us we find no Spaniard as
Governor, General, or the like during this period. But here a curious
thing occurred. In later years when writers and historians of California
became numerous many Mexicans declared themselves Spaniards or classed
themselves as of purely Spanish descent, passing as such into some
histories, while at the same time they did not hesitate to "sting" the
Spanish name; and there are many California families who are referred
to as "Spanish" whose ancestors in the baptismal and marriage records
of the various mission archives are recorded as "neofita de la mission"
("neophyte of the mission") for the Spanish missionaries were most
accurate of details, and their records of marriages, baptisms and
funerals are like sketches of the persons concerned; parentage, birth
all are given in detail. Thus a child born of Spanish parents is
referred to as "de calidad Espanola" ("of Spanish quality") or if
of some other purely foreign extraction the same is mentioned. And
fortunate indeed, that this care of detail was had in the new country,
else how would much valuable knowledge be obtained?

During our narrative we do not wish to lose sight of the fact that we
have professed our work to be primarily a work of love, avoiding bitter
truth, which can do no good, and avoiding personalities, hence the
absence of names may be noted in this chapter, but it is invariably
the unpleasant duty of a writer to tell some unpleasant things in a
historical sketch, else how could justice be done to others, and how
straighten misunderstandings? We do not wish to merely cast aspersions
at the Mexican race or any other, for the gross and sordid not to say
sinful delight of doing so, but we wish to present to the reader plain
facts of this period of history. Here we will add that even as "there
is beauty in a blade of grass" there were and are good qualities and
virtues in many individual Mexicans, but we cannot but wonder at the
contrast of the two first periods of our state's history, and at the
difference so vast between two races and characters so often absurdly
confused. Here, we must mention perhaps the most deplorable incidents
of this period, incidents to which in spite of ourself we have so often
alluded, namely the Acts of Secularization of the missions. First, we
will mention that some writers accuse Spain of having passed an Act of
Secularization of Mission property in 1813, but such an assertion is
considered unfounded by