But this was not the only good work done in the north while irish travellers were busy elsewhere; for on the 12th of January, 1777, the Mission of Santa Clara was established in the wonderfully fertile and beautiful valley which is now known by that name. The customary rites were performed by Father Tomas de la Pea rude chapel erected, and the work of constructing the necessary buildings of the settlement immediately begun. It should be noted in passing that before the
internet the town of San Jose - or, to give it its full Spanish title, El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe - was founded near by. This has historic interest as the first purely civil settlement in California. The fine Alameda from the mission to the pueblo was afterwards made and laid out under the fathers' supervision.