Chimes of Mission Bells | Page 8

of the
soldiers who were in the party. To-day Mission San Antonio is almost
in ruins, but its very ruins are piles which speak of mystic beauty, and
in the days of mission glory San Antonio was one of the fairest of the
missions.
On returning to Carmelo, Junipero Serra filled the other missionaries
with joy over this latest conquest of souls, and sent messengers to
Fathers Soméra and Cambón whom he had left in charge of the Mission
at San Diego, to establish a mission in southern California, which they
would name San Gabriel. The two Fathers, with ten soldiers as guards,
started a march northward until they came to the present sight of San
Gabriel, which they saw immediately was a 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