chatting as were they old friends reunited, and
Rezanov extracted much of the information he de-
sired. The white population--"gente de razon"--
of Alta California, the peculiar province of the
Franciscans--the Jesuits having been the first to
invade Baja California, and with little success--
numbered about two thousand, the Christianized
Indians about twenty thousand. There were nine-
teen Missions and four Presidial districts--San
Diego, close to the border of Baja California, Santa
Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. Each Mis-
sion had an immense grant of land, or rancho--
generally fifteen miles square--for the raising of
live stock, agricultural necessities, and the grape.
At the Presidio of San Francisco there were some
seventy men, including invalids; and the number
varied little at the other military centres, Rezanov
inferred, although there was a natural effort to im-
press the foreigner with the casual inferiority of
the armed force within his ken. Cattle and horses
increased so rapidly that every few years there was
a wholesale slaughter, although the agricultural
yield was enormous. What the Missions were un-
able to manufacture was sent them from Mexico,
and disposed of the small salaries of the priests;
the "Pious Fund of California" in the city of
Mexico being systematically embezzled. The first
Presidio and Mission were founded at San Diego
in July of 1769; the last at San Francisco in Sep-
tember and October of 1776.