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C H A P . whole this is one of the best regulated and most cleanly missions in the
7 1 7 If* herds of cattle amount to 10,000 in number, and of horses
Nov.
18 26.
there are about 300.
When our travellers visited the mission it was governed by padres
.José and Machin, two priests of the mendicant order of Sán Francisco,
to which class belong all the priests in Upper CaUfornia. They appeared
to lead a comfortable hfe, though not over well provided with
its luxuries.
We will not, however, pry too narrowly into the internal arrangements
of the good fathers’ dwelling ; let it suffice, that they gave our
travellers a cordial welcome, and entertained them at their board in a
most hospitable manner. After joining them in a dram of aquadente,
they allowed their guests to retire to their sleeping apartment, where,
stretched upon couches of bull-hide as tough and impenetrable as the
cuirass of their friend the dragoon (who left them at this place), they
soon fell asleep—thanks to excessive weariness—and slept as soundly
as las pulgas would let them.
Having breakfasted the following morning with the padres, and being
provided with fresh horses, a new escort and vaqueros, the party was
about to start, but were delayed by the punishment of an Indian
who had stolen a blanket, for which he received two dozen lashes with
a leathern thong upon that part of the human frame, which, we learn
from Hudibras, is the most susceptible of insult. Some other Indians
were observed to be heavily shackled, but the causes of their punishment
were not stated.
A beautiful avenue of trees, nearly three miles in length, leads
from the mission to the pueblo of Sán José, the largest settlement of
the kind in Upper California. It consists of mud houses miserably
provided in every respect, and contains about 500 inhabitants—retired
soldiers and their families, who under the old government were allowed
the privilege of forming settlements of this nature, and had a quantity
of ground allotted to them for the use of their cattle. They style
themselves Gènte de Razón, to distinguish them from the Indians, whose
intellectual qualities are frequent subjects of animadversion amongst
these enlightened communities. They are governed by an alcalde.
and have a chapel of their own, at which one of the priests of the mis- C H A R
sion occasionally officiates.
About eighteen miles from Sánta Clara, the party alighted upon No^
the banks of a limpid stream, the first they had seen in their ride. It
was too favourable a spot to be passed, and placing some milk and pears,
which had been furnished by the hospitable priests at the mission,
under the cool shade of an aUso-tree, they regaled themselves for a
few minutes, and then resumed their journey. At the distance of
eight leagues from Sánta Clara, they passed some remarkable hills near
the coast named FI ójo del còche; and a few miles further on, they descended
into the plain o l Las Llagas, so called from a battle which took
place between the first settlers and the Indians, in which many of the
former were wounded. Stopping towards the extremity of this fertile
plain at some cottages, named Ranchas de las animas, the only habitations
they had seen since the morning, they dined upon some jerk
beef, which, according to the old custom in this and other Spanish
colonies, was served in silver dishes. Silver cups and spoons were also
placed before our travellers, offering a singular incongruity with the
humble wooden benches, that were substituted for chairs, and with the
whole arrangement of the room, which, besides the board of smoking
jerk beef, contained beds for the family, and a horse harnessed to a
flour mill.
Leaving Lláno de las Llagas, they ascended a low range of hills,
and arrived at a river appropriately named Eio de los Páxaros, from the
number of wild ducks which occasionally resort thither. The banks of
this river are thickly lined with wood, and being very steep in many
places, the party wound, with some difficulty, round the trunks of the
trees and over the inequahties of the ground ; but their Californian
steeds, untrammelled with shoes, and accustomed to all kinds of ground,
never once stumbled. They rode for some time along the banks of
this river, which, though so much broken, were very agreeable, and
crossing the stream a few miles lower down, they left it to make its
way towards the sea in a south-west direction, and themselves entered
upon the Lláno de Sán Juan, an extensive plain surrounded by
mountains It should have been told, before the party reached thus
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