DAWN AND THE DONS
The story of the Presidio at Monterey—California’s principal military headquarters—like the “annals of the poor,” is “short and simple.” A handful of soldiers, with little to do, and taking their time about it. The Mission
was the thing, and the one at Monterey was the headquarters and residence of Junipero Serra, and the seat of mission authority throughout California. Originally located near the Presidio, not far from the shore of Monterey harbor, Father Serra soon realized that its growth would need agricultural lands and water to irrigate them, and he made a careful survey of the adjacent country, finding on the southerly side of the peninsula, where the Carmel river winds through a beautiful valley, a place of fruitful soil and an ample supply of pure water.
Here on rising ground above the river, not
far from its mouth, and some five miles distant from Monterey, he located the permanent home of the Mission, and transferred activities there in December, 1771.
The
new Mission took the official name of “San Carlos Borromeo,” though now popularly known as the Carmel Mission, and the old Mission at Monterey, which came to
be called “The Royal Chapel,” continued as a parish church, and so continues to this day.
This transfer effected, Serra was ready to begin his great work of transforming the indolent, untutored, barbarous native of California into an industrious, civilized
and law-respecting Christian; and it was not a simple task. The California Indian had taken but a few feeble steps along the road that leads to civilization. Chap-
