rom the hill." [4]

Around the church were built storehouses, workshops, granaries,
barracks for the soldiers,--in short, everything necessary for comfort
and security. Each mission was at once fortress, refuge, church, and
town. The little town grew in time more and more to resemble its
fellows in old Spain. Bull-fights and other festivals were held in the
_plaza_, or public square, in front of the _presidio_, or governor's
house, and the long, low, whitewashed _hacienda_, or tavern.

About the mission arose a great farm. Vines and olives were planted,
and often long avenues of shade-trees. The level lands were sown to
barley and oats; great herds of cattle and horses roamed over the
hills. The sale of wine, and especially of hides, brought in each year
an increasing revenue. The poor, struggling missions became rich. The
commanders kept up a dignity worthy of the representatives of the
Spanish king, though often they had little enough to command. It is
said that one of them, wishing to fire a salute in honor of some
foreign vessel, first sent on board to borrow powder. In the words of
Bret Harte, with the _comandante_ the days "slipped by in a delicious
monotony of simple duties, unbroken by incident or interruption. The
regularly recurring feasts and saint's days, the half-yearly courier
from San Diego, the rare transport ship, and rarer foreign vessels,
were the mere details of his patriarchal life. If there was no
achievement, there was certainly no failure. Abundant harvests and
patient industry amply supplied the wants of the _presidio_ and
mission. Isolated from the family of nations, the wars which shook the
world concerned them not so much as the last earthquake; the struggle
that emancipated their sister colonies on the other side of the
continent had to them no suggestiveness. It was that glorious Indian
summer of California history, that bland, indolent autumn of Spanish
rule, so soon to be followed by the wintry storms of Mexican
independence and the reviving spring of American conquest."

[Illustration: Mission of San Antonio de Padua--Interior of Chapel.]

The Indians were usually gathered about the mission by force or by
persuasion. Being baptized with holy water, they were taught to build
houses, raise grain, and take care of cattle. In place of their savage
rites, they learned to count their beads and say their prayers. They
learned also to work, and were pious and generally con