the descendants of the herds brought thither by the Spaniards in 1770; and the ground yielded, with little cultivation, as much Indian corn, beans, and red pepper, as could be consumed. The missions were, for the most part, in the vicinity of the military stations, and, like those of the Jesuits, they each contained a church, generally well built, with some ruder edifices, for the accommodation of the priests and their converts, and for store and workhouses. The public farms were worked by the natives, under the direction of the missionaries or soldiers, and merely produced the food required in the establishments, and, in some places, a little wine. Towns were afterwards formed, some of which were endowed with the privileges of a corporation; but none of them attained a large size.

The missionaries were, as already stated, of the Franciscan order, the members of which are incapacitated, by their vows, from holding any property as individuals. They were, for the most part, plain, uneducated men — taken from the lower classes of society, and knowing no books but their breviaries, and the biographies of their saints who devoted themselves conscientiously and heroically to the task of reclaiming and guiding the barbarous natives of that remote region-without any expectation of acquiring wealth or honors — unsupported by the ambition and pride of order which animated the Jesuits and uncheered by those social pleasures and consolations which our Protestant apostles derive from their families, wherever they may be placed. To their virtuous conduct and self-denial all the enlightened travellers who have visited their missions bear unqualified testimony.

These missionaries soon succeeded in reducing a large number of the natives of California to a certain degree of conformity with the customs of social life. The neophytes were obtained, generally when young, from their parents, by persuasion, or by purchase, or, in some cases, by force, and were never suffered to return to their savage friends, if it could be prevented. They were all, at first, treated as children; the nature and hours of their labors, their studies, their meals, and their recreations, being prescribed by their superintendents; and they were punished when negligent or refractory, though not with severity. After remaining ten years in this state of pupilage, they might obtain their liberty, and have ground allotted to them; but comparatively few availed themselves

* La Perouse, Vancouver, Kotzebue, Beechey, &c.

of the permission, and those who did so, for the most part, sunk into sloth and misery, or returned to the wilds, and resumed the savage life. In the latter cases, the Spaniards employed every means in their power to retake the fugitives, who were, indeed, often sent back by the barbarians, as unworthy of enjoying the privileges of freemen.

The Franciscans did not, like the Jesuits, exert themselves in procuring information respecting the countries in which they resided; and nothing has been learnt from them of the geography or natural history of the part of California which they occupied. In 1775, Friars Font and Garzes travelled, by land, from Mexico, through Sonora, and the country of the Colorado River, to the mission of San Gabriel, in California, making observations on their way, with the view to the increase of intercourse between Mexico and the establishments in the latter region. They were, however, coldly received by their brethren, who informed them that they had no desire to have such communications opened; and their journal was never made public. In the same year, Friars Dominguez and Escalante, of the same order, attempted to penetrate westward from Santa Fé, in New Mexico, to the Pacific; but, after proceeding about half the distance, they turned back. The journals of both these expeditions are still preserved, in manuscript, in Mexico, where they have been consulted by Humboldt and other travellers; but they are, from all accounts, of no value.

Between 1774 and 1779, three exploring voyages were made, by order of the Spanish government, in which the west coasts of America were examined, as far north as the 60th degree of latitude.

The first of these voyages was conducted by Ensign Juan Perez, who had been long employed in the Manilla trade, and afterwards in the vessels sailing between San Blas and the new establishments on the Californian coast. He was accompanied by Estevan Martinez, as pilot, and Friars Peña and Crespi, as chaplains, from whose Journals, as well as from those of the commander, the following account of the voyage is derived.*

Perez sailed from San Blas in the corvette Santiago, on the 25th

*The authorities for the account of this expedition are - the Narrative composed by Perez for the viceroy - the Journal of Friar Tomas de la Peña - and the Observations of the pilot Martinez-manuscript copies of which have been procured from Madrid. The Journal of Friar Crespi was examined by Humboldt, who has given some particulars derived from it in his Essay on Mexico. Of this voyage no account was ever given to the world until 1802, when a short notice of it appeared in the Introduction to the Journal of the Sutil and Mexicana.

of January, 1774, with orders, from the viceroy of Mexico, to proceed, as soon as possible, northward, to the 60th degree of latitude, and then to survey the coasts of America from that parallel, southward, to Monterey, taking possession, for the king, of every place at which he might land. From San Blas he went first to San Diego, and thence to Monterey, from which latter place he took his departure, on the 16th of June, for the north. The weather, as usual in that part of the Pacific, proved stormy, the winds blowing almost constantly from the north-west; so that it was not until the 18th of July that the Santiago reached the 54th parallel of latitude, under which land was first seen in the east. The coast thus observed was high and rocky, extending southward as far as the eye could penetrate, and terminating, in the north, in a point, to which Perez gave the name of Cape Santa Margarita. In the interior was seen a lofty, snow-covered range of mountains, which he called the Sierra de San Cristoval. On approaching the shore, the Spaniards could find no place where it would be safe to anchor; and, on rounding the cape, the coast beyond it was found to stretch directly westward. By this time, the crew were beginning to show symptoms of scurvy, the weather was tempestuous, and the vessel was small, and badly provided in every respect; under which circumstances, it was determined that no attempt should be made to go farther north. The Spaniards accordingly steered southward, along the coast, for about a hundred miles, and were then driven off by a storm: before leaving it, however, they met some of the natives, in their canoes, with whom they traded, receiving sea-otter and other valuable skins in return for old clothes, knives, shells, and other trifles.

The land thus discovered was the west side of the large island afterwards named Queen Charlotte's Island by the British; Cape Santa Margarita being the north-easternmost point, now called, on English maps, Cape North, at the entrance of Dixon's Channel. Many particulars respecting the people of these coasts are recorded in the journals of the Spaniards, which agree precisely with the accounts of subsequent navigators.

On the 9th of August, Perez again made the land, and discovered, under the parallel of 49 degrees 30 minutes, a deep bay, at the entrance of which he anchored, between two high points, one bearing six leagues north-west, the other two leagues south-east. Ere long, his vessel was surrounded by canoes, filled with natives of the country, who readily engaged in trade with his crew: they are

represented, in the journal of Friar Peña, as having lighter complexions than other aborigines of America; like those farther north, they were clad in skins, their hats being, however, made of rushes, curiously plaited and painted, of a conical shape, with a knob on the top. To the surprise of the Spaniards, they had many knives, arrow-points, and other articles, of iron and copper, though it did not appear that they had held any intercourse with civilized people. To this bay Perez gave the name of Port San Lorenzo, in honor of the saint on whose day it was first seen; it is undoubtedly the same which, four years afterwards, received, from Captain Cook, the appellation of King George's or Nootka Sound. The point north-west of its entrance, called, by the Spaniards, Cape Santa Clara, is the Woody Point of the English; and the other pointthe Cape San Estevan of Perez-corresponds precisely, in situation and all other particulars, as described, with the Point Breakers of the English navigator.

From Port San Lorenzo, the Spaniards sailed along the coast southward; and, in the latitude of 47 degrees 47 minutes, they beheld, at a distance in the interior, on the east, a lofty mountain, covered with snow, which they named Sierra de Santa Rosaliaprobably the Mount Olympus of the English maps. Martinez, the pilot of the Santiago, many years after, thought proper to remember that he had also observed, between the 48th and the 49th parallels, a wide opening in the land, and that he had given his own name to the point on the south side of its entrance. Of this observation no note appears in the journals of the voyage; yet, upon the strength of the tardy recollection of the pilot, his countrymen have claimed for him the merit of rediscovering the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and have affixed the name of Cape Martinez, in their charts, to the point of the continent where that passage joins the Pacific. Continuing his voyage to the south, Perez, on the 21st of August, passed in sight of Cape Mendocino, the true latitude of which he first determined; and, on the 27th, he arrived at Monterey, whence he, after some time, went on to San Blas.

In this voyage, the first made by the Spaniards along the northwest coasts of America after 1603, very little was learned, except that there was land, on the eastern side of the Pacific, as far north as the latitude of 54 degrees. The government of Spain, perhaps, acted wisely in concealing the accounts of the expedition, which reflected little honor on the courage or the science of its navigators; but it has thereby deprived itself of the means of establishing

beyond question the claim of Perez to the discovery of the important harbor called Nootka Sound, which is now, by general consent, assigned to Captain Cook.

Immediately after the return of Perez to Mexico, the viceroy Bucareli (the same officer who, as governor of Buenos Ayres, had expelled the British from the Falkland Islands in 1770) ordered that another expedition should be made for the purpose of examining those coasts as far as the 65th degree of latitude, to which they were believed to extend continuously north-westward. With this object the Santiago was placed under the command of Captain Bruno Heceta, under whom Perez was to go as ensign; and she was to be accompanied by a small schooner, called the Sonora, of which Juan de Ayala was to have the command, and Antonio Maurelle to be pilot. These two vessels, having been equipped, and provided with the History of California by Venegas, and a chart of the whole north-west coast of America, constructed according to the fancy of the French geographer Bellin, in 1766,* sailed together from San Blas, on the 15th of March, 1775, in company with the schooner San Carlos, bound for Monterey. † Ere they had lost sight of the land, however, the captain of the San Carlos became delirious, in consequence of which Ayala was ordered to take his place, the command of the Sonora being transferred to Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. These circumstances are mentioned, because, in nearly all the abstracts of the accounts of this voyage hitherto published, Ayala appears as the chief of the expedition; whereas, in fact, he only accompanied the exploring vessels to a short distance from San Blas.

*Carte réduite de l'Ocean septentrional, compris entre l'Asie et l'Amérique, suivant les Découvertes faites par les Russes. Par N. Bellin. Paris, 1766.

Of this expedition no less than five separate accounts are found among the manuscripts obtained from Madrid, viz.: the official narrative of the whole, drawn up for the viceroy of Mexico-the Journal of Bodega-part of the Journal of Heceta, showing his course after his parting with Bodega- a concise narrative by Bodega and, lastly, the Journal of Maurelle, the pilot of the Sonora. A copy of Maurelle's Journal was obtained in Madrid, soon after the conclusion of the voyage, from which an English translation was published at London, in 1781, by the Hon. Daines Barrington, among his Miscellanies. This translation, though very inaccurate and incomplete, attracted much attention at the time of its appearance, and from it, and the short account given in the Introduction to the Journal of Galiano and Valdes, all the information respecting the voyage has been hitherto obtained. Barrington's Miscellanies is, however, a rare book; and the notices of this expedition contained in the various memoirs, reports, correspondence, &c., relative to the northwest coast, are, for the most part, taken directly, or at second hand, from the abstracts of the Journal, given by Fleurieu in his instructions to La Perouse, and his Introduction to the Journal of Marchand, which are both filled with errors.