1633.] JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 99 



authorities of Mexico, that the reduction of California by such 

 means was impracticable. 



The Jesuits, who had accompanied Atondo to California, while 

 concurring in this opinion with the council, nevertheless insisted 

 that the desired political objects might be attained by a different 

 course, namely, by the civilization and conversion to Christianity 

 of the natives of that country ; and this task they offered them- 

 selves to undertake, doubting not that their labors would be crowned 

 with the same success which had attended them in Paraguay. 

 Their proposition was, as might have been expected, coldly received 

 by the authorities, who could gain nothing by its execution. The 

 Jesuits, however, not being disheartened by this refusal, perambu- 

 lated the whole country, preaching, and exhorting all to contribute 

 to the accomplishment of an enterprise so pious and so politic. By 

 such means, and by the cooperation of their brethren in Europe, 

 they raised a small fund; and finally, in 1697, they procured royal 

 warrants, authorizing them to enter upon the reduction of California 

 for the Icing, and to do all that might tend to that object at their 

 own expense. On receiving these warrants, Father Salvatierra, the 

 chief missionary, immediately sailed, with a few laborers and sol- 

 diers, to the land which was to be the scene of their operations. 

 There he was soon after joined by Fathers Kuhn, (a German, 

 called, by the Spaniards, Kino,) Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, all 

 men of courage and education, and enthusiastically devoted to the 

 cause in which they were engaged ; and, in November, 1697, the 

 first establishment, called Loreto, was founded on the eastern side 

 of the peninsula, about two hundred miles from the Pacific. 



The Jesuits, on entering California, had to encounter the same 

 perils and obstacles which had rendered ineffectual all the other 

 attempts to occupy that country. They were attacked by the 

 natives, to whose ferocity several of the fathers fell victims ; the 

 land was so barren, that it scarcely yielded the means of sustaining 

 life to the most industrious agriculturist, for which reason the set- 

 tlements were all located near the sea, in order that the necessary 

 food might be procured by fishing ; and the persons employed in 

 their service, being drawn from the most miserable classes in 

 Mexico, were always indolent and insubordinate, and generally 

 preferred loitering on the shore, in search of pearls, to engaging in 

 the regular labors required for the support of settlers in a new 

 region. The operations of the Jesuits were also, for some time, 

 confined within the narrowest limits, from want of funds. Their 



