noon
This seems more likely than the date given by Bancroft -LRB- December 8 , 1812 , fell on Tuesday -RRB- , for he himself says forty of the attendants at mass were killed , the officiating priest and six others being all that were saved : he does not mention the wounded , if any . This would be far too small a number for a Sunday mass attendance . La Beata It was a bright summer morning in the month of June of the year 1798 . All was bustle and excitement at the wharf in the harbor of the town of Acapulco , on the western coast of Mexico , for at noon a ship was to sail away for the province of Nueva California , in the far north . This was always an event to attract the attention of the town , partly from its infrequent occurrence , but more especially because , in those days , this northern Mexican province was an almost unknown land to the general mind . The first expedition to the new country , under the spiritual direction of the beloved Father Serra , had been sent out nearly thirty years before . But so many and conflicting were the tales of wars with the Indian natives , the struggles of the Franciscans to make and maintain a footing , the hardships endured by all who journeyed thither -- sometimes to the point of suffering the pangs of hunger -- , and , on the other hand , the marvelous tales of the perfect climate , grand mountain ranges with snowy peaks , fertile soil nearly everywhere , there was a want of unanimous opinion respecting the northern land .