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Santa Cruz, on the Bay of
Monterey, was inspired and planned by President Lasuen in his home in the an
Francisco Mission. It was founded in the autumn of 1791, with the accustomed
ceremony of a mass, chanting by neophytes from another Mission, and the raising
of a cross on the spot over which the altar was designed to rest. Chief Sugert
and a large following of his tribe attended, themselves representing the very
people from which the good padres planned to recruit the company of their
converts. The church was dedicated in May 1794, in the presence of these same
Indians, who on this occasion came as devotees. The Mission reached its zenith
of influence five years after its founding, although it continued to acquire
property in cattle and herds. Settlers encroached upon the lands of the Mission,
and the padres retaliated upon the authorities who had permitted such a
condition, until, eventually, in the Bouchard rising in 1818, the Mission was
robbed of every removable effect. A padre was murdered here in 1812 by neophytes
who pleaded having been most cruelly punished, but their claims were never
established. |
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