The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-06

them, but by the Spaniards and Mexi-
cans who were settling the country.
BY these laws the Indians were to have
their just proportion of all lands that
had been, or should be planted and
made fruitful by them; and no lands
upon which Indian villages were built,
could change hands, without an under
standing that the Indians were to be
protected in their legal rights by the
purchasers. Did these simple-hearted
and trusting Indians, living in the mis-
sions under the guidance of the hardly
less simple hearted Fathers, know of
these laws? laws that would, sometime,
make them Independent of the missions,
and give to them many, if not all of the
rights Of citizens ?
Captain B. D. Wilson, of San
Gabriel, in a report made for the
Superintendent of Indian affairs, in
1852, says: "Can we believe that,
through all, day and night, and in every
lesson, the natives did not hear of these
laws made by the good and kind Span
ish monarchs No The Fathers must
have preached them as often as any
other truth, to inspire their disciples
with a hope equal to their constant
labor. Their submission was the re-
suit of many things combined, but l
seem to see in it inducements and prom
es-considerations would not be an
unapt expression-''such as never have
existed between American rulers and
an Indian tribe" Call it-lawl Call it
force These were its sanctions, in
struments of its execution. But the
whole wears more the aspect of solemn
treaty-rather an almost infinite series
of treaties binding forever the faith
of the Spanish crown, and not less its
republican successors. Religion, "pure
and undefiled," would seem to have
been its basis. If we may credit the
laws and institutions, certain actual
benefits and the substantial blessings,
temporal, which all covet, were to be
the price-and who will say they could
be an equivalent ?-of the life of toll to
which the savages bound themselves
and posterity. There is but one i'm
pulse Of human nature capable of sus-
tanning them: self-interest ! And how
hopefully each generation must have
struggled on in that weary race Not
all "a spiritual conquest" ""a civilized
and rational life ''-but EMISSION pue-
bios" to become cities, 'and houses of
adobe or of stone and mortar''-"a gar
den, where the Indians shall sow some
seeds, and herbs, and plant trees''-
"thus holding them with constancy to
the place" More than all the rest:
common lands" and individual con-
cessions to such Indians as may most
dedicate themselves to agriculture and
the raising of cattle - "for," continue
these instructions, August II, 1913, to
the commandant of San Diego and
Monterey, shaving property of their
own, the loYe of it will cause them to
plant themselves more firmly" Fond
illusion! Tribe after tribe it drew to the
sacred portals. Carried down through
a weary length of years To this hour
cherished by many dark skinned child
of the mountains! Never, perchance,
inscribed ON parchment-yet written
indelibly upon the Indian heart! Never
was more solemn treaty ratified before
heaven. Never before, Or since, was
contract so shamelessly violated. Long
ago the Indians did their part to fulfill
it. The venerable fathers left no stain
upon their good faith. To have snatched
away the cup brimful for fruition, is
the reproach of other men. No un-
bending prescription has hallowed the
wrong. The true history of the mis-
sions will not authorize the assertion
that the Indians abandoned" them,
and so incurred forfeiture of their
legal rights, or placed themselves out of
the power of the authorities to comply
with their duties under the laws. The
authorities-Go knows always had
power enough ; and the world knows it.
Here, at least, the Indians have ''prop-
erty," as well as occupancy
BY the Spanish laws in California, a
settler upon tract of land needed no
record of his claim to make it legally
his own. If he fenced it, lived upon it,
cultivated it, kept the buildings in order,
it was his by occupancy" and he could
not be dispossessed. The record of his
ownership was written, as in an open
book, upon his house and land. But if,
unnecessarily, either house or land was
neglected, or allowed to decay, another
could apply for ownership, and the
former owner was dispOssessed. This
law constituted, in part, the tenure by
which the Indians held the land they
occupied. But the wise king, realizing
their dependent situation, and their
ignorance of courts and how to main
tain their rights, made additional laws
whereby their claim was strengthened.
They had done, as elsewhere stated, all