33 The journals of Lewis and Clark contain a good description of the prairie dog (Cynomys or arctomys ludovicianus). See Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.

34 A short account of the Crow Indians may be found in Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, p. 226, note 121.—Ed.

35 Pattie is still among the tributaries of the Kansas. This must be the dividing ridge between the sources of the Republican and Smoky Hill rivers.—Ed.

36 This is the grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis), described satisfactorily for the first time by Lewis and Clark, who also called it the white bear.—Ed.

37 Smoky Hill River, the main southern fork of the Kansas, takes its rise in Colorado, and receiving numerous tributaries in its eastward course of nearly four hundred miles, unites with the Republican, to form the Kansas, about one hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of the latter.—Ed.

38 In Cheyenne County, Colorado.—Ed.

39 For the Comanche Indians, see James's Long's Expedition, in our volume xvi, p. 233, note 109.—Ed.

40 Ietans (Iotans) is another name for the Comanche, the latter being originally the Spanish appellation. See James's Long's Expedition, in our volume xiv, p. 223, note 179.—Ed.

41 The Navaho Indians are closely related to the Apache, both belonging to the Athabascan family. At this time they numbered nearly ten thousand people, their territory being west of the Rio del Norte, between the San Juan River and latitude 35°. Their manner of life was more settled than that of the Comanche and Apache; and the blankets they manufacture have gained a wide notoriety. They are now located, to the number of about one thousand five hundred, on the Navaho reservation in northwest New Mexico.—Ed.

42 Manifestly a slip, since the subsequent dates show that it was the fifth of October.—Ed.

43 For the Cimarron River, see Nuttall's Journal, volume xiii of our series, p. 263, note 203.—Ed.

44 San Fernandez de Taos was one of two small Spanish towns in the fertile valley of Taos, about seventy-five miles northeast of Santa FÉ. This valley formed the Mexican boundary for those who came up Arkansas River, and crossed to New Mexico from the north. The first Spaniard to settle in Taos valley, so far as records show, came about the middle of the eighteenth century; for his story, see Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, in our volume xx. Fernandez de Taos is at present the seat for Taos County, with a population of fifteen hundred. See Report of the Governor of New Mexico to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, 1903), p. 287.

The Indian pueblo of Taos, discovered in 1541 by Barrionuevo, one of Coronado's lieutenants, lies about three miles northwest of San Fernandez, and has had a varied history. A Franciscan mission was established here before 1617, when was built the church which suffered bombardment from the American army in 1847. The great Pueblo revolt of 1680 was largely fomented at Taos; and again, in 1837, a half-breed from Taos, JosÉ Gonzales, was the leader of a revolt against the Mexican government. There is still a community of Indians at this pueblo, where in 1847 the final stand was made against Price's army.—Ed.

45 The Rio del Norte rises in the San Juan mountains, in southwestern Colorado. Closely hemmed in by mountains, it flows almost directly south as far as El Paso, where it reaches the plains and thence forms the western boundary of Texas. From El Paso it is called the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo.—Ed.

46 Pattie could not have passed the town of Albuquerque, as that is seventy-five miles south of Santa FÉ. He probably means Abiquiu, a town on the Chama, a western affluent of the Rio del Norte, and on the well-known trail leading from Santa FÉ to Los Angeles, California. Pike passed down the valley of the Rio del Norte (1807), and his descriptions of places and of Mexico are as a whole valuable. See Coues, Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike (New York, 1895), ii.—Ed.

47 This was the mission of St. Thomas de Abiquiu.—Ed.

48 Santa FÉ is one of the oldest towns within the present limits of the United States. The site was first visited by Coronado in 1541; but the founding of the town was the work of OÑate, who established the colony of New Mexico in 1598. The date of the founding of Santa FÉ is uncertain, owing to the destruction of the records by the revolt of 1680; but it was sometime between 1605 and 1609. By 1630, Santa FÉ had one thousand inhabitants; its first church was built on the site of the present cathedral, in 1622-27; the ancient governmental palace, still existing, dates from the seventeenth century. In 1680 the Spaniards were expelled, but twelve years later returned under Diego de Vargas. From that time to the present, Santa FÉ has been continuously inhabited. In the eighteenth century, French traders found their way thither, and by the early nineteenth the American trade began. In 1822, the Mexican standard was raised over the town, and in 1846 General Stephen W. Kearny secured its surrender to the United States. Santa FÉ has always been the capital of the territory. It has now (1905) a population of about eight thousand. At the time of Pattie's visit the governor of New Mexico, the first under republican rule, was Bartolome Baca.—Ed.

49 The Rio Pecus is the largest branch of the Rio Grande. Rising in the Santa FÉ mountains immediately east of Santa FÉ, and following a south-southeast course for about eight hundred miles, it enters the Rio Grande in latitude 29° 41'. The name is derived from an old pueblo, situated on one of the mountain tributaries about twenty-five miles southeast of Santa FÉ. In 1540 this was the largest Indian village in New Mexico, containing a population of about two thousand souls; but the United States troops in 1846 found it desolate and in ruins. A small modern village has grown up near the ancient site.—Ed.

50 This small town, presumably to the east of Santa FÉ, cannot be the well-known San Juan, on the Rio del Norte opposite the mouth of the Chama River and about thirty miles north of Santa FÉ. This latter San Juan was made the capital of New Mexico by OÑate in 1598-99, and so remained until the founding of Santa FÉ.—Ed.

51 "The Gila was known to the whites before the Mississippi was discovered; it was long better known than the Rio Grande and down to the present century was far better known than the Rio Colorado."—(Coues, Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, ii, p. 374.) The first name, Rio del Nombre de Jesus, was given to it by OÑate in 1604; the present name dates from 1697. The stream heads in the mountains of western New Mexico, and traversing Arizona empties into the Colorado at Fort Yuma (32° 43' north latitude). See post, notes 54, 63.—Ed.

52 This name, meaning succor, was given by OÑate to the Indian pueblo of Teipana, about eighty miles south of Albuquerque, because of the supplies of maize furnished by the inhabitants on his expedition up the Rio del Norte (1598-99). The old pueblo was destroyed in 1681, and the modern town founded in 1817. It is now the seat of Socorro County, and contains over 1,500 inhabitants. The home of the Spanish ex-governor and his daughter must have been in the neighborhood of the present city of Albuquerque, the largest town in New Mexico. Pattie's course quite closely followed the line of the Santa FÉ railroad.—Ed.

53 The mines were the well-known "Santa Rita de Cobre," in the western angle of the Sierra de Mogoyon, near the headwaters of the Gila and about one hundred miles west of the Rio del Norte. Mexicans began to work them in 1804. They proved very profitable (see post, p. 350), although the difficulty of obtaining supplies was great, owing to the plundering Apache. In 1838 these Indians entirely cut off the supply trains, and the mines were abandoned. They were for a time (1851) the headquarters of the boundary commission for the United States and Mexico. See Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations (New York, 1854), i, pp. 226-239. Mining was resumed in 1873; the property is now operated by the Santa Rita Company, and is among the best equipped mines in the territory.—Ed.

54 The present name of this stream, one of the initial forks of the Gila. The confluence is in Arizona, a few miles over the New Mexican border.—Ed.

55 The Rocky Mountain sheep (Ovis montana) was well described by Lewis and Clark.—Ed.

56 There are at least three varieties of mesquit-tree (prosopis) in New Mexico and Arizona. It is related to the acacia and locust; and the fruit, consisting of ten or twelve beans in a sweet, pulpy pod, is gathered by the Indians, pounded in a mortar, and made into bread. A prolific tree will yield ten bushels of beans in the hull. The Comanche also concoct an intoxicating drink from this bean.—Ed.

57 The maguey is the American aloe (Agave americana). The Mexicans and Indians cut off the leaves near the root, leaving a head the size of a large cabbage. The heads are placed in the ground, overlaid with earth, and for a day a fire is kept burning on top of them; they are then eaten, tasting something like a beet. The roasted heads are also placed in a bag made of hides, and allowed to ferment, producing the liquor known as "mescal."—Ed.

58 For the method of making a "cache," see Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, index.—Ed.

59 This is apparently the giant cactus (Cereus giganteus). The height to which it grows varies with the nature of the soil, the average being from twenty to thirty feet.—Ed.

60 The Apache were long the scourge of New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Living by plunder alone, they systematically robbed and killed Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans. They belong to the Athabascan family, and comprise many tribes and sub-tribes. At present they number about six thousand souls, and are located on five different reservations.—Ed.

61 The Red is here used as one of the rather infrequent names for the Colorado.—Ed.

62 The Mexican province of Sonora had then nearly the same boundaries as now, save for a northern strip—the Gadsden Purchase—which was transferred to Arizona in 1803. Along its northern frontier stretched a line of five forts, to protect the ranches and villages from Apache raids. The tribe of Indians which behaved so treacherously towards the French companions of Pattie were the Papago (Papawar), who still inhabit this region, being herdsmen in southern Arizona and northern Sonora. See Bandelier, "Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States," American ArchÆological Institute Papers, American Series, iii, pp. 250-252.—Ed.

63 This river is still called the Black, but more frequently the Salt. It is a considerable fork of the Gila, uniting with it a short distance below Phoenix, Arizona. The left branch of the Salt is the Verde, the principal river of central Arizona. Pattie's geography is correct in describing the source of these two great streams.—Ed.

64 The habitat of the Hopi Indians (the more commonly-used Moki is an opprobrious nickname), has been the same for two hundred years—a plateau in northeastern Arizona, about fifty miles from the Little Colorado River. They are of Shoshonean stock, but became separated from their kindred and established themselves in six pueblos, forming the Tusayan confederacy. A seventh village was later added, composed of TaÑoan Indians from the Rio Grande. These pueblos were visited by Don Pedro de Tobar, a lieutenant of Coronado, in 1540. In 1599 they gave their formal allegiance to Juan de OÑate, who six years later again visited their country. They appear to have taken part in the rebellion of 1680, being reconquered in 1692-94. A delegation visited Santa FÉ in 1700, and Garces is known to have travelled to their villages in 1776. With the rise of the Apache the Hopi were necessarily cut off from contact with the New Mexicans, which accounts for their surprise at the appearance of Pattie's comrades. For their present habits and customs, consult Bandelier, "Final Report," op. cit., iii, iv; also Bourke, Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona (New York, 1884).—Ed.

65 The Indians whom Pattie meets in this region—the Mohave, on the Colorado, at the mouth of the Mohave River; the Yuma, or Cuchans, at the mouth of the Gila; the Cocopa near the mouth of the Colorado; and the Coco-Maricopa, or Maricopa, along the southern bank of the Gila—are the principal members of the Yuman family, the three latter being originally united in a confederacy. They were generally hostile to Americans, and Forts Yuma and Mohave were erected to keep them in subjection. Early travellers frequently commented upon their physical beauty, but contact with the whites rapidly pauperized and debauched them. At present some fifteen hundred Mohave are located at the Colorado River and San Carlos reservations, in Arizona; the Yuma, to the number of about a thousand, are at the Mission Agency of California, and at San Carlos; and about three hundred Maricopa are living on the Pima reservation, in Arizona.—Ed.

66 This is now known as Bill Williams's Fork. It is composed of two main branches, the Santa Maria and the Big Sandy, and drains west-central Arizona, uniting with the Colorado at the present Aubrey City. The villages just passed were probably those of the Coconino (properly Havasupai), a distinct Indian family, although speaking a Yuman dialect. See Bandelier, op. cit., iv, pp. 381-833.—Ed.

67 Pattie reaches at this point the fort of Black CaÑon, and traverses the southern bank of the caÑons of the Colorado for their entire length, a distance which he accurately estimates at three hundred miles. Apparently the beauty and wonder of the great chasm did not appeal to the weary traveller. The caÑons of the Colorado were first visited by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, of Coronado's party, in 1540. Again, in 1583, Antonio de Espejo reports his visit thither. It was two centuries before another white traveller is recorded as seeing the Grand CaÑon of the Colorado; and Pattie is apparently the first known American to traverse its banks. In 1857 Lieutenant Ives ascended in a steamer as far as Black CaÑon, and then proceeded overland to Grand CaÑon; twelve years later Major J. W. Powell descended the entire gorge in boats; see Dellenbaugh, Romance of the Colorado River (New York, 1902). The caÑons are now much frequented by tourists. See for example, Monroe, "Grand CaÑon of the Colorado," in Atlantic Monthly, 1900.—Ed.

68 For the Shoshoni Indians, see Bradbury's Travels, our volume v, p. 227, note 123. The river up which they trapped for two days was probably the Little Colorado, which comes in from the southeast. Pattie's "north" is a misprint for "south."—Ed.

69 This was San Juan River, which heads in northwest New Mexico; entering southeastern Utah, it passes around the base of Mount Navaho, and unites with the Colorado in Kane County. It formed the northern boundary of the Navaho territory; see ante, note 41.—Ed.

70 As they held possession of the mountains of Colorado, these were probably Paiutes. The numerous tribes of Ute are of Shoshonean stock; they extended along the Colorado River from California to its sources, and occupied nearly all of the present states of Utah and Nevada.—Ed.

71 Pattie is not sufficiently definite for us to determine whether or not he crossed the divide by the now famous South Pass, which was already known to Rocky Mountain trappers. According to Coues (Henry-Thompson Journals, ii, p. 884), Stuart, Crooks, and four other Astorians discovered it on an overland journey from Astoria in 1812. The fur-trader Andrew Henry passed through it in 1823, but it was first made known to the world at large by John C. FrÉmont (1842), and is in consequence most often associated with his name.—Ed.

72 For further information concerning Long's Peak, see James's Long's Expedition, volume xv of our series, p. 271, note 126.—Ed.

73 The Bighorn is one of the three largest tributaries of the Yellowstone. It rises in the Shoshone and Wind River Mountains, in Wyoming, and following a northerly course enters the Yellowstone at about 46° 15' north latitude. At its mouth, Manuel Lisa established the first trading post on the Yellowstone (1807). One of its branches has become famous as the scene of the Custer massacre.—Ed.

74 For the Yellowstone River, see Bradbury's Travels, volume v of our series, p. 100, note 68.—Ed.

75 A brief account of the Flathead Indians may be found in FranchÈre's Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 340, note 145. For the method of compressing the children's heads, consult illustration in Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, iv.—Ed.

76 On the return journey of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Clark passed from the Bitterroot fork of Clark's branch of the Columbia, across the continental divide, through Gibbon's Pass, thence by way of Bozeman Pass and Jefferson and Gallatin rivers to the Yellowstone, reaching the latter near the present site of Livingston, Montana, about forty-five miles north of Yellowstone Park. See Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, v, p. 262.

There is at this point some strange mistake or hiatus in Pattie's journal. Clark's Fork of the Columbia takes its rise in the Bitterroot Mountains, and does not flow within a thousand miles of Long's Peak; nor would the time allowed—less than three weeks—have admitted of so extensive a journey. The trappers must have become confused among the northern rivers, and returned on their steps up the North Fork of the Platte.—Ed.

77 For the Blackfeet Indians, see Bradbury's Travels, volume v of our series, p. 225, note 120.—Ed.

78 The province of Biscay was, properly speaking, Nueva Vizcaya. Originally extensive, and including Sonora, it by this time comprised only the present states of Chihuahua and Durango. Hanas is doubtless Janos (named for an Indian tribe), one of the fortified towns of Chihuahua, situated on the Casas Grandes River.—Ed.

79 The mountains crossed were the Sierra Madre. Bavispe (Barbisca) was a presidio in the northeastern part of Sonora; it is situated on the river of the same name, one of the main forks of the Yaqui, the largest Sonoran river, which follows a southwest course and falls into the Gulf of California below Port-Guaymas. The village was destroyed by an earthquake in May, 1887.—Ed.

80 The Yaquis Indians, living along the Yaqui River, have been difficult to keep in subjection; they revolted in 1740, and again in 1825. At present constituting the laboring class of Sonora, although living apart from whites, in their own villages, they are much employed in the gold mines, in which Sonora abounds, being one of the richest mining districts in the world. The mine described by Pattie was evidently near the present village of Tepache, northeast of the centre of the state, which is still strewn with abandoned shafts.—Ed.

81 Sonora has had several capitals, and it is uncertain to which Pattie here refers. The present executive town is Hermosillo, on the Sonora River. Its earlier rival was Ures, some miles up the same river.—Ed.

82 Pattie sees here the Gulf of California, whose principal port is still Guaymas, with a population of about five thousand five hundred.—Ed.

83 The Mexican revolt against Spain began with the rising of Hidalgo in 1810, and was carried on with varying success until apparently quelled in 1817. But the Spanish revolution of 1820 was the signal for a new and successful outbreak, and Mexico became independent the following year.—Ed.

84 These were probably the mines of Cosihuiriachi, located in the Sierra de Metates, about ninety miles west of the capital of Chihuahua. Accidentally discovered at the end of the eighteenth century, they became highly profitable, the number of persons living there in Spanish times being estimated at ten thousand. As in the case of the copper mines, the plundering of the Apache caused a decline, and by 1850 most of them had been abandoned. For further details, see Wislizenus, "A Tour to Northern Mexico" (Senate Misc., 30 Cong., 1 sess., 26, pp. 51-53).—Ed.

85 Chihuahua, the capital of the state of that name, is attractively situated in a valley of the Sierra Madre Mountains, about a hundred miles west of the Rio Grande River. It was settled about 1691, the population being considerably greater in Spanish than in Mexican times. The most noteworthy building is the cathedral, perhaps the richest and most beautiful in Mexico. A second large church was begun by the Jesuits, but never completed; it served as a prison for the patriot Hidalgo before his execution. See Wislizenus, op. cit., pp. 60-63.—Ed.

86 San Buenaventura was originally a Franciscan mission about a hundred and eighty miles northeast of Chihuahua. It was frequently disturbed by Apache attacks, and about 1775 was moved a short distance and made one of the frontier presidios.—Ed.

87 From its location this river would seem to be the Santa Maria, a small stream which rises in the mountains south of San Buenaventura, and flowing northward loses itself in a lake not far from El Paso.—Ed.

88 Casas Grandes is a short distance south of Janos (see ante, note 78). Near the Mexican village are the famous ruins of large, several-storied dwellings built by an Indian tribe that has passed away. Evidence of a canal which conveyed the water supply is also to be seen, and at some distance from the cluster of buildings is a kind of watch-tower. Similar ruins have been discovered in Arizona, all the work of Pueblo Indians, although of a tribe having attained a somewhat higher culture than those of to-day. See Bandelier, "Final Report," iv, pp. 544-575.—Ed.

89 The town of El Paso dates from about 1680, when the Spanish were driven out of Santa FÉ by the great Pueblo revolt. For Indian, trapper, trader, and miner it has been a gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific river systems. Its name arose from the fact that there the Rio del Norte emerges from the mountains to the plains. The modern El Paso, Texas, is across the river from the old town.—Ed.

90 This is not the Pacos (Pecos), previously mentioned by Pattie (see ante, note 49), but the Puerco, a western tributary of the Rio del Norte. Puerco was also a common, though mistaken name, for the Pecos, hence the confusion. The Puerco is a narrow, shallow stream, about seventy-five miles in length, which, rising in the mountains west of Santa FÉ and flowing southward, unites with the Rio del Norte a few miles above Socorro.—Ed.

91 The Mescalero were among the most treacherous and murderous tribes of the Apache. Their favorite haunts were the mountains bordering the Rio del Norte on the east. Some five hundred of them are now on the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico.—Ed.

92 The Mimbres River flows between Mimbres Mountain and the copper mines, being but a short distance from the latter.—Ed.

93 This is probably Andrew Henry, a pioneer trader on the Missouri, for whom see our volume xv, p. 246, note 107.—Ed.

94 See ante, note 65.—Ed.

95 The jaguar (Felis onca) most resembles the leopard of the old world. It inhabits the wooded parts of America, from Texas to Paraguay.—Ed.

96 For the Cocopa Indians, see ante, note 65. The Pipi were probably Pimi, a distinct linguistic family, occupying southern Arizona and northern Mexico. They lived a settled life in villages, and were generally well-disposed toward the whites.—Ed.

97 Santa Catalina was the last mission founded in Lower California. It was established by the Dominicans (1797) in the mountains, back from the coast, about latitude 31° 20', on the headwaters of River St. Quentin.—Ed.

98 The mission of Santo TomÁs de Aquino was founded by the Dominicans in 1790. It is situated about fifty miles northwest of Santa Catalina, on a river to which it gives a name, Rio Santo Tomas.—Ed.

99 San Miguel, established in 1782, is about thirty miles south of San Diego.—Ed.

100 A presidio was established at San Diego in 1769, and troops stationed there. Although not the capital at the time of Pattie's imprisonment, Governor Echeandia preferred its climate to that of Monterey, and made it his permanent residence. The present city of San Diego dates only from 1867, and is five or six miles distant from the old site.—Ed.

101 This account of Captain Bradshaw and the "Franklin" does not agree in chronology with the evidence presented by Bancroft from official sources (History of California, iii, pp. 133, 134). The "Franklin" escaped on July 16, Bradshaw having been warned by a French captain that the governor intended to place a guard on board the vessel. Pattie wrote from memory, some time after the occurrences, but except in the matter of time his evidence tallies with that of the Mexican manuscripts, wherein his name is mentioned as interpreter.—Ed.

102 The names of Pattie's companions appear in the archives, and are given by Bancroft, California, iii, p. 163, as Nathaniel Pryor, Richard Laughlin, William Pope, Isaac Slover, Jesse Ferguson, James Puter. Of these, the first is the name of one of the sergeants in the Lewis and Clark expedition, for whose earlier career see Wheeler, On the Trail of Lewis and Clark (New York, 1904), i, pp. 92-95. See also Bancroft, iv, p. 785; and Vallejo, "Ranch and Mission Days in Alta California," in Century Magazine, xix, p. 190. Most of them became residents of California; William Pope gave his name to Pope Valley, Napa County, where he lived and died.—Ed.

103 Pattie elsewhere gives the name of this young woman who befriended him, as Miss Peaks. Bancroft conjectures (California, ii, p. 165) that she was SeÑorita Pico, sister of a sergeant by that name, figuring in the records of the time.—Ed.

104 For the career of Charles (not James) Lang, see Bancroft, op. cit., iii, pp. 139, 140.—Ed.

105 The mission of San Diego de Alcala was the first of the Franciscan establishments begun by Father Junipero Serra in 1769. In 1774 it was removed inland three miles from the presidio of the same name; and at the time of Pattie's visit, it had attained the height of its prosperity. Six years after it was founded (1775), an Indian revolt occurred, in which there was bloodshed on both sides, and the church was burned and pillaged. It was re-established in 1777, and six years later was built the church, of which little yet remains but the faÇade. Remains of an aqueduct may also be traced, to whose use in irrigating Pattie refers. On the entire subject of mission history, consult in addition to Bancroft, and the standard histories, Victor, "Studies of the California Missions" in The Californian, v, vi; Helen Hunt Jackson, "Father Junipero and his Work," in Century, iv, pp. 3-18, 199-215; Doyle, "Missions of Alta California," ibid., xix, pp. 389-402; Jackson, Glimpses of California and the Missions (Boston, 1902); Carter, Missions of Nueva California (San Francisco, 1900), and Clinch, California and its Missions, (San Francisco, 1904).—Ed.

106 The mission of San Luis Rey de Francia, situated on the coast, about eighty-five miles southeast from Los Angeles, was founded in 1798, and named in honor of Louis IX of France. The church, the largest among the missions, was completed in 1802. At the time of Pattie's visit, it was the most prosperous mission in California, possessing twenty-five thousand sheep and over two hundred thousand acres of land, on which were annually raised twelve thousand bushels of grain. The founder, Padre Antonio Peyri, was still in charge, and to his fine character and administrative ability was due the success of the enterprise. The old church, the finest among the missions, was recently repaired and occupied by the Franciscans, the dedication (1893) of the re-established mission taking place with much ceremony.—Ed.

107 This should be San Juan Capistrano; San Juan Bautista was further north, see note 119, below. This mission was founded with much difficulty, the Indians being hostile, and upon the news of the revolt at San Diego (1775) the first attempt was abandoned. The second (1776) was more successful, but the mission made but slow progress. Its beautiful stone church was begun in 1797, and dedicated in 1806, only to be partially destroyed by the earthquake, to which Pattie refers, in 1812. The ruins of San Juan Capistrano are among the most beautiful of all the California missions; they are situated near a small town of that name, on the Southern California Railroad, fifty-eight miles southeast of Los Angeles.

San Gabriel was the fourth mission founded on the southern coast by the Franciscans. It was established in 1771, near San Pedro Bay, where had been recorded a miracle upon the unfurling of a banner bearing a painting of the Virgin. Somewhat later the mission was removed to the foothills, and being on the road from Monterey to San Diego, attained considerable wealth and importance. In 1832 the Spanish government secured from this mission a forced loan of $120,000 in gold. The existing church of the mission is much visited, being but nine miles east of Los Angeles.

San Pedro was the port both of Los Angeles and the San Gabriel mission. The bay was named by Viscaino (1602), and next to the four presidial ports it was the most important on the coast, and the spot where much smuggling took place. In 1846, during the American conquest of the province, a battle was fought not far from San Pedro, between Californians and Americans; the latter under Captain William Mervine, were defeated.—Ed.