The Mission Indians
the arts, and adopted the ways of civilization to an extent which raised them greatly above their nomadic kinsmen of the North. They lived in houses on the mission lands, which were at least considered as their permanent homes and descended along family lines much as in more highly organized communities. It is also certain that the carefully trained labor of the Indians was utilized by the shrewd monks to add a wealth of highly cultivated lands, produce, cattle, and sheep to their various missions. The title to the land seems to have generally, if not always, rested in the Fathers, while the valuable accumulation of chattels was held in a more or less modified communism, with the property rights greatly in favor of the Franciscans.
For fifty years the Franciscan missions flourished under the protection of Spain in a manner befitting an institution of such marked benefit to both the Indians and their instructors. If the labor were not altogether one of self-sacrifice, nothing less than a goodly endowment of religious zeal could have held these educated men in utter isolation among an unlettered, inferior people. As we look back upon the work of these men and view the stability of the old mission edifices which still stand in the most fertile spots in Southern California, justice, more than charity, compels the clear recognition of their devotion to the cause of Christianity as first, and above all else, with a material prosperity as inci-
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