Junípero Serra

“ He was thinking of his youth, a youth spent under the shade of those pear trees, even then venerable as now. He was thinking of his youthful dreams of heathen conquest, emulating the sacrifices and labors of Junipero Serra; a dream cut short by the orders of the archbishop, that sent his companion, Brother Diego, north on a mission to strange lands, and condemned him to the isolation of San Carmel. He was thinking of that fierce struggle with envy of a fellow creature's better fortune that, conquered by prayer and penance, left him patient, submissive, and devoted to his humble work ”

“ Francisco Serra, President de Croix, Viceroy, of the California and Junipero Missions: Galvez, honest, masterful and bluff; Croix, honest, discerning and diplomatic; Serra, a seraphic spirit, a later Salvitierra, a New World Francis of Assissi; post-medizval, yet not belated for his task; beholder of visions, believer in miracles, merciless wielder of the penitential scourge; yet through simple purity of heart, possessed of courage not unequal to labor the most arduous, and of a wisdom not unequal to situations the most perplexing. ”

“ The history of the next fifteen years is a history of struggle, hardship, and heroic achievement. The indefatigable Serra was the mainspring and support of it all. There seemed no limit to his endurance, no bound to his desires; nothing daunted his courage or chilled his faith. When, in the sixth year after the founding of the San Diego Mission, it was attacked by hostile Indians, one of the fathers being most cruelly murdered, and the buildings burned to the ground, Father Junipero exclaimed, "Thank God! The seed of the Gospel is now watered by the blood of a martyr ”

“ Nearly fifty trades were taught the California Indians under the supervision of the Missionaries. In 1771 Junipero Serra founded the San Carlos Mission in the most entrancing location of the Carmelo Valley that the nature loving Serra could have chosen; the forests of oak, pine and cypress for which Monterey is noted to this day, stretch with even greater beauty as we pierce farther into the interior, while the fertility of the land drained by the beautiful Carmelo River together with the commanding position of the spot, made the site of the Mission ideal. ”

“ From San Buenaventura, Junipero Serra and Governor de Neve marched to what is now Santa Barbara. Here the Indians were numerous and more intelligent than any in California, where the Indians were far denser than either the Incas of South America or the Aztecs of Mexico. Delays, caused by military differences, retarded the foundation of Santa Barbara Mission, which would have been the tenth, but Junipero Serra planted a Mission Cross and selected the site on which it was destined to be founded four years after his death. From here Serra returned to Carmelo ”

“ With the governor marched Junípero Serra, fifteen soldados de cuera, under Sergeant Jose Francisco de Ortega, two servants, muleteers and Indians—forty-four in all. The previous day, May 14, 1769, being Easter Sunday, Junípero established the Mission of San Fernando with Fray Miguel de la Campa as Minister. For the succor and relief of the forces, both sea and land, Galvez built, at San Blas, a ship which he named in honor of the protector of the expedition, the San Jose, and loading her with supplies and provisions, sent her with orders to meet the expedition at Monterey. ”

“ No doubt his gayety made Serra's sunshine in many a dark day; and grief at his death did much to break down the splendid old man's courage and strength. Only a few months before it occurred, they had gone together for a short visit to their comrade, Father Palon, at the San Francisco Mission. When they took leave of him, Crespí said, "Farewell forever; you will see me no more." This was late in the autumn of 1781, and on New Year's Day, 1782, he died, aged sixty years, and having spent half of those years in laboring for the Indians. ”

“ And the man who was thus thrust into a situation from which it seemed hard to escape at all, loved Veronica Serra with all his heart, with all his soul, with the broad, deep, simple passion of simpler times, having in him much of that old plainness of character which made men take without question the things they wanted, and hold them by main strength and stoutness of heart against all comers while they lived. ”

“ I shall spare you Brother Juniper’s generalizations. They are always with us. He thought he saw in the same accident, the wicked visited by destruction and the good called early to Heaven. He thought he saw pride and wealth confounded as an object lesson to the world, and he thought he saw humility crowned and rewarded for the edification of the city. But Brother Juniper was not satisfied with his reasons. It was just possible that the Marquesa de Montemayor was not a monster of avarice, and Uncle Pio of self-indulgence. ”

“ There are some poems about the accident, classics to be found in every Peruvian anthology, but the real literary monument is Brother Juniper’s book.
There are a hundred ways of wondering at circumstance. Brother Juniper would never have arrived at his method had it not been for his friendship with a certain master in the University of San Martín. This student’s wife had stolen away one morning on a boat for Spain, following a soldier, and had left him the care of two daughters in their cradle. ”

“ But Serra calmly went on with his work. He confirmed the neophytes at San Luis Obispo and San Antonio, and went to help dedicate the new church recently built at Santa Clara, and also to San Francisco. Called back to Santa Clara by the sickness of Padre Murguia, he was saddened by the death of that noble and good man, and felt he ought to prepare himself for death. But he found strength to return to San Carlos at Monterey, and there, on Saturday, August 28, 1784, he passed to his eternal reward, at the ripe age of seventy years, nine months and four days. ”

“ They were insolent to the aged priests, who were in ill-health; they abused the Indians so far as to pursue them to their rancherías "for the fun of the thing;" and there they had additional "sport" by lassoing the women and killing such men as interfered with their lusts. No wonder Serra's heart was heavy when he heard the news, and that he attributed the small number of baptisms--only seventy-three in two years--to the wickedness of the men who should have aided instead of hindering the work.
In his first report to Mexico, Serra tells of the Indian population around San Gabriel. ”

“ I do not know whether you are disposed to hand over Juanita and her three million pesetas to Evasio Mon as well."
Marcos made no reply, but walked on, wrapt in thought.
"I must see Juanita," he said, at length, after a long silence, and Sarrion's wise eyes were softened by a smile which flitted across them like a flash of sunlight across a darkened field.
"Remember," he said, "that Juanita is a child. She cannot be expected to know her own mind for at least three years." ”

“ Bowing himself in eager and earnest prayer Serra pleaded that his faith be not shamed, and, to his intense delight, doubtless while he prayed, the vessel sailed into the bay.
Joy unspeakable was felt by every one. The provisions were here, the expedition need not be abandoned; the Indians would yet be converted to Holy Church and all was well. A service of thanksgiving was held, and happiness smiled on every face.
With new energy, vigor, and hope, Portolá set out again for the search of Monterey, accompanied by Serra as well as Crespí. ”

“ On his way south (for he had now decided to go to Mexico) , Serra founded, on September 1, 1772, the Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. The natives called the location Tixlini, and half a league away was a famous canyada in which Fages, some time previously, had killed a number of bears to provide meat for the starving people at Monterey. This act made the natives well disposed towards the priests in charge of the new Mission, and they helped to erect buildings, offered their children for baptism, and brought of their supply of food to the priests, whose stores were by no means abundant. ”

“ So is the track from Sula up the slope to Craufurd’s standing-place.
(4) The view from the summit of the Serra is very extensive, embracing on the one side all the slopes of the Estrella as far as Guarda, and on the other the whole coast-plain of Coimbra as far as the sea. But in each direction there is so much wood and hill that many roads and villages are masked. The French army, both in advance and retreat, was only intermittently visible. But enough could be made out to determine its general movements with fair precision. ”

“ In Palou’s Life of Serra he describes that occasion thus: “The party traveled along the coast of the channel, in sight of the islands which form it, and when they judged it to be about half-way, about nine leagues from San Buenaventura, they stopped and selected a site for the presidio, in sight of the beach, which there forms a sort of bay, furnishing anchorage for ships. On [94] this beach there was a large village of Gentiles. Here the cross was raised, Father Serra blessed it and the land, and held mass. ”

“ In short, the Serra of Monte Alegre, and of course all those connected with it on the northern side of the river, lie in the prolongation of the lower beds forming the banks of the river, their greater height being due simply to the fact that they have not been worn to the same low level. The opposite range of Santarem, which has the same general outline and character, shares, no doubt, the same geological structure. In one word, all these hills were formerly part of a continuous formation, and owe their present outline and their isolated position to a colossal denudation. ”

“ But Father Serra did not show his faith by such simple miracles as these alone. In one of his revival meetings in Mexico, Bancroft tells us, he was beating himself with a chain in punishment for his imaginary offenses, when a man seized the chain and beat himself to death as a miserable sinner, in the presence of the people. At another time, sixty persons who neglected to attend his meetings were killed by an epidemic, and the disease went on, killing one after another, until the people had been scared into attention to their religious duties. ”

“ One night in his travels through Durango, Father Latour was entertained at a great country estate where the resident chaplain happened to be a priest from one of the western missions; and he told a story of this same Father Junípero which had come down in his own monastery from the old times.
Father Junípero, he said, with a single companion, had once arrived at his monastery on foot, without provisions. The Brothers had welcomed the two in astonishment, believing it impossible that men could have crossed so great a stretch of desert in this naked fashion. ”

“ The only pastures here are to be found on the top of the Serra above the city, in a region very arid, and particularly cold at this season, whence indeed it derives its name of the Serro do Frio. Although they were fed twice a day with Indian corn, they grew thinner and weaker after the setting in of the cold rain, so that notwithstanding all our care and attention, eight of them died in the course of a few days. Finding the remaining ten were totally unfit for service, I thought it better to dispose of them at once, for a mere trifle (70 mil-reis) , rather than see them die off one by one. ”

“ I meant that it would be worth while facing any risk to escape doing wrong.’
‘Nothing can be wrong which our masters make us do,’ answered Syra simply; and Junia could only sigh, for she knew that this was an axiom with both slaves and their masters.
By this time they had reached the outer door of the spoliarium, and, in answer to a whispered watchword, Phlegon admitted Syra, who promised to return very speedily, while Junia waited for her outside. ”

“ Juanita laughed lightly and shook her head.
"I am not going to tell you that," she answered. "It is a secret between Evasio Mon and myself. He will understand when I place the flowers on his grave ... as much as men ever do understand."
She vouchsafed no explanation of this ambiguous speech, but sat in silence looking with contemplative eyes across the valley. Sarrion was seated a few yards away. At times he glanced through the cigarette smoke at Juanita and Marcos. ”

“ Fortunately, however, the Indians were, as a rule, friendly, notwithstanding the fact that the behaviour of the Spanish soldiers, especially towards their women, occasionally aroused their distrust and resentment. At one establishment only did serious disturbances actually threaten for a time the continuance of the mission and its work. Junipero had lately returned from Mexico, with undiminished zeal and all sorts of fresh designs revolving in his brain, when a courier reached him at San Carlos bringing news of a terrible disaster at San Diego. ”

“ These, thirteen in number, were all in Lower California, for no attempt had as yet been made to evangelize the upper province. This, however, the indefatigable apostle was now to undertake by co-operating with Jose de Galvez in his proposed northwest expedition 1. Junipero was now fifty-five years of age, and could look back upon a career of effort and accomplishment which to any less active man might well seem to have earned repose for body and mind. Yet great as his services to church and civilization had been in the past, by far the most important part of his life-work still lay before him. ”

“ Here during a temporary halt, he founded a mission which was dedicated to San Fernando, King of Castile and Leon. But the worst experiences of the journey were still in store. For when the party was ready to move forward again towards San Diego, which, as time was fast running on, the commander was anxious to reach with the least possible delay, it was found that Junipero's leg was in such an inflamed condition that he could neither stand, nor sit, nor sleep. For a few leagues he persevered, without complaint to any one, and then collapsed. ”