CALIFORNIA. 



257 



mall lirrlr, and pi, mis. One species of these plants, 

 ^ ~T~ rail il j>iln, SU] Indians with thread for 



kii'^ ili' ir IK-IS, and otlii-r purposes; and of others 

 th- y make a kind of plates ami ha .kcis, of a very 

 .nit and intru-ati- workmunnhip. Of the same 

 hrrbs, th>- inh.il.it.mts on the banks of the Colorado 

 form little tub , called curitu.-;, which generally hold 

 about two bushels of maize, and with which they 

 transport their goods from one shore to another, 

 without being th< la-t d imaged by the water, by 

 8wi i I pishing tli them. Wild 



vines grow in the intrnor of the country, and yield 

 very large grapes, but of a very sour quality ; and 

 European vines and olive, have been cultivated here 

 with great success. Good wine is made in all the 

 villages along the coast as far as the 37th degree 

 of north latitude ; and near San Diego, oil is made 

 of as excellent a quality as any in Andalusia. But 

 the principal and most usefu' of all the indigenous 

 trees of California, is the jtitahayUt a kind of beech, 

 the fruit of which formerly constituted the great 

 harvest of the poor inhabitants. It is chiefly found 

 in a dry soil, and differs in appearance from all other 

 trees. It has no leaves, and the fruit grows to the 

 boughs, which are fluted, and rise vertically from 

 the stem, forming a very beautiful top. The fruit 

 is like a horse chesnut, and full of prickles ; but the 

 pulp resembles that of a fig, only more soft and lus- 

 cious, but always of an exquisite taste. The most 

 valuable quality of this fruit, however, is its being a 

 specific against the distemper de Loanda. 



This country abounds with domestic animals, and 

 fish and game of every description. Hares and rab- 

 bits are very common, and the trees are inhabited by 

 the most delightful birds. The thickets are stocked 

 with small grey tufted part rid -es, which are extreme- 

 ly well flavoured, arid feed in large companies of three 

 or four hundred. On the ponds and sea-bhore are 

 wild ducks, grey and white pelicans, gulls, cormo- 

 rants, curlews, ringplovers, t-niall sea water hens, and 

 aerons. The forests are filled with stags of a gigan- 

 tic size. Flocks of forty and fifty of them are fre- 

 quently seen browsing at a time. They are of a 

 brown colour, with large branches nearly 4^ feet 

 long, and are considered as among the most beautiful 

 animals in Spanish America. These stags, which 

 are not found in Old California, surprised Sebastian 

 Viscaino, when he visited this country in 1602. He 

 asserts that he saw some whose branches were nearly 

 nine feet in length. They are amazingly fleet, and 

 can scarcely be taken, except by artifice, which is 

 practised with great success by the Indians of this 

 country. They fix a stag's head, with its long 

 branches, upon their own, and, armed with a bow 

 and arrows, they creep on all fours, and by half con- 

 cealing themselves among the brushwood and long 

 grass, and imitating the motion of a stag when feed- 

 ing, they draw around them the unsuspecting herd, 

 who become the victims of the deception. This me- 

 thod of hunting was seen by La Perouse, in the sa- 

 vannas in the neighbourhood of Monterey ; and the 

 Indian played his part so well, that some of the 

 French hunters would have fired at him, had they not 

 been prevented. The skins of these animals, when 

 dressed by the inhabitants, might be converted into 



VOL. V. PAHT I. 



a vqry considerable branch of commerce. A 

 pro: . It-, however, it the otter ikto, of which 



a prodigious number. Ui.til 1786, the 

 Sjiuiiur !s never suspected that these skint were of 

 any value, and nevt r thought of sending them to Eu- 

 rope ; but th** government, being informed that a 

 trade in t!ii valuabl p. hry would be productive of 

 the great cbt advantages, hare referred tbc exclusive 

 commerce of them to itself } and it i* supposed, that 

 the number of otter-skins, if proper! d in 



New California, w uld ;- nuilljr amount to nearly 

 30,000. The Indians who n. habit the mi- xru are 

 sometimes employed in urtt woollen " 



cMcdfritadas, and also a ki 



extract from the rind of certain fruits. But the prin- 

 cipal employment of the converted Calif 

 agriculture; and the cultivation of this count -y has 

 increased with great rapidity within these last twenty 

 years. In 1791, the black cattle throughout the 

 whole of this in endai.cy amounted to '_ 

 in 1802 were increased to 67,782. be*ide* 107,17* 

 sheep, 104-0 hogs, 2187 horses, and 879 mule*. Du- 

 ring the same period, the cultivation of grain wa* 

 more than doubled. In 1791, according to the ta- 

 bles of M. Galiano, the Indians sowed only 871 

 nc(is of wheat, which yielded a harvest of 15,197 

 Janegas; while, in 1802, 2089 fanegas were sown, 

 and the produce 33,576 fanegas. This progress 

 of agriculture," says M. Humboldt, " this peaceful 

 conquest of industry, is so much the more interesting, 

 as the natives of this coast, very different from those 

 of Nootka and Norfolk bay, were only thirty years 

 ago a wandering tribe, subsisting on fishing and hunt- 

 ing, and cultivating no sort of vegetables." So much, 

 however, cannot be said for the peninsula of Old Ca- 

 lifornia. The few fertile spot* produce sufficiently 

 luxuriant crops of maize, wheat, French beans, gar- 

 vanzo, or a kind of pease, and all sorts of escu- 

 lents ; and the vines which have been cultivated here, 

 yield excellent grapes, the wine of which resemble* 

 that of the Canary Islands. But the arid nature 

 of the soil, and the want of water and vegetable 

 earth in the interior, must always prevent this c 

 try from maintaining a numerous population. The 

 aridity of the soil, however, is in some degree com- 

 pensated by the immense quantities of fish, and al- 

 most every species of pearl oysters, which are found 

 upon its coast ; and these last have been the chief 

 inducement to adventurers during two centuries for 

 visiting this desert country. These oysters are most 

 abundant in the southern part of the peninsula, par- 

 ticularly in the bay of Ceralvo, and round the is- 

 lands of Santa Cruz and San J sef. They lie in 

 great numbers on banks in the gulf, which are 

 commonly called kotlias, in three or four fathoms 

 water ; and may be seen as plain as if they were on 

 the surface. The pearls are very beautiful and large, 

 bui frequently of an irregular figure. This fishing 

 has been a source of great wealth to the Spanish co- 

 lonists ; and indeed since the cessation of the pearl 

 fishery near the island of Marguerite, the gulfs of 

 California and Panama are the only places in Spanish 

 America which supply pearls for the commerce of 

 Europe. This branch of commerce has of late years 

 very much fallen off, owing to the avarice and vio- 



California. 



