On the south side of the Bay of San Francisco and the San Joaquin rivers, the Indians are more numerous, and particularly as we go further south they are more spirited and enterprising in thieving than those of the north; and those particularly on the southern frontier of California are brave and formidable. The _Indios manzos_ are sufficiently numerous in the settlements here, and some thousands of them were living at the Missions. The wild Indians in this portion of the country occupy the mountains back of the settlements; amongst them are now found in large numbers, those who, after the Mexican government succeeded in ruining the Missions, fled into the mountains and resumed their former life. In these mountains are found numerous beautiful valleys, well watered and full of game of every description; the climate is said to be very benign. It would be very difficult to estimate accurately the number of Indians, both tame and wild, in the country; we therefore will not offer any supposition of our own on the subject. The government at Washington will find itself somewhat embarrassed in selecting a course of conduct with these Indians; they have been accustomed to a different system of management than that of the United States. They cannot be removed, in justice and humanity, from the country, for there is no place to remove them to where they could subsist; it would be dooming them to destruction; and it would be more humane to butcher them outright than expose them to a slow but sure extinction. The system that the Spanish government pursued with them seems to suit, at least the Indians of this country, better than the American way. It acknowledged no rights in them to the soil, but it sends out missionaries to gather them into the folds of the church, and to make settlements of them under the directions of the Priests. In our opinion, the only safe and humane mode of bringing them within the pale of civilization, would be by establishing Protestant Missions, if you like,--but modeled somewhat after the Spanish fashion,--in those mountains on the spots fit for agriculture and grazing, where they could be brought to an industrious and peaceable life by persuasion, which could be easily effected, as they are sufficiently docile, and in this manner their services might be secured for the country as heretofore; they are, when engaged with settlers, those who generally perform the labors of the field or about the house, without losing, however, their freedom. In these occupations they seem quite contented, if they have enough meat to eat, which of course never fails in California. There can be in California no other but free labor hereafter, as it has been heretofore. The new settlers, as well as the old ones, are extremely opposed to any other. It is in vain that the gentlemen from the Southern States of the Union, in their dreaming hours, try, or have tried, to introduce their black