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The missions were gradually but slowly dispossessed of their lawful property, and all their wealth confiscated, several times were many of the dear Spanish fathers deported; they returned to Spain where a warm welcome awaited them, but how sad to leave their missions reared by the most heroic labors of the "martyr stuff" within them or their immediate predecessors, Serra, Lasuen, Lopez, Dumetz, Crespi, Palou, names "held in benediction;" and what would become of their poor converted Indians who clung to them so faithfully and whom they had raised to the plane of christian men and women from nakedness, savagery and paganism!
This Mission eventually grew to large proportions and its interior remains to-day almost exactly as decorated by the hands of the original priests. San Fernando Rey was next established, on September 8, by Lasuen, aided by Padre Dumetz.
Then Padre Dumetz of San Gabriel, with a band of soldiers and Indian neophytes, set out, early in May, to find a location and establish such a station. They found a populous Indian ranchería, in a region well watered and luxuriant, and which bore a name significant of its desirability. The valley was Guachama, "the place of abundance of food and water," and the Indians had the same name.
Joseph. In the earlier part of the last century the Mission began to grow rapidly. Padres Francisco Dumetz and Vicente de Santa Maria, who had been placed in charge of the Mission from the first, were gladdened by many accessions, and the Mission flocks and herds also increased rapidly.
Among the thirty-two who are instructed, one alone has any reputation, Paris, professor at the University and the assistant of Abbe Delille. Only one, Dumetz, an old engineer, steady, moderate and attending to the supplies, seems a competent and useful workman.
It is to Vancouver, on this voyage, that we owe the names of a number of points on the California coast, as, for instance, Points Sal, Argüello Felipe, Vicente, Dumetz, Fermin, and Lasuen. In 1795 there was a fight between the neophyte and gentile Indians, the former killing two chiefs and taking captive several of the latter.
About the middle of July ill health compelled Parron to retire to Lower California and Gomez to Mexico, and Padres Luis Jayme and Francisco Dumetz took their places.
A station was established near the place now known as Bunker Hill, between Urbita Springs and Colton, and a "capilla," built, dedicated to San Bernardino, because it was on May 20, San Bernardino's feast-day, that Padre Dumetz entered the valley.
Padres Dumetz and Cambon had gone out to hunt for food to the Lower California Missions. The same scarcity was noticed at San Gabriel, and the padres, "for a considerable time, already, had been using the supplies which were on hand to found the Mission of San Buenaventura; and though they have drawn their belts tight there remains to them provisions only for two months and a half."
The padres offered to remove the dam if the settlers were injured thereby, and also claimed that they were always glad to attend to the sick when their own pressing duties allowed. On January 14, 1811, Padre Francisco Dumetz, one of Serra's original compadres, died at San Gabriel.
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