, thy neophytes! In God's
inscrutable Providence the good are ofttimes permitted to suffer, but
the same All Wise Hand can brush away with a single stroke, the wrong
done to His own, and His time seems near!

We will now resume the story of the foundation of the missions, for we
really stopped at the ninth. Junipero Serra's life-long friend, Father
Palou was chosen temporary President of the Missions, for within a year
he retired to the Franciscan College of San Fernando, where he gave most
of his time to writing, and to him we are indebted for a complete and
accurate biography of Junipero Serra. After Father Palou's resignation,
Father Francisco de Lasuen was appointed Father President of the
Missions. Father Lasuen was an arduous laborer and able priest of the
original heroic band of missionaries, and his first act was to establish
Mission Santa Barbara, where Junipero Serra had planted a Mission Cross
nearly four years previous. This was accomplished on December 4, 1787,
and of the twenty-one missions which were spoliated in later years,
Santa Barbara was the only one which tyrannical laws could never
dispossess of its lawful owners, hence to this day the Sons of Saint
Francis are there to guard the "altar light."

From Santa Barbara, Father Lasuen traveled north to Lompoc, and founded
Mission La Purisima Concepcion on December 8, 1787.

Mission de Nuestra Senora de in Soledad was founded in October of 1791.
The last Act of Secularization in 1835 fell very heavily on this lovely
Mission of which scarcely a trace remains today. This mission was noted
for its fine stock and luxuriant pastures.

On Christmas day of 1791 was founded the Mission of Santa Cruz. This
Mission never rivaled the other missions in wealth, but in later years
it was honored with a martyr. Here is the authentic story of Father
Quintana, whose martyr's death occurred here as late as 1817. Father
Quintana was a holy and zealous priest of this mission, who had carried
on the work of the conversion of the Indians most of whom were already
christian, but a small portion still remained heathen, and these were
very hostile. As was later discovered, while the good priest was reading
his breviary in his office, some of these hostile Indians entered, and
most cruelly murdered him, then taking his body into the mission orchard
placed it against a capulin tree (a tree much resembling the cherry tree
in fruit and form). On thus discovering the corpse the ot