[Salvation]

An amazing story.

Picture won't post.

http://1mpkoh2uj7ew36r28p3t8kxt11gl.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Junípero_Serra_National_Statuary_Hall_Collection-660x350.jpg

[Salvation]

Saint of the Day Ping!

[Carry_Okie]

The stories to read are the diaries of the Portola expedition of 1769-70, of which there are four, Crespi, Costanso, Vila, and Portola himself (actually the least descriptive of the four). Serra was the spiritual leader of that mission. There was a point thereon, that a vote was taken whether to go on looking for the port of Monte Rey as described by Vizcaino. It was unanimous that they would do so, with the full knowledge that death in the attempt was an apparent likelihood.

There are also subsequent diaries of the exploration of California I can recommend: Fages 1770, Fages/Crespi 1772, and Pedro Font's account of the Anza expedition of 1775-6. These were men of great faith and integrity. Yet one incident made them all possible that should be mentioned here.

The expedition was preceded by the voyage of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, which landed along the Channel Islands of Santa Barbara. There, Cabrillo encountered the Chumash tribe, one of the wealthiest and most powerful Indian tribes on the California coast. After he landed, the Indians acted out a bizarre pantomime theatre that Cabrillo interpreted correctly was an account of a battle between Coronado and the Yuma tribe hundreds of miles away, in which all the Indians had died. Effectively, the Chumash were telling Cabrillo to keep his distance from the mainland, because they had reason to mistrust white men with beards.

The captain decided to send a boat ashore to reconnoiter for fresh water, whereupon the Indians attacked, wounding two of his sailors. Cabrillo, to his credit, decided not to retaliate.

This Christian act of forgiveness was the reason why the Chumash accepted the Portola expedition with open arms almost 130 years later, a reception without which the expedition that established California as a Spanish colony would have surely failed. The Chumash supplied the expedition with enough fish that they were still eating it on the return from San Francisco, fish without which the journey would otherwise have failed. When the Spanish took over and established their missions, they banned Indian burning. This single order allowed sufficient redwood to grow to build San Francisco. In fact, the lack of Spanish settlement might have sufficiently delayed American dominance that we might not nearly have so easily won the Pacific War.

The entire history of the West Coast would have been otherwise VERY different. All because of a Captain's forgiveness over two wounded men.

[fish hawk]

Now go get the book about all the atrocities those Fathers laid upon their slave laborers. One big California shame. No heroes here. Kill the Indian and save his soul.

[Rich21IE]

Beautiful, thanks.

[Slyfox]

While doing research on Father Serra in college I bumped into two neat stories:

During the American Revolution, Father Serra collected money for George Washington and sent it to him for the war effort. This was when the Continental Congress tended to neglect care of the troops. Needless to say George was touched by the good father's effort.

On one of his last trips to where he would personally visit each of the missions on the back of a donkey. He began his trip by stretching his back, rubbing his head and saying, "I wish I could fly." He was later honored with an airmail stamp.