TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS. 183 
elsewhere press on the track of the good Padre, and he is 
forced to leave Mexico on a visit to the churches of his Dio¬ 
cese, without any decided assurances that his views will be 
acted on. The poverty of the Crown, while half the world is 
digging gold and silver for its coffers, is an additional cause of 
this inaction. 
We next find Padre Salva Tierra, in 1705, appealing to 
the Jesuit College and the Audiencia of Guadalaxara, to suc¬ 
cor the missions. Soon after this he lands at El Mission del 
Nuestra Senora de Loretto, amid the general joy of the Pa¬ 
dres, soldiers and Indians. To the latter, particularly, he has 
been a father; and they dance and shout around him in an 
ecstacy of gladness to see again his grey head and benevo¬ 
lent face. 
The Padre finds his brethren in great wretchedness, but full 
of unwavering determination to carry forward the work which 
he has so valorously begun. Padre Piccolo, who has been ap¬ 
pointed visitor of the missions of Senora, in order that he may 
have authority and opportunity to draw provisions more regu¬ 
larly for those of California, has been forwarding at intervals 
whatever he could gather from those poor establishments. 
But this has been sufficient only to prevent starvation or the 
abandonment of the country. However, the missions still 
exist, and the venerable Padre Salva Tierra is happy. Their 
discomforts have been much increased during his absence by 
the growing tyranny of Capt. Escalante, who has become im¬ 
patient of his subjection to the Padres, and abusive to the In¬ 
dians and soldiers. An account of this state of things having 
been forwarded during the Padre’s tarry there, he has brought 
with him Don Estevan Rodriguez Lorenzo to supersede Esca¬ 
lante—an arrangement which results in much satisfaction to 
the missions. 
The Provincial remains two months in California; but he 
does not excuse himself from his usual arduous labors. His 
new dignity furnishes no pretext for idleness. He bends all 
his energies to the well-being of the natives; takes measures 
27 
