e bell tower are two old bells made in 1818, as is evidenced by
their inscriptions, which read alike, as follows: "Manvel Vargas me
fecit ano d. 1818 Mision de Santa Barbara De la nveba
California"--"Manuel Vargas made me Anno Domini 1818. Mission of Santa
Barbara of New California." The first bell is fastened to its beam with
rawhide thongs; the second, with a framework of iron. Higher up is a
modern bell which is rung (the old ones being tolled only).

The Mission buildings surround the garden, into which no woman, save a
reigning queen or the wife of the President of the United States, is
allowed to enter. An exception was made in the case of the Princess
Louise when her husband was the Governor-general of Canada. The wife of
President Harrison also has entered. The garden, with its fine Italian
cypress, planted by Bishop Diego about 1842, and its hundred varieties
of semi-tropical flowers, in the center of which is a fountain where
goldfish play, affords a delightful place of study, quiet, and
meditation for the Franciscans.

It is well that the visitor should know that this old Mission, never so
abandoned and abused as the others, has been kept up in late years
entirely by the funds given to the Franciscan missionaries, who are now
its custodians, and it has no other income.

The Mission Library contains a large number of valuable old books
gathered from the other Missions at the time of secularization. There
are also kept here a large number of the old records from which Bancroft
gained much of his Mission intelligence, and which, recently, have been
carefully restudied by Father Zephyrin, the California historian of the
Franciscan Order. Father Zephyrin is a devoted student, and many results
of his zeal and kindness are placed before my readers in this volume,
owing to his generosity. His completed history of the Missions and
Missionaries of California is a monumental work.

CHAPTER XX

LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION

Although the date of the founding of this Mission is given as December
8, 1787,--for that was the day on which Presidente Lasuen raised the
cross, blessed the site, celebrated mass, and preached a dedicatory
sermon,--there was no work done for several months, owing to the coming
of the rainy season. In the middle of March, 1788, Sergeant Cota of
Santa Barbara, with a band of laborers and an escort, went up to prepare
the necessary buildings; and early in April Lasuen, accompanied by
Padres Vicent