The Famous Missions of California

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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 lnez, 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 of
California - a small party of men, worn out by the fatigues and
hardships of their long and perilous journey from San Fernandez de
Villicatà, came in sight of the beautiful Bay of San Diego. They formed
the last division of a tripartite expedition which had for its object
the political and spiritual conquest of the great Northwest coast of the
Pacific; and among their number were Gaspar de Portolà, the colonial
governor and military commander of the enterprise; and Father Junipero
Serra, with whose name and achievements the early history of California
is indissolubly bound up.

This expedition was the outcome of a determination on the part of Spain
to occupy and settle the upper of its California provinces, or Alta
California, as it was then called, and thus effectively prevent the more
than possible encroachments of the Russians and the English. Fully alive
to the necessity of immediate and decisive action, Carlos III. had sent
Jose de Galvez out to New Spain, giving him at once large powers as
visitador general of the provinces, and special instructions to
establish military posts at San Diego and Monterey. Galvez was a man of
remarkable zeal, energy, and organizing ability, and after the manner of
his age and church he regarded his undertaking as equally important from
the religious and from the political side. The twofold purpose of his
expedition was, as he himself stated it, "to establish the Catholic
faith among a numerous heathen people, submerged in the obscure darkness
of paganism, and to extend the dominion of the King, our Lord, and
protect this peninsula from the ambitious views of foreign nations."
From the first it was his intention that the Cross and the flag of Spain
should be carried side by side in the task of dominating and colonizing
the new country. Having, therefore, gathered his forces together at
Santa Ana, near La Paz, he sent thence to Loreto, inviting Junipero
Serra, the recently appointed President of the California Missions, to
visit him in his camp. Loreto was a hundred leagues distant; but this
was no obstacle to the religious enthusiast, whose lifelong dream it had
been to bear the faith far and wide among the barbarian peoples of the
Spanish world. He hastened to La Paz, and in the course of a long
interview with Galvez not only promised his hearty co-operation, but
also gave great help in the arrangement of the preliminary details of
the expedition.

In the opportunity thus offered him for the missionary labour in
hitherto unbroken fields, Father Junipero saw a special manifestation
both of the will and of the favour of God. He threw himself into the
work with characteristic ardour and determination, and Galvez quickly
realized that his own efforts were now to be ably seconded by a man who,
by reason of his devotion, courage, and personal magnetism, might well
seem to have been providentially designated for the task which had been
put 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 humble
folk, in 1713. According to the testimony of his intimate friend and
biographer, Father Francesco Palou, his desires, even during boyhood,
were turned towards the religious life. Before he was seventeen he
entered the Franciscan Order, a regular member of which he became a year
or so later. His favorite reading during his novitiate, Palou tells us,
was in the Lives of the Saints, over which he would pore day after day
with passionate and ever-growing enthusiasm; and from these devout
studies sprang an intense ambition to "imitate the holy and venerable
men" who had given themselves up to the grand work of carrying the
Gospel among gentiles and savages. The missionary idea thus implanted
became the dominant purpose of his life, and neither the astonishing
success of his sermons, nor the applause with which his lectures were
received when he was made professor of theology, sufficed to dampen his
apostolic zeal. Whatever work was given him to do, he did with all his
heart, and with all his might, for such was the man's nature; but
everywhere and always he looked forward to the mission field as his
ultimate career. He was destined, however, to wait many years before his
chance came. At length, in 1749, after making many vain petitions to be
set apart for foreign service, he and Palou were offered places in a
body of priests who, at the urgent request of the College of San
Fernando, in Mexico, were then being sent out as recruits to various
parts of the New World. The hour had come; and in a spirit of gratitude
and joy too deep for words, Junipero Serra set his face towards the far
lands which were henceforth to be his home.

The voyage out was long and trying. In the first stage of it - from
Majorca to Malaga - the dangers and difficulties of seafaring were
varied, if not relieved by strange experiences, of which Palou has left
us a quaint and graphic account. Their vessel was a small English
coaster, in command of a stubborn cross-patch of a captain, who combined
navigation with theology, and whose violent protestations and fondness
for doctrinal dispute allowed his Catholic passengers, during the
fifteen days of their passage, scarcely a minute's peace. His habit was
to declaim chosen texts out of his "greasy old" English Bible, putting
his own interpretation upon them; then, if when challenged by Father
Junipero, who "was well trained in dogmatic theology," he could find no
verse to fit his argument, he would roundly declare that the leaf he
wanted happened to be torn. Such methods are hardly praiseworthy. But
this was not the worst. Sometimes the heat of argument would prove too
much for him, and then, I grieve to say, he would even threaten to pitch
his antagonists overboard, and shape his course for London. However,
despite this unlooked-for danger, Junipero and his companions finally
reached Malaga, whence they proceeded first to Cadiz, and then, after
some delay, to Vera Cruz. The voyage across from Cadiz alone occupied
ninety-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 vessel
encountered terrific storms. But "remembering the end for which they had
come," the father "felt no fear, and his own buoyancy did much to keep
up the flagging spirits of those about him. Even when Vera Cruz was
reached, the terrible journey was by no means over, for a hundred
Spanish leagues lay between that port and the City of Mexico. Too
impatient to wait for the animals and wagons which had been promised for
transportation, but which, through some oversight or blunder, had not
yet arrived in Vera Cruz, Junipero set out to cover the distance on
foot. The strain brought on an ulcer in one of his legs, from which he
suffered all the rest of his life; and it is highly probable that he
would have died on the road but for the quite unexpected succor which
came to him more than once in the critical hour. This, according to his
wont, he did not fail to refer directly to the special favour of the
Virgin and St. Joseph.

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

[1] In the sequel, it may here be noted, the Franciscans ceded Baja
California to the Dominicans, keeping Alta California to themselves.

II.

As a result of the conference between Galvez and Father Junipero, it was
decided that their joint expedition should be sent out in two portions -
one by sea and one by land; the land portion being again sub-divided
into two, in imitation, Palou informs us, of the policy of the patriarch
Joseph, "so that if one came to misfortune, the other might still be
saved." It was arranged that four missionaries should go into 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 as the work of the
missionaries was concerned their immediate purpose was to 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 the land-force were under
the leadership of Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada and Governor Portolà
respectively. The ships were to carry all the heavier portions of the
camp equipage, provisions, household goods, vestments and sacred
vessels; the land-parties were to take with them herds and flocks from
Loreto. The understanding was that whichever party first reached San
Diego was to wait there twenty days for the rest, and in the event of
their failure to arrive within that time, to push on to Monterey.

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

The San Carlos left La Paz on the 9th of January; the San Antonio on the
15th of February; the San Joseph on the 16th of June. All the vessels
met with heavy storms, and the San Carlos, being driven sadly out of her
route, did not reach San Diego till twenty days after the San Antonio,
though dispatched some five weeks earlier. We shudder to read that of
her crew but one sailor and the cook were left alive; the rest, along
with many of the soldiers, having succumbed to the scurvy. The San
Antonio also lost eight of her crew from the same dreadful disease.
These little details serve better than any general description to give
us an idea of the horrible conditions of Spanish seamanship in the
middle of the eighteenth century. As for the San Joseph, she never
reached her destination at all, though where and how she met her fate
remains one of the dark mysteries of the ocean. Two small points in
connection with her loss are perhaps sufficiently curious to merit
notice. In the first place, she was the only one of the ships that had
no missionary on board; and secondly, she was called after the very
saint who had been named special patron of the entire undertaking.

The original plan, as we have seen, had been that Father Junipero should
accompany the governor in the second division of the land-expedition;
but this, when the day fixed for departure came, was found to be quite
impossible owing to the ulcerous sore on his leg, which had been much
aggravated by the exertions of his recent hurried journey from Loreto to
La Paz and back. Greatly chafing under the delay, he was none the less
obliged to postpone his start for several weeks. At length, on the 28th
of March, in company with two soldiers and a servant, he mounted his
mule and set out. The event showed that he had been guilty of undue
haste, for he suffered terribly on the rough way, and on reaching San
Xavier, whither he went to turn over the management of the Lower
California missions to Palou, who was then settled there, his condition
was 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 the
work to which he stood, body and soul, committed. "Let us speak no more
of this," he said. "I have placed all my faith in God, through whose
goodness I hope to reach not only San Diego, to plant and fix there the
standard 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 of
other things.

After three days devoted to business connected with the missions of the
lower province, the indomitable father determined to continue his
journey, notwithstanding the fact that, still totally unable to move his
leg, he had to be lifted by two men into the saddle. We may imagine that
poor 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 seemed
little likely indeed that they would ever meet again on this side of the
grave. But Junipero's courage never gave out. Partly for rest and partly
for conference with those in charge, he lingered awhile at the missions
along the way; but, nevertheless, presently came up with Portolà and his
detachment, with whom he proceeded to Villacatà. Here during a temporary
halt, he founded a mission which was dedicated to San Fernando, King of
Castile and Leon. But the worst experiences of the journey were still in
store. For when the party was ready to move forward again towards San
Diego, which, as time was fast running on, the commander was anxious to
reach with the least possible delay, it was found that Junipero's leg
was in such an inflamed condition that he could neither stand, nor sit,
nor sleep. For a few leagues he persevered, without complaint to any
one, and then collapsed. Portolà urged him to return at once to San
Fernando for the complete repose in which alone there seemed any chance
of recovery, but after his manner Junipero refused; nor, out of kindly
feeling for the tired native servants, would he ever hear of the litter
which the commander thereupon proposed to have constructed for his
transportation. The situation was apparently beyond relief, when, after
prayer to God, the padre called to him one of the muleteers. "Son," he
said - the conversation is reported in full by Palou, from whose memoir
of his friend it is here translated - "do you not know how to make a
remedy 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 a
muledriver, and can only cure harness-wounds on animals." "Then, son."
rejoined Junipero, "consider that I am an animal, and that this ulcer is
a harness-wound . . . and prepare for me the same medicament as you
would make for a beast." Those who heard this request smiled. And the
muleteer obeyed; and mixing certain herbs with hot tallow, applied the
compound to the ulcerated leg, with the astonishing result that the
sufferer slept that night in absolute comfort, and was perfectly able
the next morning 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 to
the 1st of July - the little party plodded on, following the track of
the advance-division of the land-expedition under Rivera y Moncada. With
what joy and gratitude they at last looked down upon the harbour of San
Diego, and realized that the first object of their efforts had now
indeed been achieved, may be readily imagined. Out in the bay lay the
San Carlos and the San Antonio, and on the shore were the tents of the
men 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 was
continued, says Palou, in his lively description of the scene, "until,
all having alighted, they were ready to testify their mutual love by
close embraces and affectionate rejoicing to see the expeditions thus
joined, and at their desired destination." Yet one cannot but surmise
that the delights of reunion were presently chilled when those who had
thus been spared to come together fell into talk over the companions who
had 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 president found
confronting them on their arrival was indeed the reverse of
satisfactory. Of the one hundred and thirty or so men comprising the
combined companies, many were seriously ill; some it was necessary to
dispatch at once with the San Antonio back to San Blas for additional
supplies and reinforcements; a further number had to be detailed for the
expedition to Monterey, which, in accordance with the explicit
instructions of the visitador general it was decided to send out
immediately. All this left the San Diego camp extremely short-handed,
but there was no help for it. To reach Monterey at all costs was
Portolà's next duty; and on the 14th of July, with a small party which
included Fathers Crespi and Gomez, he commenced his northwest march.

III.

In the meanwhile, says Palou, "that fervent zeal which continually
glowed and burned in the heart of our venerable Father Junipero, did not
permit him to forget the principal object of his journey." As soon as
Portolà had left the encampment, he began to busy himself with the
problem of the mission which, it had been determined, should be founded
on that spot. Ground was carefully chosen with an eye to the
requirements, not only of the mission itself, but also of the pueblo, or
village, 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 anniversary
of a great victory over the Moors in 1212, the Spanish church solemnly
celebrated the Triumph of the Holy Cross - the first mission of Upper
California was dedicated to San Diego de Alcalà, after whom the bay had
been named by Sebastian Viscaino, the explorer, many years before. The
ceremonies were a repetition of those which had been employed in the
founding of the Mission of San Fernando at Villicatà; the site was
blessed and sprinkled with holy water; a great cross reared, facing the
harbour; the mass celebrated; the Venite Creator Spiritus sung. And, as
before, where the proper accessories failed, Father Junipero and his
colleagues fell back undeterred upon the means which Heaven had actually
put at their disposal. The constant firing of the troops supplied the
lack of musical instruments, and the smoke of the powder was accepted as
a substitute for incense. Father Palou's brief and unadorned description
will not prove altogether wanting in impressiveness for those who in
imagination can conjure up a picture of the curious, yet dramatic scene.

The preliminary work of foundation thus accomplished, Father Junipero
gathered about him the few healthy men who could be spared from the
tending of their sick comrades and routine duties, and with their help
erected a few rude huts, one of which was immediately consecrated as a
temporary chapel. So far as his own people were concerned, the padre's
labours were for the most part of a grievous character, for, during the
first few months, the records tell us, disease made such fearful ravages
among the soldiers, sailors and servants, that ere long the number of
persons at this settlement had been reduced to twenty. But the tragedy
of these poor nameless fellows - (it was Junipero's pious hope that they
might all be named in Heaven) - after all hardly forms part of our
proper story. The father's real work was to lie among the native
Indians, and it is with his failures and successes in this direction
that the main interest of our California mission annals is connected.

They were not an attractive people, these "gentiles" of a country which
to the newcomers must itself have seemed an outer garden of Paradise;
and Junipero's first attempts to gain their good will met with very
slight encouragement. During the ceremonies attendant upon the
foundation and dedication of the mission, they had stood round in silent
wonder, 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 cause of
the dire sickness of the troops. And this, in the long run, remarks
Palou, was without doubt "singularly providential," owing to the rapid
depletion 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 they
developed a perfect passion, and other depredations, rendered them
exceedingly troublesome. Acts of violence became more and more common,
and by-and-bye, a determined and organized attack upon the mission, in
which the assailants many times outnumbered their opponents, led to a
pitched battle, and the death of one of the Spanish servants. This was
the crisis; for, happily, like a thunderstorm, the disturbance, which
seemed so threatening of future ill, cleared the air, at any rate for a
time; and the kindness with which the Spaniards treated their wounded
foes evidently touched the savage heart. Little by little a few Indians
here and there began to frequent the mission; and with the hearty
welcome accorded them their numbers soon increased. Among them there
happened to be a boy, of some fifteen years of age, who showed himself
more tractable than his fellows, and whom Father Junipero determined to
use as an instrument for his purpose. When the lad had picked up a
smattering of Spanish, the padre sent him to his people with the promise
that if he were allowed to bring back one of the children, the youngster
should not only by baptism be made a Christian, but should also (and
here the good father descended to a bribe) be tricked out like the
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 of
cloth over it, and called upon one of the soldiers to stand godfather to
this first infant of Christ. But, alas! just as he was preparing to
sprinkle the holy water, the natives snatched the child from him, and
made off with it (and the cloth) to their own ranchería. The soldiers
who stood round as witnesses were furious at this insult, and, left to
themselves, would have inflicted summary punishment upon the offenders.
But the good father pacified them, attributing his failure - of which he
was wont to speak tearfully to the end of his life - to his own sins and
unworthiness. However, this first experience in convert-making was
fortunately not prophetic, for though it is true that many months
elapsed before a single neophyte was gained for the mission, and though
more serious troubles were still to come, in the course of the next few
years a number of the aborigines, both children and adults, were
baptized.

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