The cross and the sword

(from the book jacket) Less than 200 years ago, a frail but determined priest and a daring Spanish soldier -- an unlikely pair -- combined to establish missions along the unsettled coast of California and to found a small settlement which would become San Francisco. Father Junipero Serra had left his home in Mallorca as a young Franciscan to serve a long apprenticeship with the Indians in Mexico. For many years he dreamed of carrying the cross into the wilderness of a new land, but the opportunity did not arrive until he was well past he age of fifty and suffering from an ulcerated leg. Aging and sickly, Father Serra was sent first to replace the Jesuits among the Indians of lower California with Spanish expeditionary forces. In this newly explored land, Father Serra struggled constantly, sometimes ineffectively, against the brutal treatment of the Indians by the Spanish military leaders and their soldiers. He was able to found a string of missions from San Diego to Carmel, yet the jewel that was to shine brightest in the crown of missions dedicated to St. Francis, the San Francisco mission, was postponed again and again because of lack of support, and even opposition by the military. Then, encouraged by Serra, came Colonel Juan Bautista de Anza, a brave and intlligent frontiersman, to lead a company of 240 men, women, and children, with a thousand head of livestock, on an 'impossible' journey of fifteen hundred miles through Apache-infested deserts, enduring incredible hardships, to found a mission on the shores of San Francisco Bay.
ASIN: B0007DYX0S
VSKU: RDV.B0007DYX0S.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Lauritzen, Jonreed
Binding: Hardcover
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: This book is in good condition with very minimal damage. Pages may have minimal notes or highlighting. Cover image on the book may vary from photo. Ships out quickly in a secure plastic mailer.