The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 20, July 1916 - April, 1917 Page: 405

Book Reviews and Notices

seventeenth century. He next shows, by the use of many previ-
ously unstudied documents, that the settlement of Upper Cali-
fornia was not the sudden development that it has usually been
considered, inspired almost exclusively by fears of Russian and
English encroachments, but that it was a movement of slow and
gradual growth, which was practically continuous throughout the
first half of the eighteenth century. That these early plans did
not materialize sooner than they did, he shows to have been due
to the many obstacles on the northwestern frontier, and to the lack
of an efficient leader. These obstacles were largely removed by
the work of the visitador-general, Jos6 de Galvez, who put long-
deferred plans into execution, and made possible the founding of
San Diego and Monterey.
The larger part of the volume is devoted to the movement which
led to the founding of San Francisco. The author discusses the
various problems in this connection with great detail, but from
the broad standpoint of governmental policy. He brings out the
importance of the question of overland communication more thor-
oughly than has ever been done before, and shows the intimate
relation between the whole California project and the general de-
velopment of the northern frontier. The part played by Spanish
fear of foreign aggressions is discussed at great length. Dr. Chap-
man believes that Spain was really less alarmed at the danger
from the English and the Russians than the facts would have war-
ranted, and that her policy of strengthening the establishments of
California was due chiefly to natural and permanent distrust of
foreigners, and not to knowledge of any definite designs against
her territory. A valuable chapter on the administration of the
commandante-general, Teodoro de Croix, is included. Croix is
given the blame for the failure of the government to carry out
the greater projects that had been planned by the viceroy, Bu-
carely, for the development of California. The concluding chap-
ter gives a brief summary of conditions in California down to the
end of the Spanish regime, but the evident haste with which it
was prepared has doubtless prevented the author from continuing
the careful work of his earlier chapters. The book contains an
interesting general introduction by Professor H. Morse Stephens,
and a number of new maps are reproduced.

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