that in 1521, Hernando Cortes, one of the great Spanish
explorers of the sixteenth century, explored the hitherto unknown
land of Mexico, and as Spain always accompanied her conquests and
explorations with her missionaries to evangelize the heathens, at the
time that Father Junipero Serra set sail for the New World, which was
in 1759, there were in Mexico an archbishopric and several missions
conducted by Spanish priests, among them a well established Franciscan
College in San Fernando, a settlement in the northern part of Mexico,
which the Spanish explorers and missionaries so decided to name after
Saint Ferdinand, a King of Spain, who lived in the thirteenth century.
And to this College, Father Junipero Serra and his companions came after
a perilous voyage of nearly one year; for the date of their arrival
was January 1, 1760; and here they began their labor! Of the nine years
which Junipero Serra toiled in Mexico, six were spent in Sierra Gorda,
some distance north of San Fernando, and one of the wildest and roughest
of those half explored regions. And what marvels attended the labors of
Serra and the other self-sacrificing sons of Saint Francis here! With
Junipero Serra at the helm, the good priests learned some of the Aztec
dialects in order to convert the savages. Then what followed? With the
greatest patience the missionaries acquitted themselves to the task
of teaching the classic, cultured language of Spain to these poor
aborigines, whose languages like those of the still cruder California
Indians, did not contain expressions for even the simplest words of
scripture or of the liturgy of the Church. And can we wonder at this?
But what were the astonishing results of the good priests' labors? They
were truly God-wonders! Daily were recorded numerous conversions, and at
the close of six years many Indian congregations of those regions could
be heard singing the ancient Latin hymns of the Church, and in poor but
intelligible Spanish supplying in their prayers and conversations
what was wanting in their dialects. It was while at Sierra Gorda that
Junipero Serra became afflicted with a painful sore which broke out on
his right leg and which never healed in all his eventful and laborious
career. Many historians allude to this sore as a "wound," but no record
is extant to indicate it as such, the most authentic conclusions being
that this sore was due to natural causes greatly augmented and brought
on by the hardships and