38 VOYAGE TO THE 



missions, and the staple commodity of the commerce 

 of the country : a profitable revenue might also be de- 

 rived from grain were the demand for it on the coast 

 such as to encourage them to cultivate a larger quantity 

 than is required by the Indians attached to the missions. 

 Sdn Jos^, which possesses 15,000 head of cattle, cures 

 about 2,000 hides annually, and as many botas of tal- 

 low, which are either disposed of by contract to a 

 mercantile estabHshment at Monterey, or to vessels in 

 the harbour. The price of these hides may be 

 judged by their finding a ready market on the Lima 

 coast. Though there are a great many sheep in the 

 country, as may be seen by the mission, San Jos6 

 alone possessing 3,000, yet there is no export of 

 wool, in consequence of the consumption of that arti- 

 cle in the manufacture of cloth for the missions. 



Husbandry is still in a very backward state, and it 

 is fortunate that the soil is so fertile, and that there 

 are abundance of labourers to perform the work, or I 

 verily believe the people would be contented to live 

 upon acorns. Their ploughs appear to have descended 

 from the patriarchal ages, and it is only a pity that a 

 little of the skill and industry then employed upon 

 them should not have devolved upon the present ge- 

 neration. It will scarcely be credited by agricul- 

 turists in other countries, that there were seventy 

 ploughs and two hundred oxen at work upon a piece 

 of light ground of ten acres ; nor did the overseers 

 appear to consider that number unnecessary, as the 

 padre called our attention to this extraordinary ad- 

 vancement of the Indians in civilization, and pointed 

 out the most able workmen as the ploughs passed us 

 in succession. The greater part of these ploughs fol- 

 lowed in the same furrow without making much im- 



