fornia; from thence begins the so-called New Albion.

Mexico did not suffice to the ambition of its restless conqueror Cortez.
To extend still farther the dominion of Spain, he directed the building
of large vessels on the western coast of Mexico; and thus, in the year
1534, was California first seen by Spanish navigators, and in 1537
visited by Francisco de Ulloa. When information of the new discoveries
reached the Spanish government, they resolved, contrary to their
proceedings in the cases of Mexico and Peru, to gain peaceable
possession of the new country by converting the inhabitants to the
Christian religion, and declared that this pious object was all they had
in view.

Only a small military force was, in fact, dispatched with a body of
Jesuits, who established a settlement and began the trade of conversion.
Disinterested as this rather expensive expedition appeared, its secret
motive might probably be found in the fear that any other nation should
establish itself in the neighbourhood of Mexico and the Spanish
gold-mines.

The Jesuits came and made converts. These were followed by the
Dominicans, who still have settlements, called here missions, in Old
California; and subsequently by the Franciscans, who have established
themselves in the New. They all convert away at a great rate,--we shall
soon find how.

The first missions were seated on the coast of Old California, for the
convenience of communication by sea with Mexico, and because the country
was favourable to agriculture. The military who accompanied the monks,
selected for their residence a situation from whence they could overlook
several missions, and be always ready for their defence. These military
posts are here called Presidios.

As it was not possible to make the savage natives comprehend the
doctrines of Christianity, their inculcation was out of the question;
and all that these religionists thought necessary to be done with this
simple, timid race, scarcely superior to the animals by whom they were
surrounded, was to introduce the Catholic worship, or, more properly,
the dominion of the monks, by force of arms. The missions multiplied
rapidly. In New California, where we now were, the first of these, that
of St. Diego, was established in 1769; now there are twenty-one in this
country. Twenty-five thousand baptized Indians belong at present to
these missions, and a military force of five hundred dragoons is found
sufficient to keep them in