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009 - Chapter 9 · Famous Missions of California

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nine 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 Matthew Reice Cordova, Illinois. The Famous Missions of
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  Speaker 1: California by William Henry Hudson. Chapter nine, Santa Ynez carries
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  Speaker 1: us for the first time over into the nineteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: and its establishment may in a sense be regarded as
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  Speaker 1: marking the term of the period of expansion in California
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  Speaker 1: mission history. A pause of more than a decade ensued,
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  Speaker 1: during which no effort was made towards the further spread
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  Speaker 1: of the general system, and then, with the planting of
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  Speaker 1: two relatively unimportant settlements in a district than to four unoccupied,
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  Speaker 1: the tally was brought to a close. The missions, which
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  Speaker 1: thus represented a slight and temporary revival of the old
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  Speaker 1: spirit of enterprise were those of San Rafael Arcinjo and
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco Solano. The former, located near Mount tamil Pais
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  Speaker 1: between San Francisco Dass and the Russian military station at
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  Speaker 1: Fort Ross, dates from the seventeenth December eighteen seventeen, the
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  Speaker 1: latter situated still further north in the Sonoma Valley from
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  Speaker 1: the fourth July eighteen twenty three. Some little uncertainty exists
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  Speaker 1: as to the true reasons and purposes of their foundation.
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  Speaker 1: The commonly accepted version of the story connects them directly
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  Speaker 1: with problems which arose out of the course of affairs
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  Speaker 1: at San Francisco. In eighteen seventeen, a most serious epidemic
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  Speaker 1: caused great mortality among the Indians there. A panic seemed inevitable,
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  Speaker 1: and on the advice of Lieutenant Sola, a number of
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  Speaker 1: the sick neophytes were removed by the padres to the
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  Speaker 1: other side of the bay. The change of climate proved
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  Speaker 1: highly beneficial. The region of Mount Tamilpeis was found singularly attractive,
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  Speaker 1: and a decision to start a branch establishment or assistencia
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  Speaker 1: of the mission at San Francisco was a natural result.
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  Speaker 1: The patronage of San Rafael was selected in the hope that,
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  Speaker 1: as the name itself expresses the healing of God, that
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  Speaker 1: most glorious prints might be induced to care for bodies
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  Speaker 1: as well as souls. While considerable success attended this new venture,
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  Speaker 1: the condition of things at San Francisco, on the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: continued anything but satisfactory, and a proposal based on these
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  Speaker 1: two facts was presently made that the old mission should
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  Speaker 1: be removed entirely from the peninsula and refounded in a
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  Speaker 1: more favorable locality somewhere in the healthy and fertile country
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  Speaker 1: beyond San Rafael. It was thus that the name of
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco got attached from the outset to the new
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  Speaker 1: settlement at Sonoma, and when later on the old mission
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  Speaker 1: being left in its place, this was made into an
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  Speaker 1: independent mission. The name was retained, though the dedication was
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  Speaker 1: transferred appropriately enough from Saint Francis of Assisi to that
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  Speaker 1: other Saint Francis, who figures in the records as the
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  Speaker 1: great Apostle of the Indies. Such is the simpler explanation
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  Speaker 1: of the way in which the last two missions came
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  Speaker 1: to be established. It has, however, been suggested that while
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  Speaker 1: all this may be true as far as it goes,
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  Speaker 1: other causes were at work of a subtler character than
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  Speaker 1: those specified, and that these causes were involved in the
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  Speaker 1: development of political affairs. It will have been noted that
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  Speaker 1: though the threatened encroachments of the Russians had been one
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  Speaker 1: of the chief reasons for this Spanish occupation of Alta, California.
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  Speaker 1: There had hitherto been no attempt to meet their possible
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  Speaker 1: advances in the very regions where they were most to
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  Speaker 1: be expected, that is, in the country north of San Francisco.
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  Speaker 1: In course of time, however, always with the ostensible purpose
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  Speaker 1: of hunting the seal and the otter, the Russians were
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  Speaker 1: found to be creeping further and further south, and at length,
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  Speaker 1: under instructions from Saint Petersburg, they took possession of the
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  Speaker 1: region of Bodega Bay, establishing there a trading post of
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  Speaker 1: their fur company and a strong military station, which they
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  Speaker 1: called Fort Ross. As this settlement was on the coast
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  Speaker 1: and only sixty five miles as the crow flies from
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco, it will be seen that the Spanish authorities
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  Speaker 1: had some genuine cause for alarm, and the mission movement
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  Speaker 1: north of San Francisco is considered by some writers to
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  Speaker 1: have been initiated less from spiritual motives than from the
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  Speaker 1: dread of continued Russian aggression and the hope of raising
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  Speaker 1: at least a slight barrier against it. However this may be.
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  Speaker 1: The two missions were never employed for defensive purposes. Nor
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  Speaker 1: is it very clear that they could have been made
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  Speaker 1: of much practical service in case of actual need. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter nine, Recording by Matthew Reese, Cordova, Illinois,