. To California and back; . ter Cabrillo had dis-covered it for Spain and 167 years after it hadbeen surveyed and named by Viscaino, duringall which preceding time the country had lainfallow. Within two months Serra had foundeda mission near the mouth of the San DiegoRiver, which five years after was removedsome six miles up the valley to a point aboutthree miles distant from the present city of SanDiego. From that time one mission after an-other was founded, twenty-one in all, fromSan Diego along the coast as far north as SanFrancisco. The more important of these werebuilt of stone and a hard
. To California and back; . ter Cabrillo had dis-covered it for Spain and 167 years after it hadbeen surveyed and named by Viscaino, duringall which preceding time the country had lainfallow. Within two months Serra had foundeda mission near the mouth of the San DiegoRiver, which five years after was removedsome six miles up the valley to a point aboutthree miles distant from the present city of SanDiego. From that time one mission after an-other was founded, twenty-one in all, fromSan Diego along the coast as far north as SanFrancisco. The more important of these werebuilt of stone and a hard burnt brick that evennow will turn the edge of the finest trowel. Thelabor of their construction was appalling. Brickhad to be burnt, stone quarried and dressed,and huge timbers for rafters brought on mensshoulders from the mountain forests, some-times thirty miles distant, through rocky canonsand over trackless hills. The Indians per-formed most of this labor, under directionof the fathers. These Indians were tractable,86. ,-^ •^l^^^^ .^^ as a rule. Once, or twice at most, they roseagainst their masters, but the policy of thepadres was kindness and forgiveness, althoughit must be inferred that the condition of theIndians over whom they claimed spiritual andtemporal authority was a form of slavery, with-out all the cruelties that usually pertain to en-forced servitude. They were the bondsmen ofthe padres, whose aim was to convert them toChristianity and civilization, and many thou-sands of them were persuaded to clusteraround the missions, their daughters becomingneophytes in the convents, and the others con-tributing their labor to the erection of theenormous structures that occupied many acresof ground and to the industries of agriculture,cattle raising and a variety of were, after the primitive fashion of thetime, woolen mills, wood working and black-smith shops, and such other manufactories aswere practicable in the existing state of thearts, which cou
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidtocaliforniaback02higg
