What
caught my attention in Father Baegert's book was his almost complete
ignoring of the soldiers who served with him. During the 17 years of
his service in California, he only referred to one and that was
Captain Fernando Rivera.
At
the same time, in all the references I have about the life of Captain
Rivera, very little is said about the 26 years he served in Baja
California. So, it has become a serious task to try to bring those
years to life for readers to understand who he was and what he
accomplished.
After
80,000 words of the first, rough draft, I finally reached the point
where these two figures meet.
Father
Baegert is trying to acclimatize himself to the new land and learn
what he will face as a missionary to the Guaycura – a Stone Age
tribe with a barbaric lifestyle. He is doing this when a young
sergeant arrives from the south and is surprised to learn the Jesuits
are promoted him over everybody to captain and commandant/governor of
California.
Wishing
to learn about the missions to the north he has never visited,
Captain Rivera and his escort take newly-arrived supplies to each of
them. It is upon his return that Rivera learns Father Baegert is
going to be sent to Mission San Luis Gonzaga. There is nothing I can
find anywhere the names of the soldiers who accompanied him.
So,
this turned out to be just the place to have the two meet and travel
together. And this is what they found:
Over
the next 17 years, in spite of his ill health, this is what he
created:
And
Captain Rivera travels south, meeting men he once served with as a
mere sergeant and facing the lieutenant who had felt the captaincy to
be his right. Sould make for an interesting confrontation.
