from Life of Junipero Serra (1787), CHAPTER XIV, Preparations for the Land Expedition. The Departure of the Venerable Father from Loreto and His Arrival Among the Pagans. The Beginning of the First Mission.
from Life of Junipero Serra
by Francisco Palou (1787)
Translation by George Wharton James (1913)
CHAPTER XIV
Preparations for the Land Expedition. The Departure of the Venerable Father from Loreto and His Arrival Among the Pagans. The Beginning of the First Mission.
WITH the same efficiency with which His Honor, the Inspector-General, attempted to fulfill the royal order of His Majesty for the colonizing of the port of Monterey, he put into operation as many means as he could find at hand for the carrying out of this noble enterprise. I have already spoken of his plan to send out in addition to the maritime expedition which His Majesty had ordered, a land expedition, in view of the fact that it could not be very far from the frontier of the Missions of Lower California to the above mentioned port of San Diego; and without neglecting the voyage by sea nor his duties as Inspector- General on the Peninsula he made the necessary provision for the land expedition with the hope that both might come together in that port (San Diego), and having established the colony be ready to pass on to found the one in Monterey.
As soon as His Honor determined to send out this second expedition, which would be quite as arduous as it was dangerous, not because of any danger from storm but because of the great mass of pagan people of different tribes living in savagery which must be met in the way, he decided, in imitation of the patriarch Jacob, to divide the company into two groups in order that if an accident should happen to the one the other might be saved. He named as first commander Don Gaspar de Portold, captain of dragoons, and Governor of California, and as second in command Don Fernando Rivera y Moncada, captain of the armored company of the garrison of Loreto. The latter was to command the first section and to act as explorer of that region unknown thus far to the Spaniards. He put the former, whom he had named Governor, in charge of the second section of the expedition.
Having made these assignments, he gave him (Rivera) necessary instructions for the trip. He told him that he should carefully choose from out the whole company of armored troops the number of soldiers which he thought it wise and proper to take, and if necessary to recruit others, and also to secure the muleteers necessary for the cargo and the baggage of the expedition. He also ordered that they make their way toward the frontier, passing through all the Missions, where they were to ask for as many mules and horses as they might find they needed, as well as whatever other loads of provision they might obtain in the way of meat, grain, flour, pinole, and hard-tack, leaving in each Mission a receipt for what they had taken in order that all might be paid for; and that with all this provision they were to make their way up as far as the frontier of Santa Maria de Los Angeles, taking also the two hundred head of cattle; and that he was to give a careful account of all that he did, as well as of the time required for the first expedition to set out.
Under these thorough directions (which were carefully fulfilled) the captain set out from Santa Anna in the month of September and having arrived at the place of our Lady of the Angels, which is on the frontier of paganism (where he also found a part of the freight which had already been sent up by small boats as far as the bay of San Luis), and having examined the territory and not finding it suitable for a camp on account of the absolute lack of fodder for the cattle, he reconnoitered in the neighborhood, penetrating into the country of the Indians, and God willed, after traveling eighteen leagues in the direction of San Diego, that he should find a very suitable place. Having brought all the freight there, as well as the cattle and the beasts of burden, he sent word to the Inspector-General (who was at that time busy in the south preparing the expedition by sea), advising him that he would wait there during the whole of the month of March before continuing the journey.
When the Venerable Father (who had named the Rev. Father Fr. Juan Crespi, Missionary of the Mission of the Immaculate Conception to accompany the expedition) received word from the commander, he wrote to the Father telling him to start at once in order that he might not be left behind. Father Crespi set out from the said Mission on the 26th of February of the year 1769, and arrived at the frontier at the place where the camp had been formed and which the Indians of the place called Vellicata, on Wednesday in Holy Week, the 2 2d day of March, and found there the captain and all the people ready for their departure. And when all had made their confession to the Missionary from San Borja who had come up there for Mother, the Church, and the day following, Good Friday, they were prepared to set out upon the expedition.
This was made up of the following persons: the Captain, who was the commander, Father Fr. Juan Crespi, a pilotin (an officer whose duty it was to take observations and to keep the diary), twenty-five armored soldiers, three muleteers, and a squad of converted Indians from California, who went along as helpers to the muleteers and peons for whatever service might be required, all armed with bows and arrows. After spending fifty-two days on the road the company arrived without incident on the 14th of May at the port of San Diego where they found anchored in the harbor the two ships, as I will tell about later.
There had been left in the camp of Vellicata for the second expedition the mules and horses with their respective freightage, the cattle and a part of the soldiery and muleteers who were to go with the expedition. The rest of the company were to accompany the Governor and the Venerable Father President, who had asked that gentleman to go on ahead, it being understood that he had to pick up some more freight by the way and that he leave behind two soldiers and a servant, as the Father would start off a little later and would catch up to the rest of the party before reaching the frontier. To this the Governor agreed and he set out from Loreto with the troop on the 9th of March. Having arrived at my Mission he told me about how very bad the foot and leg of the Rev. Father Junipero had become, since in the trips he had made in the south they had become very much worse. Indeed he believed that his foot had become cancered, and he doubted very much if this misfortune would permit him to make the long and difficult journey.
He said: ” In spite of what I have told him and the delay which he may cause to the expedition if he should become unable to proceed farther, he insists upon going and I have not been able to persuade him to remain behind and to let Your Reverence go in his stead. His reply has always been just what I have said and that he trusts in God that he will be given strength to go on not only to San Diego but to Monterey, that I am to go on ahead and that he will come up with me on the border of the territory of the pagans. It looks to me quite impossible for him to carry out this plan and so I have written to the Inspector-General.” He begged me to write to the same effect (which I did) and he went on with his troop in the direction of the frontier. In the Mission of San Ignacio he received into his company Fr. Miguel de la Campa, who had been named to go along and take part in the Spiritual Conquest.
On the 28th of March, the Tuesday after Easter Sunday, our Venerable Father started out from the Mission and garrison of Loreto, after having celebrated, with all his accustomed devotion, the services of the Holy Week, and after having heard the confession of all the people of the Mission and of the garrison and administered Holy Communion to them in accordance with the ordinances of our Holy Mother Church. (It was on account of these duties that he had not been able to go with the company.) Having finished his task on the last day of Eastertide he sang High Mass, preached to the people, bade a last good-bye to all, and started out from Loreto, as we have said, with no other company than that of two soldiers and the servant. So he arrived at my Mission. But when I saw him and his swollen foot and leg with its ulcer I could not keep back my tears when I thought of how much he had still to suffer in the rough and difficult trails which he must traverse before reaching the frontier and the other unknown trails which he would have to traverse farther on, without other doctor or surgeon than the Divine aid, and without other protection for his lame foot than a sandal, as he never would use anything else in all the journeys which he took both in New Spain as well as in both Californias, saying that he could not use shoes or stockings or boots because it was better for him to have his foot and his leg bare.
He remained with me in the Mission for three days in order that we might enjoy one another’s company and the reciprocal love which we had one for the other since the year 1740, in which I had been assigned to him as one of his pupils in philosophy. We had also much to talk about concerning the matters belonging to the Presidency, as I had been named in the Patent from our College as Vice-President and to serve as President in case of the death or the absence of the Venerable Fr. Junipero. But before treating of these matters I called his attention to the deplorable condition of his foot and leg and told him that naturally it would be impossible for him to take such a long journey and that he might be the cause of bringing disaster upon the expedition, and if not he would at least greatly retard it. I also said that while he went far ahead of me in his desires to take part in the Spiritual Conquest he was not my superior in the health and strength which were necessary for it and that in view of this situation he ought to remain behind and I ought to go.
As soon as he had heard my proposition he replied, using these words: “Let us not talk about it. I have put all my trust in God, from whose goodness I expect that it will be granted me not only to arrive at San Diego and to set up and dedicate in that port the standard of the Holy Cross, but also to go on to Monterey.” I yielded to him when I saw that the fervent Prelate surpassed me greatly in his faith and trust in God, in his love for whom he was ready to sacrifice his life on the altar of his Apostolic labors. We went on to treat of other matters, and when we had finished he left the Mission to continue his journey. The pain of our good-bye was very greatly increased when I saw that in order to mount or dismount from the mule which carried him he needed the service of two men who lifted him up bodily and adjusted him in the saddle. His last word of farewell to me was: ”Good-bye till I see you in Monterey, where I hope that we shall come together again to work in that vineyard of the Lord.” I rejoiced in his hope for such a thing, but my good-bye was: “Until eternity.” And when I had been affectionately scolded for my little faith he said that it had penetrated to his very heart.
He went on traveling from Mission to Mission visiting the Fathers, comforting them all and begging that they commend him to God. He had gone about fifty leagues from my Mission and was in that of our Lady of Guadalupe when I received the reply from the Inspector-General to the letter which I had sent him telling him of the ill-health of our Venerable Father, that I had been unable to detain him, and that it seemed to me doubtful if he would be able to keep up with the expedition. To this he replied that he had already taken up this matter with him in the camp of Santa Anna and in the port of La Paz, and that, knowing as he did his great spirit, he was sure, he said, that he could go on. “I am very glad that our Rev. Father Junipero is going with the expedition and I praise him for his great faith and confidence that he will get better, which, may God grant, and that he may arrive at San Diego. I fully believe that he will do so.” And, indeed, as we shall see, it was not a false expectation. From this reply I lost all hope of being able to go with the expedition, so reconciling myself to the will of God I continued to ask of His mercy for the restoring to health of my Venerable Father, and for good success in his expedition.
With great labor, with no less fatigue, and with no relief from his painful disease, he was able to reach the camp of Our Lady of the Angels on the frontier and there to join the Governor and Fr. Miguel de la Campa. Having rested there three days they went on together with the troop, penetrating into the pagan territory until they came to the camp of Vellicata where was gathered all the baggage and the freight and where they arrived on the 13th day of May.