 The way-station was strategically situated on the banks of the Santa Ana River, some six "leguas" (Spanish Leagues) north of the parent mission, and also served as a lookout post when the French privateer Hippolyte de Bouchard attacked San Juan Capistrano on December 14, 1818.By 1820 the building and its surrounding lands became an official "estancia" (mission station), where padres from the mission would visit regularly to bring "spiritual food" to the faithful.After the Mexican secularization act of 1833 the church lost the land and building to the originally Spanish, later Mexican-recognized land grant Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana.