DOCAS IN A FIGHT
A FEW days after this visit to the red hill, Massea and his family saw some white men coming into the rancheria. Three of them were riding on animals very much like those ridden by Portola’s men; but these were not mules—they were horses.
Each man wore a cloak of padded deerskin. Arrows could not go through these cloaks, so the white men always wore them. Sometimes the Indians shot arrows at them, but when they came to this rancheria the Indians did not try to hurtthem. They gave the white men some acorn mush to eat.
While they were eating, Docas crept up to his father and said, “Do you think that man with the long dark dress is the father the Indian from the coast told about?”
Massea said, “I think so, but we will see after dinner.”
The white men had an Indian with them who could talk both Indian and Spanish. After they had eaten, they began to talk to the Indians.
Docas was right. One of the men was Father Pena, who had come into their valley to start a new mission.
He went about ten miles farther south. There he started the new mission, and called it Santa Clara, after a very good and beautiful woman.
One day, a few weeks later, Massea got into a quarrel with some Indians from another rancheria, about some deer they had trapped. That night Docas heard something go “thud” by the side of his head while he was asleep. He put out his hand and felt an arrow sticking in the ground beside the tule mat on which he was sleeping.
“Some one is shooting at us,” he shouted.
Massea jumped up and got his own bow and arrows. He came over and felt of the arrow that had been shot into the hut, to see from what direction it came.
Massea gave a long call to tell the Indians of their rancheria that there was danger and that they must help. Then he and Docas crept out of the house and hid behind two trees that stood near the front of the hut. In a moment more they saw some dark figures moving about in the direction from which the arrow had come.
They raised their bows and were just going to shoot, when they heard a rustle behind them. They turned quickly, but before they could help themselves, their arms were seized and tied behind their backs.
“Now we have you,” said the strange Indians.
Some of the strange Indians hurried into the hut and brought out Ama, Heema, and Alachu and took them off. The others stayed to fight.
Next day they took Massea and his family out to the middle of their rancheria. The Indians who had captured them were going to torture them.
Suddenly a man in a long gray gown stood among them. It was Father Pena, and he was holding up a cross.
He said, “My children, what are you doing? Do you know that it is wrong for you to torture your neighbors? Let them go.”
These Indians loved Father Pena already and wanted to do as he told them, so they let Massea go, and all his family with him.