CHAPTER IX
AN EVENTFUL DECADE
WHAT Plymouth Rock was to Atlantic North America, Monterey was to the the Anglo-Saxon civilization on the bleak New England coast, so from Monterey radiated the activities that brought California under the civilizing influence of a great Latin race. Between these two diverse civilizing forces was the effective barrier of a broad continent, peopled by savage tribes.
The perils encountered by the Pilgrims are well known. The greater perils faced by the Spaniards in their daring adventures on the Pacific are not so well understood. California was the most distant point on
earth from the centers of white civilization, when measured by the routes then necessary to be followed. From Old England to New England involved the comparatively short, though then perilous trans-Atlantic voyage. By water from Europe to California required a voyage around South America, or a much longer voyage around Africa and beyond Asia.
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