current reports something wonderful long before their
treasures were disclosed. " This extraordinary range
of mountains," says Jonathan Carver in 1766, "is cal-
culated to be more than 3,000 miles in length, with-
out any very considerable intervals, which I believe
surpasses any thing of the kind in the other quarters
of the globe. Probably in future ages they may be
found to contain more riches in their bowels than
those of Indostan and Malabar, or that are produced
on the Golden coast of Guinea ; nor will I except
even the Peruvian mines."
No little excitement occurred in Mexico about the time of the expulsion of *the Jesuits, who, it was re- ported, had found extensive deposits of gold on the peninsula of California, and had concealed the fact from the government. It was in the rivers, in the rocks, and in the soil, people said, and the supposed concealment as to the spot containing the precious metal, on the part of the Jesuits, tended in no wise toward delaying their enforced departure. To prove the matter Jose Galvez, marquis of Sonora, accom- panied by Miguel Jose de Azanza," in 1769 passed over into California and instituted a search. A few weeks of fruitless endeavor satisfied Azanza, who returned to Mexico, saying that the marquis was insane to continue the search ; for the expression of which opinion Azanza was incarcerated, and kept in pi'ison for a time. Galvez found nothing, however, though the Jesuits afterward affirmed in France that it was true they had found gold. This was probably said in order to occasion regret in the minds of those who had caused their expulsion. All this of course is irrele- vant to the present purpose, except that in the loose and general reference made to the event, it is not stated, and often not known, that the Jesuits were never in Upper California, and that the search of Galvez and Azanzfc was confined strictly to the penin- sula of Lower California.
Such facts, mutilated and misstated, floating in the
