Carlos and San Buenaventura (for such, we recollect, had been the
original programme), he had exclaimed: - "Then is our father, St.
Francis, to have no mission?" And Galvez had made reply: - "If St.
Francis desires a mission, let him show us his port, and he shall have
one there." To Junipero it had seemed that Portolà had providentially
been led beyond Monterey to the Bay of San Francisco, and the founder of
his order had thus given emphatic answer to the visitador's words. It
may well be imagined that he was ill at rest until the saint's wishes
had been carried into effect.

But this was not the only good work done in the north while Junipero was
busy elsewhere; for on the 12th of January, 1777, the Mission of Santa
Clara was established in the wonderfully fertile and beautiful valley
which is now known by that name. The customary rites were performed by
Father Tomas de la Peña, a rude chapel erected, and the work of
constructing the necessary buildings of the settlement immediately
begun[5]. It should be noted in passing that before the end of the year
the town of San Jose - or, to give it its full Spanish title, El Pueblo
de San Jose de Guadalupe - was founded near by. This has historic
interest as the first purely civil settlement in California. The fine
Alameda from the mission to the pueblo was afterwards made and laid out
under the fathers' supervision.



[4] This is now colloquially known as the Mission Dolores. Its proper
title is, however, Mission of San Francisco de Assis. It originally
stood on the Laguna de los Dolores (now filled up) ; and hence its
popular name.