Read L'or for Free Online

direction of the monks, or worked in the various workshops: horse-shoeing, harness-making, lock-making, dyeing and cleaning clothes, tailoring, saddlery, carpentry, pottery and tile-making.
    Very gradually, other small dominions were created all around the mother-house: land was cleared, farms and small plantations entrusted to the care of a particularly worthy Indian. In 1824, the Mission of San Antonio, for example, was able to count 1,400 Indians who possessed between them 12,000 head of cattle, 2,000 horses and 14,000 sheep. The Fathers themselves had taken a vow of poverty and possessed nothing in their own right, considering themselves trustees and stewards of the Indians.
    Then came the Republic of Mexico. In 1832, the religious foundations and their settlements were declared State property. The friars were promised a pension, but it was never paid. And what booty there was to be had! Generals and political opportunists appropriated the richest domains, and the Indians - maltreated, wretched, stripped of everything - retreated into the wilderness and the bush. Public prosperity and well-being soon  foundered. By 1838, there were already only 4,450 paid workers left out of the 30,650 Indians who had worked as free men in the Missions; the herds of cattle fell from 420,000 horned beasts to 28,220; the horses from 62,500 to 3,800; the sheep from 321,500 to 31,600. Then the government made one last effort to restore the old wealth and prosperity. They gave land to the Indians, declared them to be citizens of a free Republic, with full civil rights. But it was too late. The damage was done. The Mission settlements had been transformed into brandy distilleries.
    It is at this moment that Sutter disembarks.
    And he soon makes his presence felt.

----
SIXTH CHAPTER
----
    19
    His first expedition on horseback has brought Sutter into the Sacramento Valley. The incredible fertility of the soil and the luxuriant vegetation decide for him: he will settle here. Returning from this reconnaissance, he learns that the first convoy of Kanakas has just landed. There are 150 of them and they are housed in the hamlet of Yerba Buena, at the far end of the Bay of San Francisco. His partners in Honolulu have engaged nineteen whites to come over with them; they are tough, cheerful men, hard-bitten and ready for anything. Sutter reviews them. They are armed to the teeth.
    Immediately, Sutter makes the overland journey to Monterey. He does it at a single stretch, riding night and day.
    John Augustus Sutter presents himself to Governor Alvarado. He announces his intention of setting up in the country. His Kanakas will clear the land. His small armed band will form a vigilant cordon to prevent incursions by the totally hostile tribes to the north. He intends to reassemble the Indians from the former Missions, distribute land to them and set them to work under his direction.
    'More and more ships,' he says, 'will be coming from Honolulu, where I have formed a substantial company. New convoys of Kanakas will be landing in the bay which I have chosen and further teams of white men will arrive with them, men in my pay. Give me a free hand,  and I will get the country back on its feet.' 'And what do you propose to call your ranch?'
    ' New Helvetia .'
    'Why?'
    'Because I am Swiss and a Republican.' 
    'Good. Do what you want. I will grant you a  concession for ten years, in the first instance.'
    20
    Sutter and his troop travel up the Sacramento Valley.
    At the head sail three ex-whalers, still decked out for sea and with a small cannon aboard. Then come the 150 Kanakas dressed in horizontally-striped shirts that reach down to their knees. They have made themselves odd little pointed hats from the leaves of tulip-trees. Following them along the banks and through the swamps are thirty wagons loaded with provisions, seeds and munitions, as well as some fifty horses, seventy-five mules, five bulls, two hundred cows and five flocks of sheep. The rearguard,