University of San Francisco - USF Don Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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20 T II K I ' K K S II M A X . plain. Its silvery beams shrouded the desert with a pall of loom as it rested after its day of tragedy. No sound broke the solemn stillness ot‘ the night, nothing to see but the now-cooling sands, the ghastly guardian of the night, and the distant stars, gazing peacefully at the sleeping world. The light of the moon fell upon the unconscious Lawson near the outskirts of Death alley—and then the stars, as wicked children peeking through the sky to look on a forbidden sight, strove to catch a glimpse ol the prostrate figure felled bv the power of their guardian, the sun. As morning neared, a hand of cowboys roaming by the mountain’s base descried the prostrate form of a stricken fellow, with quickened step they pushed on to the spot and in a few minutes were beside the unconscious Lawson. Tenderly, they raised him on a pony dried his swollen lips with generous quarts of water, and started for the cooling Colorado, that silent figure had so gladly left but a morn-ago. Across the sombre waste, the low ly departing moon followed the procession shielding them with its borrowed rays, dropping cool shafts to light the way but now to roast the sands to deadly work The stars peeked in silence through the studded sky. and as the men neared the mountain base, they all withdrew, seeking their rest beneath the motle mantle of the coming dawn. In the morning the sun rose again looking in vain for the victim of it day-old heat. Sweeping the plain with beets of dame, it sought some new wanderer to lure to death in the nil watered wastes of the sun’s graveyard. Death alky. Ciias. I I. ko!.i C. ri.Mi-:i.i .

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T II !•: I; R KS II M A x . derc r on that | arelic ! spot. Collecting lii en es. he realized that he was going deeper and deeper into the unchartered stillne of the murderous waste. A moment more and he was seeking a soft place on which to jump from the animal's back. Carefully poising himself, he made the leap. There was now hut one course, and that was to retrace his steps and trust tu Providence to save him. Murmuring a short prayer, a practice to which Jim was unaccustomed, he trudged on. I»y nightfall, he thought, he could reach the Colorado, where he was certain to find water. Mis tongue, now swollen twice its natural size, clung to the roof of his mouth, and fairly ached for want of the reviving lotion. 11 is eyes burned from the overpowering brilliancy of the noon-day sun. and his head throbbed with a dull dizzy ache. A few hours more, water and with it. safety would he his. ( hnvard he pressed, the sun growing hotter and seeming to mock his struggling efforts to cheat its strength, the desert glared at him. defying him to evade its deadly influence. Now hi feet were sore, the sands burned through the soles of his shoes, and his progress was extremely slow and painful. I hit knowing he must labor on or perish, he struggled all the more— every step an effort. Law son. now frantic with thirst, peered before him. and his eyes rejoiced at what lie saw. There not a mile away, a clear blue lake enamoured the attention of his longing eyes. Mere at las» in thi lake so newly found, was refuge from the over-bearing heat and stillness of the desert plain. Again he trudged on. hut now with gladdened expectation. Mis feet were painfully swollen from contact with the piercing heat of the sandy floor, their soles cracked and bleeding, hut he struggled on. 19 Then of a sudden, the waters receded, the wide blue lake became a scorched gully. The mirage had led him on and then melted into the silence of the failing sands. Was this the water he had hoped would save his life? Jim threw himself on lrs knees and his arm outstretched, sorrowfully surveyed the circling barren: to the east were the hills he had 0 hopefully left that morn, and as he gazed at them he wondered at the fate of the fugitive animal. Look where he would, his eyes could see no water, no comfort. Maddened, he gouged his tired fingers into the burning sands in |iicst of his lone desire, water. I le dug until his nails fell off and his finger tips were running blood that dried and caked as it dropped upon the scorched bosom of the plain. Then with a groan and a piteous wail that told of his sad plight, he fell prone on his face and silently awaited the death that would release him from this unrelenting heat. Slowlx raising his aching head, he gazed into the east, and there again he saw that mirage of water that had beckoned him across the desert and left him there to die. With a hollow laugh, he flung his weary form towards the hiring spectre, and again cast himself to die. alone and forgotten in that neglected region of heat and silence. 'File sun. whose lurid rays had led him on and then struck him low. was now setting. Just as Satan tempts to sin. and having conquered, leaves his victim to conscience and remorse, so had the sun lured the man to brave the arid plain and then had left him helpless and forlorn to die in that desolate waste, far from the world of comfort and relief. The last purple ray of the departing sun had sunk beneath the western mountain, when the moon, following the custom of the scene, rose silently to pass its nightly vigil o’er the scorched

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T II F I K FS II M A X . 2 I Stmijjmi rrra —N scanning the past of California. d) nu more striking figure appears to us than Fr. Junipero Serra. the ] riest who ilcvoted his life to spreading the (iospel in the new world and to establish it by his misisons. W hat indomitable energy, what ceaseless activity what hardship and struggle he expended can he estimated by the mighty monument' whose ruins stand today on southern soil. Thi' champion of Christ first saw the light in the Island of Majoria, Spain, in 1713. 1IC early years found him studious and devout and tilled with but one idea to consecrate his life to the service of the altar. Filtering the convent of San llernardino. he prosecuted the classical studies with much distinction until the age of sixteen when he entered the I ranci'can )rder. ()f this, he became a luminary, and shed much luster on the sons nf the Seraph Saint by his arduous and lasting toil in the new world. It was not until the year 1749 that Junipero took sail from his well beloved Spain en route for the missionary fields of far away western Pacific. I -ike St. Paul lie underwent hunger and shipwreck which were ! him as the furnace to the gold, and after much tribulation he landed on the coast of Mexico where he went through nineteen years of strug-g'e. The Jesuits being expelled from their missions by the inquisitors' edict of Charles III of Spain. 1769. Serra was appointed President of the missions and was 'cut to Lower California. Ilis hope was realized. I le was a missioner in New Spain. With a heroic little hand he set out for his new fields against the wishes of his many friends. Nothing could deter him—not even an inflamed leg. from which he was suffering most acute pain—from making the journes afoot and in most inclement weather. Cnspeakable tortures and hardships were his constant companions, but in spite of it all he walked triumphant through a dreary ten months and arrived at San Diego in May, 1769. Mere he planted a rude cross which was the cornerstone of Californian civilization From this point went forth Fr. Crespi with a party having Portola as its leader, to discover Monterey Pay. They missed it and continued sixty leagues to the north where they found a most beautiful and tranquil sheet of water which they named after their beloved founder. St. Francis. After six months they returned to San Diego to find their companions in a sorry plight. Serra lying at death’s door. Portola hastened hence to Vellicata where he found saving provisions for his stricken companions. ()nce the afflictions of the camp were stayed the party started for Monterey—the much debilitated Junipero going by sea. The bay was found and Monterey was taken possession of first in the name of the church and then in the name of New Spain. The following fifteen years of struggle were marked bv the most heroic achievements: but Serra's endurance was limitless. Mis courage in depressing circumstances and his trust in the omnipotence of the Maker led him to conquer odds which were sometime' too much even for the bravest. San Diego mission was reduced to ashes and the presiding priest cruelly murdered by the hostile Indians. Put this blood of the martyr was to be the seed of Christians and Serra recognized it. Ihnlaunted he