Xmas

...from the memoirs of Fray Francisco Palau...1769...

Sunday, December 24--On this day before Christmas we two said Masses, which all heard, and we set out in the morning on the same road by which we came.  Because the water had washed away a pass on the steep descent to the beach, which we had repaired on the way up, it was necessary for us to look for a pass in another valley, that was full of brush, so that in order to get through it the men had to go ahead and open the road with machetes. The march covered three leagues, and we halted in the same spot of the valley of El Osito de San Buenaventura.  It was God's will that we should celebrate the Nativity joyfully, which was done in this way: more than two hundred heathen of both sexes came to visit us in this place, bringing us Christmas gifts, for many of them came with good baskets of pinole and some fish, with which everybody supplied themselves, and we had something with which to celebrate Christmas Day. Blessed be the providence of God who succors us more than we deserve! Their gifts were returned with beads, which pleased them greatly.

Monday, December 25--On this day of the Nativity of the Lord we could not celebrate in any other manner than by saying Mass, we two, one for each, for the march gave time for no more. The cold is so biting that it gives us good reason to meditate upon what the infant Jesus, who was this day born in Bethlehem, suffered for us. We made three leagues and a half, and went to stop a little further to the south of the estuary of Santa Serafina, close to the small village of Indian fishermen, from whom a great deal of fish was obtained in exchange for beads, with which all provided themselves. So we celebrated Christmas with this dainty, which tasted better to everybody than capons and chickens had tasted in other places, because of the good sauce of San Bernardo, hunger which all had in abundance. And there was not lacking in Christmas gifts of good baskets of pinole and atole, which, being white and made of acorns, tastes like manjar blanco, because of its color and the pleasure with which it is eaten.

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Squirrel and story is one of my Oranges issues, Dec '88...one page folded...I don't think I ever 'issued' this one, too shy, and thought myself too foolish!...on the last fold some of it reads:

ORANGES

Poems and Stories, Fauna and Flora, of Orange County, California

IN THIS ISSUE

from the memoirs of Fray Francisco Palau...1769

editor's note:  Merry Christmas!  The quoted text is from: "Palau's Historical Memoirs of New California" by Fray Francisco Palau, edited by Herbert Eugene Bolton, Volume II, New York, Russel & Russel, pp 245-246

 

 

 

There's more, how to subscribe, copyright notice, DolphinWords, desktop publishing, my name, address, and a note I was using a Macintosh computer...actually, I did very well laying out the bare bones of a  publication...there's really not much to them!

 

Anyway, it's been cold and windy all day, not unlike Christmas 1769...and where is Santa Serafina?...brb...looks to be in Ventura, California, and I can't locate the estuary, or where that fishing village exactly is...

 

DavidDavid