Southern California; . nson the way to San Bernardino. Dropping sharply awayfrom the ridge upon which Orange Grove and GrandAvenues lie is the beautiful Arroyo Seco, a rambling, drycreek bed of sand and gravel, skirted with live oaks andsycamores and flanked bj- rolling hills beyond which liesthe valley of San Fernando, named from the missionwhich still remains as a silent witness of the days ofSpanish rule. The San Gabriel Valley is teeming with historicassociations. Hither, in 1771, came Father JuniperoSerra, with a small band of devoted followers, to foundthe fourth of the Franciscan missio
Southern California; . nson the way to San Bernardino. Dropping sharply awayfrom the ridge upon which Orange Grove and GrandAvenues lie is the beautiful Arroyo Seco, a rambling, drycreek bed of sand and gravel, skirted with live oaks andsycamores and flanked bj- rolling hills beyond which liesthe valley of San Fernando, named from the missionwhich still remains as a silent witness of the days ofSpanish rule. The San Gabriel Valley is teeming with historicassociations. Hither, in 1771, came Father JuniperoSerra, with a small band of devoted followers, to foundthe fourth of the Franciscan missions in Alta discovered a large Indian population in this lovelyvalley who were at first hardlj^ disposed to be friendly,but, according to the early chronicler, were immediatelypacified when a large picture of the Virgin was unfoldedto their view. The mission bells were sus-pended from a tree, mass was said, and the -« little band soon commenced the work ofconstructing a mission. The original adobe <^^^. ^^^^ structure was deserted after a few years for a more favor-able site some five miles awa}% and here in 1775 a secondmission was erected, to be replaced ere long by a stonechurch a few hundred yards farther south, which standstoday, but little altered by the lapse of time. It is theoldest of the California missions now standing in a goodstate of preservation. It is situated in the middle of therambling old Mexican town of the same name, and sur-rounded by tokens of that strange life which is now socompletel} a thing of the past. Back of it is the ceme-tery with many a story written over its dilapidatedgraves, and in front, just across the street, is the ditchand remnants of the mill in which the Jndian neophytesground the flour. This old mill was largely built by areformed pirate, the story of whose life forms one of theromances of this romantic region. In 1818, a privateer from Buenos Ayres was j)lun(leriugthe coast of California in the vicinity of Santa Bar
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Keywords: ., bookauthorkeelerch, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1901
