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and daughters. After dinner, all the men and women started
to dance and to sing. The songs of the girls' very sweet
voices were very pleasant; especially outstanding, the
younger daughter of Lieutenant Martines [Ignacio Martines],
Donia Inkarnacion, and the niece of the commandant, who was
named Donia Josefa de Sola.
A few days after this, the monks of San Rafael mission
came and invited us to some kind of celebration, and we went
with them. This mission, as already mentioned, was situated
on the northern shore of the bay, not directly on the water,
but at a distance of a half league from it, and was laid out
on the slopes of a few hills. The route there from the shore
was very difficult. It went through the tundras and swamps
in a narrow trail, so that it was impossible even to ride on
it. Here, again, in all its glory, appeared the laziness and
carelessness of the Spaniards. Forced almost daily to use
this road, they somehow made their way through it, and did not
want to use the slightest effort to improve it. All covered
with swamp mud, and tired, we finally reached our destination.
There we were received by the whole population of the mis-
sion, consisting of four or five hundred Indians of both sexes
under command of five Spaniards on horseback.
From our sloops could be seen at a distance one large
and very pretty building. For this reason, we thought that
we would find here something similar to the mission of San
Francisco, but we were certainly mistaken. The building noticed
EN