tors secretly appropriated
two hides for every one they turned over to the Mission.

In 1843, March 29, Micheltorena's order, restoring San Gabriel to the
padres, was carried out, and in 1844 the official church report states
that nothing is left but its vineyards in a sad condition, and three
hundred neophytes. The final inventory made by the comisionados under
Pio Pico is missing, so that we do not know at what the Mission was
valued; but June 8, 1846, he sold the whole property to Reid and Workman
in payment for past services to the government. When attacked for his
participation in what evidently seemed the fraudulent transfer of the
Mission, Pico replies that the sale "did not go through." The United
States officers, in August of the same year, dispossessed the
"purchasers," and the courts finally decreed the sale invalid.

There are a few portions of the old cactus hedge still remaining,
planted by Padre Zalvidea. Several hundreds of acres of vineyard and
garden were thus enclosed for purposes of protection from Indians and
roaming bands of horses and cattle. The fruit of the prickly pear was a
prized article of diet by the Indians, so that the hedge was of benefit
in two ways,--protection and food.

On the altar are several of the old statues, and there are some quaint
pictures upon the walls.

In the baptistry is a font of hammered copper, probably made either at
San Gabriel or San Fernando. There are several other interesting
vessels. At the rear of the church are the remains of five brick
structures, where the soap-making and tallow-rendering of the Mission
was conducted. Five others were removed a few years ago to make way for
the public road. Undoubtedly there were other buildings for the women
and male neophytes as well as the workshops.

The San Gabriel belfry is well known in picture, song, and story. Yet
the fanciful legends about the casting of the bells give way to stern
fact when they are examined. Upon the first bell is the inscription:
"Ave Maria Santisima. S. Francisco. De Paula Rvelas, me fecit." The
second: "Cast by G.H. Holbrook, Medway, Mass., 1828." The third: "Ave
Maria, Sn Jvan Nepomvseno, Rvelas me fecit, A.D., '95." The fourth:
"Fecit Benitvs a Regibvs, Ano D. 1830, Sn. Frano."

In the year 1886 a number of needed repairs were made; the windows were
enlarged, and a new ceiling put in, the latter a most incongruous
piece of work.

CHAPTER XIV

SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA

Foun