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A rare and detailed account of the first California colonial settlements and the lives of Natives Peoples affected by the Spanish missions.
On the afternoon of September 14, 1786, two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey, the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies. Aboard was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers, illustrators, and physicians. For the next ten days the commander of this expedition, Jean François de La Pérouse, took detailed notes on the life and character of the area: its abundant wildlife, the labors of soldiers and monks, and the customs of Indians recently drawn into the mission. These observations provide a startling portrait of California two centuries ago.
Jean François de la Pérouse (1741–1788?) was a French Naval officer and the author of Life in a California Mission.
Malcolm Margolin founded Heyday in 1974. Margolin is author of several books, including The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco–Monterey Bay Area, named by the San Francisco Chronicleas one of the hundred most important books of the twentieth century by a western writer. He has received dozens of prestigious awards and helped found the Bay Nature Institute and the Alliance for California Traditional Artists.