DAWN AND THE DONS 28
produced. Says Richman, “The Jesuits, barring a few exuberant spirits, had never been enamored of California—meaning Lower California. In 1686, they had refused outright to attempt its conquest. In 1697, they had recalled their refusal with hesitation.
Later, under
Albuquerque, Salvatierra even had offered to give up the conquest.
So solitary, amid rocks and thorns was
Mission life on the Peninsula, and withal so fruitless,
that it bred melancholy. Communication with Europe required two and even three years, and with Mexico, many months.” Such was the distant and inhospitable land where gathered the expeditionary forces that were to carry the Mexican frontier to Vizcaino’s northerly port of Monterey. The San Carlos, after a rough voyage from Mexico, badly beaten by storms, limped into the harbor of La Paz, near the southern
end of the peninsula, in
December, 1768. Here, because of her battered condition,
it was found necessary to unload and careen her that repairs might be made. This careening, under such primitive conditions, furnishes an index to the diminutive size
