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No wonder Serra's heart was heavy when he heard the news, and that he attributed the small number of baptisms only seventy-three in two years to the wickedness of the men who should have aided instead of hindering the work. In his first report to Mexico, Serra tells of the Indian population around San Gabriel.
In writing "Fray Junipero" Reverend Raymond Mestres intended it to commemorate the Bicentenary of our hero's birth, and was presented for the first time in Monterey on August 28th, 1913 by local talent. This will be an annual event at Monterey on the same date, August 28th, which is the anniversary of Fray Junipero Serra's death.
In a few brief lines we have endeavored to convey an idea of Serra's character, let us now follow his steps in company with the band of heroic workers who accompanied him in his voyage across the dark Atlantic, and his apostolic journeys through Mexico and California to "break the bread of life" to the unfortunate heathen.
On his journeys every missionary carried a bell with him for the new church he was to build. Father Serra's first act on reaching a stopping-place was to hang the bell in a tree and ring it to gather the Indians and people for service. San Antonio, a very successful Mission, was the third one established, and it was in a beautiful little valley of the Santa Lucia Mountains.
And this Mission of the Carmelo Valley of Monterey, was Junipero Serra's headquarters, here he lies buried, and here was the center of that unequalled hospitality and pure society for which every mission was noted.
Indeed, many of the red men believed that very bad Indians were punished by being turned into grizzly bears when they died, and they would not hurt their brothers, they said. When Father Serra's Mission people were starving at Monterey, the Padre learned that at a place called Bear Valley near by, there were many grizzlies which the Indians would not kill.
As we have already seen, this trip was successful and led to the second, in which the colonists and soldiers for the new Mission of San Francisco were brought. In 1776 Serra's heart was joyed with the thought that he was to wear a martyr's crown, for there was a rumor of an Indian uprising at San Carlos; but the presence of troops sent over from Monterey seemed to end the trouble.
He was going back home, and as the "San Antonio" with its promised supplies had not yet arrived, and the camp was almost entirely out of food, he announced the abandonment of the expedition and an immediate return to Lower California. Now came Serra's faith to the fore, and that resolute determination and courage that so marked his life. The decision of Portolá had gone to his heart like an arrow.
For a whole year after the mission was founded, not a convert was made. The sole San Diego Indian in Father Serra's service was a hired interpreter, who did not have a particle of reverence for his employer's work. "In all these missionary annals of the Northwest," says Bancroft, "there is no other instance where paganism remained so long stubborn as in San Diego."
"Where shall I sign my name?" Veronica Serra's thin, dark fingers rolled the old silver penholder nervously as she sat at one end of the long library table, looking up at the short, stout man who stood beside her. "Here, if you please, Excellency," answered Lamberto Squarci, with an affable smile.
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