TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIAS, 
269 
fifteen years old is among the most frequent and devout. Him 
the Padre President teaches the Spanish language, in order 
that he may learn the prayers and catechism, and act as inter¬ 
preter. He learns easily, and is soon able to inform his coun¬ 
trymen that the Padre desires to baptize their children, and 
instruct them in^the Catholic faith. One is selected from 
the many which are offered, and the holy water is about to 
fall from the Padre’s hand, when the parents of the child 
snatch it away, to the great grief of the Padre and the indig¬ 
nation of the soldiers. The latter in their zeal ask permission 
to destroy these blaspheming gentiles. The good Junipero 
denies them. 
Distress follows these Franciscans as it has the Jesuits. The 
country is unploughed and yields little food. The San Antonio 
has gone to San Bias for supplies; but heaven only knows if 
the storms will spare her to save them from starvation. She 
has already been absent so long that they begin to fear she is 
lost. The Governor, therefore, orders an account to be tak¬ 
en of the provisions on hand, and notifies the Padre Presi¬ 
dent that they can hold out no longer than March following; 
and that if the ship should not arrive by San Josef’s day, the 
twenty-fifth of that month, he shall abandon the enterprise, and 
commence his return to Loretto. This announcement greatly 
afflicts the Padre Junipero. Leaving the country he feels will 
carry with it for a long time to come, the abandonment of the 
Indians to their heathenism; and he retires to his closet and 
implores aid from Heaven. God is his master; from Him he 
seeks light. San Josef is the Patron Saint of his holy enter¬ 
prise*; from him he seeks celestial intercessions with the Ruler 
of events. The conversion of the Gentiles is the work 
which burdens his heart; and he holds the cross toward Heav¬ 
en and vows never to leave California till he has thrust the 
spiritual plough into the glebe of its moral wastes. He com¬ 
municates his resolution to the Governor, and awaits the ap¬ 
proach of the eventful day with the greatest solicitude. The 
twenty-fifth of March at last comes. The Padre greets its dawn- 
