The herald., 1895-02-24
THE SILVERADO MISSION.
WINFIELD CLARKE.

There is low range OF hills rising
gradually from near the foot of old Gray
back and extending in a circuitous line
to the coast of San Juan. Whoever has
travelled its intricate and devious pas
sages has entered by way of Silver
ado Canyon, for it is the only acces-
sble way. And whoever has passed
through the Silverado Canyon has seen
! there a run-a mass of crumbed and
melted adobe walls, littering up a small,
open plateau not a great way from the
summit. Time and the rain and winds
have worked upon the ruin until its out
| lines are nearly lost. But if whoever goes
there has before been to either Santa Bar
bara or San Juan Capistrano or San Luis
| Rey, and seen the missions there, the
similarity will be so apparent as to cause
the visitor to wonder at it, and, perhaps,
exclaim, there is the ruin of some old,
old mission
The place is a very queer spot to find
even the ruin of mission. No one
| lives in the canyon now. A dense and
never ending solitude prevails, and but
| for this evidence of a former life, it
might be doubted if the place was ever
| inhabited. But the silent ruins suggest,
somehow, romance; there is mystery
| lurking in the very air of the surround
ings.
In the valley below the canyon and
close to the mouth is an old Spanish set
tlement. The people there can tell lit
tie of the story of the mission-but only
little-and this even might be doubted
= I,n, +I,, 4
1t is very fragmentary sort of a tale they
tell, but some people believe it, for they
still go there to search for wonderful lost
NINE of silver that had something to do
with the building of the mission.
From the mission at San Diego Father
Sorrano came to found the mission of the
| Silverado. This was long after Capstra
no and the other missions had been built.
He found no difficulty in getting the
| laborers, for he asked OF them no labor OF
love, but paid them well with Spanish sill
| padre chose the lonely canyon for the mis-
| sion site and how he came by all the
wealth to build it, they kept their wonder
| ing to themselves.
For time the work went on with no
interruptions. The thick adobe walls
! of each day. They built little adobe
house for the padre near by, SO that he
might be always close to the work.
Sometimes in the long evenings, after
the laborers had gone to the settlement,
and when the sun sank behind the west
ern height of the canyon the padre would
| go out on to the plateau and walk among
! the twilight shadows of the uncompleted
walls. He was all alone there then. Ii
! you would go there now at twilight you
might divine the charm that held him,
| for the scene is grand. In fancy you
| ,tfrl,t (t.x1
nature S God. The sight is very beauti-
full when the sunlight fades out, and the
sky is tinted opaline, and the broken
shadows stretch across the canyon. Out of
the mouth of it you can look down on the
plain that lies far below still bathed in
sunlight and then turning, peer into the
impenetrable gloom that has already
gathered in the chasm above.
One evening, Just at dusk, a young girl
came there. She had climbed up the
steep path on the other side of the canyon
behind the bunch of oaks that hides the
plateau from sight In the shadow of
the trees she paused. Drawing deep
breath she uttered plaintive cry. 1t
was Just one word that,awoke a score OF
echoes and reverberated through the can
yon-and she waited, but no answer came.
The child crept on through the trees
out upon the open. Father Sorrano,
coming to know the meaning of the
strange cry, found her there. She had no
fear of him, for the instinct of childhood
told her he meant no harm.
What is it that the senorita comes here
to fnd?" he asked.
Ricardo" she answered simply, "is he
not here?"
Mo-
There was look upon the PADRES face
which the child did not understand.
Tell me of Ricardo" he said.
The child told him, and told him, too,
ha1, 70 stn irpl l1In ST.
that was a lasting mystery to the good
padre.
Her name was Mocha. She lived with
the herders at the rancho. She had lived
there since she could remember, and no
one seemed to care much for her only to
see that she worked enough and did not
associate with the other children. some
times a woman came to see her. Mocha
did not like this woman though they told
her it was her mother. She had no father;
she did not even know if he was dead.
Such u simple child and such a simple
story as she told And yet there was
something very strange about the child's
life that filed the good man with a deep
mystery. The strangest part was that
about Ricardo.
Ricardo was her friend, she said while
everybody else seemed to hate him and
fear him. She loved him and used to
come to the plateau to see him, but
she had not seen him for "A long time.
The padre listened to all of the child's
tale. When she was done he told her to
go the plateau again some twilight and
promised to tell her his story. Then
Mocha went back through the trees and
down the path, leaving the padre alone
in the darkening shadows.
The child's story weighed heavily on
his heart. His older eyes could see the
sin the child knew not of. For he knew
Ricardo and knew that Ricardo was dead;
he stood by the deathbed and watched