HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 183 



houses, together with the energetic gesticulation of the 

 natives when in conversation, as we drew near, at all 

 calculated to lessen the picturesque effect of a first 

 view. The surrounding country was any thing but 

 devoid of interest and beauty. All had a strange, 

 equatorial look ; while the green hills around, clothed 

 with rich tropical verdure, and the graceful and 

 shadowy palm and cocoanut, with other strange fan- 

 tastic trees, together with the ruins of the large old 

 Spanish castle, on the heights above the town, gave 

 to the scenery a very beautiful and picturesque aspect. 

 " Most of us were soon ashore and rambling through 

 the town. We landed at the beach, on some logs, 

 which, during the rainy season, are necessary to pre- 

 serve the pedestrian from a quagmire, in the midst of 

 dense foliage that was here luxuriant to the water's 

 edge, surrounded by about thirty canoes and some 

 forty or fifty huge black fellows, mostly in the garb in 

 which nature arrayed them. We passed on beneath 

 a burning sun, which in the shade brought the ther- 

 mometer to 90° of Fahrenheit. A majority of the 

 natives are black, but some are of a deep copper or 

 mulatto color. The thick lips and woolly head of the 

 African ; the high cheek-bones, straight hair, and 

 dogged look of the Indian ; and the more chisled fea- 

 tures and finely expressive eyes of the Spaniard, are 

 all here, though often so blended, that it is difficult to 

 say to which race they chiefly owe their origin. In 

 truth they are a mongrel race, but generally have the 

 most magnificent, large, dark, expressive eyes I have 

 ever seen. These, when in conversation, which is 

 almost continual, they use to some purpose, while the 

 incessant rapid clatter of their tongues, and their 

 violent gesticulations and grimaces, are often quite 



