424 
SANTA CRUZ 
less ranchero and his family are probably depending 
for their chief support. They will enter a house, pistol 
in hand, demanding whatever it affords ; frequently 
they help themselves, without the ceremony of paying 
for what they take ; and commit other outrages which 
make one who has any national pride blush to hear 
recited. 
This affair being ended, we walked around the 
plaza, or public square, where crowds of people were 
busily occupied in setting up their booths for the 
approaching fiesta of San Francisco. These were 
chiefly constructed with boughs of trees lashed to- 
gether, and covered with the same. A few had 
begun to display their wares. We next went into 
the church. 
Although San Franciscos are as common in Mexico, 
as Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Franklins are with us, 
and churches dedicated to that saint are to be found all 
over the country ; yet this of La Magdalena is the most 
celebrated and potent of all, inasmuch as it contains a 
celebrated figure of San Francisco, which, among other 
miracles, performed that of selecting the place of its 
abode. A party of San Franciscans, as the legend 
goes, were travelling in search of a proper spot to 
found an establishment, and had among their other 
effects this sainted figure packed upon a mule. On 
arriving at this place, the animal carrying the precious 
burden became obstinate, and refused to budge. This 
the worthy fathers interpreted as indicating the Saint’s 
pleasure to stop here. So here they built the church. 
The original building, with the exception of the tower, 
is in ruins ; but a new one has been erected within a 
