Identifier: threewonderlands00murp (find matches)
Title: Three wonderlands of the American West; being the notes of a traveler, concerning the Yellowstone park, the Yosemite national park, and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, with a chapter on other wonders of the great American West
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Murphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler), 1866-1928
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ia has in her ruined missions andold Spanish traditions a touch of human antiq-uity that lends an added charm to this enchantedland. The atmosphere of sacred romance thathovers around Englands abbeys is not wantingin the moss-grown, vine-covered ruins that arefound in so many delightful spots in the SunsetState. The story of the mission is a fascinatingone, from its inception in zeal and poverty andrise to affluence to its decadence and final aban-donment. The monk, always in the vanguardof Spanish exploration and settlement, camehither about the middle of the Eighteenth Cen-tury. The Franciscan order received a grantfrom the Spanish throne of a number of proper-ties in southern California. The first missionwas founded near San Diego in 1769 by JuniperoSerra, a monk of true piety and energetic char-acter. Others followed him and in all twenty-onemissions were established, extending along thePacific from San Diego to San Francisco. Allof these today are in ruins or have disappeared 166
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OTHER WONDERS except four, which still survive under the con-trol of the Catholic Church. The buildings werewonderfully well constructed, hard brick, hewnstone, tile roofs and heavy timbers being socarefully combined that they have well with-stood the ravages of time, though no doubt theequable climate has also contributed to theirpreservation. The old notion that the red manwill not perform hard manual labor is contra-dicted here, for the work of building the missionswas done by Indians under the direction of themonks—and hard work it was, for the stone hadto be quarried and dressed, bricks moulded andburned, and the heavy timbers brought manymiles, often on the mens shoulders. The sav-ages were reduced to a state of peonage, thoughit seems that their masters policy was generallyone of kindness and there were but one or twoinstances where an uprising against the priestsoccurred. Taken altogether, there are few otherknown instances where white men had so littletrouble with the nativ

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