Page:History of California, Volume 3 (Bancroft).djvu/348

330 two or three hundred Indian vecinos of that town were beyond all comparison more unfortunate and oppressed than any in the missions. Not one had a garden, a yoke of oxen, a horse, or a house fit for a rational being. Instead of the equality so much talked about, the Indians swept the streets and did all the menial work. For offences scarcely noticed in others, they were bound naked over a cannon to receive 100 blows. They were in reality slaves, being bound for a whole year by an advance of some trifle, since no Indian ever looked beyond the present. They had no ambition for liberty except for savage liberty and vicious license, which they would purchase at the cost of a thousand oppressions. Duran was convinced by experience and from conversation with practical men that emancipation would result in slavery or savagism to the Indians and in destruction to all their property; and he begged the governor to consider well the results before deciding a subject "worthy the wisdom of a whole congress." Yet on receipt of the regulations Duran offered no general opposition to the plan, limiting his criticism to the recommendation of here and there a minor change in some of the articles, calling for no special attention. His closing suggestion was as follows: "If after three or four years it shall be noted that the emancipados depend on wild fruits for subsistence, that they allow their live-stock to decrease, that they neglect their planting and other labors in a spirit of vagabondage, or that they manifest no zeal or liking for a rational and civilized life, and if, being several times warned, they do not mend, then they shall be returned