Procession of women
Pico's pardon
Leave San Luis
Surf of the Pacific
Captain Dana
Tempestuous night
Mission of St. Ynes
Effects of drought
Horses exhausted
St. Ynes Mountain
View of the plain of Santa Barbara and the Pacific
A wretched Christmas-day
Descent of St. Ynes Mountain
Terrible storm
Frightful destruction of horses
Dark night
What we are fighting for
Arrive at Santa Barbara
Town deserted.

_December 15_.--The rain fell in cataracts the entire day. The small
streams which flow from the mountains through, and water the valley of,
San Luis Obispo, are swollen by the deluge of water from the clouds
into foaming unfordable torrents. In order not to trespass upon the
population at the mission, in their miserable abodes of mud, the church
was opened, and a large number of the soldiers were quartered in it. A
guard, however, was set day and night, over the chancel and all other
property contained in the building, to prevent its being injured or
disturbed. The decorations of the church are much the same as I have
before described. The edifice is large, and the interior in good
repair. The floor is paved with square bricks. I noticed a common
hand-organ in the church, which played the airs we usually hear from
organ-grinders in the street.

Besides the main large buildings connected with the church, there are
standing, and partially occupied, several small squares of adobe
houses, belonging to this mission. The heaps of mud, and crumbling
walls outside of these, are evidence that the place was once of much
greater extent, and probably one of the most opulent and prosperous
establishments of the kind in the country. The lands surrounding the
mission are finely situated for cultivation and irrigation if
necessary. There are several large gardens, inclosed by high and
substantial walls, which now contain a great variety of fruit-trees and
shrubbery. I noticed the orange, fig, palm, olive, and grape. There are
also large inclosures hedged in by the prickly-pear (cactus), which
grows to an enormous size, and makes an impervious barrier against man
or beast. The stalks of some of these plants are of the thickness of a
man's body, and grow to the height of fifteen feet. A juicy fruit is
produced by the prickly-pear, named _tuna_, from which a beverage is
sometimes made, called _calinche_. It has a pleasant flavour, as has
also the fruit, which, when ripe, is blood-red. A small