RAWHIDE FASTENING OF MISSION BELL, AND WORM-EATEN BEAM.
At midnight they halted, and a special messenger overtook them
with news which led the governor to return at once to San Gabriel
with his ten soldiers. He ordered the procession to proceed,
however, found the San Buenaventura Mission, and there await his
arrival. Serra accordingly went forward, and on the twenty-ninth
arrived at “Assumpta.” Here, the next day, on the feast of Easter,
they pitched their tents, “erected a large cross, and prepared an
altar under a shade of evergreens,” where the venerable Serra, now
soon to close his life-work, blessed the cross and the place,
solemnized mass, preached a sermon to the soldiers on the
Resurrection of Christ, and formally dedicated the Mission to God,
and placed it under the patronage of St. Joseph.
In the earlier part of the last century the Mission began to
grow rapidly. Padres Francisco Dumetz and Vicente de Santa Maria,
who had been placed in charge of the Mission from the first, were
gladdened by many accessions, and the Mission flocks and herds also
increased rapidly. Indeed, we are told that “in 1802 San
Buenaventura possessed finer herds of cattle and richer fields of
grain than any of her contemporaries, and her gardens and orchards
were visions of wealth and beauty.”
On his second visit to the California coast, Vancouver, when
anchored off Santa Barbara, traded with Padre Santa Maria of San
Buenaventura for a flock of sheep and as many vegetables as twenty
mules could carry.
It is to Vancouver, on this voyage, that we owe the names of a
number of points on the California coast, as, for instance, Points
Sal, Argüello Felipe, Vicente, Dumetz, Fermin, and Lasuen.
In 1795 there was a fight between the neophyte and gentile
Indians, the former killing two chiefs and taking captive several
of the latter. The leaders on both sides were punished, the
neophyte Domingo even being sentenced to work in chains.
In 1806 the venerable Santa María, one of the Mission
founders, died. His remains were ultimately placed in the new
church.
In 1800 the largest population in its history was reached, with
1297 souls. Cattle and horses prospered, and the crops were
reported as among the best in California.
The earthquake of 1812-1813 did considerable damage at San
Buenaventura. Afraid lest the sea would swallow them up, the people
fled to San Joaquin y Santa Ana for three months, where a temporary
jacal church was erected. The tower and a part of the
fachada had to be torn down and rebuilt, and this was done
by 1818, with a new chapel dedicated to San Miguel in addition.
That San Buenaventura was prosperous is shown by the fact that
in June, 1820, the government owed it $27,385 for supplies, $6200
in stipends, and $1585 for a cargo of hemp,—a total of $35,170,
which, says Bancroft, “there was not the slightest chance of it
ever receiving.”
In 1823 the president and vice-prefect Señan, who had
served as padre at this Mission for twenty-five years, died August
24, and was buried by the side of Santa María. After his
death San Buenaventura began rapidly to decline.
In 1822 a neophyte killed his wife for adultery. It is
interesting to note that in presenting his case the fiscal said
that as the culprit had been a Christian only seven years, and was
yet ignorant in matters of domestic discipline, he asked for the
penalty of five years in the chain gang and then banishment.
The baptisms for the whole period of the Mission’s history,
viz., for 1782-1834, are 3876. There is still preserved at the
Mission the first register, which was closed in 1809. At that time
2648 baptisms had been administered. The padre presidente, Serra,
wrote the heading for the Index, and the contents themselves were
written in a beautiful hand by Padre Señan. There are four
signatures which occur throughout in the following order: Pedro
Benito Cambon, Francisco Dumetz, Vicente de Sta María, and
José Señan.
The largest population was 1330 in 1816. The largest number of
cattle was 23,400 in the same year. In 1814, 4652 horses; in 1816,
13,144 sheep.
Micheltorena’s decree in 1843 restored the temporalities of the
Mission to the padres. This was one of the two Missions, Santa
Inés being the other, that was able to provide a moderate
subsistence out of the wreck left by secularization. On the 5th of
December, 1845, Pico rented San Buenaventura to José Arnaz
and Marcisco Botello for $1630 a year. There are no statistics of
the value of the property after 1842, though in April of 1843 Padre
Jimeno reports 2382 cattle, 529 horses, 2299 sheep, 220 mules and
18 asses, 1032 fruit trees and 11,907 vines. In November of that
same year the bishop appointed Presbyter, Resales, since which time
the Mission has been the regular parish church of the city.
In 1893 the Mission church was renovated out of all its historic
association and value by Father Rubio, who had a good-natured but
fearfully destructive zeal for the “restoration” of the old
Missions. Almost everything has been modernized. The fine old
pulpit, one of the richest treasures of the Mission, was there
several years ago; but when, in 1904, I inquired of the then pastor
where it was, I was curtly informed that he neither knew nor cared.
All the outbuildings have been demolished and removed in order to
make way for the modern spirit of commercialism which in the last
decade has struck the town. It is now an ordinary church, with
little but its history to redeem it from the look of smug modernity
which is the curse of the present age.
Before leaving San Buenaventura it may be interesting to note
that a few years ago I was asked about two “wooden bells” which
were said to have been hung in the tower at this Mission. I deemed
the question absurd, but on one of my visits found one of these
bells in a storeroom under the altar, and another still hanging in
the belfry. By whom, or why, these dummy bells were made, I have
not been able to discover.
