The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other SketchesJordan, David Starr
Philosophy
The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches
Jordan, David Starr
Essays
A week later, the San Antonio arrived, coming in sight around the Point
of Pines, and was guided to its anchorage by bonfires along the beach.
The party landed at the mouth of the little brook which flows down a
rocky bank to the sea. On the 3rd of June, 1770, Father Serra and his
associates "took possession of the land in the name of the King of
Spain, hoisting the Spanish flag, pulling out some of the grass and
throwing stones here and there, making formal entry of the
proceedings." On the same day Serra began his mission by erecting a
cross, hanging bells from a tree, and saying mass under the venerable
oak where the Carmelite friars accompanying Vizcaino celebrated it in
1602. Around this landing grew up the town of Monterey.
At a point just back from the shore, near the old live-oak tree under
which the Padre rendered thanks, there has long stood a commemorative
cross. On the hill above where the Padre stood looking out over the
beautiful bay, there was placed one hundred and twenty years later, by
the kind interest of a good woman, a noble statue, in gray granite,
representing Father Serra as he stepped from his boat.
A fortress, or presidio, was built, and Monterey was made the capital
of Alta California. But the mission was not located at the town. It
was placed five miles farther south, where there were better pasturage
and shelter. This was on a beautiful slope of the hill, flanked by a
fertile valley opening out to the glittering sea, with the mountains of
Santa Lucia in front and a great pine forest behind. The valley was
named Carmelo, in honor of Vizcaino's Carmelite friars, and the mission
was named for San Carlos Borromeo.
The present church of Monterey was not a mission church, but the chapel
of the _presidio_, or barracks. It is now, according to Father
Casanova, the oldest building in California. The old Mission of San
Diego, first founded of all, was burned by the Indians. It was
afterwards rebuilt, but this took place after the chapel in Monterey
was finished. The mission in Carmelo was not completed until later, as
the Padre was obliged to secure authority from Mexico, that he might
place it on the pasture lands of Carmelo, instead of the sand-hills of
Monterey.
When the discoveries of Portola and Ortega had been reported at San
Diego, the shores of this inland sea of San Francisco seemed a most
favorable station for another mission. Among the missions already
dedicated to the saints, none had yet been found for the great father
of the Franciscan order, St. Francis of Assisi, the beloved saint who
could call the birds and who knew the speech of all animals. Before
this, Father Serra had said to Governor Galvez, "And for our Father St.
Francis is there to be no mission?" And Galvez answered, "If St.
Francis wants a mission, let him show his port, and we will found the
mission there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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