()Q VOYAGE TO THE 



Mexico, which had deprived the priesthood of their 

 salaries, and obhged the missions to pay a tithe to 

 the state, they resumed their journey, and arrived at 

 San Francisco on the 1 7th of November. 



In this route it will be seen that, with the excep- 

 tion of the missions and pueblos, the country is 

 almost uninhabited ; yet the productive nature of the 

 soil, when it has been turned up by the missions, and 

 the immense plains of meadow land over which our 

 travellers passed, show wnth how little trouble it 

 might be brought into high cultivation by any farmers 

 who could be induced to settle there. 



The unwelcome intelligence brought by this party 

 of the nature of the supplies to be obtained at Mon- 

 terey, obliged me to relinquish the plan I had con- 

 templated of completing the survey of that part of 

 the coast of California which had been left unfinished 

 by Vancouver ; and rendered it necessary that I should 

 proceed direct either to Canton or to Lima, as the 

 most Hkely places for us to meet with the medicines 

 and stores of which we were in such imminent need. 

 The western route of these two afforded the best 

 opportunity of promoting the objects of the expedi- 

 tion, by bringing us into the vicinity of several 

 groupes of islands of doubtful existence, at which, in 

 the event of their being found, our time might be use- 

 fully employed until it should be necessary to proceed 

 to Beering's Strait. An additional reason for this 

 decision was, a request which I had made to the 

 consul of the Sandwich Islands, if possible, to pur- 

 chase provision for the ship at that place. I there- 

 fore determined, after taking on board the few stores 

 that were purchased at Monterey, to proceed to the 

 Sandwich Islands, searching in our way thither for 



