Wherever There Is Water, However,
And Vegetable Mould, The Ardent Nature Of The Climate Quickens
Everything Into Astonishing Fertility.
There are valleys
luxuriant with the rich and beautiful productions of the tropics.
There the sugar-cane and indigo plant attain a perfection
unequalled in any other part of North America.
There flourish the
olive, the fig, the date, the orange, the citron, the
pomegranate, and other fruits belonging to the voluptuous
climates of the south; with grapes in abundance, that yield a
generous wine. In the interior are salt plains; silver mines and
scanty veins of gold are said, likewise, to exist; and pearls of
a beautiful water are to be fished upon the coast.
The peninsula of California was settled in 1698, by the Jesuits,
who, certainly, as far as the natives were concerned, have
generally proved the most beneficent of colonists. In the present
instance, they gained and maintained a footing in the country
without the aid of military force, but solely by religious
influence. They formed a treaty, and entered into the most
amicable relations with the natives, then numbering from
twenty-five to thirty thousand souls, and gained a hold upon
their affections, and a control over their minds, that effected a
complete change in their condition. They built eleven missionary
establishments in the various valleys of the peninsula, which
formed rallying places for the surrounding savages, where they
gathered together as sheep into the fold, and surrendered
themselves and their consciences into the hands of these
spiritual pastors.
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