INTRODUCTION OF THE JESUITS. 77 



on this coast towards the north ; since which, 

 the peninsula has been named Old, and the 

 more northern coast to the Bay of St. Francisco, 

 in thirty-seven degrees latitude, New Califor- 

 nia ; from thence begins the so-called New 

 Albion. 



Mexico did not suffice to the ambition of 

 its restless conqueror Cortez. To extend still 

 farther the dominion of Spain, he directed the 

 building of large vessels on the western coast 

 of Mexico; and thus, in the year 1534, was 

 California first seen by Spanish navigators, and 

 in 1537 visited by Francisco de Ulloa. When 

 information of the new discoveries reached the 

 Spanish government, they resolved, contrary to 

 their proceedings in the cases of Mexico and 

 Peru, to gain peaceable possession of the new 

 country by converting the inhabitants to the 

 Christian religion, and declared that this pious 

 object was all they had in view. 



Only a small military force was, in fact, dis- 

 patched with a body of Jesuits, who established 

 a settlement and began the trade of conversion. 

 Disinterested as this rather expensive expedi- 

 tion appeared, its secret motive might pro- 



