Produced by David Schwan THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA by William Henry Hudson Lately Professor of English Literature at Stanford University, To Bonnie Burckhalter Fletcher With Affectionate Recollections of California Days London, England, 1901 Contents. I. Of Junipero Serra, and the proposed settlement of Alta California. II. How Father Junipero came to San Diego. III. Of the founding of the Mission at San Diego. IV. Of Portola's quest for the harbour of Monterey, and the founding of the Mission of San Carlos. V. How Father Junipero established the Missions of San Antonio de Padua, San Gabriel, and San Louis Obispo. VI. Of the tragedy at San Diego, and the founding of the Missions of San Juan Capistrano, San Francisco, and Santa Clara. VII. Of the establishment of the Mission of San Buenaventura, and of the death and character of Father Junipero. VIII. How the Missions of Santa Barbara, La Purisima Concepcion, Santa Cruz, Soledad, San Jose, San Juan Bautista, San Miguel, San Fernando, San Luis Rey, and Santa Inez, were added to the list. IX. Of the founding of the Missions of San Rafael and San Francisco Solano. X. Of the downfall of the Missions of California. XI. Of the old Missions, and life in them. XII. Of the Mission system in California, and its results. THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. I. On the 1st of July, 1769--a day forever memorable in the annals of California--a small party of men, worn out by the fatigues and hardships of their long and perilous journey from San Fernandez de Villicata, came in sight of the beautiful Bay of San Diego. They formed the last division of a tripartite expedition which had for its object the political and spiritual conquest of the great Northwest coast of the Pacific; and among their number were Gaspar de Portola, the colonial governor and military commander of the enterprise; and Father Junipero Serra, with whose name and achievements the early history of California is indissolubly bound up.