this was not the worst. Sometimes the heat of argument would prove too
much for him, and then, I grieve to say, he would even threaten to pitch
his antagonists overboard, and shape his course for London. However,
despite this unlooked-for danger, Junipero and his companions finally
reached Malaga, whence they proceeded first to Cadiz, and then, after
some delay, to Vera Cruz. The voyage across from Cadiz alone occupied
ninety-nine days, though of these, fifteen were spent at Porto Rico,
where Father Junipero improved the time by establishing a mission.
Hardships were not lacking; for water and food ran short, and the vessel
encountered terrific storms. But "remembering the end for which they had
come," the father "felt no fear, and his own buoyancy did much to keep
up the flagging spirits of those about him. Even when Vera Cruz was
reached, the terrible journey was by no means over, for a hundred
Spanish leagues lay between that port and the City of Mexico. Too
impatient to wait for the animals and wagons which had been promised for
transportation, but which, through some oversight or blunder, had not
yet arrived in Vera Cruz, Junipero set out to cover the distance on
foot. The strain brought on an ulcer in one of his legs, from which he
suffered all the rest of his life; and it is highly probable that he
would have died on the road but for the quite unexpected succor which
came to him more than once in the critical hour. This, according to his
wont, he did not fail to refer directly to the special favour of the
Virgin and St. Joseph.

For nearly nineteen years after his arrival in Mexico, Junipero was
engaged in active missionary work, mainly among the Indians of the
Sierra Gorda, whom he successfully instructed in the first principles of
the Catholic faith and in the simpler arts of peace. Then came his
selection as general head, or president, of the Missions of California,
the charge of which, on the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1768, had