to the President of the Departmental Assembly that Victoria had left California for Mexico on the American ship Pocahontas.

Pio Pico, from 1832 to 1833. On January 11, 1832, Pico, being first Vocal of the Departmental Assembly, became governor ad interim. The ayuntamiento of Monterey in the meantime refused to recognize him as governor, preferring that Echeandia should act until news should be received from the supreme government. It would seem that there were two Governors, Pico acting as first Vocal of the Assembly, and Echeandia appointed by the ayuntamiento of Monterey.

José Figueroa, from 1833 to 1835. He was appointed by the President of Mexico in April, 1832; landed at Monterey January 15, 1833, and on the 25th Echeandia submitted to him. Figueroa asked to be relieved on March 25, 1833, and died at San Juan Bautista, September 29, 1835.

José Castro, from 1835 to 1836. Being first Vocal of the Departmental Assembly, he was appointed Governor by Figueroa on the 29th of August, 1835, and afterward became governor ad interim on the death of Figueroa.

Nicholas Gutierrez, 1836. He acted as governor ad interim from January 2, 1836, until May.

Mariano Chico, 1836. Took charge of the government May 3, 1836; appointed by the President July 30th. He left the government in charge of Gutierrez while on a trip to Mexico to represent the popular disturbances caused by the ayuntamiento of Monterey.

Nicolas Gutierrez, 1836. Acted again as governor ad interim from July for a few months.

ernor.

Juan Bautista Alvarado, from 1836 to 1842. On November 6, 1836, the Departmental Assembly declared California a free and independent state, overthrew Gutierrez, who left the country, and Alvarado became govOn August 20, 1837, Antonio Carrillo wrote to Governor Alvarado that his brother Carlos Antonio Carrillo had been appointed governor by the President. In 1838 Alvarado was appointed governor ad interim by the supreme government, and August 7, 1839, he was appointed permanent governor by the President. He died at San Pablo, July 13, 1882.

Manuel Micheltorena, from 1842 to 1845. He was appointed by the

President and entered on the duties of the office December 30, 1842. Died in Mexico, September 7, 1853.

Pio Pico, from 1845 to 1846. He became governor as first Vocal of the Departmental Assembly February 15, 1845. Having been recommended by the Assembly for the office in its session of the 27th of June, 1845, on September 3d of that year he was appointed constitutional governor by the President ad interim of Mexico, and due notice of his appointment was published April 15, 1846. Died at Los Angeles, September 11, 1894.

EARLY FOREIGN VISITORS.

Before leaving the subject of early times in California it will be well to recur to the conditions that confronted the people of the state with reference to their relations to the world at large. Under the Spanish régime commerce with the great world outside was forbidden, but ambitious navigators began, early in the nineteenth century, to be attracted to the new world, of which they heard glowing stories. La Perouse was the first foreign visitor. He arrived in 1786, and in 1792 Vancouver saw the coast. In 1796 the Otter, a Boston ship, appeared at Monterey. In 1806 a Russian ship came from Sitka, Alaska, and anchored in the Bay of San Francisco. The vessel was under command of Rezanof, an officer of high degree. He remained for some time and made himself popular by his courteous manners. He became betrothed to the daughter of Arguello, commandant of the presidio, and this close relation enabled him to do some trading with the people, under a suspension of the prevailing rule against such traffic, which was not permitted. Rezanof promised to return and marry his fiancee, but he died on his way across Siberia. Miss Arguello became the Dona Concepcion of a romantic tale, and Bret Harte's poem has moved many readers. The young lady's name was Dona Concepcion Arguella, and she waited patiently for the return of her lover through many years of anxiety. At last word came that he had died in a hut in Siberia, and Dona Concepcion, heart-broken as she had been for years, did not enter into the affairs of life with any degree of spirit, but became a nun and died at Benicia in 1857.

Rezanof's visit was followed, in 1812, by the coming of a number of Russian pioneers whose purpose was trading rather than settling the

country permanently. Under the initiative of a large fur company they founded a trading station about nineteen miles north of Bodega Bay, built a fort that has always been known as Fort Ross, though its Russian name is said to have been another word that sounds like the word Ross, and carried on a pretty thriving trade with the simple aborigines as well as with the Spaniards. The station did fairly well until 1841, when it was abandoned. The Spaniards and Mexicans had always looked upon it with disfavor. All produce that the Russians either raised or traded for was sent to northern Russian stations. The population, always under strict military government, amounted to about 300 in 1840. It consisted of Aleutians, Indians, and Russians.

When the Russians abandoned their fort they sold their holdings to Captain John A. Sutter, an enterprising and successful Swiss pioneer, who played an important part in the later history of the state, and on whose property the famous Marshall discovered gold in 1848, as we shall see later in this work.

But the going away of the Russians from Fort Ross did not mean that Russians and other foreigners were to be seen no more in those times. The Columbia and North American Fur companies pooled their interests, and after that it was common to see trappers and fur traders throughout the northern part of the state. The native population regarded all these foreigners as intruders and looked upon their movements with grave suspicion. From time to time the Mexican congress passed stringent laws against all foreigners. Despite these measures, however, population from the outside gradually increased. Not many years passed before Americans, English, and French had control of the bulk of mercantile pursuits. Soule says: "Runaway seamen and stragglers from Columbia and Missouri swelled the number of white settlers. The indolent Spaniards stupidly looked on, while the prestige of their name, their wealth, and influence were quickly passing into other and stronger hands."

In this connection it may be well to say that the only standard of judgment applied by many historical writers is that of "fruit," or material progress, as measured by modern ideas of civilization. There are those, however, who dispute the statement that the old Spaniards lived a purposeless existence, some holding that they were greater philosophers than their