uestra Senora de Los Dolores, "Our Lady of Sorrows." In
this Mission, as well as in the others, the Indians were in a certain
sense slaves, as the Fathers controlled all their movements. The
religious instruction was of the simplest character. The life of the
convert also was somewhat childlike, in marked contrast with his
experience in his savage condition. His breakfast consisted of a kind
of gruel made of corn, called Atole. The dinner was Pozoli, and the
supper the same as breakfast. The Christian Indians lived in adobe
huts--of which the Padres kept the keys. Some of the Missions were
noted for their wealth. For example, as you may read in the Annals of
San Francisco, the Mission Dolores, in its palmiest days, about the
year 1825, possessed 76,000 head of cattle, 950 tame horses, 2,000
breeding mares, 84 stud of choice breed, 820 mules, 79,000 sheep,
2,000 hogs, 456 yoke of working oxen, 18,000 bushels of wheat and
barley, $35,000 in merchandise and $25,000 in specie.

Such prosperity in time was fatal to the Missions. The spiritual life
was deadened, and in time it might be said that Ichabod was written on
them. The glory has departed. The early Franciscans were men of deep,
religious fervour, self-denying and godly. They did a splendid work
among the Indians in California. Father Junipero was a saintly man,
full of labour, enduring hardships for Christ's sake, and he is worthy
of being ranked with the saints of old. Padre Palott was a man of like
character, and there were others who caught the inspiration of his
life. When Junipero knew that his pilgrimage was about ended he wrote
a farewell letter to his Franciscans; and then, on the 28th of August,
1784, having bade good-bye to his fellow-labourer, Padre Palou, he
closed his eyes in the last sleep, and was laid to rest at San Carlos.
The lives of such men make a bright spot in the early history of
California; and as most of its towns and cities have San or Santa as a
part of their names it is well to recall the fact that the word Saint
was not unmeaning on the lips of those Franciscan Missionaries who
laboured on these shores and taught the ignorant savage the way of
life. On the day when Doctor Ashton and I visited the Mission Dolores
we were deeply impressed with what we saw. There stood the old
building, partly overshadowed by the new edifice erected recently just
north of it. Yonder were the hills, north and south and west, which
from the first had looked d