Time & Perspective Quote by Junipero Serra

Gratitude is doing double duty here: it reads like a humble devotional sigh, but it also functions as a stamp of possession. Serra thanks God for his timing and arrival, then pivots immediately to appraisal: San Diego is "truly a fine" port, "famous" for good reason. The sentence moves the way empire moves - from providence to property, from spiritual accounting to strategic logistics.

The seemingly fussy detail - "the day before yesterday, the first of the month" - matters. It gives the line a ledger-like precision, the voice of someone keeping records for superiors and posterity. Missionary writing often masquerades as private piety while operating as bureaucratic report: dates, ports, adjectives that signal value. Serra isn't just moved; he's documenting a foothold.

Calling the port "famous" is a clever rhetorical shortcut. Fame suggests consensus, as if the place's importance is already settled and Serra is merely acknowledging a known truth. That erases the contingency of the colonial project and pre-frames expansion as inevitable. The phrase "not without reason" hints at an argument he doesn't bother to spell out: the harbor's utility, the promise of supply lines, the future mission chain up the coast. In 1769, when Spain is trying to consolidate Alta California against rivals, "fine" is not scenic; it's geopolitical.

Underneath the clerical tone sits an unmistakable confidence: God has delivered him to the right site, on the right date, for work that will be cast as salvation - and felt, by others already there, as invasion.