. Our country in story . What wonderful sightsthe heavily-laden fruit trees, planted and reared by thePadres, must have been to these happy little ones! The Indians were natural herdsmen. Vast herds ofhorses, cattle, and sheep soon grazed upon the rich pasturelands surrounding the missions. Some of the missionswere especially famous for their superb horses. Indeed,the Arabs could not have been prouder of their high-stepping steeds than the Padres and the natives wereof these fine horses. Now and then one of the beautifulcreatures was stolen. Sometimes a thief, who found him-self in danger of b
. Our country in story . What wonderful sightsthe heavily-laden fruit trees, planted and reared by thePadres, must have been to these happy little ones! The Indians were natural herdsmen. Vast herds ofhorses, cattle, and sheep soon grazed upon the rich pasturelands surrounding the missions. Some of the missionswere especially famous for their superb horses. Indeed,the Arabs could not have been prouder of their high-stepping steeds than the Padres and the natives wereof these fine horses. Now and then one of the beautifulcreatures was stolen. Sometimes a thief, who found him-self in danger of being detected, turned the animal so wild horses soon became very numerous. What a wonderful story! exclaimed James. I neverhad any idea that the missions were so interesting! There is so much more that might be told. I shallmention, however, only two or three more facts of interestconnected with one or the other of the most noted of themissions. When the Padres came to found San Gabriel 128 OUR COUNTRY IN STORY. mission on a beautiful spot covered with showers ofgoldenrod, they were met by a savage band of Indiansheaded by two fierce-looking chieftains. One of the Padresquickly drew a painting of the Blessed Virgin from hisbreast and raised it aloft. The natives instantly threw down their bowsand arrows. Thetwo chiefs tookthe strings ofbeads which theywore about theirnecks and laidthem on theground beforethe picture toshow that theywished to befriends. In asimilar manner, the picture or statue of the Madonna wasfrequently used by the Padres with the same effect asthe peace pipe was used by the missionaries among ourIndians of the Northeast. San Francisco de Assisi was founded a few weeks be-fore the feast of St. Francis in the same year in whichthe Declaration of Independence was adopted. PadreSerra visited the mission a year later. Standing on thesouthern bank of our present Golden Gate, and gazingaway over the waters of the channel, he exclaimed fer-vently, Thanks b
Size: 1795px × 1393px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidourcountryinstor00fran
