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003 - Chapter 3 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Famous Missions of California. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The Famous Missions of California by William Henry Hudson, Chapter three.
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  Speaker 1: In the meanwhile since Pelieu, that fervent zeal which continually
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  Speaker 1: glowed and burned in the heart of our venerable father Junipiro,
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  Speaker 1: did not permit him to forget the principal object of
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  Speaker 1: his journey. As soon as Portalia had left the encampment,
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  Speaker 1: he began to busy himself with the problem of the mission,
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  Speaker 1: which it had been determined should be founded on that spot.
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  Speaker 1: Ground was carefully chosen with an eye to the requirements,
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  Speaker 1: not only of the mission itself, but also of the
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  Speaker 1: pueblo or village, which, in course of time would almost
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  Speaker 1: certainly grow up about it. And on the sixteenth of July,
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  Speaker 1: that day upon which as the anniversary of a great
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  Speaker 1: victory over the Moors in twelve twelve, the Spanish Church
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  Speaker 1: solemnly celebrated the triumph of the Holy Cross. The first
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  Speaker 1: Mission of Upper California was dedicated to San Diego de Acallio,
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  Speaker 1: after whom the bay had been named by Sebastian Vuscano,
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  Speaker 1: the explorer, many years before. The ceremonies were a repetition
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  Speaker 1: of those which had been employed in the founding of
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  Speaker 1: the Mission of San Fernando at Villicatia. The site was
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  Speaker 1: blessed and sprinkled with holy water. A great cross reared
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  Speaker 1: facing the harbor. The mass celebrated the Venete Creator Spiritus sung, and,
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  Speaker 1: as before, where the proper accessories failed, Father Junipero and
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  Speaker 1: his colleagues fell back, undeterred upon the means which Heaven
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  Speaker 1: had actually put at their disposal. The constant firing of
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  Speaker 1: the troops supplied the lack of musical instruments, and the
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  Speaker 1: smoke of the powder was accepted as a substitute for incense.
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  Speaker 1: Father Perlu's brief and unadored description will not prove altogether
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  Speaker 1: wanting in impressiveness for those who, in imagination can conjure
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  Speaker 1: up a picture of the curious yet dramatic scene. The
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  Speaker 1: preliminary work of the foundation thus accomplished, Father Junipiro gathered
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  Speaker 1: about him the few healthy men who could be spared
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  Speaker 1: from the tending of their sick comrades. And routine duties,
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  Speaker 1: and with their help erected a few rude huts, one
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  Speaker 1: of which was immediately consecrated as a temporary chapel. So
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  Speaker 1: far as his own people were concerned, the padres labors
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  Speaker 1: were for the most part of a grievous character. For
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  Speaker 1: during the first few months the records tell us disease
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  Speaker 1: made such fearful ravages among the soldiers, sailors and servants
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  Speaker 1: that ere long the number of persons at this settlement
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  Speaker 1: had been reduced to twenty. But a tragedy of these
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  Speaker 1: poor nameless fellows. It was Junipiro's pious hope that they
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  Speaker 1: might all be named in heaven. After all, hardly forms
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  Speaker 1: part of our proper story. The father's real work was
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  Speaker 1: to lie among the Native Indians, and it is with
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  Speaker 1: his failures and successes in this direction that the main
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  Speaker 1: interest of our California Mission annals is connected. They were
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  Speaker 1: not an attractive people, these gentiles of a country which
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  Speaker 1: to the newcomers must itself have seemed an outer garden
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  Speaker 1: of paradise, and Junapiro's first attempts to gain their good
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  Speaker 1: will met with very slight encouragement. During the ceremonies attendant.
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  Speaker 1: Upon the foundation and dedication of the mission, they stood
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  Speaker 1: round in silent wonder. And now they showed themselves responsive
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  Speaker 1: to the stranger's advances, to the extent of receiving whatever
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  Speaker 1: presents were offered, provided the gift was not in the
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  Speaker 1: form of anything to eat. The Spaniards, true, they would not,
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  Speaker 1: even apparently regarding it as the cause of the dire
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  Speaker 1: sickness of the troops. And this, in the long run,
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  Speaker 1: remarks Peleu, was without doubt singularly providential, owing to the
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  Speaker 1: rapid depletion of the stores. Ignorance of the Indians language,
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  Speaker 1: of course, added seriously to the father's difficulties in approaching them,
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  Speaker 1: and presently their thefts of cloth, for the possession of
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  Speaker 1: which they developed a perfect passion, and other depredations rendered
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  Speaker 1: them exceedingly troublesome. Acts of violence became more and more common,
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  Speaker 1: and by and by a determined and organized attack upon
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  Speaker 1: the mission, in which the assailants many times outnumbered their opponents,
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  Speaker 1: led to a pitched battle and the death of one
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  Speaker 1: of the Spanish servants. This was the crisis, for happily,
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  Speaker 1: like a thunderstorm, the disturbance which seemed so threatening of
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  Speaker 1: future ill cleared the air at any rate for a time,
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  Speaker 1: and the kindness with which the Spaniards treated their wounded
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  Speaker 1: foes evidently touched the savage heart. Little by little, a
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  Speaker 1: few Indians here and there began to frequent the mission,
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  Speaker 1: and with the hearty welcome accorded them, their numbers soon increased.
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  Speaker 1: Among them, there happened to be a boy of some
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years of age, who showed himself more tractable than
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  Speaker 1: his fellows, and whom Father Junapiro determined to use as
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  Speaker 1: an instrument for his purpose. When the lad had picked
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  Speaker 1: up a smattering of Spanish, the Padre sent him to
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  Speaker 1: his people with the promise that if he were allowed
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  Speaker 1: to bring back one of the children, the youngster should
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  Speaker 1: not only, by baptism be made a Christian, but should also,
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  Speaker 1: and hear the good Father descended to a bribe, be
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  Speaker 1: tricked out, like the Spaniards themselves, in handsome clothes. A
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  Speaker 1: few days later, a gentile, followed by a large crowd,
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  Speaker 1: appeared with a child in his arms, and the Padre,
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  Speaker 1: filled with un utterable joy, at once threw a piece
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  Speaker 1: of cloth over it and called upon one of the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers to stand Godfather to this first infant of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: But alas, just as he was preparing to sprinkle the
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  Speaker 1: holy water, the natives snatched the child from him and
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  Speaker 1: made off with it and the cloth to their own rancheria.
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  Speaker 1: The soldiers, who stood round as witnesses, were furious at
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  Speaker 1: this insult, and left to themselves, would have inflicted summary
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  Speaker 1: punishment upon the offenders, but the Good Father pacified them,
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  Speaker 1: attributing his failure, of which he was wont to speak
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  Speaker 1: tearfully to the end of his life, to his own
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  Speaker 1: sins and unworthiness. However, this first experience in convert making
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  Speaker 1: was fortunately not prophetic, for though it is true that
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  Speaker 1: many months elapsed before a single neophyte was gained for
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  Speaker 1: the mission, and though more serious troubles were still to come,
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  Speaker 1: in the course of the next few years, a number
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  Speaker 1: of the Aborigines, both children and adults, were baptized. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter three. Recording by Lawrence Trask Mount Vernon, Ohio.
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