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STATUE OF JUNIPERO SERRA in Golden Gate Park. Founder of the California Missions and the intrepid spirit that planted Christianity wherever he adventured. His plan was to carry the cross into the lands discovered by Cabrillo and other Spanish explorers, and link them inseparably with the Spanish crown. With his followers he began his work of founding Missions in Lower California, April 1, 1768. He had equal authority with the military commander on the same expedition. At that time he was 55 years old, and his body was wasted with fasting, scourging and tireless missionary work. He elected to go to Upper California by land, rather than by the usual ship route. Shortly after founding his first Mission at San Diego, he accompanied Portola on the latter's second expedition to locate Monterey Bay by the land route. At Monterey he built his second Mission, and Governor Portola erected a presidio and made that place the capital of California.

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IN THE CEMETERY GARDEN of the Santa Barbara Mission, founded 1786, one of

the best known Missions in California, and one of the favorites of Father Serra.

MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, justly regarded as the most picturesque and stately of the Mission structures. This view shows the ruined An earthquake, 1812, demolished the great tower and domes, and its decline followed.

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arches of the cloisters.

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AN ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL, Mission San Juan Capistrano.

At that time California was a fabled land to the Spanish adventurers in Mexico and South America. Spain's great conquests in treasure and colonial lands roused the jealousy of the other European nations, and Russia, England and France, all eager to seize a share, sent their individual emissaries to explore the new wilds and report on the opportunities for seizure. The clash of these rival emissaries brought about a political crisis which quickly determined the control and settlement of California.

Spain suddenly learned that the Russians, under the guise of traders, were actively pressing southward from Alaska and were establishing

forts along the north Pacific Coast. At the same time rumors were rife that the English and the French were working west overland to reach the same goal. Charles III at once notified Jose Galvaez, his representative in Mexico city, to press immediately every advantage in colonizing and protecting by adequate military power the territory of Upper California and to occupy and fortify its strategical points as indicated on the maps made by the early discoverers along the coast. Emphasis was laid on the fact that the territory must be preserved to Spain at all hazards.

Galvaez acted promptly. He He selected Fra Junipero Serra, a Francis

can monk, to take charge of the spiritual part of the expedition and Don Gaspar Portola to head the military division. Both leaders were equal in authority. Portola was to act as governor of the new territory. The pilgrimage north is one of the striking epics in the settlement of America. The 213 members of the expedition set forth in January, 1769. They sailed with their provisions and equipment in three ships to San Diego Bay. One vessel was lost, sickness prevailed heavily, and death took a large toll. Only the most robust were fit for hazardous adventures of those desperate times.

At San Diego Father Serra built his first Mission in the new territory, just across from the Mexican line as it exists to-day. A presidio was established under Portola's direction. Then eager to carry out Galvaez' pressing injunctions to hasten north and forestall the threatened invasion of the Russians, English and French into the new territory, Portola assembled the hardiest men among his soldiers and marched north 300 miles in search of Monterey bay, as described by the navigator Viscaino, where he was instructed to build a presidio. Portola failed to find Monterey Bay. Unknowingly he passed that open sheet of water of the broad Pacific Ocean, but by a happy accident one of his followers, hunting wild game over the hills, saw from a height the broad waters of a great bay not mentioned in the records. Later it was named after St. Francis, the patron saint of Fra Junipero Serra, and is now known as San Francisco bay.

Portola's failure to locate Monterey Bay by the land route led later to a second effort; one expedition expedition was planned to go by sea and the other expedition to march overland to Monterey and then to furnish more information regarding the great bay reported by Portola. Both parties reached Monterey, and there Serra erected his second Mission in California, later (1771) it was removed to Carmel. Don Gaspar erected the nec

essary presidio, several adobe buildings, and proclaimed the settlement the capital of Alta California, and all the territory the domain of his sovereign, the King of Spain. News of this successful Spanish settlement in northern California was hurriedly sent to Spain by a special vessel; it caused a blaze of national enthusiasm and patriotism throughout the land. Spain felt that her grip on the Pacific shores of the American continents was now unbreakable, and under this feeling the slow growth of colonization was begun.

Thereafter, Father Serra and his brother friars devoted the energy of thirty years to building Missions and spreading the gospel and ideas of labor and home development among the natives. Nine Missions were built during 16 years, and over 6,000 Indians were brought into the Mission fold. In all, 21 Missions were established. Thirty years later saw most of them in decline. Practically all were located along the coast line or within some twenty miles of it. The distance between any two adjacent Missions was estimated to be a day's ride on horseback, so that the wayfarer might reach a resting place at sundown. The roadway that connected them, practically the only continuous roadway in the territory, was called El Camino Real, the King's Highway. It stretched from the Mission Dolores (San Francisco) in the north, south to San Diego -some four hundred miles. From that point there was a road leading to Mexico City. There is a legend that Father Junipero Serra and his fellow Franciscans scattered mustard seed from time to time along the roadway, so that strange wayfarers would always be able to readily find their direction by following the road bordered by yellow mustard plants.

In the social and administrative organization of Spanish California there were five elements: the presidios, pueblos, ranchos, Missions and Indian tribes. The last named were connected with each of the other four. A rough estimate of the Indian popula

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