94 RETURN FROM SAN FRANCISCO 
tion and devotion invariably shown towards them by 
their Indian subjects. They venerate them not merely 
as friends and fathers, but with a degree of devotedness 
approaching to adoration. On the occasion of the 
removals that have taken place of late years, from po- 
litical causes, the distress of the Indians in parting 
with their pastors has been extreme. They have 
entreated to be allowed to follow them in.their exile, 
with tears and lamentations, and with all the demon- 
strations of true sorrow and unbounded affection. In- 
deed, if there ever existed an instance of the perfect — 
justice and propriety of the comparison of the priest. 
and his disciples to a shepherd and his flock, it is in 
the case of which we are treating. These poor people 
may indeed be classed with the ‘silly sheep’ rather 
than with any other animal ; and I believe they would, 
in the words of the poet, even ‘lick the hand though 
it was raised to shed their blood ’—if this were the hand 
of the friar.” * 
The harbor of San Diego is second only to that of 
San Francisco on the Californian coast. On the north 
and north-west, it is formed by Point Loma, a neck of 
land which stretches far into the ocean terminated by 
a bold bluff, one of the most prominent and well-mark- 
ed headlands on the coast. From this the shore takes 
an easterly direction for about four miles, when it turns 
and runs from twelve to fifteen miles towards the south. 
The southern and western shores of the bay, are low 
and sandy. The south-western shore is no more than 
a sand beach, connected by a narrow neck with the 
* Forbes’s California—London, 1836, p. 230. 
