insubordination, idleness, lack of foresight, distrust and instability of spirit. There is a preponderance of old women and orphan children among them. It seems relatively few able-bodied adult men can be induced to leave the ranchería. I refer Your Excellency to my previous remarks about winter food supplies and suggest that in some cases only an inability to feed himself leads an Indian toward God. Whether or not they are sincere in their conversion, the neophytes are much afflicted with sickness and lassitude. According to Fray Garcés the women produce many stillbirths, and neophytes of both genders tend to wither and die without obvious cause. He conjectures that to take them out of their own ranchería deprives them of some subtile vapor necessary to their life.
Though Fray Garcés appears unwilling or unable absolutely to control his charges, discipline is not altogether lacking. During my time at the Mission, I saw one soldier placed in the stocks as punishment for a bestial crime against one of the native women. Also a number of Indians were hobbled as they went about their business, as punishment for fornication, malingering or petty thievery. Though this is commendable, there is a general laxity and tolerance of unsatisfactory conductamong the neophytes. The one exception to this is during Mass, when a sergeant walks among the rows with a scourge, striking them if they talk or rise from their kneeling position.
Fray Garcés permits the Mission cross to be adorned with votive strings, though he forbids certain other idolatrous practices, such as hanging tobacco and deer meat from its arms. I confess, señor, I do not see the divide between one thing and the other, and would greatly prefer not to see such offerings, but the friar disagrees, viewing the strings as a stepping-stone on the road to true faith. It is my impression that the neophytes’ understanding of the principles of our holy religion is primitive, but this is due to their deficiency of intellect rather than any lack of zeal in instruction. Fray Garcés makes heroic attempts to teach them the catechism in their own languages, and I have spent tedious hours listening to him repeat in a variety of guttural tones that there is only one true God, who is the creator of all the things we see and do not see, that God is the Most Holy Trinity, that God the Son became man in the womb of Holy Mary, that He suffered and died, that heaven is where all good things abide and hell is fire and damnation and so forth. Some young boys (in whom the father takes a particular interest) are able to commit much of this to memory and repeat it on command, but it is doubtful whether they understand when he explains that not only do they have to show themselves obedient, renounce error and observe all the obligations of a Christian, but must also believe with all their hearts. Fray Garcés admits that only a minority of the neophytes can be trusted to make a sincere confession. Few Indians confess voluntarily, and some show fear at the sight of the confessional, refusing to enter. It is rare, however, that Fray Garcés will deny the sacrament of confession to a man on his deathbed. All, he says, shall have food for the journey.
As strict as Fray Garcés may be in the conduct of marriage investigations, interrogating the prospective bride and groom and enjoining them to tell the truth or suffer the pains of hell, the nature of carnal sin is a profound mystery to the savages. This alone should be enough to justify the good father’s use of that authority that God concedes to parents for the proper education of their children, to reprimand and chastise them with the rod. Like the beasts of the field, they have no sense ofshame in their nakedness. I have seen a woman leaving the Mission, and when she thinks she is far enough away not to be observed, shucking off her sackcloth shift like a snake discarding a skin. Whenever Fray Garcés observes his charges in such conduct, he
Though Fray Garcés appears unwilling or unable absolutely to control his charges, discipline is not altogether lacking. During my time at the Mission, I saw one soldier placed in the stocks as punishment for a bestial crime against one of the native women. Also a number of Indians were hobbled as they went about their business, as punishment for fornication, malingering or petty thievery. Though this is commendable, there is a general laxity and tolerance of unsatisfactory conductamong the neophytes. The one exception to this is during Mass, when a sergeant walks among the rows with a scourge, striking them if they talk or rise from their kneeling position.
Fray Garcés permits the Mission cross to be adorned with votive strings, though he forbids certain other idolatrous practices, such as hanging tobacco and deer meat from its arms. I confess, señor, I do not see the divide between one thing and the other, and would greatly prefer not to see such offerings, but the friar disagrees, viewing the strings as a stepping-stone on the road to true faith. It is my impression that the neophytes’ understanding of the principles of our holy religion is primitive, but this is due to their deficiency of intellect rather than any lack of zeal in instruction. Fray Garcés makes heroic attempts to teach them the catechism in their own languages, and I have spent tedious hours listening to him repeat in a variety of guttural tones that there is only one true God, who is the creator of all the things we see and do not see, that God is the Most Holy Trinity, that God the Son became man in the womb of Holy Mary, that He suffered and died, that heaven is where all good things abide and hell is fire and damnation and so forth. Some young boys (in whom the father takes a particular interest) are able to commit much of this to memory and repeat it on command, but it is doubtful whether they understand when he explains that not only do they have to show themselves obedient, renounce error and observe all the obligations of a Christian, but must also believe with all their hearts. Fray Garcés admits that only a minority of the neophytes can be trusted to make a sincere confession. Few Indians confess voluntarily, and some show fear at the sight of the confessional, refusing to enter. It is rare, however, that Fray Garcés will deny the sacrament of confession to a man on his deathbed. All, he says, shall have food for the journey.
As strict as Fray Garcés may be in the conduct of marriage investigations, interrogating the prospective bride and groom and enjoining them to tell the truth or suffer the pains of hell, the nature of carnal sin is a profound mystery to the savages. This alone should be enough to justify the good father’s use of that authority that God concedes to parents for the proper education of their children, to reprimand and chastise them with the rod. Like the beasts of the field, they have no sense ofshame in their nakedness. I have seen a woman leaving the Mission, and when she thinks she is far enough away not to be observed, shucking off her sackcloth shift like a snake discarding a skin. Whenever Fray Garcés observes his charges in such conduct, he
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