As a matter of course, communication with the neighbor provinces was mostly carried on by sea. There was a little trade with San Blas, and so with Old Mexico, but it was long before the way was opened to New Mexico by crossing the Colorado desert. One of the fathers, in 1776, set out from San Gabriel for the Colorado River, passing safely over the route now followed by the Southern Pacific Railway. Afterwards, a little trade sprung up between the provinces, but the way was long and the road beset with dangers. The first American vessel to enter a California port was the ship Otter of Boston, in 1796. She was an armed trader, carrying a pass signed by Washington, of whom it was doubtful if the Californians had even so much as heard, though they admitted the Otter to trade with them. The Spaniards had found the natives singularly free from the vices of civilization, but intermingling of the two races soon led to mingling of blood, and subsequent growth of an intermediate class half Spanish and half Indian, so combining certain traits of both without the native vigor of either. FOOTNOTES [1] CALIFORNIA THE NAME, as applied to the peninsula, first appears in Preciados' diary of Ulloa's voyage. [2] CALIFORNIA AN ISLAND on English maps so late as 1709 (H. Moll, "Present State of the World"). [3] CABRILLO'S VOYAGE is reprinted in the Report of the Wheeler Exploring Expedition. [4] CAPE MENDOCINO. Bancroft ("The Pacific States") thinks the name was given in honor of the viceroy Mendoza. [5] NORTH-EAST PASSAGE here, or North-west Passage from the Atlantic side, was a thing firmly believed in by the sailors of all nations. [6] DRAKE'S HARBOR is not satisfactorily identified. Authorities differ. Some, like Admiral Burney, believe the present port of San Francisco to have been Drake's anchorage; others, like Bancroft, maintain this to be wholly improbable, and think Old Port San Francisco, under Point Reyes, was the place. See Fletcher's account, "The World Encompassed," or Bancroft's Monumental History. [7] DRAKE'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. A chair made from his ship was presented to the University of Oxford. [8] THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA of Philip II., 1588. [9] MONTEREY, literally King's Mountain. [10] PUNTA DE LOS REYES, or Kings' Point. [11] BEGAN FROM LA PAZ. [12] MISSIONS were founded with funds given by benevolent persons, at the solicitation of the monks. A royal grant was sometimes the foundation. They were invariably named in honor of a saint. The buildings usually formed a square, enclosed by a high wall, one end being occupied by the church, while the apartments of the friars, granaries, storehouses, etc., occupied the remaining sides.