gentiles, come to the Holy Church, come
and receive the faith of Jesus Christ!" Padre Pieras could not help
reminding his superior that not an Indian was within sight or hearing,
and that it would be more practical to proceed with the ritual. One
native, however, did witness the ceremony, and he soon brought a large
number of his companions, who became tractable enough to help in
erecting the rude church, barracks and houses with which the priests and
soldiers were compelled to be content in those early days.

[Illustration: MISSION SAN CARLOS AND BAY OF MONTEREY.]

[Illustration: JUNIPERO OAK, SAN CARLOS PRESIDIO MISSION, MONTEREY]

[Illustration: STATUE OF SAN LUIS REY, AT PALA MISSION CHAPEL _See page
246._]

On September 8, Padres Somera and Cambon founded the Mission of San
Gabriel Arcangel, originally about six miles from the present site.
Here, at first, the natives were inclined to be hostile, a large force
under two chieftains appearing, in order to prevent the priests from
holding their service. But at the elevation of a painting of the Virgin,
the opposition ceased, and the two chieftains threw their necklaces at
the feet of the Beautiful Queen. Still, a few wicked men can undo in a
short time the work of many good ones. Padre Palou says that outrages by
soldiers upon the Indian women precipitated an attack upon the
Spaniards, especially upon two, at one of whom the chieftain (whose wife
had been outraged by the man) fired an arrow. Stopping it with his
shield, the soldier levelled his musket and shot the injured husband
dead. Ah! sadness of it! The unbridled passions of men of the new race
already foreshadowed the death of the old race, even while the good
priests were seeking to elevate and to Christianize them. This attack
and consequent disturbance delayed still longer the founding of San
Buenaventura.

On his way south (for he had now decided to go to Mexico), Serra
founded, on September 1, 1772, the Mission of San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.
The natives called the location Tixlini, and half a league away was a
famous canyada in which Fages, some time previously, had killed a number
of bears to provide meat for the starving people at Monterey. This act
made the natives well disposed towards the priests in charge of the new
Mission, and they helped to erect buildings, offered their children for
baptism, and brought of their supply of food to the priests, whose
stores were by no means abundant.

While t