at twelve miles; and on its northern point, where it narrows to four miles across, bounded by the ocean, the strait, and the gulf, stands the city of San Francisco, ce! port of the western coast of the Americas, the metropolis of the State of California, & city of nearly a quarter of a million of inhabitants.

The name California, which has for several decades been heard so much throughout t word, was invented by an obscure Spanish romance-writer, and appeared in his semichivaltic story (written about the time Cortez conquered the Mexican Empire), as applied an imaginary land on the north-west of the Aztec dominions. The term was soon affixed is the great mountainous peninsula whose rugged shores front the Pacific; and the present American State subsequently received the name of Upper California. But many silent years passed away before this mysterious realm was visited by Christian men. Cabrillo's caravels crept timidly up the coast in 1542; and in 1579 that gallant mariner of Bideford town, Sir Francis Drake, with his ships laden deep under the plundered treasures of Mexican and Peruvian fleets and cities, cast anchor in a harbour near the Bay of San Francisco. There are people who believe that the present name of the city is but a Spanish and Catholic modification of Sir Francis's Bay, commemorating the name and the explorations of the valiant English sailor. Nearly twenty years later the Spanish galley San Augustin, sailing from Manilla to examine the route of the treasure-galleons, was wrecked on this coast; and its pilot, by strange chance saved from the sea and the savages, conducted a naval expedition from Acapulco to the disastrous shore.

At the close of the long and desperate wars between England and France, in 1763, the former Power remained in control of the great French colonies in Asia and AmericaPondicherry and Canada-and her navigators were everywhere exploring more distant seas, to establish new centres of British power. Spain, suddenly aroused to a fear lest these intrepid sea-kings should seize upon the neglected coast of California, made haste to send religious colonies there, hoping to found new cities and provinces, which should avert the imagined danger. From the prayerful cloisters of San Fernando, groups of ascetic Franciscan monks, the Methodists of Catholicism, moved forward into the unknown land, attended by little bands of soldiers, and founded the Missions, primarily intended for the Christianisation of the heathen tribes, and after that to be the nuclei of new Spanish cities. Chief among these dark-robed evangelists were Junipero Serra and Padre Palou, from Majorca, in the Mediterranean-grim, patient, and self-abnegating heroes of the Cross. From the first-founded Mission, San Diego, a band of monks and soldiers marched northward for several days, in 1769, until they discovered the Golden Gate and the Bay. Palou thus recorded what he considered the miracle of the event: "As soon as I read this news, I attributed their failure to find the harbour of Monterey to a Divine disposal that they should continue their course until they should arrive at the port of San Francisco, for the reason that I am about to state: When the venerable father, Friar Junípero, was consulting with the illustrious inspector-general, about the first three Missions which we directed him to found in his New California, seeing the names and the patrons which he had assigned to them, he said to him, 'Señor, and is there no Mission for our Father?' [St. Francis], to which Galvez replied, 'If St. Francis desires a Mission, let him see that his port is found, and it will be placed there.' The expedition

went up, arrived at the port of Monterey, stopped and planted the cross, without any of the party recognising it; went up forty leagues farther, found the port of our Father St. Francis, and recognised it immediately by its agreement with the marks they had. In consideration of these facts, what shall we say but that our Father wished to have a Mission at his port?"

In 1775 the San Carlos, under command of Lieutenant Ayala, sailed into the Bay of San Francisco, and remained there forty days, exploring the delightful shores and streams, and the vast and fruitful solitudes which surrounded the inland sea. This was

the first vessel to enter the Golden Gate, the pioneer keel of myriads which were destined to bring hither a new nation. On June 27th, 1776, while the British Colonies on the Atlantic coast were in full war against England, a little Spanish expedition, marching from Monterey, founded San Francisco. There were two monks, seven laymen, and seventeen dragoons, with their families. As soon as the buildings were ready, the friars celebrated mass and chanted a Te Deum, while salvoes of artillery saluted the new civic daughter of Spain. The Indians of the San Francisco region burst into tears and wailings when they saw the Spanish explorers, as if some dark prophetic vision of their approaching dispersion and extinction had appeared before them. In commemoration of this mystery, Don Portalá named the harbour near by Llorones, meaning "The Cry-babies." The new ecclesiastico-military establishment was entitled the Mission de los Dolores de Nuestro Padre San Francisco, which was familiarly shortened into Mission Dolores.

In the morning hours of its existence, San Francisco was composed of two sectionsthe Mission, with the church and its Indian village, and the Presidio, or garrison, existing only for the protection of the monks. Hundreds of red-skinned converts were made, some attracted by the peace and plenty of the new establishment, and others torn from their distant hill-fastnesses by military expeditions, and led in as captives. Education seems not to have been thought of; but at sunrise every day there was an imposing service of mass, which all the Indians were careful to attend. The natives came to be regarded as wards, owning the Mission and country, of which the friars, who lived simply and dressed meanly, were but the guardians. The etiquette of the establishments decreed that when a monk met an Indian, he should say, "Love God, my son;" and the other should answer, "Love God, father." The power of the clergy was absolute and despotic, but mildness and charity ruled its exercise; and the aborigines were never so happy and well-provided as when under their care. In 1813 upwards of 1,200 Indians dwelt at Mission Dolores, and they owned 14,000 head of domestic animals. Objectionable as some of their methods undoubtedly were, the Franciscans reached a higher measure of success than has rewarded any of the other religious and philanthropic organisations which have tried to civilise the native Californians. The race was doomed, and the deaths far exceeded the births in number, year after year, as if Providence had decreed that these children of nature, narrow in capacity and slow to learn, were to be swept from the land, in order that the new civilisation might have free course. League by league the Indians retired to and through the mountains, before the advance of the white shepherds and cow-boys; and these in turn were slowly pushed back by the settlements of the wheat-farmers, by the vineyards of the south and the orchards of the north. An enthusiastic Californian sees

* Buseste sat fe lng maintated a trading-post at Fort Ross, by virtue để an wa.gear nate te ween the Czar and the King of Spai Bat the Mexican Re jestulas I wae free from Spanish rule, endeavoured to Eve cat the Russians, Fancy, when the sea-otters became scare Sect Fort Ross, the pored to the frozen shores of Alaska; and the Hadson's Bay xrporation & British traders, established stations in California, Mass at Yerba Buena In those days the t gmg-ships, the chief 2018 20.00 Voltage tự the talles, were kept by Esalante, a Manilla man, and Moreno, a "eur, aut wide tune way rufe the zamasuras franders of the metropolis used to 11.5 1. La 1841, bir George Simpera, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Bantart 2 Buna, and admired the miniature Mediterranean" of its bay. ste sprite soul form in the Atenas membants by a sharp and honest competition, were predoutant abng the coast. Alexander Forbes, the historian

of California, urged that England should take possession of the country, and connect it with the nearly adjacent provinces of British America. At the same time, Duflot de Mofras was endeavouring to awaken public sentiment in France, to secure the occupation of California by Gaulish infantry.

In the meantime, the population continued small and unprogressive; and Mexico was so far away, and so much weakened by ceaseless civil wars, that she could not efficiently

govern her huge northern province, nor command the respect of its people. The Americans. were spying out and occupying the country, on three lines of advance. The North Pacific whale-fisheries had attracted hundreds of New England ships, many of which visited Yerba Buena for water and provisions; and the sailors carried home wonderful stories of the silent paradise in the western seas. At the same time, through the passes of the Rocky Mountains, group after group of hunters and trappers from the region of the Upper Missouri emerged upon the Sacramento plains, or from the foot-hills of the Sierras beheld vast and fertile valleys extending their solitary leagues towards the sunset. Another class of Yankees, settling near the pueblos, had intermarried with the chief Spanish families, the Vallejos, Ortegas, and Carrillos, and began to leaven the dull Latin lump with intense Gothic vigour.

The Kand buses tred to ber California in 1868. in Menet vis not in a trading #ohman Sumar erploring expecta mor testam Vizes

durvera vivir aptured the Britai mi-same Ter son afterwards reported thing to g one of the fuest, if we the term best bror i the wel' Bad 112 10 ming yi Male at the United States fe mur Team, and the latter Catory, safe to size Calbomla on the first opportunity. Fearing a false romper of war, in 1862, the Auerat eniore in the Parthe aproned the expital of the provinceand apropied for it very query. Ba i vs celt fer pas later that the frigate Sarawunk wrzywni ♬ Metery, and the Potentei a Tein Barna, bearing in garrisons A hustic marines. There was war between the two Begollis, and California became one & de prune wou by the northem ristor

The poplation of Yota Buena was soon greatly augmented by the arrival of a hipid of wive and enterprising Morots, from New Enghod, who beaght with them a printing-press and all manner of mechanical tools. The Ettle settlement was then under te rie A a naval Hertenant, bearing the Spanish title of ainside. It was not kong before the citizens found that the name of their town-Terba Brena-fered serious obetacle to the Anglo-American pronunciation, and was suggestive of nothing, so they rechristened the infant metropolis with the name of SAN FRANCISCO.

To the newly-named town an era of wonders was drawing rapidly near. In January, 1818, the men who were building a saw-mill at Coloma, about 200 miles from San Francisco, discovered bits of yellow metal in the flume, and faneying that it might be valuable, wut a half-ounce down to the Bay, where experts pronounced it gold. In the early summer months, the people at the coast began to realise that there was treasure in the inland bills, and then suddenly a wild stampede began, and the town was practically deserted. The newspapers stopped publication, because editors and compositors had joined in the rush to the mines; shops were closed, for clerks and proprietors had disappeared ; abandoned ships rocked idly in the Bay, their sailors having fled; the children played about their locked school-houses, for the pedagogues were away among the Coloma hills. After their brief escapade in the mining country, the San Francisco editors returned to the Bay, and founded the great daily newspaper called the Alta California, afterwards the organ of the Vigilance Committee, and still one of the chief journals of the Pacific States. The merchants also returned, weary of the rough life of the camps, and realising that an immense flood of immigration was about to pour into California, through its chief port. The result surpassed their expectations. In 1847 the town had 300 inhabitants ; and at the end of 1819 it had 20,000. Within seven months 700 vessels had entered the harbour; and steamboats were panting up and down the Bay in all directions. The residents of the city were nearly all men; and their dwelling-places, rising on every side, were plain canvas tents, or rude shanties lined with white cloth. In the year 1852, seven vessels a day entered or left the port. Thus for years the fortune-seeking myriads poured in from all parts of the world; and the great, uneasy community, a thousand leagues from Christian civilisation and strong government, rapidly descended from bad to worse, until utter anarchy was threatened. The political administration of San Francisco became altogether corrupt and shamelessly venal, and the elections were carried, year after year,