[Illustration: CORRIDOR, SAN FERNANDO MISSION.]

Presently the Mexicans made their appearance here; but, though they
held and managed enormous ranches, the situation was comparatively
unchanged; for they maintained harmonious relations with the
Missions, and had no serious difficulties with the Indians. Thus life
went on for nearly half a century, and seemed to the good Fathers
likely to go on forever; for who, they thought, would ever cross the
awful eastern plains to interfere with their Arcadian existence, or
what invading force would ever approach them over the lonely sea? But
history repeats itself. The Missions soon became too rich not to
excite cupidity; and those who coveted their lands and herds
declared, as an excuse for violence, that the poor Indians were held
in a state of slavery, and should be made to depend upon themselves.
At length, in 1833, the Mexican Government by a decree of
secularization ruined the Missions; but the Indians, although not so
prosperous and well treated as under the Fathers, still kept, through
Mexican protection, most of their privileges and the lands they
owned. Finally came the Anglo-Saxon, and, under the imperious
civilization that poured into California from 1840 to 1860, the
pastoral age soon disappeared. The Missions, which had already lost
much of their property and power under the Mexican Government,
quickly shrank after this new invasion into decrepitude. The
practical Anglo-Saxon introduced railroads, electricity, commerce,
mammoth hotels, and scientific irrigation, all of which the Fathers,
Mexicans, and Indians never would have cared for. Nevertheless, with
his arrival, the curtain fell upon as peaceful a life-drama as the
world had seen.

[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA.]