18803 La ILnsenadita de Cdrmelo 



The drive from Lobos to Sur challenges compari- 

 son with the famous cornice routes of the French 

 Riviera, although it lacks, of course, the finished 

 beauty of those ancient highways. 



Thirteen years ago my wife Jessie built a modest A 

 seaside cottage at Carmel, almost on the Camino retreat 

 Real or trail originally connecting the Mission ot 

 San Carlos with the old Presidio or barracks at 

 Monterey. This served as a special retreat for 

 herself and Eric during my various absences on 

 government affairs. Since then we have spent 

 many delightful days in that exquisite spot, and 

 there the boy at the age of nine really began to col- 

 lect shells. For these reasons I take pleasure in 

 adding a few lines written by me at the time of my 

 first visit to la Ensenadita de Cdrmelo "the little 

 bay of Carmel." 



Of all the indentations on the coast of California, the most Carmel 

 picturesque and most charming is the little bay of Carmelo, 

 which lies just south of the point of Los Pinos, between this 

 and the rocky cape of Los Lobos, its blue waters sheltered 

 from the northwest trades by the pine-clad peninsula which 

 ends in the reefs of the Point of Pines. No one lives on this 

 bay at present except a farmer or two, a little colony of Chinese 

 fishermen who have a Pescadero or fishing camp in the edge of 

 the pines, and a little group of Portuguese (Captain Verisimo) 

 who watch for whales on a rocky ledge near Point Lobos. 1 



When the above was written, I little thought 

 that one day Carmel would shelter its present 

 colony of beauty lovers, and among them my own 

 family! 



1 From a manuscript report to United States Census Bureau, March, 1880. 



C 215 3 



