lenge being almost equivalent in importance to a duel in many places.
In 1 8 1 6 Jose de la Guerra y Noriega and one Aspiroz were dining at Governor Sola's house when they quarreled, and the former challenged the latter. The governor and two padres wrote to Aspiroz begging him to withdraw the challenge. There the matter rested, but the feud was not wholly healed until five years later.
It was common aniong the Hispano-Californians to resort to the duello as a cure for jealousy, and for quarrels over cards or elsewhere. They usually fought with knives or old swords, and they cut one another at a terrible rate until fatigued, when they would rest, or until one cried enough, when the other would dictate terms. Witnesses were not allowed. Common places of meeting were the Huerta Vieja, the Huerta del Rey, and Canada de la Segunda.
In a Canada near Santa Barbara, in 1825, Cabo Canuto Borondo and Meliton Soto, paisanos, fought a duel. Soto was the challenger, and there were no witnesses to the affair. Civil proceedings were instituted, and the matter was likewise referred to the ecclesiastical court. Father Duran as vicario foraneo made the following report. The church, he says, can not look with indifference on the almost certain and eternal damnation of those who die in a duel, and has accordingly imposed the most terrible punishment to prevent such wickedness, namely, "excommunion mayor late sententia ipso facto incurrenda." The bull "detestibilum" of Pope Benedict XIV. denied burial in consecrated ground for those who died in consequence of this offence, an offence springing from a most pernicious custom, introduced by the devil to capture men's souls. The plea of ignorance would not answer for an excuse; only absolution ad causelam would make right the hereafter.
In the mission archives of San Diego I find that in
