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| Media |
Fr. Luis Jaime |
Feast of Corpus Christi |
Mission San Diego |
Fr. Junipero Serra |
Indians |
Mission San Diego |
Indios |
Map |
Map |
Map |
 Evening Prayer |
| Alabado |
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What evidence is there that the missions mistreated the Indians?
Consider the following table, drawn from historical records:
Crime and Punishment at Mission San Diego, 1778-1829
| Year |
Offense |
Punishment |
| 1778 |
Conspiracy to armed resistance |
Death (4 persons) |
| 1782 |
Fugitivism |
Imprisonment and hard labor |
| 1782 |
Stock stealing |
Flogging, 25 lashes |
| 1800 |
Murder of non-neophytes |
Flogging, 25 lashes 27 times (3 persons) |
| 1805 |
Striking a missionary |
Flogging, 25 lashes 9 times |
| 1811 |
Assault on missionary |
Imprisonment and hard labor |
| 1811 |
Robbery |
Imprisonment, 4 years hard labor and flogging 20 lashes 4 times (8 persons) |
| 1815 |
Assault |
Imprisonment, 4 years hard |
| 1815 |
Adultery |
Flogging, 25 lashes |
| 1829 |
Conducting Medicine Dances |
Imprisonment, hard labor for one year and flogging,25 lashes |
Taken from Sherburne F. Cook, The Conflict between the California Indian and White Civilization (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976) Table 5, pp.116-121.
As can be gathered by reading the offenses and punishments, life at the mission was not entirely idyllic and resentments over these and many unrecorded punishments served to make people want to run away. Large numbers of neophytes ran away from the restrictive controls of the padres. Usually they required that unmarried men and women in their charge be segregated at all times and that the single women be locked up at night. Attendance at mass and at work details was obligatory. Up to 1817 San Diego had 316 run aways, the second largest number in the system, topped only by Mission San Gabriel with 595. Running away was often provoked by hunger and by punishments that were regularly inflicted by the mayordomos under the direction of the padres.
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![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/martyr.jpg">','Fr. Luis Jaime','An engraving depicting the marterdom of Fr. Luis Jaime at San Diego Mission.','Courtesy of Copely Press','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/mission2.jpg">','Feast of Corpus Christi','Neophyte Indian girls, attending the school at the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi on May 24, 1894. More than a half-century earlier, Doña Apolinaria Lorenzana, known as La Beata (the pious one), devoted herself to the church and to teaching girls to read and write catechism.','Courtesy of San Diego Historical Society','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/mission_floorplan.jpg">','Mission San Diego','The floor plan of the main sanctuary of Mission San Diego de Alcala.','Courtesy of Copely Press','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/serra.jpg">','Fr. Junipero Serra','Portrait of Fr. Junipero Serra as a young man. ','Courtesy of Copely Press','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/indians.jpg">','Indians','Indians outside mission.','Courtesy of KOCE-TV','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/missionsd.jpg">','Mission San Diego','','Courtesy of KOCE-TV','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/picture_gallery/02/indios.jpg">','Indios','Indios outside mission.','Courtesy of KOCE-TV','480','400'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/maps2/1570map.jpg">','Map','Map in 1570 showing San Diego harbor.','Courtesy of Copely Press.','530','450'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/maps2/1782map.jpg">','Map','Map in 1782 showing San Diego harbor as it was in the Spanish period. Note the location of the San Diego River.','Courtesy of Copely Press.','530','450'))
![](javascript:openMediaWindow('<IMG alt="" SRC="../images/maps2/newworldmap.jpg">','Map','Map of the new world.','Courtesy of KOCE-TV','530','450'))