us natural beauties are but rarely touched with the associations
of history or charms of romance, these things have a subtle and peculiar
power--a magic not to be resisted by any one who turns aside for an hour
or two from the highways of the modern world, to dream among the scenes
where the old padres toiled and died. And as in imagination he there
calls up the ghostly figures of neophyte and soldier and priest, now
busy with the day's task-work, now kneeling at twilight mass in the
dimly-lighted chapel; as the murmur of strange voices and the faint
music of bell and chant steal in upon his ears; he will hardly fail
to realize that, however much or little the Franciscan missionaries
accomplished for California, they have passed down to our prosaic
after-generation a legacy of poetry, whereof the sweetness will not soon
die away.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: In the sequel, it may here be noted, the Franciscans
ceded Baja California to the Dominicans, keeping Alta California to
themselves.]

[Footnote 2: The mission was transferred in 1874 from the location
selected by Junipero to a site some two miles distant, up the river.]

[Footnote 3: The Diary, furnishing a detailed itinerary of the
expedition, is given in full in Palou's noticias de la Nueva
California.]

[Footnote 4: This is now colloquially known as the Mission Dolores.
Its proper title is, however, Mission of San Francisco de Assis. It
originally stood on the Laguna de los Dolores (now filled up); and hence
its popular name.]

[Footnote 5: The site originally chosen lay too low, and from the outset
danger of inundation was foreseen. A flood occurred in 1779, and in 1784
the mission was removed to higher ground. The present buildings date
from 1825-26.]

[Footnote 6: The original adobe church was injured by earthquakes in
1806 and 1812. The present edifice was begun in 1815 and finished in
1820.]

[Footnote 7: The table given by the French traveler, De Mofras, in his
authoritative Exploration du Territoire de L'Oregon, les Californies,
etc., shows us that the distance between mission and mission nowhere
exceeded nineteen leagues, and that it was often very much less.]

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Famous Missions of California, by
William Henry Hudson

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAMOUS MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA ***

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