USA > California > San Diego County > San Diego > History of San Diego, 1542-1908 : an account of the rise and progress of the pioneer settlement on the Pacific coast of the United States, Volume I > Part 5
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There was now no thought of abandoning the settlement. It had begun to take hold both of the natives and the soil, but there were evidently imperative reasons for changing its location. One important consideration was the fact that the presence of the soldiers seriously interfered with the work of interesting the Indians, both spiritually and industrially. A removal had been suggested by Commandant Fages in 1773, but Serra opposed it. Father Jaume, however, who was in charge of the mission, threw his influence in favor of the removal. He desired an atmosphere which should be wholly free from the distraetion of the mili- tary, yet not so far removed from the Presidio as to deprive him of protection. In his walks about the country he had discovered the ideal location. In fact, it must have suggested itself, for he had but to follow the river a few miles np the fertile valley to see where nature pointed with unerring finger to the very place which seems to have been created for his purpose.
Standing now among the relies of that historic settlement, one can easily imagine the joy which must have filled the old mis- sionary's heart as he took in each detail of the scene and roughly outlined the work which his followers were to do. Junipero Serra was not himself the builder of the San Diego Mission, nor did he personally organize the work which was done there for a period of more than two generations. His was the genius which could conceive great projects, then set others at work to carry them out, inspired with his own confidence in the benefi- cent consequences of the work. His name outshines those of all his contemporaries, for there were many lieutenants and an army of followers where there was but one great leader who saw the end from the beginning. When any important work is accomplished, all who have a part in it are entitled to their share of eredit; but it is the man of bold conceptions, the man en-
55
SITE OF THE MISSION
dowed with the creative instinet to initiate great undertakings and to set forces in motion to secure their execution, who changes the face of his times and takes high rank in human history.
The spot selected for the permanent mission is about six miles up the valley from the original settlement on Presidio Hill. It possesses every advantage, in the way of soil and water, of shel- tering hills and gentle climate, for an agricultural, industrial, and pastoral establishment under a patriarchal form of govern- ment, like that of the Mission Fathers. If there was a draw- back, it was the fact that the river did not furnish water at all
STATUE OF FATHER SERRA AT MONTEREY
seasons, and that some engineering skill and a large amount of labor were required to secure a reliable supply for the orchards and gardens. A perennial stream would have been an improve- ment, yet the water problem was readily solved after a time by going a few miles up the river, building a dam, and condneting a supply to the place of use by means of tunnels and ditches. This was not done, however, at first, nor was there urgent need of it until the community had grown to some size. There was good pasturage; grain could be raised without irrigation ; and water could be had from the natural flow of the stream for one crop of vegetables and small fruits each season, while the rich
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
soil along the river, with plenty of underground water not far from the surface, encouraged the growth of trees. Thus the mis- sionaries were able to make an early start in their new location and could safely reserve the finer forms of development until the time when they should be called upon to sustain hundreds or thousands by a more intensive cultivation of the soil.
Aside from these material considerations, the place must have appealed powerfully to the devoted priests. It was like their native Spain in all its essential aspects; it was in the midst of the gentiles whom they wished to christianize and to make use- ful in field and shop ; and the scenery offered by hill and valley, by sea and mountains, was as charming as the eye of man ever beheld. So there the missionaries went in August, 1774, to make a new start and to lay the foundations of a mission which they fondly hoped might last for many centuries. For more than a year the work proceeded prosperously, with a constant inerease in the number of converts, with growing herds and increasing erops, and with Fathers Fuster and Jaume in charge of affairs. All was quiet as the hills and peaceful as the sunshine. The converted Indians seemed to enter more and more into the true spirit of the work.
Thus they celebrated the Feast of Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscan order, with every evidence of satisfaction, on October 3 and 4, 1775. On the first day the priests baptized sixty new converts, and on the next day Spaniards and Indians assisted in the solemn mass and procession and, later, joined in sport and play. There were horse and foot races. The Span- iards gave exhibitions in the art of feneing and the Indians dis- played their skill with bows and arrows. Everybody seemed happy and nothing occurred to mar the harmony of the scene. And yet within a month of that time the Indians rose in revolt, the mission was wiped from the face of the earth, and the cause of the Franciscans received a staggering blow at the moment when its promoters felt entirely secure.
There is no explanation of the event except the innate cruelty of the Indian character. They had received nothing but kind- ness from the missionaries. The soldiers had not attempted to oppress them. Those who had accepted the new faith had been clothed and fed, while those who rejected the faith had been let alone. The Spaniards had been in the country for more than six years, and if the savages resented their presence it took them a long time to discover their state of mind. Had they been a people of any spirit they could have expelled or annihilated the intruders at short notice and killed the seed of civilization wherever it touched the soil. Instead, they acquiesced in the Spanish ocenpation, took all they could get from the mission- aries, and then, when they had fully established their friendly
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THE MISSION DESTROYED
character, turned into demons and sought to strike down the hand that was leading them from darkness to light. Such was the way of the Indian.
A few days after the feast, two of the new converts slyly left the mission and returned to the mountains, where they pro- ceeded to agitate for a movement against the Spaniards, visiting one ranchería after another to urge an uprising. They found most of the villages eager for the adventure, though a few declined to have any part in it. November 4, 1775, was fixed upon as the date for the attack, and large numbers of Indians wended their way toward the seacoast to engage in the affair. The plan was to divide the forces and attack the mission and Presidio, which were six miles apart, simultaneously, and it was arranged that the firing of the mission should be the signal for the attack on the Presidio. The eagerness of the force assigned to the mission saved the Presidio, for the party which was headed down the valley saw the flames at the mission and rea- soned that the soldiers at the fort would be alarmed at the sight and thus prepared to resist attack. They overestimated the Spanish soldiers, who were sound asleep instead of standing faithfully on guard; and they slept through that fateful night in blissful ignoranee of the tragedy in progress a few miles up Mission Valley. The Indians, however, turned back and joined their companions in the assault upon the mission buildings. Thus it happened that the savages were eight hundred strong when they stealthily surrounded the sleeping Spaniards-eight hundred sneaking cowards, marshaled for a battle against eight friendly whites under cover of midnight darkness ! Surely, they should have made short work of them, vet when day dawned there were white men still alive in the mission and it was the savages who were fleeing, laden with dead and wounded. But is was an awful night up there in the shadow of the hills, where the stars looked down upon a seene which seemed eloquent of peace.
The first move of the Indians was to surround the huts of the converts, waken them gently, and command them to remain quiet, on pain of instant death; the next, to invade the vestry and steal the church ornaments. Evidently, none of the Span- iards were troubled with insomnia, for these preliminaries were accomplished without rousing them. Then the Indians snatched firebrands from the camp-fire which still burned in front of the guard-house and applied them to the building, which was soon enveloped in flames. At last, the savages were ready to announce their presence, which they did by sounding a horrible war-ery with all the power of their eight hundred hings.
There were sleeping in the mission the two priests, Fathers Fuster and Jaume, two children who were the son and nephew
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
of Lieutenant Ortega (then absent at Capistrano), four soldiers, two carpenters, and a blacksmith-eleven in all, but only eight who could fight, as one of the carpenters was confined to his bed with illness and the children could do little but shriek.
The soldiers got to work promptly with their muskets and Father Fuster joined them in the guard-house, with the chil- dren. The blacksmith tried to do the same, but was killed in the attempt. One of the carpenters succeeded in reaching the guard-house, but the one who was confined to his bed was ter- ribly wounded and died the next day. "O Indian, thou who hast killed me, may God pardon thee !" he exclaimed, and when he made his testament, the next morning, he left to the mission Indians his small savings and belongings. Could there be a more striking evidence of the lofty spirit with which the Fathers imbued those around them than the Christlike attitude of this dying carpenter ?
But it is Father Luis Jaume who will stand ont forever in boldest relief as men read the story of that terrible night. He was quickly awakened and instantly understood what was hap- pening, yet he did not seek the shelter of the guard-house nor seize a weapon for defense. He walked straight to the nearest and wildest group of savages and, extending his arms and smil- ing a gracions greeting, said: "Children, love God!" If there was ever a moment when the phrase, "Love God." meant "Love your fellow men," it was the moment when this saintly priest stood without fear in the midst of those howling demons. Ile loved them and would not have harmed a hair of their heads, but they fell upon him in overwhelming numbers, dragged him down to the river, tore his clothes from his body, tortured and stabbed him, and left him a mutilated mass of unrecognizable flesh.
In the meantime the six men and two children in the guard- house were fighting for their lives in the midst of roaring flames. The place became too hot for them, and they decided to move into a slight building adjoining, which served as a temporary kitchen. It had only three sides and was wide open to attack on the other, and through this open side came con- stant volleys of arrows, clubs, and firebrands. To improve their situation, the defenders brought boxes, sacks, and chests from the adjoining storeroom and thus barricaded the open side. Only three remained to carry on the fight - two soldiers and Father Fuster-as all the others had been disabled. At this critical moment, the party of Indians who had gone to the Presidio returned and reinforced the crowd at the mission. It was then that the priest noticed that one of the chests form- ing the improvised breastwork contained all the powder that remained and was in imminent danger of exploding, for it was
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A STUNNING BLOW
already afire. He seized it, extinguished the flames, and, with the aid of the two children, proceeded to load the guns for the soldiers, who shot as fast as they could, and always shot to kill. So the fearful night wore on. Daybreak came, and the craven besiegers had not dared to carry the frail shanty and overwhelm its two active defenders by bold assault. They picked up their dead and wounded and went back to the moun- tains, leaving the Presidio untouched, but the mission a smok- ing ruin.
The neophytes crawled out of their huts and, with tears and sobs, assured Father Fuster and his bleeding companions that they had been closely confined throughout the night and un- able to lift a hand in their defense. This was probably true enough, yet it seems a pity that they did not avail themselves of the opportunity to write one noble page to the credit of their race by showing some evidence of loyalty to those who had befriended them. However, Father Fuster required no ex- planations, but sent some of the converts to notify the Presidio. and others to find the missing priest, Father Jaume. They found the lacerated corpse by the river and identified it by rea- son of its whiteness.
The lazy incompetents at the Presidio listened with wide- mouthed wonder to the tale which the Indian messengers brought them from the mission. They had heard nothing, seen nothing, during the night, but had slept disgracefully well.
The destruction of the Mission of San Diego was a stunning blow to the Franciscans, and, indeed, to the whole scheme of Spanish settlement on the coast of California. The vibrations of the shock did not stop at Presidio Hill, but went on up the coast, and culminated at Monterey in the form of a general alarm. A relief party was at once put in motion, and Father Serra hastened south to lend the inspiration of his courage and of his indomitable persistence in the holy cause. There was no serious thought of abandoning the settlement, for this would have encouraged both Indian and foreign aggression and might have put an end to Spanish dominion much sooner than it came in response to the inexorable logic of events.
The survivors of the mission fight were removed to the Presidio and tenderly nursed back to health. The dead were buried at the Presidio, but many years afterward the body of Father Luis Janme was removed to the mission and placed between the altars, where it yet rests. The place where he sleeps should be marked by an imperishable monument, for he was one of those rarest of heroes who, refusing to do violence even in self-defense, look smilingly into the face of death and go down to the dust with a prayer for their enemies on their saintly lips.
CHAPTER IV
THE DAY OF MISSION GREATNESS
HIEN PRESIDENT SERRA heard of the noble death of Father Jaume, he exclaimed: "God W be thanked ! now the soil is watered; now the reduction of the Dieguinos will be com- pleted." And it was indeed a case where the blood of the martyr became the seed of the church. The mission was re-established and dedicated in 1777, though it was not com- pleted until 1784, and was yet to be finally dedicated in 1813. But the uprising in which Father Jaume lost his life really marked the end of the first hard period of struggle in which the outcome seemed doubtful, while the rapid recovery from that disaster signalized the beginning of the long day of mission greatness.
Of that day it is important that we should have a true con- ception, for it will always supply a romantic and picturesque background to local history ; but it would be an error to sup- pose that it is vitally related to the city which finally grew up in the neighborhood of the pioneer settlements and which now bears the name of San Diego. The real history of the place be- gins at a later period than that which saw the passing of the Mission Fathers and the crumbling of their works under the pitiless footsteps of the years. Nor were their institutions or their influence much more substantial than their adobe walls. And yet. for a period of about two generations, the Spanish soldier and the Franciscan missionary ruled the land and, partly by leading and partly by driving. converted many of the savages to the ways of religion and civilization.
Conflicting tales come down to us from the earliest years of the joint reign of the soldier and the priest, and the written records are so bound with red-tape and saturated with conscious piety that it is frequently difficult to get at the facts; but there can be no doubt that the sword was the constant ally of the Cross, and that the glory of God and of the King were utterly synonymous to the minds of that generation. Neither is there any doubt of the earnestness of the missionaries in bring- ing souls to Christ. They were so deeply in earnest that they did not hesitate to employ the military arm as a means of
61
TREATMENT OF INDIANS
foreible conversion. There is reason to believe that whole vil- lages were sometimes surrounded and their inhabitants driven to the missions. It appears that the soldiers themselves had a poor opinion of the Indians, yet co-operated heartily with the priests in bringing them under subjection. Apparently, neither the military nor ecclesiastical authorities were under any il- lusion concerning the inherent unfitness of the Indians for real citizenship. Both clearly understood that they could only be utilized in connection with a patriarchal establishment. Somebody else must think and plan and direct; it was their part to labor, and to labor in the fear of God. As to the treat- ment of the Indians, accounts differ widely. They were better clothed, fed, and housed than in their native state. They learned useful arts. They canght a spark of industry which, had they been made of more inflammable material, might easily have been fanned into a fieree enthusiasm for the modes of civilized life, and thus have lifted them permanently from bar- barism. But there were many impartial observers who re- garded their condition as no better than slavery. Thus Alfred Robinson, in his fascinating book, Life in California, said that "it is not unusual to see numbers of them driven along by the alcaldes, and under the whip's lash forced to the very doors of the sanctuary." IIe adds: "The condition of these Indians is miserable indeed; and it is not to be wondered at that many attempt to escape from the severity of the religious discipline of the Mission. They are pursued, and generally taken; when they are flogged, and an iron clog is fastened to their legs, serving as additional punishment, and a warning to others."
That the good Fathers thought it more important to save the souls of the Indians than to spare their feelings or their backs, is easily susceptible of belief, for their missionary zeal knew no bounds. Better a converted soul in chains than a free lieathen ! There is no doubt that they sincerely subscribed to this doctrine, and they were no more fanatie than many others of their time all over the world. Nevertheless, the fair-minded student will not forget that while they were saving souls they were organizing a mass of cheap labor which worked for the enrichment of the Franciscan order, and founding settlements which they thought would secure the permanent possession of an opulent land for the benefit of their sovereign. In other words, their duty and interest happened to be the same, and they had thus a double motive for what they did. They thought it was good religion and good statesmanship.
When the Spaniards came, the whole beautiful western slope of the present San Diego County belonged to no one-but the Indians. With the raising of the royal standard it eame under
THE OLD MISSION DAM-Built by the Franciscans in the closing years of the eighteenth century in connection with the water supply of Mission Valley
-
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MISSION AT ITS BEST
the nominal ownership of Spain, and it was agreed that each of the missions should take so much of the territory as it needed. The San Diego Mission laid under tribute something like forty square miles, with its religious and industrial headquarters in Mission Valley and its military base on Presidio Hill. It was expected that the mission would become self-supporting, and more. This expectation was grandly fulfilled after the first hard years had been outlived. But ships arrived each year in the harbor with supplies for the military establishment. The day came when they were able to depart with larger cargoes than they brought, for when the Mission Fathers had enrolled thou- sands of laborers, and when their herds had multiplied, they had a surplus of good things for exportation. The boundaries of the mission domain seem to have been quite indefinite, but when the property was finally transferred to Santiago Argüello, in 1846. the deed covered 58,208 acres; 22 and 21-100 acres, con- taining the mission buildings and gardens, were reserved for the church and still remain in its ownership.
In organizing the first expedition, in 1769, Galvez supplied it with material for planting sneh field, garden, and orchard crops as he thought adapted to the climate. It is probable that the famous olive orchard. which still flourishes, and which is recognized as the mother of all the olive trees in California, owed its existence to the thoughtfulness of Galvez. There were many other varieties of trees of the early planting, such as peaches and pears, but the olive outlives all its contemporaries, and those ancient trees in Mission Valley should remain to receive the homage of generations unborn.
By 1783 the San Diego Mission had begun to assume some- thing of its permanent appearance. The church ocenpied a space eighty-two feet long by fifteen wide, running North and South. The granary was nearly as large. There was a store- house, a house for sick women and another for sick men. a mod- est house for the priests, a good-sized larder, and these enelosed on three sides a square one hundred and fifty-one feet long, the remaining side being enclosed by an adobe wall eight feet high. As the years went on the establishment was gradually extended to provide a series of small shops around the patio for the arti- sans and mechanics and accommodations for the increasing num- bers of neophytes outside the walls, but close at hand. It was not until 1804 that the buildings took on the final shape which is preserved in the pictures of the mission period. But the plan of the Fathers was always the same, with its low, gently-slanting roofs, its interior square, its Roman towers ; and the material was always adobe, with burnt tile for roofs, windows, and doorways. The walls were about four feet thick. There can be no question that the architecture harmonized with the landscape, for it was
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HISTORY OF SAN DIEGO
the architecture of Spain in a landscape resembling Spain in all essential aspects.
There is a tradition of unusual interest concerning the build- ing of the San Diego Mission, which is related as follows in the San Diego Weekly Union of September 24, 1878:
From an old woman now living near San Luis Rey, named Josefa Peters, and whom we believe to be at least 124 years of age, Mr. W. B. Conts learned that the timber for the mission came from Smith's Mountain, at least sixty miles inland from this city. The old lady says that after the timbers had all been nicely hewed and prepared, and blessed by the priests on the mountain, on a certain day a vast number of the stontest Indians were collected and stationed in relays of about a mile apart, all the way from the summit of the mountain to the foundations of the mission buildings in the valley near this vity. At a given signal the timbers were sprinkled by the as- sembled priests on the mountain, and were then hoisted on the shoulders of the Indians, and were thus carried to the first re- lays and changed to their shoulders, and so on, all the way to San Diego, without touching the ground; as it was considered sacrilege to have one of them touch the ground from the time of starting until it arrived at its final destination in the Church. As there are an immense number of these timbers, it shows the zeal and devotion of the Indians at that date, and their obedience to the Reverend Fathers.
As the mission grew it became evident that the San Diego River could not support the large community without something better than the ernde works which had been built at first. This condition gave rise to some talk about removing the mission, and there are early reports still extant which speak of the "barren soil." But the soil needed only water to make it produce suc- cessive crops of hay and vegetables, and annual harvests of fruit in great variety. There is nothing more remarkable about these priestly builders than the versatility of their talent and the manner in which they met all demands. Thus they were able to supply the engineering capacity to solve the problem of a permanent water supply. They went ten miles up the valley. found bedrock, and proceeded to build a dam of solid masonry across the river bed, two hundred and twenty-four feet long and twelve feet thick. The remains of this work are still in exist- once and exhibit a wall fourteen feet high, as seen from the lower side. The water was conducted by means of well built ditches and a short tunnel, and supplied the mission at all seasons of the year. It is this achievement which gives the Mission Fathers a high place in the history of irrigation, and the remains of that ancient dam should be regarded as a hallowed shrine in a land where water is the God of the Harvest. Having thus thoroughly possessed themselves of the charming valley, and established the material life of their mission upon firm Founda-
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