San Miguel

A Mission Record of the California Indians, by A.L. Kroeber, [1908], at sacred-texts.com

p. 18

San Miguel. ⁴³

The neophytes at this mission speak four languages: that of San Antonio, which is reputed the principal one; that of the shore (la playana), which is the one spoken by those settled on the coast; the Tulareño; and another, that of the people of the south. ⁴⁴

The money of the Indians has been, and still is, beads, which they now lend without usury. In their wild state, usury consisted of the daily augmentation of the value of the amount lent, for instance a real of beads; and those who lent the real grew richer by as many reales as the original real was days in returning to their hands. This custom was practiced by those to the east of this mission. ⁴⁵

Footnotes

18:43 San Miguel was in the territory of the Indians of the so-called Salinan stock. No general name of native origin is known for these people, who go under their present designation only because they lived in and about Salinas valley. The father who wrote the above reply was either Juan Martin or Juan Cabot.

18:44 Of the four languages, the Tulareño is that of the people in the Tulare valley, namely the Yokuts. The people of the south are probably the most northwesterly Chumash, some of whom may have been brought to San Miguel instead of to San Luis Obispo. The language of San Antonio is Salinan, and that of the coast evidently so. Both are mentioned again in the replies from San Antonio. Nothing is known of the coast language of this region, nor about the dialectic divisions of the Salinan family, other than that the dialects ordinarily called those of San Miguel and San Antonio were somewhat different.

18:45 No such custom of borrowing at interest has been otherwise reported from California.