The Famous Missions of California | Page 3

a hundred Spanish leagues lay between that port and
the City of Mexico. Too impatient to wait for the animals and wagons
which had been promised for transportation, but which, through some
oversight or blunder, had not yet arrived in Vera Cruz, Junipero set out
to cover the distance on foot. The strain brought on an ulcer in one of
his legs, from which he suffered all the rest of his life; and it is highly
probable that he would have died on the road but for the quite
unexpected succor which came to him more than once in the critical
hour. This, according to his wont, he did not fail to refer directly to the
special favour of the Virgin and St. Joseph.
For nearly nineteen years after his arrival in Mexico, Junipero was
engaged in active missionary work, mainly among the Indians of the
Sierra Gorda, whom he successfully instructed in the first principles of
the Catholic faith and in the simpler arts of peace. Then came his
selection as general head, or president, of the Missions of California,
the charge of which, on the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1768, had

passed over to the Franciscans. These, thirteen in number, were all in
Lower California, for no attempt had as yet been made to evangelize
the upper province. This, however, the indefatigable apostle was now to
undertake by co-operating with Jose de Galvez in his proposed
northwest expedition[1]. Junipero was now fifty-five years of age, and
could look back upon a career of effort and accomplishment which to
any less active man might well seem to have earned repose for body
and mind. Yet great as his services to church and civilization had been
in the past, by far the most important part of his life-work still lay
before him.

[1] In the sequel, it may here be noted, the Franciscans ceded Baja
California to the Dominicans, keeping Alta California to themselves.

II.

As a result of the conference between Galvez and Father Junipero, it
was decided that their joint expedition should be sent out in two
portions - one by sea and one by land; the land portion being again
sub-divided into two, in imitation, Palou informs us, of the policy of
the patriarch Joseph, "so that if one came to misfortune, the other might
still be saved." It was arranged that four missionaries should go into the
ships, and one with the advance-detachment of the land-force, the
second part of which was to include the president himself. So far as the
work of the missionaries was concerned their immediate purpose was
to establish three settlements - one at San Diego, a second at Monterey,
and a third on a site to be selected, about midway between the two,
which was to be called San Buenaventura. The two divisions of the
land-force were under the leadership of Captain Fernando Rivera y
Moncada and Governor Portolà respectively. The ships were to carry
all the heavier portions of the camp equipage, provisions, household
goods, vestments and sacred vessels; the land-parties were to take with
them herds and flocks from Loreto. The understanding was that

whichever party first reached San Diego was to wait there twenty days
for the rest, and in the event of their failure to arrive within that time, to
push on to Monterey.
The sea-detachment of the general expedition - the "Seraphic and
Apostolic Squadron," as Palou calls it, was composed of three ships -
the San Carlos, the San Antonio, and the San Joseph. A list, fortunately
preserved, gives all the persons on board the San Carlos, a vessel of
about 200 tons only, and the flagship of Don Vicente Vila, the
commander of the marine division. They were as follows: - the
commander himself; a lieutenant in charge of a company of soldiers; a
missionary; the captain, pilot and surgeon; twenty-five soldiers; the
officers and crew of the ship, twenty-five in all; the baker, the cook and
two assistants; and two blacksmiths: total, sixty-two souls. An
inventory shows that the vessel was provisioned for eight months.
The San Carlos left La Paz on the 9th of January; the San Antonio on
the 15th of February; the San Joseph on the 16th of June. All the
vessels met with heavy storms, and the San Carlos, being driven sadly
out of her route, did not reach San Diego till twenty days after the San
Antonio, though dispatched some five weeks earlier. We shudder to
read that of her crew but one sailor and the cook were left alive; the rest,
along with many of the soldiers, having succumbed to the scurvy. The
San Antonio also lost eight of her crew from the same dreadful disease.
These little details serve better than any general description