PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 4\ 



Rozinaiites are not much inclined to deviate from the 

 road, but if any thing should inspire them with a 

 spirit of straying, the unerring lasso, the never-failing 

 appendage to a Californian saddlebow, soon embraces 

 their neck or their feet, and brings them back again 

 to the right way. 



I must not, however, permit the party to proceed 

 farther without introducing to the notice of the reader 

 the costume and equipment of this dragoon of Cali- 

 fornia. As for his person, I do not find it described, 

 but his dress consisted of a round blue cloth jacket 

 with red cuffs and collar ; blue velvet breeches, which 

 being unbuttoned at the knees, gave greater display 

 to a pair of white cotton stockings, cased more than 

 halfway in a pair of deer skin boots. A black hat, 

 as broad in the brim as it was disproportionably low 

 in the crown, kept in order, by its own weight, a pro- 

 fusion of dark hair, which met behind, and dangled 

 half way down the back in the form of a thick queue. 

 A long musket, with a fox skin bound round the 

 lock, was balanced upon the pummel of the saddle ; 

 and our hero was further provided for defence against 

 the Indians with a bull's hide shield, on which, not- 

 withstanding the revolution of the colony, were em- 

 blazoned the royal arms of Spain, and by a double- 

 fold deer skin cuirass as a covering for his body. 

 Thus accoutred he bestrode a saddle, which retained 

 him in his seat by a high pummel in front and a cor- 

 responding rise behind. His feet were armed at the 

 heels with a tremendous pair of iron spurs, secured 

 by a metal chain ; and were thrust through an enor- 

 mous pair of wooden box- shaped stirrups. Such was 

 the person into whose charge our shipmates were 

 placed by the governor, with a passport which com- 



