354 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 



much can be said, Lowcver, in favor of the style exhibited in the original, and 

 even the spelling, of the words defies all rules of orthography, ■which were 

 adopted a centuiy ago in the German language ; nor is our lather unaware of 

 his deiiciencics, but honestly states in his preface that "if his style was none 

 of the smoothest, and his orthography incorrect in some places, the reader 

 might consider that during the seventeen years of his sojourn in California, 

 comprising the period from 1751 to 1768, he hardly ever had conversed in 

 German, and, consequently, almost forgotten the use of his mother language." 



Of the peninsula Father Baegert gives a rather woeful account. lie describes 

 that region as an arid, mountainous country, covered with rocks and sand, 

 deficient in water, and almost without shade-trees, but abounding in thorny 

 plants and shrubs of various kinds. The sterility of the soil is caused by the 

 scantiness of water. "No one," says the author, "need be afraid to drown 

 himself in water; but the danger of dying from thirst is much greater." There 

 falls some rain, accompanied by short thunder-storms, during the months of 

 July, August, September^ and October, filling the channels worn in the hard 

 ground. Some of these soon become dry after the showers ; others, however, 

 hold water during the whole year, and on these and the stagnant water col- 

 lected in pools and ponds men and beasts have to rely for drink. Of running 

 waters, deserving the name of brooks, there are but six in the country, and of 

 these six only four reach the sea, while the others lose themselves not very far 

 from their sources among rocks and sand. There is nothing to be seen in 

 Lower California that may be called a wood; only a few straggling oaks, 

 pines, and some other kinds of trees unknown in Europe, are met with, and 

 these are confined to certain localities. Shade and material for the carpenter 

 are, therefore, very scarce. The only tree of any consequence is the so-called 

 mesquite; but besides that it always grows quite isolated, and never in groups, 

 the trunk is very low, and the wood so hard that it almost defies the applica- 

 tion of iron tools. The author mentions, further, a kind of low Brazil wood, a 

 tree called paloblanco, the bark of which serves for tanning ; the palohierro or 

 iron-"wood, which is still harder than the mesquite ; wild fig trees that bear no 

 fruit ; wild willows and barren palms, " all of which would be ashamed to 

 appear beside a European oak or nut-tree." One little tree yields an odoriferous 

 gum that was used in the Californian churches as frankincense. But in com- 

 pensation for the absence of large trees, there is a prodigious abundance of 

 prickly plants, some of a gigantic height, but of little practical use, their soft, 

 spongy stems soon rotting after being cut. Among the indigenous edible pro- 

 ductions of the vegetable kingdom ai^ chiefly mentioned the tunas or Indian 

 figs, the aloe, and the pitahayas, of which the latter deserve a special notice 

 as forming an important article of food of the Indians. There are tAvo kinds 

 of this fruit — the sweet and the sour pitahaya. The former is round, as large 

 as a hen's c^^, and has a green, thick, prickly shell that covers a red or white 

 flesh, in which the black seeds are scattered like grains of powder. It is 

 described as being sweet, but not of a very agreeable taste without the addition 

 of lemon juice and sugar. There is no scarcity of shrubs bearing this fruit, 

 and fi-om some it can be gathered by hundreds. They become mature in the 

 middle of June, and continue for more than eight weeks. The sour pitahaya, 

 which grows on low, creeping bushes, bristling Avith long spines, is much 

 larger than the other kind, of excellent taste, but by far less abundant ; for, 

 altliough the shrubs are very plentiful, there is hardly one among a hundred 

 that bears fruit. Of the aloii or mescale, as the Spaniards and Mexicans call 

 it, the fibres are used by the aborigines, in lieu of hemp, for making threads 

 and strings, and its fruit is eaten by them. 



A very curious portion of the book is that which treats of the animals found 

 in California. The author is evidently not much of aliaturalist, and, in classi- 

 fying animals, he manifests occasionally a sovereign independence that would 



