SAN DIEGO DE ALCALÁ
The story of the founding of San Diego by Serra has already been given.
It was the beginning of the realization of his fondest hopes. The early
troubles with the Indians delayed conversions, but in 1773 Serra
reported that some headway had been made. He gives the original name of
the place as _Cosoy, in_ 32° 43', built on a hill two gunshots from the
shore, and facing the entrance to the port at Point Guijarros. The
missionaries left in charge were Padres Fernando Parron and
Francisco Gomez.
About the middle of July ill health compelled Parron to retire to Lower
California and Gomez to Mexico, and Padres Luis Jayme and Francisco
Dumetz took their places.
San Diego was in danger of being abandoned for lack of provisions, for
in 1772 Padre Crespí, who was at San Carlos, writes that on the
thirtieth of March of that year "the mail reached us with the lamentable
news that this Mission of San Diego was to be abandoned for lack of
victuals." Serra then sent him with "twenty-two mules, and with them
fifteen half-loads of flour" for their succor. Padres Dumetz and Cambon
had gone out to hunt for food to the Lower California Missions. The same
scarcity was noticed at San Gabriel, and the padres, "for a considerable
time, already, had been using the supplies which were on hand to found
the Mission of San Buenaventura; and though they have _drawn their belts
tight_ there remains to them provisions only for two months and a half."
Fortunately help came; so the work continued.
The region of San Diego was well peopled. At the time of the founding
there were eleven rancherías within a radius of ten leagues. They must
have been of a different type from most of the Indians of the coast,
for, from the first, as the old Spanish chronicler reports, they were
insolent, arrogant, and thievish. They lived on grass seeds, fish,
and rabbits.
In 1774, the separation of the Mission from the presidio was decided
upon, in order to remove the neophytes from the evil influences of the
soldiers. The site chosen was six miles up the valley (named _Nipaguay_
by the Indians), and so well did all work together that by the end of
the year a dwelling, a storehouse, a smithy built of adobes, and a
wooden church eighteen by fifty-seven feet, and roofed with tiles, were
completed. Already the work of the padres had accomplished much.
Seventy-six neophytes rejoiced their religious hearts, and the herds had
increased to 40 cattle, 64 sheep, 55 goats, 19 hogs, 2 jacks, 2 burros,
17 mares, 3 foals, 9 horses, 22 mules,--233 animals in all.
The presidio remained at Cosoy (now old San Diego), and four thousand
adobes that had been made for the Mission buildings were turned over to
the military. A rude stockade was erected, with two bronze cannon, one
mounted towards the harbor, the other towards the Indian ranchería.
The experiments in grain raising at first were not successful. The seed
was sown in the river bottom and the crop was destroyed by the
unexpected rising of the river. The following year it was sown so far
from water that it died from drought. In the fall of 1775 all seemed to
be bright with hope. New buildings had been erected, a well dug, and
more land made ready for sowing. The Indians were showing greater
willingness to submit themselves to the priests, when a conflict
occurred that revealed to the padres what they might have to contend
with in their future efforts towards the Christianizing of the natives.
The day before the feast of St. Francis (October 4, 1775), Padres Jayme
and Fuster were made happy by being required to baptize sixty new
converts. Yet a few days later they were saddened by the fact that two
of these newly baptized fled from the Mission and escaped to the
mountains, there to stir up enmity and revolt. For nearly a month they
moved about, fanning the fires of hatred against the "long gowns," until
on the night of November 4 (1775) nearly eight hundred naked savages,
after dusk, stealthily advanced and surrounded the Mission, where the
inmates slept unguarded, so certain were they of their security. Part of
the force went on to the presidio, where, in the absence of the
commander, the laxity of discipline was such that no sentinel was
on guard.
An hour after midnight the whole of the Mission was surrounded. The
quarters of the Christianized Indians were invaded, and they were
threatened with instantaneous death if they gave the alarm. The church
was broken into, and all the vestments and sacred vessels stolen. Then
the buildings were fired. Not until then did the inmates know of their
danger. Imagine their horror, to wake up and find the building on fire
and themselves surrounded by what, in their dazed condition, seemed
countless hordes of savages, all howling, yelling, brandishing
war-clubs, firing their arrows,--the scene made doubly fearful by the
red glare of the flames.
In the guard-house were four soldiers,--the whole of the Mission
garrison; in the house the two priests, Jayme and Fuster, two little
boys, and three men (a blacksmith and two carpenters). Father Fuster,
the two boys, and the blacksmith sought to reach the guard-house, but
the latter was slain on the way. The Indians broke into the room where
the carpenters were, and one of them was so cruelly wounded that he died
the next day.
Father Jayme, with the shining light of martyrdom in his eyes, and the
fierce joy of fearlessness in his heart, not only refused to seek
shelter, but deliberately walked towards the howling band, lifting his
hands in blessing with his usual salutation: "Love God, my children!"
Scarcely were the words uttered when the wild band fell upon him,
shrieking and crying, tearing off his habit, thrusting him rudely along,
hurting him with stones, sticks, and battle-axe, until at the edge of
the creek his now naked body was bruised until life was extinct, and
then the corpse filled with arrows.
Three soldiers and the carpenter, with Father Fuster and two boys
loading the guns for them, fought off the invaders from a near-by
kitchen, and at dawn the attacking force gathered up their dead and
wounded and retired to the mountains.
No sooner were they gone than the neophytes came rushing up to see if
any were left alive. Their delight at finding Father Fuster was
immediately changed into sadness as others brought in the awfully
mutilated and desecrated body of Father Jayme. Not until then did Father
Fuster know that his companion was dead, and deep was the mourning of
his inmost soul as he performed the last offices for his dear companion.
Strange to say, so careless was the garrison that not until a messenger
reached it from Father Fuster did they know of the attack. They had
placed no guards, posted no sentinels, and, indifferent in their
foolish scorn of the prowess and courage of the Indians, had slept
calmly, though they themselves might easily have been surprised, and the
whole garrison murdered while asleep.
In the meantime letters were sent for aid to Rivera at Monterey, and
Anza, the latter known to be approaching from the Colorado River region;
and in suspense until they arrived, the little garrison and the
remaining priests passed the rest of the year. The two commanders met at
San Gabriel, and together marched to San Diego, where they arrived
January 11, 1776. It was not long before they quarreled. Anza was for
quick, decisive action; Rivera was for delay; so, when news arrived from
San Gabriel that the food supply was running short, Anza left in order
to carry out his original orders, which involved the founding of San
Francisco. Not long after his departure Carlos, the neophyte who had
been concerned in the insurrection, returned to San Diego, and,
doubtless acting under the suggestion of the padres, took refuge in the
temporary church at the presidio.
An unseemly squabble now ensued between Rivera and Padre Lasuen, the
former violating the sanctuary of the church to arrest the Indian.
Lasuen, on the next feast day, refused to say mass until Rivera and his
violating officers had retired.
All this interfered with resumption of work on the church; so Serra
himself went to San Diego, and, finding the ship "San Antonio" in the
harbor, made an arrangement with Captain Choquet to supply sailors to
do the building under his own direction. Rivera was then written to for
a guard, and he sent six soldiers. On August 22, 1777, the three padres,
Choquet with his mate and boatswain and twenty sailors, a company of
neophytes, and the six soldiers went to the old site and began work in
earnest, digging the foundations, making adobes, and collecting stones.
The plan was to build a wall for defense, and then erect the church and
other buildings inside. For fifteen days all went well. Then an Indian
went to Rivera with a story that hostile Indians were preparing arrows
for a new attack, and this so scared the gallant officer that he
withdrew his six men. Choquet had to leave with his men, as he dared not
take the responsibility of being away with so many men without the
consent of Rivera; and, to the padre's great sorrow, the work had
to cease.
In March of 1778 Captain Carrillo was sent to chastise hostile Indians
at Pamó who had sent insolent messages to Captain Ortega. Carrillo
surprised the foe, killed two, burned others who took refuge in a hut,
while the others surrendered and were publicly flogged. The four chiefs,
Aachel, Aalcuirin, Aaran, and Taguagui, were captured, taken to San
Diego, and there shot, though the officer had no legal right to condemn
even an Indian to death without the approval of the governor. Ortega's
sentence reads: "Deeming it useful to the service of God, the King, and
the public weal, I sentence them to a violent death by two musket-shots
on the 11th at 9 A.M., the troops to be present at the execution under
arms also all the Christian rancherías subject to the San Diego Mission,
that they may be warned to act righteously."
Ortega then instructed Padres Lasuen and Figuer to prepare the
condemned. "You will co-operate for the good of their souls in the
understanding that if they do not accept the salutary waters of baptism
they die on Saturday morning; and if they do--they die all the same!"
This was the first public execution in California.
In 1780 the new church, built of adobe, strengthened and roofed with
pine timbers, ninety feet long and seventeen feet wide and high, was
completed.
In 1782 fire destroyed the old presidio church.
In 1783 Lasuen made an interesting report on the condition of San Diego.
At the Mission there were church, granary, storehouse, hospital, men's
house, shed for wood and oven, two houses for the padres, larder,
guest-room, and kitchen. These, with the soldiers' barracks, filled
three sides of a square of about one hundred and sixty feet, and on the
fourth side was an adobe wall, nearly ten feet high. There were seven
hundred and forty neophytes at that time under missionary care, though
Lasuen spoke most disparagingly of the location as a Mission site.
In 1824 San Diego registered its largest population, being then
eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.
When Spanish rule ended, and the Mexican empire and republic sent its
first governor, Echeandía, he decided to make San Diego his home; so for
the period of his governorship, though he doubtless lived at or near the
presidio, the Mission saw more or less of him. As is shown in the
chapter on Secularization, he was engaged in a thankless task when he
sought to change the Mission system, and there was no love lost between
the governor's house and the Mission.
In 1833 Governor Figueroa visited San Diego Mission in person, in order
to exhort the neophytes to seize the advantages of citizenship which the
new secularization regulations were to give to them; but, though they
heard him patiently, and there and at San Luis Rey one hundred and sixty
families were found to be duly qualified for "freedom," only ten could
be found to accept it.
On March 29, 1843, Governor Micheltorena issued a decree which restored
San Diego Mission temporalities to the management of the padre. He
explained in his prelude that the decree was owing to the fact that the
Mission establishments had been reduced to the mere space occupied by
the buildings and orchards, that the padres had no support but that of
charity, etc. Mofras gives the number of Indians in 1842 as five
hundred, but an official report of 1844 gives only one hundred. The
Mission retained the ranches of Santa Isabel and El Cajon until
1844-1845, and then, doubtless, they were sold or rented in accordance
with the plans of Pio Pico.
To-day nothing but the _fachada_ of the church remains, and that has
recently been braced or it would have fallen. There are a few portions
of walls also, and a large part of the adobe wall around the garden
remains. The present owner of the orchard, in digging up some of the old
olive trees, has found a number of interesting relics, stirrups, a
gun-barrel, hollow iron cannon-balls, metates, etc. These are all
preserved and shown as "curios," together with beams from the church,
and the old olive-mill.
By the side of the ruined church a newer and modern brick building now
stands. It destroys the picturesqueness of the old site, but it is
engaged in a good work. Father Ubach, the indefatigable parish priest of
San Diego, who died a few years ago, and who was possessed of the spirit
of the old padres, erected this building for the training of the Indian
children of the region. On one occasion I asked the children if they
knew any of the "songs of the old," the songs their Indian grandparents
used to sing; and to my delight, they sang two of the old chorals taught
their ancestors in the early Mission days by the padres.
[Illustration: FACHADA OF THE RUINED MISSION OF SAN DIEGO]
[Illustration: OLD MISSION OF SAN DIEGO AND SISTERS SCHOOL FOR INDIAN
CHILDREN]
[Illustration: MAIN ENTRANCE ARCH AT MISSION SAN DIEGO.]
[Illustration: THE TOWER AT MISSION SAN CARLOS BORROMEO]