starve," he said one night,
bitterly, as the council broke up. When Ysidro proposed to him that
they should journey to Los Angeles, where Father Gaspara had said the
headquarters of the Government officers were, and where they could learn
all about the new laws in regard to land, Alessandro laughed at him.
"What more is it, then, which you wish to know, my brother, about the
American laws?" he said. "Is it not enough that you know they have made
a law which will take the land from Indians; from us who have owned
it longer than any can remember; land that our ancestors are buried
in,--will take that land and give it to themselves, and say it is
theirs? Is it to hear this again said in your face, and to see the man
laugh who says it, like the lawyer in San Diego, that you will journey
to Los Angeles? I will not go!"

And Ysidro went alone. Father Gaspara gave him a letter to the Los
Angeles priest, who went with him to the land-office, patiently
interpreted for him all he had to say, and as patiently interpreted
all that the officials had to say in reply. They did not laugh, as
Alessandro in his bitterness had said. They were not inhuman, and
they felt sincere sympathy for this man, representative of two hundred
hard-working, industrious people, in danger of being turned out of house
and home. But they were very busy; they had to say curtly, and in few
words, all there was to be said: the San Pasquale district was certainly
the property of the United States Government, and the lands were in
market, to be filed on, and bought, according to the homestead laws,
These officials had neither authority nor option in the matter. They
were there simply to carry out instructions, and obey orders.

Ysidro understood the substance of all this, though the details were
beyond his comprehension. But he did not regret having taken the
journey; he had now made his last effort for his people. The Los Angeles
priest had promised that he would himself write a letter to Washington,
to lay the case before the head man there, and perhaps something would
be done for their relief. It seemed incredible to Ysidro, as, riding
along day after day, on his sad homeward journey, he reflected on the
subject,--it seemed incredible to him that the Government would permit
such a village as theirs to be destroyed. He reached home just at
sunset; and looking down, as Alessandro and Ramona had done on the
morning of their arrival, from the hillcrests at the