forges,
mills, canneries, soap factories, joiners works, and carpenter shops.
All this was so distributed as to leave in the principal wing rooms for
monks and visitors and in the other end of the building school rooms,
supply houses, and infirmaries.*
Around
the establisment extended gardens and beyond the gardens clustered
Indian huts, usually built of straw and reeds. The Indian neophytes
were fed at the mission. Although the Capuchins were not remarkable
cooks, yet since there was no way to rectify this out in this remote
land, they prepared their own food as well as that of the Indians. This
food consisted of corn cakes, of boiled beef or mutton, and of all
kinds of fruits. They did not drink wine. What wine was made in the
mission or brought in from the settlements was kept for invalids or
reserved for visitors. Neophytes and workers were instructed
gratuitously. Everything in these establishments was accomplished by
persuasion, not by force.
Pueblos
are nothing more than villages that were established originally by
soldiers who had seen service at the presidios and to whom had been
granted, in exchange for these services, a definite amount of land,
which they were free to select wherever they preferred, provided the
land they desired was vacant.** Each man exploited this land in his own
fashion. California as a whole contained only four pueblos: Nuestra
Senora de Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Branciforte, and San Jose.
The
day of our departure we went down to pass the night at the pueblo of
San Jose, situated in the centre of a magnificent valley on the
Guadalupe River, a small stream that descends from the Californ-ian
mountains and finally empties into the lower end of San Francisco Bay.
This is some four leagues from Mission Santa Clara with which it is
connected by a long avenue entirely shaded by live oaks. These oaks
were originally planted by the Fathers with the idea that once they
were grown they would cast their protecting shade over the faithful who
went from the pueblo of San Jose to hear mass at Mission Santa Clara.***
The
pueblo of San Jose was built in 1777, or 1778. In 1848, that is before
gold was discovered, its population numbered about
* All missions in Upper California were under the Franciscan Order.
*
* These pueblos were actually colonized by settlers brought up
for this purpose frorm Mexico. Many, however, were soldiers.
* * * These oaks were indigenous to California; along this road the Fathers planted the Australian eucalyptus.
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
