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Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 131 Despairing of obtaining any help or even encourage ment from the Spanish or Mexican officials, Father Salva-tierra now appealed to the zeal and Christian charity of the Spainards in Mexico to assist him in his effort to re open the mission to the Digger Indians. Father Eusibio Kino, who was with the Otondo expedition, and Father Juan Ugarte flung themselves into the good work and with speech and pen pleaded for the California tribes. It was impossible to resist the call of these men; the piety of their daily lives, the sincerity of their motives, their scholarship, eloquence and heroism awoke enthu siasm and touched generous, though until now, indiffer ent hearts. Subscriptions began to move. From far away Queretaro, Padre Cabellero, a priest who inherited parental wealth, sent $ 10,000. The " Congregation of Our Lady of Sorrows, " a confraternity of holy women, promised a yearly sum of $ 500; Count de Miravalles subscribed $ 1,000 ; Pedro Sierrepe of Acapulco gave the fathers a lancha or long boat and offered the loan of his ship for a transport, and from Mexico City and towns in the vice royal provinces came liberal contributions. These generous donations Father Salvatierra formed into a fund, or, as we would say to- day, capitalized for the evangelization of the California Indians and the sup port of the California missions. Thus began the famous " Fondo Piadoso de California," of which we have heard so much and which involved in its distribution and par tial settlement two religious orders and three civilized nations, and for which, to quiet a claim against it, the government of the United States lately paid the arch bishop of San Francisco three hundred and eighty- five thousand dollars. On the 13th of July, 1697, the ship of Pedro Sierrepe |