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Ella M. Sexton - Stories of California
read of one captain joyfully receiving the Mission bells to take to San Diego. When nearing the coast his
vessel struck a rock, yet passed on in safety because, as he said, no harm could happen with the bells on
board. On his journeys every missionary carried a bell with him for the new church he was to build.
Father Serra's first act on reaching a stopping-place was to hang the bell in a tree and ring it to gather the
Indians and people for service.
San Antonio, a very successful Mission, was the third one established, and it was in a beautiful little
valley of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Every kind of fruit grew in its orchards, and the Indians there were
very happy and contented, and in large workshops made cloth, saddles, and other things. San Gabriel, not
far from Los Angeles and sometimes called the finest church of all, was the next to be built. This was the
richest of the Missions and had great stores of wool, wheat, and fruit, which the hard-working Indians
earned and gave to the church. The Indians, indeed, were almost slaves, and worked all their lives for the
Padres without rest or pay. At San Gabriel the first California flour-mill worked by a stream of water
turning the wheel, was put up. Some of the old palms and olive trees are still growing there.
San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776, was one of the best-known Missions, for it had a seaport of its
own at San Juan. Vessels came to its port for the hides and tallow of thousands of cattle herded round the
Mission. The first fine church of this Mission was destroyed by an earthquake, and many people were
killed by its falling roof. It was rebuilt, however, and still shows its fine front, and long corridors or
porches round a hollow square where a garden and fountain used to be.
Old records tell us that Father Serra felt that there should be a church named in honor of Francis, who
was the founder and patron saint of the Franciscan brotherhood of monks to which these missionaries
belonged. When Father Serra spoke of this to Galvez, that priest replied, "If our good Saint Francis wants
a Mission, let him show us that fine harbor up above Monterey and we will build him one there." Several
explorers had failed to find this port about which Indians had spoken to the Spanish. At last Ortega
discovered it, and Father Palou, in 1776, consecrated the Mission of San Francisco. Near the spot was a
small lake called the "Laguna de los Dolores," and from this the church was at last known as the Mission
Dolores. But the great city bears the Spanish name of Saint Francis, or San Francisco. A fort was erected
where the present Presidio stands, and later a battery of cannon was placed at Black Point. It is told that
the Indians were very quarrelsome here and fought so among themselves that the Padres could get no
church built for a year. In that part of San Francisco called the Mission, the old building with its odd roof
and three of the ancient bells is a very interesting place to visit. There are pictures, and other relics of the
past to see, and in the graveyard many of San Francisco's early settlers were buried. This was the sixth
Mission of Alta California.
The Santa Barbara Mission, where Franciscan fathers still live, has a fine church with double towers and
a long row of two-story adobe buildings enclosing a hollow square where a beautiful garden is kept. One
of the brotherhood, wearing a long brown robe just as Father Serra did, takes visitors into the church, and
also shows them the garden and a large carved stone fountain. This church is built of sandstone with two
large towers and a chime of six bells, and was finished in 1820.
The Santa Ynez Mission was much damaged by the heavy earthquake that in 1812 ruined other Missions.
Here the Indians raised large crops of wheat and herded many cattle. Over a thousand Indians, it is said,
attacked this church in 1822, but the priest in charge frightened them away by firing guns. This warlike
conduct so displeased the Padres, who wished the natives ruled by kindness, that the poor priest was sent
away from the Mission.
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