The Evening News. September 19, 1916.

1. The Great Adventure

On the sixth of January, 1777, a brown-robed Franciscan priest, Father de la Pena , and a blue-coated Spanish army officer, Lieutenant Moraga , set out from the Mission Dolores, San Francisco, on a journey for Charles III, King of Spain. They were about to found a mission in the great San Bernardino valley about 20 leagues southward. It was to be called Mission of St. Clare of Thamien. The priest and the officer decided to place it under some lovely laurel trees on the bank of the Guadalupe river where they had camped on their way from Monterey.

It was a great adventure. Father Pena and Lieutenant Moraga were young. The horses were prancing, they had plenty of food. Their guides were keen. They rode eagerly from the Mission Dolores toward Monterey.

At this season of the year the streams were swollen, the low ground in the valley was soggy and impassable, and so, the party took the long high trail by way of what is now known as Los Gatos. They followed the footsteps of bears, but no matter. It was the morning of the year in California and they trod on blue lupin and "cups of gold."

After 12 hours of fording streams and beating their way through poison oak, rosy-wild currant, scarlet toyon, chimisol, and underbrush, wet and weary, they gratefully sat down to the supper cooked by them on their campfire. Coarse bread and smoky meat seemed fit for a cardinal.

They tied their horses with ropes, and then, wrapping themselves in their blankets, with saddles for pillows, they slept so soundly that they did not hear the bands of coyotes wall through the foothills. In the morning the men again followed the tracks of bear, they caught sight of fleeing antelope, and the deer were so gentle that they approached like friends. The Indian never taught fear to the dear.

On the 12th of January, after six days' journey, Father Pena and Lieutenant Moraga arrived at the place already chosen by them as the site for the next Franciscan mission. It was on the western tributary of the Guadalupe river, a spot called by the Indians "Sokoistica." However, Marcello , the last of his tribe, who until the latter part of the last century was often seen about Santa Clara, called the place Tshatcapshl, meaning "Place of the Laurels." The spot is now unmarked, but is on the Laurel Wood ranch near Santa Clara, owned by the heirs of the late Peter Donahue .

All that day the priest, the officer and the soldiers worked reverently. They hewed wood from the trees for the cross before which thousands were to kneel to receive the blessing of the fathers. Toward evening they blessed and raised the cross. Under its arms they erected a crude little altar. In clear, melodious, reverent voice, deeply moved by the solemnity of the event, Father de la Pena said the first mass ever celebrated on "La Llanura de los Robles" or "Plain of the Oaks," as the Santa Clara valley was then called by the Spaniards.

The Olhone [Ohlone] Indians, tall, well formed, bearded, their hair mantling their shoulders to the waist, came to gaze at these strangers, chanting strange words. The Indians did not realize that soon they, the deer, the bear, the antelope and all the wild creatures would vanish. A new civilization had been established on the "Plain of the Oaks."

Transcribed by Claire Martin, for the Santa Clara Co. CAGenWeb Project. 2007

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