VI.



Though, as we thus see, Father Junipero had ample reason to be
encouraged over the progress of his enterprise, he still had various
difficulties to contend with. The question of supplies often assumed
formidable proportions, and the labors of the missionaries were not
always as fruitful as had been hoped. Fortunately, however, the Indians
were, as a rule, friendly, notwithstanding the fact that the behaviour
of the Spanish soldiers, especially towards their women, occasionally
aroused their distrust and resentment. At one establishment only did
serious disturbances actually threaten for a time the continuance of the
mission and its work. Junipero had lately returned from Mexico, with
undiminished zeal and all sorts of fresh designs revolving in his brain,
when a courier reached him at San Carlos bringing news of a terrible
disaster at San Diego. Important affairs detained him for a time at
Monterey, but when at length he was able to get to the scene of the
trouble, it was to find that first reports had not been exaggerated. On
the night of the 4th of November, 1775, eight hundred Indians had made a
ferocious assault upon the mission, fired the buildings, and brutally
done to death Father Jayme, one of the two priests in charge. "God be
thanked," Junipero had exclaimed, when the letter containing the
dreadful news had been read to him, "now the soil is watered, and the
conquest of the Dieguinos will soon be complete!" In the faith that the
blood of the martyrs is veritably the seed of the church, he, on
reaching San Diego, with his customary energy, set about the task of