The Indian Dispossessed
dental,—a prosperity justified, deserved, and shared liberally with their Indian wards. The frequent aspersions cast upon the motives of these first pioneers are largely due to the frivolous habit of begrudging all missionaries everything more than the barest means of existence, as though constant attendance upon want and hardship were a portion of their mission.
But with the independence of Mexico in 1822 came the undoing of the Franciscan missions. The Spanish governmental favor under which they had prospered for a half-century was lost to them; the Mexican attitude became one of distinct hostility. If this were to be a story of Mexican misrule it would call for more than the mere statement that within fifteen years the last of the Franciscan missions ceased as an organization of the Franciscan monks, but for our purpose the bare recital of fact suffices.
With the passing of the Franciscans the mission lands were in many cases allotted in parcels to the Indians living on them; in other instances no record appears of any Indian title beyond the possessory title which comes from generations of occupancy. Although deprived of much needed protection, the Mission Indians continued to live on and cultivate their lands, while a few remaining zealous adherents of the faith kept them together and attended their spiritual and temporal wants as best they could.
The latest of the old Mexican records shows about
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