CHAPTER VI. 
A Ride—Vale of San Carmelo—Indians employed—The Surf—Bay of 
San Carmelo—Mission Edifices—Belfre^ Bells—Deserted and Sad— 
An Indian Lawyer and his Wife—A Speech—Return to Monterey— 
Embarkation—Weighing Anchor—An American Tar—Tom’s New 
Axe—General Training Day—Becomes a Salt—Tom’s opinion of the 
Land and its Inhabitants—A fine breeze—Panto Concepcion— Islands— 
A calm—A night on deck—Landing at Santa Barbara—The Prison 
Ship—El Mission de Santa Barbara—Its Fountains, Tanks, Church, 
Pictures and Cemetery—The Prisoners—Taking leave of them. 
In the afternoon of the twenty-fifth, three or four Ameri¬ 
cans and an English physician rode out on horseback to the 
mission of San Carmelo, one league and a half southwesterly 
from Mpnterey. The road leading to it lay over an undulating 
country, covered with the growing wild grasses. Its general 
aspect much resembled that of the broken lands of Illinois. 
The hills, however, wmre higher, the gravel of the roads 
coarser. The trees were a species of soft, low oak, pine and 
birch. A kind of clover and some other species of grasses 
crowned every knoll and height. And the odor of that vege¬ 
tation ! Incense from the boundless altar of nature! The 
teeming fields of spring on the rich hill sides, sending up into 
the broad sky the sweet perfume of opening leaf and flower. 
The glancing flight of the butterfly, the nimble leaps of 
the hare, the hurried snort of the startled deer, the half-clad 
Indian lounging in the genial sun-light, mottled the view 
along the way. 
The valley of the mission is a charming one. It comes 
down from the north-eastern highlands, accompanied by a 
