ntains, and has many
sandy plains, where the only sign of vegetation is the cylindrical
cactus growing among the clefts of the rocks. Wherever there is water,
however, and vegetable mould, the ardent nature of the climate quickens
everything into astonishing fertility. There are valleys luxuriant with
the rich and beautiful productions of the tropics. There the sugar-cane
and indigo plant attain a perfection unequalled in any other part of
North America. There flourish the olive, the fig, the date, the
orange, the citron, the pomegranate, and other fruits belonging to the
voluptuous climates of the south; with grapes in abundance, that yield a
generous wine. In the interior are salt plains; silver mines and scanty
veins of gold are said, likewise, to exist; and pearls of a beautiful
water are to be fished upon the coast.

The peninsula of California was settled in 1698, by the Jesuits, who,
certainly, as far as the natives were concerned, have generally proved
the most beneficent of colonists. In the present instance, they gained
and maintained a footing in the country without the aid of military
force, but solely by religious influence. They formed a treaty,
and entered into the most amicable relations with the natives, then
numbering from twenty-five to thirty thousand souls, and gained a hold
upon their affections, and a control over their minds, that effected
a complete change in their condition. They built eleven missionary
establishments in the various valleys of the peninsula, which formed
rallying places for the surrounding savages, where they gathered
together as sheep into the fold, and surrendered themselves and their
consciences into the hands of these spiritual pastors. Nothing, we are
told, could exceed the implicit and affectionate devotion of the Indian
converts to the Jesuit fathers, and the Catholic faith was disseminated
widely through the wilderness. The growing power and influence of the
Jesuits in the New World at length excited the jealousy of the Spanish
government, and they were banished from the colonies. The governor, who
arrived at California to expel them, and to take charge of the country,
expected to find a rich and powerful fraternity, with immense treasures
hoarded in their missions, and an army of Indians ready to defend them.
On the contrary, he beheld a few venerable silver-haired priests coming
humbly forward to meet him, followed by a throng of weeping, but
submissive natives. The h