LXXXV. trate into the interior. Santa Barbara, the principal town BOOK of a jurisdiction, is situated on a canal of the same name, formed by the continent and some islands, of which Santa Cruz and Santa Catalina are the most considerable. The mission of San Buonaventura, to the east of this presidio, occupies a fertile country, but is exposed to great droughts, which is generally the case with all this coast. Vancouver saw abundance of fruit of excellent quality growing in the garden of the missionaries, such as apples, pears, figs, oranges, grapes, pomegranates, two species of banana, cocoanuts, sugar canes, indigo plants, and several luguminous vegetables. The environs of San Diego, are gloomy and barren. The territory of the mission of San Juan de Campistrano supports excellent cattle. The indigenous natives are divided into a great number Indigenous of tribes, speaking entirely different languages. The Ma- tribes. talans Salsens, Quirotes, near the bay of San Francisco, and the Rumsens, and Escelens, near Monterey, are the best known of these Indians. The name of Quirote recals that of the kingdom of Quivira, placed on the same spot, upon a large river, by the ancient Spanish geographical writers, who retrace the discoveries of Cabrillo and Vizcaino. Old California, or the peninsula of California, properly Old Caliso called, is bounded by the ocean on the south and west, fornia. and by the Gulf of California, likewise called the Vermilion Sea, on the east. the torrid zone, in It crosses the tropic, and terminates in tion. Cape St. Lucas. Its breadth varies from ten to forty leagues from the one sea to the other. Its climate in general is very hot, and very dry. The sky, Physical which is of a deep blue colour, is scarcely ever obscured by descripclouds; and when any are seen floating in the horizon at sunset, they display brilliant tints of purple and emerald. But this beautiful sky stretches over an arid sandy country, where the cylindrical Cactus,* rising from between the clefts of the rocks, is almost the only vegetable production that relieves the absolute barrenness of the scene.† In some *Cactus cylindricus, Lam. Enc. I. p. 539. Pers. II. 22. A. de Humboldt, Mexico, t. II. p. 421, and seq. BOOK rare spots, where there is water and vegetable mould, fruit LXXXV. and corn multiply in an astonishing manner, and the vines Indigenous tribes. Missions. afford a generous wine, similar to that of the Canaries. A variety of the sheep, of a very large size, is also met with, which affords exceedingly delicate and excellent food, and its wool is easily spun. A considerable number of other wild quadrupeds, as well as a great variety of birds, are named. The pearls that are fished on the coast of California have a beautiful water, but are of an irregular figure. The gold mines which popular tradition has placed in this peninsula, consist in reality of merely a few scanty veins. At the distance of fourteen leagues from Loretto, two mines of silver have been discovered, which are considered as tolerably productive; but the want of wood and of mercury, renders it almost impossible to work them. In the interior of the country there are plains covered with a beautiful crystalline salt. Since the missions of Old California have been on the decline, the population is reduced to less than 9000 inhabitants, who are dispersed over an expanse of country equal in size to that of England. Loreto, the chief place of California, is a little town with a presidio, or military post. The inhabitants, Spaniards, Metis, and Indians, may perhaps amount to 1000 individuals, and it is the most populous place of all California. Before the arrival of the missionaries the indigenous natives of Old California lived in the lowest state of degradation. Like the lower animals, they would pass whole days lying stretched out upon their belly in the sand; and like the beasts of prey, when pressed by hunger, they would fly to the chase merely to satisfy the wants of the moment. A sort of religious horror, nevertheless, made them believe in the existence of a great Being, whose power they dreaded. The Pericues, Guaicures, and the Laymones, are the principal tribes. The first missions of Old California were formed in P. Jacques Baegert, Account of California, (in German, Munich, Manheim, 1773.) p. 200. Vancouver, t, IV. p. 155. 1698 by the Jesuits. Under the management of these Fa- BOOK thers, the savages had abandoned their wandering life. In LXXXV. the midst of arid rocks, of brush-wood and bramble, they had cultivated little spots of ground, had built houses, and erected chapels, when a despotic decree, as unjust as it was impolitic, came to banish from every part of Spanish America this useful and celebrated society. The governor, Don Portola, sent into California for the purpose of executing this decree, imagined that he was to find vast treasures, and to encounter 10,000 Indians armed with muskets, prepared to defend the Jesuits; far, however, from this being the case, he beheld only venerable priests, with silver-white hair, coming humbly forward to meet him. He shed generous tears for the fatal error of his king, and as far as lay in his power softened the execution of his orders. The Jesuits were accompanied to the place of their embarkation by the whole body of their parishioners, in the midst of sobs and exclamations of sorrow.* The Franciscans immediately succeeded them in Old California, and in 1769 extended their pacific conquests over the New. Still later, the Dominicans obtained the government of the missions in the former of these provinces, but have either neglected them or managed them unskilfully. The Franciscans, on the contrary, constitute the happiness of the Indians. Their simple dwellings have a most picturesque appearance. There are many of them concealed in the interior of the country, far from the military posts. But their safety is insured by the universal respect and love with which they are treated. Many French writers, and, among others, the Abbé Raynal, have spoken in pompous terms of what they term the Empire of New Mexico; and they boast of its extent and New riches. Under this denomination they appear to comprehend all the countries between California and Loui * Relatio Expuls. Soc. Jesu, Scripta à P. Ducrue, dans le Journal Littéraire de M. Murr, t. XII. Mexico. Towns. Produc tions. BOOK siana. But the true signification of this term is confined to LXXXV. a narrow province which, it is true, is 175 leagues in length, but not more than thirty or forty in breadth. This stripe of country, which borders the Rio del Norte, is thinly peopled; the town of Santa Fé, containing 4000 inhabitants; Albuquerque, 6000; and Taos, 9000, comprise almost onehalf of the population. The other half consists of poor colonists, whose scattered hamlets are frequently ravaged by the powerful tribes of Indians who surround them, and overrun the province. It is true that the soil is amongst the finest and most fertile of Spanish America. Wheat, maize, and delicious fruits, especially grapes, grow most abundantly. The environs of Passo-del-Norte, produce the most generous wines. The mountains are covered with pine trees, maples, and oaks. Beasts of prey are met with in great numbers. There are also wild sheep, and particularly elks, or at least large deer, fully the size of a mule, with extremely long horns. According to the Dictionary of Alcedo, mines of tin have been discovered. There are several hot springs. Rivers, with a saline taste, indicate the existence of rich beds of rock-salt. The chain of mountains that border the eastern parts of New Mexico, seem to be of a moderate degree of elevation. There is a pass through them, called the Puerto de Don Fernando, by which the Paducas have penetrated into New Mexico. Beyond this chain extend immense natural meadows, on which buffaloes and wild horses pasture in innumerable herds. The Americans of the United States hunt these animals, and sometimes pursue them to the very gates of Santa Fe. The principal mountains coast Rio del Norte, following its western banks. Some peaks, or cerros, are to be distinguished. Further to the north, in the country of Nabaho, the map of Don Alzate has traced mountains with flat summits, denominated in Spanish mesas, that is, tables. Mountains. The calcareous nature of the soil was established by an Interesting phenome event of a rather extraordinary nature in the annals of non of physical geo- physical geography. In 1752 the inhabitants of Passo-delgraphy. Norte beheld the bed of the great river all at once be come dry, along a tract of fifty leagues. The water of the BOOK river precipitated itself into a fissure recently formed, and LXXXV. only issued again from the earth near the presidio of Saint Eleazar. The Rio-del-Norte continued thus lost for several weeks; but at length the water resumed its former course, because no doubt the fissure and the subterranean passages had been choaked up.* The Spanish inhabitants of New Mexico, like those of New Biscay, and of the greater part of the Provincias Internas, live in a state of perpetual war with the neighbouring Indians. These Spaniards never travel but on horseback, always armed and prepared for combat. They live in a colder climate than that of Mexico; the winter, which often covers their rivers with thick ice, hardens their fibres and purifies their blood; and they are generally distinguished for their courage, their intelligence, and their love of liberty. The same moral attributes extend to the greater part of the Indian tribes that border on New Mexico. The Apache Indians originally inhabited the greater The Apache part of New Mexico, and are still a warlike and industrious nation. These implacable enemies of the Spaniards infest the whole eastern boundary of this country, from the black mountains to the confines of Cohahuila, keeping the inhabitants of several provinces in an incessant state of alarm.t There has never been any thing but short skirmishes with them, and although their number has been considerably diminished by wars and frequent famine, the Spaniards are obliged constantly to keep up an establishment of 2000 dragoons, for the purpose of escorting their caravans, protecting their villages, and repelling these attacks, which are perpetually renewed. At first the Spanjards endeavoured to reduce to slavery those who, by the fate of war, fell into their hands; but seeing them inde * Manuscript Journey of the Bishop of Tamaron, extracted in Mexico by M. de Humboldt. + Pike's Journey in Louisiana, etc. t. II. p. 95, 101, 103. |