In and out of the old missions of California : an historical and pictorial account of the Franciscan missions

Front matter

GEORGE WHARTON

IN AND OUT

OF THE

Table Of Contents

Chapter Page

I. The Founding of the California Missions . . 1

II. JuNIPERO SeRRA AND HIS COADJUTORS .... 44

Chapter I The Founding Of The California Missions

PERHAPS nowhere in the history of the world is there to be found a clearer example of the nothingness of Time and Place when man is absent than is presented in the history of California. It was the same California that it is now long centuries before Cabrillo first discovered it. It was still the same in the ages that it remained practically undisturbed after Cabrillo, until the time of Serra. And that was little over a century and a quarter ago. But see the change in that hundred and thirty years ! The seed of man’s enterprise once sown, how its fruits sprang forth!

Not the wildest conceptions of the Mission founders could have foreseen the results of their California enterprises. To see the land that they found in the possession of thousands of rude savages converted in one short century into the home of tens of thousands of happy, contented, progressive people would have been a wild vision indeed. God surely does work mysteriously, marvellously, His wonders to perform, and nothing is more wonderful than the rapid settlement of California with the choicest elements of America’s Eastern civilization.

It seems almost as if the coming of Serra and his coadjutors— the best the Spaniards had to offer of earnestness, power, ability, and sympathetic brotherhood — was prophetic of what the future had in store for California. America was to give of its best, — East, North, South, in its Starr King, Joseph and John LeConte, Fremont, and a host of others for its physical, mental, and spiritual development.

The East has not yet taken the full measure of the West, — not even as well as did Serra, Crespi, Palou, and Lasuen. The spirit of those men is still in the air, and the results are beyond the ken of all except the few whose vision is prophetic. The Pacific Coast States are yet in their swaddling-clothes. The world has yet to be astounded at their youth and matured manhood.

Many and diverse are the elements which have gone into the making of that “ State of the Golden Gate ” of which Americans generally are so proud. It has been the stage upon which strangely different actors have played their part — important or insignificant — and left their impress where they played. It has been a composite canvas upon which painters of every school have practised their art: a vivid mass of color here, a touch there, a single stroke of the brush yonder. Then, too, look at it as you will, stage or canvas, it had a marvellous natural setting. Curtains, side-wings, drops, scenes, accessories, suitable for every play, adequate for every requirement. Tragedy? Great mountains, awful snow storms, trackless sandwastes, fearful deserts, limitless canyons, more ocean line than any other of the North American States, and the densest forests. Comedy? Semi-tropical verdure, orange blossoms, carpets of flowers, delicate waterfalls, the singing of a thousand varieties of birds, the gentlest zephyrs* the bluest of blue skies. What wonder, then, as its history is studied, as a whole or in parts, that it is unusually fascinating, and that it presents features of unique interest?

It has long been the belief of the English-speaking peoples that England is the one great colonizing power of all history ; and, possibly, if extent of achievement be con-

Plate II

Copyright, 1904, by C. C. Pierce # Co.

SANTA INES MISSION sidered this popular conception is true. Yet, considering the time and conditions under which it took place, the student may be pardoned if he is inclined to give to Spain the honor and credit of the larger achievement, — larger in the difficulties to be overcome ; larger in the spirit in which it was undertaken ; larger in its ultimate results ; larger in the wisdom by which its operators were directed ; larger in the marvellous manhood it developed. The discoveries of Columbus had fired the imagination of the bold and adventurous spirits throughout Europe. They believed that the nether coast of India had been discovered by sailing westward instead of eastward as hitherto. For it must not be overlooked that this was the popular belief for many decades after Columbus ; there was no knowledge that a new continent had been discovered.

Four hundred years! How much may transpire in that time. Columbus had sailed from Palos, Aug. 3, 1492, in Spanish ships and backed by Spanish faith and money. Fifty years previously the Byzantine Empire had sunk under the weight of Turkish arms, and thus Europe was opened up to vivifying influences from both East and West. The dark ages were coming to an end. A flood of literature and learning, science and art was released from the East, and the discoveries in the West so fired men’s imagination that the mental and spiritual results bid fair to outrival the material benefits.

The activity to which Spain was aroused was marvellous. Fifty years saw expedition after expedition equipped with fiery zeal and fervent enthusiasm. Ponce de Leon had sailed from Puerto Rico and discovered Florida in 1512. The following year Balboa discovered the Pacific. In 1517 and 1518 Cordoba and Grijalva sailed down the coast of Yucatan, and the following year Cortes set forth from Cuba to conquer the countries discovered by his two predecessors. Born at Estremadura, Spain, seven years before Columbus sailed, he was now, at 33 years of age, the alcalde of Santiago, strong, crafty, brave, unscrupulous, ambitious, fearless, determined. The story of the conquest of Mexico is more exciting and thrilling than any romance. And let it not be forgotten that one of the avowed objects his superior, Velasquez, had in sending him forth was the conversion of the natives to Christianity. In all such expeditions a padre accompanied the explorers, and whatever may have been the character, the motives, the religious or irreligious life of the promoter or commander of the expe- 1 dition, there can be no doubt as to the genuine piety, the single-heartedness, the devotion and purity of the major part of the priests who went along to undertake the conversion of the natives. Indeed, as Padre Salmeron truly says of New Mexico:

“ It is worth consideration that there has been no corner discovered in this New Spain in which the first Columbus was not a fraile of St. Francis. They have ever been first to shed their blood, that with such good mortar the edifice should be lasting and eternal.”

Mexico conquered, the Pacific Coast was reached, vessels built upon its shores, and expeditions equipped for the discovery of other lands, and the subjugation of their peoples. Guzman, Becerra, Jimenez, Ulloa, Alarcon, and Cabrillo were all important names on the Pacific Coast in the first half of the sixteenth century.

And on the Atlantic events were transpiring that were to lead to the ultimate colonization of our American Southwest, in what are now Arizona and New Mexico. For it is indirectly to one of the Spanish explorations to the Atlantic Coast that we owe their discovery.

How thrilling are the accounts of the adventures of these early explorers. What direful risks men have always taken to satisfy their lust for conquest, gold, and power. How different results have been from what they expected or anticipated. How short the distance the most keen-sighted could peer into the dim obscurity of the future.

Think for a few moments of the proud and haughty Spanish don, with the high-sounding and potent name, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, treasurer of the expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez. In June, 1527, this adventurous and ill-fated leader started from Spain with a fleet of five ships and six hundred men, to conquer and colonize a province north of Panuco on the Gulf of Mexico. Storms, hurricanes, and general disaster followed him and his party as they neared the Gulf shores. In April, 1528, they anchored in Tampa Bay, and tired of buffetings by sea, the headstrong and wilful Narvaez resolved to march ashore and let the vessels follow along the coast. He and three hundred men and forty horses' went inland. After incredible hardships they grew as weary of the land as before they had been of the sea, and, making five rude craft, those who were still alive embarked, intending to skirt the coast to Panuco. Six weeks of storm, thirst, hunger, exposure, and attack by Indians found the fleet divided. The boat commanded by Vaca, with one other, remained together. Their complete force numbered eighty men. These landed only to be taken captive by the Indians. Slavery was their lot until famine and pestilence swept away all but fifteen. Of this fifteen, four ultimately escaped, and after nine long years of wandering on foot, nakedness, starvation, adventures with wild beasts, to-day in slavery, to-morrow almost worshipped because of supposed supernatural powers, they found their way across the continent to the Spanish settlements in northwestern Mexico, — San Miguel in New Galicia, — April 1, 1536.

Vaca’s stories, when, again clothed and in his right mind, he came in contact with the Spanish officers, made a wonderful impression. The hot blood of the conquist adores was aroused to go forth and take possession of the land, and it required great effort on the part of the viceroy to restrain them. He refused to allow any exploring expeditions to start until he had sent out a scouting party. Who should go? This was no pleasure trip. It was not to be a going forth 44 of an army with banners.” It was to be a surveying of a country peopled with savages, where trackless deserts might be encountered, and frightful hardships anticipated with tolerable certainty. Priests — no matter of what church — have always made brave, adventurous, and successful explorers. 44 To seek and to save,” — was not that their commission, given by Christ Himself? What, then, was danger, what suffering, torture, death itself? No greater reward could come to them than the crown of martyrdom. Hence their fearlessness, their persistency, their eagerness, their energy. Knowing this, the viceroy, Mendoza, asked Marcos de Niza, the chief of the band of Franciscan missionaries, to adventure forth, accompanied only by a fellow friar, and Stephen, a negro who had been one of Cabeza de Vaca’s comrades, to spy out the land and report upon Vaca’s stories. Marcos, accompanied by Fray Onorato, left Culiacan, March 7, 1539, penetrated into New Mexico, and from a hillside secretly surveyed one of the villages of Cibola, now known to us as the pueblos of Zuni. This was as far as he deemed it necessary to go. He therefore returned to Mexico and made his report.

It was Marcos’s favorable report that led Coronado to start out on his great expedition, — the expedition that led to the subjugation of Zuni, the pueblos of the Hopi (or Moki), the Tiguas — Teewahs — of the Rio Grande Valley, and the discovery of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, Acoma, &c. Accompanying Coronado were three Franciscan friars, Marcos aforesaid, Fray, Antonio Victoria, and Fray Juan de Padilla and Luis de Escalona, a lay brother. Marcos soon returned, and Antonio Victoria was compelled to do so by a broken leg; so Juan de Padilla and the lay brother were the first missionaries to enter the great field, now Arizona and New Mexico.

But Mexico proper, and all the newly established Central American provinces were being flooded with missionaries. The whole Church in Spain was alive with zeal to convert the vast populations of the new world. Jesuits, Dominicans, Jeromites, and Franciscans were alike active and zealous. Each order had its own work, and there was considerable rivalry, if not jealousy, between them.

Churches by the score, nay by the hundreds, were built, and missions established on every hand in what are now the Mexican provinces. But it was not until Russian aggression in the North rendered Spain fearful, that a real and determined effort was made to establish missions and promote colonization in Alta California; and this was two hundred and thirty years after Juan de Padilla had begun work in New Mexico.

In that two hundred and thirty years much had transpired in the Mission field of what is now New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Lower California. In another volume I shall present the results of the missionary labors of these years in the four districts named.

It had always been the intention of Spain to colonize Alta California, but the pressure of events elsewhere had prevented. The Church earnestly desired it in order to extend its dominion over the souls of the aborigines. These, according to the stern theology of the time, were eternally damned unless the saving offices of Holy Church were given to them, and full of earnestness and zeal the priests never ceased to urge the establishment of colonies and missions that they might accomplish that highly desirable end. But not until political events crowded the Spanish monarch into action was it effected.

Spain was already conducting a large and profitable trade with its possessions, the Philippines. It was a long sail across the Pacific Ocean to Mexican ports, and the

English free-booters often played sad havoc with the galleons laden with merchandise and other wealth on their passage. England had just gone to war with Spain (this was in 1760), and her naval activities were especially pernicious ; Russia was crowding down from the North, having already established herself in Alaska, and Charles and his ministry began to feel the urgent necessity of doing something quickly if it were to be done at all.

It is not always a safe policy to conjecture results if certain events had happened, yet in this case it seems probable that the whole history of California would have been materially different, indeed that to-day California would not be ranged under the flag of the United States, had not King Charles sent out his colonizers and missionaries just at the time he did. Whether one believes or disbelieves in “ the hand of God in history,” it was at least exceedingly fortunate that the Missions were established by Spain, for in the course of time, she lost her hold in Mexico, and California became a province of the new Republic of Mexico. Now, had California at this time, or earlier, been under control of the Russians, who, it must not be forgotten, were slowly reaching down toward San Francisco from Alaska, and who later reached Mt. St. Helena and Fort Ross, — the latter but sixty-five miles north, — the United States would have had Russia to deal with instead of Mexico. California was seized because the United States was at war with Mexico. Two years after the seizure, gold was discovered, and California became a Mecca for the adventurers and the gold-lustful of the world.

Let us here briefly review the facts as they occurred, and then note what they would have been had Russia, instead of Spain, colonized California.

First: Spain assumes political control of California, and at the same time establishes the Missions.

Second: Mexico severs her relations with Spain, and California becomes a province of the Republic of Mexico.

Third : The United States and Mexico go to war ; California is seized by the United States as a war measure, and finally becomes an integral part of United States territory.

Had the Russians gained a foothold in California prior to the Spanish Franciscans, it is scarcely possible that they would have relinquished the natural advantages afforded by so remarkable a base of supplies for their Alaskan colonies.

Had Russia owned or controlled California when gold was discovered, the territory would never have been relinquished; for, as yet, the United States has had no occasion to go to war with Russia. So it is apparent that California owes its place in the North American Union of States to Spain and the Franciscan Mission Fathers. Owing to this fact, the steps of the founders of these Missions assume new interest and greater importance.

Now to return after this brief digression which forestalls the actual events. Just at this particular juncture King Charles decided to banish the order of Jesuits completely from his dominions. To carry out this order in Mexico and the peninsula of Lower California (then, as now, a province of Mexico), he appointed Don Jose Galvez, a tried and trusted crown official, as Visit ador General with almost plenary authority.

The Jesuits had long been growing in power. Their Missions were planted wherever the name of Spain was known. While many of the members of the Order were simple-hearted, honest toilers for God, others, and these the leaders, were fired with lust for political as well as ecclesiastical power. Possibly it was their success in gaining this power that led to their banishment. Writing in 1793, Gigedo unconsciously shows what influence they had in government circles. In his report upon Loreto, the capital of Lower California, he says: —

“ It had as garrison a troop of cavalry, mounted and armed in accordance with the customs of the country ; its pay (including that of the crew of the vessel carrying supplies) amounted to $ 32,515 , which was paid out of the royal treasury. The Jesuits really collected and distributed this money; and also took care of the discipline and service of said troop, placed in commission for the sole purpose of defending and preserving the fifteen missions established and administered by the Society of Jesus.”

It would be interesting could a full recital of the history of Jesuit expulsion from Spanish dominions be given. It is too long a story. It was the most extensive proscription known in European history. Henry the Eighth’s cruel treatment of the Carthusians and Benedictines affected a far less number than the action of Charles, this 64 Most Catholic King,” in thus banishing, without open accusation or public trial, over six thousand men, many of them of the best families and the highest education. Ever since his accession to the throne he had seemingly been friendly to the Jesuits, indeed, had chosen one, Father Wendlingen, as tutor for his eldest son. Suddenly, and without any reason which he was willing to give to the world, — it never was given and to this day is unknown, — he completely turned against them. A secret council was called, the proceedings of which were never recorded fully in the archives, and with a care and thoroughness that reveal a relentless purpose, arrangements were perfected for the arrest and deportation of every professed Jesuit in the Spanish dominions. In order that there might be no failure, the maps were studied, and a date fixed upon, so that the secret orders of the King might be carried out simultaneously in every part of his domain. This was not possible in the far-away colonies, but even there a later date was fixed, and the royal commissioners were required to see the decree enforced with exactitude at the time set. Galvez was the appointed officer for Mexico and Lower California. Those who were arrested in Spain were deported to Italy, and those from Mexico were sent to the remote Island of Corsica. On landing, each man received a letter saying that so long as he remained there, refrained from criticising the act which had banished him, refrained from any communication, even with relatives in Spain or Mexico, he should receive a yearly allowance of one hundred dollars. And then, to make the secrecy more effective, it added that if any one of them violated any of these conditions the yearly contribution would be withdrawn f rom all.

Thus it was that Lower California lost its Jesuit missionaries.

They were sixteen in number, officiating at fourteen Missions, which extended from Cape San Lucas, on the south, to Santa Maria, not far from the mouth of the Colorado River, on the north. The story of the founding of these Missions by the Jesuits forms an interesting part of the companion volume to this, and their banishment from their arduous labors, in which many of them were expending the tireless energy of devoted lives, is pathetic in the extreme.

By the same royal order that banished the Jesuits the charge was laid upon the Franciscan College of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico, to send priests to take their place. In casting about for a man to direct this important work, the unanimous choice fell upon Fray Junipero Serra. The fifteen others, hurriedly gathered together, were sent over to direct the affairs of the peninsula Missions.

Here Galvez found them when he arrived three months later. Of his work in the peninsula the companion volume to this will fully treat. What now concerns us is his action towards the colonization and missionizing of Alta California. His orders upon the subject were clear and imperative: 44 Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain.” Galvez was a good son of the Church, full of enthusiasm, having good sense, great executive ability, considerable foresight, untiring energy, and decided contempt for all routine formalities. He began his work with a truly Western vigor. Being invested with almost absolute power, there were none above him to interpose vexatious formalities to hinder the immediate execution of his plans.

In order that the spiritual part of the work might be as carefully planned as the political, Galvez summoned Serra. What a fine combination ! Desire and power hand in hand ! What nights were spent by the two in planning ! What arguments, what discussions, what final agreements the old adobe rooms occupied by them must have heard! But it is by just such men that great enterprises are successfully begun and executed. For fervor and enthusiasm, power and sense, when combined, produce results. Plans were formulated with a completeness and rapidity that equalled the best days of the conquist adores. Four expeditions were to go : two by land and two by sea. So would the risk of failure be lessened, and practical knowledge of both routes be gained. Galvez had two available vessels: the “ San Carlos ” and the 46 San Antonio.”

For money the visitor-general called upon the Pious Fund, which, on the expulsion of the Jesuits, he had placed in the hands of a governmental administrator. He had also determined that the Missions of the peninsula should do their share to help in the founding of the new Missions, and Serra approved and helped in the work.

When Galvez arrived he found Gaspar de Portola acting as civil and military governor, and Fernando Javier Rivera y Moncada, the former governor, commanding the garrison at Loreto. Both were captains, Rivera having been long in the country. He determined to avail himself of the services of these two men, each of them to command one of the land expeditions. Consequently with great rapidity, for those days, operations were set in motion. Rivera in August or September, 1768, was sent on a commission to visit in succession all the Missions, gathering from each one all the provisions, live-stock, and implements

Plate Ifl a. SAN DIEGO MISSION

Copyright, 1904, by C. C. Pierce ft Co.

b. SAN CARLOS MISSION that could be spared. He was also to prevail upon all the available families he could find to go along as colonists. In the meantime others sent out by Galvez gathered in church furniture, ornaments, and vestments for the Missions, and later Serra made a tour for the same purpose. San Jose was named the patron saint of the expedition, and in December the “ San Carlos ” arrived at La Paz partially laden with supplies.

The vessel was in bad condition, so it had to be unloaded, careened, cleaned, and repaired, and then reloaded, and in this latter work both Galvez and Serra helped, the former packing the supplies for the Mission of San Buenaventura in which he was particularly interested, and Serra attending to those for San Carlos. They joked each other as they worked, and when Galvez completed his task ahead of Serra he had considerable fun at the Padre presidente’s expense. In addition to the two Missions named, one other, dedicated to San Diego, was first to be established. By the 9th of January, 1769, the “ San Carlos” was ready. Confessions were heard, masses said, the communion administered, and Galvez made a rousing speech. Then Serra formally blessed the undertaking, cordially embraced Fray Parron, to whom the spiritual care of the vessel was intrusted, the sails were lowered, and off started the first division of the party that meant so much to the future California. In another vessel Galvez went along until the “ San Carlos ” doubled the point and started northward, when, with gladness in his heart and songs on his lips, he returned to still further prosecute his work.

On the 15th of February the “ San Antonio,” under the command of Perez, was ready and started. Now the land expeditions must be moved. Rivera had gathered his stock, etc., at Santa Maria, the most northern of the Missions, but finding scant pasturage there he had moved eight or ten leagues farther north to a place called by the

Indians Velicata. Fray Juan Crespi was sent to join Rivera, and Fray Lasuen met him at Santa Maria in order to bestow the apostolic blessing ere the journey began, and on the 24th of March Lasuen stood at Velicata and saw the little band of pilgrims start northward for the land of the gentiles, driving their herds before them. What a procession it must have been ! The animals, driven by Indians under the direction of soldiers and priests, straggling along or dashing wildly forward as such creatures are wont to do ! Here, as well as in the starting of the “ San Carlos ” and “ San Antonio,” is a great scene for an artist, and some day canvases worthy the subjects should be placed in the California State Capitol at Sacramento.

Governor Portola was already on his way north, but Serra was delayed by an ulcerated foot and leg, and, besides, he had not yet gathered together all the Mission supplies he needed, so it was May 15 before this division finally left Velicata. The day before leaving, Serra established the Mission of San Fernando at the place of their departure, and left Padre Campa in charge.

Now blow, ye favoring winds, and, ye baffling storms, be restrained ; the sea has upon its bosom two vessels that are to begin the history of the Golden State, and near by, comparatively speaking, on the land two divisions of weary pilgrims are marching along, in one of which is a man who is to leave his powerful impress upon the new country to which he journeys with so much fiery zeal and religious enthusiasm.

Padre Serra’s diary, kept in his own handwriting during this trip from Loreto to San Diego, is now in the Edward E. Ayer Library in Chicago. Some of his expressions are most striking. In one place, speaking of Captain Rivera’s going from Mission to Mission to take from them “ whatever he might choose of what was in them for the founding of the new Missions,” he says : “ Thus he did ;

and altho’ it was with a somewhat heavy hand, it was undergone for God and the king.”

The work of Galvez for Alta California was by no means yet accomplished. Another vessel, the 44 San Jose,” built at his new shipyard, appeared two days before the 44 San Antonio ” set sail, and soon afterward Galvez went across the gulf in it to secure a load of fresh supplies. On the 16th of June the 44 San Jose ” sailed for San Diego as a relief boat to the 44 San Carlos ” and 44 San Antonio,” but evidently met with misfortune, for three months later it returned to the Loreto harbor with a broken mast and in general bad condition. It was unloaded and repaired at San Bias, and in the following June again started out, laden with supplies, but never reached its destination, disappearing forever without leaving a trace behind.

The 44 San Antonio ” first arrived at San Diego. About April 11, 1769, it anchored in the bay, and awakened in the minds of the natives strange feelings of astonishment and awe. Its presence recalled to them the 44 stories of the old,” when a similar apparition startled their ancestors. That other white-winged creature had come long generations ago, and had gone away, never to be seen again. Was this not to do likewise ? Ah, no ! in this vessel was contained the beginning of the end of the primitive man. The solitude of the centuries was now to be disturbed and its peace invaded; aboriginal life was to be destroyed forever. The advent of this vessel was the death knell of the Indian tribes. Now was to begin the actual change in the life of the California Indians, such a change as they had never before known, perhaps, in the whole of their history. As we look back upon it, the picture is a fascinating one. A handful of priests, hampered by long gowns, in a far-away, strange land, surrounded by a vast population of aborigines, neither as wild and ferocious nor as dull and stupid as various writers have described them, yet brave, courageous, liberty-loving, and self-willed enough to render their subjugation a difficult matter. With a courage that was sublime in its very boldness, and which, better than ten thousand verbal eulogies, shows the self-centered confidence and mental poise of the men, this handful of priests grappled with their task, brought the vast horde of untamed Indians under subjection, trained them to systematic work, and in a few short years so thoroughly accomplished what they had determined, that the Mission buildings were erected by these former savages, who were made useful workers in a large diversity of fields.