-day in Southern California whose services are eagerly
sought at good wages because of their thoroughness, skill and rapidity.

Now, with this list of achievements, who shall say they were not
educated? Something more than lack of education must be looked for as
the reason for the degradation and disappearance of the Indian, and in
the next chapter I think I can supply that missing reason.

At the end of sixty years, more than thirty thousand Indian converts
lodged in the Mission buildings, under the direct and immediate guidance
of the Fathers, and performed their allotted daily labors with
cheerfulness and thoroughness. There were some exceptions necessarily,
but in the main the domination of the missionaries was complete.

It has often been asked: "What became of all the proceeds of the work of
the Mission Indians? Did the padres claim it personally? Was it sent to
the mother house in Mexico?" etc. These questions naturally enter the
minds of those who have read the criticisms of such writers as Wilson,
Guinn, and Scanland. In regard to the missionaries, they were under a
vow of poverty. As to the mother house, it is asserted on honor that up
to 1838 not even as much as a _curio_ had been sent there. After that,
as is well known, there was nothing to send. The fact is, the proceeds
all went into the Indian Community Fund for the benefit of the Indians,
or the improvement of their Mission church, gardens, or workshops. The
most careful investigations by experts have led to but one opinion, and
that is that in the early days there was little or no foundation for the
charge that the padres were accumulating money. During the revolution it
is well known that the Missions practically supported the military for a
number of years, even though the padres, their wards, and their churches
all suffered in consequence.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS

It was not the policy or intention of the Government of Spain to found
Missions in the New World solely for the benefit of the natives.
Philanthropic motives doubtless influenced the rulers to a certain
degree; but to civilize barbarous peoples and convert them to the
Catholic faith meant not only the rescue of savages from future
perdition, but the enlargement of the borders of the Church, the
preparation for future colonization, and, consequently, the extension of
Spanish power and territory.

At the very inception of the Missions this was the complex