LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 199 



comically mounted gingall or wall-piece, carrying a 

 two-pound ball, threatens the assailant in time of war. 

 At one end of the oblong building, a rough irregular 

 arch of sun-burned bricks is surmounted by a rude 

 cross, under which hangs a small but deep-toned bell 

 the wonder of the Indian peones, and highly vene- 

 rated by the frayles themselves, who received it as a 

 present from a certain venerable archbishop of Old 

 Spain, and who, whilst guarding it with reverential 

 awe, tell wondrous tales of its adventures on the road 

 to its present abiding place. 



Of late years the number of the canonical inmates of 

 the convent has been muchreduced there beingbut four 

 priests now to do the duties of the eleven who formerly 

 inhabited it : Fray Augustin, a capuchin of due capa- 

 city of paunch, being at the head of the holy quartette. 

 Augustin is the conventual name of the reverend father, 

 who fails not to impress upon such casual visitants 

 to that ultima Thule as he deems likely to appre- 

 ciate the information, that, but for his humility, he 

 might add the sonorous appellations of Ignacio Sabanal- 

 Morales-y Fuentes his family being of the best blood 

 of Old Castile, and known there since the days of Ruy 

 Gomez el Campeador possessing, moreover, half the 

 " vega" of the Ebro, <kc., where, had fate been propi- 

 tious, he would now have been the sleek superior of a 

 rich capuchin convent, instead of vegetating, a leather- 

 clad frayle, in the wilds of California Alta. 



Nevertheless, his lot is no bad one. With plenty of 

 the best and fattest meat to eat, whether of beef or 



