ing California was marked by humanity as well as
energy. Cortes, Pizzaro, Vizcaino, Coronado, Menendez, Ponce de Leon,
Cabeza de Vaca, Balboa, as well as the later "pathfinders" governors
and viceroys of Catholic Spain, were men of honor, and sobriety to whose
names no "butcheries and cruelties" may be justly attached.

Perhaps one of the best proofs of Catholic Spanish humanity is the
fact of the preservation of the aborigines of the land wherever Spanish
conquests were made. Take for example, the statistics of the last
census of Mexico which reveal that of a population of 15,000,000 souls
7,000,000 are pure Indian 5,000,000 mestizos or of mixed Indian and
foreign extraction and only 3,000,000 foreigners or of Mexican birth but
of purely foreign extraction. Take, California, Arizona, New Mexico
and other former Spanish possessions of whom the same may be said in
proportion. In these places no Indian reservations are seen as where
the Puritans held sway. If Spain were guilty of the cruelties so
falsely imputed to her, Mexico in particular would be a Spanish or
Latin-American Republic, as it is, she may hardly be termed as such.
But Catholic Spain acted as explorer, civilizer and with her venerable
missionaries sponsor to the conversion of the heathen tribes of her
New World colonies, leaving in them the traces of her enlightenment and
christianity, yes, leaving them monuments of her humanity!

On the absurd and ludicrous application of the term "Spanish" in our
midst to many persons who have no claim to it by either birth or descent
we will not dwell, as we would not cheapen our sketch by stooping to
discuss such ignorance or insult our intelligent readers by writing on
such foolishness, we will only ask their permission to say that many
so-called intelligent people have no conception of the Spanish type,
race or character, but these we will leave "a la luna de Valencia" as an
ancient Spanish saying would express such cases. The California families
of Spanish descent are comparatively few, this being noted especially by
Spanish visitors to California.

But what of Spanish generosity at home, when the missionaries were
toiling for souls in the New World? Many a pious Spaniard in Spain and
in Mexico subscribed immense sums for the missions of California, both
for the Jesuit and the Franciscan missions. Thus we find the pious
Marquis de Villa Puente subscribing $200,000 for "missions, vessels
and other necessities of Cal