The hymn was a favorite one,
known to all.
"Come, O sinners,
Come, and we will sing
Tender hymns
To our refuge,"
was the chorus, repeated after each of the five verses of the hymn.
Alessandro also knew the hymn well. His father, Chief Pablo, had
been the leader of the choir at the San Luis Rey Mission in the last
years of its splendor, and had brought away with him much of the
old choir music. Some of the books had been written by his own
hand, on parchment. He not only sang well, but was a good player
on the violin. There was not at any of the Missions so fine a band
of performers on stringed instruments as at San Luis Rey. Father
Peyri was passionately fond of music, and spared no pains in
training all the neophytes under his charge who showed any
special talent in that direction. Chief Pablo, after the breaking up
of the Mission, had settled at Temecula, with a small band of his
Indians, and endeavored, so far as was in his power, to keep up the
old religious services. The music in the little chapel of the
Temecula Indians was a surprise to all who heard it.
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