But at length the time arrived for the
fleet to depart, and they proceeded northward, visiting in their course
Monterey and Mendocino, where the same favourable result attended the
enterprise as at other places, and they returned in safety to New
Spain.
So successful had been the character of this expedition throughout the
entire period of its execution, that an enthusiasm prevailed in the
minds of the Spaniards, which could only be assuaged by an attempt to
conquer and christianize the inhabitants of that distant portion of the
American continent. Many were the fruitless results of the Spanish
adventurer--numerous were the statements of his toil and labour, till
at length a formidable attempt, under the patronage and direction of
Don Gaspar de Portala and Father Junipero Serra, successfully achieved
the desired object for which it was planned and executed.
At San Diego, where, a century and a half before, the primitive
navigators under Cortez communed with the rude and unsophisticated
native--there, where the zealous devotee erected his altar on the
burning sand, and with offerings of incense and prayer hallowed it to
God, as the birthplace of Christianity in that region--upon that
sainted spot commenced the spiritual conquest, the cross was erected,
and the holy missionaries who accompanied the expedition entered heart
and soul upon their religious duties.
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