From San Buenaventura, Junipero Serra and Governor de Neve marched to what is now Santa Barbara. Here the Indians were numerous and more intelligent than any in California, where the Indians were far denser than either the Incas of South America or the Aztecs of Mexico. Delays, caused by military differences, retarded the foundation of Santa Barbara Mission, which would have been the tenth, but Junipero Serra planted a Mission Cross and selected the site on which it was destined to be founded four years after his death. From here Serra returned to Carmelo; his journeys from one Mission to another being always on foot.
And here we must pause: We have come in our narrative to that momentous year in the history, not only of the missions, but of California. The year when. Junipero Serra, true priest of God, christianizer, civilizer, wonderful among wonderful pioneers, or as Governor Gaspar de Portolá had spoken of him years before, "the humblest, bravest man of God I ever knew," had done his work! Junipero Serra was ready for his throne in Heaven, his crown awaited him, his rough Franciscan habit was to be glorified. We have briefly glanced at his chief characteristics from his boyhood in historic Spain, and must have gauged the measure of his untiring and tried virtue from the time he landed in Mexico and San Diego, on through the years he labored as the Apostle of California; to these let us add just a few of the private practices of mortification which he imposed on his innocent flesh, notwithstanding his age, his physical infirmities, extraordinary labors and hardships in a new, half explored country. Virtually they sound like a passage from the lives of the Saints. His journeys were always on foot, although the old sore on his leg remained like an instrument of torture throughout his life, nothing being able to help him. El Camino Real, from San Francisco to Monterey and from Monterey to San Diego, with its rough roads, was as familiar to him who walked it with so much difficulty as it is to us who enjoy it by comfortable travel on the railroad or pleasurable motor trips; his fasts were austere and frequent, wine he never used, the discipline was no stranger to him, a bed was not among his possessions, on the bare floor or bench at most he would rest his sore missionary body; yet he never imposed unnecessary penance on anyone, he was hard only on himself, he was gentle and affectionate to a marked degree, his faith, trust in Providence, humility and charity, were heroic. Of his seventy-four years of life, fifty-four he had been a Franciscan Priest and thirty-five he had devoted to missionary work, of which nine were spent in Mexico and fourteen in California. His wonderful eloquence and magnetic power for preaching which had won him honors in the Old World even as a newly ordained priest, he had used and adapted for the instruction of thousands of heathens of the New World; and now that christianity and civilization were beginning to bud with springtime loveliness like the Castilian roses he had planted in some of the mission gardens, while the sun of Spanish glory was still in the ascendency and no threatening omens of the fall of Spanish or Franciscan power, or nightmares of the Acts of Secularization disturbed the cloudless skies, while the Presidio Real of Monterey bore the arms of the Spanish King and the Capilla Real do San Carlos was thronged with gallant officers and brave men of the Royal Army and Navy of Castile and Leon, and Our Lady seemed to smile blessings on her Valley of Carmelo, before the beauteous dream, nay, realization of noble ambitions, had vanished like a fair sun, God called His faithful Servant unto Himself, in his cell at his beloved San Carlos Mission about 2:30 P. M. on August 28, 1784, according to the entry of Father Francisco Paloú, in the archives of San Carlos Mission, preserved in San Carlos Church of Monterey. And what a day this was! The archives here are full of touching detail. Solemn salutes were fired from the ships stationed in the Harbor of Monterey, and the grief of the people was inexpressible. The Indians were inconsolable. The officers of the Royal Navy claimed his sandals as a precious keepsake, and the Fathers could not restrain the people from cutting pieces of his habit to carry away as souvenirs; the Indians claimed his Franciscan cord and many cut locks of his silver hair; his corpse had to be dressed twice on account of this pious proceeding. In a plain redwood coffin his precious remains were laid in a vault "on the gospel side of the altar within the sanctuary of San Carlos Mission." O! holy grave, how many changes thou hast seen! O happy Serra, from the dazzling splendors of God's light how often thou must have prayed for thy work, thy people, thy neophytes! In God's inscrutable Providence the good are ofttimes permitted to suffer, but the same All Wise Hand can brush away with a single stroke, the wrong done to His own, and His time seems near!
We will now resume the story of the foundation of the missions, for we really stopped at the ninth. Junipero Serra's life-long friend, Father Paloú was chosen temporary President of the Missions, for within a year he retired to the Franciscan College of San Fernando, where he gave most of his time to writing, and to him we are indebted for a complete and accurate biography of Junipero Serra. After Father Paloú's resignation, Father Francisco de Lasuén was appointed Father President of the Missions. Father Lasuén was an arduous laborer and able priest of the original heroic band of missionaries, and his first act was to establish Mission Santa Barbara, where Junipero Serra had planted a Mission Cross nearly four years previous. This was accomplished on December 4, 1787, and of the twenty-one missions which were spoliated in later years, Santa Barbara was the only one which tyrannical laws could never dispossess of its lawful owners, hence to this day the Sons of Saint Francis are there to guard the "altar light."
From Santa Barbara, Father Lasuén traveled north to Lompoc, and founded Mission La Purisima Concepcion on December 8, 1787.
Mission de Nuestra Señora de in Soledad was founded in October of 1791. The last Act of Secularization in 1835 fell very heavily on this lovely Mission of which scarcely a trace remains today. This mission was noted for its fine stock and luxuriant pastures.
On Christmas day of 1791 was founded the Mission of Santa Cruz. This Mission never rivaled the other missions in wealth, but in later years it was honored with a martyr. Here is the authentic story of Father Quintana, whose martyr's death occurred here as late as 1817. Father Quintana was a holy and zealous priest of this mission, who had carried on the work of the conversion of the Indians most of whom were already christian, but a small portion still remained heathen, and these were very hostile. As was later discovered, while the good priest was reading his breviary in his office, some of these hostile Indians entered, and most cruelly murdered him, then taking his body into the mission orchard placed it against a capulin tree (a tree much resembling the cherry tree in fruit and form). On thus discovering the corpse the other Fathers immediately sent a message to the surgeon of the Royal Presidio of Monterey, who at the time was Don Manuel Quixano (step-father of the writer's great grandmother). After holding an autopsy on the martyred body, Dr. Quixano found that the saintly Father had been horribly and cruelly murdered. The details are preserved in the Santa Cruz Mission archives, but are not given to the public. The capulin tree which the Indians made use of to make it appear that the Father's death was a natural one, was at the time in full bloom, and in a few hours became a dry lifeless trunk. A remarkable act of Providence indeed!
The fourteenth and fifteenth missions established were Mission San Jose and beautiful Mission San Juan Bautista, founded respectively on June 11th and June 24th of the year 1797.
We have generously used words denoting beauty and prosperity in describing the missions, but no less can be said of these mighty and bountiful institutions, who, even in their regal ruins are California's chief attraction to this day.
The sixteenth mission was San Miguel, founded by Fathers Francisco de Lasuén and Buenaventura Sitjar, with very impressive and elaborate ceremonials, on July 25th, 1797. The brilliant frescoing of this mission was done in 1824 by the writer's great grandfather, Estéban Munrás, a Spaniard from Barcelona, who had studied art in his native city, and who was intimately connected with the early missionaries, especially those of Monterey, where he resided. Estéban Munrás did the frescoing of San Miguel Mission at the request of Father Juan Cabot, also a native of Barcelona. Thus we see the undaunted steadfastness of these early missionaries who, although California had already passed from Spanish to Mexican rule, and mission power was beginning to wane, still were zealous for the greater adornment of God's holy temples.
On September 8, 1797, Mission San Fernando, Rey de España was founded. In June of the following year San Luis, Rey de Francia, fifty-four Indian children being baptized on the day of its foundation. It was in the patio (court yard) of this mission that the first pepper tree in California was planted by Father Antonio Peyri.