t the tables. The poet, William Cullen Bryant presided, and
other men hardly less distinguished testified to the nature of King's
work, and to the varied charm of his unique personality. Best of all,
perhaps, was the tribute of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Frederick H.
Hedge. "Happy Soul! himself a benediction wherever he goes; a living
evangel of kind affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge,
the Angel of the Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco."

Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her
history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled
even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West.

Part II. California in 1860

The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and
San Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a
gathering without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole
history and development of California is without parallel. The story
reads not so much like the orderly growth of a civilized community as
a series of unrelated and episodical events. There is little of logical
order or sequence, and much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and
crisis. Said an aged philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens,"
a saying illustrated if anywhere in the world, in the history of the
Golden State.

Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous
Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of
the territory now included in the boundaries of California until the
year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San
Diego. Then followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of
California history, during which Spanish Governors and Franciscan
Friars ruled the land. Inspired more by religious zeal than by lust
of conquest, or hope of gain, the Spanish Padres planted a chain of
missions extending from San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. At these
missions, consisting often, at the beginning, of nothing more than a
rude cross and altar, with some miserable make-shift of tent or huts as
protection from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, the faithful
priests labored to convert the surrounding Indians. They tried to make
of them not alone good Catholics, but good farmers, and vineyardists,
and according to the need of the time, capable carpenters and builders.
As the result of their labors a long period of simple pro