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004 - Chapter 4 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four 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: Recording by Lawrence Trask, Mount Vernon, Ohio interfaceaudio dot com.
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  Speaker 1: The Famous Missions of California by William Henry Hudson, Chapter four.
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  Speaker 1: While Junipiro and his companions were thus engaged in planting
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  Speaker 1: the faith among the Indians of San Diego, Portalia's expedition
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  Speaker 1: was meeting with unexpected trials and disappointments. The Harbor of
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  Speaker 1: Monterey had been discovered and described by Mosquano at the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of the seventeenth century, and it seemed no very
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  Speaker 1: difficult matter to reach it by way of the coast.
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  Speaker 1: But either the charts must led them, or their own
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  Speaker 1: calculations aired, or the appearance of the landscape was strangely deceptive.
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  Speaker 1: At any rate, For whatever reason or combination of reasons,
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  Speaker 1: the exploring party passed the harbor without recognizing it, though
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  Speaker 1: actually lingering a while on the sand hills overlooking the bay,
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  Speaker 1: half persuaded in their bewilderment that some great catastrophe must
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  Speaker 1: since Vuscano's observations have obliterated the port altogether. They pressed
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  Speaker 1: northward another forty leagues, and, little dreaming of the importance
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  Speaker 1: attaching to their wanderings, crossed the coast range and looked down,
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  Speaker 1: thence over the Santa Clara Valley and the immense arm
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  Speaker 1: of the San Francisco Bay. By this time, the rainy
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  Speaker 1: season had set in, and convinced as they now were,
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  Speaker 1: that they must, through some oversight or ill chance, have
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  Speaker 1: missed the object of their quest, they determined to retrace
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  Speaker 1: their steps and institute another and more thorough search. On again,
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  Speaker 1: reaching the neighborhood of Monterey, they spent a whole fortnight
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  Speaker 1: in systematic exploration, but still, strangely enough, without discovering any
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  Speaker 1: indication or landmark of the harbor. Baffled and disheartened, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the leaders resolved to abandon the enterprise. They then erected
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  Speaker 1: two large wooden crosses as memorials of their visit, and
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  Speaker 1: cutting on one of these, the words dig at the
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  Speaker 1: foot of this, and you will find a writing buried
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  Speaker 1: there a brief narrative of their experiences. This is reproduced
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  Speaker 1: in the Diary of Father Crespe and its closing words
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  Speaker 1: have a touch of simple pathos, at last undeceived and
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  Speaker 1: despairing of finding it the harbor. After so many efforts, sufferings,
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  Speaker 1: and labors, and having left all our provisions but fourteen
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  Speaker 1: small sacks of flour, our expedition leaves this place today
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  Speaker 1: for San Diego. I beg of Almighty God to guide it,
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  Speaker 1: and for thee voyageur, that his divine providence may lead
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  Speaker 1: thee to the harbor of some done in this bay
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  Speaker 1: of Pineus. The ninth of December seventeen sixty nine, on
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  Speaker 1: the cross of the other side of Point Pinos was
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  Speaker 1: cut with a razor. This legend the land expedition returned
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  Speaker 1: to San Diego for want of provisions this ninth day
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  Speaker 1: of December seventeen sixty nine. The little party, or more
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  Speaker 1: correctly speaking, what was left of it, did not reach
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  Speaker 1: San Diego till the twenty fifth of the following month,
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  Speaker 1: having in their march down suffered terribly from hunger, exposure, wet, fatigue,
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  Speaker 1: and sickness. Depressed themselves, they found nothing to encourage them
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  Speaker 1: in the mission and camp, where death had played havoc
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  Speaker 1: among those they had left behind them six months before,
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  Speaker 1: and where the provisions were so fast running low that
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  Speaker 1: only the timely reappearance of the San Antonio, long overdue,
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  Speaker 1: would save the survivors from actual starvation. Perhaps it is
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  Speaker 1: hadly surprising that under these circumstances, Portalia's courage should have
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  Speaker 1: failed him, and that he should have decided upon a
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  Speaker 1: return to Mexico. He caused an inventory of all available
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  Speaker 1: provisions to be taken, and calculating that with strict economy
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  Speaker 1: and setting aside what would be required for the journey
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  Speaker 1: back to San Fernando, they might last till somewhat beyond
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  Speaker 1: the middle of March, he gave out that unless the
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  Speaker 1: San Antonio should arrive by the twentieth of that month,
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  Speaker 1: he should on that day abandon San Diego and start south.
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  Speaker 1: But if the governor imagined for a moment that he
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  Speaker 1: could persuade the Padre Presidente to fall in with this arrangement,
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  Speaker 1: he did not know. His man Juniapio firmly believed, despite
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  Speaker 1: the failure of Portalia's expedition, that the harbor of Monterey
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  Speaker 1: still existed and might be found. He even interested Vicente
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  Speaker 1: Villa in a plan of his own for reaching it
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  Speaker 1: by sea, and he furthermore made up his mind that
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  Speaker 1: come what might, nothing should ever induce him to turn
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  Speaker 1: his back upon his work. Then a wonderful thing happened.
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  Speaker 1: On the nineteenth of March, the very day before that
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  Speaker 1: fixed by the governor for his departure, and when everything
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  Speaker 1: was in readiness for tomorrow's march, the sail of a
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  Speaker 1: ship appeared far out at sea, And though the vessel
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  Speaker 1: presently disappeared towards the northwest, it returned four days later
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  Speaker 1: and proved to be none other than the San Antonio,
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  Speaker 1: bearing the much needed succor. She had passed up towards
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  Speaker 1: Monterey in the expectation of finding the larger body of
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  Speaker 1: settlers there, and had only put back to San Diego when, unexpectedly,
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  Speaker 1: and as it seemed providentially, she had run short of water.
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  Speaker 1: It was inevitable that Father Junipio should see in this
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  Speaker 1: series of happenings the very hand of God, the more
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  Speaker 1: so as the day of relief chanced to be the
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  Speaker 1: festival of Saint Joseph, who, as well we have noted,
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  Speaker 1: was the patron of the mission enterprise. The arrival of
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  Speaker 1: the San Antonio put an entirely new complexion upon affairs,
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  Speaker 1: and relieved of immediate anxiety. Portaliot now resolved upon a
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  Speaker 1: second expedition in the quest of Monterey. Two divisions, one
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  Speaker 1: for the sea and the other for land, were accordingly
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  Speaker 1: made ready. The former, which included Junipero, started in San
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  Speaker 1: Antonio on the sixteenth of April, the latter under the
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  Speaker 1: leadership of Portalia. A day later, strong adverse winds interfered
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  Speaker 1: with the vessel, which did not make Monterey for a
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  Speaker 1: month and a half. The land party, following the coast
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  Speaker 1: reached the more southern of the great Wooden Crosses on
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  Speaker 1: the twenty fourth of May, and after some difficulty, succeeded
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  Speaker 1: at last in identifying the harbor. Seven days later, steering
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  Speaker 1: by the fires lighted for her guidance along the shore,
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  Speaker 1: the San and too came safely into port and formal
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  Speaker 1: possession of the bay and surrounding country was presently taken
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  Speaker 1: in the name of Church and King. This was on
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  Speaker 1: the third of June, the Feast of Pentecost, and on
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  Speaker 1: that day of peculiar significance in the Apostolic history of
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  Speaker 1: the Church, the second of the Upper California missions came
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  Speaker 1: into being. Pelou has left us a full account of
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  Speaker 1: the ceremonies. Governor, soldiers and priests gathered together at the
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  Speaker 1: beach on the Spot in sixteen o three. The Carmelite
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  Speaker 1: fathers who had accompanied Vusquano had celebrated the mass. An
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  Speaker 1: altar was improvised in Bell's rung and then in alban stole.
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  Speaker 1: The father President invoked the aid of the Holy Ghost,
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  Speaker 1: solemnly chanted the venet creator Spiritus blessed and raised a
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  Speaker 1: great cross to put to flight all the infernal enemies,
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  Speaker 1: and sprinkled with holy water the beach and adjoining fields.
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  Speaker 1: Mass was then sung. Father Junipero preached a sermon. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the roar of cannon and muskets took the place of
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  Speaker 1: instrumental music, and the function was concluded with the tigium.
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  Speaker 1: Though now commonly called Carmelo or Carnal, from the river
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  Speaker 1: across which it looks, and which has thus lent it
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  Speaker 1: a memory of the first Christian explorers on the spot.
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  Speaker 1: This mission is properly known by the name of San
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  Speaker 1: Carlos Bouremo, Cardinal Archbishop of my Land. A few huts
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  Speaker 1: enclosed by a palisade and forming the germ at once
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  Speaker 1: of the religious and the military settlement were hastily erected,
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  Speaker 1: but the actual building of the mission was not begun
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  Speaker 1: until the summer of seventeen seventy one and of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: four recording by Lawrence Trask, Mount Vernon, Ohio. Interface audio
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  Speaker 1: dot com