more was left to do, that the padre returned to his own special charge
at San Carlos. Various circumstances in combination had caused the
postponement, year after year, of that third mission, which, according
to original intentions, was to have followed immediately upon the
establishments at San Diego and Monterey. Three new settlements were now
projected on the Santa Barbara Channel, and the first of these was to be
the mission of San Buenaventura. It was not until 1782, however, that
the long-delayed purpose was at length accomplished. The site chosen was
at the southeastern extremity of the channel, and close to an Indian
village, or ranchería to which Portalà's expedition in 1769 had given
the name of Ascencion de Nuestra Señora, or, briefly, Assumpta. A little
later on, in pursuance of the same plan, the then governor, Filipe de
Neve, took formal possession of a spot some ten leagues distant, and
there began the construction of the presidio of Santa Barbara. It was
Junipero's earnest desire to proceed at once with the adjoining mission.
But the governor, for reasons of his own, threw obstacles in the way,
and in the end this fresh undertaking was left to other hands.

For we have now come to the close of Father Junipero's long and
strenuous career; and as we look back over the record of it, our wonder
is, not that he should have died when he did, but rather that he had not
killed himself many years before. His is surely one of those cases in
which supreme spiritual power and sheer force of will triumph over an
accumulation of bodily ills. Far from robust of constitution, he had
never given himself consideration or repose, forcing himself to
exertions which it would have appeared utterly impossible that his frame
could bear, and adding to the constant strain of his labours and travels
the hardships of self-inflicted tortures of a severe ascetic régime. He
had always been much troubled by the old ulcer on his leg, though this,
no matter how painful, he never regarded save when it actually