Page:Dawn and the Dons.pdf/35



NDER a spreading oak, on the crescent shore of an uncharted sea, eighteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Church and State united in a solemn ceremony that added a rich and distant land to the Spanish Empire. The brilliant rays of a December sun were reflected by the waters of a newly discovered harbor, bordered by the flora of an eternal spring. Back of this harbor, interspersed with green meadows and picturesque canyons, lay undulating hills, crowned with towering pine and sturdy oak, embellished with a rare and beautiful cypress, and ornamented with ever blossoming flowers. It was the Harbor of Monterey. It was Sebastian Vizcaino who unfurled Spain’s banners, and Father Ascension said mass. The day was December 16, 1602.

Spain had for some time felt the need of a frontier guard for her Pacific possessions. Cortes had invaded the land of the ancient Aztecs, and had presented the rich and broad domain of Mexico to his sovereigns of Leon and Castile. Magellan had sailed across the Pacific