The priests
have now no power, except in their religious character, and the great
possessions of the missions are
Given over to be preyed upon by the
harpies of the civil power, who are sent there in the capacity of
administradores, to settle up the concerns; and who usually end,
in a few years, by making themselves fortunes, and leaving their
stewardships worse than they found them. The dynasty of the priests
was much more acceptable to the people of the country, and indeed,
to every one concerned with the country, by trade or otherwise,
than that of the administradores. The priests were attached
perpetually to one mission, and felt the necessity of keeping up
its credit. Accordingly, their debts were regularly paid, and the
people were, in the main, well treated, and attached to those who
had spent their whole lives among them. But the administradores are
strangers sent from Mexico, having no interest in the country;
not identified in any way with their charge, and, for the most
part, men of desperate fortunes - broken down politicians and
soldiers - whose only object is to retrieve their condition in
as short a time as possible. The change had been made but a few
years before our arrival upon the coast, yet, in that short time,
the trade was much diminished, credit impaired, and the venerable
missions going rapidly to decay. The external arrangements remain
the same. There are four presidios, having under their protection
the various missions, and pueblos, which are towns formed by the
civil power, and containing no mission or presidio.
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