Like the monastery, the church is roofed with tiles which were manufactured at the Mission by the Indians." The report for 1800 is full of interest.

It recounts the activity in building, tells of the death of Padre Paterna, who died in 1793, and was followed by Estevan Tapis (afterwards padre presidente), and says that 1237 natives have been baptized, and that the Mission now owns 2492 horses and cattle, and 5615 sheep.

Sixty neophytes are engaged in weaving and allied tasks; the carpenter of the presidio is engaged at a dollar a day to teach the neophytes his trade; and a corporal is teaching them tanning at $150 a year.
In 1803 the population was the highest the Mission ever reached, with 1792.

In May, 1808, a determined effort lasting nine days was made to rid the region of ground squirrels, and about a thousand were killed.
The earthquakes of 1812 alarmed the people and damaged the buildings at Santa Barbara as elsewhere.

The sea was much disturbed, and new springs of asphaltum were formed, great cracks opened in the mountains, and the population fled all buildings and lived in the open air.
On the sixth of December, in the same year, the arrival of Bouchard, "the pirate," gave them a new shock of terror.