. To California and back;. The story of his subjugation of the south-western portion of the New World is the most brill-iant in modern history. It is a story of unexampleddeeds of arms. Sword and cross, and love of fameand gold, are inextricably interwoven with it. TheSaxon epic is a more complex tale of obscure hero-ism, of emigrant cavalcades, of pioneer homes, ofbusiness enterprise. The world may never knowsublimer indifference to fatigue, suffering, and deaththan characterized the Spanish invaders of Americafor more than two centuries. Whatever the personalconsiderations that allured them,
. To California and back;. The story of his subjugation of the south-western portion of the New World is the most brill-iant in modern history. It is a story of unexampleddeeds of arms. Sword and cross, and love of fameand gold, are inextricably interwoven with it. TheSaxon epic is a more complex tale of obscure hero-ism, of emigrant cavalcades, of pioneer homes, ofbusiness enterprise. The world may never knowsublimer indifference to fatigue, suffering, and deaththan characterized the Spanish invaders of Americafor more than two centuries. Whatever the personalconsiderations that allured them, the extension ofSpanish empire and the advancement of the crossamid barbarians was their effectual purpose. Theconqjustador was a crusader, and with all his crueltyand rapacity he is a splendid figure of incarnate the westward-flowing wave of Saxon conquesthas set him, too, aside. In this fair land of Califor-nia, won at smallest cost, and seemingly created forhim, his descendants to-day are little more than a77. <iL: tattered fringe upon the edges of the displacing civ-ilization, lie has left his mark upon every mount-ain and valley, in names that will long endure, buthimself htis been supplanted. He has not fled. Hehas diininished, faded away. In 1781 he named this city Pueblo cij ia Reina delos Angeles (Town of the Queen of the Angels). TheSaxon, the Man of Business now supreme, has re-~ tained only the last tv/o words of that high-soundingappellation; and hardly a greater proportion remainsof the original atmosphere of this old Spanish will find a Spanish (Mexican) quarter, unkemptand adobe, containing elements of the picturesque;and in the modern portion of the city a restaurant ortwo where English is spoken in halting fashion byvery pretty dark skinned girls, and you may satisfy, ifnot your appetite, perhaps a long-standing curiosityregarding tortillas, 3ind frijoles, and chill con for taniales, they are, as with us, a matter of curbstone s
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Keywords: ., boo, bookauthorhigginscacharlesa, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
