If it were not for the priests you would be no better than
the most ignorant of them."
"If I am clever now, senor, was I not clever in the beginning? You do
not make cake out of bran. The Great Spirit sent his light into me and
said: 'Thou shalt be a great chief.' I could have done as well and
better without the priests. What good did it do me to read and tell my
beads and make chocolate? Was I happy at the Mission? Not for one moon,
senor. I felt as if I had a wild beast chained in me that choked and
panted for the free life of my youth, of my fathers. I ran away from the
Mission twenty-three times--and was brought back and flogged. Many times
I would have crushed my head with a stone had it not been that all the
other Indians of the Mission ran to me like dogs, and that I could make
them tremble with a word and obey with a look. I knew that the Great
Spirit had given me what these poor creatures had not, and that one day
I would give California to them again. It has begun."
"But we have better things to eat and drink and more comfortable houses
and clothes than you have in your pueblos. I like what the priests call
'civilisation.
Pages:
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101