Antonio also lost eight of her crew from the same dreadful disease.
These little details serve better than any general description to give
us an idea of the horrible conditions of Spanish seamanship in the
middle of the eighteenth century. As for the San Joseph, she never
reached her destination at all, though where and how she met her fate
remains one of the dark mysteries of the ocean. Two small points in
connection with her loss are perhaps sufficiently curious to merit
notice. In the first place, she was the only one of the ships that had
no missionary on board; and secondly, she was called after the very
saint who had been named special patron of the entire undertaking.

The original plan, as we have seen, had been that Father Junipero should
accompany the governor in the second division of the land-expedition;
but this, when the day fixed for departure came, was found to be quite
impossible owing to the ulcerous sore on his leg, which had been much
aggravated by the exertions of his recent hurried journey from Loreto to
La Paz and back. Greatly chafing under the delay, he was none the less
obliged to postpone his start for several weeks. At length, on the 28th
of March, in company with two soldiers and a servant, he mounted his
mule and set out. The event showed that he had been guilty of undue
haste, for he suffered terribly on the rough way, and on reaching San
Xavier, whither he went to turn over the management of the Lower
California missions to Palou, who was then settled there, his condition
was such that his friend implored him to remain behind, and allow him
(Palou) to go forward in his stead. But of this Junipero would not hear,
for he regarded himself as specially chosen and called by God for the
work to which he stood, body and soul, committed. "Let us speak no more
of this," he said. "I have placed all my faith in God, through whose
goodness I hope to reach not only San Diego, to plant and fix there the
standard of the Holy Cross, but even as far as Monterey." And Palou,