In order not to trespass upon the
population at the mission, in their miserable abodes of mud, the church
was opened, and a large number of the soldiers were quartered in it. A
guard, however, was set day and night, over the chancel and all other
property contained in the building, to prevent its being injured or
disturbed. The decorations of the church are much the same as I have
before described. The edifice is large, and the interior in good
repair. The floor is paved with square bricks. I noticed a common
hand-organ in the church, which played the airs we usually hear from
organ-grinders in the street.
Besides the main large buildings connected with the church, there are
standing, and partially occupied, several small squares of adobe
houses, belonging to this mission. The heaps of mud, and crumbling
walls outside of these, are evidence that the place was once of much
greater extent, and probably one of the most opulent and prosperous
establishments of the kind in the country. The lands surrounding the
mission are finely situated for cultivation and irrigation if
necessary. There are several large gardens, inclosed by high and
substantial walls, which now contain a great variety of fruit-trees and
shrubbery.
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