Legends and Tales | Page 3

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LEGENDS AND TALES
by Bret Harte

CONTENTS
THE LEGEND OF MONTE DEL DIABLO
THE ADVENTURE OF PADRE VICENTIO
THE LEGEND OF DEVIL'S POINT
THE DEVIL AND THE BROKER
THE OGRESS OF SILVER LAND
THE RUINS OF SAN FRANCISCO
A NIGHT AT WINGDAM

LEGENDS AND TALES.

THE LEGEND OF MONTE DEL DIABLO.
The cautious reader will detect a lack of authenticity in the following
pages. I am not a cautious reader myself, yet I confess with some
concern to the absence of much documentary evidence in support of the
singular incident I am about to relate. Disjointed memoranda, the
proceedings of ayuntamientos and early departmental juntas, with other
records of a primitive and superstitious people, have been my
inadequate authorities. It is but just to state, however, that though this
particular story lacks corroboration, in ransacking the Spanish archives
of Upper California I have met with many more surprising and
incredible stories, attested and supported to a degree that would have
placed this legend beyond a cavil or doubt. I have, also, never lost faith
in the legend myself, and in so doing have profited much from the
examples of divers grant- claimants, who have often jostled me in their
more practical researches, and who have my sincere sympathy at the
scepticism of a modern hard-headed and practical world.
For many years after Father Junipero Serro first rang his bell in the
wilderness of Upper California, the spirit which animated that
adventurous priest did not wane. The conversion of the heathen went
on rapidly in the establishment of Missions throughout the land. So
sedulously did the good Fathers set about their work, that around their
isolated chapels there presently arose adobe huts, whose mud-plastered
and savage tenants partook regularly of the provisions, and
occasionally of the Sacrament, of their pious hosts. Nay, so great was
their progress, that one zealous Padre is reported to have administered
the Lord's Supper one Sabbath morning to "over three hundred heathen
Salvages." It was not to be wondered that the Enemy of Souls, being
greatly incensed thereat, and alarmed at his decreasing popularity,
should have grievously tempted and embarrassed these Holy Fathers, as
we shall presently see.
Yet they were happy, peaceful days for California. The vagrant keels of
prying Commerce had not as yet ruffled the lordly gravity of her bays.
No torn and ragged gulch betrayed the suspicion of golden treasure.
The wild oats drooped idly in the morning heat, or wrestled with the

afternoon breezes. Deer and antelope dotted