The Famous Missions of California | Page 8

and after
some difficulty succeeded at last in identifying the harbour. Seven days
later, steering by the fires lighted for her guidance along the shore, the
San Antonio came safely into port; and formal possession of the bay
and surrounding country was presently taken in the name of church and
King. This was on the 3rd of June, the Feast of Pentecost; and on that
day of peculiar significance in the apostolic history of the church, the
second of the Upper California missions came into being. Palou has left
us a full account of the ceremonies. Governor, soldiers and priests
gathered together on the beach, on the spot where, in 1603, the
Carmelite fathers who had accompanied Viscaino, had celebrated the
mass. An altar was improvised and bells rung; and then, in alb and stole,
the father-president invoked the aid of the Holy Ghost, solemnly
chanted the Venite Creator Spiritus; blessed and raised a great cross;
"to put to flight all the infernal enemies;" and sprinkled with holy water
the beach and adjoining fields. Mass was then sung; Father Junipero

preached a sermon; again the roar of cannon and muskets took the
place of instrumental music; and the function was concluded with the
Te Deum. Though now commonly called Carmelo, or Carmel, from the
river across which it looks, and which has thus lent it a memory of the
first Christian explorers on the spot, this mission is properly known by
the name of San Carlos Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan. A
few huts enclosed by a palisade, and forming the germ at once of the
religious and of the military settlement, were hastily erected. But the
actual building of the mission was not begun until the summer of 1771

[3] The Diary, furnishing a detailed itinerary of the expedition, is given
in full in Palou's noticias de la Nueva California.

V.

News of the establishment of the missions and military posts at San
Diego and Monterey was in due course carried to the City of Mexico,
where it so delighted the Marques de Croix, Viceroy of New Spain, and
Jose de Galvez, that they not only set the church bells ringing, but
forthwith began to make arrangements for the founding of more
missions in the upper province. Additional priests were provided by the
College of San Fernando; funds liberally subscribed; and the San
Antonio made ready to sail from San Blas with the friars and supplies.
On the 21st of May, 1771, the good ship dropped anchor at Monterey,
where, in the meantime, Junipero, though busy enough among the
natives of the neighborhood, was suffering grievous disappointment
because, from lack of priests and soldiers, he was unable to proceed at
once with the proposed establishment of San Buenaventura. The safe
arrival of ten assistants now brought him assurance of a rapid extension
of work in "the vineyard of the Lord." He was not the man to let time
slip by him unimproved. Plans were immediately laid for carrying the
cross still further into the wilderness, and six new missions - those of
San Buenaventura, San Gabriel, San Louis Obispo, San Antonio, Santa

Clara and San Francisco - were presently agreed upon. It was
discovered later on, however, that these plans outran the resources at
the president's disposal, and much to his regret, the design for
settlements at Santa Clara and San Francisco had to be temporarily
given up.
There was, none the less, plenty to engage the energies of even so
tireless a worker as Junipero, for three of the new missions were
successfully established between July, 1771, and the autumn of the
following year. The first of these was the Mission of San Antonio de
Padua, in a beautiful spot among the Santa Lucia mountains, some
twenty-five leagues southeast of Monterey; the second, that of San
Gabriel Arcángel, near what is now known as the San Gabriel river;
and the third, the Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, for which a
location was chosen near the coast, about twenty-five leagues southeast
of San Antonio. In his account of the founding of the first named of
these, Palou throws in a characteristic touch. After the bells had been
hung on trees and loudly tolled, he says, the excited padre-presidente
began to shout like one transported: - "Ho, gentiles! Come to the Holy
Church; Come! Come! and receive the faith of Jesus Christ!" His
comrade, Father Pieras, standing by astonished, interrupted his fervent
eloquence with the eminently practical remark that as there were no
gentiles within hearing, it was idle to ring the bells. But the enthusiast's
ardour was not to be damped by such considerations, and he continued
to ring and shout. I, for one, am grateful for such a detail as this. An
even more significant story,