heart was made glad to think that he was soon to begin the harvest of souls. He called the garrison together, assembled at the church the Christian Indians who had come from Mexico with him, and requested one of the soldiers to act as godfather in the coming ceremony of papoose baptism into the Catholic Church. He awaited for a time with a glowing face and overflowing heart for the approach of the parents with the infant. They soon came, followed by a large concourse of their friends, and handed the little candidate, with big, black, twinkling eyes spread wide with wonder, to the father, signifying their desire to proceed with the baptism. He took the little fellow, put clothes upon him, and was proceeding with the ceremony, having gone so far in it as to be in the act of raising the water to finish the operation by pouring it upon the child's head, when the almost Catholic baby was suddenly snatched from his arms, leaving the astonished father with the water suspended, while the laughing Indians rushed away with the infant. The soldiers were infuriated at this insult to religion and to their beloved priest, and would have taken summary vengeance on the scoffers, but were prevented from molesting them. In after years whenever this incident was mentioned in his presence, tears of sorrow would come to the eyes of this zealous missionary, as he thought of the sad end of that early hope.

The whole scheme of occupying northern or Upper California came near proving a failure, because of the want of ability to sustain themselves until crops could be grown in the country sufficient to make the enterprise self-sustaining. Governor Portala, after his return from the discovery of the San Francisco bay, took an inventory of the supplies. He found that there remained only enough to last the expedition until March, and decided that if supplies did not arrive by sea before the twentieth of that month, to abandon the enterprise and return to Mexico. The day came, and with it, in the offing, in plain view of all, a vessel. Preparations had been completed for the abandonment, but it was postponed because of the appearance of the outlying ship. The next day it was gone, and the colony believed then that a miracle had been performed, and their patron saint had permitted the scene of the vessel that they might know that help was coming. In a few days the San Antonio sailed into the harbor with abundant supplies, and they learned that the vision they had been permitted to see was that vessel herself; she had been forced by adverse winds to put out to sea again after coming in sight of the harbor.

Upon the arrival of the San Antonio two other expeditions set out, one by sea and one by land, in search of Monterey harbor, the land force in charge of Governor Portala. The party by sea was accompanied by Father President Junipero, who writes of that voyage and its results as follows:

"MY DEAREST Friend and Sir-On the thirty-first day of May, by the favor of God, after a rather painful voyage of a month and a half, this packet, San Antonio, arrived and anchored in this horrible port of Monterey, which is unaltered in any degree from what it was when visited by the expedition of Don Sebastian Viscaino, in the year 1603.”

He goes on to state that he found the governor awaiting him, having reached the place eight days earlier. He then describes the manner of taking possession of the land for the crown on the third day of August. This ceremony was attended by salutes from the battery on board ship and discharges of musketry by the soldiers, until the Indians in the vicinity were so thoroughly frightened at the noise as to cause a stampede among them for the interior, from whence they were afterward enticed with difficulty. The interesting account closes with the following, to us, strange words: "We proceed to-morrow to celebrate the feast and make the procession of Corpus Christi' (though in a very poor way) in order to scare away whatever little devils there possibly may be in this land."

What a lamentable failure in the good father's pious design, possibly due to the poor way in which it was done. The nineteenth century has demonstrated that those little fellows have grown amazingly, and multiplied beyond belief in California since that time.

After the establishment of this second mission, called San Carlos, which soon afterward was moved to

the river Carmelo, a third, the San Antonio de Padua, was contemplated and finally located July 14, 1771, about thirty-five miles south of Soledad, on the Antonio river, and about twenty-five miles from the coast. At this mission occurred the first instance of irrigation in California. In 1780, when the wheat was in full bloom, there came so severe a frost that it "became as dry and withered as if it had been stubble left in the field in the month of August." This was a great misfortune, for the padres as well as the converts depended upon this crop for food. The priests caused a ditch to be at once constructed and water thus turned upon the field. This gave new life to the roots, young shoots sprang up and a bountiful harvest, the largest ever known to them, was gathered. The priest called it a miracle, the Indians believed it to be one, and the consequence was a second harvest for the church, one of converts this time, as the result of the first irrigation attempted in our state. Possibly it is irrigation that the Christian churches stand in need of among us now.

The mission of San Gabriel was founded soon after that of San Antonio, the ceremony of establishment being performed on the following eighth of September. The point selected was about eight miles north of Los Angeles. Another miracle was supposed to have been worked at the founding of this mission. In fact, those old padres, pious souls, seemed to believe that everything out of the ordinary everyday occurrences was necessarily of supernatural origin, either from God or the devil. When they unfurled their banner at San Gabriel before an assembled host of yelling Indians, whom they were afraid were about to attack them, the astonished natives beheld the picture of the Virgin Mary that was painted upon it, mistook it for a pretty woman, and, probably thinking it was time to put on some style, ceased their undignified howling, and running up before the vision of loveliness, threw down their beads at the base of the banner, as an offering of their respect. They then, like sensible Indians, brought something for the pretty woman to eat. We see nothing miraculous in this. The average Californian in our time will give up a row, put on his good behavior, and cast offerings at the feet of female loveliness, if it happens around when he is on the warpath.

In the meantime, Governor Portala had returned to Mexico, bearer of the welcome intelligence that Monterey had been rediscovered, that a much finer bay had also been found farther north, that they had named it after St. Francis, and that three missions had been established in the new land. Upon the receipt of the news the excitement in Mexico was intense. Guns were fired, bells were rung, congratulatory speeches were made, and all New Spain was happy, because of the final success of the long struggle of their country to get a footing north of the peninsula. After the establishment of the San Gabriel mission the events that transpired for a time were those incidental to the retention of what had already been acquired, and the preparation for possessing more.

In September, 1772, the mission of San Luis Obispo was established between Los Angeles and Monterey, and then the father president returned to Mexico. He procured over twelve thousand dollars worth of supplies, and returned by sea, accompanied by several new missionaries and some soldiers, and arrived at San Diego March 13, 1773, to find his people on the verge of starvation, living upon milk, roots and herbs. Before leaving Mexico he had divided his party, sending the soldiers under command of Capt. Juan Bautista Anza. They were to go by way of Sonora and the Gila and Colorado rivers, to open a route by land, that communication with the home government might not in future depend wholly upon the hitherto treacherous sea. Upon the success in establishing his overland route to Monterey depended the founding of the missions of San Francisco and Santa Clara, that Father Junipero so much desired. The company arrived safely about the same time as did the division by sea, being the first, the pioneer overland journey from Mexico to California, and the descendants of the captain of the expedition are still to be found as residents of this state.

During the same month of March, a party under guidance of Father Crespi, going overland from

Monterey, passed through where Santa Clara now stands, up along the east side of the bay, finally arriving on the thirtieth of the month, where Antioch now is. Thus they became the first of civilized men to look upon the stream that forty-six years after was named San Joaquin.

In 1774, Captain Anza returned to Mexico, to report the successful establishment of the route to Monterey, intending to come back as soon as possible with the necessary means to establish the northern missions.

There was, in 1774, another occurrence that it will not do to pass silently by, as it brings into strong relief the contrast between first intentions and the final acts of the Catholic clergy in their spiritual conquest of the natives. The mission of San Diego was attacked, on the night of the fourth of November, 1774, by a large and well organized body of Indians, numbering about one thousand.

They had been incited to hostilities by the representation of two apostate converts from one of the tribes, who, fleeing to the interior, gave their people far and wide to understand that the missionaries contemplated using force in their efforts to subject the Indians to an adoption of the white man's religion. The battle was stubbornly contested by the tribes; but they were beaten off with severe loss, after having killed three of the whites, one of whom was a priest, and wounded the balance of the defenders. This was the last attempt to destroy the missions. Palou, in his account of this affair, says that the Indians were incited to the act by the devil, who used the two apostate converts as the means, causing them to tell falsehoods to their people in representing "that the fathers intended to put an end to the gentiles by making them become Christians by force."

Although the proposition of force in conversion seems to have been (according to Father Palou, who was the priest that afterwards had charge of the San Francisco mission) the devil's suggestion, it was afterwards practiced by the fathers.

A notable instance of this kind occurred in 1826, when a party was sent up into the country along the San Joaquin river to capture some subjects for conversion. They met with defeat at the hands of a tribe under the leadership of a chief called Estanislao, whose rancheria was where Knight's Ferry now is. The Spanish lost three soldiers killed and several wounded in this battle; and returning, a new expedition was fitted out, including all the available force of the garrison (presidio) of San Francisco, the San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Clara missions. The Estanislao country was again invaded, and the result was a defeat and severe chastisement of the Indians, with a loss of one soldier killed by the explosion of his musket. They succeeded in carrying off, for the good of their souls, some forty-four captives, most of whom were women and children.

The two battles gave the Spaniards a wholesome fear of the up-country tribes, and they named the river where these battles were fought the Stanislaus, after the chief Estanislao, whose tribe lived upon its banks. The Indian name for that stream was La-kish-um-na. The prisoners were taken to the missions and summarily transformed into Christians in the following way. We quote from Captain Beechey, who says:—

"I happened to visit the mission about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets and arraigned in a row before a blind Indian, who understood their dialect, and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being thus arranged, the speaker began : 'Santissima, Trinidada, Dios, Jesu, Christo, Espiritu, Santo,' pausing between each name to listen if the simple Indians, who had never spoken a Spanish word before, pronounced it correctly or anything near the mark. After they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a pause, added 'Santos,' and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's tuition.

If, as not unfrequently happens, any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to conversion, it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then to allow them to breathe a little fresh air in a walk around the mission, to observe the happy mode of life of their converted countrymen; after which they are again shut up and thus continue incarcerated until they declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers."

In 1769, those zealous, truly Christian fathers came among those people to bring heathen by love and kindness to the foot of the cross, erected as an emblem of God's love for humanity. In 1826, only fifty-seven years later, the successors of those missionaries marched that same people as captives to the foot of that cross, and forced them to do homage to the emblem of their slavery.

Father Junipero, as a precautionary measure, in anticipation of the early return of Captain Anza, dispatched the packet San Carlos to see if the bay of San Francisco could be entered from the ocean; a feat that the little craft accomplished in June, 1775. She was a small vessel, not to exceed two hundred tons burden, this pioneer of the fleets that have since anchored in that harbor. In that memorable June, while the waters of our great bay of the Pacific were being first awakened to their future destiny, away to the east where the sun rises, where the Atlantic waves kiss the shores of America, a Washington was taking command of the Continental army, and a people were calling through the battle smoke of Bunker Hill for liberty.

The San Carlos returned to Monterey with the report of her entrance into the harbor and succeeding discoveries, including that of the bay of San Pablo, "into which emptied the great river of our Father St. Francis, which was fed by five other rivers, all of them copious streams, flowing through a plain so wide that it was bounded only by the horizon." Rather a luminous description of the Sacramento river

and valley.

The time had come so much desired by Father Junipero, when the mission could be extended to the great bay in the north. Captain Anza had returned from Mexico with all that was required for the purpose. The preparatory expeditions by land and sea had returned with the necessary imformation as to the country, its character, and geography, so that plans could be formed with assurance of precision in execution. Consequently, on the seventh of June, 1776, the father president started from Monterey overland for the harbor at the northern frontier. A packet boat was dispatched at the same time, laden with necessaries for the enterprise. On the twenty-seventh of June the land party arrived at what is now known as Washerwoman's bay, on the north beach of San Francisco. On the eighteenth of August the packet arrived, and on the seventeenth of September the presidio was located. An expedition to spy out the land was at once dispatched. It was as usual divided into two divisions, one to go by water and the other by land. The rendezvous was to have been Point San Pablo, but the land party entered the mountains east of the bay and soon found themselves on the banks of the San Joaquin river, and failed to connect. On the tenth of October the mission was founded at San Francisco. After this came the San Juan Capistrano, and then Santa Clara. With the founding of the latter ended the establishing of missions by that faithful Christian missionary, Father Junipero Serro.' He died near Monterey in 1782, after having planted in the garden of the west for future generations the seeds of civilization that should, like the little seeds mentioned in holy writ, grow to become "a great tree," under whose shadowy

1 The justly-praised indefatigable missionary-priest, who founded the first nine missions in Alta California, died in that of San Carlos del Carmels, at the age of 69 years. His baptismal name, "Junipero," is identical with the Latin word Juniperus, the definition of which is “ Arbor est crescens in desertis, cujus umbrum serpentis fuguint, et ideo in umbra ajus homines secure dormiunt." (Juniper is a tree that grows in the desert, the shade of which is shunned by serpents, but under which men sleep in safety.