420 
SANTA CRUZ 
on the walls; and the statues, which are of wood, 
and from two to four feet high, were quite ordinary. 
Among the latter, 1 noticed two Chinese figures, 
intended doubtless for mandarins, but here metamor- 
phosed into saints. These images reminded me at 
once of our proximity to the Pacific, with its opposite 
shore formed by the Celestial Empire, between which 
and Mexico, there was formerly a flourishing com- 
merce. I asked the attendant if those figures were 
not from China ; to which I received the usual and 
unsatisfactory reply of “ Quien sabef I suppose she 
knew as little of China as of the topography of the 
moon ; and as to the personages they originally repre- 
sented, it was a matter of perfect indifference to her 
and the people who worshipped there. The church is 
built entirely of brick, being the first edifice of that 
material we had seen. It has two towers, and is on 
the whole a picturesque looking structure. This was 
one of the earliest missions established in Sonora, and 
was founded about the year 1687. Though the mis- 
sion has been abandoned for many years, the results of 
Jesuit industry are still apparent in the shape of some 
pomegranate orchards. 
We had heard much of the superiority of the pome- 
granates of this place, for they are famed in all the 
region round about ; and for once in this country we 
met with something that really came up to our expec- 
tations. They were delicious beyond comparison. 
Some specimens measured sixteen inches in circum- 
ference, and they were sold at from one to two dozen 
the real (twelve and a half cents). Immediately over 
the wall where we stood, was a large orchard with long 
