United States or Mali ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
This party went westwards to Cape de Guerra, in little more than 6° N. and thence to Punta de Borica, and to Cape Blanco, in 8° 30' N. having, as they affirm, discovered 250 leagues; and besides this they founded the city of Panama.
Before leaving Borica did a good service to Spain and California in recommending the reappointment of Jose Joaquin Arrillaga. Arrillaga continued to organize strong military defenses for California. He served as Spanish Governor of California fourteen years, and first of all declared himself on all occasions "a loyal son of the Church."
In 1793 Viceroy Gigedo referred to the secularization of certain Missions which had taken place in Mexico, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the results. Three years later, Governor Borica, writing on the same subject, expressed his opinion with force and emphasis, as to the length of time it would take to prepare the California Indians for citizenship.
With the viceroy's approval, Governor Borica authorized Lasuen to have the regions between the old Missions carefully explored for new sites. Accordingly the padres and their guards were sent out, and simultaneously such a work of investigation began as was never before known.
It was under Borica's administration that the boundary lines of Upper and Lower California were clearly defined. Borica, however, was not a man who courted public life or honors, and resigned his office, returning to Spain with his charming wife and daughter who always longed for their mother country.
When treading El Camino Real and kneeling by the sacred tombs of Junipero Serra and his hero band of soul-conquerors we may well recall that passage of the beautiful Hymn of the Knights of Columbus. "Brothers we are treading Where the saints have trod." Alberto de Cordoba, an excellent engineer, surveyed the Harbor of San Francisco in 1813, at the request of Governor Borica.
Word Of The Day