Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/174

 142 THE TOURIST'S CALIFORNIA from Spain. Some portions of the cloister and church remain. To the latter's adornment the Russians of Fort Ross made contribution. The feather-work of the Mission monks was especially famous. The site of Sonoma, and all the surrounding acres to the number of 86,000, were granted by the Mexican Government to Mariano Guadalupe Val- lejo, a " native son " who was reared in Monterey and whose niece was the first white child born in Yerba Buena (1838). He had a magnificent homestead not far from Sonoma, the town he founded. The name of the hacienda, Lachryma Montis, had its origin in the legend of an Indian maid whose lovelorn tears gave rise to a spring in the mountain. Though the great house is de- serted now, it was once the scene of imposing hos- pitalities and feudal splendour. A Swiss chalet contains a collection of antiquities recalling the years before the Americanos came. A compara- tively modern house is the home of the remaining members of General Vallejo's family. To his house on the Sonoma plaza near the Mis- sion Church came Fremont and a swashbuckling crew to seize the gentle Spanish officer, whom his pictures show to have been a man with broad brow, kind eyes and straight, smiling lips. Guilty of no crime, friendly, even, to the invad-