?" And the muleteer replied:
"Father, how should I know of any remedy? Am I a surgeon? I am a
muledriver, and can only cure harness-wounds on animals." "Then, son."
rejoined Junipero, "consider that I am an animal, and that this ulcer is
a harness-wound... and prepare for me the same medicament as you would
make for a beast." Those who heard this request smiled. And the muleteer
obeyed; and mixing certain herbs with hot tallow, applied the compound
to the ulcerated leg, with the astonishing result that the sufferer
slept that night in absolute comfort, and was perfectly able the next
morning to undertake afresh the fatigues of the road.

Of the further incidents of the tedious journey it is needless to write.
It is enough to say that for forty-six days--from the 15th of May to
the 1st of July--the little party plodded on, following the track of
the advance-division of the land-expedition under Rivera y Moncada. With
what joy and gratitude they at last looked down upon the harbour of
San Diego, and realized that the first object of their efforts had now
indeed been achieved, may be readily imagined. Out in the bay lay the
San Carlos and the San Antonio, and on the shore were the tents of the
men who had preceded them, and of whose safety they were now assured;
and when, with volley after volley, they announced their arrival,
ships and camp replied in glad salute. And this responsive firing was
continued, says Palou, in his lively description of the scene, "until,
all having alighted, they were ready to testify their mutual love by
close embraces and affectionate rejoicing to see the expeditions thus
joined, and at their desired destination." Yet one cannot but surmise
that the delights of reunion were presently chilled when those who had
thus been spared to come together fell into talk over the companions who
had perished by the way. History has little to tell us of such details;
but the sympathetic reader will hardly fail to provide them for himself.

The condition of things which the governor and the president
found confronting them on their arrival was indeed the reverse of
satisfactory. Of the one hundred and thirty or so men comprising the
combined companies, many were seriously ill; some it was necessary to
dispatch at once with the San Antonio back to San Blas for additional
supplies and reinforcements; a further number had to be detailed for
the expedition to Monterey, which, in accordance with the explicit
inst