Identifier: opencourt11_1897caru (find matches)
Title: The Open court
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Carus, Paul, 1852-1919
Subjects: Religion
Publisher: Chicago : The Open Court Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: The Newberry Library
Digitizing Sponsor: CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

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nst mission authority attests. When the cotujuisiadores cameearly in the sevejiteenth century they did not find weapons of war-fare among the California Indians, and no indications have beenfound among the numerous relics excavated to show that theywere a warlike people. Circumstances indicate that they werehalf-civilised when the missionaries arrived, and their completecivilisation could have undoubtedly been brought about just as ourEuropean ancestors were civilised. But education should havepreceded the attempt to Christianise. The Indian should havebeen advanced to that mental condition by which he could be madeto understand why it was better to adore the cross than his fetish.The friars reasoned with the lash, the dungeon, and when subjectedphysically he was baptised without knowing whether it was in-tended for a religious ceremony or for personal cleanliness. No country in the world was so well supplied by nature withthe wants of man as was California in the aboriginal days. The
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6 14 iHK (JPEN COURT. hills, tnesas, valleys, and streams were filled with abundance ofgame and fish, and the forests were full of trees, plants, and vines,bearing seeds, nuts, and berries that grew in profusion and luxu-riance in this tropical clime. Being a child of nature, the Indianenjoyed the fruits of this ideal world of his in the most naturalmanner. He was not lazy, for it was his work that built the mas-sive mission buildings and created the wealth of the missions. Hewas not so stupid as the friars paint him to be, for he became ex-pert in mechanics, readily learned to till the soil, cultivate fruits,construct irrigating ditches, manufacture cloth, and even to makewine for the priests. Minds capable of receiving such instructionwere not incapable of being instructed, and all of their handi-work goes to prove that the California Indian was capable of civili-sation, at least in two generations. They constructed irrigatingditches, the remains of some of which are still in existe

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