200 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



venison, of bear or mountain mutton ; with good wine 

 and brandy of home make, and plenty of it ; fruit of 

 all climes in great abundance ; wheaten or corn bread 

 to suit his palate ; a tractable flock of natives to guide, 

 and assisted in the task by three brother shepherds ; 

 far from the strife of politics or party secure from 

 hostile attack, (not quite, by the bye,) and eating, drink- 

 ing, and sleeping away his time, one would think that 

 Fray Augustin Ignacio Sabanal-Morales-y Fuentes had 

 little to trouble him, and had no cause to regret even 

 the vega of Castilian Ebro, held by his family since the 

 days of el Campeador. 



One evening Fray Augustin sat upon an adob& bench, 

 under the fig-tree shadowing the porch of the Mission. 

 He was dressed in a goat-skin jerkin, softly and beau- 

 tifully dressed, and descending to his hips, under which 

 his only covering tell it not in Gath ! was a long 

 linen shirt, reaching to his knees, and lately procured 

 from Puebla de los Angeles, as a sacerdotal garment. 

 Boots, stockings, or unmentionables, he had none. A 

 cigarito, of tobacco rolled in corn shuck, was occasion- 

 ally placed between his lips ; whereupon huge clouds 

 of smoke rushed in columns from his mouth and nos- 

 trils. His face was of a golden yellow colour, relieved 

 by arched and very black eyebrows ; his shaven chin 

 was of most respectable duplicity his corporation of 

 orthodox dimensions. Several Indians and half-bred 

 Mexican women were pounding Indian corn on metates 

 near at hand ; whilst sundry beef-fed urchins of 

 whitey-brown complexion sported before the door, 



