end in view;
but the padres who were commissioned to initiate these enterprises were,
almost without exception, consecrated to one work only,--the
salvation of souls.

In the course of time this inevitably led to differences of opinion
between the missionaries and the secular authorities in regard to the
wisest methods of procedure. In spite of the arguments of the padres,
these conflicts resulted in the secularization of some of the Missions
prior to the founding of those in California; but the condition of the
Indians on the Pacific Coast led the padres to believe that
secularization was a result possible only in a remote future. They fully
understood that the Missions were not intended to become permanent
institutions, yet faced the problem of converting a savage race into
christianized self-supporting civilians loyal to the Spanish Crown,--a
problem which presented perplexities and difficulties neither understood
nor appreciated at the time by the government authorities in Spain or
Mexico, nor by the mass of critics of the padres in our own day.

Whatever may have been the mental capacity, ability, and moral status of
the Indians from one point of view, it is certain that the padres
regarded them as ignorant, vile, incapable, and totally lost without the
restraining and educating influences of the Church. As year after year
opened up the complexities of the situation, the padres became more and
more convinced that it would require an indefinite period of time to
develop these untamed children into law-abiding citizens, according to
the standard of the white aggressors upon their territory.

On the other hand, aside from envy, jealousy, and greed, there were
reasons why some of the men in authority honestly believed a change in
the Mission system of administration would be advantageous to the
natives, the Church, and the State.

There is a good as well as an evil side to the great subject of
"secularization." In England the word used is "disestablishment." In the
United States, to-day, for our own government, the general sentiment of
most of its inhabitants is in favor of what is meant by
"secularization," though of course in many particulars the cases are
quite different. In other words, it means the freedom of the Church from
the control or help of the State. In such an important matter there is
bound to be great diversity of opinion. Naturally, the church that is
"disestablished" will be a most bitter opponen