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 CALIFORNIA

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CALIFORNIA

students is limited to 500. The university was opened to students in 1891.

The work of religious education in California is confined almost exclusively to institutions under Catholic auspices. In California the Catholic Church, notwithstanding that she receives no financial aid from the State, and that the support of her schools and colleges must be derived entirely from the con- tributions of the faithful, has done great things in the cause of Christian education. The great pioneers of Catholic education in California were the Jesuits. In 1851 Santa Clara College was founded by the ven- erable Father John Nobili, S. J. This was followed, four years later, by the establishment of St. Ignatius College in San Francisco under the leadership of the Rev. Anthony Maraschi, S. J. From the days of these small beginnings the zeal of those charged with the education of Catholic youth has been untiring, progress has been steady, and the results already achieved have more than compensated for the sacri- fices and expenditures which the work entailed. The following figures for the year 1907 will give some idea of the importance of Catholic education in California: 1 archdiocesan seminary, 5 seminaries of religious orders, 1 normal school, 11 colleges, academies and high schools for boys, 47 academies for girls, 73 paro- chial schools, 31,814 young people under Catholic care. Besides the institutions just mentioned there are numerous orphan asylums, industrial schools, infant asylums, day homes and a protectory for boys to which is attached a boys' industrial farm at Ruth- erford. In addition to the colleges in charge of the Jesuits already mentioned, the Christian Brothers conduct Sacred Heart College in San Francisco, and St. Mary's College in Oakland. St. Vincent's Col- lege, in Los Angeles, is under the care of the Vincen- tian Fathers. There are several other universities and colleges, as well as numerous grammar, primary and secondary schools and kindergartens, under private management.

History. — The origin of the name California has been the subject of some conjecture; but certain it is that by the end of the sixteenth century it was ap- plied to all the territory claimed by the Spanish Crown, bordering on the Pacific Ocean and lying north of Cape San Lucas. In a much later day it came to designate, under the familiar phrase, "The Two Californias", the territory now included in the State of California, and the Peninsula of Lower Cali- fornia. After Florida, California is the oldest name of any of the United States. The land was discov- ered by the Spaniards — Lower California by Cortez, who visited the peninsula in 1533; and Alta or Upper l 'alifornia by Cabrillo, in 1542. Lower California had been evangelized by the Jesuits who had established eighteen missions between 1697 and 1767. Upon the expulsion of the Jesuits in the latter year, the care of the missions and the conversion of the Indians in the Spanish settlements were entrusted to the Fran- ciscans. To them therefore belongs the honour of founding the great mission system of California proper. The leader of this gigantic work was the renowned Father Junipero Serra, and his first settle- ment in California was the mission of San Diego, which he established in July, 1769. San Francisco was founded in 177ii. For fifteen years the saintly man laboured in California with apostolic zeal, and at the time of his death in 17S4, he had established nine missions between San Diego and San Francisco. The total number of missions founded in California by the Franciscans was twenty-one. and they ex- tended from Sonoma in the north to San Diego in the south. Prominent among them were Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and San Juan Capis- trano. The missions were all established under the sovereignty of the King of Spain; each mission had its church, a residence for the Fathers, a. presidio, or mili-

tary guard, and shops anil workrooms for the Indians, who, besides receiving instruction in the Faith, were taught, the useful arts of civilization. (See California Missions.) Each mission was established in conjunc- tion with a Spanish settlement under a civil governor, and during this period, the immigration was almost exclusively Spanish and Mexican. In 1822 California ceased to be a Spanish colony and became part of the territory of Mexico. From that date begins the de- cline of the missions; the policy of the government became one of annoyance, interference, and aggres- sion. Finally, in 1834, began the secularization of the missions, which was in fact their downright con- fiscation. The Fathers were deprived of their lands and buildings; and the Indians freed from the benevo- lent government of the friars.

The results were disastrous. The Indians were scattered and dispersed, and many of them lapsed into barbarism. The missions themselves were de- stroyed. This confiscation forms one of the saddest injustices of history. The temporal wrongs done at this time were partially righted in 1902 by the award of the International Tribunal of Arbitration at The Hague, in the case of the Pious Fund, which adjudged the payment by Mexico to the United States for the Catholic Church in California, of the accrued interest of the Fund. When taken over by President Santa Anna in 1S42, the total value of the Pious Fund es- tates was estimated at $1,700,000. In 1826 the first emigrant train of Americans entered the present ter- ritory of California. From that year onward there was a gradual influx of Americans, most of whom en- gaged in trading, hunting, prospecting, cattle raising, and farming. As the American population increased there were frequent misunderstandings and clashes with the Mexican authorities, some of them not alto- gether creditable to the Americans. Commodore Jones made an unauthorized seizure of Monterey in 1842. The United States Government subsequently disavowed his acts and made apologies to Mexico.

In 1846 a party of Americans seized Sonoma, cap- tured the commandant, and proclaimed the inde- pendence of the Republic of California. The young republic chose the Bear Flag as its emblem. In a few weeks news was received of the outbreak of hos- tilities between the United States and Mexico; the Bear Flag gave place to the American Flag; and Mon- terey, San Francisco, Sonoma, and Sutter's Fort were soon in the hands of the Americans. California was finally ceded to the United States, on the conclusion of the war with Mexico, by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, proclaimed 4 July, 1848. In January, 1848, gold was discovered by .James \\. Marshall at Coloma, on the American River. The news spread like wild- fire, and by the early part of 1849 a mighty tide of immigration had set in. The goldseekers came from every section of the United States, and from Europe. In that year more than 80,000 men arrived in Cali- fornia. These men were afterwards called the "Forty-niners". Some of them came from Austra- lia; some, from New York and Europe by way of Cape Horn; some crossed the Isthmus of Panama; while a large number came across the plains in cara- vans, on horseback, and even on foot. Fortune awaited thousands of these pioneers in the rich placer mines, and California became the richest gold-pro- ducing State in the United States. But thousands of those who were unsuccessful in their quest for gold, found even greater and more lasting wealth in tilling the rich soil ami engaging in commerce. After the excitement caused by the discovery of gold had sub- sided, a steady stream of immigration began, and continues to the present, time. The foreign immi- grants have been chiefly Irish, German, English, Canadian. Italian, and French, though there are also considerable numbers of Portuguese and Swedes. As shown in the tables already presented, more than