The Famous Missions of California

The Famous Missions of California

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by William Henry Hudson (#2 in our series by William Henry Hudson)
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Title: The Famous Missions of California
Author: William Henry Hudson
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5211] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 6, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA ***

This eBook was produced by David Schwan .

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 Villicat��, 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 Portol��, 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