too; but there, in the new land, we could make another start with better
courage. Let us go." Maria looked up at Benito, smiling brightly, but
with tears in her eyes.

Benito lost no time in carrying out his plan, and at the end of a few
weeks he had sold his house and land, and all his furniture and farming
tools, reserving only his horses. These, with a few clothes, and two
hundred dollars in gold in his pocket, made up the entire wealth of this
poor couple. As Benito wished to keep his horses, he decided to go to
the new country overland by way of the Colorado River, and across the
desert to Mission San Gabriel. This had been the regular route of the
land expeditions of the early days of mission history, and was still
used, although less frequently. Benito and Maria had not long to wait
when a company was formed to start out on the long journey of seven
hundred miles to Mission San Buenaventura.

At the time of the setting out of our friends in the year 1830,
traveling overland from Mexico to California was an easy thing, compared
to the hardship and dangers of fifty years earlier. Then, the way,
through the desert around the mouth of the Colorado River, was beset by
the fierce and powerful Yuma Indians, and unless the band of travelers
were large and well armed, it would suffer severely at their hands. But
the Yumas had become subdued with time, and traveling made safe. The
company with which Benito and Maria journeyed had no mishap, and after
four weeks passed on the way, they arrived, one evening late in October,
at Mission San Buenaventura, just as the bells of the mission church
were pealing out their evening burden.

What a charming place Mission San Buenaventura was in those days!
Situated on the coast, it stood not a half-mile from the water, which
it faced, while behind, and close to it, was a line of hills running off
into the distance until they disappeared on the horizon. At the time
of year our pilgrims first saw it, there was little remaining of the
verdant freshness of spring and early summer. But if Nature refuses to
permit southern California to wear her mantle of green later than May
or June, she has bestowed on her a wealth of warm yellow, red and
brown, which, to some, is even more pleasing. The bare ground takes on a
vividness of glowing color that is almost incredible, while the hills in
the distance run through another gamut of color--from yellow through
all the shades of orange to an almost