[Illustration: MISSION SAN LUIS REY, PARTLY RESTORED.]
[Illustration: MISSION SAN LUIS REY.
Showing monastery recently built behind the old Mission arches.]
The
Old Franciscan Missions
of California
BY
GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
Author of "In and Around the Grand Canyon," "Heroes of
California," "Through Ramona's Country," Etc.
_With Illustrations from Photographs_
1913
Dedication
To those good men and women, of all creeds and of no creed, whose lives
have shown forth the glories of beautiful, helpful, unselfish,
sympathetic humanity:
To those whose love and life are larger than all creeds and who discern
the manifestation of God in all men:
To those who are urging forward the day when profession will give place
to endeavor, and, in the real life of a genuine brotherhood of man, and
true recognition of the All-Fatherhood of God, all men, in spite of
their diversities, shall unite in their worship and thus form the real
Catholic Church:
Especially to these, and to all who appreciate nobleness in others I
lovingly dedicate these pages, devoted to a recital of the life and work
of godly and unselfish men.
Foreword
The story of the Old Missions of California is perennially new. The
interest in the ancient and dilapidated buildings and their history
increases with each year. To-day a thousand visit them where ten saw
them twenty years ago, and twenty years hence, hundreds of thousands
will stand in their sacred precincts, and unconsciously absorb beautiful
and unselfish lessons of life as they hear some part of their history
recited. It is well that this is so. A materially inclined nation needs
to save every unselfish element in its history to prevent its going to
utter destruction. It is essential to our spiritual development that we
learn that
"Not on the vulgar mass
Called 'work,' must sentence pass,
Things done, that took the eye and had the price;
O'er which, from level stand,
The low world laid its hand,
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice."
It is of incalculably greater benefit to the race that the Mission
Fathers lived and had their fling of divine audacity for the good of the
helpless aborigines than that any score one might name of the
"successful captains of industry" lived to make their unwieldy and
topheavy piles of gold. With all their faults and failures, all their
ideas of theology and education,--which we, in our assumed superiority,
call crude and old-fashioned,--all their rude notions of sociology, all
their errors and mistakes, the work of the Franciscan Fathers was
glorified by unselfish aim, high motive and constant and persistent
endeavor to bring their heathen wards into a knowledge of saving grace.
It was a brave and heroic endeavor. It is easy enough to find fault, to
criticize, to carp, but it is not so easy to _do_. These men _did_! They
had a glorious purpose which they faithfully pursued. They aimed high
and achieved nobly. The following pages recite both their aims and their
achievements, and neither can be understood without a thrilling of the
pulses, a quickening of the heart's beats, and a stimulating of the
soul's ambitions.
This volume pretends to nothing new in the way of historical research or
scholarship. It is merely an honest and simple attempt to meet a real
and popular demand for an unpretentious work that shall give the
ordinary tourist and reader enough of the history of the Missions to
make a visit to them of added interest, and to link their history with
that of the other Missions founded elsewhere in the country during the
same or prior epochs of Mission activity.
If it leads others to a greater reverence for these outward and visible
signs of the many and beautiful graces that their lives developed in the
hearts of the Franciscan Fathers--their founders and builders--and gives
the information needed, its purpose will be more than fulfilled.
In most of its pages it is a mere condensation of the author's _In and
Out of the Old Missions of California,_ to which book the reader who
desires further and more detailed information is respectfully referred.
[Illustration: Signature: George Wharton James]
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, April, 1913.
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
II. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MISSIONS OF LOWER CALIFORNIA (MEXICO) AND
ALTA CALIFORNIA (UNITED STATES)
III. THE MISSIONS FOUNDED BY PADRE JUNIPERO SERRA
IV. THE MISSIONS FOUNDED BY PADRE FERMIN FRANCISCO LASUEN
V. THE FOUNDING OF SANTA INÉS, SAN RAFAEL AND SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO
VI. THE INDIANS AT THE COMING OF THE PADRES
VII. THE INDIANS UNDER THE PADRES
VIII. THE SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS
IX. SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ
X. SAN CARLOS BORROMEO
XI. THE PRESIDIO CHURCH AT MONTEREY
XII. SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
XIII. SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL
XIV. SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA
XV. SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS
XVI. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
XVII. SANTA CLARA DE ASIS
XVIII. SAN BUENAVENTURA
XIX. SANTA BARBARA
XX. LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN
XXI. SANTA CRUZ
XXII. LA SOLEDAD
XXIII. SAN JOSÉ DE GUADALUPE
XXIV. SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
XXV. SAN MIGUEL, ARCNGEL
XXVI. SAN FERNANDO, REY DE ESPAGNA
XXVII. SAN Luis, REY DE FRANCIA
XXVIII. SANTA INÉS
XXIX. SAN RAFAEL, ARCÁNGEL
XXX. SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO
XXXI. THE MISSION CHAPELS OR ASISTENCIAS
XXXII. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE MISSION INDIANS
XXXIII. MISSION ARCHITECTURE
XXXIV. THE GLEN WOOD MISSION INN
XXXV. THE INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF THE MISSIONS
XXXVI. HOW TO REACH THE MISSIONS
List of Illustrations
MISSION SAN Luis KEY......_Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE
JUNIPERO SERRA
MAP OF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA
SERRA MEMORIAL CROSS, MONTEREY, CALIF
SERRA CROSS ON MT. RUBIDOUX, RIVERSIDE, CALIF
SERRA STATUE ERECTED BY MRS. LELAND STANFORD, AT MONTEREY
STATUE TO JUNIPERO SERRA, THE GIFT OF JAMES D PHELAN, IN GOLDEN GATE
PARK, SAN FRANCISCO
EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE UNDER SERRA CROSS, MT. RUBIDOUX
MEMORIAL TABLET AND GRAVES OF PADRES SERRA, CRESPI AND LASUEN, IN
MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMEO
MISSION SAN CARLOS AND BAY OF MONTEREY
JUNIPERO OAK, SAN CARLOS PRESIDIO MISSION
STATUE OF SAN LUIS REY, AT PALA MISSION CHAPEL
FACHADA OF THE RUINED MISSION OF SAN DIEGO
OLD MISSION OF SAN DIEGO AND SISTERS' SCHOOL FOR INDIAN CHILDREN
MAIN ENTRANCE ARCH AT MISSION SAN DIEGO
THE TOWER AT MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMEO
PRESIDIO CHURCH AND PRIEST'S RESIDENCE, MONTEREY, CALIF
MISSION SAN CARLOS
MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
PRESIDIO CHURCH, MONTEREY
RUINS OF MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
DUTTON HOTEL, JOLON
RUINED CORRIDORS AT SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
REAR OF CHURCH, MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
RUINS OF THE ARCHES, MISSION SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA
MISSION SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL
MISSION SAN GABRIEL, ARCÁNGEL
SAN LUIS OBISPO BEFORE RESTORATION
RUINED MISSION OF SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
THE RESTORED MISSION OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
FACHADA OF MISSION SAN FRANCISCO
RUINS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
ARCHED CLOISTERS AND CORRIDORS AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
CAMPANILE AND RUINS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
ENTRANCE TO SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO CHAPEL
INNER COURT AND RUINED ARCHES, MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
BELLS OF MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
ONE OF THE DOORS, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
IN THE AMBULATORY AT SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO
MISSION SANTA CLARA IN 1849
CHURCH OF SANTA CLARA ON THE SITE OF OLD MISSION OF SANTA CLARA
SIDE ENTRANCE AT SAN BUENAVENTURA
FACHADA OF MISSION SAN BUENAVENTURA
STATUE OF SAN BUENAVENTURA
RAWHIDE FASTENING OF MISSION BELL, AND WORM-EATEN BEAM
MISSION SANTA BARBARA
MISSION SANTA BARBARA FROM THE HILLSIDE
INTERIOR OF MISSION SANTA BARBARA
DOOR INTO CEMETERY, SANTA BARBARA
MISSION BELL AT SANTA BARBARA
THE SACRISTY WALL, GARDEN AND TOWERS, MISSION SANTA BARBARA
FACHADA OF MISSION LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN
RUINS OF MISSION LA PURÍSIMA CONCEPCIÓN
MISSION SANTA CRUZ
RUINED WALLS OF MISSION LA SOLEDAD
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE WALLS OF MISSION LA SOLEDAD
MISSION SAN JOSÉ, SOON AFTER THE DECREE OF SECULARIZATION
FIGURE OF CHRIST, SAN JOSÉ ORPHANAGE
RUINED WALLS AND NEW BELL TOWER, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
FACHADA OF MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, FROM THE PLAZA
THE ARCHED CORRIDOR, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
DOORWAY, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
STAIRWAY LEADING TO PULPIT, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL, FROM THE SOUTH
MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL AND CORRIDORS
SEEKING TO PREVENT THE PHOTOGRAPHER FROM MAKING A PICTURE OF SAN MIGUEL
ARCÁNGEL
OLD PULPIT AT MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCÁNGEL
RESTORED MONASTERY AND MISSION CHURCH OF SAN FERNANDO REY
CORRIDORS AT SAN FERNANDO REY
SHEEP AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY
RUINS OF OLD ADOBE WALL AND CHURCH, SAN FERNANDO REY
MONASTERY AND OLD FOUNTAIN AT MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY
INTERIOR OF RUINED CHURCH, MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY
HOUSE OF MEXICAN, MADE FROM RUINED WALL AND TILES OF MISSION SAN
FERNANDO REY
THE RUINED ALTAR, MORTUARY CHAPEL, SAN LUIS REY
ILLUMINATED CHOIR MISSALS, ETC., AT MISSION SAN LUIS REY
BELFRY WINDOW, MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY
GRAVEYARD, RUINS OF MORTUARY CHAPEL, AND TOWER, MISSION SAN LUIS REY
SIDE OF MISSION SAN LUIS REY
THE CAMPANILE AT PALA
MISSION SANTA INÉS
MISSION OF SAN RAFAEL, ARCÁNGEL
MISSION SAN FRANCISCO SOLANO, AT SONOMA
CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE PALA
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE CAMPANILE AND CHAPEL, SAN ANTONIO DE PALA
MAIN DOORWAY AT SANTA MARGARITA CHAPEL
HIGH SCHOOL, RIVERSIDE, CALIF
WALL DECORATIONS ON OLD MISSION CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA
ARCHES AT GLENWOOD MISSION INN, RIVERSIDE, CALIF.
TOWER, FLYING BUTTRESSES, ETC., GLENWOOD MISSION INN
ARCHES OVER THE SIDEWALK, GLENWOOD MISSION INN
RESIDENCE OF FRED MAIER, LOS ANGELES, CALIF
WASHINGTON SCHOOL, VISALIA, CALIF
THE OLD ALTAR AT THE CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA
ALTAR AND INTERIOR OF CHAPEL OF SAN ANTONIO DE PALA AFTER REMOVAL OF
WALL DECORATIONS PRIZED BY INDIANS
ALTAR AND CEILING DECORATIONS, MISSION SANTA INÉS
INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS
INTERIOR OF MISSION SAN MIGUEL, FROM THE CHOIR GALLERY
ARCHES, SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY DEPOT, SANTA BARBARA, CALIF
FACHADA OF MISSION CHAPEL AT Los ANGELES
THE CITY HALL, SANTA MONICA, CALIF
MISSION CHAPEL AT LOS ANGELES, FROM THE PLAZA PARK
RESIDENCE IN LOS ANGELES, SHOWING INFLUENCE OF MISSION STYLE OF
ARCHITECTURE
The Old Franciscan Missions of California
CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
In the popular mind there is a misapprehension that is as deep-seated as
it is ill-founded. It is that the California Missions are the only
Missions (except one or two in Arizona and a few in Texas) and that they
are the oldest in the country. This is entirely an error. A look at a
few dates and historic facts will soon correct this mistake.
Cortés had conquered Mexico; Pizarro was conqueror in Peru; Balboa had
discovered the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean) and all Spain was aflame
with gold-lust. Narvaez, in great pomp and ceremony, with six hundred
soldiers of fortune, many of them of good families and high social
station, in his five specially built vessels, sailed to gain fame,
fortune and the fountain of perpetual youth in what we now call Florida.
Disaster, destruction, death--I had almost said entire
annihilation--followed him and scarce allowed his expedition to land,
ere it was swallowed up, so that had it not been for the escape of
Cabeza de Vaca, his treasurer, and a few others, there would have been
nothing left to suggest that the history of the start of the expedition
was any other than a myth. But De Vaca and his companions were saved,
only to fall, however, into the hands of the Indians. What an unhappy
fate! Was life to end thus? Were all the hopes, ambitions and glorious
dreams of De Vaca to terminate in a few years of bondage to
degraded savages?
Unthinkable, unbearable, unbelievable. De Vaca was a man of power, a man
of thought. He reasoned the matter out. Somewhere on the other side of
the great island--for the world then thought of the newly-discovered
America as a vast island--his people were to be found. He would work his
way to them and freedom. He communicated his hope and his determination
to his companions in captivity. Henceforth, regardless of whether they
were held as slaves by the Indians, or worshiped as demigods,--makers of
great medicine,--either keeping them from their hearts' desire, they
never once ceased in their efforts to cross the country and reach the
Spanish settlements on the other side. For eight long years the weary
march westward continued, until, at length, the Spanish soldiers of the
Viceroy of New Spain were startled at seeing men who were almost
skeletons, clad in the rudest aboriginal garb, yet speaking the purest
Castilian and demanding in the tones of those used to obedience that
they be taken to his noble and magnificent Viceroyship. Amazement,
incredulity, surprise, gave way to congratulations and rejoicings, when
it was found that these were the human drift of the expedition of which
not a whisper, not an echo, had been heard for eight long years.
Then curiosity came rushing in like a flood. Had they seen anything on
the journey? Were there any cities, any peoples worth conquering;
especially did any of them have wealth in gold, silver and precious
stones like that harvested so easily by Cortés and Pizarro?
Cabeza didn't know really, but--, and his long pause and brief story of
seven cities that he had heard of, one or two days' journey to the north
of his track, fired the imagination of the Viceroy and his soldiers of
fortune. To be sure, though, they sent out a party of reconnaissance,
under the control of a good father of the Church, Fray Marcos de Nizza,
a friar of the Orders Minor, commonly known as a Franciscan, with
Stephen, a negro, one of the escaped party of Cabeza de Vaca, as a
guide, to spy out the land.
Fray Marcos penetrated as far as Zuni, and found there the seven cities,
wonderful and strange; though he did not enter them, as the uncurbed
amorous demands of Stephen had led to his death, and Marcos feared lest
a like fate befall himself, but he returned and gave a fairly accurate
account of what he saw. His story was not untruthful, but there are
those who think it was misleading in its pauses and in what he did not
tell. Those pauses and eloquent silences were construed by the vivid
imaginations of his listeners to indicate what the _Conquistadores_
desired, so a grand and glorious expedition was planned, to go forth
with great sound of trumpets, in glad acclaim and glowing colors, led by
his Superior Excellency and Most Nobly Glorious Potentate, Senyor Don
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a native of Salamanca, Spain, and now
governor of the Mexican province of New Galicia.
It was a gay throng that started on that wonderful expedition from
Culiacan early in 1540. Their hopes were high, their expectations keen.
Many of them little dreamed of what was before them. Alarcon was sent to
sail up the Sea of Cortés (now the Gulf of California) to keep in touch
with the land expedition, and Melchior Diaz, of that sea party, forced
his way up what is now the Colorado River to the arid sands of the
Colorado Desert in Southern California, before death and disaster
overtook him.
Coronado himself crossed Arizona to Zuni--the pueblo of the Indians that
Fray Marcos had gazed upon from a hill, but had not dared approach--and
took it by storm, receiving a wound in the conflict which laid him up
for a while and made it necessary to send his lieutenant, the Ensign
Pedro de Tobar, to further conquests to the north and west. Hence it was
that Tobar, and not Coronado, discovered the pueblos of the Hopi
Indians. He also sent his sergeant, Cardenas, to report on the stories
told him of a mighty river also to the north, and this explains why
Cardenas was the first white man to behold that eloquent abyss since
known as the Grand Canyon. And because Cardenas was Tobar's subordinate
officer, the high authorities of the Santa Fé Railway--who have yielded
to a common-sense suggestion in the Mission architecture of their
railway stations, and romantic, historic naming of their hotels--have
called their Grand Canyon hotel, _El Tovar_, their hotel at Las Vegas,
_Cardenas_, and the one at Williams (the junction point of the main line
with the Grand Canyon branch), _Fray Marcos._
Poor Coronado, disappointed as to the finding and gaining of great
stores of wealth at Zuni, pushed on even to the eastern boundaries of
Kansas, but found nothing more valuable than great herds of buffalo and
many people, and returned crestfallen, broken-hearted and almost
disgraced by his own sense of failure, to Mexico. And there he drops out
of the story. But others followed him, and in due time this northern
portion of the country was annexed to Spanish possessions and became
known as New Mexico.
In the meantime the missionaries of the Church were active beyond the
conception of our modern minds in the newly conquered Mexican countries.
The various orders of the Roman Catholic Church were indefatigable in
their determination to found cathedrals, churches, missions, convents
and schools. Jesuits, Franciscans and Dominicans vied with each other in
the fervor of their efforts, and Mexico was soon dotted over with
magnificent structures of their erection. Many of the churches of Mexico
are architectural gems of the first water that compare favorably with
the noted cathedrals of Europe, and he who forgets this overlooks one of
the most important factors in Mexican history and civilization.
The period of expansion and enlargement of their political and
ecclesiastical borders continued until, in 1697, Fathers Kino and
Salviaterra, of the Jesuits, with indomitable energy and unquenchable
zeal, started the conversion of the Indians of the peninsula of Lower
California.
In those early days, the name California was not applied, practically
speaking, to the country we know as California. The explorers of Cortés
had discovered what they imagined was an island, but afterwards learned
was a peninsula, and this was soon known as California. In this
California there were many Indians, and it was to missionize these that
the God-fearing, humanity-loving, self-sacrificing Jesuits just
named--not Franciscans--gave of their life, energy and love. The names
of Padres Kino and Salviaterra will long live in the annals of Mission
history for their devotion to the spiritual welfare of the Indians of
Lower California.
The results of their labors were soon seen in that within a few years
fourteen Missions were established, beginning with San Juan Londa in
1697, and the more famous Loreto in 1698.
When the Jesuits were expelled, in 1768, the Franciscans took charge of
the Lower California Missions and established one other, that of San
Fernando de Velicatá, besides building a stone chapel in the mining camp
of San Antonio Real, situated near Ventana Bay.
The Dominicans now followed, and the Missions of El Rosario, Santo
Domingo, Descanso, San Vicenti Ferrer, San Miguel Fronteriza, Santo
Tomás de Aquino, San Pedro Mártir de Verona, El Mision Fronteriza de
Guadalupe, and finally, Santa Catarina de los Yumas were founded. This
last Mission was established in 1797, and this closed the active epoch
of Mission building in the peninsula, showing twenty-three fairly
flourishing establishments in all.
It is not my purpose here to speak of these Missions of Lower
California, except in-so-far as their history connects them with the
founding of the _Alta_ California Missions. A later chapter will show
the relationship of the two.
The Mission activity that led to the founding of Missions in Lower
California had already long been in exercise in New Mexico. The reports
of Marcos de Nizza had fired the hearts of the zealous priests as
vigorously as they had excited the cupidity of the _Conquistadores_.
Four Franciscan priests, Marcos de Nizza, Antonio Victoria, Juan de
Padilla and Juan de la Cruz, together with a lay brother, Luis de
Escalona, accompanied Coronado on his expedition. On the third day out
Fray Antonio Victoria broke his leg, hence was compelled to return, and
Fray Marcos speedily left the expedition when Zuni was reached and
nothing was found to satisfy the cupidity of the Spaniards. He was
finally permitted to retire to Mexico, and there died, March 25, 1558.
For a time Mission activity in New Mexico remained dormant, not only on
account of intense preoccupation in other fields, but because the
political leaders seemed to see no purpose in attempting the further
subjugation of the country to the north (now New Mexico and Arizona).
But about forty years after Coronado, another explorer was filled with
adventurous zeal, and he applied for a charter or royal permission to
enter the country, conquer and colonize it for the honor and glory of
the king and his own financial reward and honorable renown. This leader
was Juan de Oñate, who, in 1597, set out for New Mexico accompanied by
ten missionary padres, and in September of that year established the
second church in what is now United States territory. Juan de Oñate was
the real colonizer of this new country. It was in 1595 that he made a
contract with the Viceroy of New Spain to colonize it at his own
expense. He was delayed, however, and could not set out until early in
1597, when he started with four hundred colonists, including two hundred
soldiers, women and children, and great herds of cattle and flocks of
sheep. In due time he reached what is now the village of Chamita,
calling it San Gabriel de los Españoles, a few miles north of Santa Fé,
and there established, in September, 1598, the first town of New Mexico,
and the second of the United States (St. Augustine, in Florida, having
been the first, established in 1560 by Aviles de Menendez).
The work of Oñate and the epoch it represents is graphically,
sympathetically and understandingly treated, _from the Indian's
standpoint_, by Marah Ellis Ryan, in her fascinating and illuminating
novel, _The Flute of the Gods_, which every student of the Missions of
New Mexico and Arizona (as also of California) will do well to read.
New Mexico has seen some of the most devoted missionaries of the world,
one of these, Fray Geronimo de Zarate Salmeron, having left a most
interesting, instructive account of "the things that have been seen and
known in New Mexico, as well by sea as by land, from the year 1538 till
that of 1626."
This account was written in 1626 to induce other missionaries to enter
the field in which he was so earnest a laborer. For eight years he
worked in New Mexico, more than 280 years ago. In 1618 he was parish
priest at Jemez, mastered the Indian language and baptized 6566 Indians,
not counting those of Cia and Santa Ana. "He also, single-handed and
alone, pacified and converted the lofty pueblo of Acoma, then hostile to
the Spanish. He built churches and monasteries, bore the fearful
hardships and dangers of a missionary's life then in that wilderness,
and has left us a most valuable chronicle." This was translated by Mr.
Lummis and appeared in _The Land of Sunshine_.
The missionaries who accompanied Juan de Oñate in 1597 built a chapel at
San Gabriel, but no fragment of it remains, though in 1680 its ruins
were referred to. The second church in New Mexico was built about 1606
in Santa Fé, the new city founded the year before by Oñate. This church,
however, did not last long, for it was soon outgrown, and in 1622, Fray
Alonzo de Benavides, the Franciscan historian of New Mexico, laid the
foundation of the parish church, which was completed in 1627. When, in
1870, it was decided to build the stone cathedral in Santa Fé, this old
church was demolished, except two large chapels and the old sanctuary.
It had been described in the official records shortly prior to its
demolition as follows: "An adobe building 54 yards long by 9-1/2 in
width, with two small towers not provided with crosses, one containing
two bells and the other empty; the church being covered with the
_Crucero_ (the place where a church takes the form of a cross by the
side chapels), there are two large separate chapels, the one on the
north side dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, called also 'La
Conquistadorea;' and on the south side the other dedicated to
St. Joseph."
Sometime shortly after 1636 the old church of San Miguel was built in
Santa Fé, and its original walls still form a part of the church that
stands to-day. It was partially demolished in the rebellion of 1680, but
was restored in 1710.
In 1617, nearly three hundred years ago, there were eleven churches in
New Mexico, the ruins of one of which, that of Pecos, can still be seen
a few miles above Glorieta on the Santa Fé main line. This pueblo was
once the largest in New Mexico, but it was deserted in 1840, and now its
great house, supposed to have been much larger than the many-storied
house of Zuni, is entirely in ruins.
It would form a fascinating chapter could I here tell of the stirring
history of some of the Missions established in New Mexico. There were
martyrs by the score, escapes miraculous and wonderful. Among the Hopis
one whole village was completely destroyed and in the neighborhood of
seven hundred of its men--all of them--slain by their fellow-Hopis of
other towns, simply because of their complaisance towards the hated,
foreign long-gowns (as the Franciscan priests were called). Suffice it
to say that Missions were established and churches built at practically
all of the Indian pueblos, and also at the Spanish settlements of San
Gabriel and Santa Cruz de la Canyada, many of which exist to this day.
In Texas, also, Missions had been established, the ruins of the chief of
which may be visited in one day from the city of San Antonio.