LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 159 



mission were innnmerable — " like that," he added, sweeping his 

 hand to all points of the compass over the plain, to intimate that 

 they would cover that extent ; and he could point out a large herd 

 grazing nearer at hand than the mission, and guarded but by three 

 vaqueros. Regaled with venison, and with a smoke of his coveted 

 tobacco, he rode off, and made his way to the mission without 

 delay, conveying the startHng intelligence that a thousand Amer- 

 icans were upon them. 



The next morning the thirteen doughty mountaineers quietly 

 resumed their journey, moving leisurely along toward the object 

 of their expedition. 



It will not be out of place here to digress a little, in order to 

 describe the singular features of the establishments formed in these 

 remote regions by the Catholic church, as nuclei round which to 

 concentrate the wandering tribes that inhabit the country, with a 

 view to give them the benefit of civilized example, and to wean 

 them from their restless nomadic habits. 



The establishment of missions in Upper California is coeval 

 with the first settlement of Southern Mexico. No sooner had 

 Spanish rule taken a firm foothold in the Aztec empire, than the 

 avowed primary object of the military expedition began to be 

 carried into efTect. " To save the souls" of the savage and bar- 

 barous subjects of their most Catholic majesties was ever incul- 

 cated upon the governers of the conquered country as the grand 

 object to be sought after, as soon as tranquillity was partially re- 

 stored by the submission of the Mexicans ; and the Cross, the 

 sacred emblem of the Catholic faith, was to be upraised in the 

 remotest corners of the country, and the natives instructed and 

 compelled to worship it, in lieu of the grotesque images of their 

 own idolatrous religion. 



To carry into effect these orthodox instructions, troops of pious 

 priests, of friars, and monks of every order, and even of saintly 

 nuns, followed in the wake of the victorious armies of Cortez ; 



