PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
387 
Nov, 
1826. 
his roof. The padre either did not like this second tax on his hospi- CHAP, 
tality, or was put out of temper by the increase of a complaint to • 
which he was subject, as he gave them a less cordial reception, and 
appeared very liHle disposed to conversation. It was imagined, how- 
evei, that he still entertained hopes of the conversion of one of the 
party, and that with this view he again occasioned a delay in furnishing 
horses for the next day s journey; offering as excuses, that some of the 
horses of the mission were engaged by soldiers in pursuit of a Mexican 
exile, who had deserted ; that others had been taken by the vaqueros 
to look after a male and female Indian, who had likewise absconded, 
and that the rest were gone to join the expedition against Los Gen- 
tiles, the Cosemenes. Vexed at this delay, the party endeavoured to 
hire horses at their own expense, but the price demanded was so 
exorbitant that they determined to wait the return of those that were 
said to be absent. 
It is more than probable that some one of my readers may have 
been in the same predicament— in a strange town, in a strange country, 
uith a beast fatigued to death, and an urgent necessity for proceeding; 
he will then easily remember the amiable and benevolent alacrity with 
which the inhabitants endeavoured to lighten his load of every stray 
crown they could obtain from him, on every pretence that ingenious 
cupidity can invent. So at least did the good people at San Juan when 
padre Arroyo would no longer assist our poor companions. Private 
horses could be had, it was true, but the terms were either thirteen 
shillings sterling for the journey, or seventeen shillings sterling for the 
purchase of the horse, which in California is considered so exorbitant 
that our shipmates did not think proper to suffer the imposition, and 
awaited the horses belonging to the mission. 
After a day’s delay, during which they again heard many invectives 
against the new government of Mexico, which had deprived the priest- 
hood of their salaries, and obliged the missions to pay a tithe to the 
state, they resumed their journey and arrived at San Francisco on the 
17th of November. 
In this route it will be seen, that with the exception of the mis- 
3 d2 
