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Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 97 missions lie was a professor in the University of Alcala, Spain, and when he entered the desert and mountain sol itudes of this peninsula was in the prime of his young manhood. He was dowered with exceptional talents, and when commissioned by his superior, Father Echivari, to collect material for the history of the land and its inhabi tants, he brought to the discharge of his task exceptional industry, unflagging patience and great ability. For twenty- three years he remained in Lower California, in structing and Christianizing the tribes around the Bay of Palms and visiting the most remote corners of the pe ninsula in quest of material for his history. He took the altitude of mountains, determined the courses of un derground rivers, made a geodetic survey of the south ern end of the peninsula, and gave names to many of the bays and inlets. Broken in health, he retired to the Jes uit college at Guadalajara, Mexico, where he completed his history in manuscript. From this voluminous work, Fathers Clavigero and Vinegas and less known writers on Lower California, drew much of the material for their publications. I have entered upon this digression that you may un derstand the reliability and accuracy of the information we inherit bearing on the daily life and habits of a peo ple which, I believe, to have been the most degraded known to history. There are certain disgusting details entering into the social life and habits of this unhappy and abandoned people which I dare not touch upon. Even the barbar ous tribes of Sinaloa and Sonora, from their privileged lands and hunting grounds across the gulf, looked down upon the half- starved creatures, and held them in detes- |