132 TRUE BEAR STORIES.

To the south, several hundred miles dis-
tant, stretches the long Sea of Cortez, as
the conquerors of ancient Mexico once
called the Gulf of California. Beyond the
Sea of Cortez is the long and rock-bound
reach of the west coast of Mexico. Then a
group of little Central American republics;
then Colombia, Peru and so on, till at last
Patagonia points away like a huge giant’s
finger straight toward the South Pole.

But I must bear in mind that I set out:
in this story to tell you about “The Bear.
Slayer of San Diego,” and the South Pole
is a long way from the subject in hand.

I have spoken of San Diego as one of the
great new cities, and great it is, but al-
together new it certainly is not, for it was
founded by a Spanish missionary, known
as Father Junipero, more than one hun-
dred years ago.

These old Spanish missionaries were
great men in their day; brave, patient and
very self-sacrificing in their attempts to