HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 195 



These negroes being constantly in the habit of desert- 

 ing travellers on the route, and stealing their bag- 

 gage whenever the opportunity presents itself, I was 

 particularly careful not to lose sight of my attendant. 

 " A few miles further on, I again found myself on 

 a stone road, said to have been paved by Cortes to 

 facilitate the passage of his troops from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific coast ; and, although I have travelled 

 rougher and steeper routes in Lower California, I can- 

 not say that I have ever encountered such a combina- 

 tion of petty difficulties and annoyances. The road 

 is, for the greater part, barely wide enough to admit 

 of one mule passing with its packs ? the sides forming 

 steep embankments, composed chiefly of rich clay, 

 but, in many places, of large rocks, through which a 

 passage had evidently been cut with great labor. 

 But little of the country can be seen on either side, 

 owing to the height of these embankments ; but now 

 and then the traveller obtains a glimpse of dense 

 thickets, and occasionally of undulating hills, the 

 summits of which are covered with a deep perennial 

 green. The recent rains having poured in torrents 

 down the steep sides of the road, every cavity and 

 crevice was filled with water and mud. Owing to the 

 nature of the soil, and the constant traffic across the 

 route from the time it was originally cut through, 

 innumerable stones and flags had sunk considerably 

 -below the level of their original position ; whilst a 

 few had retained their places, as if to serve as step- 

 ping-stones to the traveller over the wet and mud. 

 It is a task of incessant and wearying exertion, how- 

 ever, even for those who are mounted on mules, to 

 avoid floundering into some of these pitfalls and quag- 

 mires at every step they make. 



