1549 The encomienda system, by which the conquistadores such as Cabrillo bound Indians to the land, was abolished. After 1549, trusteeships of land no longer included the right to Indian labor and, in 1561, the Royal Audiencia of Mexico heard the last cases of slaves to be set free. The Indians of New Spain were to form a society of peasants. They were to pay tribute; were not to wear Spanish clothes but their native costumes; were not to own or use horses and saddles, or bear arms; and though they had legal rights that could be exercised through special Indian courts, they were not to have any real political representation. Between 1519 and 1650, the majority of the Indian populations of Southern Mexico and Central America was wiped out, largely by disease, Nov 1792 George VanCouver enters SF Bay “Voyage of Discovery round the World Cape Mendocino in California on April 17, 1792. During the ten days they were anchored in San Francisco Bay, Vancouver and his men were well received by Hermenegildo Sal, commandante at the presidio (fort) there. He provided the visitors with a good supply of food for their ships. In turn, Vancouver presented Sal with some knives and table utensils, church ornaments, and barrels of wine and rum. Each group entertained the other with elaborate dinners. Vancouver was surprised to see that the presidio was simply a few mud-brick buildings with only two old, broken cannon for defense. Using horses provided by Sal and escorted by Spanish soldiers, Vancouver visited the mission at San Francisco as well as Santa Clara Mission. This was further inland than any Europeans other than the Spanish had been in California." He was only to remain a year. After a colony was established at La Paz in 1683, the Spaniards had considerable trouble with the Indians and were forced to withdraw to Sinaloa. They tried again the same year with another settlement at San Bruno, just north of Loreto, among Indians of higher type, and met with some temporary success, Fr. Kino reporting he had baptized four hundred Indians. Ever restless and with an inquiring mind, Fr. Kino was the first white man to cross from the Gulf side to the Pacific. When he returned to San Bruno he found many persons ill, for the location was an unhealthy one. In 1685, a decision had to be made to abandon the mission. First they established a group of central missions, some of which were to endure the longest. This group included San Javier (1699), Mulege (1705), Comandu (1708), and Purisima (1720). Four missions were founded in the region: La Paz (1720), Santiago (1721) near Las Palmas Bay, San Jose del Cabo (1730) near San Bernabe Bay, and Todos Santos (1733), which later moved, from the east coast to the west near the Pacific. Then in 1735 came a great Indian uprising in which all four missions were wiped out, two fathers murdered, and many Christian neophytes slain by their pagan brothers. The crew of the Manila galleon, which had put in to get supplies from Del Cabo, narrowly escaped with their lives. The news traveled slowly and when military help came it proved ineffective. The La Paz mission was rebuilt, but abandoned in the next year 1826 Capt FW Beechey English Navy Rancho de las pulgas Father Engelhardt "History of the California Missions"