Spanish California.

After Upper California was settled in 1769, Franciscan friars established missions at San Diego and then San Carlos Borromeo near Monterey, where they taught Indians to cultivate the soil, build houses and churches, make clothing and tools, and practice Christianity. Indians stayed near the missions to obtain a steady supply of food, and the friars focused on their children, training them to live within the restraints of mission life. Some of the promising boys were taught to speak, read, and write in the Spanish language and to sing and play musical instruments; girls, who were protected under lock and key at night, learned to spin, weave, embroider, and engage in domestic tasks. In 1793 King Carlos IV ordered that the use of native languages be discouraged and that government schools be established to teach the Indians to speak, read, and write...