Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/255

Rh to undervalue our faith and treat it with derision, and all the preachers in the world would not be able to counteract the mischief arising from this source."

On May 13, 1524, there landed at San Juan de Ulua a company of twelve Franciscan friars, sent to Mexico, in response to the original call of Cortez, for the purpose of converting the Indians. These monks fully realized what was asked of them, and became not only the spiritual advisers, but actually the material protectors, of the Indians. They taught the Indians to work. Among the many missions established by them amidst these people, those of the west coast were both financially and spiritually the most successful. The first white settlers in California were Franciscan monks. They found there a less warlike and energetic people than those in the Valley of Mexico, and trained them to habits of industry and devotion. Substantial churches and mission buildings soon arose in the wilderness, about which clustered the little adobe villages surrounded by fields and orchards. The only roads for many years to be found in the country were those between these stations. Many of these missions became very rich. At the beginning of the last century the Franciscan monks of California owned immense tracts of land and carried on a thriving business with Russian merchants from the far North-west in wine and wool, hides and tallow. In this way Spain was able to claim as her own the whole Pacific coast as far as Puget Sound. The Indian converts were patient, docile children whose prayers to the Virgin and the saints led their hearts into ways so old and familiar that but little violence was done to their feelings in the change from one religion to the other. When from any failure or from removal these Indians were left to