Page 23 - LLR-Exploration II

Junipero Serra, the founder of the Missions, which were
the first settlements of civilized man in California, was Expedition Diaries, September 4, 1769
born on the island of Majorca, part of the kingdom of Oso Flaco to Price Canyon
Spain, on the 24th of November 1713. At the age of
sixteen, he became a Monk of the order of St. Francis, Gaspar de Portolá
The 4th, we proceeded for four hours, the greater part of the road
and the new name of Junipero was then substituted for was good; the remainder, close to the seashore, was over great Notes:
his baptismal name of Miguel José. After entering the sand dunes. It was necessary to go around the many marshes and
lagoons, which gave us much labor. We halted at a place having
convent, he went through a collegiate course of study, much water and pasture, where there came to our camp the Junipero Serra and
and before he had received the degree of Doctor, was inhabitants of a village of about forty natives without counting
others who were in the neighborhood. Here we found ourselves at
appointed lecturer upon philosophy. He became a the foot of the Sierra de Santa Lucia. We observed that the villages Marieta/Pedro share
noted preacher, and was frequently invited to visit the have a small number of inhabitants and that these do not live in
regular houses as do the Indians on the channel, but they are more
larger towns of his native island in that capacity.
docile. the same birth place
Junipero was thirty-six years of age when he Miguel Costansó
determined to become a missionary in the New World. In order to avoid the marshes of the plain and the estuaries that
reach to the foot of the mountain range, we directed our course to
In 1749, he crossed the ocean in company with a the west over the sand-dunes; these we crossed at the narrowest
number of Franciscan Monks, among them several who point half a league only discovered by the scouts. We then
descended to the beach, and proceeded along it for about a league
afterward came with him to California. He remained but to the north-northwest. Turning to the east, we again went inland,
a short time in the City of Mexico, and was soon sent a crossing the sand dunes at another narrow place of half a league.
We afterwards reached firm ground on a tongue of land between
missionary to the Indians in the Sierra Madre, in the two bodies of water. To the right, there was a pond of fresh water,
district now known as the State of San Luis Potosi. He which the sand-dunes dammed up, and kept from emptying into
the sea. To the left, an estuary extended into the plain; we rounded
spent nine years there, and then returned to the City of
it, travelling towards the north-northeast. We afterwards took a
Mexico where he stayed for seven years, in the Convent course to the north and entered the range through a pass, or
canyon, covered with live-oaks, alders, willows, and other trees. In
of San Fernando.
the same canyon we pitched our camp on the bank of a stream
covered with watercress. On this day's march we traveled four
In 1767, when he was fifty-four years of age, he was leagues. On the whole road we came upon only one small and
appointed to the charge of the Missions to be wretched Indian village. This part of the country is practically
uninhabited. The Indians of this village, which was only a short
established in Upper California. He arrived at San Diego distance from our quarters, came in the afternoon to visit us; they
in 1769, and, with the exception of one journey to brought presents of seeds and some fish, and offered them to us.
Their cacique had a large deformity, consisting of a tumor that
Mexico, he spent all the remainder of his life here. He hung from his neck. The soldiers, when they saw it, gave him the
died at the Mission [San Carlos Borromeo] of Carmel, nickname of Buchon, and this name likewise stuck to his village
near Monterey, on the 28th of August 1784, aged and to the entire place.
seventy- one years. Figure 8:Gaspar de Portolá

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