Identifier: californiapadres00saun (find matches)
Title: The California padres and their missions
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Saunders, Charles Francis, 1859-1941 Chase, J. Smeaton (Joseph Smeaton), b. 1864, joint author
Subjects: Franciscans Missions
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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the phenomenon — it is really such— of their quick declension to almost complete abandonmentand ruin, and of those characteristics of their former Indiancharges which had enabled Serra and his helpers and follow-ers to achieve their remarkable success. I will give you aninstance of their gentle natures, said the Father, that cameunder my notice only yesterday. You saw that the grass hadbeen burned over part of the cemetery? It happened two daysago. I set one of the men to burning off weeds along the frontof the Mission, and he carelessly let the fire get away, so thatit crossed the fence and ran into the dry grass and leaves inthe cemetery. It burned down part of the fence, and someof the railings and crosses of the graves: they were old, and asdry as tinder. Well, yesterday as I was crossing the grave-yard I noticed old Pablo, one of my oldest Indians, down onhis knees among the debris. I went over to see what he wasdoing there, and found him crying, yes, crying like a little 322
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IN THE INDIAN CEMETERY, MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA child, old Pablo, who must be nearly eighty. What is thematter, Pablo? I asked. *0h, Padre, he said, mi mama! mimamdr It was the grave of his mother: it had been burnedover and the cross destroyed. She must have died thirtyyears ago, at the very least, but the spot was sacred to oldPablo stiU. That seems to bear out the argument of his name-sake the holy apostle, in preaching to the wise pagans ofAthens, that God has made us all of one blood, does it not?... I wonder who will care v/here my old bones lie, afterthirty years? . . . In manus tuas, Domine. . . . Well, Pabloshall have a new cross for his mothers grave to-morrow. SANTA CRUZ

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