Chimes of Mission Bells | Page 8

good location for a mission, particularly as a beautiful stream flowed through the Valley, and wherever possible the Fathers chose a spot where there was water for the mission orchards and gardens.
Here we may add that the Fathers had a system of irrigation by means of ditches, traces of which may be seen to this day in the sites where stood many of the old mission orchards. The fruits from these good Fathers gardens were the fairest and most luscious that California has ever seen, none of our lovely grapes compare with theirs, and their olives were larger and better than any of which California boasts to-day.
Although not deviating from our subject we have wandered from the thread of our story in the foundation of Mission San Gabriel. One incident contained in the records of this Mission may hardly be passed over in silence. The good Franciscans and their brave little bodyguard found the Indians in a very hostile mood, still they blessed a Mission Cross and planted it; but the Indians increasing their threatening attitude, the Fathers unfurled a large white banner bearing the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, placing the side of the banner with the image in full view of the heathens. Priests and soldiers then knelt and implored the intercession of the Redeemer's Immaculate Mother for their safety and for the conversion of the Indians to the Faith of her Divine Son. Immediately came the answer from Heaven! The Indians not only abandoned every sign of hostility, but came forward towards the Fathers with every sign of sincere submissiveness, and after due instruction were baptized. For it must be remembered that the Church does not, and cannot force her belief on anyone who does not willingly accept it; the poor savage is no exception; instruction, kindness, prayers may always be employed, no more. As in many cases the nature of the Indian was too elementary to be moved at first by the lessons and exhortations of suffering and self-denial of Our Saviour, and the bridling of the human passions; in many instances the Fathers would first win the Indians' confidence by giving them blankets, beads and such things as attracted them, then by degrees unfolded the tenets of religion and mysteries of faith, to which in most cases these erstwhile savages clung with firmness and gave many edifying signs of true and sincere christianity. A band of white beads around the head distinguished the christian Indians from the pagan.
The flocks, vineyards and orchards of Mission San Gabriel, as well as the skill of its Indians, in time became famous throughout California, and it was from here that Governor Felipe de Neve, third Governor of California, started in 1781 with several of the Fathers and a company of soldiers to found the present city of Los Angeles.
The fifth Mission, San Luis Obispo, was founded on September 1, 1772, by Junipero Serra in person; the saintly Father making a pilgrimage there for that purpose. Thus in the space of three years, five missions were founded. A royal record of the zeal of the missionaries and of the humanity of the Spanish Government and Authorities.
In 1774 the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico informed Junipero Serra that he intended to establish a presidio in San Francisco "for the further extension of Spanish and Christian power." Junipero Serra, on receipt of this letter, selected Fathers Paloú and Cambón to accompany the soldiers, and Lieutenant Juan de Ayala was ordered with his ship stationed at Monterey to further explore the San Francisco Bay; Juan de Anza, another brilliant officer, was entrusted with the establishment of the new presidio; the site he chose being the identical one on which the Presidio of San Francisco stands today. Lieutenant Juan de Ayala of the Royal Navy of Spain, was the first to steer a ship through the Golden Gate, and a strange coincidence was that his ship was the San Carlos which had come to San Diego with a portion of the first Spanish pioneers in 1769. With Lieutenant Ayala was Father Vincente de Santa Maria who, with Fathers Paloú and Cambón, planted a Mission Cross and founded Mission Nuestra Se?ora de los Dolores, which has withstood so many ravages of time and change, of man and elements.
The seventh Mission was San Juan Capistrano, founded November 1, 1776, by Father Lasuén. This Mission was also a very flourishing Mission, the Indians were laborers in its construction, which lasted nearly fourteen years.
Mission Santa Clara was the eighth to be established. It was founded on January 12, 1777. The original lines of this once beautiful Mission are almost entirely changed but like all its sister missions it still retains much of its dear old atmosphere, and can boast of the tomb of Father Magin Catalá who died