TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNI AS. 
207 
miles distant, which he annually plants with maize. All this 
Padre Bravo accomplishes single handed in seven years. 
In the year 1720, while the Padres are yet at La Paz, a 
mission is founded by Padre Everard Hellen, among mountains 
in latitude 27° N., thirty leagues northwest of San Ignacio, 
thirty from Concepcion, and from sixty to seventy north of 
Loretto. The climate of this location is cold and unhealthy. 
But the Indians repair to it from the neighboring settlements, 
and express the utmost joy that the Padre, after long solicita¬ 
tions, has come to give them the religion of the white man. 
This mission is dedicated to Nuestra Sennora de Gaudalupe. 
In the midst of the labor of erecting the edifices of the mission, 
the Padre visits the most distant of the surrounding settle¬ 
ments, to instruct the aged and sick, who are unable to come 
to him. During his absence for these works of charity, the 
captain, soldiers and Indians, forward the erection of the 
church, parsonage and other buildings of the mission; so that 
at the end of six weeks, it is in so good a condition that 
the captain, leaving a guard of four soldiers, returns to Lo¬ 
retto. 
Such is the zealous industry of Padre Hellen, and the inter¬ 
esting attention of the Indians, that on Easter eve, 1721, he 
baptizes a few converts. And now from all the villages come 
applications for instruction and baptism. The good Padre 
finds it difficult to make the Indians understand, that some 
knowledge and the abandonment of their old practices are 
necessary, before they can receive the sacred rite. He exhorts 
them to give up the trumperies used in their heathenish cere¬ 
monies, and worship Jehovah. At length they bring him a 
large quantity of pieces of charmed wood, feathers, cloaks, 
deer’s feet, &c., which he commits publicly to the flames, 
while he receives the transfer of their faith to the religion of 
the cross. Thus the Padres are making all desirable pro¬ 
gress in the spiritual culture of the Indians, and everything 
promises well. But the following years, 1722 and ’23, are 
very disastrous to their feeble settlements ; and especially so 
