evangel of kind affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge,
the Angel of the Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco."

Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her
history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled
even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West.



Part II
California in 1860



The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and San
Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a
gathering without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole
history and development of California is without parallel. The story
reads not so much like the orderly growth of a civilized community as a
series of unrelated and episodical events. There is little of logical
order or sequence, and much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and
crisis. Said an aged philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens," a
saying illustrated if anywhere in the world, in the history of the
Golden State.

Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous
Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of
the territory now included in the boundaries of California until the
year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San Diego.
Then followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of