{{y CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



coming to California, Mr. Hittell had learned more or less 

 Spanish and he now cultivated a further acquaintance with 

 the language until he could read it with considerable ease. 

 For several years he almost daily visited the office of the Sur- 

 veyor General, and carefully copied the necessary original 

 documents. At his home now are thousands of pages of 

 these copies, which should prove to be of much value to the 

 future student of history. 



After fourteen years of gigantic toil, in 1885 he published 

 the first two volumes; and twelve years later, in 1897, the last 

 two volumes. At that period there were few stenographers — 

 scarcely any outside of the courts — and no typewriting ma- 

 chines. Every word was written by himself in long hand. 

 He had no clerk, assistant or amanuensis. His voluminous 

 notes were in Spanish, German and French, as well as 

 English. 



The work was hailed with high acclamations by all classes. 

 It is a monument to the author's painstaking genius, and con- 

 sidering the period in which it was written, it is a master 

 work. It abounds in noble passages of ofttimes eloquent 

 English. It is detailed, and yet in proper perspective. The 

 early portion was drawn directly from original, official but 

 unpublished sources. The later portion was even more valu- 

 able and interesting, for the author was a keen, trained ob- 

 server of the events written about, and often a participator in 

 them. And yet his determination to be impartial was so 

 strong that the reader would have difficulty in believing that 

 the author was an eye-witness and often an actor in the 

 scenes described. Inevitably, where current happenings are 

 told, people have diverging opinions. Many persons may 

 have differed from his conclusions, but there were few to 

 deny that the w^ork was a dignified, accurate account of the 

 State from its earliest beginnings, and a weighty and valu- 

 able contribution to history. It is a veritable mine of fact and 

 reference. Since then, and especially of late years, has arisen 

 the school of scientific historians, and much attention is at 

 present being given to a minute study of California history, 

 especially from the archives in Spain and Mexico ; and there- 

 fore the writing of Pacific Coast history is now on a firm and 

 satisfactory basis. W'hen Mr. Hittell wrote, the knowledge 



