DAWN AND THE DONS 157
to discern, or soundly to meet, the slow but tremendous
changes that were making headway among them. Strangely enough, the place where these changes were least manifested, and where they seemingly had the smallest effect was Monterey, the social center of Cali- — fornia and its seat of government. Old Spain lingered on at Monterey; old Spain was found there by Commodore Sloat in 1846; and it is the one place in Cali-
fornia where old Spain lingers today. In “California Under Spain and Mexico,” written in 1911, Rich-
man says that something of the old California in the days of Serra and Fages lingers yet in nooks and corners, “and most of all in Monterey.” In “California Coast Trails,” written
in 1913, J. Smeaton Chase says of Monterey,
“Much
of the
air of its early days still pervades the place and makes it, in a way, the most interesting town in California. The green lawn is gone, but many of the low adobe houses remain, and a good part of the population is Spanish or
Mexican
herself
still;
a resident
and
my
hostess,
of Monterey
Dona
from
Carmelita, girlhood, has
