repe Jesu  Christo  hibitsherikiri tenembesh apinne iebitsh6ne
I believe  also  this salne Jesus Christ  suffered has  his ipaiu   gremt comlnanding
temmne pe Jdclea Pontio Pilacto; kutiktirre rikiri tina crzz, pibikiri,  kqjenjhita  rikiri
being in Judea Pontius Pilate; extended been on cross, has died, under earth buriedis
tshie; keritsh6u. atetnbA bfinju; meakfinju untkiri tiphe-tshetshultip   rikiri;  tshukiti
also; gone down earth  below;   three        days  alive   again   has been; gone up
tekerekfldatenmbh,  penekh  tshie  me  titshuketa  te  Dios  tihre   ureti-pu-pudunne,
arched earth,     sits    also  his right hand  of  God his father make all can,




398                   THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF
aipf:-evoe   tnllie  uteihri-ku-m6je  atacAmma  atacuimmara  ti tsblie.  Irimrnjnre  pe
Lo!lnl tfleu'ce  rewvard  goive come will    good      bail     men alo.   1 believe   in
L'spirtu  Sa'to;  ilrilnijure   epl   Santa Ilesil catholica, coriunnioti   te  kuinlukardtt
i-toly  Gh-iost;  I believe  there is Holy Catholic Church, communio   n  -     wnashed
ti tshie.  lriimijure kuitsllarakdme  Dies kurmbdte-didi-re,  kluttive-didi-re  ti  tslhIie
people also.   I believe    forgive will   God    hate    well,  confbss well  mien  ncd
kiefin atalc'immara pitnne pu.  Irimainjure tshie tipa tshetshutipe  I1  tibikll  ti  pu;
their     bad       great all.  I believe  and alive   again   will be dead people all:
enein:me tipe  dei  imeje  tucSrva tshie.  Anmen.
then alive ever will be the same also.  Amen.
The samle less literally translated.
I believe in God the Father, who can make everything; lie has made of nothliiug  Ieaven
and earth.  I believe, also in Jesus Christ, the only Son of his Father; was made  Ian 1)y
the Holy Ghost; was born of the Virgin Mary.  I believe also this same Jesnts Christ
suffered gretat pain while Pontius Pilate was cmlmandini.g' in Judea: lie wa-,s (xtended on
the cIoss; 11ie died and was biuried; lie went below llhe earth; lie becaiie alive agalill in three
dahlys; hie wlent 1up to Heaven; he sitteth at the right hand of God his Father, whso ean make
everything; he will come from thence to give revttrds to the good and bad. I believe in the
Holy Ghost; I believe there is a Holy Catholic Church and coonimunion of the baptized.  I
believe God will forgive those men who thoroughly  hate and thoroughlfy confess all their
great sins.  I believe also all dead men will becoimie alive again, and then they will be
always alive. Amen.
CONJUGATION OF TIIE VERB AMUKIRI,  TO PLAY
Present.
Sing.    be       I) play, &c.
ei  thou
Plur.  cath       e tamnukiri-re
pete    you
tuceva   they j
Preterit.
Sing.    be       I) have played, &c.
ei  the u  amukiri — ikiri
tutaft    he         r
Plur.  cat      we                 re
petei   you      or  -raupe
tuceva   theyj          -rafipere
Future.
Sing.    be       I) will play, &e.
er  thou l
tutnu    he  namukiri-ine
Plur.  cati     we      o - eIje
petei   you l        - -aenem
tuceva   they j
Imperative.
Sing.  amukiri tei, play thou.
Pltr.  anuukiri tu, play you.
Optative.
Sing.   bie-ri I                      ( Would to
ei-ri                       I God,  I,
tutau-ri  amnukiri-rikirikdra   thou, hlie,
Plucr.  catet-ri       or-rujerlra    wve, you, they
peti —ri                       [had  not
tucelva-ri J                     Iplayed!




THE CALIFO1NIAN PENINSULA.                                  399
APPENDIX.
Note on the Cora and WIaicuri languages, by Francisco Pieelltcl. *
Father Ortega refers in various places to the grammar of the Cora language which he in
tended to write; but the work, if it was ever written, has been lost, since there is no mention
of it, and it is unknown to bibliographers.
The Cora dialect is known also by the names of Chora, Chota, and Nayarita.  This last
name comes fiom the fact that it was spoken, and is still so, in the imountains of Nayarit in
the State of Jalisco.  There is another idiom called Cora in Caiifbrnia, which is a dialect of
the Guaicura or Vaicura, differing' from  that spoken in Jalisco.  I have compared various
words of the Guaicura and the Cora of Jalisco, andl have found them entirely different.
Examples.
Cora.                       Vaicura.
Father. —---—. —-—. ——. Tiyaoppa...-.. —-.... -----     Are.
Thou art ------------------ Petehbe..-. —------------   Dai.
All..-. Manaimic................ Pu.
Man.......-        --—.    Tevit    -     -..           Ti.
And ---—. —---------- ----  Acta. —----      --- --     -  Tschie.
Here.. —. --------------- - Yye........... Taupe.
Earth or world-. —-—. — -—. Chianacat.-.. — -—.-.- Datemba.
Above..................... Mehtevi ------- -.-.-... Aena.
Food...................... Gueahti -------------------  Bue.
To give -. —-----------..... Ta ---—. —-.. —-------—.   Ken.
Day. —------—........ —-- Xeucat. —..-. —- -....  Untairi.
To pardon. ----------------  Ataouniri.....-...-  Kuitscha.
How.-........ Eupat..-..-.                   Pae.
Obedient...... —-—. —----—.. Teatzahuateacame..........   Tebarrakere.
No.-... Ehe.. —-------------  Ra.
Something.-.......-....... Titac -....-. Ue.
I-.. —----—..... —----------   Neapue, nea............... Be.
Thou.-.  Apue, ap..-............... Ei.
He. —-. —------—.. —--—. Aehpu, aehp. —--- -....... Tutau.
We. —--------------------- Ytean..................... Cate.
You                            Amuo, an --—.. —.. —--- Peti.
They ---------------------- Aehmo, aehm —... — --- Tucava.
My.-...................... Ne....................... Be, me, mi, m,
Thy -A ----— E —-.. —E...... A -..- -.... —-. ——.-  Ei, e, et.
His.. —-—. —-—...- --—..  Ana, hua..-.-. ——..-;. -. Ti, te, t.
Our -.. —-—.... —- Ta.-...-. —--—...-    Kepe.
For... —-------------------- Keme. ——.... ----- D. Deve.
Upon -----------------—.    Apoan  -          -.. —........... Tina.
Game..-M.n..... Muaitec. ——....... ------    Amnukiri.
Son. —------—. —---------  Tiperie, tiyaoh. —-.-. —--- Tschanu.
Nose ---—. ——. —-----—.  Tzoriti. —------ ---—. —--   Namu.
NOTE RELATIVE TO THE AUTHOR.-The only facts concerning the author, which I was
able to obtain while engaged in translating his work, are contained in De Backer's Bibliothlcqa2e des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de.Jesus, Liege 1859.  Vol. v, p. 28.
The author, whose name is given here as Jacob Begert, was born (1717) at Schlettstadt
(Upper Rhine.)  He went to California in 1751 and preached the Gospel there till the decree
of Charles III tore the Jesuits from their missions.  On returning to Europe, he retired to
Neuburg in Bavaria, where he died in the month of December, 1772.  Clavigero stands as
authority for ascribing the "Nachrichten" to him, and it is also mentioned that the "Berlin-'sche litterarische Wochenblatt," (1777, vol. ii, p. 625,) contains an extract of the work.
Mieusel's large work on German authors, entitled "Das gelehrte Deutschland," is given as
the source fromn which these statements arte derived.
The "Nachrichten" appeared first in print in 1772, the same year in which the author died,
who consequently could have survived the publication of his work only a short time.  The
copy in my hands, which was printed in 1773, is not properly a second edition, but merely a
reprint, in which the most glaring typographical errors are corrected.
* Boletin de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Eatadistica.  Mexico, 1862, tomo viii,
num. 11, p. 603, &c.