276 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
ardor The accession of laborers and the abundant supplies 
brought by the Padre President enable the missionaries to 
prosecute their holy enterprise with renewed energy. New 
missions are founded, the old ones zealously advanced. Con¬ 
verts are added to the flock, and everything encourages 
the hearts of the lonely self-sacrificing Padres. In the 
fall of the year, 1775, however, a most diabolical plot is laid 
and partly executed by the unconverted Indians aided by two 
apostates, for attacking San Diego, and murdering the mis¬ 
sionaries and other white persons. The onset is made in the 
dead of night, by two strong bands of armed savages; and 
the good Padres, all unprepared for defence as they are, with 
their feeble force of a few soldiers and mechanics, have but 
a small chance of escape. One of them, the Padre Luis, is 
cruelly murdered and chopped in pieces, and Padre Vincente 
is dangerously wounded. A whole night is spent in this pre¬ 
carious defence, and at sunrise the Indians retire, carrying 
away their dead and wounded. All the whites are wounded, 
some of their buildings are burned, and their peaceful in¬ 
tercourse with the Indians is sadly interrupted. 
The Padre President at Monterey hears of this calamity, and 
resolves to proceed at once to San Diego to repair, as he best 
may, the misfortunes of his brethren. He is prevented from 
reaching them until June of the following year ; when with 
the aid of the crew of the Princesa, he re-builds the burned 
tenements, and by his influence renews the amicable inter¬ 
course of the mission with the natives. On his return, he 
founds the mission of San Juan Capistrano. Here he is at¬ 
tacked by hostile Indians. But he escapes all dangers, en¬ 
dures all trials, and on reaching Monterey, prepares to establish 
the mission of San Francisco, on the bay of that name. Great 
preparations are made for this event. Supplies are sent to 
the harbor of San Francisco in one of the packet boats, and 
the good Padre with a small detachment of soldiers, and a 
number of families with cattle and mules for the new mission, 
leaves Monterey on the seventeenth of June, 1776. Ten days 
