trious Indians worked under the direction of a leader, who taught them the art of agriculture, of forging, of carpentry, and even of simple music, while the women of the group were trained in weaving and the necessary domestic arts.

The pueblos, too, De Mofras found, were centers of activity. In them had settled the Spaniards to whom many inducements had been held out to make their homes in these new colonies. Alvarado, the Governor under the Mexican régime, had offered very liberal grants of land to all new comers.

Los Angeles left upon De Mofras an impression of extreme prosperity, for a large share of the spoils from the secularization of the missions had fallen to the southland, in the form of large numbers of sheep and cattle, which were valuable for their export trade in hides. The center of this trade was at San Pedro, the outlet for Los Angeles and the back country, which gave promise not only of agricultural but also of mineral wealth, chiefly of mercury and asphalt. Nearly all of the trade, however, was in the hands of a progressive foreign element, a situation which, to De Mofras' mind, foreshadowed future troubles for Mexico. Practically no industries had been established by the rather indolent Spaniards, who had been content to exploit the natural resources, rather than to exert themselves to build up the country.

As De Mofras went further north, he realized that the country showed more clearly the effects of contact with other nationalities, and was beginning to break under it. Many forts were falling into disuse from neglect, and those Spaniards who had been exposed to foreign influences had absorbed from them not their strength, but their weakness. They had developed habits of idleness, luxury and easy living. This, added to their inherent indolent tendencies, was working havoc among them. The men on the ranches, for instance, spent their days drinking and smoking, while the women worked in the fields trying to do the men's share of manual labor. De Mofras was impressed by the type of the Spanish woman, by her bravery and intelligence, and her skill in taming and lassoing horses.

But the Spaniards were losing their grip on the Pacific Coast, and by the forties many foreigners, Swiss, Russians and English, were quite firmly established in the West. Since 1812, the Russians had been at Fort Ross; and Fort Sutter, near by, was colonized by a handful of Americans, while other Americans were just reaching the Coast. Spanish influence did not extend much beyond San Francisco, and in the northern country, so valuable for its fur trade, several countries were attempting to gain a firm foothold. England was represented by the Hudson Bay Company, with factories in Honolulu, Monterey, San Francisco, Astoria and Vancouver, and had an eye on the Western trade, while Russia was active in the far north.

The Oregon territory, which De Mofras, as the representative of the French Government, had especial interest in, since he was to examine the rival claims of the United States and England for its possession, was but sparsely settled, chiefly by the English and Americans and a few French missionaries.

France had no interest in the disputed Oregon territory other than an observer, and De Mofras, after examining the rival claims, wrote to France that while French sympathies were with the United States, yet he was forced, in all justice and reason, to admit that the English claims were stronger.

While there had been but few Frenchmen in Oregon, yet De Mofras was surprised to find how far-reaching had been their work of Christianizing the Indians. Once when he was traveling far into the interior he was amazed to hear a group of Indians singing a French hymn as they floated down the river, and he felt that perhaps the task of civilization was more valuable than that of acquisition, for "the wooden cross of some poor missionary", he wrote, has conquered more swords for Spain and France than the swords of their best captains". And the role of France, he declares, should be that of a protector and supporter of the oppressed, rather than a usurpator of the rights of others, even though abundant chances were open on every side for exploitation.

The records of De Mofras bring to a close the French expeditions along the coast during the Spanish and Mexican regimes, for very soon afterwards California passed into the hands of the United States. A survey of the motives and characteristics of these French voyages bring out the fact that they were marked by a certain loftiness of purpose. Their interests were not first and foremost personal, nor commercial, but were humanitarian. When they aimed. to find new land, it was to add to the world's knowledge of geography. When the goal was scientific, it was for the benefit of all science. They had, it was true, an interest in opening up trade, but not a trade in the sense of exploitation, nor of infringing on the rights of others. Among the more tangible results of French voyages which go down in history, have been the discovery and naming of many islands and ports from Cape Horn to Alaska. But above all, the records of these voyagers have furnished impartial and exact records of peoples and countries in every corner of the Pacific.

34. De Mofras, Duflot, Voyage, Vol. II, 421.

La croix de bois de quelque pauvre religieux avait conquis plus de provinces à l'Espagne et à la France que l'épée de leurs meilleurs capitains.'

THE NEGLECTED MISSIONS OF SOUTHERN

CALIFORNIA

BY OLIVE R. LA CLAIR

We are told that Father Kino, in carrying out his magnificent scheme of connecting the Jesuit Missions of Sonora with those of Lower California, by carrying them around the head of the Gulf, had several times visited the region of the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers. From his time down to the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits, efforts were made to accomplish this same object by extending the Missions northward on both sides of the Gulf, but a long space of territory was still unoccupied.

After the Franciscans took possession of Lower California and while they were preparing to occupy San Diego and Monterey, Captain Anza set forth his project of opening a road from the frontier of Sonora to the proposed new settlements. His offer was at first declined, but afterwards, in 1774, under the orders of Viceroy Bucareley, he made the trip and, so to speak, opened the road.1

The immediate causes of this Anza expedition of 1774 and of the selection of the route are closely associated with the name of Father Francisco Garcés, a friar of the Franciscan College of Santa Cruz, at Querétaro, Mexico. By his explorations of 1770 and 1771 he showed that overland routes existed to both Alta California and New Mexico, and that natives of the Gila and Colorado Rivers were friendly and desirous of conversion. With Anza and Garcés went Thomas Eixarch and he and Garcés were left on the western bank of the river with a few Indian attendants and under protection of Palma, a prominent Yuma chieftain, noted for his friendship for the white man. During Anza's absence, Eixarch remained on the river at or near the site of the modern Fort Yuma, while Father Garcés traveled up and down the Colorado, to San Gabriel and to the Moqui towns, and was well received by all the natives except the Moquis. Although his principal object in his journeys of exploration—the first of which was made in 1768, as will be seen—was the saving of souls, his results are of vast importance from the standpoint of exploration and of plans for frontier advance.2

Taking up his ministry at San Javier del Bac in June, 1768, in August Garcés started on the first of his "entradas" (as his expeditions into California were called) of exploration, going as far as the Gila. In 1769, he made another unimportant tour as chaplain. In 1770, he made another entrada, covering from Bac to and along the

1. Hittell, Hist. of Cal., I, 423-24.

2. Bancroft, Hist. of Cal., I, 354; Chapman, Founding of Spanish Cal., 145.

Gila and the return to Bac. On this journey he traveled among the Pimas Gileños and Opas, both of whom gave him a friendly reception, and upon his return reported that the Pimas Gileños were particularly clamorous for the Missions that he had promised when he visited them in 1768. In 1771, a more important journey was made, and the information gained during this journey had a great influence on the opinion of the junta which eventually recommended Anza's first expedition, and this journey, too, more than any other, helped to determine the route of the expedition.3

Again, with the Anza expedition of 1774, Garcés is found traveling among the Indians of the Gila-Colorado region. On Anza's second expedition, in 1775, with the soldiers and settlers intended for San Francisco, Father Garcés again accompanied him and also two other missionaries from the college at Querétaro, one of them Father Eixarch and the other Father Pedro Font. While Father Font continued on to Monterey, Father Garcés and his companion, as has been noted, stopped at the Colorado and undertook to make surveys of the region and prepare the minds of the natives for the missions. Palma, who had on the previous journeys showed great friendship for the white man, on this expedition was flattered by Anza, who, in the name of the Viceroy, presented him with a suit of clothes and a silver-mounted cane. Thus, arrangements were easily made with him for the protection of the Fathers while Anza went on.

Father Garcés at once began to examine the country along the west bank of the Colorado. On his journeys he carried a banner having on one side a picture of the Virgin, beaming with celestial radiance, and on the other a devil or lost soul writhing in the flames of hell. Traveling among the Indians, he unfurled his banner and noticed that they expressed approval of the pretty picture of the Virgin while they turned with apparent loathing from the other. Thus he passed to the north of the Colorado and back again, and then to San Gabriel, returning by the way of the San Joaquin Valley. After a few other short trips he made his way back to the Sonorian settlements.*

Returning from the second Anza expedition, Jan. 3, 1777, Garcés prepared his diary for submission to the Viceroy. He indicated fourteen or fifteen points on the Gila and Colorado rivers as suitable for Missions, but, assuming that the government would not care to found more than four-two on the Gila and two on the Colorado -he advised suppressing the disused presidios of San Miguel de Horcasitas and Buenavista, and the founding of two presidios of fifty men each as posts from which a guard of ten men could be detailed for each of the river Missions, "the surrounding natives

being numerous, powerful and warlike", and in this advice Anza concurred.

Eixarch also went back to Sonora with Anza and Garcés and was followed a little later by Palma, who desired to present in person his people's wish for missionaries. Thus, it is seen that these returned explorers were all impressed with the importance of founding on the Colorado one or more Missions under the protection of a strong presidio. The Viceroy favored these views also, and promised early in 1777 to transfer northward the two disused presidios as a protection for the proposed Missions, and recommended the whole matter to the favorable consideration of Teodoro de Croix, the Comandante-General."

The question of Gila-Colorado Missions at this time (17761777) was one of extreme interest both to the Viceroy and to the King. But connected with it were at least three problems: Should Missions be placed on the Gila exclusively? Should they be placed at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado? And if placed there, should they be manned by Dominicans from Lower California or Franciscans from Querétaro? It was the opinion of Padre Juan Diaz, Governor Crespo of Sonora, the Governor of New Mexico, and the Comandante-Inspector that they should be placed mainly on the Gila because of the directness of the Pina-New Mexico route to Monterey and of the fertility of the Gila land. On suppressing the presidios of Horcasitas and Buenavista, Diaz and Crespo agreed with Garcés and Anza, and they also recognized the need of a presidio on the Colorado.

To Comandante-General Teodoro de Croix, however, the idea of Gila-Colorado Missions was distinctly unattractive. Not so much that he was opposed to the occupation of the rivers but that, like Felipe de Neve, he was unsympathetic with priests, and was beset by need of economy in administration, so he resolved to put into practice on the river boundary of Alta California a scheme of "reduction". We find that this attitude of Croix received countenance from the college at Querétaro also. In 1777, Fray Morfi, a professor of the college, denounced missionary entradas in general and instead of entradas advocated soldiers and war. He did not even favor the establishment of Missions among the Yumas at this time. He would wait for two or three years or until a general pacification.

In the meanwhile, a copy of Father Garcés' journal had been sent to the King together with a copy of Palma's memorial to the Viceroy, in which he asked for missionaries. The King instructed Croix to attend to Palma's wishes, as the Viceroy had done, and to have the Missions and presidios established, as proposed by the friar. "Had these commands been carried out", says Father

5. Bancroft, I. 355; Richman, Cal. Under Spain and Mexico, 129. 6. Richman, 130-31.