THE MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE OLD SOUTHWEST
CALIFORNIA AND ITS EARLY INHABITANTS
CALIFORNIA, the land of golden sunshine and skies of ineffable blue, starlit at night by a glittering host; of most genial climate, tempered alike to the old and the young, the delicate and the vigorous, a climate equaled nowhere on earth but along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea; the garden of the olive, the myrtle, the orange, and the vine; the primitive home of the most stupendous trees, trees that lift their heads among the clouds, and reach maturity only when thousands of years have passed since their sprouting from the soil; the home of the stately redwood and the pine. The oak, the sycamore, the pepper, the manzanita, and almost every species of arboreal growth in all the realms of nature; California was in 1767 selected by the Catholic Church as a most promising vineyard for the gathering of souls to its bosom from among the wild heathen that inhabited the lands in the southern half of Alta California. This chosen land, so wonderfully endowed by nature, made possible the spiritual and civilizing purposes of the Church by the very configuration of its surface, the fertility of its soil, its temperate and subtropical climates, and its abundant waters, which were stored in natural reservoirs and available for lowland cultivation
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By the process of irrigation, and by rivers, creeks, and streams running to the sea and to in land lakes from every point of the compass. In California there are very many kinds of local climate, and all within the limits of the temperate zone. A contour map most strikingly illustrates the causes of the variation in temperature in different localities. Heat, moisture, and soil give vitality to every germ within the bosom of the earth; and the direction of the sun’s rays determines the degree of heat. The general trend of the principal mountain ranges is from northwest to southeast, enclosing several great valleys. The Lesser ranges and their spurs, with foot-hills, canyons, and arroyos, penetrate the country everywhere, twisting and turning in endless confusion. These ranges enclose innumerable pocket like depressions of various dimension, and valleys, where the rays of the sun enter at different angles; and those the heat is increased or diminished to a degree that is equivalent to a change in the general climate. This natural adaptation of the surface for modifying the solar heat is accountable for the exuberance and the great variety of the products of the earth, which gave joy to the hearts of the old padres as they wrought out in these primeval wilds a paradise for the Indians and themselves. The conquest of Mexico in the dawn of the sixteenth century by Hernando Cortes opened to the Spanish Empire, the Church, and the people a vast vision of boundless possessions along the coast of the Pacific from the Artic Circle to the straits of Magellan. All were eager to gather the fabulous wealth of the American continents, and to reap a great harvest of the souls of heathen tribes abiding there. The Missions were a logical consequence of the conquest. The California’s were adjacent to Mexico. They were in climate, soil, and mineral riches the gems of the coast lands most accessible. The Indians of the valleys and plains bordering the ocean were separated into small tribes, with limited territory, usually bounded by creeks that ran from the mountains to the sea. They were gentle and peaceable, and easily converted to the Catholic faith. The food of those near the coast was fish, seals, and sea –otters, and these were in great abundance and variety;
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But there was a scarcity of native products of the soil. The great and luxuriant production of fruits, vegetables, and cereals now grown there is due mainly to the labors and creature tastes of the old padres. Animal food was a rarity among the Indians, owing to their inability to hunt their game with effective weapons. Their powers of invention were feebly developed in that direction, yet the forests furnished deer and bear, and the open country the bison in limited quantities. The Indians of the plains had crude methods of tilling the soil, and they domesticated the bison, which they herded and reared upon their pasture lands using only natural irrigation, their farming was restricted to a few products and small areas. They were skillful in building canoes of pine, with many oars. These boats were remarkably seaworthy and resembled somewhat the ancient galleys, their skill in working in wood was also apparent in their domestic and fishing utensils. They were of good stature and fair complexion. The women were small. Of pleasant countenance and disposition. The clothing of these coast Indians was mostly made from the skin of sea-wolf, rudely tanned. Their habits and morals were better then those of many tribes of mountain Indians, living more remote from the ocean. They were not warlike and usually escaped in their canoes to the coast islands when their lands were invaded by the mountain tribes. There is an oval mound at Santa Barbara near the sea, of about fifty feet in altitude, and three acres in extent; it was formed in the course of ages by the collection of fish and bones deposited by Indians after the banquets which they held at gatherings of the coast tribes in council. A Portuguese admiral who navigated the coast in 1540 tarried here for several months, and finally died and was buried on the island of Santa Rosa. He named this locality the City of Fleets, by reason of the great number of canoes that met him at his anchorage, the natives having rowed to the spot to give him a warm welcome. They seemed to be natural sailors, made so by the necessities of life, as their principal means of subsistence came from the waters.
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The next navigator in these regions, Vizcaino, who appeared in 1602, explored the coast of California and Mexico for more then eight hundred leagues. He investigated the history of the coast and inland tribes, and in his reports to the Spanish Government, furnishes the most reliable information in regard to the country and its inhabitants. It was upon his statement and his experience that the home authorities, civil and ecclesiastical, based their plans for the possession of the lands and the regeneration of the natives. For these purposes they provided for the founding of a series of presidios guarded by soldiers, and of Missions from San Diego to Monterey the former to hold and protect, and the latter to do the work of developing and civilizing, the country and the aborigines. The old padres found by experience that Vizcaino had painted too vividly, but without doubt for a good purpose; yet the Missions atoned in results for all the errors in judgment. If the mountain and more inland tribes had been of the pacific nature of the coast tribes, the work of the Missions would have been much less perilous and more effective. One of the few murders, that of Padre Jayme, committed by the mountain tribes, and the burning of the Mission building at San Diego on the third of October, 1775, indicate to some extent the difference in character and habits between the cruel and war like tribes of the interior and mountain regions, and those of the coast and the pastoral tribes of the valleys and plains. It is doubtless the fact that the Mission labors were largely confined to these latter tribes, in consequence of their more docile nature and habits, which made them readily, respond to religious influence, and far less dangerous then the bloodthirsty natives of the interior. Locality, food climate, and other forms of environment in the course of time make a radical difference in the characteristics, manners, habits, and disposition of mankind, so that traces of connection with the generic stock may be entirely lost, except in the language, which preserves the roots of the mother tongue. Hence the variety in the life records, as found in the actual history of these native races.
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It is impossible to know much about them, comparatively nothing of their past. We know only of them what we are taught by those who discovered them about four centuries ago, and by contact with them in more recent times. When we found them, we called them all heathen, though they manifested various grades of morals and intelligence, from the low degree of the Digger Indians to the greater development exemplified by the most enlightened tribes. The origin and settlement of the aborigines of the pacific coast wilds are veiled in the mists of forgotten ages, which are impenetrable to the eye of historic research. The subject may interest the speculative mind, with its instinctive longing to learn the unknown in the past and the future; but such knowledge is not necessary to this sketch of a unique civilization, and it must remain concealed until the lifting of the curtain which shall reveal the work and the plans of the creator.
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FIRST ATTEMPTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THE NATIVES
In 1767 King Charles III. of Spain organized an expedition to sail to Mexico, to proceed thence to the California and take possession of them, to build Missions for the conversion of the Indians there, and to protect and defend the country from the Russians. Before this time hordes of these semi barbarians had come down from Siberia and Alaska, and occupied Northern California down to the bay of San Francisco; had established forts, churches, and settlements along the coast and inland; opened the fur trade with the natives; began cultivation of the lands, and engaged in those industries incident to development and permanent occupancy. Here appears not only a vital collision between two European powers to gratify their lust of conquest, but the first germ of antagonism between the Catholic and the Greek Church in the wilds of North America. About one hundred and ninety years earlier then this time, and long before the Russian occupancy, Sir Francis Drake anchored near the bay and planted the English flag upon the coast, claiming the country for the crown of England. The chaplain of the expedition read the services of the Anglican Church, and invoked the blessing of providence on the claim then made for the lands discovered; but it does not appear that England ever perfected her claim by permanent possession, or ever attempted to renew the same until 1847, at the bay of Monterey, when she most signally failed. It is a most significant fact that these are the only instances, except an attempt made by the Jesuits in 1688, where the light of Christianity, in even a single ray, ever penetrated the moral darkness of innumerable tribes of savages, who roamed, lived, and died in and among the forests, mountains, and valleys, along the rivers, creeks, and sea coast, from the Bering Strait to the Gulf of California.
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The order of the Jesuits, with their usual zeal, energy, and daring, in 1683 explored Lower California from Cape St. Lucas to the mouth of the Colorado river, and commenced missionary work among the natives; they likewise in 1540 penetrated the hot and forbidding wilds of Arizona and New Mexico, among the ruthless Apaches and kindred savage tribes, seeking to win heathen to the Church, and a harvest of gold in the fabled regions of the seven cities of Cibola, along the Gila river. Fathers Kukus and John Maria Salvo Tierra traveled more then one hundred miles on foot in the heat of the deserts, mountains, and scorching plains, until, worn out with hardships, they died prematurely, leaving behind them no monuments of their enthusiasm, of the saving grace of the Church.
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THE FRANCISCANS
In Lower California the Jesuits labored for eighty years with much greater immediate results then in other regions of the Southwest; but in Alta California they had at least sowed the seeds of a harvest which is being reaped by the Church today, through the growth and beneficence of the noted Pious Fund created by them. This Fund was the child of their economy, and for it they have toiled until their expulsion from their field of labors, in 1767. The Franciscans assumed the task of the Jesuits; under the direction of Padre Junipero Serra, the president and the spiritual father of the propose Missions, they entered the abandoned regions in 1767, where in less then two generations they wrought out a redemption for the souls of the wild men, and a unique civilization so marvelous in its benevolence and elevating tendencies, its Christianizing and ameliorating influences, and its progressive life, that all enlightened lovers of humanity have wondered at while revering, Sierra’s frame and works. Junipero Serra was born at Petra, on the Isle of Majorca, November 29, 1713. He became a novice on September 14, 1730, and entered a convent at Palma, the Capital city of Majorca. He became a broad and finishes scholar, was made professor of philosophy, and later received the degree of D.D. He was splendid in oratory: Literary men listened to him with infatuation at the brilliancy of his style and the power of his speech. An enemy once said that his sermons should be printed in letters of gold.” He has possessed in early life an intense desire to go among the Indians. He loved to preach among the poor and lowly; his highest aspiration was to labor and live out his days amid the wild countries and peoples of the earth, and do them all the good in his power.
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He might have shone and grown great in the high places of Europe, but he turned from these alluring prospects with no sign of regret. His hope, now ripening into definite purpose, was that he should move in these grooves of labor and usefulness. It involved sacrifice, piety, and the dedication of all his powers to the salvation of those human beings who by some inscrutable plan seemed to have been ignored in the progress of mankind. It was not a freakish impulse born of pious enthusiasm, but the logical offspring of his education and the traditions of the monastic order to which he belonged. Besides this he believed most intensely in the theology of his time, and the burning thought with him was to save the Indian, who was denied the atonement of divine grace by no fault of his own, from the yawning circles of Dante’s Hell. St. Francis of Assisi, in the early part of the thirteenth century, founded the Society of Franciscans. He was a pious enthusiast of great learning and unquenchable love for the lower classes of humanity. The cultured and the great could care for themselves, but the poor peasantry were in a pitiable condition everywhere in Europe; and he became impressed with the idea that the church had a most solemn duty, through some special agency, to exert her potent influence to uplift into a better secular and spiritual life these down trodden members of her fold. He cast about him for some choice spirits in the priesthood, who like himself could be inspired with a since of the importance of this duty, and would devote their lives zealously to its fulfillment. He did not search in vain, and under the authority of the church he organized a society. Its declared object was to shun wealth, ease, and luxury, as well as worldly rank and power, the members to give all the energies of their being to the work they had undertaken. They would be clothed in humble garb, gladly enduring hardships and the reproaches of men, that they might the more effectually labor among the lowly, the degraded, the down-trodden, the ignorant, and the superstitious in all lands.
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They pledged the order to perpetual poverty, that they might not be diverted from their holy mission by earthly pleasures. Upon the cross they avowed a determination to labor for the cause of the divine master alone, without self-aggrandizement or hope of earthly reward, and to bring to all the degraded and unfortunate the joys of his redemption. They became learned, knowing that knowledge is power, that they might call it into requisition for the better execution of their task. They studied those practical sciences and arts which might help them to meet every emergency that might arise within the scope of their mission. They were temperate in all things that they might be able to rely on their mental and Physical powers in times of trial and danger. They subjected themselves to severe test, and trained all their faculties for success.
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THE ADVENT OF JUNIPERO SERRA
JUNIPERO SERRA came into possession of the most exalted qualifications for his marvelous work in Alta California by the inheritance of a loving soul and wonderful intellectual powers; he acquired remarkable erudition; his lofty ideals were nurtured in the discipline, precepts, and traditions of his monastic order; he attained an eloquence which alike convinced the minds and enraptured the hearts of men, were they civilized or heathen; and his gentle kindness made permanent his conquests. He had no peer among the disciples of his order since the day of its birth. With such a character, such training, and with a zeal for the conversion of the Indian more intense then the mystical fires upon the alters of the gods, it is less astonishing to enlightened faith that he fashioned a marvelous civilization in the dark realms of our western coast. Yearning for the souls of the heathen, he was fated to find his call at last as a redeemer of the pagans of California. On August 28, 1749, he sailed from Cadiz with a select band from the convent in Palma, who were in sympathy with his life purpose; on the seventh of December he arrived at Vera Cruz, and on New Year’s Day, 1750 he entered the Apostolic College of San Fernando, in the city of Mexico, which subsequently became the headquarters of the new Missions. His Ernest soul could brook no delay, and the authorities appointed him the father Palou to work among the Indians of Cerro Gordo, one hundred miles from Queretaro, a province many leagues in extent, a mountainous and wild region without a vestige of civilization. From here in the dawn of triumph among the natives he was withdrawn to labor among the faithless and murderous Apaches far to the north, a race with many branches, which outstripped in fiendish traits of, character all other tribes of this continent.
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Other missionaries preceding him had been subjected to the greatest hardships and maltreatment and finally had been murdered by these savages; but with full knowledge of such perils he immediately began preparation to enter upon his dangerous mission. Yet the kindly Providence that guarded his destiny interposed; his orders were recalled, and he retired temporarily to his convent. From this centre his labors were ceaseless, extending their influence everywhere for the good of the cause, with the most astonishing results, and proclaiming him a leader of men in this crusade in the unknown wilds. In 1767 he was commissioned to take the command of the mission work in California. At fifty-four years of age he began there the great chapter of the record of his life. He found his life work; and with what supreme energy of mind and body he toiled, suffered, and triumphed is one of the marvels of human history. In exalted thought, Christian kindness, devotion to his god, and in energetic action he was without a rival in the mission field. In seventeen years of arduous labor and severe trials he wore out the gifts nature had so lavishly bestowed upon him, and he died at the Mission of San Carlos, on the twenty-eighth day of August, 1784, at the age of seventy years, nine months and four days. Father Palou, his friend of a lifetime, said at his death: “Here is one of whom posterity will say, ‘He was the greatest man that ever trod the sands of Alta California,’”
By sincere respect for the nature and rights of the Indian, he conquered; but he led him through love. Force was foreign to his mind. His courage was heroic as that of a martyr. He led a noble life: untiring labor, devotion to duty, and care for the lowly and the degraded were his careless duties. He educated, controlled, guided, loved and helped all; he gave them occupation and a spiritual and practical purpose in life; while ministering to the sick, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, he taught them to be self-supporting. His was the first civilization that ever dawned upon the benighted natives of heathen California, and improved the conditions of their lives by showing them how to obtain the various and generous products of their rich soil b cultivation. It is a singular and noteworthy fact that nature had ill provided for the sustenance of the natives in these coast regions, by the fruits and vegetables of the soil, the animals of the forests, or the birds of the air. She was bountiful only in the foods found in her waters.
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In a wonderful manner the trite adage, “History repeats itself,” is exemplified in the missionary work in California. Every act, emotion, thought, and experience of mankind is engraved here in the lives and labors of the padres. Their fitness for the great task before them was sufficient for every emergency. Their marvelous efficiency as instructors was shown in their teaching by precept and example to the ignorant natives more then fifty different arts, professions, and occupations known to European civilization, and with considerable skill in the adoption of models for heir practical use.
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THE FIRST MISSIONARY EXPEDITION
JOSE DE GALVEZ, the Visitador- General of New Spain, was the practical head of the first missionary expedition of the Franciscans, and was a man of extraordinary energy, forethought, and practical ability. He fashioned and controlled the enterprise, with Junipero Serra as President of the Missions, both in Lower and Upper California. Galvez deserves a more extended notice then the limits of this sketch permit, for without his promotion and supervision the founding of these Missions might have been, to this day, a pious dream of the Church. Great force of character, wisdom, and enthusiasm. The first plan evolved in the light of the crude knowledge of Vizcaino was to locate a Mission at San Diego, one at Monterey, and another between them at Buenaventura, on the southern coast, about equally distant from each. Galvez’ foresight provided for everything essential to the success of the enterprise-provisions, transportation, explorations, garrisons, education, ornaments, pictures, holy vessels for the churches; materials, architects, and artisans for construction; and all incidentals needful to a scheme of colonization and the redemption of the aboriginal savages of that wild, rugged, unexplored country. To provide for the future, he directed the taking of two hundred head of cattle from the old Jesuit Mission in Lower California, and a full supply of seeds of vegetables, grains, flowers, and fruits that grew in Spain, and could be reproduced in the new region. Thus he not only benefited the Missions, but bequeathed rich gifts to later generations in California. The Missions and farms were his nurslings. He selected and packed the furnishings for the churches, and left nothing undone to secure success.
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From 1769 to 1822 California, like Mexico, was under the rule of Spain. On achieving her independence Mexico made California a part of her territory. During that half-century the Missions had their happy and prosperous era. They were not interfered with by the Spanish, or in any way oppressed, but rather encouraged, as the pride of the church; and the boast of the state was that they had checked the encroachments of the Russians on the north. It is true that the Greek Church never found a proselyte south of the bay of San Francisco after the old padres had well begun their work. In this latter period the principal pueblos, or towns founded were San Diego. Los Angeles, San Juan Capistrano, San Luis Rey, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, San Luis Obispo, San Fernando, San Pedro, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. These towns, though small were important as centers of trade, intelligence, and Mission work. They were simply clusters of adobe houses around the greater Missions, but from them radiated a most powerful influence, that dominated all things from the Mexican line to the great bay. This is perhaps the most conclusive proof of their claim to be the original colony of California. January 9, 1769, the ship” San Carlos “sailed for San Diego; on February 15 the “San Antonio” sailed from Cape St. Lucas; and on June 16 the “San Jose” sailed. Some of the padres were with the “San Carlos”. The “San Jose” was probably lost at sea, for no tidings were ever heard of her after she left port. The other ships safely anchored in the bay of San Diego. The land expedition was separated into two divisions. One, commanded by Captain Rivera of the Company of Cuesa, left Santa Ana, Lower California. In September, 1768, and after some delay at Vellicata, in that province, resumed its journey. It reached San Diego in about two months, finding the “San Carlos” and the “San Antonio” awaiting them at their anchorage in the bay. Sierra left with the second division, which tarried on the route while he founded the Mission of San Fernando at Vellicata; after which, with Don Portola, the Royal Governor of California, the expedition started for San Diego. It arrived in about forty-five days, on July 1, 1769.
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THE INDIANS OF THE MISSIONS
THE Mission Indians, that constituted the flocks belonging to the various Missions, are and ever will be a problem to the antiquarians. Of their history before the time of the colonization we have no definite knowledge; but this much seems unquestionable: a great difference in character, disposition, and habits existed between the natives of the valleys and plains of the coast and those of the deserts and mountains of the interior. The former were by nature peaceable, gentle, and amenable to progressive influences; the latter were untamable, warlike, cruel, and unresponsive to any civilizing or moral forces. Locality, climate, food, and the struggle for existence may reasonably account for these opposite traits of character and habits of life in the coast and interior Indians. If this is true, then the lines of the Missions were so laid as best to promote the conversion of souls, and to effect a great practical improvement in their lives. The general trend and localizing of the Missions, from north to south, brought within their vicinities and easy reach the vast majority of the valley and plain tribes of the coast, and excluded by distance and the rugged barriers erected by nature the inland tribes. Be these reflections true or false, the early history of the native races of the Pacific coast is an enigma that never will be satisfactorily solved. The coast Indians had advanced in some things beyond the Stone Age; they were adepts in the construction of wooden vessels for domestic use, idols of gold and silver, and weapons, offensive and defensive, and for hunting. For fishing their canoes and implements were very ingenious. The tanning of skins of sea wolves for garments was more perfect then in Castile. Doubtless the Indians varied in character and life in California as they did everywhere along the coast and contiguous territory, subject to like natural laws and conditions.
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The pastoral Indians of California closely resembled in their peaceful habits and tastes the Pueblos of the lands east of them, but the latter were more advanced in their ability to command the wealth of the soil by their rude arts of cultivation. The mountain Indians east of San Diego were warlike and cruel, and never came within the influence of the padres; in fact, they destroyed the first Mission built there, and were controlled only by the soldiers. Out of such crude material to form communities of Christians enjoying civilized life with all its comforts, luxuries, and refinements, would seem an impossible undertaking; but holy and indomitable purpose prevailed. In ten years from the founding of the first Mission at San Diego in 1769, the padres had thirty-five hundred converted Indians under their instruction and control, and solving the problems of a new and progressive life. In the year 1800 their flock of converts had increased to fifteen thousand, all under the ameliorating influences of eighteen Missions, conducted in all their affairs by about forty padres. The significance of their immense labors appears more prominently in results; they had by most assiduous training converted tribes of savages into skilful silversmiths, millers, saddlers, bakers, vintagers, shoemakers, tailors, hatters, guitar-makers, masons, winemakers, fisherman, wood-cutters, stone-cutters, weavers, sacristans, musicians, hunters, farmers, herders, tile makers, physicians, mariners, and workers in more then thirty other occupations, arts, and industries known to Spaniards. When taught, the Indians became the principal factor in all the labors, improvements, and progress of Mission life. This introduction of the arts of civilized life prepared the way for the coming of the white race, and the birth of the Golden State.
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THE PADRES AS AGRICULTURISTS
OF all the heritage enjoyed by the present generation in California, descending from the old padres, the greatest corporeal blessings are the fruits, wines, foods, flowers, seeds, plants, and trees-natural products of the soil and climate of Old Spain, the Garden of the Ancients. Without these the farmed land would be shorn of her beauty and her food products, and as ill fitted for sustaining a numerous population as when occupied by tribes of primitive red men. The old padres made it possible for the white man to make her the Garden of Moderns. All this advancement was accomplished in about thirty years after the establishment of the first Mission in San Diego in 1769. Another equal period of Mission work and great results by this band of holy men followed. The harvest of souls received into the Church was commensurate with the progress made in material, corporeal, and social life. Then blight and ruin fell upon them; life under the regime of the Franciscans ceased forever. To that period of progress and enlightenment California may turn with amazement, love, and gratitude, as the foundation of her greatness and glory of to-day. These achievements strenuously made and suddenly lost, all in about sixty years time, were the first lessons in the reclaiming of savage races in California. Looking backwards to prehistoric times, we see the forefathers of the Mission Indians, rude, uncouth, river-drift men, wandering through the valley, along the rivers and streams, in search of the food that nature had stored for them in her waters more generously then upon the land, and more readily within reach of their feeble powers.
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Pastoral and agricultural industries were the principal means upon which the Mission depended for their support and maintenance, and for the acquisition of wealth. The vineyards were planted for the pleasure of the table, as the pious padres did not deny themselves creature comforts; hunting and fishing were to them sources of very considerable revenue; in short, all the products of nature and art were made to sub serve their sustenance, their comfort, and their pleasure. The spiritual life first; the temporal life next. And neither was neglected. In all the greater Missions, the holy temple was the most prominent building. Over the main entrance was reared the tower with its bells; then came the residences, the quarters and guardhouse for the soldiers, houses for the Indian converts; after which the warehouses, granaries, prisons, and cemeteries. The Indian houses were set apart by themselves within a walled enclosure, called a rancheria. The orchards and gardens, both flower and vegetable, were properly located. The industrial establishments were also in a place by themselves. The entire Mission and grounds were laid out with streets and alleys after the forms of civilized life; everywhere regularity and system were strictly observed. The full measure of the progress made among the primitive fields, valleys, and mountains in the material things of life during a period covering only two generations of time, may be estimated in the amount of property acquired by the padres. In 1830 they had more then one million head of cattle pasturing on Mission lands, one hundred thousand horses, and almost innumerable other domestic animals. Their yearly crop of wheat averaged one hundred and fifty thousand bushels; and barley, oats, and other crops were in like proportion. Corn was not a climatic favorite, but was cultivated to some extent. The general and unfailing products-agricultural and manufactured-were wheat, barley, oats, beans, tallow, soap, leather, hides, wool, oil, cotton, hemp, linen, wine, brandy, tobacco, salt, and soda. The fruits raised were as great in variety, as rich in quality, and profuse in quantity then as now, subject to the restriction of acreage only.
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THE WEALTH OF THE MISSIONS
In the latter days of their prosperity, when all the Missions had been founded and their surroundings completed, two hundred thousand head of cattle were killed yearly, netting a profit usually of ten dollars each. The hides and tallow were the chief articles of commerce with cities on the Atlantic coast, Boston leading in the early thirties of the last century. The flesh of the cattle found consumers among the Mission Indians and the needy elsewhere. The padres permitted none to want for food in the regions around them. Their hospitality, like their faith was boundless. All the Missions from San Diego to San Francisco were enriched by the planting and cultivation of extensive orchards, gardens, and vineyards around them; while they were beautiful with flowers of every variety, hue, and fragrance, some of native origin, and some brought as seeds or plants, from other lands within the limits of the temperate and tropical belts. In truth, California was then to a limited extent, and within the lines of the Mission endeavor, the garden of the earth. Blossoms and perfumes were hanging on and emitted from every vine, plant, shrub, and tree capable of bloom and odor; for the old Padres loved beauty of nature and art, as they loved purity and beauty of soul, and all other good things. The annual revenues of the Missions from sales and trade, tithes and rents, would aggregate in their latter and fully prosperous days nearly three million dollars; and it is stated upon authority that the padres sent to the Church in Spain and Mexico during the time of their existence more then twenty million dollars from their surplus accumulations of wealth. A still greater amount was taken from them in property and treasure by the Mexican Government under the orders of confiscation, which were finally passed by the Mexican Congress on the seventeenth of August, 1833.
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The religion and morals of the Missions were swept away at this time, with their material progress and the monuments thereof. Under the curse of greed, the better life of the Indian neophyte, with his hopes in the future, passed into oblivion with the wreck of his Mission home. The padres could protect him no longer. He fled a fugitive to the mountains, where his short-lived civilization disappeared forever. Avarice, bred in the hearts of the Mexican authorities and people in the era of reckless lawlessness that succeeded the revolt of that country from Spain, extinguished old-time reverence for the Church and its precepts, and produced a breed of rascally officials. Soldiers of fortune who had served in the recent wars were now without regular occupation; and these, with other adventurous men, united in a general invasion of Alta California, to seize and possess the rich properties which the Franciscans had created through toil, privation, and danger, but now were powerless to defend when the merciless hand of spoliation was laid upon them. The old padres fled like the Indians, and left behind them all the fruits of their glorious labors and triumphs to the fate that overwhelmed them. The vandal destroyed that which he could not create. A most benign and unique civilization disappeared for a time under the superstition and ignorance of the Mexican and his rule; but to him even it imparted an influence which chastened and elevated him into a new and better life.
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SAN DIEGO
When land and ship expeditions arrived at San Diego a real experience in the great colonizing schemes was encountered. The men were in bad condition from poor food and water, thirty or more had died. The Indians had turned from friendliness to hostility and thieving. But zeal and energy were irresistible. On July 16 the cross was erected; in a temporary shelter of branches and reeds, in the presence of soldiers and sailors, mass was celebrated by sierra, and the bell was rung from the branch of a tree. All sung “Veni Creator”; the standard of royalty was planted and given to the winds, the water of the San Diego River running by the locality was blessed, firearms were discharged for the want of music, and the ‘ smoke of powder was incense”; and so the ceremony of founding a mission was performed, and the land was claimed for God and the King of Spain, while the poor Indian, dazed at the wonderful doings, stood helpless, while his hunting grounds and his personal liberty were taken from him without his consent, and with out compensation. This was fallowed by the founding of a mission. The location is in the San Diego canon, (Canyon) which runs from the south extension of the Santa Ana Range to the sea, a distance of sixty miles due east and west; the Mission is about ten miles from its mouth. The canon (Canyon) is enclosed the entire length by lines of high and precipitous bluffs; the bed is nearly a flat surface of one-half to three miles in width, watered by the river. From the neighboring mountains came the wild Indians who murdered Father Jayme. There is a grand and awe-inspiring view from the spot where the cross of the Redeemer was first raised, with its face to the ocean and its rear to the mountains in California. It is two miles north of the old town, and four miles from the new town on the bay.
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These old fathers knew almost by inspiration how to select the best Mission sites, elevated on high tablelands, surrounded by large areas of fruitful soil, abundance of pasture, valleys well watered by nature’s irrigation canals, and with the Mission zanjas to complete the system. Wherever practicable, the Missions were in view of the ocean, but always beyond the reach of the hostile guns of passing rovers sailing under a free flag. For the coast line was not well protected by the international police in those days. About the middle of August the Indians made an attack on Sierra and his assistants. They killed one Jose Maria, but were quickly repelled by the soldiers of the Mission. Subsequently they brought in their wounded to be cared for, and were won to amity and conversion by the kindness of sierra. In October 1775, the wild Indians from the mountains east of the Mission, to the number of one thousand or more, attacked the settlement; they burned the buildings, robbed the Church, and murdered Padre Jayme and two others. Again the kindness and forbearance of sierra prevailed against the spirit of vengeance inflaming the hearts of the viceroy and soldiers. He received orders to rebuild the Mission, and it was protected by a stronger garrison: Captain Rivera ordered twelve more soldiers to protect the workmen. The Mission Indians proved not to be of much account in fighting the Wild Indians. Evidently the influence of sierra had weakened them for aggressive purposes. The new buildings were dedicated November 12, 1777, but improvements were going on for a series of years, and the establishment became next to San Luis Ray, the leading Mission. Its old palms, germinated one hundred and thirty-six years ago, still stand in full vigor, waving their long, graceful branches and leaves aloft in the gentle winds from mountain and sea. They stand as silent sentinels, who have beheld very many deeds of good and evil, misery and happiness; but they unburden their memories to none. The principal building is about one hundred feet in length, from north to south. It stands upon a broad mesa, fifty miles from the mountains, and ten miles from the ocean; its main entrance faces the south line of bluffs.
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Its walls of adobe are four feet thick at the foundation, and its windows and doorways are lined with burnt tiles. The architecture is Moorish, which is a blending of the various styles of many tribes of Northern Africa, modified by Spanish art. The main entrance was at the southern extremity. All the Mission of California was constructed after the Moorish style in general, but differing often in ground plans. The long arched porch, sheltering the inmates from the noonday sun and for resort in the cool evenings, was everywhere an important feature of the Mission. Fine and well cultivated gardens and shaded walks were indispensable, as were also the orchards with their luxuriant fruits. The quarters of the Indians were in some convenient place contiguous to the Mission, a walled in space of sufficient area to give comfortable homes to all the neophytes that belonged to each Mission; and they were kept scrupulously clean. In 1800 the presidio of San Diego had a population of about two hundred, including officers, soldiers, and their families. These persons possessed property in horses, cattle, and domestic animals and fowls necessary to a life of comfort and plenty, and likewise had ample time for all the rude sports and plays characteristic of their times. Indeed, those were halcyon days for the soldier compared with the days in which the ordinary duties of his profession called him to other parts of the Spanish empire. And the humble Indian also had his days of delight in play and sports, intermixed in liberal profusion with his days of labor under the gentle rule of the padres. It has been a benevolent practice of the Church for centuries in every land where the cross prevailed to give its deserving devotees many days of festival in each year, which are instructive object lessons for their good, and promote the cause of the Church. Who would question its wisdom when not indulged to excess? In 1828 the Mission itself had in its care fifteen hundred Indians, and owned about twenty-eight thousand head of horses, cattle, and sheep, while it raised annually more then six thousand bushels of wheat, barley, and oats.
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All this was soon lost to the padres and converts, and to thousands of others who drew the very bread of life from the Missions, by the malevolent policy of the Mexican Government. All that now remains of this great and beneficent Mission, after a lapse of seventy years from the time when its wealth and its glory departed, is a small school for the education of Indian children, conducted by a loyal representative of the old padres, living in poverty, but faithful to duty and reverent towards the past. All else around the ill-fated locality is desolation and ruin.
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SAN CARLOS BORREMEO
ON June 3, 1770, the second Mission according to sierra’s plan, San Carlos Borremeo, was founded at Monterey. Sierra himself was present and celebrated mass, at the conclusion of which Governor Portola proclaimed possession of the bay of Monterey in the names of God and the King of Spain. The celebration of mass, the burning of incense, the ringing of bells (from this case hanging from branches of a tree), the chanting of “ Veni Creator”, and the blessing of the adjacent waters and land, with the formal proclamation of proprietorship in the names of God and the King, constituted the usual ceremony incident to the founding of the Mission. The chimes of bells were ever an important feature with the Padres in the founding and life of a Mission. These bells were brought from Spain, and were of the best Castile metal and workmanship. Their tones called the Indians to assemble at the Mission, and marked the hours for labor. By the melodies which they chimed the padres and their Indian followers chanted hymns of praise and songs of thanksgiving. Sierra often said that he would have their ringing sound heard from the mountains to the sea, as it was God’s invitation to the souls of the heathen men and women to flee to Him and escape the wrath to come. These bells were of silver and bronze and other metallic mixtures, to give variety to their tones. San Carlos was the home Mission of Sierra. For seventeen years he labored among the Missions, founding, advising, and encouraging; and when he at last returned, worn out with advancing years and care, he came but to die.
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His end came peacefully on the twenty-eighth of August, 1784, and he was buried with becoming honors, at San Carlos, by the side of his long time friend, Padre Crespi. His was a fine nature and noble soul, and he had devoted his life unselfishly and exhausted his energies for the well-being of his fellow-man. When the decree of secularization was issued in 1845, San Carlos was already considered an abandoned Mission. The priest in charge resided at Monterey, and though a sale of the property was ordered, there remained but little of value to dispose of in this manner. From this time until 1882 San Carlos remained an untenanted ruin; but in that year the work of restoration was begun, and two years later the Mission was rededicated. Both of the church buildings- the one in Monterey and the one on the site of the old Mission in the Carmel Valley-represent the finest type of Mission architecture.
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SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA was the third Mission in the order of founding, and was located in the beautiful valley of Santa Margarita, now called Los Robles, in the heart of the Santa Lucia range, on the fourteenth of July, 1771. This range runs from the San Fernando Mountains, twenty miles north of Los Angeles, northwest to the bay of Monterey. It is a wild and rugged region, far away from the ocean, and east of San Luis Obispo. The face of nature of all California can nowhere entertain the mind and please the eye of the tourist with a greater variety of scenery, from the most beautiful to the grand and sublime, then in the vicinity of this old Mission. The padres well know how to worship the God of nature in his works. “Los Robles” means the oak trees. There are many valleys and tablelands in California covered with stately oaks from fifty to one hundred feet apart, giving vistas for miles in every direction. They are called glade lands, and would gladden the hearts of ancient Druids. Such was the valley of the Mission of St. Anthony, with a mountain river winding through it, not affected by the summer drought and famous for its hot medicinal springs. This Mission was on the regular line (though inland) from San Diego to Monterey, a deflection from the ocean route. Sierra with his party left San Carlos and traveled south until he discovered the favored location, and then the ceremonies soon settled the question. In all the cases of founding Missions, the padres were necessarily dependent on Spain for supplies, except in the use of heavy building material, which was in the country around them. These supplies were brought to the padres at the few coast ports, mainly San Diego and Monterey, but in later years San Pedro was opened to ships.
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The trained workman were sent from Spain until the Indians had been made skilled mechanics, and it is a remarkable fact that they were very quick in imitation, and soon learned anything that was taught them. Many of them excelled in the finest art work, and in the course of time there was no limit to their usefulness. The soldier was necessary as a protection, but when the padres had gained influence and their converts became numerous, the occupation of the military was rendered useless. The “San Antonio” and the “San Carlos” were the chief reliance for supplies for the Missions in the incipiency of the scheme of civilization. The Missions never became rich and great, but was fairly prosperous until the decree of secularization. Its inland location was a hindrance to its development. It is now in a reasonable state of preservation, being visited monthly by a priest from old San Miguel, and occasionally by priest from other Missions. If it never was a great Mission, it has compensation in the minds of the imaginative by a tinge of romance hanging about its history such as none of the old Missions can surpass.
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SAN GABRIEL, ARCANGEL
This Mission was founded September 8, 1771. It is perhaps the most noted of all the Missions at this time, in that it comes often under the eye of both citizen and tourist. Located at the western entrance of a great and most lovely valley, and in the centre of population and travel in Southern California, it commands the attention of everyone who would look upon desirable scenes and store the mind with happy pictures for the future. The valley is surpassingly beautiful, the lavishness of nature vying with the deftness of art in creating a pleasing picture. All who visit the temporal home of San Gabriel the Archangel, muse with wonder upon its past, and go away with hearts enraptured with the romance and spiritual fictions of its history. At the College of San Fernando, in the city of Mexico, it was determined to dedicate a leading Mission to the Archangel, and for that purpose, two prominent priests were instructed especially to visit Sierra and indicate the purpose, besides assisting him in the task. The Mission was to be worthy of its exalted object. The priests arrived, and after an extensive search for the best location, they came at last to the San Gabriel River. A Mission was founded, after a change of plan and site, at the present locality. This was about the year 1775, nearly a generation before the elaborate and commodious building now standing was finished. But the Mission work went on, and some five thousand Indians were taken into the Church in this period. The first convert was made about November, 1771. In 1806, Father Jose Maria Zalvidea, from San Fernando Mission, a man of great zeal and energy and kindly purpose, was installed at the head of the Mission, and under his directing care entered upon a fine career of prosperity; its accumulations of wealth made it a Mission of the first class in power and influence. This choice spirit is represented by the padres so popular in “Ramona”.
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All these Missions had a prominent feature in their architectural design, that of a great square tower at the main entrance of the large building, with a dome roof; and in this tower were hung the bells, from three to six, according to the character of the Mission in respect to wealth and influence. The great building was in every case rectangular, with porches and corridors arranged for convenience. The Moorish plans and style always dominated the construction. This Mission is in very good condition, and cared for by the proper custodians, being used for regular services of the Church. Its surroundings are well kept, and it is really a picture to remember for a lifetime. The old mill about two miles north in the hills, is a quaint structure as solid as the hills around it, but not in use for the original purpose. The pond and dam are as nearly intact as such relics of the past may be. The Mission is about for miles from Pasadena and nine from Los Angeles. It can be reached by electric roads and the railway from each of these cities, through orange groves, orchards, and vineyards, unrivalled in loveliness even in California. In its immediate vicinity eastward is the famous ranch of “Lucky Baldwin’, Santa Anita, containing sixty thousand acres, in a scenic region as fair as the Garden of Eden. In 1898 there lived at the Mission an old priest of Spanish descent, but born at the Mission in 1807. He was educated there, entered the Church, and took orders. He was a man of medium height, slender, dark-complexioned, with fine forehead and countenance, courteous manner, and characteristic speech, which indicated his ancestry. He was learned and intellectual, with a mind stored with the events and legends of Mission days. Often, while seated at the table under the old Mission grape-vine, in a garden near the Mission building, then a pleasure resort, with a drop of juice of the vine to warm the currents of life, he would relate story after story of the old times; and at the conclusion of each, with pathos in tone and solemnity in look, he would turn his face upward and say, “My home is yonder in the skies. I have been waiting so long; when shall I go?”
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The memories of other days, when he had experienced so much of joy and sadness, for he had seen the glory and shame of the brethren of his order, who had all departed, leaving him a solitary wreck behind, seemed to overwhelm him with a since of the burdens of his life, and he longed for his eternal rest. He had always lived at the Mission, and he clung to its fortunes through good and ill report. He occupied the apartments of the old padres, living and floating like a waif upon the sea of pious charity that in these latter days restored the decayed Mission to a faint semblance of its former condition. There was no bigotry in his nature. His love for humanity was boundless, and he prayed, hoped, and believed that all would in some way be finally saved. He had been a boyhood companion of Pio Pico, the last Mexican Governor of California. They had often played together under the old grape-vine, planted one hundred and thirty-four years ago, which now covers a framework sixty feet square.
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SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA
In September, 1772, the great Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa was founded on the coast about one hundred and twenty miles south of the Gulf of Monterey. This port subsequently became important to commerce and trade. Padre sierra and Padre Cavalier, with a small party of soldiers such as invariably accompanied similar expeditions, started from Monterey in the latter part of August, and located the Mission on the first of September. The ceremonies were performed and the building was begun without delay. The Indians, trained by the Jesuits, and under the direction of Cavalier, were given the task of construction. A chapel, barracks for the five soldiers and corporal, and the house for the Padres, were completed in a few months, and the natives were attracted to the place. Then following the real work and a nucleus of twenty converts was formed within a year. The soldiers seldom interfered to ward off danger. He was like the padre, a friend of the Indians, and such was his peaceful nature that trouble seldom occurred to call him into action. The native food products of the soil and the forest were furnished by the Indians in abundance, with no compensation asked except religious instruction and kind treatment at the Missions. An Arcadian atmosphere seemed to pervade all these spiritual outposts of the Church in California. The successful hunting of the terrible grizzly bear by the Spanish sharpshooters during the previous famine year at Monterey and the country about San Luis Obispo, and the feeding of the Indians, doubtless paved the way to kindly feeling between them and the Mission people. Harmony was promoted by the manner of ruling the Indians. The padres chose some natural leader among them in whom confidence could be reposed, and consigned to him control of a specified number, holding him responsible for their good behavior.
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All offences against the laws and regulations of the Mission were reported by the leader, or alcaide, as he was designated, to the padres, who adjusted the penalty therefore. Much depended upon the moral force of the alcaide in this personal government, but results were in the main satisfactory. In classifying the Mission Indians, it must be remembered that there was found in the hidden places and caves of the mountains an Indian race Known as the ”Digger Indians”, whose condition was far below that of the generality of tribes that peopled California and came within the range of Mission influences. The Digger was an absolute savage, living upon seeds, herbs, and roots, and flesh that could be obtained by bows and arrows; when in extremity he would eat any living or dead thing, even reptiles and insects. He had the most debasing habits, was without morality or religion. He was inferior in the scale of being to even the chuckchee of Siberia, or the tree dwarf of Central Africa. The Digger must not be reckoned among the Mission Indians; they never were or could be such; they were never sought for by the padres, but were adjudged as beyond the redemptive influences of civilization. The infancy of the Mission was disastrous, although it was favorably planted in a naturally rich country. Amid plenty of open and arable land, well watered, and ever enjoyed genial ocean breezes and temperate climate. Three different times were the buildings destroyed by fire, and as often rebuilt with indefatigable energy. In the consequent periods of adversity supplies were furnished generously from the common storehouses at San Diego and Monterey. These misfortunes aroused the inventive faculties of one of the old padres, whose name is now lamentably forgotten. He discovered, after many trials and failures, a method of making roof tiles, which were substituted for the former combustible coverings made from tules and willows. This insured safety for the future. Then commenced a long period of progress. Prosperity, the gathering of wealth, and the inning of hundreds of heathen souls for the vineyard of Mother Church.
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Padre Luis Martinez was the popular hero of that day among the worldly class. He had keen, practical sense, genial humor, and was given to generous hospitality that made him many friends. But alas, his rascally prudence in providing for his expected “rainy day” brought him into ill-favor with the more spiritual and elect. He was sent away from the Mission and from the Indians, whom he really loved and for whom he had labored. He closed his kindly but somewhat misguided life in Madrid, in some disrepute. But it goes far in words of praise in behalf of the much-loved old padre. The Mission overlooks La Canada de los Osos, the Valley of the Bears, the grizzlies. It was a very beautiful and fertile expanse, the mountains bordering closely on the east, and the seacoast several miles away to the west. Those who would like to know more of the happy scenes which sometimes enlivened the old Mission life would do well to read in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona” the description of a procession of domestic animals and fowls, organized by Father Martinez. The great Mission now lies in ruins, its good work nearly forgotten, and like the fame of “Our Lord the Bishop” to perpetuate which in a pious spirit it was erected, it is silently passing into utter oblivion.
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SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS
SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS was founded by Padre Palou on the ninth of October, 1776, on the Bay of San Francisco. The name was bestowed in honor of the founder of the Franciscan Order. For the first year the little band which formed the nucleus of the Mission experienced hard treatment at the hands of the Indians, still on the arrival of Serra in 1777 there were presented before him seventeen converts foe baptism. The first church built was not precisely on the Mission’s present site, and the Lake Dolores of that day has disappeared as the city of San Francisco has grown up about its shores. In 1782 the cornerstone of a new church edifice was laid. The Mission was twice visited by the discoverer Vancouver, and he has left a full account of the condition in which he found the Mission Indians and the industries in which they had been instructed by the padres. The Indians and Spanish authorities were continually at war with one another, and in the years preceding the secularization of San Francisco, in 1835, there was a great falling away in the number of neophytes attached to the Mission. At the passing of San Francisco into the hands of the Americans, in 1845, there remained but a remnant of the old Mission Dolores.
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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
SAN JUAN CAPISTRAN was founded November 1, 1776, by Serra, assisted by Amirrio. A commission of priests was sent from Monterey the year before to find a place for another Mission north of San Diego, in pursuance of a modified plan of establishing a line of Missions between the two points, of such distance apart as to make the journeys convenient and easy. The original plan was to found but one Mission. This was subsequently considered inadequate for the general purposes of colonization and the work of the Church, and several Missions had already been founded under the plans as modified. This commission was instructed to name the Mission San Juan Capistrano, and they selected the location upon a circle of hills overlooking a beautiful valley running to the ocean, sixty-five miles south of Los Angeles. The outbreak of the Indians at San Diego occurred at this time, the report of which deferred further action until about a year later. Then the work of construction was commenced, and was carried on mostly by the Indians under the direction of the padres. But two buildings were begun; however they were extensive, and the long line of corridors with triple arch work, though in ruins, is still the wonder of the engineer and the architect. The walls are massive and constructed of stone and mortar, but the earthquake of December 8, 1812, did much damage. The tower and one of the great domes fell in upon the Indian congregation at prayer, crushing about forty under the weight of masonry. The same earthquake also wrecked other Missions. All this construction work was the result of training heathen brains and hands to carry out the designs of the educated padres. The main building, the church, is in the form of a Roman cross, and its construction and decoration place San Juan Capistrano in the forefront as the finest example of Mission-building now standing.
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The carvings and cut-stone work indicate that only masters of their craft were employed in the building here. The quadrangle was surrounded by lines of arches which present features not to be found in the arches of any other Mission. The honor of conferring the name was given to Don Portola, the first Governor, who discovered the locality on his trip of observation from San Diego to Monterey in 1770. He was struck with the beauty of the region, the fertility of the soil, its contiguity with the sea, and a natural port for the anchorage of ships. The place is one of the most remarkable of this productive State. San Juan Capistrano, even after the earthquake shock and a century of decay, surpasses many of the Missions. In progress, wealth, and spiritual harvest it kept pace in the days of its prosperity with other leading Missions. A chapel still remains, restored from the ruins, and services are held there by an itinerant priest. It is one of the favorite resorts of tourists.
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Transcribed and submitted by Kim Buck, 2007.