was made into an independent mission, the name was retained, though the
dedication was transferred, appropriately enough, from St. Francis of
Assisi to that other St. Francis who figures in the records as "the
great apostle of the Indies."

Such is the simpler explanation of the way in which the last two
missions came to be established. It has, however, been suggested that,
while all this may be true as far as it goes, other causes were at work
of a subtler character than those specified, and that these causes were
involved in the development of political affairs. It will have been
noted that, though the threatened encroachments of the Russians had been
one of the chief reasons for this Spanish occupation of Alta California,
there had hitherto been no attempt to meet their possible advances in
the very regions where they were most to be expected - that is, in the
country north of San Francisco. In course of time, however, always with
the ostensible purpose of hunting the seal and the otter, the Russians
were found to be creeping further and further south; and at length,
under instructions from St. Petersburg, they took possession of the
region of Bodega Bay, establishing there a trading post of their Fur
Company, and a strong military station which they called Fort Ross. As
this settlement was on the coast, and only sixty-five miles, as the crow
flies, from San Francisco, it will be seen that the Spanish authorities
had some genuine cause for alarm. And the mission movement north of San
Francisco is considered by some writers to have been initiated, less
from spiritual motives, than from the dread of continued Russian
aggression, and the hope of raising at least a slight barrier against
it. However this may be, the two missions were never employed for
defensive purposes; nor is it very clear that they could have been made
of much practical service in case of actual need.