The Negro trail blazers of California [microform] : a ... - Homestead

OF CALIFORNIA 29
Galvaz had said to Junipero Serra "
: If Saint Francis wants a Mission let him cause his
port to be discovered."
Portolo was told of the unsuccessful efforts to convert the heathen and that the ship
with the supplies was months overdue. He, too, wanted to return to Mexico City before
they were out of supplies, and could see no reason for longer remaining in California.
He tells Serra that he is an old man and that they will take him back by force, whereupon
Junipero Serra ran up on to the hill back of the Mission and said: "Though you all
return, I will remain alone with God to save California."
Let the reader for a moment think of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and this
saint of the order of Saint Francis climbing the hills of San Diego that he might be alone
to talk and plead with God and finish his Novena. He prayed all day, wrestling as it
were with God to send him help that the expedition would not abandon California, and
that the Missionary Fathers would yet win many souls to the glory of God, our Lord. He
had been sending his petitions to the court of heaven for nine days. The entire party
were packing and making ready to sail back to Mexico with the setting of the sun. Even
so, Serra continued to pray, unheeding their working. The sun was fast setting, no relief
ship in sight, no baptism, no conversion. The party said that they would sail at the setting
of the sun. Portolo ordered the sails unfurled and they began to embark (so historians
tell us), but behold, there is nothing impossible with God, and just as the sun was
almost setting over the beautiful Bay of San Diego, just around what is now known as
Point Loma appeared a white sail. In a few moments the full view of the San Antonio
loomed in sight. On the shore there were Monks and the rest of the party unfurling the
sails of the San Carlos and embarking ready to sail at the setting of the sun, abandoning
California, while only one member of the party was willing to trust God to answer his
prayers in his own way and time.
The land party was convinced that they had sighted the San Antonio and ran to tell
Junipero Serra that California was saved. The day before the ship reached port, the first
Christian baptism according to the Holy Catholic Church was performed. Serra did not care
if they did return to either Spain or Mexico. He did not care if they reported their efforts
to the King of Spain or the Euler of Mexico, he had come to California to wage war
against sin under the leadership of a captain who had never lost a battle, the Captain and
King of Glory, Christ our Lord, who heard his prayers. The ship San Antonio was so much
overdue, they supposed the party had all gone to Monterey and did not stop at San Diego.
But, just before she reached Santa Barbara, we are told, she broke a rudder and went
into port to repair it, and while there the natives told them of the land expedition going
south, resulting in the San Antonio reversing her course and returning to San Diego. Junipero
Serra 's prayers were answered. Portolo and the expedition did not abandon California.
Mr. John Steven McGroarty, in the "Mission Play," and also in his "History of
California," pays a beautiful tribute to the Bay of San Diego, calling it the "Harbor
of the sun and the bright shores of glory." The writer read his description before fully
studying the history of California, but she is convinced, since reading the life of Junipero
Serra by his lifelong friend Palou, and taking into consideration the beauty of the Bay
of San Diego, the answer to the earnest prayers of Serra, resulting in the Missionary
Fathers remaining and not abandoning California, that many tributes have been paid to
this State which at first may seem overdrawn, but afterwards prove fitting.
The San Antonio was sighted off Point Loma in San Diego Bay, returning from
Santa Barbara, while, in sight of the shore, that saint of God, Junipero Serra, was on the
hill talking alone to his Maker. Through the anxious prayers and labor of the President
Father Junipero Serra, Crespi, Palou and the other Franciscan Friars composing the company
of missionaries, we find in a few years the shores of California which, during the
previous hundreds of years had lain a barren waste, dotted with successfully managed Missions.
George Wharton James says of their work in "The old Franciscan Missions" (p.
65) : "Personally, I regard the education given by the Padres as exemplary, even though I
materially differ from them as to some of the things they regarded as religious essentials,
yet, in honor it must be said that if I, or the church to which I belong, or you, and the
church to which you belong, reader, had been in California in those days, your religious
teachings or mine would have been entitled justly to as much criticism and censure as
have been visited upon the Padres. They did the best they knew how and, as I shall show,
they did most wonderfully well, far better than the enlightened government to which we
belong has ever done."
It was the aim of the Holy Fathers to establish Missions about a day's journey apart
on California's coast, and they established twenty-four Missions to the glory of God, our
Lord, and the Catholic Church. The Padres also taught the Indians how to farm, and do
all kinds of labor intelligently. In a measure they mastered the manual arts. They were