have my sincere sympathy at the
skepticism of a modern hard-headed and practical world.

For many years after Father Junipero Serro first rang his bell in the
wilderness of Upper California, the spirit which animated that
adventurous priest did not wane. The conversion of the heathen went on
rapidly in the establishment of Missions throughout the land. So
sedulously did the good Fathers set about their work, that around their
isolated chapels there presently arose _adobe_ huts, whose mud-plastered
and savage tenants partook regularly of the provisions, and occasionally
of the Sacrament, of their pious hosts. Nay, so great was their process,
that one zealous Padre is reported to have administered the Lord's
Supper one Sabbath morning to "over three hundred heathen Salvages." It
was not to be wondered that the Enemy of Souls, being greatly incensed
thereat, and alarmed at his decreasing popularity, should have
grievously tempted and embarrassed these Holy Fathers, as we shall
presently see.

Yet they were happy, peaceful days for California. The vagrant keels of
prying Commerce had not, as yet, ruffled the lordly gravity of her bays.
No torn and ragged gulch betrayed the suspicion of golden treasure. The
wild oats drooped idly in the morning heat, or wrestled with the
afternoon breezes. Deer and antelope dotted the plain. The water-courses
brawled in their familiar channels, nor dreamed of ever shifting their
regular tide. The wonders of the Yo-Semite and Calaveras were as yet
unrecorded. The Holy Fathers noted little of the landscape beyond the
barbaric prodigality with which the quick soil repaid the sowing. A new
conversion, the advent of a Saint's day, or the baptism of an Indian
baby, was at once the chronicle and marvel of their day.

At this blissful epoch, there lived, at the Mission of San Pablo, Father
Jose Antonio Haro, a worthy brother of the Society of Jesus. He was of
tall and cadaverous aspect. A somewhat romantic history had given a
poetic interest to his lugubrious visage. While a youth, pursuing his
studies at famous Salamanca, he had become enamored of the charms of
Dona Carmen de Torrencevara, as that lady passed to her matutinal
devotions. Untoward circumstances, hastened, perhaps, by a wealthier
suitor, brought this amour to a disastrous issue; and Father Jose
entered a monastery, taking upon himself the vows of celibacy. It was
here that his natural fervor and poetic enthusiasm conceived expressi