Father Joaquin Pasqual Nuez

Notes:

From: Place Names in California

Las Animas Benditas

Of Las Animas (the souls), which lay between San Gabriel and the country of the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians, we find the story in Fray Joaquin Pasqual Nuez's diary of the expedition made in 1819 by Lieutenant Gabriel Moraga, to punish the marauding Amajabas, who had mur- dered a number of Christian natives. This name was also used as the title of a land grant just south of Gilroy.

The Moraga party arrived at a point "about a league and a half from Our Lady of Guadalupe of Guapiabit. We found the place where the Amajabas killed four Christians of this mission (San Gabriel), three from San Fernando, and some gentiles (unbaptized Indians). We found the skeletons and skulls roasted, and, at about a gun-shot from there we pitched camp. The next day, after mass, we caused the bones to be carried in procession, the cross in front. Padre Nuez chanting funeral services, to the spot where they had been burned. There we erected a cross, at the foot of which we caused the bones to be buried in a deep hole, and then we blessed the sepulchre. We named the spot Las Animas Benditas (The Blessed Souls)." May they rest in peace!

Los Molinos (the mills, or mill-stones), a name applied to a place east of San Gabriel by the Moraga party of 1819, who went out from the mission on a punitive expedition against the Amajaba (Mojave) Indians. Padre Nuez, who accompanied the party, says: "On the return we passed by a place where there was plenty of water, below a hill of red stone, very suitable for mill- stones." The same name, probably for similar reasons, was applied to other places in the state, among them one in Sonoma County, and Mill Creek in Tehama County, originally called El Rio de los Molinos (The River of the Mill-stones).

features - ecology: wildlife - plants - places - region map - map/sat - roads & trails - wilderness - video - aerial - 360 photos - old west - communities - books - lodging

route 66 - ghost towns - gold mines - parks & ... - joshua tree - death valley - mojave preserve - native culture - history - natural features - geology - glossary - comments

SkiWrightwood
Southern California Ski Reports

Wrightwood California
A year-round mountain community

HighDesertRED.com
High Desert Real Estate Directory
--

Digital-Desert
Abraxas Engineering
privacy

Copyright ©Walter Feller. All rights reserved.
Respect U.S and international copyright statutes and our right to own and control our work
- DO NOT LINK TO THESE IMAGES FROM WEB PAGES, FORUMS OR BLOGS -

Desert Gazette

279