school property was
$29,013,150, and the expenditure for public schools $10,815,857. The
average school attendance for all minors of school age (5-20 years) was
59.9%; of those native-born 61.5, of those foreign-born 34.6; of
coloured children, including Asiatics and Indians, 35.8, and of white,
60.8%. In 1900, 6.2% of the males of voting age, and 2.4% of the
native-born males of voting age, were illiterate (could not write). Some
3% of the total population could not speak English; Chinese and
Japanese constituting almost half of the number, foreign-born whites
somewhat less, and Indians and native-born whites of foreign parentage
together less than a tenth of the total. Of the higher educational
institutions of the state the most important are the state university at
Berkeley and Leland Stanford Jr. University at Palo Alto. The former is
supported with very great liberality by the state; and the latter, the
endowment of which is private (the state, however, exempting it from
taxation), is one of the richest educational institutions of America. In
1906 there were also five state normal schools (at Chico, Los Angeles,
San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose), and a considerable number of
denominational colleges. There is also a state polytechnic school at San
Luis Obispo (1903).

_History._--The name "California" was taken from Ordonez de Montalvo's
romance of chivalry _Las Sergas de Esplandian_ (Madrid, 1510), in which
is told of black Amazons ruling an island of this name "to the right of
the Indies, very near the quarter of the terrestrial paradise." The name
was given to the unknown north-west before 1540. It does not show that
the namers were prophets or wise judges, for the Spaniards really knew
California not at all for more than two centuries, and then only as a
genial but rather barren land; but it shows that the _conquistadores_
mixed poetry with business and illustrates the glamour thrown about the
"Northern Mystery." Necessarily the name had for a long time no definite
geographical meaning. The lower Colorado river was discovered in 1540,
but the explorers did not penetrate California; in 1542-1543 Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo explored at least the southern coast; in 1579 Sir
Francis Drake repaired his ships in some Californian port (almost
certainly not San Francisco Bay), and named the land New Albion; two
Philippine ships visited the coast in 1584 and 1595, and in 1602 and
1603 Sebastian Vizcaino discovered the