doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

eholder, but serves to show the simplicity of the reverend Father, who was probably
not aware of having committed any impropriety.
"Dinner was now announced, when they entered through the large receptionroom
into the dining-room, where the table was spread, at which they sat down, and
had an entertainment of the usual guisados, their fritos and azados, frijoles, and the
universal tortilla de maiz, and plenty of good native wine, with the usual dessert of fruits
peculiar to the climate; after which the old friars retired to take their siesta, and the
author and his friend hurried away on their return to the town, where they arrived after
half an hour's ride."
The economic life of the Mission was not confined to the cultivation of the irrigated
fields and gardens in the fertile valley or the simple manufacturing that went on in
the quaint little shops around the patio. The Mission Fathers were the merchants, the
great stockmen, and even the bankers, of their period. They were busy men, indeed,
with their spiritual affairs, their trade, and their management of immense herds of livestock.
Vessels came to the port in increasing numbers, travelers constantly passed
along the trail from Lower California to the north, and ranches were gradually established
in the mountains. Thus it happened that the mission establishment more and
more fulfilled the function of an ordinary town as a trading center. There were great opportunities
for making money, and the shrewd priests made the most of them. They
were bent upon the enrichment of their order because this meant a constant increase of
their power, including the power to do good to the gentiles.
In those days the waters along the coast swarmed with sea-otters, a valuable furbearing
animal. The priests encouraged the hunting of these animals by Indians and
others, and thus
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[Mission Relics]
built up a profitable fur trade. They also bought other skins, usually paying for them with
goods from their store, and were thus able to make a double profit on the transaction.
They were the first and best customers of the ships when they began to come around
the Horn with cargoes from New England, and their store became constantly more important
as a distributing center for all imported goods required in the country, and as a
clearing house for surplus products available for shipment. They sometimes had large
amounts of coin, which they kept beneath the tile flooring in their rooms. Their reputation
for integrity was so high that they were implicitly trusted with the savings and property
of others, and they were thus able to perform a useful service as bankers for their
neighbors.
The largest business operation conducted by the priests was in connection with
the live-stock industry. They brought only 18 head of cattle, but by the year 1800, they
had six hundred cattle, six thousand sheep, and nearly nine hundred horses. In 1830,
the number of cattle had risen to fifteen thousand, of sheep to twenty thousand, and
they had thousands of hogs. The horses which they originally brought to this country
were shipped from Spain and were of Arabian blood. The annual harvest also reached
large proportions, sometimes exceeding thirty thousand bushels of grain. The cattle
were wastefully slaughtered, after the manner of the time, and were considered chiefly
valuable for tallow and hides, which were sold to the