The Field of the Cloth of God 323 



dark and have Indian characteristics. There 

 were no women ; only men came from Spain at 

 first, and hundreds of men married Indian women 

 and raised large families. 



" This valley was very fertile, and by 1804 the 

 ranclio had twenty thousand head of cattle, and 

 hides were the currency of the country ; they were 

 dried and sent to Santa Barbara, and so found 

 their way East. 



" The first mission did not last very long, and 

 was rebuilt, and by 1802 another was built about 

 which were gathered nearly one hundred rancli- 

 erias. And so things went along until 1820 when 

 all the Indians on this part of the coast had re- 

 nounced paganism and joined the Church. Up 

 to the time of your War of 1812, everything 

 went well; then Lompoc and the mission were 

 hit by an earthquake. You can still see the 

 crack on the hill where the earth opened and 

 threw out a rain of black sand and mud. The 

 first shock lasted almost four minutes and com- 

 pletely demoralized the people, and threw T down 

 half their huts of adobe, cracking the church. 

 In half an hour came another shock that threw 

 down every small house, ruined not only this 

 mission, but many more all along shore, and 

 killed a lot of people. 



" The Indians thought the world had ended, 

 and my grandfather said that he saw the fathers 

 among them trying to comfort them. But not 



