i GIFT OF * ^ ^X^ U V) L. O o O u i ctf c H O T* >>H tf _O -J-> H T5 T< ^H C Ctf 0) >ri CM >vO CrH r^ o< o Crf Tj 'O i- CD 0) >s DOA ,0 b CD > ") **H. 3 O >< GIFT OF ctf CM O H -H !L P H rC - T . SHI > H CD O O C3 P CO a? O 40 *> U M o T* M n O JM 0? CD P so fj C H C $- >> CD S- S r o cr j- Q-i 0) S-, o i- o ^ >^ S^ . Q> U p -H d> O C -40 J^ > tf -H CD r *> ^-i 0? J- 6 -^ G rt c H O Tf >>H OS .0 -40 CD >H * T!^ "T* C^ 0? O 40 O rt ^w U C 0) PU-H ^ ctf H O Q> rj i- H CO I- 0) -H ^CH H o il C * ^.^ CM 73 CJ 71 "0 s- CD o r>^ f-^ l <; p i~" o o A! o o s 40 H -J ,0 a; MISS Idyls of the Missions Franciscan Dynasty California 1769-1833 A BROCHURE BY CLARICE GARLAND Author of Ysabella; or. The International Marriage Copyright 1917 All rights reserved by the Author GEO. W. MOYLE PUBLISHING CO. 337 East Third Street Long Beach, Cal. V -; ..." Idyls of the Missions Ix THE Reign of the Franciscan Dynasty Over 21 Missions on the King's Highway 700 Miles of Spanish California 1769-1833. CONTENTS ESTABLISHMENT AND PROSPERITY OF THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. The Act of Seculari/ation, or the Cause of the Decline and Ruin of the California Missions. A Soldier of tin- Cross 1769. Mission San Diego de Alcala. A Wedding Journey 1830. Mission San Luis Rey de Fran- Bells of Capistrano 1812. Saint Gabriel 1831. The Wedd'ng Bell Gift 1831 Winepress of Life 1833. Pageant of the Night 1833. Spirit Sweet \Vaters-1830. Sentinel of Monterey 1784. Mission Mission Nuestra Angeles. Mission Espafia. Mission Mission Mission melo. San Juan Capistrano. San Gabriel Arcangel. Senora Reina de Los San Fernando Rey de San Buenaventura. Santa "Barbara. San Carlos de Rio Car- 365863 CALIFORNIA MISSIONS IN ORDER OF LO- CATION FROM SOUTH TO NORTH. Mission San Diego de Alcala, near San Diego (5m) founded 1769 Mission Santa Ysabel, west San Diego (25m) founded 1822. Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, Oceanside, founded 1798. Parish Church San Antonio de Pala, Fallbrook (2m) founded 1771 Mission San Juan Capistrano, Capistrano founded 1775. Mission San Gabriel Areangel, Los Angeles (14m) founded 1771 Parish Church, Senora Reina de los Angeles, Los Angeles founded 1781 (Our Lady Queen of the Angels) Mission San Fernando Rey De Espafia, Fernando (2m) founded 1797 (Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain) Mission San Buenaventura, Ventura, founded 1782 Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, founded 1786 Mission La Purisima Concepcion, Lompoc (3m) founded 1787 Mission Santa Ynez, Los Olivos, (12m) founded 1804 / Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Luis Obispo founded 1772 (Saint Luis of Tolosa) Mission San Miguel, San Miguel, founded 1797 (Saint Michael) i Mission San Antonio de Padua, King City (26m) found- ed 1771 (Saint Anthony of Padua) Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, Soledad (4m) founded 1791 (Our Lady of the Solitude) Mission San Carlos de Rio Carmelo, Monterey (6m).... 1771 (Saint Charles of the River Carmel) Parish Church, San Carlos Borromeo, Monterey (6m) founded 1770 Mission San Juan Bautista, Sargent (6m) founded 1797 (Saint John the Baptist) Mission Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, founded 1791 Mission San Jose, Irvington (3m) founded 1797 (Saint Joseph) Mission Santa Clara, Santa Clara, founded 1777 Parish Church San Francisco D'Assisi, San Francisco founded 1776 (Saint Francis of Assisi) (Also known as Dolores) Mission San Rafael Arcangel, San Rafael, founded 1817 (Saint Raphael Arcangel) Mission San Francisco Solano, Sonoma, founded 1823 ESTABLISHMENT AND PROSPERITY OF THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. To those who view the ruins of the master-pieces of architecture, the California missions, they speak a various language. To the casual eye they speak of neglect and decay and the onlooker hastens away to modern, finished buildings suggesting present use and pleasure, having gratified a curiosity to see the poetic monuments of a past century. To the thoughtful eye the California missions, standing in august grandeur, speak of indomitable courage and exalted religious zeal of the architects, the Spanish missionaries, in hewing their way through a wilderness, enduring great hardships, traveling on foot five hundred miles from the beautiful bay they named San Diego to the splendid harbor they named San Francisco in honor of Saint Francis the Father of their Order. As the Franciscan monks reached spots favorable for founding a mission near an Indian village and fresh water, they raised the Cress and the banner of Spain, and among incredible difficulties, won Cali- fornia for Spain and eighty-five thousand Indians to Christianity in the twenty-one missions they estab- lished and fostered for sixty years, located on the road they made and named El Camino Real (the King's Highway.) Thus the missionaries secured the territory of Up- per California and its fifty thousand savage inhabi- tants for the crown of Spain, a task which soldiers alone had failed to accomplish for centuries even at enormous cost, proving that love accomplished that which the sword failed to gain. The missionaries won the natives by kindness and forgiveness and tan glit them to venerate the Cross and love God and, by exercising strong control over their wards like ex- cellent schoolmasters, prevented such massacres as occurred east of the Colorado River. In this magni- ficient achievement the missionaries were not only messengers of the Gospel but captains of industry through Christianity. Before the friars arrived, the land produced nothing save acorns and wild fruits. The Fathers brought seeds which they taught the Indians to plant in orchards, vineyards and fields which soon produced olive oil, oranges, grapes and grain while their animals increased to vast herds and flocks. With instruction in religion and agriculture the friars taught their wards arts and crafts and the sacred music of the Gregorian chants with voice, flute and violin. And many of the pueblos or towns, pre- sidios or forts, rivers and bays derived their names from the nearest missions. During sixty years the missionaries fed and clothed their Indian wards and the troops in the presidios of the whole territory to the value of half a million dollars annually. The civil and military authorities of California generally refused to lend moral as- sistance for transforming savages into faithful Christ- ians and industrious citizens. These otherwise would have been a thieving and savage menace to the white settlers of California. The friars had reared and made the missions prosperous and by their wise gov- ernment proved their ability to maintain them, over- coming obstacles of the guttural Indian language, their heathen orgies and ideas of a sensual heaven after death. From the year 1769 to 1833 the missionaries of- fered the only encouragement to a growing and profit- able commerce and aroused the interest of the people of foreign countries thousands of leagues distant, who sailed to California to exchange hides, grain and tallow for manufactured goods from New England, Old Eng- land and China, much needed in the territory by the missionaries and citizens and for clothing the neo- phytes or Christianized Indians, who previously ran about clothed in nature's raiment. And the mis- sionaries who induced, directed and controlled the wealth of the missions, having taken the vow of pover- ty, claimed no luxury for their own. The conquest, by the missionaries of the savage in- habitants of California, tells a story of heroism, men- tal and physical exertion, self-sacrifice, incessant prayer and undying love in the service of God as soldiers of the Cross. THE ACT OF SECULARIZATION, OR THE CAUSE OF THE DECLINE AND RUIN OF THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS. In 1831 Governor Jose Maria Echandia sounded the deathkiiell of the missions in his famous procla- mations of secularization, or confiscation, of these es- . tablishmeiits. He claimed to follow the instructions of the Supreme Government in Mexico that sent him to California in 1825 for this purpose. Why he de- layed until his successor was already in the territory may have been owing to his disinclination for en- gaging the Reverend Fathers of undoubted education in the laws regarding the establishment and main- tenance of the missions and incumbents, in debate. "Seiior Echandia knew how to unite and identify his position as comandante-general in the territory, even after it had terminated, with indefinite liberty and emancipation of the neophytes, but without pro- viding against the deplorable consequences which the whole territory experienced, the smaller of which was the ruin of the missions and the neophytes themselves. "In one of the nine articles of Echandia 's procla- mation of secularization was incorporated the law of Mexico which decreed the expulsion of the Spanish missionaries of Upper California." This act would give more freedom in confiscation. 14 In 1830 Presidente Bnstanante of Mexico separat- ed the two Calif ornias and appointed Lieutenant-Col- onel Manuel Victoria governor of Upper California. "Ex-Governor Echandia 's hypocrisy was shown when he issued his decree of secularization January six, 1831 at Monterey, long after his notification to turn his office over to his successor who was within the province. The bearer of the dispatch, turning San (Jabriel into a town where hundreds of neophytes, or Christianized Indians, had built streets of adobe dwellings for their families near the mission, had to pass the real governor at Santa Barbara. This showed the desperate steps the ex-governor was prepared to take in order to accomplish his scheme of plundering the missions; although Echandia and his conspirators were blind to the damage which the decree would in- flict on the troops in the presidios. Comandante San- tiago Arguello of San Diego foresaw the disastrous ef- fect when he wrote to Echandia that the status of San Gabriel must not be changed because the supplies which the missionaries furnished were absolutely necessary for the troops of San Diego." Enchandia 's act of secularization never was enacted into a law ; for on the arrival of Governor Victoria in Monterey he immediately annulled Echandia 's de- cree ; and for a little time longer the missions were left undisturbed, until 1835 when Mexico passed the law of secularization of the California missions. "In truth the blood freezes and hairs stand on ends at the bare thought of the eternal memory which would remain in this land if Seiior de Echandia and the young Californians had obtained full control and confiscated the mission properties. Anarchy would have reigned as in Mexico," wrote Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, author of Missions and Missionaries of California. This eminent Spanish historian, Reverend Father Zephyrin Engelhardt, O. F. M., Order of Franciscan Monks, wrote that "The Americans came none too soon to prevent the final desecration of the missions. ' ' And it is interesting to note furthermore that he stated the following paragraphs: "There is observable an inborn reverence among the officers of the United States army and navy for houses of worship. Such atrocities, such profana- tions of churches and sacred vessels, such brutalities against priests and nuns as the Villistas and Car- ranzistas at present perpetrate in Mexico, would be impossible at the hands of officers and soldiers of the regular army with the approval of the government of the United States." Father Engelhardt further stated: "In February, 1847, eighty men were detailed from the United States battalion to clean up the plaza of San Luis Rey, containing four acres, and the quarters or court- yard, and rooms in the monastery, and make neces- sary repairs which were done in good order. The commanding officer received the following order from Governor Mascn, (acting Governor Fremont and ap- pointed Governor Kearney having retired.) "Should any Catholic priests come to Mission San Luis Rey, you will not only cause them to be treated with great courtesy and kindness, but they are to have any apartments they may desire and any pro- duct of the mission for their own use and the entire management of the Indians. You are placed in charge of the mission property for the express pur- pose of guarding it from desecration and waste and are expected to treat the missionaries and Indians with great courtesy and respect/' A copy of the following interesting letter regard- ing San Luis Rey is appended in Father Engelhardt's History of the Missions. Governor Mason, Colonel First Dragoons, wrote to Captain Hunter Sub-Indian Agent : "August 2, 1847. "It must have excited astonishment in both the In- dians and missionaries to find themselves treated with s> much consideration by "los Protestantes, " when for a quarter of a century they had experienced scarcely anything but arrogance and oppression at the hands of the 'household of the Faith' they dis- graced. ' ' That the missionaries accomplished so much in Cal- ifornia is cause for wonder in the thoughtful mind. The material structures they raised and encompassed by the spiritual forces of love and service guided the labor of the missionaries and their converts to as- tonishing results. They hewed tall trees with rough axes, made adobe, or sun-baked bricks, without num- ber, lashed the rafters with rawhide thongs and raised buildings of artistic merit without use of nails or modern implements of architecture, carved mold- ings and traceries that denoted the individual taste of the neophytes, with unskilled hands of former wild men and their descendants, in California wild- ernesses. In the chain of historic missions of California were woven the heroism, energy and pious zeal of the mis- sionaries with the spiritual elevation and semi-civili- zation of the Indians (arrested by the act of seculari- zation) in the eight-five thousand human links of neo- phytes dedicated to the Spirit of Religion. Down the ages the mild, insistent voices of the teachers echo in red men's hearts and in the walls and cloisters of their exalted ideals in the monuments we now cherish with memories of a patriarchal, poetic past. A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS. (First Pioneer of California.) Junipero, God's pioneer, behold! On bended knees imploring pardoning grace; He feels himself a failure long untold, Entreats and pleads high heaven with saintly face "One baptism God grant thy servant more, Ere sailing from this wild and fruitless shore!" "Just one more day, Father, I humbly pray! And must I pray in vain? Thy mercy spare, In this forsaken, reckless, heathen sway ! ' ' Still on his knees in constant, zealous prayer, Till nightfall came and then glory great, God's answer came like wondrous story late. Across the blue Pacific's vastness, lo! A ship, like great, white dove with olive branch, Up San Diego Bay sailed fair and slow. "To God be thanks! Our famine he will stanch. One child baptized by me All Hail Marie ! The sacred Cross points e'er my faith in Thee." STORY OF JUNIPERO SERRA. California, that magic name of mythical romance, was given by the courageous explorer Cortez when he discovered and claimed this coast for Spain in 1543. For two centuries California basked under a southern sky and the blue waters of the Pacific washed its silvery shore, untrod by white men. 1769 Don Galvez, minister of colonization for Spain, arranged an expedition from Loreto in Lower Cali- fornia to Upper California, led by Governor Portola and soldiers in search of the wonderful harbors charted by Cortez and Viscaino, accompanied by the eminent engineer Constanso and Father Junipero Serra who was appointed to establish missions with associate friars for the conversion of the heathen in- habitants to Christianity. This expedition starting at Loreto reached the mag- nificient harbor now known as San Francisco after great hardships, crossing mud-sinking arroyos, scal- ing dizzy heights, climbing scarred and boulder- strewn mountains to avoid being washed into the ocean, sleeping under drenching rains and enduring thirst with half-rations, they plodded onward with the persistency that won victory over great obstacles. They were the first white men who traversed these smiling lands. But alas! for the hopes of the explorers, their ra- tions became nearly exhausted and Governor Portola decided to return to Mexico by ship, from the bay now known as San Diego, before more of his ninety men fell ill with the scurvy, that weakening disease caused by the lack of fresh vegetables, and before they had reached the limit of their food supply. He ap- pointed a day that the ship should sail south, when Father Serra, who was camped on the shore of the bay near the locality now known as Old Town, San Diego, went on board the caravel and begged the governor to allow a little more time before sailing, hoping the relief ship which Don Galvez had promised to send (if they remained in California beyond a given date) to them and which was daily expected, would appear. Portola was firm in deciding to sail at once, having given up hope of the arrival of the ship with food supplies. Father Serra, whose heart ached with love and pity for the savages who thronged around him in their ignorance of God and spiritual welfare, spoke these memorable words of undying faith and courage when he declared: "If every other white man leaves this desolate shore, I will stay alone and teach the savages to love and worship God." ' ' Nay, ' ' objected Portola ; " I cannot leave you in this wilderness hundreds of miles from Mexico and civilization, without food or protection, to the mercy of these cruel and ignorant savages. ' ' Father Serra left the ship and went on shore where under the boughs of trees he rang the Spanish bells and sang a mass imploring the help of Saint Joseph, foster father of Jesus and patron saint of the expe- dition, praying for success of his enterprise, the con- version of souls. On the eventful day before the ship was to sail, Father Serra arose at dawn and went forth on a hill- top where the presidio afterward was established, fol- lowing the example of Jesus in the wilderness, and prayed for the coming of the relief ship. With the cowl of his coarse brown habit thrown back and his pale, sensitive face haggard with anxiety and fasting, he watched and prayed through the long hours of the day. When suddenly, as the curtain of night slowly descended over the wild western shore, a ship ap- peared sailing slowly up the bay almost like a mirage in the sky to his amazed vision. Then again he sank on his knees, this time not in supplication to the Most High, but in thanksgiving for interceding in behalf of his cause. That Father Serra remained in California we all know, and founded the first mission, San Diego de Alcala, in 1769, dedicated to its patron, Saint James of Alcala. Happy indeed was he when an Indian child was brought to him for baptism, thus protecting the babe from the Powers of Evil. Slowly and by overcoming the hostility of the natives, he won them by love and kindness to become his pupils in the study and practice of religion. He was in deed and in truth a soldier of the Cross, and first pioneer of Cali- fornia, asking no other reward than the satisfaction of having saved souls to God. .Mission San Diego de Alcala was established near the bank of the river which derived its name from the mission, six miles from the bay of the same name. The missionaries were stockmen and traders and were the first customers of the sailing masters who ventur- ed around the howling Horn. The church was burnt by hostile Indians who threw firebrands on the roof. This edifice was afterward ivbuilt and the wooden rafters covered with earthern tiles invented by one of the missionaries. The latter sanctuary was ninety feet in length and flanked a patio, or courtyard, one hundred and sixty feet square surrounded by storehouses, shops and dormi- tories, and the remaining space by an adobe wall ten feet in height. And two date palms lift their tufted heads, like ancient seers over the wrecks of time, planted from seeds over one hundred and twenty-five years ago by the missionaries. A WEDDING JOURNEY. Among the Missions quaint and olden, And riding through the morning golden, The governor's stately cavalcade Uprode the flowery esplanade. At Luis Key's white, cloistered pile, With tower like Roman campanile, The governor stayed his retinue, While soldier guards their cordon drew. 'Neath high and wide-arched colonnade, In gown and cowl the monks arrayed, With swinging cross and sandaled feet, Walked the meek path of Pride's defeat. The priests received with kindly token, Disciples meek and gently spoken, Donas and dons with governor grand, Brides and captains of noble stand. The lovely brides with husbands brave Left home and friends northlands to save ; Bach brought a love-gift to her lord, More rare than gems from India's hoard. Still northward rode the happy twain; The bridegrooms whistling gay refrain : Brides lilted songs at candle-light And waltzed into the fragrant night. Ah ! Ne'er was wedding journey run And drawn to close at set of sun, With braver grooms or fairer brides, Since Neptune sang the ebbing tides. But monks and priests of sacred fonts Respond no more to travelers' wants: In ruins stand the crumbling walls, Of Missions old, once bridal halls. STORY OF THE WEDDING JOURNEY. At San Diego occurred the double wedding of Captain Romualdo Pacheco comandante of Presidio de Mon- terey with Senorita Carrillo and Lieutenant Agustin Vicente Zamorano with Senorita Luisa Arguello, daughter of the comandante de Presidio de San Diego. The historian Hittell refers to this double wedding of officers and daughters of officers as the most im- portant social event in California down to the above date. After the elaborate ceremony of the double wedding which Governor Echandia attended as sponsor for the bridegrooms and the citizens of the surrounding countryside attended as witnesses, followed by a week's celebration in prize games, rodeos, balls, din- ners and dances, the happy couples rode north to Monterey, over six hundred miles horseback in the governor's cavalcade with retainers of leather-jacket- ed soldiers, dons and donas from distant haciendas who attended the wedding fiesta. Governor Echandia was traveling to the capital to transact official business .of the province and his company w;;s entertained in the mission establish- ments located on the Kind's Highway and at the ex- tensive ranches, or haciendas, of Don Toinas Yorba and Don Antonio Dommguez. The vast Rancho de Santa Ana was a grant to an ancestor of the Yorba family as a soldier in valiant service to the Spanish crown. This extensive rancho consisted of leagues and leagues of grazing land now known as Orange County and other tracts. After the fiesta de boda or wedding feast and a T