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[62]
between White blood and Red was called Mestizo, and the females of this family, called Mestizas, are often very handsome.
The men are savage, the women licentious; inheriting the worst vices of their parent stocks.
No power on earth could stop this intercourse, or check this growth of Hybrid offspring.
If a native growled, the soldiers kicked him from their post.
If he presumed to strike, they broke his bones and set his thatch on fire.
What holy men could do to stay such outrages was done, but the Franciscans had to deal, not only with an Indian custom, but with officers as lax in morals as their men. No legal injury was done.
A native never urged that his daughter was disgraced by being carried to a White man's hut. He only grumbled that he was not paid her price.
Generals and captains all kept squaws.
As chiefs, these officers had rights which they were quick enough to seize, laughing away reproof of their confessors with the old campaigner's answer, “Holy father, soldiers are not monks.”
How could the Franciscan fathers get such captains to restrain their men?
By taking Indian mates, and rearing offspring
1875.
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