Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/114

 88 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA Spain felt the moment ripe to decisively establish her domination, lest rivals take advantage of her ignorance and assume rights to which they had no claim. Accordingly, the King's ambassador in Mexico, Don Jose de Galvez, was bidden to send forward missionaries and soldiers to whom should be en- trusted the civilising, the Christianising and sub- jugation of Upper California. Don Jose was a native of the little town of Velez on the outskirts of Malaga. He had been a student of Alcala University and was a man of great wisdom. This he proved by choosing as his chief missioner one Junipero Serra, a monk native to the Balearic Isle of Majorca who had held the chair of Phi- losophy in the Luilian University at Palma, the island capital. From a youth he had wished to minister to the natives of the far-off colonies of the Spanish crown. When the opportunity came for him to leave for Mexico he was accompanied by Fray Juan Crespi and others of the same Majorcan monastery. Arrived in Mexico, he taught in the College of San Fernando and became known as a man of great influence among the Mexican Indians who were, however, much more tractable than those among whom he was to labour in his new field. Following the policy of Queen Isabella who had promoted the decree of Pope Alexander VI rela-