nian advocate, was sent to Humboldt Valley to report, and these are some of his unflattering words :

6

There have been in this valley from one to two hundred soldiers, and I think at least half of their pay goes in that way. There have been about ten employés, averaging sixty dollars per month each, and I believe half of this went the same way. The commissioned officers made large outlays in the same direction. This, taken altogether, more than doubled the government bounty. Its effect on the Indians has been terrible. Half breed children, disease, loss of self-respect, are only a part of the evils. It has dethroned the chief, set aside the influence of the father, husband, and head of family, and brought to the front, in all things, the goodlooking and profligate young women. They flaunt round in gaudy finery, while their elders are naked or clothed in rags.'

No fiscal from Santa Clara ever told a truer and a darker story of what he found in Santa Barbara and Soledad.

Aware how much had been done by the Franciscans under great and ever-growing difficulties, the Americans have lately paid those fathers the compli

ment of restoring their system-so far as a Protestant people and a secular government can restore their system-by placing these agencies under the control of religious bodies, chiefly Methodists and Quakers. But these purer agents have not stopped the progress of decline, and hardly raised, as yet, the tone of such few stragglers as survive. Old bucks go naked; young bucks get drunk. Fathers still sell their daughters to the Whites. A slave trade more revolting and atrocious than the sale of Negroes is conducted under the eyes of Christian judges, as it used to be conducted under the eyes of Franciscan priors. No native either gives a vote or exercises public trust. The tribes are tied to certain spots, cooped in like kine, from which they may not stir, under penalty of being hunted down, tied up with thongs, and lashed to their old posts. Compelled to work for the White farmers, they are lucky if the master is kind enough to lend them a gun to kill their food. They can be sent from master to master, and removed from one agency to another against their wish.

A man like Vancouver would find it hard to see in what respect their freedom under the Stars and

Stripes differs from their slavery under the red and yellow flag.

Yet the tribes and families which fell under the Franciscan Commonwealth are inore advanced and better off than any other Red tribes and families. An Indian commissioner, who has no clerical bearings to betray his judgment, writes: The mission. Indians, having been for the past century under the Catholic missions established on the Californian coast, are tolerably well advanced in agriculture, and compare favourably with the most highly civilised tribes of the East.' He adds, in detail, that these civilised Indians support themselves by working for White settlers, or by hunting, fishing, begging, and stealing, except a few, who go to the military post for assistance in the way of food.'

These waifs in the agencies have some support;

Since they

the other waifs and strays have none.
lost the friars, these converts have been perishing in
their tens, their fifties, nay their hundreds; yet the
State does nothing for them, and the sturdy settler,
in his hurry to be safe, is brushing them from his
path as roughly as he stamps out wolves and bears.

What wonder, then, that old Marcello should re

gard each step of progress as a loss? Whatever flag is up, his people perish from the soil. The chief has lived too long, having lived to see his tribe converted, liberated, and destroyed.

No government or society has known so well as the Franciscans how to rule this savage and pacific

race.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE JESUITS.

THEIR task is done, and they are gone,' says Padre Varsi, Principal of the Jesuit College in Santa Clara, and an eminent member of his company.

A tall, dark figure, with a face of antique mould, in which the natural force seems tamed by fasting, prayer, and self-control, the reverend Father has lived in many cloisters, travelled in many countries, and is well acquainted with the world. He seems to live in his retreat, taking no thought of the world beyond his college gates; yet he is quick with news, and has a perfect knowledge of what is passing in the courts of London and Berlin, Paris and Rome.

He need to have his eyes and ears alive. A great and arduous labour lies before him and the other Jesuits in California, for their Church has lost her ancient empire on the coast, and they are