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Show 530 ARRIVAL OF KINO IN MEXICO. Ortega says, p. 328, that he reached Mexico on the occasion of a celebrated comet: Newton's was of 1680, Halley's of 1682. Ortega says, p. 230, that he reached a mission of New Spain in 1681. Both dates may easily be correct. His Explicacion del Cometa appeared in Mexico in 1681; he became noted for his astronomical discussion with Sigiienza y Gongora, and these matters probably determined his assignation to duty in Lower California as cosmographer major and superior missionary, with two other priests, on the ex-sions, and with many discoveries; this so important enterprise ceased for lack of the necessary means to continue it; yet this zealous apostolic man always conserved the love of this spiritual conquest, firstborn of his great fiery charity; by the port of Guaymas, by the vicinity of Caborca, by that of Santa Clara, by the island that he first discovered and named de Santa In6s, by the disemboguement of the Rio Colorado, and by the verification of that peninsula to be land continuous with new Spain, he always sought to open the way to enter; and when once it was conquered, he established communication and commerce at the cost of continual very painful voyages, in order to facilitate its assistance, and remedy its natural sterility. It is almost incredible how he worked in opening the way by the Rio Colorado to the port of Monterrey and Cape Mendocino, judging on very weighty grounds that it could not be distant hence more than 8, 9, or 10 days' journey; and it is certain that if he had succeeded in this purpose, he would have co- operated much and facilitated in grand manner the reduction of an extended and dilated land of California, with the result of many thousands of souls which inhabit it, and it was to this that this indefatigable missionary directed his efforts." |