abject savagery. Peoples are not civilized nor educated in a
day. Brains cannot be put into a monkey, no matter how well educated his
teacher is. There must have been the mental quality, the ability to
learn; or even the miraculous patience, perseverance, and love of the
missionaries would not have availed to teach them, in several hundred
years, much less, then, in the half-century they had them under their
control, the many things we know they learned.

The Indians, prior to the coming of the padres, were skilled in some
arts, as the making of pottery, basketry, canoes, stone axes, arrow
heads, spear heads, stone knives, and the like. Holder says of the
inhabitants of Santa Catalina that although their implements were of
stone, wood, or shell "the skill with which they modelled and made their
weapons, mortars, and steatite _ollas_, their rude mosaics of abalone
shells, and their manufacture of pipes, medicine-tubes, and flutes give
them high rank among savages." The mortars found throughout California,
some of which are now to be seen in the museums of Santa Barbara, Los
Angeles, San Diego, etc., are models in shape and finish. As for their
basketry, I have elsewhere[2] shown that it alone stamps them as an
artistic, mechanically skilful, and mathematically inclined people, and
the study of their designs and their meanings reveal a love of nature,
poetry, sentiment, and religion that put them upon a superior plane.

[2] Indian Basketry, especially the chapters on Form, Poetry, and
Symbolism.

Cabrillo was the first white man so far as we know who visited the
Indians of the coast of California. He made his memorable journey in
1542-1543. In 1539, Ulloa sailed up the Gulf of California, and, a year
later, Alarcon and Diaz explored the Colorado River, possibly to the
point where Yuma now stands. These three men came in contact with the
Cocopahs and the Yumas, and possibly with other tribes.

Cabrillo tells of the Indians with whom he held communication. They were
timid and somewhat hostile at first, but easily appeased. Some of them,
especially those living on the islands (now known as San Clemente, Santa
Catalina, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa
Cruz), were superior to those found inland. They rowed in pine canoes
having a seating capacity of twelve or thirteen men, and were expert
fishermen. They dressed in the skins of animals, were rude
agriculturists, and built for themselves shelters o