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William Henry Hudson - The Famous Missions of California
side by side in the task of dominating and colonizing the new country. Having, therefore, gathered his
forces together at Santa Ana, near La Paz, he sent thence to Loreto, inviting Junipero Serra, the recently
appointed President of the California Missions, to visit him in his camp. Loreto was a hundred leagues
distant; but this was no obstacle to the religious enthusiast, whose lifelong dream it had been to bear the
faith far and wide among the barbarian peoples of the Spanish world. He hastened to La Paz, and in the
course of a long interview with Galvez not only promised his hearty co-operation, but also gave great
help in the arrangement of the preliminary details of the expedition.
In the opportunity thus offered him for the missionary labour in hitherto unbroken fields, Father Junipero
saw a special manifestation both of the will and of the favour of God. He threw himself into the work
with characteristic ardour and determination, and Galvez quickly realized that his own efforts were now
to be ably seconded by a man who, by reason of his devotion, courage, and personal magnetism, might
well seem to have been providentially designated for the task which had been put into his hands.
Miguel Joseph Serra, now known only by his adopted name of Junipero, which he took out of reverence
for the chosen companion of St. Francis, was a native of the Island of Majorca, where he was born, of
humble folk, in 1713. According to the testimony of his intimate friend and biographer, Father Francesco
Palou, his desires, even during boyhood, were turned towards the religious life. Before he was seventeen
he entered the Franciscan Order, a regular member of which he became a year or so later. His favorite
reading during his novitiate, Palou tells us, was in the Lives of the Saints, over which he would pore day
after day with passionate and ever-growing enthusiasm; and from these devout studies sprang an intense
ambition to "imitate the holy and venerable men" who had given themselves up to the grand work of
carrying the Gospel among gentiles and savages. The missionary idea thus implanted became the
dominant purpose of his life, and neither the astonishing success of his sermons, nor the applause with
which his lectures were received when he was made professor of theology, sufficed to dampen his
apostolic zeal. Whatever work was given him to do, he did with all his heart, and with all his might, for
such was the man's nature; but everywhere and always he looked forward to the mission field as his
ultimate career. He was destined, however, to wait many years before his chance came. At length, in
1749, after making many vain petitions to be set apart for foreign service, he and Palou were offered
places in a body of priests who, at the urgent request of the College of San Fernando, in Mexico, were
then being sent out as recruits to various parts of the New World. The hour had come; and in a spirit of
gratitude and joy too deep for words, Junipero Serra set his face towards the far lands which were
henceforth to be his home.
The voyage out was long and trying. In the first stage of it - from Majorca to Malaga - the dangers and
difficulties of seafaring were varied, if not relieved by strange experiences, of which Palou has left us a
quaint and graphic account. Their vessel was a small English coaster, in command of a stubborn
cross-patch of a captain, who combined navigation with theology, and whose violent protestations and
fondness for doctrinal dispute allowed his Catholic passengers, during the fifteen days of their passage,
scarcely a minute's peace. His habit was to declaim chosen texts out of his "greasy old" English Bible,
putting his own interpretation upon them; then, if when challenged by Father Junipero, who "was well
trained in dogmatic theology," he could find no verse to fit his argument, he would roundly declare that
the leaf he wanted happened to be torn. Such methods are hardly praiseworthy. But this was not the
worst. Sometimes the heat of argument would prove too much for him, and then, I grieve to say, he
would even threaten to pitch his antagonists overboard, and shape his course for London. However,
despite this unlooked-for danger, Junipero and his companions finally reached Malaga, whence they
proceeded first to Cadiz, and then, after some delay, to Vera Cruz. The voyage across from Cadiz alone
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