We have traced the
missionaries' steps, followed by gallant Portola, and his fellow
officers and men, and have sympathized and rejoiced with them in their
hardships and joys. We have no doubt, often marveled at the stupendous
work of the Sons of Saint Francis in the conversion of the unenlightened
heathen, and have seen the Indian tribes turn from the worship of idols
to the altar of the one true God.
Let us now give a brief glance at the work so nobly done by the immortal
heroes which Catholic Spain sent to these shores. Many a time, winter
blasts of misunderstanding and wrong have been cast upon them, and many
a time have noble sympathizers fought just battles with prejudice in
their behalf, with the blessed result that the thickest clouds of errors
and "threadbare calumnies" have almost entirely disappeared, and with
them the remaining mists of wrong are fast vanishing at the powerful
approach of truth's sun, so that in relating the glories of that legion
of splendid characters whose names are so tenderly clasped about the
fondest memories of mission times, we shall not forget their friends and
champions of later years.
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