TRAVELS IN THE C aLIFORNIAS. 
193 
missions of the region afford them occasional aid; but the 
dearth which has pervaded the country during this year, so far 
disables these establishments from furnishing adequate supplies, 
that Padre Salva Tierra sends a messenger to the distant 
mission garrison, ninety miles up the country, called Nuestra 
Sennora de Gaudalupe, begging the Captain Don Francisco 
Xavier Valenzuela to send them food. This excellent man 
immediately despatches what succors he can command ; and 
soon after comes in person with some of his men and a more 
liberal supply. 
When he arrives, such is the distressed condition of the 
Padre and those with him, that this commander and his vete¬ 
rans seat themselves on the beach and weep. After a con¬ 
tinual repetition of trials like these, during two sultry months, 
the San Xavier is afloat, and the brave Padre sails his vessel 
to the Californian coast; visits the Padre Piccolo at Santa 
Rosalia Mulege, and encouraging that lonely priest in the 
prosecution of his holy labors, drops down to Loretto. Soon 
after his arrival the small pox, that exterminator of the In¬ 
dian race, sw T eeps away the greater part of the children and 
many adults, in all the missions. The garrison also suffers 
very much from irregularity of diet consequent upon the pre¬ 
carious means of supply, and the necessity of living in that 
sultry climate, on salt meat and maize. All these sicknesses 
and deaths the Indians attribute to the Padres. Their children, 
say they, are killed by baptism ; the adults with the extreme 
unction ; and the soldiers are made sick by continual expo¬ 
sure to the malign influence of prayers, masses and the exalt - 
ation of the Host. These suggestions are raised by their old 
sorcerers, and threaten to embitter the Indians fatally against 
the Padres. But the neophytes stand by their Priests, and 
convince their countrymen of their error. 
From 1709 to 1711, a famine spreads over the entire Mexi¬ 
can Territories, and California consequently obtains no sup¬ 
plies from that source. The distress of these years is so ex¬ 
ceedingly great, that the Indian neophytes betake themselves 
