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007 - Chapter 7 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven 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: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: The Famous Missions of California by William Henry Hudson, Chapter seven.
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  Speaker 1: Though Junipero's subordinates had thus done without him in these
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  Speaker 1: important developments at San Francisco and Santa Clara, he still
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  Speaker 1: resolved to go north, both to visit the new foundations
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  Speaker 1: and to inspect for himself the marvelous country of which
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  Speaker 1: he had heard much but which he had not yet seen.
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  Speaker 1: As usual, he was long detained by urgent affairs, and
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  Speaker 1: it was not still autumn that he succeeded in breaking away.
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  Speaker 1: He made a short stay at Santa Clara, and then
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  Speaker 1: pushed on to San Francisco, which he reached in time
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  Speaker 1: to say mass on Saint Francis Day. After a ten
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  Speaker 1: days rest, he crossed to the presidio and feasted his
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  Speaker 1: eyes on the glorious vision of the Golden Gate, a
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  Speaker 1: sight which once seen, is never to be forgotten. Thanks
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  Speaker 1: be to God, he cried in rapture. These says Pallo,
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  Speaker 1: were the words most frequently on his lips. Now our
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  Speaker 1: father Saint Francis, with the Holy Cross of the procession
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  Speaker 1: of missions, has reached the ultimate end of this continent
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  Speaker 1: of California. To go, further ships will be required. Yet
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  Speaker 1: his joy was tempered with the thought that the eight
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  Speaker 1: missions already founded were very far apart, and that much
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  Speaker 1: labor would be necessary to fill up the gaps. It
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  Speaker 1: was thus with the feeling that while something had been done,
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  Speaker 1: far more was left to do, that the Podrey returned
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  Speaker 1: to his own special charge at San Carlos. Various circles
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  Speaker 1: instances in combination had caused the postponement year after a
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  Speaker 1: year of that third mission, which according to original intentions,
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  Speaker 1: was to have followed immediately upon the establishments at San
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  Speaker 1: Diego and Monterey. Three new settlements were now projected on
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  Speaker 1: the Santa Barbara Channel, and the first of these was
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  Speaker 1: to be the mission of San Buenaventura. It was not
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  Speaker 1: until seventeen eighty two, however, that the long delayed purpose
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  Speaker 1: was at length accomplished. The site chosen was at the
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  Speaker 1: southeastern extremity of the channel and close to an Indian
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  Speaker 1: village or a rancheria, to which Portala's expedition in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: sixty nine had given the name of Ascescion de Nuestra Senora,
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  Speaker 1: or briefly Assumpta. A little later on, in pursuance of
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  Speaker 1: the same plan, the then Governor Philippe de Neve took
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  Speaker 1: formal possession of a spot some ten leagues distant, and
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  Speaker 1: there began the construction of the Presidio of Santa Barbara.
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  Speaker 1: It was Junipero's earnest desire to proceed at once with
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  Speaker 1: the adjoining mission, but the governor, for reasons of his own,
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  Speaker 1: threw obstacles in the way, and in the end this
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  Speaker 1: fresh undertaking was left to other hands. For we have
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  Speaker 1: now come to the close of Father Junipero's long and
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  Speaker 1: strenuous career, and as we look back over the record
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  Speaker 1: of it, our wonder is not that he should have
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  Speaker 1: died when he did, but rather that he had not
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  Speaker 1: killed himself many years before. He is surely one of
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  Speaker 1: those cases in which supreme spiritual power and sheer force
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  Speaker 1: of will triumph over an accumulation of bodily ills. Far
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  Speaker 1: from robust of constitution, he had never given himself consideration
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  Speaker 1: or repose, forcing himself to exertions which it would have
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  Speaker 1: appeared utterly impossible that his frame could bear, and adding
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  Speaker 1: to the constant strain of his labors and travels, the
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  Speaker 1: hardships of self inflicted tortures of a severe ascetic regime.
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  Speaker 1: He had always been much troubled by the old ulcer
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  Speaker 1: on his leg, though this, no matter how painful, he
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  Speaker 1: never regarded, save when it actually incapacitated him for work.
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  Speaker 1: And for many years he had suffered from a serious
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  Speaker 1: affection of the heart, which had been greatly aggravated, even
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  Speaker 1: if it was not in the first instance, caused by
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  Speaker 1: his habit of beating himself violently on his chest with
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  Speaker 1: a huge stone at the conclusion of his sermons, to
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  Speaker 1: the natural horror of his hearers, who it is said,
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  Speaker 1: were often alarmed lest he should drop dead before their eyes.
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  Speaker 1: The fatal issue of such practices could only be a
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  Speaker 1: question of time at length. Mental anxiety and sorrow added
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  Speaker 1: their weight to his burden, particularly disappointment at the slow
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  Speaker 1: progress of his enterprise, and grief over the death of
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  Speaker 1: his fellow countryman and close friend, Father Crespie, who passed
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  Speaker 1: to his well earned rest on New Year's Day seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eighty two After this loss, it is recorded he was
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  Speaker 1: never the same man again, though he held so tenaciously
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  Speaker 1: to his duties that only a year before the call
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  Speaker 1: came to him. Being then over seventy, he limped from
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  Speaker 1: San Diego to Monterey, visiting his missions and weeping over
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  Speaker 1: the outlying Indian rancherias because he was powerless to help
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  Speaker 1: the unconverted dwellers in them. He died at San Carlos,
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  Speaker 1: tenderly nurse to the end by the faithful Palau, on
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  Speaker 1: the twenty eighth of August seventeen eighty four, and his
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  Speaker 1: passing was so peaceful that those watching thought him asleep.
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  Speaker 1: On hearing the mission bells toll for his death, the
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  Speaker 1: whole population, knowing well what had occurred, burst into tears,
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  Speaker 1: and when closed in the simple habit of his order,
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  Speaker 1: his body was laid out in his cell, the native
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  Speaker 1: neophytes crowded in with flowers, while the Spanish soldiers and
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  Speaker 1: sailors pressed round in the hope of being blessed by
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  Speaker 1: momentary contact with his corpse. He was laid beneath the
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  Speaker 1: mission altar, beside his beloved friend Crespy. But when in
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  Speaker 1: after years a new church was built the remains of
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  Speaker 1: both were removed and placed within it. It is not
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  Speaker 1: altogether easy to measure such a man as Juniperussera by
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  Speaker 1: our ordinary modern standards of character and conduct. He was
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  Speaker 1: essentially a religious enthusiast, and as a religious enthusiast he
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  Speaker 1: must be judged. To us who read his story from
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  Speaker 1: a distance, who breathe an atmosphere totally different from his,
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  Speaker 1: and whose lives are governed by quite other passions and ideals,
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  Speaker 1: he may often appear one sided, extravagant, deficient intact and forethought,
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  Speaker 1: and in the excess of his zeal, too ready to
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice everything to the purposes he never, for an instant
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  Speaker 1: allowed to drop out of his sight. We may, even
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  Speaker 1: with some of his critics, protest that he was not
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  Speaker 1: a man of powerful intellect, that his views of people
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  Speaker 1: and things were distressingly narrow, That after his kind, he
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  Speaker 1: was extremely superstitious, that he was despotic in his dealings
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  Speaker 1: with his converts, and stiff necked in his relations with
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  Speaker 1: the civil and military authorities. For all this is doubtless true,
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  Speaker 1: But all this must not prevent us from seeing him
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  Speaker 1: as he actually was. Charitable, large hearted, energetic, indomitable, in
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  Speaker 1: all respects, are remarkable in many ways, a really wise
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  Speaker 1: and great man. At what whatrever points he may fall
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  Speaker 1: short of our criteria, This much must be said of him.
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  Speaker 1: That he was fired throughout with the high spirit of
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  Speaker 1: his vocation. That he was punctual in the performance of
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  Speaker 1: duty as he understood it, That he was obedient to
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  Speaker 1: the most rigorous dictates of that gospel which he had
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  Speaker 1: set himself to preach, in absolute, single hearted, unflinching and
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  Speaker 1: tireless devotion to the task of his life, the salvation
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  Speaker 1: of heathen souls. He spent himself freely and cheerfully, a
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  Speaker 1: true follower of that noblest and most engaging of the
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  Speaker 1: medieval saints, whose law he had laid upon himself, and
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  Speaker 1: whom he looked up to as his guide and exemplar.
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  Speaker 1: Let us place him where he belongs, among the transcendent
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  Speaker 1: apostolic figures of his own church. For thus alone shall
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  Speaker 1: we do justice to his personality, his objects, his career.
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  Speaker 1: The memory of such a man and will survive all
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  Speaker 1: changes in creeds and ideals, and the great state of
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  Speaker 1: which he was the first pioneer, will do honor to
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  Speaker 1: herself in honoring him. End of Chapter seven