ANONYMOUS [COLE, Cornelius].

CALIFORNIA THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS AGO. Manuelo's Narrative. Translated From the Portugese by A Pioneer. [Published Anonymously].

San Francisco: Samuel Carson & Co. / New York: C.T. Dillingham, 1888. First Edition (& 1st printing). Hardcover. Octavo, original brown cloth lettered and designed in gold and blind, patterned endpapers. 333 pp, Frontispiece. Lower inner corners of binding bumped; else a sound, clean, very Good copy. Very Good. Item #314479

¶ A fictional "discovered novel", being an account of California in the 16th Century. A Portuguese sailor is cast ashore in San Francisco Bay. It describes his life among the Natives and their way of life. In the middle of the novel is a long verse section in which Manuelo envisions what mid-19th century San Francisco would look like. "Not very many years ago, but prior to 1847, an event, most important to the world, occurred in the city of Evora, in the little kingdom of Portugal. It was nothing less than the discovery there of an old, musty manuscript relating to Alta-California,* a country until then, and for some time afterwards, only known in Europe as an obscure Spanish possession on the far-distant Pacific Coast of North America." Issued anonymously but ascribed to Cornelius Cole, an early California Statesman who originally migrated to California during the Gold Rush, and later owned one of the original Spanish / Mexican landgrants in Southern California, which included what is now known as Hollywood - but then known as "Colegrove"

Price (CAD): $75.00