“Come, 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 these events were transpiring, Governor Portola had returned to Lower California, and Lieutenant Fages was appointed commandant in his stead.  This, it soon turned out, was a great mistake.  Fages and Serra did not work well together, and, at the time of the founding of San Luis Obispo, relations between them were strained almost to breaking.  Serra undoubtedly had just cause for complaint.  The enthusiastic, impulsive missionary, desirous of furthering his important religious work, believed