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006 - Chapter 6 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six 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 six.
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  Speaker 1: Though as we sust see, Father Junipero had ample reason
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  Speaker 1: to be encouraged over the progress of his enterprise, he
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  Speaker 1: still had various difficulties to contend with the question of
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  Speaker 1: supplies often assumed formidable proportions, and the labors of the
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  Speaker 1: missionaries were not always as fruitful as had been hoped. Fortunately, however,
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  Speaker 1: the Indians were as a rule friendly, notwithstanding the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the behavior of the Spanish soldiers, especially towards their women,
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  Speaker 1: occasionally aroused their distrust and resentment one establishment. Only did
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  Speaker 1: serious disturbances actually threaten for a time the continuance of
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  Speaker 1: the mission and its work. Junipero had lately returned from
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  Speaker 1: Mexico with undiminished zeal and all sorts of fresh designs
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  Speaker 1: revolving in his brain. When a courier reached him at
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  Speaker 1: San Carlos, bringing news of a terrible disaster at San Diego.
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  Speaker 1: Important affairs detained him for a time at Monterey, But
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  Speaker 1: when at length he was able to get to the
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  Speaker 1: scene of the trouble, it was to find that first
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  Speaker 1: reports had not been exaggerated. On the ninth of the
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  Speaker 1: fourth of November seventeen seventy five, eight hundred Indians had
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  Speaker 1: made a ferocious assault upon the mission, fired the buildings,
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  Speaker 1: and brutally done to death Father Jame, one of the
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  Speaker 1: two priests in charge. God be thanked, Junipero, had exclaimed,
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  Speaker 1: when the letter containing the dreadful news had been read
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  Speaker 1: to him. Now the soil watered, and the conquest of
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  Speaker 1: the Dieguinos will soon be complete. In the faith that
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  Speaker 1: the blood of the martyrs is veritably the seat of
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  Speaker 1: the church. He, on reaching San Diego, with his customary energy,
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  Speaker 1: set about the task of re establishing the mission, and
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  Speaker 1: the buildings which presently arose from the ruins were a
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  Speaker 1: great improvement upon those which had been destroyed before these
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  Speaker 1: alarming events at the Mother Mission broke in upon his
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  Speaker 1: regular work. The President had resolved upon yet another settlement
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  Speaker 1: not included in the still uncompleted plan, for which he
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  Speaker 1: had selected a point on the coast. Some twenty six
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  Speaker 1: leagues north of San Diego, and which was to be
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  Speaker 1: dedicated to San Juan Capistrano. A beginning had indeed been
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  Speaker 1: made there, not by Junipero in person, but by fathers
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  Speaker 1: delegated by him for the purpose. But when news of
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  Speaker 1: the murder of Father Jame reached them, they had hastily
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  Speaker 1: buried bells, casubles, and supplies, and harried south as soon
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  Speaker 1: as ever he felt it wise to leave San Diego.
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  Speaker 1: Junipero himself now repaid to the abandoned site, and there
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  Speaker 1: on the first of November seventeen seventy six, the bells
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  Speaker 1: were dug up and hung, mass said, and the mission established.
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  Speaker 1: It is curious to remember that while the Padre Presidente
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  Speaker 1: was thus immersed in apostolic laborers on the far Pacific coast,
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  Speaker 1: on the other side of the North American continent, events
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  Speaker 1: of a very different character were shaking the whole civilized world.
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  Speaker 1: Though the establishment of San Juan Capistrano is naturally mentioned
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  Speaker 1: in this place, partly because of the abortive start made
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  Speaker 1: there a year before, and partly because its actual foundation
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  Speaker 1: constituted the next noteworthy incident in Junipero's car. This mission
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  Speaker 1: is in strict chronological order not the sixth, but the
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  Speaker 1: seventh on our list, for some three weeks before its dedication,
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  Speaker 1: and without the knowledge of the President himself, though in
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  Speaker 1: full accordance with his designs, the cross had been planted
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  Speaker 1: at a point many leagues northward beyond San Carlos, and
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  Speaker 1: destined presently to be the most important on the coast.
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  Speaker 1: It will be remembered that when Portola's party made their
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  Speaker 1: first futail search for the harbor of Monterey, they had,
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  Speaker 1: by accident found their way as far as the Bay
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  Speaker 1: of San Francisco. The significance of their discovery was not
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  Speaker 1: appreciated at the time, either by themselves by those at
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  Speaker 1: headquarters to whom it was reported, but later explorations so
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  Speaker 1: clearly established the value of the spot for settlement and
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  Speaker 1: fortification that it was the determined to build a presidio there.
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  Speaker 1: Some years previous to this, as we have seen, a
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  Speaker 1: mission on the northern bay had been part of Junipero's
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  Speaker 1: ambitious scheme, and though at the time he was forced
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  Speaker 1: by circumstances to hold his hand, the idea was constantly
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  Speaker 1: uppermost in his thoughts. At length, when in the summer
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  Speaker 1: of seventeen seventy six, an expedition was dispatched from Monterey
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  Speaker 1: for the founding of the proposed presidio. Two missionaries were
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  Speaker 1: included in the party, one of these being none other
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  Speaker 1: than that Father Palau, whose records have been our chief
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  Speaker 1: guides in the course of this story. The buildings of
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  Speaker 1: the presidio storehouse, commandants, dwelling and huts for the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: and their families were completed by the middle of September,
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  Speaker 1: and on the seventeenth of that month, the day of
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  Speaker 1: Saint Francis, patron of the station and harbor, imposing ceremony,
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  Speaker 1: a foundation were performed. A wooden church was then built,
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  Speaker 1: and on the ninth of October, in the presence of
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  Speaker 1: many witnesses, Father Palau said mass the image of Saint
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  Speaker 1: Francis was born about in procession, and the mission solemnly
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  Speaker 1: dedicated to his name. Footnote. This is now colloquially known
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  Speaker 1: as the Mission Dolores. Its proper title is, however, Mission
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  Speaker 1: of San Francisco de Assisis. It originally stood on the
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  Speaker 1: Laguno Dellos Dolores, now filled up, and hence its popular name.
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  Speaker 1: End of the footnote. It was at Saint Luis Obispo
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  Speaker 1: on his way back from San Diego to Monterey, that
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  Speaker 1: Father Juniperol learned of the foundation of the mission at
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco, and though he may doubtless have felt some
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  Speaker 1: little regret at not having himself been present on such
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  Speaker 1: an occasion, his heart overflowed with joy, for there was
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  Speaker 1: a special reason why the long delay in carrying out
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  Speaker 1: this portion of his plan had weighed heavily upon him.
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  Speaker 1: Years before, when the visitat Or General had told him
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  Speaker 1: that the first three missions in Alta, California were to
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  Speaker 1: be named after San Diego, San Carlos, and San Buenaventura.
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  Speaker 1: For such we recollect had been the original program. He
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  Speaker 1: had exclaimed, then, is our father Saint Francis to have
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  Speaker 1: no mission? And Galvez had made reply, if Saint Francis
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  Speaker 1: desires a mission, let him show us his port and
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  Speaker 1: we shall have won there. To Junipero, it had seemed
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  Speaker 1: that Portola had providentially been led beyond Monterey to the
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  Speaker 1: Bay of San Francisco, and the founder of his order
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  Speaker 1: had thus given emphatic answer to the Visitor Door's wards.
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  Speaker 1: It may well be imagined that he was ill attressed
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  Speaker 1: until the Saint's wishes had been carried into effect. But
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  Speaker 1: this was not the only good work in the north,
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  Speaker 1: while Junipero was busy elsewhere. For on the twelfth January
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy seven, the mission of Santa Clara was established
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  Speaker 1: in the wonderfully fertile and beautiful walley, which is now
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  Speaker 1: known by that name. The customary rites were performed by
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  Speaker 1: Father Thomas de Lapagna, A rude chapel erected, and the
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  Speaker 1: work of constructing the necessary buildings of the settlement immediately begun. Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: The site originally chosen lay too low, and from the
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  Speaker 1: outset danger of inundation was foreseen. A flood occurred in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy nine, and in seventeen eighty four the mission
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  Speaker 1: was removed to higher ground. The present buildings date from
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  Speaker 1: eighteen twenty five twenty six. End of the footnote. It
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  Speaker 1: should be noted in passing that before the end of
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  Speaker 1: the year, the town of San Jose, or to give
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  Speaker 1: it its full Spanish title, El Pueblo the San Jose
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  Speaker 1: de Guadalupe, was founded near by. This has historic interest
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  Speaker 1: as the first purely civil settlement in California. The fine
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  Speaker 1: Alameda from their mission to the pueblo was afterwards made
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  Speaker 1: and laid out under the father's supervision. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: six