It
is not right that one man should have so much power. There was
one at the San Gabriel Mission; he was an Indian. He had been set
over the rest; and when a whole band of them ran away one time,
and went back into the mountains, he went after them; and he
brought back a piece of each man's ear; the pieces were strung on a
string; and he laughed, and said that was to know them by again,--
by their clipped ears. An old woman, a Gabrieleno, who came over
to Temecula, told me she saw that. She lived at the Mission
herself. The Indians did not all want to come to the Missions;
some of them preferred to stay in the woods, and live as they
always had lived; and I think they had a right to do that if they
preferred, Majella. It was stupid of them to stay and be like beasts,
and not know anything; but do you not think they had the right?"
"It is the command to preach the gospel to every creature," replied
the pious Ramona. "That is what Father Salvierderra said was the
reason the Franciscans came here. I think they ought to have made
the Indians listen.
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