186 SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
design ; consult much, and at last conclude to seek safety 
from the Padre’s musket in flight. In the morning their 
lodges are deserted ; not an Indian is in sight of the Mission 
San Juan Baptista Ligui. On the following day the Padre 
goes out to seek his lost flock. They are found hidden 
away among the cliffs, and flee at his approach. After con¬ 
siderable parleying, however, they are convinced that the 
Padre seeks their good alone, and return to the mission tho¬ 
roughly persuaded that he loves them, but can never be made 
to fear them. 
This excellent man continues at his mission, enduring every 
privation, till 1709, when the severe fatigues of years weigh 
him down and compel him to seek health in Mexico. Thither 
he goes in the character of negotiator and procurator of the 
missions. No sooner, however, does he recover his health in 
a tolerable degree, than he returns and resumes his labors. 
But illness again compels him to leave this inhospitable 
shore for the mission at the River Yaqui, on the opposite 
coast, where he makes himself useful as an agent and pur¬ 
veyor-general for California. 
But let us follow the Padre Juan Manuel Bassaldua to the 
River Mulege. He starts in 1705, and with great difficulty 
surmounts the crags as far north as Concepcion Bay. Here 
his progress is arrested by hills to all appearances in¬ 
surmountable. But “ trial before despair” is the Padre’s 
motto. He fills ravines with rocks, and cuts away the woods; 
and after incredible labor, passes his animals over to Mulege. 
There is a valley near the mouth of this little stream ten 
leagues in length, suitable for tillage. In this, two miles from 
the Gulf, he locates his mission, and consecrates it to Santa 
Rosalia ; builds his dwelling and church of adobies; remains 
four years; collects the Indians from all the neighboring set¬ 
tlements ; instructs them in religion and the useful arts; and 
so endears himself to them, that when his health fails, and he 
is transferred to Guaymas, the poor savages find it difficult to 
