TRAVELS IN THE CA LIFO RN IAS. 
273 
quisite number of mules and drivers, set out and travel north¬ 
wardly. When they arrive at the river Temblores, about forty 
leagues from San Diego, and while they are seeking a desira¬ 
ble site for their mission, the Indians, armed and led on by 
two commanders, rush from their lurking-places with dread¬ 
ful yells and the most unequivocal demonstrations of hostility. 
The Padres dread bloodshed. They exalt the image of “ Our 
Ladythe subdued savages prostrate themselves in crowds 
around the standard ; allow them without interruption to pro¬ 
ceed with the solemn ceremonies of founding the mission of 
San Gabriel ; and the swelling notes of the first Mass chanted 
in these solitudes, mount to the ear of the Omnipotent in the 
year 1771, from a little group consisting of the Padres, the 
rude soldiers, the careless muleteers and wandering Indians, 
gathered under the spreading boughs of a tree on the conse¬ 
crated ground, just as the sun is rising to bring the anniversary 
of the nativity of the Virgin. 
The Padres have now divided their forces as much as 
practicable. No more missions can be founded till help ar¬ 
rives from Mexico ; and oppressed with care, labor, hunger, 
and anxiety, lest the Indians should relapse into their hea¬ 
thenish belief and practices, they remain with little to en¬ 
courage their minds, or strengthen their fainting hearts, until 
the autumn of 1772, when Padre Junipero founds the mission 
San Luis Obispo de Tolozo, and in November embarks at San 
Diego for Mexico. There he struggles with the Viceroy 
Bucareli to prevent him, if possible, from abandoning the port 
of San Bias as a naval station ; and so successfully presents 
the cause of the infant missions to him that he is induced to 
finish a frigate which has been begun at San Bias, for the 
purpose of exploring the coast of Upper California, and 
also to freight a packet boat with provisions for Monterey. 
But again these navigators, on whose skill so much depends for 
the comfort and sustaining of the missions, fail through igno¬ 
rance, negligence, or misfortune, to reach the port of destina¬ 
tion i and the packet enters the bay of Eoretto without her 
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