THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 353 



Seven Dolors, (Scptem Dolorum,) of whicli the first named evidently was his 

 place of residence. 



The work iu question constitutes a small octavo volume of 358 pages, and is 

 divided into three parts. The first division (of which I will give a &hort 

 synopsis in this introduction) treats of the topography, physical geography, 

 geology, and natural history of the peninsula; the second part gives an account 

 of the inJiahitants, and the third embraces a short but interesting history of the 

 missions iu Lower California. In the appendices to the work the author refutes 

 certain exaggerated reports that had been published concerning the Californian 

 peninsula, and he is particularly very severe upon Venegas' " Noticia de la 

 California," (Madrid, 1757, 3 vols.,) a work which is also translated into tho 

 English, French, and German languages. He accuses the Spanish author of 

 having given by far too favorable, and, in many instances, utterly false 

 accounts of the country, its pi-oductions and inhabitants, which is rather a 

 noticeable circumstance, since Vc?irgas is considered as an authority in mutters 

 relating to the ethnology of California. 



While reading the Avork of the German missionary, I was struck with tha 

 amount of ethnological information contained in it, especially in the second 

 part, which is cxclusivel}'- devoted to the aboriginal inhabitants, as stated 

 before ; and upon conversing on the subject with sor.ie friends, members of the 

 American Ethnological Society, they advised me to truuslate for publication if 

 not the whole book, at least that part of it which relates to the native popula- 

 tion, of which we know, comparatively, perhaps less than of any other portion 

 of the indigenous race of North America. As there is a growing taste for tho 

 study of ethnology manifested in this country, and, consequently, a tendency 

 prevailing to collect all materials illustrating the former condition of tlic Ameri- 

 can aborigines in different parts of the continent, I complied with the request 

 of my friends, and devoted my hours of leisure to the preparation of this little 

 work, supposing that the account of a man who lived among those Californians 

 a century ago, when their original state had been but little changed by inter- 

 course with Europeans, might be an acceptable addition to our stock of 

 ethnological knowledge. 



I have" to state, however, that the following pages are not a translation in 

 the strict sense of the word, but a reproduction of the Avork only as far as it 

 refers to ethnological matters. The reasons which induced me thus to deviate 

 from the usual course of a translator are obvious ; for even that portion of the 

 text which treats of the native race contains many things that are not in tho 

 least connected with ethnology, the good father being somewhat garrulous and 

 rather fond of moralizing and enlarging upon religious matters, as might be 

 expected from one of his calling; and, although he places the natives of the 

 peninsula exceedingly low in the scale of human development, he takes, never- 

 theless, occasion to draw comparisons between their barbaric simplicity and tho 

 over-refined habits of the Europeans, much in the manner of Tacitus, who seizes 

 upon every opportunity to rebuke the luxury and extravagance of his country- 

 men, while he describes the rude sylvan life of the ancient inhabitants of Ger- 

 many. My object being simply to rescue from oblivion a number of facts 

 relating to a portion of the American race, I have omitted all superfluous com- 

 mentaries indulged in by the author, and, in order to bring kindred subjects 

 under common heads, I have now and then used some freedom in the arrange- 

 ment of the matter, which is not always properly linked in the original. 

 Althouo-h the second part of the book has chiefly furnished the material for 

 this reproduction, I have transferred to the English text, and inserted in tho 

 proper places, all those passages in the other divisions, and even in the two 

 appendices that have a bearing upon ethnology, giving thus unity and com- 

 pleteness to the subject,*which induced me to prepare these pages. For tho 

 rest I have preserved, so far as feasible, the language of the author. Not 

 23 s 



