1760.] JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 101 



improvement of the natives, and their union into a species of com- 

 monwealth, under the guidance of their preceptors. 



The Jesuits also m California, as in Paraguay and elsewhere, 

 exerted themselves assiduously in acquiring a knowledge of the 

 geography, natural history, and languages of the country. They 

 surveyed the whole coast of the Californian Gulf, determining with 

 exactness the relative positions of the principal points on it ; and in 

 1709, Father Kuhn ascertained beyond doubt the fact of the con- 

 nection of the peninsula with the continent, which had been denied 

 for a century. Indeed, as regards the eastern and middle parts of 

 the peninsula, nearly all the information which we possess at the 

 present day has been derived through the labors of these mission- 

 aries. On all those subjects, the results of their researches were 

 communicated to the world through the Lettres edifiantes et curi- 

 euses, published, from time to time, at Paris, by learned members of 

 their order, and afterwards more fully in their History of California,* 

 which appeared at Madrid in 1757, and has been translated into all 

 the languages of Western Europe. 



In the mean time, — that is to say, ever since the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, — the power of Spain had, from a variety of 

 causes, been constantly declining. Her resources, and those of her 

 colonies, had, within that period, been materially reduced ; in mari- 

 time force she had fallen far below England and France, and a 

 large portion of America, including valuable and extensive terri- 

 tories, which had been long occupied by her subjects, had passed 

 into the hands of her rivals or enemies. Her government, indeed, 

 resisted, as long as possible, these intrusions and encroachments, as 

 they were considered, of other nations upon territories of which 

 Spain claimed exclusive possession in virtue of the papal grant of 

 1493, as well as of prior discovery ; and never, until forced by 

 absolute necessity, did the court of Madrid recognize the claim of 

 any other power, except Portugal, to occupy countries in the New 

 World, or to navigate the Western Atlantic, or any part of the 

 Pacific. The earliest recognition of such a right by Spain was 



* JYoticia de California y de su Conqvista espiritual y temporal. — This work, though 

 usually attributed to Venegas, is doubtless chiefly due to the labors of Father Andres 

 Marcos Burriel. The portions relating to the proceedings of the Jesuits in California 

 are highly interesting, and bear every internal mark of truth and authenticity. The 

 observations on the policy of the Spanish government towards its American posses- 

 sions are replete with wisdom, and indicate more liberality, as well as boldness, on 

 the part of the authors, than could have been reasonably expected, considering the 

 circumstances under which they were written and published. 



