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But this time you must play a losing game! A supposed dead man coming to life again deserves something for his trouble, and I should be a fool not to accept the goods the gods and the robbers provide. An ill-gotten hoard of wealth, no doubt; but better in my hands than in yours friend Carmelo!"
On returning to Carmelo, Junipero Serra filled the other missionaries with joy over this latest conquest of souls, and sent messengers to Fathers Somera and Cambon whom he had left in charge of the Mission at San Diego, to establish a mission in southern California, which they would name San Gabriel.
"So he did, signor; and we caught three of the principals only a fortnight ago, but of the others no trace can be found. I suppose Carmelo himself dismissed them and sent them far and wide through the country. At any rate, they are disbanded, and with these sort of fellows, where there is no union there is no danger." "And Neri's sentence?" I asked.
Six miles away, beyond the hills, above the shallow river, in sight of the sparkling sea, is the ruin of Carmelo. From the cross by the shore to the church beyond the hills, one reads the sacred history of the coast from alpha to omega. This, the most famous, if not the most beautiful, of all the Franciscan missions, has suffered the common fate.
I promised you more like them; behold them!" and I threw open the coffin-shaped chest containing the remainder of Carmelo Neri's spoils. It occupied a conspicuous position near where I stood, and I had myself arranged its interior so that the gold ornaments and precious stones should be the first things to meet her eyes.
But as these occupations took us up four or five days, with all our industry, the Commodore in that interval directed that the guns belonging to the Anna pink*, being four 6-pounders, four 4-pounders, and two swivels, should be mounted on board the Carmelo, our prize; and having sent on board the Gloucester six passengers and twenty-three seaman to assist in navigating the ship, he directed Captain Mitchel to leave the island as soon as possible, the service requiring the utmost despatch, ordering him to proceed to the latitude of 5 degrees south, and there to cruise off the high land of Paita, at such a distance from shore as should prevent his being discovered.
Then the vast sweetness of that violet night entered into his blood, filled him with that awful joy, so near akin to sadness, which the sense of the Infinite brings, when one feels the poetry of the Most Ancient and Most Excellent of Poets, and then is smitten at once with the contrast-thought of the sickliness and selfishness of Man, of the blindness and brutality of cities, whereinto the divine blue light never purely comes, and the sanctification of the Silences never descends ... furious cities, walled away from heaven ... Oh! if one could only sail on thus always, always through such a night through such a star-sprinkled violet light, and hear Sparicio and Carmelo sing, even though it were the same melody always, always the same song!
Ah, Dio! what a fine gentleman spoiled is Carmelo Neri!" I could not repress a slight start of surprise. What caprice of Fate associated me with this famous brigand? I was actually smoking his tobacco, and I owed all my present wealth to his stolen treasures secreted in my family vault! "You know the man, then?" I inquired with some curiosity. "Know him? As well as I know myself.
Sailing on, he discovered a river which he named "Carmelo," in honor of the Carmelite friars who accompanied him. The same day the fleet rounded the long cape called "Point Pinos" and came to anchor in the bay formed by its projection. From here the San Tomas was sent to Mexico to carry the sick, of whom there were many, and to bring back fresh supplies.
There are two attractions in the vicinity, without which I fear Monterey would have ultimately passed from the memory of man. These are the mission at Carmelo, and the Druid grove at Cypress Point. In the edge of the town there is a cross which marks the spot where Padre Junipero Serra sang his first Mass at Monterey. It was a desolate picture when I last saw it.
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