All honor to his memory! "There lingers around Santa Barbara more of the aroma and romance of a bygone civilization, when the worthy Padres set an example of practical Christianity to the Indian aborigines that we would do well to emulate, than is found elsewhere in the State." In the good old days a person could travel from San Diego to San Francisco and not expend one shilling.

The Mission Fathers would furnish saddle, horse, or a comfortable bed, meals, and the Spanish host would leave in the guest-chamber a small heap of silver covered by a cloth, and the stranger, if needy, was expected to take some of it to supply his wants.
Would you like to see a specimen of the Indian dialect used by the "Bearded People"?
I can count to five in the Siujtu language--or, at least, I don't care to go much further: paca, sco, masa, scu, itapaca; twenty is sco-quealisco; and to-morrow, huanahuit.
The islands are now only occupied by flocks of sheep, sheared twice a year, and paying their owners a good profit; $100,000 one year from Santa Rosa alone.

The wool gets full of seed, and it is not the finest quality, but this is counterbalanced by the quantity.
Many large abalone shells are found on San Miguel.

They are pried off with a crow-bar, the shells are polished for sale, made into buttons, etc., and the meat is dried and sent to China, where it is ground and made into soup.

It has been used here, and pronounced by some to be equal to terrapin, and by others to closely resemble leather.
These islands are always a delight to look upon.