i88cfl um'ero Serra 



Serra stands out as the conspicuous figure in the Carrying 

 pious background of California history. Lured by **T. 

 heavenly visions, he left La Paz on foot early in 

 1769 in one of Portola's two official land parties 

 designed to carry the true faith to beautiful New 

 Spain. In front of each division were driven a 

 hundred head of cattle. Having put behind them 

 nearly a thousand miles of barren cactus-laden 

 rock and sand, on July I they reached the gentle 

 bay where Serra founded the Mission of San Diego 

 de Alcala, the first of a long series to "girdle the 

 heathen land." Afterward the Padre made his 

 permanent headquarters at Monterey, the capital 

 of Alta (Upper) California, and he lies buried by the 

 old Mission Church of San Carlos. 



To the north of Carmel Bay projects the pictur- Ancient 

 esque and famous Cypress Point, one of the several c yp" ssfs 

 headlands of the pine-clad peninsula which cul- Monterey 

 minates in the Point of Pines. Cypress Point bears P ines 

 a grove of ancient but noble Monterey Cypresses 

 Cupressus macrocarpa many of them so bent 

 and twisted by the northwest trades that they seem 

 to belong to some Inferno of Dore. This particular 

 species, quite unlike any other conifer north of 

 Mexico, is found native only here and on the neigh- 

 boring Point Lobos * which bounds the bay on the 

 south. The Monterey Pine Pinus radiata much 

 like common Japanese forms but wholly different from 

 any other American species, is also rigidly confined in 

 nature to a small district around Monterey. Both pine 

 and cypress grow readily from seed and are planted 

 widely in California and in southern Australia. 



1 Lobos, "wolves," a name applied to the barking brown sea lion Zalophus 

 californianus. 



n 213 3 



