San Francisco Solano, Sonoma county, Fernando VII., August 25, 1823. The growth of the missions was very fast. By the year 1769 there were nine in active operation within the limits of the southern district, and it is estimated that there were at least 3,000 native converts by the beginning of 1780. In the year 1800 the missionary property was worth about one million pesos. There are no trustworthy statistics as to the number of Indians that existed in the country at any one period of the early days, for the hunting and migratory habits of the native red man precluded the possibility of a count or a reliable estimate. Alexander Von Humboldt estimated that in 1802 the number of white men, mestizoes (one of mixed Spanish and Indian blood), and mulattoes living in the presidios or in the service of the monks was but thirteen hundred. These were classified as the civilized or pacified people of the country, in contradistinction to the wild natives, who were regarded as beasts. By Humboldt's estimate there were 13,668 Indians connected with the missions in 1801.

It seems odd to read that the early fathers did all in their power to restrict the white population. By their advice soldiers were not allowed to marry without the consent of the Spanish sovereign, and the priests advised against the giving of such consent. It is said that they preferred the docile Indians to the uncertain tempered whites. A number of colonists came from various parts of Spain, however, but they were obliged to get their land from the fathers. Tracts some distance from the missions were about all that could be obtained.

In all the struggles and growth of the missions there was really but one disaster of any consequence-the destruction of the San Diego mission by fire by warring Indians, in 1775. This loss was repaired without serious delay and the growth of the missions continued without much interruption..

DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY.

Hittell, Soule, and others have investigated the old evidences, and have shown that the beautiful Bay of San Francisco was discovered by a squad of Spanish soldiers, on November 2, 1769. Cabrillo, Drake, and all other navigators had missed it, but a land party in search of Monterey proceeded northward some distance east of the coast until the beautiful spectacle of an arm of the sea greeted their vision as they stood at an elevation in the foothills.

The discovering party consisted of Governor Portala, Captain Rivera y Moncado, Lieutenant Fages, Engineer Costanso, Fathers Crespi and Gomez, Sergeant Ortega, and thirty-four soldiers, accompanied by muleteers and tame Indians from Lower California-sixty-four persons in the entire company.

On October 17 they discovered and named the San Lorenzo river and the city of Santa Cruz. On November 2, 1769, some soldiers of the party were granted permission to wander from camp and hunt deer. Ascending a number of eastern hills-doubless in what is now Alameda county-they beheld the thrilling spectacle of an arm of the sea running inland as far as they could see. It was as beautiful as the Bay of Naples, and its tides pulsed through the Golden Gate before their entranced vision. Father Crespi's journal contains an account of the soldiers' adventures, and this is no doubt the first mention of the Bay of San Francisco to be found in the annals of Spanish adventure. Hittell says it is remarkable, considering the many voyages that had been made in its vicinity, and these by bold explorers, that the Golden Gate and the Bay of San Francisco remained so long undiscovered; and it is a still more remarkable fact that the importance of the discovery was so long unappreciated. Not until the coming of Americans was the value of the discovery made known to the world. It was not until the advent of Yankees that the advantages of the spot as the site of a great city were adequately recognized.

The mission at Dolores, on the bank of a lagoon, was consecrated by the building of an altar and the celebration of the first mass, June 29, 1776. The formal founding of the mission, however, was not until October 9.

The mission of Santa Clara was founded on January 12, 1777, three months after that of San Francisco. On November 29, 1777, the town of San Jose, or El Pueblo de San Jose, was founded. In the spring of that year Governor Felipe de Neve had noticed the beauty of the country surrounding the Santa Clara mission, and it was he that selected the site of San Jose as an eligible one for the pueblo, or village. Inducements were offered to people to go from the presidio of San Francisco, and each person was supplied with oxen, cows, horses, sheep, and goats. Sixty-eight pioneers thus founded the pueblo or town of San Jose. It was the first authorized settlement in the state and the very first town to be created and ruled under civil government alone. From the beginning settlers had all the rights and immunities belonging to the inhabitants of provincial pueblos, under the Spanish laws.

Under the same regime Los Angeles was founded, and it was the second city to be established under civil law. The date of its creation was in September, 1781. To the old mission fathers, however, belongs the credit of beginning the colonization of California. There is some criticism to be passed on the form of training they gave the Indians, and on their interference with marriages, as already indicated, but their work was for the most part beneficial to civilization. It should be remembered that they were not dealing with an intelligent native people. Humboldt, Drake, and Father Michael alike testify that the native Indians of this country were of a low order of intelligence-about like the Hottentots, or the natives of Van Diemen's Land. Venegas says their chief characteristics were stupidity, filthiness, impetuosity, lack of reflection, sloth, and blind greediness for food. He found them weak in both body and mind. Frank Soule, John H. Gihon, and James Nisbet, in their excellent "Annals of San Francisco," say:

"The fathers found abundant profit in the labor and personal services of the Indians, whom they left, as they perhaps found them, if they did not transform them into moral beasts-tame, dull, silly, and dirty. Meanwhile, the little independence, natural intelligence, and superiority of mind and character which even the rudest savages possess over the lower creatures were gradually sapped and brushed away, and the Christian converts were left ignorant, superstitious, and besotted, having neither thoughts nor passions, strength nor will."

SPANISH RULE IN CALIFORNIA.

The story of California's growth illustrates the wonderful power of the Anglo-Saxon and outlines some of the reasons for his supremacy, for the Spanish really retarded progress, as we now understand that word, and it was not until the advent of sturdy Americans that the state took on the growth that has made it what it is to-day. A glance at the olden days will give some of the main outlines of the story, that the reader may see the advance that has been made in modern times.

In an address delivered before the Society of California Pioneers of San Francisco by Edmund Randolph, September 10, 1860, was presented a lucid review of the government of the state under Spain. The speaker got his information from the old Spanish archives, in the office of the surveyor-general, at San Francisco. From this address it appears that all functions, civil and