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
And now the lost port of St. Francis was found, and it was the most
beautiful of all, with the noblest of harbors, and the fairest of views
toward the hills and the sea. So the new mission was called for him,
the Mission San Francisco de los Dolores. For the Creek Dolores, the
"brook of sorrows," flowed by the mission, and gave it part of its
name. But Dolores stream is long since obliterated, forming part of
the sewage system of San Francisco.[3]
Thus was founded
"that wondrous city, now apostate to the creed,
O'er whose youthful walls the Padre saw the angel's golden reed."
Meanwhile, following San Diego de Alcala and San Carlos Borromeo, a
long series of missions was established, each one bearing the sonorous
Spanish name of some saint or archangel, each in some beautiful sunny
valley, half-hidden by oaks, and each a day's ride distant from the
next. In the most charming nook of the Santa Lucia Mountains was built
San Antonio de Padua; in the finest open pastures of the Coast Range,
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. In the rich valley, above the city of the
Queen of the Angels, the beautiful church of San Gabriel Arcangel was
dedicated to the leader of the hosts of heaven. Later, came the
magnificent San Juan Capistrano, ruined by earthquakes in 1812. In its
garden still stands the largest pepper-tree in Southern California.
Then Santa Clara was built in the center of the fairest valley of the
State. Next came San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara, for the coast
Indians of the south, and Santa Cruz, for those to the north of
Monterey Bay. In the Salinas Valley, along the "_Camino real_," or
royal highway, from the south to the north, were built Nuestra Senora
de la Soledad and San Miguel Arcangel. A day's journey from Carmelo,
in the valley of the Pajaro, arose San Juan Bautista. In the charming
valley of Santa Ynez, still hidden from the tourist, a day's journey
apart, were Santa Ynez and La Purisima Concepcion. East of the Bay of
San Francisco, in a nook famous for vineyards, arose the Mission San
Jose.
[Illustration: Mission of San Antonio de Padua.]
In the broad, rocky pastures above Los Angeles, arose San Fernando Key
de Espana, while midway between San Diego and San Juan Capistrano was
placed the stateliest of all the missions, dedicated, with its rich
river valley, to the memory of San Luis Rey de Francia. Finally, to
the north of San Francisco Bay, was built San Rafael, small, but
charmingly situated, and then San Francisco Solano, still farther on in
Sonoma. This, the northernmost outpost of the saints, the last,
weakest, and smallest, was first to die. It was founded in 1823, fifty
years after the Mission San Diego.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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