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William Henry Hudson - The Famous Missions of California
cases much later, than the settlements themselves. At the outset, a few rude buildings of wood or adobe
were deemed sufficient for the temporary accommodation of priests and converts, and the celebration of
religious services. Then, little by little, substantial structures in brick or stone took the place of these, and
what we now think of as the mission came into being.
The best account left us of the mission establishment in its palmy days is that given by De Mofras in his
careful record of travel and exploration along the Pacific Coast; and often quoted as this has been, we
still cannot do better here than to translate some portions of it anew. The observant Frenchman wrote
with his eye mainly upon what was perhaps the most completely typical of all the missions - that of San
Luis Rey. But his description, though containing a number of merely local particulars, was intended to be
general; and for this reason may the more properly be reproduced in this place.
"The edifice," he wrote, "is quadrilateral, and about one hundred and fifty metres long in front. The
church occupies one of the wings. The façade is ornamented with a gallery [or arcade]. The building, a
single storey in height, is generally raised some feet above the ground. The interior forms a court,
adorned with flowers and planted with trees. Opening on the gallery which runs round it are the rooms of
the monks, majordomos, and travelers, as well as the workshops, schoolrooms, and storehouses.
Hospitals for men and women are situated in the quietest parts of the mission, where also are placed the
schoolrooms. The young Indian girls occupy apartments called the monastery (el moujerìo), and they
themselves are styled nuns (las moujas) . . . Placed under the care of trustworthy Indian women, they are
there taught to spin wool, flax, and cotton, and do no leave their seclusion till they are old enough to be
married. The Indian children attend the same school as the children of the white colonists. A certain
number of them, chosen from those who exhibit most intelligence, are taught music - plain-chant, violin,
flute, horn, violincello, and other instruments. Those who distinguish themselves in the carpenter's shop,
at the forge, or in the field, are termed alcaldes, or chiefs, and given charge of a band of workmen. The
management of each mission is composed of two monks; the elder looks after internal administration and
religious instruction; the younger has direction of agricultural work . . . For the sake of order and morals,
whites are employed only where strictly necessary, for the fathers know their influence to be altogether
harmful, and that they lead the Indians to gambling and drunkenness, to which vices they are already too
prone. To encourage the natives in their tasks, the fathers themselves often lend a hand, and everywhere
furnish an example of industry. Necessity has made them industrious. One is struck with astonishment on
observing that, with such meagre resources, often without European workmen or any skilled help, but
with the assistance only of savages, always unintelligent and often hostile, they have yet succeeded in
executing such works of architecture and engineering as mills, machinery, bridges, roads, and canals for
irrigation. For the erection of nearly all the mission buildings it was necessary to bring to the sites
chosen, beams cut on mountains eight or ten leagues away, and to teach the Indians to burn lime, cut
stone, and make bricks.
"Around the mission," De Mofras continues, "are the huts of the neophytes, and the dwellings of some
white colonists. Besides the central establishment, there exists, for a space of thirty or forty leagues,
accessory farms to the number of fifteen or twenty, and branch chapels (chapelles succursales). Opposite
the mission is a guard-house for an escort, composed of four cavalry soldiers and a sergeant. These act as
messengers, carrying orders from one mission to another, and in the earlier days of conquest repelled the
savages who would sometimes attack the settlement."
Of the daily life and routine of a mission, accounts of travelers enable us to form a pretty vivid picture;
and though doubtless changes of detail might be marked in passing from place to place, the larger and
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