IN AND AROUND SAN FRANCISCO. 



253 



It is a question whether the Bay of San Francisco was dis- 

 covered by land or sea travelers, though it is plausibly claimed 

 that the zealous Spanish missionaries who established the 

 missions south were the first Europeans to see this magnificent 

 sheet of water. In a fertile valley, two miles south of the centre 

 of the present site of the city, Father Junipero Serra, in 1769, 

 set up his cross, rang his invitation bells to summon the heathen, 

 and here started the Mission of San Francisco, although it 



San Francisco Bay in the Good Old Time. 



was six years later before it was fairly established. It hav- 

 ing been requested that one of the missions should be called 

 after Saint Francis, Father Junipero waited till the 9th of 

 November, 1776, that saint's day, and then, amid his followers 

 and the surrounding wondering Indians, dedicated it the 

 Mission of San Francisco. It was afterwards named the 

 Mission Dolores (Mission of Sorrows). At the dedication 



