Santa Ana, near La Paz, he sent thence to Loreto, inviting Junipero
Serra, the recently appointed President of the California Missions, to
visit him in his camp. Loreto was a hundred leagues distant; but this
was no obstacle to the religious enthusiast, whose lifelong dream it had
been to bear the faith far and wide among the barbarian peoples of the
Spanish world. He hastened to La Paz, and in the course of a long
interview with Galvez not only promised his hearty co-operation, but
also gave great help in the arrangement of the preliminary details of
the expedition.

In the opportunity thus offered him for the missionary labour in
hitherto unbroken fields, Father Junipero saw a special manifestation
both of the will and of the favour of God. He threw himself into the
work with characteristic ardour and determination, and Galvez quickly
realized that his own efforts were now to be ably seconded by a man who,
by reason of his devotion, courage, and personal magnetism, might well
seem to have been providentially designated for the task which had been
put into his hands.

Miguel Joseph Serra, now known only by his adopted name of Junipero,
which he took out of reverence for the chosen companion of St. Francis,
was a native of the Island of Majorca, where he was born, of humble
folk, in 1713. According to the testimony of his intimate friend and
biographer, Father Francesco Palou, his desires, even during boyhood,
were turned towards the religious life. Before he was seventeen he
entered the Franciscan Order, a regular member of which he became a year
or so later. His favorite reading during his novitiate, Palou tells us,
was in the Lives of the Saints, over which he would pore day after day
with passionate and ever-growing enthusiasm; and from these devout
studies sprang an intense ambition to "imitate the holy and venerable