MISSION OF SAN MIGUEL.
This inland mission is situated sixteen leagues south of San Antonio, on a barren elevation; but the lands attached to it sweep a circuit of sixty leagues, and embrace some of the finest tracts for agriculture. Of the sethe Estella tract is one; its fertility is enough to make a New England plough jump out of its rocks; and a hundred emigrants will yet squat in its green bosom, and set the wild Indians and their war-whoop at defiance. In 1822 this mission owned 91,000 head of cattle, 1100 tame horses, 3000 mares, 2000 mules, 170 yoke of working-oxen, and 47,000 sheep. The mules were used in packing the products of the mission to Monterey, and bringing back drygoods, groceries, and the implements of husbandry. But now the Indian neophytes are gone, the padres have departed, and the old church only remains to interpret the past.