But why did these heroes choose Mexico and California as the vineyards of their labors? Why did they not go to Africa or other heathen shores? Here is the answer: Spain and all Europe were filled with stories of the New World since the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492, and several other Spanish discoveries in later years, among which must be remembered that in 1521, Hernando Cortes, one of the great Spanish explorers of the sixteenth century, explored the hitherto unknown land of Mexico, and as Spain always accompanied her conquests and explorations with her missionaries to evangelize the heathens, at the time that Father Junipero Serra set sail for the New World, which was in 1759, there were in Mexico an archbishopric and several missions conducted by Spanish priests, among them a well established Franciscan College in San Fernando, a settlement in the northern part of Mexico, which the Spanish explorers and missionaries so decided to name after Saint Ferdinand, a King of Spain, who lived in the thirteenth century. And to this College, Father Junipero Serra and his companions came after a perilous voyage of nearly one year; for the date of their arrival was January 1, 1760; and here they began their labor! Of the nine years which Junipero Serra toiled in Mexico, six were spent in Sierra Gorda, some distance north of San Fernando, and one of the wildest and roughest of those half explored regions. And what marvels attended the labors of Serra and the other self-sacrificing sons of Saint Francis here! With Junipero Serra at the helm, the good priests learned some of the Aztec dialects in order to convert the savages. Then what followed? With the greatest patience the missionaries acquitted themselves to the task of teaching the classic, cultured language of Spain to these poor aborigines, whose languages like those of the still cruder California Indians, did not contain expressions for even the simplest words of scripture or of the liturgy of the Church. And can we wonder at this? But what were the astonishing results of the good priests' labors? They were truly God-wonders! Daily were recorded numerous conversions, and at the close of six years many Indian congregations of those regions could be heard singing the ancient Latin hymns of the Church, and in poor but intelligible Spanish supplying in their prayers and conversations what was wanting in their dialects. It was while at Sierra Gorda that Junipero Serra became afflicted with a painful sore which broke out on his right leg and which never healed in all his eventful and laborious career. Many historians allude to this sore as a "wound," but no record is extant to indicate it as such, the most authentic conclusions being that this sore was due to natural causes greatly augmented and brought on by the hardships and climatic conditions he encountered in this missionary field.