THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA

by William Henry Hudson

Lately Professor of English Literature at Stanford University, To

 Bonnie Burckhalter Fletcher

 With Affectionate Recollections of California Days

 London, England, 1901

Contents. 

 I. Of Junipero Serra, and the proposed settlement of Alta California. II. How Father Junipero came to San Diego. III. Of the founding of the Mission at San Diego. IV. Of Portola's quest for the harbour of Monterey, and the founding of the Mission of San Carlos. V. How Father Junipero established the Missions of San Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel, and San Louis Obispo. VI. Of the tragedy at San Diego, and the founding of the Missions of San Juan Capistrano, San Francisco, and Santa Clara. VII. Of the establishment of the Mission of San Buenaventura, and of the death and character of Father Junipero. VIII. How the Missions of Santa Barbara, La Purisima Concepcion, Santa Cruz, Soledad, San Jose, San Juan Bautista, San Miguel, San Fernando, San Luis Rey, and Santa Inez, were added to the list. IX. Of the founding of the Missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano. X. Of the downfall of the Missions of California. XI. Of the old Missions, and life in them. XII. Of the Mission system in California, and its results. 

THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

I. 

On the 1st of July, 1769--a day forever memorable in the annals ofCalifornia--a small party of men, worn out by the fatigues and hardshipsof their long and perilous journey from San Fernandez de Villicatà, came in sight of the beautiful Bay of San Diego. They formed thelast division of a tripartite expedition which had for its object thepolitical and spiritual conquest of the great Northwest coast of thePacific; and among their number were Gaspar de Portolà, the colonialgovernor and military commander of the enterprise; and Father JuniperoSerra, with whose name and achievements the early history of Californiais indissolubly bound up. 

This expedition was the outcome of a determination on the part of Spainto occupy and settle the upper of its California provinces, or AltaCalifornia, as it was then called, and thus effectively prevent the morethan possible encroachments of the Russians and the English. Fully aliveto the necessity of immediate and decisive action, Carlos III. Had sentJose de Galvez out to New Spain, giving him at once large powersas visitador general of the provinces, and special instructions toestablish military posts at San Diego and Monterey. Galvez was a man ofremarkable zeal, energy, and organizing ability, and after the manner ofhis age and church he regarded his undertaking as equally important fromthe religious and from the political side. The twofold purpose of hisexpedition was, as he himself stated it, "to establish the Catholicfaith among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darknessof paganism, and to extend the dominion of the King, our Lord, andprotect this peninsula from the ambitious views of foreign nations. "From the first it was his intention that the Cross and the flag of Spainshould be carried side by side in the task of dominating and colonizingthe new country. Having, therefore, gathered his forces together atSanta Ana, near La Paz, he sent thence to Loreto, inviting JuniperoSerra, the recently appointed President of the California Missions, tovisit him in his camp. Loreto was a hundred leagues distant; but thiswas no obstacle to the religious enthusiast, whose lifelong dream it hadbeen to bear the faith far and wide among the barbarian peoples ofthe Spanish world. He hastened to La Paz, and in the course of a longinterview with Galvez not only promised his hearty co-operation, butalso gave great help in the arrangement of the preliminary details ofthe expedition. 

In the opportunity thus offered him for the missionary labour inhitherto unbroken fields, Father Junipero saw a special manifestationboth of the will and of the favour of God. He threw himself into thework with characteristic ardour and determination, and Galvez quicklyrealized that his own efforts were now to be ably seconded by a man who, by reason of his devotion, courage, and personal magnetism, might wellseem to have been providentially designated for the task which had beenput into his hands. 

Miguel Joseph Serra, now known only by his adopted name of Junipero, which he took out of reverence for the chosen companion of St. Francis, was a native of the Island of Majorca, where he was born, of humblefolk, in 1713. According to the testimony of his intimate friend andbiographer, Father Francesco Palou, his desires, even during boyhood, were turned towards the religious life. Before he was seventeen heentered the Franciscan Order, a regular member of which he became a yearor so later. His favorite reading during his novitiate, Palou tells us, was in the Lives of the Saints, over which he would pore day afterday with passionate and ever-growing enthusiasm; and from these devoutstudies sprang an intense ambition to "imitate the holy and venerablemen" who had given themselves up to the grand work of carrying theGospel among gentiles and savages. The missionary idea thus implantedbecame the dominant purpose of his life, and neither the astonishingsuccess of his sermons, nor the applause with which his lectures werereceived when he was made professor of theology, sufficed to dampen hisapostolic zeal. Whatever work was given him to do, he did with allhis heart, and with all his might, for such was the man's nature; buteverywhere and always he looked forward to the mission field as hisultimate career. He was destined, however, to wait many years before hischance came. At length, in 1749, after making many vain petitions tobe set apart for foreign service, he and Palou were offered places ina body of priests who, at the urgent request of the College of SanFernando, in Mexico, were then being sent out as recruits to variousparts of the New World. The hour had come; and in a spirit of gratitudeand joy too deep for words, Junipero Serra set his face towards the farlands which were henceforth to be his home. 

The voyage out was long and trying. In the first stage of it--fromMajorca to Malaga--the dangers and difficulties of seafaring werevaried, if not relieved by strange experiences, of which Palou hasleft us a quaint and graphic account. Their vessel was a small Englishcoaster, in command of a stubborn cross-patch of a captain, who combinednavigation with theology, and whose violent protestations and fondnessfor doctrinal dispute allowed his Catholic passengers, during thefifteen days of their passage, scarcely a minute's peace. His habit wasto declaim chosen texts out of his "greasy old" English Bible, puttinghis own interpretation upon them; then, if when challenged by FatherJunipero, who "was well trained in dogmatic theology, " he could findno verse to fit his argument, he would roundly declare that the leaf hewanted happened to be torn. Such methods are hardly praiseworthy. Butthis was not the worst. Sometimes the heat of argument would prove toomuch for him, and then, I grieve to say, he would even threaten to pitchhis antagonists overboard, and shape his course for London. However, despite this unlooked-for danger, Junipero and his companions finallyreached Malaga, whence they proceeded first to Cadiz, and then, aftersome delay, to Vera Cruz. The voyage across from Cadiz alone occupiedninety-nine days, though of these, fifteen were spent at Porto Rico, where Father Junipero improved the time by establishing a mission. Hardships were not lacking; for water and food ran short, and the vesselencountered terrific storms. But "remembering the end for which they hadcome, " the father "felt no fear", and his own buoyancy did much to keepup the flagging spirits of those about him. Even when Vera Cruz wasreached, the terrible journey was by no means over, for a hundredSpanish leagues lay between that port and the City of Mexico. Tooimpatient to wait for the animals and wagons which had been promised fortransportation, but which, through some oversight or blunder, had notyet arrived in Vera Cruz, Junipero set out to cover the distance onfoot. The strain brought on an ulcer in one of his legs, from which hesuffered all the rest of his life; and it is highly probable that hewould have died on the road but for the quite unexpected succor whichcame to him more than once in the critical hour. This, according to hiswont, he did not fail to refer directly to the special favour of theVirgin and St. Joseph. 

For nearly nineteen years after his arrival in Mexico, Junipero wasengaged in active missionary work, mainly among the Indians of theSierra Gorda, whom he successfully instructed in the first principlesof the Catholic faith and in the simpler arts of peace. Then came hisselection as general head, or president, of the Missions of California, the charge of which, on the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1768, hadpassed over to the Franciscans. These, thirteen in number, were all inLower California, for no attempt had as yet been made to evangelizethe upper province. This, however, the indefatigable apostle was now toundertake by co-operating with Jose de Galvez in his proposed northwestexpedition [1]. Junipero was now fifty-five years of age, and could lookback upon a career of effort and accomplishment which to any less activeman might well seem to have earned repose for body and mind. Yet greatas his services to church and civilization had been in the past, by farthe most important part of his life-work still lay before him. 

II. 

As a result of the conference between Galvez and Father Junipero, itwas decided that their joint expedition should be sent out in twoportions--one by sea and one by land; the land portion being againsub-divided into two, in imitation, Palou informs us, of the policyof the patriarch Joseph, "so that if one came to misfortune, the othermight still be saved. " It was arranged that four missionaries should gointo the ships, and one with the advance-detachment of the land-force, the second part of which was to include the president himself. So far asthe work of the missionaries was concerned their immediate purpose wasto establish three settlements--one at San Diego, a second at Monterey, and a third on a site to be selected, about midway between the two, which was to be called San Buenaventura. The two divisions of theland-force were under the leadership of Captain Fernando Rivera yMoncada and Governor Portolà respectively. The ships were to carry allthe heavier portions of the camp equipage, provisions, household goods, vestments and sacred vessels; the land-parties were to take with themherds and flocks from Loreto. The understanding was that whichever partyfirst reached San Diego was to wait there twenty days for the rest, andin the event of their failure to arrive within that time, to push on toMonterey. 

The sea-detachment of the general expedition--the "Seraphic andApostolic Squadron, " as Palou calls it, was composed of three ships--theSan Carlos, the San Antonio, and the San Joseph. A list, fortunatelypreserved, gives all the persons on board the San Carlos, a vessel ofabout 200 tons only, and the flagship of Don Vicente Vila, the commanderof the marine division. They were as follows:--the commander himself;a lieutenant in charge of a company of soldiers; a missionary; thecaptain, pilot and surgeon; twenty-five soldiers; the officers and crewof the ship, twenty-five in all; the baker, the cook and two assistants;and two blacksmiths: total, sixty-two souls. An inventory shows that thevessel was provisioned for eight months. 

The San Carlos left La Paz on the 9th of January; the San Antonio on the15th of February; the San Joseph on the 16th of June. All the vesselsmet with heavy storms, and the San Carlos, being driven sadly out of herroute, did not reach San Diego till twenty days after the San Antonio, though dispatched some five weeks earlier. We shudder to read that ofher crew but one sailor and the cook were left alive; the rest, alongwith many of the soldiers, having succumbed to the scurvy. The SanAntonio also lost eight of her crew from the same dreadful disease. These little details serve better than any general description to giveus an idea of the horrible conditions of Spanish seamanship in themiddle of the eighteenth century. As for the San Joseph, she neverreached her destination at all, though where and how she met her fateremains one of the dark mysteries of the ocean. Two small points inconnection with her loss are perhaps sufficiently curious to meritnotice. In the first place, she was the only one of the ships that hadno missionary on board; and secondly, she was called after the verysaint who had been named special patron of the entire undertaking. 

The original plan, as we have seen, had been that Father Junipero shouldaccompany the governor in the second division of the land-expedition;but this, when the day fixed for departure came, was found to be quiteimpossible owing to the ulcerous sore on his leg, which had been muchaggravated by the exertions of his recent hurried journey from Loreto toLa Paz and back. Greatly chafing under the delay, he was none the lessobliged to postpone his start for several weeks. At length, on the 28thof March, in company with two soldiers and a servant, he mounted hismule and set out. The event showed that he had been guilty of unduehaste, for he suffered terribly on the rough way, and on reachingSan Xavier, whither he went to turn over the management of the LowerCalifornia missions to Palou, who was then settled there, his conditionwas such that his friend implored him to remain behind, and allow him(Palou) to go forward in his stead. But of this Junipero would not hear, for he regarded himself as specially chosen and called by God for thework to which he stood, body and soul, committed. "Let us speak no moreof this, " he said. "I have placed all my faith in God, through whosegoodness I hope to reach not only San Diego, to plant and fix there thestandard of the Holy Cross, but even as far as Monterey. " And Palou, seeing that Junipero was not to be turned aside, wisely began to talk ofother things. 

After three days devoted to business connected with the missions ofthe lower province, the indomitable father determined to continue hisjourney, notwithstanding the fact that, still totally unable to move hisleg, he had to be lifted by two men into the saddle. We may imagine thatpoor Palou found it hard enough to answer his friend's cheery farewells, and watched him with sickness of heart as he rode slowly away. It seemedlittle likely indeed that they would ever meet again on this side of thegrave. But Junipero's courage never gave out. Partly for rest and partlyfor conference with those in charge, he lingered awhile at the missionsalong the way; but, nevertheless, presently came up with Portolà and hisdetachment, with whom he proceeded to Villacatà. Here during a temporaryhalt, he founded a mission which was dedicated to San Fernando, King ofCastile and Leon. But the worst experiences of the journey were stillin store. For when the party was ready to move forward again towards SanDiego, which, as time was fast running on, the commander was anxious toreach with the least possible delay, it was found that Junipero's legwas in such an inflamed condition that he could neither stand, nor sit, nor sleep. For a few leagues he persevered, without complaint to anyone, and then collapsed. Portolà urged him to return at once to SanFernando for the complete repose in which alone there seemed any chanceof recovery, but after his manner Junipero refused; nor, out of kindlyfeeling for the tired native servants, would he ever hear of the litterwhich the commander thereupon proposed to have constructed for histransportation. The situation was apparently beyond relief, when, afterprayer to God, the padre called to him one of the muleteers. "Son, " hesaid--the conversation is reported in full by Palou, from whose memoirof his friend it is here translated--"do you not know how to make aremedy for the ulcer on my foot and leg?" And the muleteer replied:"Father, how should I know of any remedy? Am I a surgeon? I am amuledriver, and can only cure harness-wounds on animals. " "Then, son. "rejoined Junipero, "consider that I am an animal, and that this ulcer isa harness-wound. .. And prepare for me the same medicament as you wouldmake for a beast. " Those who heard this request smiled. And the muleteerobeyed; and mixing certain herbs with hot tallow, applied the compoundto the ulcerated leg, with the astonishing result that the suffererslept that night in absolute comfort, and was perfectly able the nextmorning to undertake afresh the fatigues of the road. 

Of the further incidents of the tedious journey it is needless to write. It is enough to say that for forty-six days--from the 15th of May tothe 1st of July--the little party plodded on, following the track ofthe advance-division of the land-expedition under Rivera y Moncada. Withwhat joy and gratitude they at last looked down upon the harbour ofSan Diego, and realized that the first object of their efforts had nowindeed been achieved, may be readily imagined. Out in the bay lay theSan Carlos and the San Antonio, and on the shore were the tents of themen who had preceded them, and of whose safety they were now assured;and when, with volley after volley, they announced their arrival, ships and camp replied in glad salute. And this responsive firing wascontinued, says Palou, in his lively description of the scene, "until, all having alighted, they were ready to testify their mutual love byclose embraces and affectionate rejoicing to see the expeditions thusjoined, and at their desired destination. " Yet one cannot but surmisethat the delights of reunion were presently chilled when those who hadthus been spared to come together fell into talk over the companions whohad perished by the way. History has little to tell us of such details;but the sympathetic reader will hardly fail to provide them for himself. 

The condition of things which the governor and the presidentfound confronting them on their arrival was indeed the reverse ofsatisfactory. Of the one hundred and thirty or so men comprising thecombined companies, many were seriously ill; some it was necessary todispatch at once with the San Antonio back to San Blas for additionalsupplies and reinforcements; a further number had to be detailed forthe expedition to Monterey, which, in accordance with the explicitinstructions of the visitador general it was decided to send outimmediately. All this left the San Diego camp extremely short-handed, but there was no help for it. To reach Monterey at all costs wasPortolà's next duty; and on the 14th of July, with a small party whichincluded Fathers Crespi and Gomez, he commenced his northwest march. 

III. 

In the meanwhile, says Palou, "that fervent zeal which continuallyglowed and burned in the heart of our venerable Father Junipero, did notpermit him to forget the principal object of his journey. " As soonas Portolà had left the encampment, he began to busy himself with theproblem of the mission which, it had been determined, should befounded on that spot. Ground was carefully chosen with an eye to therequirements, not only of the mission itself, but also of the pueblo, orvillage, which in course of time would almost certainly grow up about it[2]; and on the 16th of July--the day upon which, as the anniversaryof a great victory over the Moors in 1212, the Spanish church solemnlycelebrated the Triumph of the Holy Cross--the first mission of UpperCalifornia was dedicated to San Diego de Alcalà, after whom the bay hadbeen named by Sebastian Viscaino, the explorer, many years before. Theceremonies were a repetition of those which had been employed in thefounding of the Mission of San Fernando at Villicatà; the site wasblessed and sprinkled with holy water; a great cross reared, facing theharbour; the mass celebrated; the Venite Creator Spiritus sung. And, as before, where the proper accessories failed, Father Junipero and hiscolleagues fell back undeterred upon the means which Heaven had actuallyput at their disposal. The constant firing of the troops supplied thelack of musical instruments, and the smoke of the powder was accepted asa substitute for incense. Father Palou's brief and unadorned descriptionwill not prove altogether wanting in impressiveness for those who inimagination can conjure up a picture of the curious, yet dramatic scene. 

The preliminary work of foundation thus accomplished, Father Juniperogathered about him the few healthy men who could be spared from thetending of their sick comrades and routine duties, and with their helperected a few rude huts, one of which was immediately consecrated as atemporary chapel. So far as his own people were concerned, the padre'slabours were for the most part of a grievous character, for, during thefirst few months, the records tell us, disease made such fearful ravagesamong the soldiers, sailors and servants, that ere long the number ofpersons at this settlement had been reduced to twenty. But the tragedyof these poor nameless fellows--(it was Junipero's pious hope that theymight all be named in Heaven)--after all hardly forms part of our properstory. The father's real work was to lie among the native Indians, andit is with his failures and successes in this direction that the maininterest of our California mission annals is connected. 

They were not an attractive people, these "gentiles" of a country whichto the newcomers must itself have seemed an outer garden of Paradise;and Junipero's first attempts to gain their good will met withvery slight encouragement. During the ceremonies attendant upon thefoundation and dedication of the mission, they had stood round in silentwonder, and now they showed themselves responsive to the strangers'advances to the extent of receiving whatever presents were offered, provided the gift was not in the form of anything to eat. The Spaniards'food they would not even touch, apparently regarding it as the causeof the dire sickness of the troops. And this, in the long run, remarksPalou, was without doubt "singularly providential, " owing to the rapiddepletion of the stores. Ignorance of the Indians' language, of course, added seriously to the father's difficulties in approaching them, and presently their thefts of cloth, for the possession of which theydeveloped a perfect passion, and other depredations, rendered themexceedingly troublesome. Acts of violence became more and more common, and by-and-bye, a determined and organized attack upon the mission, inwhich the assailants many times outnumbered their opponents, led to apitched battle, and the death of one of the Spanish servants. This wasthe crisis; for, happily, like a thunderstorm, the disturbance, whichseemed so threatening of future ill, cleared the air, at any rate fora time; and the kindness with which the Spaniards treated their woundedfoes evidently touched the savage heart. Little by little a few Indianshere and there began to frequent the mission; and with the heartywelcome accorded them their numbers soon increased. Among them therehappened to be a boy, of some fifteen years of age, who showed himselfmore tractable than his fellows, and whom Father Junipero determinedto use as an instrument for his purpose. When the lad had picked up asmattering of Spanish, the padre sent him to his people with the promisethat if he were allowed to bring back one of the children, the youngstershould not only by baptism be made a Christian, but should also (andhere the good father descended to a bribe) be tricked out likethe Spaniards themselves, in handsome clothes. A few days later, a"gentile, " followed by a large crowd, appeared with a child in his arms, and the padre, filled with unutterable joy, at once threw a piece ofcloth over it, and called upon one of the soldiers to stand godfatherto this first infant of Christ. But, alas! just as he was preparing tosprinkle the holy water, the natives snatched the child from him, andmade off with it (and the cloth) to their own ranchería. The soldierswho stood round as witnesses were furious at this insult, and, left tothemselves, would have inflicted summary punishment upon the offenders. But the good father pacified them, attributing his failure--of which hewas wont to speak tearfully to the end of his life--to his own sinsand unworthiness. However, this first experience in convert-makingwas fortunately not prophetic, for though it is true that many monthselapsed before a single neophyte was gained for the mission, and thoughmore serious troubles were still to come, in the course of the nextfew years a number of the aborigines, both children and adults, werebaptized. 

IV. 

While Junipero and his companions were thus engaged in planting thefaith among the Indians of San Diego, Portolà's expedition was meetingwith unexpected trials and disappointments. The harbour of Montereyhad been discovered and described by Viscaino at the beginning of theseventeenth century, and it seemed no very difficult matter to reachit by way of the coast. But either the charts misled them, or their owncalculations erred, or the appearance of the landscape was strangelydeceptive--at any rate, for whatever reason or combination of reasons, the exploring party passed the harbour without recognizing it, thoughactually lingering awhile on the sand hills overlooking the bay. Halfpersuaded in their bewilderment that some great catastrophe must, sinceViscaino's observations, have obliterated the port altogether, theypressed northward another forty leagues, and little dreaming of theimportance attaching to their wanderings, crossed the Coast range, andlooked down thence over the Santa Clara valley and the "immense arm"of San Francisco Bay. By this time the rainy season had set in, andconvinced as they now were that they must, through some oversight orill-chance, have missed the object of their quest, they determined toretrace their steps, and institute another and more thorough search. On again reaching the neighborhood of Monterey, they spent a wholefortnight in systematic exploration, but still, strangely enough, without discovering "any indication or landmark" of the harbour. Baffled and disheartened, therefore, the leaders resolved to abandon theenterprise. They then erected two large wooden crosses as memorials oftheir visit, and cutting on one of these the words--"Dig at the footof this and you will find a writing"--buried there a brief narrative oftheir experiences. This is reproduced in the diary of Father Crespé[3]; and its closing words have a touch of simple pathos: "At last, undeceived, and despairing of finding it [the harbour] after so manyefforts, sufferings and labours, and having left of all our provisionsbut fourteen small sacks of flour, our expedition leaves this placeto-day for San Diego; I beg of Almighty God to guide it, and for thee, voyager, that His divine providence may lead thee to the harbour ofsalvation. Done in this Bay of Pinos, the 9th of December, 1769. " Onthe cross on the other side of Point Pinos was cut with a razorthis legend:--"The land expedition returned to San Diego for want ofprovisions, this 9th day of December, 1769. "

The little party--or more correctly speaking--what was left of it, didnot reach San Diego till the 25th of the following month, having intheir march down suffered terribly from hunger, exposure, wet, fatigueand sickness. Depressed themselves, they found nothing to encourage themin the mission and camp, where death had played havoc among those theyhad left behind them six months before, and where the provisions were sofast running low that only the timely reappearance of the San Antonio, long overdue, would save the survivors from actual starvation. Perhapsit is hardly surprising that, under these circumstances, Portolà'scourage should have failed him, and that he should have decided upon areturn to Mexico. He caused an inventory of all available provisions tobe taken, and calculating that, with strict economy, and setting asidewhat would be required for the journey back to San Fernando, they mightlast till somewhat beyond the middle of March, he gave out that unlessthe San Antonio should arrive by the 20th of that month, he shouldon that day abandon San Diego, and start south. But if the governorimagined for a moment that he could persuade the padre presidente tofall in with this arrangement, he did not know his man. Junipero firmlybelieved, despite the failure of Portolà's expedition, that the harbourof Monterey still existed, and might be found; he even interestedVicente Vila in a plan of his own for reaching it by sea; and hefurthermore made up his mind that, come what might, nothing shouldever induce him to turn his back upon his work. Then a wonderful thinghappened. On the 19th of March--the very day before that fixed by thegovernor for his departure, and when everything was in readiness forto-morrow's march--the sail of a ship appeared far out at sea; andthough the vessel presently disappeared towards the northwest, itreturned four days later and proved to be none other than the SanAntonio, bearing the much needed succour. She had passed up towardsMonterey in the expectation of finding the larger body of settlersthere, and had only put back to San Diego when unexpectedly, (and as itseemed, providentially), she had run short of water. It was inevitablethat Father Junipero should see in this series of happenings the veryhand of God--the more so as the day of relief chanced to be the festivalof St. Joseph, who, as we have noted, was the patron of the missionenterprise. 

The arrival of the San Antonio put an entirely new complexion uponaffairs; and, relieved of immediate anxiety, Portolà now resolved upon asecond expedition in quest of Monterey. Two divisions, one for sea, theother for land, were accordingly made ready; the former, which includedJunipero, started in the San Antonio, on the 16th of April; the latter, under the leadership of Portolà, a day later. Strong adverse windsinterfered with the vessel, which did not make Monterey for a month anda half. The land-party, following the coast, reached the more southernof the great wooden crosses on the 24th of May, and after somedifficulty succeeded at last in identifying the harbour. Seven dayslater, steering by the fires lighted for her guidance along the shore, the San Antonio came safely into port; and formal possession of the bayand surrounding country was presently taken in the name of church andKing. This was on the 3rd of June, the Feast of Pentecost; and on thatday of peculiar significance in the apostolic history of the church, thesecond of the Upper California missions came into being. Palou has leftus a full account of the ceremonies. Governor, soldiers and priestsgathered together on the beach, on the spot where, in 1603, theCarmelite fathers who had accompanied Viscaino, had celebrated the mass. An altar was improvised and bells rung; and then, in alb and stole, thefather-president invoked the aid of the Holy Ghost, solemnly chanted theVenite Creator Spiritus; blessed and raised a great cross; "to put toflight all the infernal enemies;" and sprinkled with holy water thebeach and adjoining fields. Mass was then sung; Father Junipero preacheda sermon; again the roar of cannon and muskets took the place ofinstrumental music; and the function was concluded with the Te Deum. Though now commonly called Carmelo, or Carmel, from the river acrosswhich it looks, and which has thus lent it a memory of the firstChristian explorers on the spot, this mission is properly known by thename of San Carlos Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan. A few hutsenclosed by a palisade, and forming the germ at once of the religiousand of the military settlement, were hastily erected. But the actualbuilding of the mission was not begun until the summer of 1771

V. 

News of the establishment of the missions and military posts at SanDiego and Monterey was in due course carried to the City of Mexico, where it so delighted the Marques de Croix, Viceroy of New Spain, andJose de Galvez, that they not only set the church bells ringing, butforthwith began to make arrangements for the founding of more missionsin the upper province. Additional priests were provided by the Collegeof San Fernando; funds liberally subscribed; and the San Antonio madeready to sail from San Blas with the friars and supplies. On the 21stof May, 1771, the good ship dropped anchor at Monterey, where, inthe meantime, Junipero, though busy enough among the natives of theneighborhood, was suffering grievous disappointment because, from lackof priests and soldiers, he was unable to proceed at once with theproposed establishment of San Buenaventura. The safe arrival of tenassistants now brought him assurance of a rapid extension of work in"the vineyard of the Lord. " He was not the man to let time slip by himunimproved. Plans were immediately laid for carrying the cross stillfurther into the wilderness, and six new missions--those of SanBuenaventura, San Gabriel, San Louis Obispo, San Antonio, Santa Claraand San Francisco--were presently agreed upon. It was discovered lateron, however, that these plans outran the resources at the president'sdisposal, and much to his regret, the design for settlements at SantaClara and San Francisco had to be temporarily given up. 

There was, none the less, plenty to engage the energies of even sotireless a worker as Junipero, for three of the new missions weresuccessfully established between July, 1771, and the autumn of thefollowing year. The first of these was the Mission of San Antoniode Padua, in a beautiful spot among the Santa Lucia mountains, sometwenty-five leagues southeast of Monterey; the second, that of SanGabriel Arcángel, near what is now known as the San Gabriel river;and the third, the Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, for which alocation was chosen near the coast, about twenty-five leagues southeastof San Antonio. In his account of the founding of the first named ofthese, Palou throws in a characteristic touch. After the bells had beenhung on trees and loudly tolled, he says, the excited padre-presidentebegan to shout like one transported:--"Ho, gentiles! Come to the HolyChurch; Come! Come! and receive the faith of Jesus Christ!" His comrade, Father Pieras, standing by astonished, interrupted his fervent eloquencewith the eminently practical remark that as there were no gentileswithin hearing, it was idle to ring the bells. But the enthusiast'sardour was not to be damped by such considerations, and he continued toring and shout. I, for one, am grateful for such a detail as this. An even more significant story, though of a quite different sort, isrecorded of the dedication of San Gabriel. It was, of course, inevitablethat here and there in connection with such a record as this of Serraand his work, there should spring up legends of miraculous doings andoccurrences; though on the whole, it is, perhaps, remarkable that themythopoeic tendency was not more powerful. The incident now referred tomay be taken as an illustration. While the missionary party were engagedin exploring for a suitable site, a large force of natives, under twochiefs, suddenly broke in upon them. Serious conflict seemed imminent;when one of the fathers drew forth a piece of canvas bearing the pictureof the Virgin. Instantly the savages threw their weapons to theground, and, following their leaders, crowded with offerings about themarvellous image. Thus the danger was averted. Further troubles attendedthe settlement at San Gabriel; but in after years it became one of themost successful of all the missions, and gained particular fame from theindustries maintained by its converts, and their skill in carving wood, horn and leather. 

VI. 

Though, as we thus see, Father Junipero had ample reason to beencouraged over the progress of his enterprise, he still had variousdifficulties to contend with. The question of supplies often assumedformidable proportions, and the labors of the missionaries were notalways as fruitful as had been hoped. Fortunately, however, the Indianswere, as a rule, friendly, notwithstanding the fact that the behaviourof the Spanish soldiers, especially towards their women, occasionallyaroused their distrust and resentment. At one establishment only didserious disturbances actually threaten for a time the continuance ofthe mission and its work. Junipero had lately returned from Mexico, withundiminished zeal and all sorts of fresh designs revolving in his brain, when a courier reached him at San Carlos bringing news of a terribledisaster at San Diego. Important affairs detained him for a time atMonterey, but when at length he was able to get to the scene of thetrouble, it was to find that first reports had not been exaggerated. Onthe night of the 4th of November, 1775, eight hundred Indians had madea ferocious assault upon the mission, fired the buildings, and brutallydone to death Father Jayme, one of the two priests in charge. "Godbe thanked, " Junipero had exclaimed, when the letter containing thedreadful news had been read to him, "now the soil is watered, and theconquest of the Dieguinos will soon be complete!" In the faith thatthe blood of the martyrs is veritably the seed of the church, he, onreaching San Diego, with his customary energy, set about the task ofre-establishing the mission; and the buildings which presently arosefrom the ruins were a great improvement upon those which had beendestroyed. 

Before these alarming events at the mother-mission broke in upon hisregular work, the president had resolved upon yet another settlement(not included in the still uncompleted plan), for which he had selecteda point on the coast some twenty-six leagues north of San Diego, andwhich was to be dedicated to San Juan Capistrano. A beginning had indeedbeen made there, not by Junipero in person, but by fathers delegated byhim for the purpose; but when news of the murder of Father Jayme reachedthem, they had hastily buried bells, chasubles and supplies, and hurriedsouth. As soon as ever he felt it wise to leave San Diego Juniperohimself now repaired to the abandoned site; and there, on the 1st ofNovember, 1776, the bells were dug up and hung, mass said, andthe mission established. It is curious to remember that while thepadre-presidente was thus immersed in apostolic labors on the farPacific coast, on the other side of the North American continent eventsof a very different character were shaking the whole civilized world. 

Though the establishment of San Juan Capistrano is naturally mentionedin this place, partly because of the abortive start made there a yearbefore, and partly because its actual foundation constituted the nextnoteworthy incident in Junipero's career, this mission is, in strictchronological order, not the sixth, but the seventh on our list. Forsome three weeks before its dedication, and without the knowledge of thepresident himself, though in full accordance with his designs, the crosshad been planted at a point many leagues northward beyond San Carlos, and destined presently to be the most important on the coast. It will beremembered that when Portolà's party made their first futile search forthe harbour of Monterey, they had by accident found their way as far asthe Bay of San Francisco. The significance of their discovery wasnot appreciated at the time, either by themselves or by those atheadquarters to whom it was reported; but later explorations so clearlyestablished the value of the spot for settlement and fortification, that it was determined to build a presidio there. Some years previousto this, as we have seen, a mission on the northern bay had been partof Junipero's ambitious scheme; and though at the time he was forced bycircumstances to hold his hand, the idea was constantly uppermost inhis thoughts. At length, when, in the summer of 1776, an expedition wasdespatched from Monterey for the founding of the proposed presidio, twomissionaries were included in the party--one of these being none otherthan that Father Palou, whose records have been our chief guides inthe course of this story. The buildings of the presidio--storehouse, commandant's dwelling, and huts for the soldiers and theirfamilies--were completed by the middle of September; and on the 17thof that month--the day of St. Francis, patron of the station andharbour--imposing ceremonies of foundation were performed. A woodenchurch was then built; and on the 9th of October, in the presence ofmany witnesses, Father Palou said mass, the image of St. Francis wasborne about in procession, and the mission solemnly dedicated to hisname [4]. 

It was at San Luis Obispo on his way back from San Diego to Monterey, that Father Junipero learned of the foundation of the mission at SanFrancisco, and though he may doubtless have felt some little regretat not having himself been present on such an occasion, his heartoverflowed with joy. For there was a special reason why the long delayin carrying out this portion of his plan had weighed heavily upon him. Years before, when the visitador general had told him that the firstthree missions in Alta California were to be named after San Diego, San Carlos and San Buenaventura (for such, we recollect, had beenthe original programme), he had exclaimed:--"Then is our father, St. Francis, to have no mission?" And Galvez had made reply:--"If St. Francis desires a mission, let him show us his port, and he shall haveone there. " To Junipero it had seemed that Portolà had providentiallybeen led beyond Monterey to the Bay of San Francisco, and the founderof his order had thus given emphatic answer to the visitador's words. It may well be imagined that he was ill at rest until the saint's wisheshad been carried into effect. 

But this was not the only good work done in the north while Junipero wasbusy elsewhere; for on the 12th of January, 1777, the Mission of SantaClara was established in the wonderfully fertile and beautiful valleywhich is now known by that name. The customary rites were performedby Father Tomas de la Peña, a rude chapel erected, and the work ofconstructing the necessary buildings of the settlement immediately begun[5]. It should be noted in passing that before the end of the year thetown of San Jose--or, to give it its full Spanish title, El Pueblo deSan Jose de Guadalupe--was founded near by. This has historic interestas the first purely civil settlement in California. The fine Alamedafrom the mission to the pueblo was afterwards made and laid out underthe fathers' supervision. 

VII. 

Though Junipero's subordinates had thus done without him in theseimportant developments at San Francisco and Santa Clara, he stillresolved to go north, both to visit the new foundations and to inspectfor himself the marvellous country of which he had heard much, but whichhe had not yet seen. As usual, he was long detained by urgent affairs, and it was not till autumn that he succeeded in breaking away. He made ashort stay at Santa Clara, and then pushed on to San Francisco, which hereached in time to say mass on St. Francis' day. After a ten days' rest, he crossed to the presidio and feasted his eyes on the glorious visionof the Golden Gate--a sight which once seen is never to be forgotten. "Thanks be to God!" he cried, in rapture (these, says Palou, were thewords most frequently on his lips); "now our Father St. Francis, withthe Holy Cross of the procession of missions, has reached the ultimateend of this continent of California. To go further ships will berequired!" Yet his joy was tempered with the thought that the eightmissions already founded were very far apart, and that much labour wouldbe necessary to fill up the gaps. 

It was thus with the feeling that, while something had been done, farmore was left to do, that the padre returned to his own special chargeat San Carlos. Various circumstances in combination had caused thepostponement, year after year, of that third mission, which, accordingto original intentions, was to have followed immediately upon theestablishments at San Diego and Monterey. Three new settlements were nowprojected on the Santa Barbara Channel, and the first of these was tobe the mission of San Buenaventura. It was not until 1782, however, thatthe long-delayed purpose was at length accomplished. The site chosenwas at the southeastern extremity of the channel, and close to an Indianvillage, or ranchería to which Portalà's expedition in 1769 had giventhe name of Ascencion de Nuestra Señora, or, briefly, Assumpta. A littlelater on, in pursuance of the same plan, the then governor, Filipe deNeve, took formal possession of a spot some ten leagues distant, andthere began the construction of the presidio of Santa Barbara. It wasJunipero's earnest desire to proceed at once with the adjoining mission. But the governor, for reasons of his own, threw obstacles in the way, and in the end this fresh undertaking was left to other hands. 

For we have now come to the close of Father Junipero's long andstrenuous career; and as we look back over the record of it, our wonderis, not that he should have died when he did, but rather that he had notkilled himself many years before. His is surely one of those cases inwhich supreme spiritual power and sheer force of will triumph over anaccumulation of bodily ills. Far from robust of constitution, hehad never given himself consideration or repose, forcing himself toexertions which it would have appeared utterly impossible that his framecould bear, and adding to the constant strain of his labours and travelsthe hardships of self-inflicted tortures of a severe ascetic régime. Hehad always been much troubled by the old ulcer on his leg, thoughthis, no matter how painful, he never regarded save when it actuallyincapacitated him for work; and for many years he had suffered from aserious affection of the heart, which had been greatly aggravated, evenif it was not in the first instance caused, by his habit of beatinghimself violently on his chest with a huge stone, at the conclusion ofhis sermons--to the natural horror of his hearers, who, it is said, were often alarmed lest he should drop dead before their eyes. The fatalissue of such practices could only be a question of time. At length, mental anxiety and sorrow added their weight to his burden--particularlydisappointment at the slow progress of his enterprise, and grief overthe death of his fellow-countryman and close friend, Father Crespì, whopassed to his well-earned rest on New Year's Day, 1782. After thisloss, it is recorded, he was never the same man again, though he held sotenaciously to his duties, that only a year before the call came to him, being then over seventy, he limped from San Diego to Monterey, visitinghis missions, and weeping over the outlying Indian rancherìas, becausehe was powerless to help the unconverted dwellers in them. He died atSan Carlos, tenderly nursed to the end by the faithful Palou, on the28th August, 1784; and his passing was so peaceful that those watchingthought him asleep. On hearing the mission bells toll for his death, thewhole population, knowing well what had occurred, burst into tears; andwhen, clothed in the simple habit of his order, his body was laid outin his cell, the native neophytes crowded in with flowers, while theSpanish soldiers and sailors pressed round in the hope of being blessedby momentary contact with his corpse. He was laid beneath the missionaltar beside his beloved friend Crespì; but when, in after years, a newchurch was built, the remains of both were removed and placed within it. 

It is not altogether easy to measure such a man as Junipero Serra by ourordinary modern standards of character and conduct. He was essentiallya religious enthusiast, and as a religious enthusiast he must be judged. To us who read his story from a distance, who breathe an atmospheretotally different from his, and whose lives are governed by quiteother passions and ideals, he may often appear one-sided, extravagant, deficient in tact and forethought, and, in the excess of his zeal, tooready to sacrifice everything to the purposes he never for an instantallowed to drop out of his sight. We may even, with some of his critics, protest that he was not a man of powerful intellect; that his views ofpeople and things were distressingly narrow; that, after his kind, hewas extremely superstitious; that he was despotic in his dealingswith his converts, and stiffnecked in his relations with the civil andmilitary authorities. For all this is doubtless true. But all thismust not prevent us from seeing him as he actually was--charitable, large-hearted, energetic, indomitable; in all respects a remarkable, inmany ways, a really wise and great man. At whatever points he may fallshort of our criteria, this much must be said of him, that he was firedthroughout with the high spirit of his vocation, that he was punctual inthe performance of duty as he understood it, that he was obedient tothe most rigorous dictates of that Gospel which he had set himself topreach. In absolute, single-hearted, unflinching, and tireless devotionto the task of his life--the salvation of heathen souls--he spenthimself freely and cheerfully, a true follower of that noblest and mostengaging of the mediaeval saints, whose law he had laid upon himself, and whom he looked up to as his guide and examplar. Let us place himwhere he belongs--among the transcendent apostolic figures of his ownchurch; for thus alone shall we do justice to his personality, hisobjects, his career. The memory of such a man will survive all changesin creeds and ideals; and the great state, of which he was the firstpioneer, will do honour to herself in honouring him. 

VIII. 

After Junipero's death the supervision of the missions devolved for atime upon Palou, under whose management, owing to difficulties with thecivil powers, no new foundations were undertaken, though satisfactoryprogress was made in those already existing. In 1786, Palou wasappointed head of the College of San Fernando, and his place as missionpresident was filled by Father Firmin Francisco de Lasuen, by whom themission of Santa Barbara was dedicated, on the festival day of thatvirgin-martyr, before the close of the year [6]. Just twelve monthslater, the third channel settlement was started, with the performanceof the usual rites, on the spot fixed for the Mission of La PurisimaConcepcion, at the western extremity of the bay; though some monthspassed before real work there was begun. Thus the proposed scheme, elaborated before Junipero's death, for the occupation of that portionof the coast, was at length successfully carried out. 

Hardly had this been accomplished before the viceroy and governor, having resolved upon a further extension of the mission system, sentorders to Father Lasuen to proceed with two fresh settlements, one ofwhich was to be dedicated to the Holy Cross, the other to Our Ladyof Solitude. Time was, as usual, consumed in making the necessarypreparations, and the two missions were finally founded within a fewweeks of each other--on the 28th of August and the 9th of October, 1791, respectively. The site selected for the Mission of Santa Cruz was in theneighborhood already known by that name, and near the San Lorenzo River;that of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, on the west side of the SalinasRiver, in the vicinity of the present town of Soledad, and about thirtymiles from Monterey. 

A glance at the map of California will help us to understand the policywhich had dictated the creation of the four missions founded sinceJunipero's death. The enormous stretch of country between San Franciscoand San Diego, the northern and southern extremes of evangelicalenterprise, was as yet quite insufficiently occupied, and these newsettlements had been started with the object of to some extent fillingup the vast vacant spaces still left among those already existing. Forthe efficient performance of missionary work something more was neededthan a number of separate establishments, no matter how well managedand successful these in themselves might be. Systematic organization wasessential; for this it was requisite that the various missions shouldbe brought, by proximity, into vital relations with one another, thatcommunication might be kept up, companionship enjoyed, and, in case ofneed, advice given and assistance rendered. The foundations of SantaBarbara, La Purisima, Santa Cruz and Soledad, had done something, aswill be seen, towards the ultimate drawing together of the scatteredoutposts of church and civilization. But with them a beginning had onlybeen made. Further developments of the same general plan which aimed, itwill be understood, not alone at the spiritual conquest, but also at theproper control of the new kingdom--were now taken under consideration. And, as a result, five fresh missions were presently resolved upon. Oneof these was to be situated between San Francisco and Santa Clara; thesecond, between Santa Clara and Monterey; the third, between San Antonioand San Luis Obispo; the fourth, between San Buenaventura and SanGabriel; and the fifth, between San Juan Capistrano and San Diego. Theimportance of these proposed settlements as connecting links will be atonce apparent, if we observe that by reason of their carefully chosenlocations they served, as it were, to put the older missions into actualtouch. When at length the preliminary arrangements had been made, notime was wasted in the carrying out of the programme, and in a littleover a year, all five missions were in operation. The mission SanJose (a rather tardy recognition to the patron-saint of the wholeundertaking), was founded on the 11th June, 1797; San Juan Bautistathirteen days later; San Miguel Arcángel on the 25th July, and SanFernando Rey de España on the 8th September of the same year; and SanLuis Rey de Francia (commonly called San Luis Rey to distinguish it fromSan Luis Obispo), on the 13th of the July following. The delay whichhad not at all been anticipated in the establishment of this last-namedmission, was due to some difficulties in regard to site. With thisended--so far as fresh foundations were concerned--the pious laboursof Lasuen as padre-presidente. He now returned to San Carlos to devotehimself during the remainder of his life to the arduous dutiesof supervision and administration. There he died, in 1803, agedeighty-three years. 

His successor, Father Estevan Tapis, fourth president of the UpperCalifornia missions, signalized his elevation to office by adding anineteenth to the establishments under his charge. Founded on the17th September, 1804, on a spot, eighteen miles from La Purisima andtwenty-two from Santa Barbara, to which Lasuen had already directedattention, this was dedicated to the virgin-martyr, Santa Inez. It wasfelt that a settlement somewhere in this region was still needed for thecompletion of the mission system, since without it, a gap was left inthe line between the two missions first-named, which were some fortymiles apart. With the planting of Santa Inez thorough spiritualoccupation may be said to have been accomplished over the entire areabetween San Francisco and San Diego, and from the Coast Range to theocean. The nineteen missions had been so distributed over the vastcountry, that the Indians scattered through it could everywhere bereached; while the distance from mission to mission had, at the sametime, been so reduced that it was in no case too great to be easilycovered in a single day's journey. The fathers of each establishmentcould thus hold frequent intercourse with their next neighbors, andoccasional travelers moving to and fro on business could from day to daybe certain of finding a place for refreshment and repose [7]. 

IX. 

Santa Inez carries us for the first time over into the nineteenthcentury, and its establishment may in a sense be regarded as marking theterm of the period of expansion in California mission history. A pauseof more than a decade ensued, during which no effort was made towardsthe further spread of the general system; and then, with the plantingof two relatively unimportant settlements in a district thentoforeunoccupied the tally was brought to a close. 

The missions which thus represented a slight and temporary revival ofthe old spirit of enterprise, were those of San Rafael Arcángel and SanFrancisco Solano. The former, located near Mount Tamalpais, between SanFrancisco de Assis and the Russian military station at Fort Ross, datesfrom the 17th December, 1817; the latter, situated still further north, in the Sonoma Valley, from the 4th July, 1823. Some little uncertaintyexists as to the true reasons and purposes of their foundation. Thecommonly accepted version of the story connects them directly withproblems which arose out of the course of affairs at San Francisco. In1817 a most serious epidemic caused great mortality among the Indiansthere; a panic seemed inevitable; and on the advice of Lieutenant Sola, a number of the sick neophytes were removed by the padres to the otherside of the bay. The change of climate proved highly beneficial;the region of Mount Tamalpais was found singularly attractive; and adecision to start a branch establishment, or asistencia, of the missionat San Francisco was a natural result. The patronage of San Rafael wasselected in the hope that, as the name itself expresses the "healing ofGod, " that "most glorious prince" might be induced to care "for bodiesas well as souls. " While considerable success attended this new venture, the condition of things at San Francisco, on the other hand, continuedanything but satisfactory; and a proposal based on these two facts waspresently made, that the old mission should be removed entirely from thepeninsula, and refounded in a more favorable locality somewhere in thehealthy and fertile country beyond San Rafael. It was thus that the nameof San Francisco got attached from the outset to the new settlement atSonoma; and when later on (the old mission being left in its place) thiswas made into an independent mission, the name was retained, though thededication was transferred, appropriately enough, from St. Francis ofAssisi to that other St. Francis who figures in the records as "thegreat apostle of the Indies. "

Such is the simpler explanation of the way in which the last twomissions came to be established. It has, however, been suggested that, while all this may be true as far as it goes, other causes were at workof a subtler character than those specified, and that these causes wereinvolved in the development of political affairs. It will have beennoted that, though the threatened encroachments of the Russians had beenone of the chief reasons for this Spanish occupation of Alta California, there had hitherto been no attempt to meet their possible advances inthe very regions where they were most to be expected--that is, in thecountry north of San Francisco. In course of time, however, always withthe ostensible purpose of hunting the seal and the otter, the Russianswere found to be creeping further and further south; and at length, under instructions from St. Petersburg, they took possession of theregion of Bodega Bay, establishing there a trading post of their FurCompany, and a strong military station which they called Fort Ross. Asthis settlement was on the coast, and only sixty-five miles, as the crowflies, from San Francisco, it will be seen that the Spanish authoritieshad some genuine cause for alarm. And the mission movement north of SanFrancisco is considered by some writers to have been initiated, lessfrom spiritual motives, than from the dread of continued Russianaggression, and the hope of raising at least a slight barrier againstit. However this may be, the two missions were never employed fordefensive purposes; nor is it very clear that they could have been madeof much practical service in case of actual need. 

X. 

Such, in briefest outline, is the story of the planting of thetwenty-one missions of Alta California. This story, as we have seen, brings us down to the year 1823. But by this time, as we follow thechronicles, our attention has already begun to be diverted from theforces which still made for growth and success to those which ere longwere to co-operate for the complete undoing of the mission system andthe ruin of all its work. 

Perhaps it was in the nature of things (if one may venture here toemploy a phrase too often used out of mere idleness or ignorance) thatthe undertaking which year by year had been carried forward with so muchenergy and success, should after a while come to a standstill; andthe commonest observation of life will suffice to remind us that whenprogress ceases, retrogression is almost certain to set in. The immensezeal and unflagging enthusiasm of Junipero Serra and his immediatefollowers could not be transmitted by any rite or formula to the menupon whose shoulders their responsibilities came presently to rest. Men they were, of course, of widely varying characters andcapabilities--some, unfortunately, altogether unworthy both morallyand mentally, of their high calling; many, on the contrary, genuineembodiments of the great principles of their order--humane, benevolent, faithful in the discharge of daily duty, patient alike in labour andtrial, and careful administrators of the practical affairs which laywithin their charge. But without injustice it may be said of them thatfor the most part they possessed little of the tremendous personal forceof their predecessors, and a generous endowment of such personal forcewas as needful now as it ever had been. 

Not unless we wish to emulate Southey's learned friend, who wrote wholevolumes of hypothetical history in the subjunctive mood, it is hardlynecessary for present purposes to discuss the internal changes which, had the missions been left to themselves, might in the long run havebrought about their decay. For as a matter of fact the missions were notleft to themselves. The closing chapter of their history, to whichwe have now to turn, is mainly concerned, not with their spiritualmanagement, or with their success or failure in the work they had beengiven to do, but with the general movement of political events, and theupheavals which preceded the final conquest of California by the UnitedStates. 

In considering the attitude of the civil authorities towards the missionsystem, and their dealings with it, we must remember that the Spanishgovernment had from the first anticipated the gradual transformation ofthe missions into pueblos and parishes, and with this, the substitutionof the regular clergy for the Franciscan padres. This was part of thegeneral plan of colonization, of which the mission settlements wereregarded as forming only the beginning. Their work was to bring theheathen into the fold of the church, to subdue them to the conditions ofcivilization, to instruct them in the arts of peace, and thus to preparethem for citizenship; and this done, it was purposed that they shouldbe straightway removed from the charge of the fathers and placed undercivil jurisdiction. No decisive step towards the accomplishment of thisdesign was, however, taken for many years; and meanwhile, the fathersjealously resisted every effort of the government to interfere withtheir prerogatives. At length, with little comprehension of the natureof the materials out of which citizens were thus to be manufactured, andwith quite as little realization of the fact that the paternal methodsof education adopted by the padres were calculated, not to train theirneophytes to self-government, but to keep them in a state of perpetualtutelage, the Spanish Cortes decreed that all missions which had thenbeen in existence ten years should at once be turned over to bishops, and the Indians attached to them made subject to civil authority. Thoughpromulgated in 1813, this decree was not published in California till1820, and even then was practically a dead letter. Two years later, California became a province of the Mexican Empire, and in due coursethe new government turned its attention to the missions, in 1833ordering their complete secularization. The atrocious mishandling byboth Spain and Mexico of the funds by which they had been kept up, andthe large demands made later upon them for provisions and money, hadby this time made serious inroads upon their resources; notwithstandingwhich they had faithfully persisted in their work. The new law now dealtthem a crushing blow. Ten years of great confusion followed, and then aneffort was made to save them from the complete ruin by which they werethreatened by a proclamation ordering that the more important of them, twelve in number, should be restored to the padres. Nothing came ofthis, however; the collapse continued; and in 1846, the sale of themission buildings was decreed by the Departmental Assembly. When inthe August of that year, the American flag was unfurled at Monterey, everything connected with the missions--their lands, their priests, their neophytes, their management--was in a state of seemingly hopelesschaos. Finally General Kearney issued a declaration to the effect that"the missions and their property should remain under the charge of theCatholic priests. .. Until the titles to the lands should be decided byproper authority. " But of whatever temporary service this measure mayhave been, it was of course altogether powerless to breathe fresh lifeinto a system already in the last stages of decay. The mission-buildingswere crumbling into ruins. Their lands were neglected; their convertsfor the most part dead or scattered. The rule of the padres was over. The Spanish missions in Alta California were things of the past. 

In these late days of a civilization so different in all its essentialelements from that which the Franciscans laboured so strenuously toestablish on the Pacific Coast, we may think of the fathers as we will, and pass what judgment we see fit upon their work. But be that what itmay, our hearts cannot fail to be touched and stirred by the pitifulstory of those true servants of God who, in the hour of ultimatedisaster, firmly refused to be separated from their flocks. 

Among the ruins of San Luis Obispo, in 1842, De Mofras found the oldestSpanish priest then left in California, who, after sixty years ofunremitting toil, was then reduced to such abject poverty that he wasforced to sleep on a hide, drink from a horn, and feed upon strips ofmeat dried in the sun. Yet this faithful creature still continued toshare the little he possessed with the children of the few Indians wholingered in the huts about the deserted church; and when efforts weremade to induce him to seek some other spot where he might find refugeand rest, his answer was that he meant to die at his post. The samewriter has recorded an even more tragic case from the annals of LaSoledad. Long after the settlement there had been abandoned, and whenthe buildings were falling to pieces, an old priest, Father Sarría, still remained to minister to the bodily and physical wants of a handfulof wretched natives who yet haunted the neighborhood, and whom heabsolutely refused to forsake. One Sunday morning in August, 1833, after his habit, he gathered his neophytes together in what was once thechurch, and began, according to his custom, the celebration of the mass. But age, suffering, and privation had by this time told fatally uponhim. Hardly had he commenced the service, when his strength gave way. Hestumbled upon the crumbling altar, and died, literally of starvation, inthe arms of those to whom for thirty years he had given freely whateverhe had to give. Surely these simple records of Christ-like devotion willlive in the tender remembrance of all who revere the faith that, linkedwith whatever creed, manifests itself in good works, the love thatspends itself in service, the quiet heroism that endures to the end. 

XI. 

The California missions, though greatly varying of course in regard tosize and economy, were constructed upon the same general plan, in thestriking and beautiful style of architecture, roughly known as Moorish, which the fathers transplanted from Spain, but which rather seems byreason of its singular appropriateness, a native growth of the newsoil. The edifices which now, whether in ruins or in restoration, stilltestify to the skill and energy of their pious designers, were in allcases later, in most cases much later, than the settlements themselves. At the outset, a few rude buildings of wood or adobe were deemedsufficient for the temporary accommodation of priests and converts, and the celebration of religious services. Then, little by little, substantial structures in brick or stone took the place of these, andwhat we now think of as the mission came into being. 

The best account left us of the mission establishment in its palmydays is that given by De Mofras in his careful record of travel andexploration along the Pacific Coast; and often quoted as this has been, we still cannot do better here than to translate some portions of itanew. The observant Frenchman wrote with his eye mainly upon what wasperhaps the most completely typical of all the missions--that of SanLuis Rey. But his description, though containing a number of merelylocal particulars, was intended to be general; and for this reason maythe more properly be reproduced in this place. 

"The edifice, " he wrote, "is quadrilateral, and about one hundred andfifty metres long in front. The church occupies one of the wings. Thefaçade is ornamented with a gallery [or arcade]. The building, a singlestorey in height, is generally raised some feet above the ground. Theinterior forms a court, adorned with flowers and planted with trees. Opening on the gallery which runs round it are the rooms of the monks, majordomos, and travelers, as well as the workshops, schoolrooms, andstorehouses. Hospitals for men and women are situated in the quietestparts of the mission, where also are placed the schoolrooms. The youngIndian girls occupy apartments called the monastery (el moujerìo), andthey themselves are styled nuns (las moujas). .. Placed under the care oftrustworthy Indian women, they are there taught to spin wool, flax, andcotton, and do no leave their seclusion till they are old enough to bemarried. The Indian children attend the same school as the children ofthe white colonists. A certain number of them, chosen from those whoexhibit most intelligence, are taught music--plain-chant, violin, flute, horn, violincello, and other instruments. Those who distinguishthemselves in the carpenter's shop, at the forge, or in the field, aretermed alcaldes, or chiefs, and given charge of a band of workmen. Themanagement of each mission is composed of two monks; the elder looksafter internal administration and religious instruction; the youngerhas direction of agricultural work. .. For the sake of order and morals, whites are employed only where strictly necessary, for the fathers knowtheir influence to be altogether harmful, and that they lead the Indiansto gambling and drunkenness, to which vices they are already too prone. To encourage the natives in their tasks, the fathers themselves oftenlend a hand, and everywhere furnish an example of industry. Necessityhas made them industrious. One is struck with astonishment on observingthat, with such meagre resources, often without European workmen orany skilled help, but with the assistance only of savages, alwaysunintelligent and often hostile, they have yet succeeded in executingsuch works of architecture and engineering as mills, machinery, bridges, roads, and canals for irrigation. For the erection of nearly all themission buildings it was necessary to bring to the sites chosen, beamscut on mountains eight or ten leagues away, and to teach the Indians toburn lime, cut stone, and make bricks. 

"Around the mission, " De Mofras continues, "are the huts of theneophytes, and the dwellings of some white colonists. Besides thecentral establishment, there exists, for a space of thirty or fortyleagues, accessory farms to the number of fifteen or twenty, and branchchapels (chapelles succursales). Opposite the mission is a guard-housefor an escort, composed of four cavalry soldiers and a sergeant. Theseact as messengers, carrying orders from one mission to another, and inthe earlier days of conquest repelled the savages who would sometimesattack the settlement. "

Of the daily life and routine of a mission, accounts of travelers enableus to form a pretty vivid picture; and though doubtless changes ofdetail might be marked in passing from place to place, the larger andmore essential features would be found common to all the establishments. 

At sunrise the little community was already astir, and then the Angelussummoned all to the church, where mass was said, and a short time givento the religious instruction of the neophytes. Breakfast followed, composed mainly of the staple dish atole, or pottage of roastedbarley. This finished, the Indians repaired in squads, each under thesupervision of its alcalde, to their various tasks in workshop andfield. Between eleven and twelve o'clock, a wholesome and sufficientlygenerous midday meal was served out. At two, work was resumed. An houror so before sunset, the bell again tolled for the Angelus; eveningmass was performed; and after supper had been eaten, the day closed withdance, or music, or some simple games of chance. Thus week by week, and month by month, with monotonous regularity, life ran its unbrokencourse; and what with the labours directly connected with themanagement of the mission itself, the tending of sheep and cattle in theneighboring ranches, and the care of the gardens and orchards upon whichthe population was largely dependent for subsistence, there was plentyto occupy the attention of the padres, and quite enough work to be doneby the Indians under their charge. But all this does not exhaust thelist of mission activities. For in course of time, as existence becamemore settled, and the children of the early converts shot up intoboys and girls, various industries were added to such first necessaryoccupations, and the natives were taught to work at the forge and thebench, to make saddles and shoes, to weave, and cut, and sew. In theseand similar acts, many of them acquired considerable proficiency. 

It is pleasant enough to look back upon such a busy yet placid life. But while we may justly acknowledge its antique, pastoral charm, we mustguard ourselves against the temptation to idealization. Beautiful inmany respects it must have been; but its shadows were long and deep. According to the first principles adopted by the missionaries, thedomesticated Indians were held down rigorously in a condition ofservile dependence and subjection. They were indeed, as one of the earlytravelers in California put it, slaves under another name--slaves tothe cast-iron power of a system which, like all systems, was capable ofunlimited abuse, and which, at the very best, was narrow and arbitrary. Every vestige of freedom was taken from them when they entered, or werebrought into, the settlement. Henceforth they belonged, body and soul, to the mission and its authority. Their tasks were assigned to them, their movements controlled, the details of their daily doings dictated, by those who were to all intents and purposes their absolute masters;and corporal punishment was visited freely not only upon those who wereguilty of actual misdemeanor, but also upon such as failed in attendanceat church, or, when there, did not conduct themselves properly. Fromtime to time some unusually turbulent spirit would rise against suchpaternal despotism, and break away to his old savage life. But thesecases, we are told, were of rare occurrence. The California Indians werefor the most part indolent, apathetic, and of low intelligence; and as, under domestication, they were clothed, housed and fed, while the labourdemanded from them was rarely excessive, they were wont as a rule toaccept the change from the hardships of their former rough existence tothe comparative comfort of the mission, if not exactly in a spirit ofgratitude, at any rate with a certain brutal contentment. 

XII. 

It does not fall within the scope of this little sketch, in whichnothing more has been aimed at than to tell an interesting story in thesimplest possible way, to enter into any discussion of a questionto which what has just been said might naturally seem to lead--thequestion, namely, of the results, immediate and remote, of the missionsystem in California. The widely divergent conclusions on this subjectregistered by the historians will, on investigation, be found, asin most such cases, to depend quite as much upon bias of mind andpreconceived ideals, as upon the bare facts presented, concerning which, one would imagine, there can hardly be much difference of opinion. Todecide upon the value of a given social experiment, we must, to beginwith, wake up our minds as to what we should wish to see achieved; andwhere there is no unanimity concerning the object to be reached, therewill scarcely be any in respect of the means employed. It is not tobe wondered at, therefore, that critical judgment upon the Franciscanmissionaries and their work has been given here in terms of unqualifiedlaudation, and there in the form of severest disapproval, and thateveryone who touches the topic afresh is expected to take sides. Intheir favor it must, I think, be universally admitted that they wroughtalways with the highest motives and the noblest intentions, and thattheir labours were really fruitful of much good among the nativetribes. On the other hand, when regarded from the standpoint of secularprogress, it seems equally certain that their work was sadly hamperedby narrowness of outlook and understanding, and an utter want ofappreciation of the demands and conditions of the modern world. Thuswhile we give them the fullest credit for all that they accomplished bytheir teachings and example, we have still frankly to acknowledgetheir failure in the most important and most difficult part of theirundertaking--in the task of transforming many thousands of ignorant anddegraded savages into self-respecting men and women, fit for the dutiesand responsibilities of civilization. Yet to put it in this way is toshow sharply enough that such failure is not hastily to be set down totheir discredit. It is often said, indeed, that they went altogether thewrong way to work for the achievement of the much-desired result; andit is unquestionably true, as La Pérouse long ago pointed out, that theymade the fundamental, but with them inevitable mistake, of sacrificingthe temporal and material welfare of the natives to the consideration ofso-called "heavenly interests. " Yet in common fairness we must rememberthe stuff with which they had to deal. The Indian was by nature a childand a slave; and if, out of children and slaves they did not at oncemanufacture independent and law-abiding citizens, is it for us, who havenot yet exhibited triumphant success in handling the same problem underfar more favorable conditions, to cover them with our contempt, ordismiss them with our blame? Civilization is at best a slow and painfulaffair, as we half-civilized people ought surely to understand by thistime--a matter not of individuals and years, but of generations andcenturies; and nothing permanent has ever yet been gained by anyattempt, how promising soever it may have seemed, to force the naturalprocesses of social evolution. The mission padres bore the cross frompoint to point along the far-off Pacific coast; they built churches, they founded settlements, they gave their strength to the uplifting ofthe heathen. Little that was enduring came out of all this toil. Perhapsthis was partly because their methods were shortsighted, their meansinadequate to the ends proposed. But when we remember that they had settheir hands to an almost impossible task, we shall perhaps be inclinedrather to acknowledge their partial success, than to deal harshly withthem on the score of their manifest failure. 

Be all this as it may, however, the missions of California passed away, leaving practically nothing behind them but a memory. Yet this is surelya memory to be cherished by all who feel a pious reverence for the past, and whose hearts are responsive to the sense of tears that there is inmortal things. And alike for those who live beneath the blue skies ofCalifornia, and for those who wander awhile as visitors among herscenes of wonder and enchantment, the old mission buildings will everbe objects of curious and unique interest. Survivals from a by-gone era, embodiments not only of the purposes of their founders, but of the faithwhich built the great cathedrals of Europe, they stand pathetic figuresin a world to which they do not seem to belong. In the noise and bustleof the civilization which is taking possession of what was once theirterritory, they have no share. The life about them looks towards thefuture. They point mutely to the past. A tender sentiment clingsabout them; in their hushed enclosures we breathe a drowsy old-worldatmosphere of peace; to linger within their walls, to muse in theirgraveyards, is to step out of the noisy present into the silence ofdeparted years. In a land where everything is of yesterday, and whosemarvellous natural beauties are but rarely touched with the associationsof history or charms of romance, these things have a subtle and peculiarpower--a magic not to be resisted by any one who turns aside for an houror two from the highways of the modern world, to dream among the sceneswhere the old padres toiled and died. And as in imagination he therecalls up the ghostly figures of neophyte and soldier and priest, nowbusy with the day's task-work, now kneeling at twilight mass in thedimly-lighted chapel; as the murmur of strange voices and the faintmusic of bell and chant steal in upon his ears; he will hardly failto realize that, however much or little the Franciscan missionariesaccomplished for California, they have passed down to our prosaicafter-generation a legacy of poetry, whereof the sweetness will not soondie away. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: In the sequel, it may here be noted, the Franciscansceded Baja California to the Dominicans, keeping Alta California tothemselves. ]

[Footnote 2: The mission was transferred in 1874 from the locationselected by Junipero to a site some two miles distant, up the river. ]

[Footnote 3: The Diary, furnishing a detailed itinerary of theexpedition, is given in full in Palou's noticias de la NuevaCalifornia. ]

[Footnote 4: This is now colloquially known as the Mission Dolores. Its proper title is, however, Mission of San Francisco de Assis. Itoriginally stood on the Laguna de los Dolores (now filled up); and henceits popular name. ]

[Footnote 5: The site originally chosen lay too low, and from the outsetdanger of inundation was foreseen. A flood occurred in 1779, and in 1784the mission was removed to higher ground. The present buildings datefrom 1825-26. ]

[Footnote 6: The original adobe church was injured by earthquakes in1806 and 1812. The present edifice was begun in 1815 and finished in1820. ]

[Footnote 7: The table given by the French traveler, De Mofras, in hisauthoritative Exploration du Territoire de L'Oregon, les Californies, etc. , shows us that the distance between mission and mission nowhereexceeded nineteen leagues, and that it was often very much less. ]