HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



497 



or military importance. The port of San Quintin, 

 in latitude thirty degrees twenty-three minutes, is re 

 presented as affording a secure anchorage for vessels 

 of every description, and to be sufficiently commo 

 dious for the .reception of a numerous fleet. The ex 

 tensive bay of Magdalena has acquired considerable 

 notoriety from its being resorted to every winter by 

 large numbers of whaling vessels. Its size gives it 

 the character of an inland sea, its waters being navi 

 gable for the distance of more than a hundred miles. 

 It furnishes several places of safe and commodious 

 anchorage. The bay of San Jose, near Cape Saint 

 Lucas, is much frequented by coasting vessels, and 

 occasionally visited by whalers and men-of-war. Be 

 ing the outlet of a fertile valley, extending some 

 forty or fifty miles into the interior, it is probably the 

 best place in the peninsula for supplying shipping 

 with water and fresh provisions. It is, however, a 

 mere roadstead, affording no protection whatever dur 

 ing the season of southeasters. 



La Paz is the seat of government and the principal 

 port of Lower California, and its extensive bay 

 affords excellent places of anchorage for vessels of 

 any size, and is sufficiently commodious for the most 

 numerous fleets. The principal pearl fisheries are 

 in this immediate vicinity, and also the most valuable 

 mining districts. It is the outlet of the fertile 

 valley of the Todos Santos, and of the produce of 

 the whole country between Santiago and Loreto. 

 The cove or estero, opposite the town of La Paz, fur 

 nishes spacious and safe anchorage, which may be 

 reached by vessels drawing not more than eighteen 

 or twenty feet of water ; and the cove of Pichilingue, 

 at the south-eastern extremity of the bay, and about 



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