360 THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OP 



elioiild have migrated to California of their own free will, and without compul- 

 Bion, 1 am unable to believe. America is very large, and could easily support 

 fifty times its number of inhabitants on much belter soil than that of California. 

 How, then, is it credible that men should have pitched, from free choice, their 

 tents amidst the inhospitabh; dreariness of these barren rocks ] It is not impos- 

 sible that the first inhabitants may have found by accident their way across the 

 eea from the other side of the Californian gulf, where the provinces of Cinaloa 

 and Sonora are situated ; but, to my knowledge, navigation never has been 

 practiced by the Indians of that coast, nor is it in use among them at the 

 present time. There is, furthermore, within many leagues towards the interior 

 of the country no kind of wood to be had suitable for the construction of even 

 the smallest vessel. From the Pimeria, the northernmost country opposite the 

 peninsula, a transition might have been easier cither by land, after crossing the 

 Rio Colorado, or by water, the sea being in this place very narrow and full of 

 islands. In default of boats they could employ their balsas or little rafts made 

 of reeds, which are also used by my Californians who live near the sea, either 

 for catching fish or turtle, or crossing over to a certain island distant tAvo leagues 

 from the shore. I am, however, of opinion that, if these Pimerians ever had 

 gone to California induced by curiosity, or had been driven to that coast by a 

 Btorm, the dreary aspect of the country soon Avould have caused them to return 

 without delay to their own country. It was doubtless necessity thnt gave the 

 impulse to the peopling of the peninsula. Nearly all neighboring tribes of 

 America, over whom the Europeans have no sway, are almost without cessation 

 at war with each other, as long as one party is capable of resistance ; but when 

 the weaker is too much exhausted to carry on the feud, the vanquished usually 

 leaves the country and settles in some other part at a sufficient distance from 

 its foes. I am, therefore, inclined to believe that the first inhabitants, while 

 pursued by their enemies, entered the peninsula by land from the north side, 

 and having found there a safe retreat they remained and spread themselves out. 

 If they had any traditions, some light might be thrown on this subject ; but no 

 Californian is acquainted with the event's that occurred in the country prior to 

 his birth, nor does he even know who his parents were if he should happen to 

 have lost them during his infancy. 



To all appearance the Californians, at least those toward the south, believed, 

 before the arrival of the Spaniards in their country, that California constituted 

 the whole world, and they themselves its sole inhabitants ; for they went to 

 nobody, and nobody came to see them, each little people remaining within the 

 limits of its small district. Some of those under my care believed to be de- 

 rived from a bird ; some traced their origin from a rock that was lying not far from 

 my house ; while others ascribed their descent to still different, but always 

 equally foolish and absurd sources. 



CHAPTER II. — THEIR HABITATIONS, APPAREL, IMPLEMENTS, AND UTENSILS. 



With the exception of the churches and dwellings of the missionaries, which 

 every one, as well as he could, and as time and circumstances permitted, built 

 of stone and lime, of stone and mud, of huge unburnt bricks, or other materials, 

 and besides some barracks which the Indians attached to the missions, flie few 

 soldiers, boatmen, cowherds, and miners have now erected in the fourteen sta- 

 tions, nothing is to be seen in California that bears a resemblance to a city, a 

 village, a human dwelling, a hut, or even a dog-house. The Californians them- 

 Bclves spend their whole life, day and night, iu the open air, the sky above them 

 forming their roof, and the hard soil the couch on which they sleep. During 

 winter, only, when the Avind blows sharp, they construct around them, but only 

 opposite the direction of the Avind, a half moon of brush-wood, a few spans high, 



