girl in the country. Men of the army, men of the
navy, and men of the Church, alike adored her. Her name was a toast
from Monterey to San Diego. When at last she was wooed and won by Felipe
Moreno, one of the most distinguished of the Mexican Generals, her
wedding ceremonies were the most splendid ever seen in the country.
The right tower of the Mission church at Santa Barbara had been just
completed, and it was arranged that the consecration of this tower
should take place at the time of her wedding, and that her wedding feast
should be spread in the long outside corridor of the Mission building.
The whole country, far and near, was bid. The feast lasted three days;
open tables to everybody; singing, dancing, eating, drinking, and making
merry. At that time there were long streets of Indian houses stretching
eastward from the Mission; before each of these houses was built a booth
of green boughs. The Indians, as well as the Fathers from all the other
Missions, were invited to come. The Indians came in bands, singing songs
and bringing gifts. As they appeared, the Santa Barbara Indians went
out to meet them, also singing, bearing gifts, and strewing seeds on
the ground, in token of welcome. The young Senora and her bridegroom,
splendidly clothed, were seen of all, and greeted, whenever they
appeared, by showers of seeds and grains and blossoms. On the third
day, still in their wedding attire, and bearing lighted candles in their
hands, they walked with the monks in a procession, round and round the
new tower, the monks chanting, and sprinkling incense and holy water
on its walls, the ceremony seeming to all devout beholders to give a
blessed consecration to the union of the young pair as well as to the
newly completed tower. After this they journeyed in state, accompanied
by several of the General's aids and officers, and by two Franciscan
Fathers, up to Monterey, stopping on their way at all the Missions, and
being warmly welcomed and entertained at each.

General Moreno was much beloved by both army and Church. In many of the
frequent clashings between the military and the ecclesiastical powers
he, being as devout and enthusiastic a Catholic as he was zealous and
enthusiastic a soldier, had had the good fortune to be of material
assistance to each party. The Indians also knew his name well, having
heard it many times mentioned with public thanksgivings in the Mission
churches, after some signal service he had rendered