The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972 Page: 404
566 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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404 Southwestern Historical Quarterly
papers and related memorabilia for the minutiae of concerts, theatrical
events, bad men, law officers, women, and cowboys that formed the local
color and events of the late nineteenth century. For someone interested
in this kind of antiquarianism, the book will have some use.
For literary scholars and historians, however, the book is not especially
useful. Mouton has the reputation already as a printer of homeless
dissertations, and the publication of a book like this one adds to this
dubious reputation. The study is disorganized, and often loses sight of
O. Henry for pages at a time. This account is written in a kind of jocular,
Victorian idiom, and seems oral and anecdotal in style rather than the
considered written work of a genuine scholar. More serious, the book has
no real thesis, except for the truism that O. Henry used San Antonio
at times for background material. In short, the book should be ignored
by all but the most devoted students of southwestern literature, and it in
no sense displaces earlier volumes on O. Henry.
University of Texas, Austin ROBERT M. CRUNDEN
The First Spanish Entry into San Francisco Bay, 1775. By Fray Vicente
Santa Maria. Edited by John Galvin. (San Francisco: John Howell
Books, 1971. Pp. 13o. Illustrations, maps, glossary, references, index.
$7.50.)
This book containing a facsimile of a previously unpublished manu-
script (and a translation) written by the priest accompanying the first
Spanish water-borne expedition into the San Francisco Bay. There are
also four shorter items to help place Father Santa Maria's account in
perspective.
Father Vicente Santa Maria's manuscript is a charming piece, devoid of
of the exaggerations which lend incredibility to the typical account of
voyages of discovery. The purpose of the expedition was exploration of
San Francisco Bay-Father Santa Maria's purpose seems to have been
to convince a superior of the need to establish a mission among the
Indians of the area. His portrayal of the Indians is sympathetic; he de-
scribes them as friendly and eager to be taught by the Spanish.
The editors claim the manuscript is important-and I suppose it is to
Bay Area history buffs. Personally I attach no great importance to it,
and none at all to a translation.North Texas State University
LEE HUDDLESTON
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 75, July 1971 - April, 1972, periodical, 1972; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101201/m1/416/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.