356 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 



wind blows only now and then during the winter months, hut the east wind 

 hardly ever, the latter circumstance being somewhat surprising to the author, 

 who observed that the clouds are almost invariably moving from the east. He 

 never found the cold severer than during the latter part of September or April 

 on the banks of the Rhine, where, after his return, the persevering coldness of 

 winter and clouded atmosphere during that period made him long for the mild 

 temperature and always blue and serene sky of the country he had left. Fogs 

 in the morning are frequent in California, and occur not only during fall and 

 winter, but also somt'timcs in the hot season. Dew is said to be not more fre- 

 qu-ent nor lieaviei; than in middle Europe. 



Though the author represents California as a dry, sterile country, where but 

 little rain falls, he admits that in those isolated ])arts where the proximity of 

 water imparts humidity, the soil exhibits an astonisliiiig fertility. " There," ho 

 gays, " one may plant what he chooses, and it will thrive; lliere the earth yields 

 fruit a hundred-fold, as in the best countries of Europe, [producing wheat and 

 maize, rice, pumpkins, water and othia- melons of twenty pounds' Aveight, cot- 

 ton, lemons, oranges, plantains, pomegranates, excellent sweet grapes, olives 

 and figs, of which the latter can be gathered twice in a summer. The same 

 field yields a double or threefold harvest of maize, that grows to prodigious 

 height, and bears sometimes tvvelve cars on one stalk. I have seen vines in 

 California that produced in the second year a medium sized basket full of 

 grapes; in the third or fourth year some are as thick as an arm, and shoot forth, 

 in one season, eight and more branches of six feet length. It is only to be re- 

 gretted that such humid places are of very rare occurrence, and that wiitcr for 

 irrigating a certain piece of land sometimes cannot be found within a distance 

 of sixty leagues." 



In the last chapter of the first part the author gives an account of the pearl 

 fisheries and silver mines carried on in Lower California while he was there. 

 Both kinds of enterprise arc represented as insignificant and by no means very 

 profitable. " Every summer," he says, "eight, ten or twelve poor Spaniards 

 from Sonora, Cinaloa or other parts opposite the peninsula, cross the Gulf in 

 little boats, and encamp on the California shore for the purpose of obtaining 

 pearls. They carry with them a supply of Indian corn and some hundred 

 weight of dried beef, and are accompanied by a number of Mexican Indians, 

 who serve as pearl fishers, for the Californians themselves have hitherto shown 

 no inclination to risk their lives for a iew yards of cloth. The peail fishers 

 are let down into the sea by ropes, being provided with a bag for receiving the 

 pearl oysters which they rake from the rocks and the bottom, and when they 

 can no longer hold their breath, they are pulled up agaiii with their treasure. 

 The oysters, without being opened, are counted, and every fifth one is put aside 

 for the king. Most of them are empty; some contain black, others white pearls, 

 the latter being usually small and ill-shaped. If a Spaniard, after six or 

 eight Aveeks of hard labor, and after deducting all expenses, has gained a hun- 

 dred American pesos (that is 500 French livres, or a little more than 200 llhen- 

 ish florins — a very small sum in America!) he thinks he has made a little for- 

 tune Avhich he cannot realize every season. God knows whether the fifth part 

 of the pearls fished in the Californian sea yields, on an average, to the Catho- 

 lic king lf)0 or 200 pesos in a year, even if no frauds are committed in the 

 transaction. I heard of only two individuals, with whom I was also personally 

 acquainted, who had accumulated some wealth, after spending twenty and more 

 years in that line of business. The others remained poor wretches, with all 

 their pearl fishing." 



There were but two silver mines of any note in operation at the time of 

 Bacgert's sojourn in California, and those had been opened only a few yeai'8 

 previous to his arrival. They were situated in the districts of St. Anna and 

 St. Autouio, near the southern eud of the peninsula, and only three leagues 



