504 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



very few of these are worked, and this in the rudest 

 manner possible. Nevertheless, the labor expended 

 on them is well rewarded ; and there can be no doubt 

 that with capital and suitable means they would yield 

 very handsome profits. The salt mines on Carmen 

 island are capable of supplying the whole coast of 

 Mexico and California; already the duties on this 

 article amount to a considerable sum. 



The commerce of the peninsula is now very limited, 

 being principally confined to a coasting trade with 

 the ports of Mexico. The whole population of the 

 country is but little more than ten thousand, and the 

 annual imports and exports are estimated at $300,000. 

 But in our hands this commerce, freed from the ab- 

 surd restrictions imposed by Mexico, will soon receive 

 a very great extension. La Paz will become the prin- 

 cipal depot of American goods for the western coast 

 of Mexico ; and in a few years most foreign goods in- 

 tended for this coast will also be deposited in the 

 warehouses of Lower California, to be transferred to 

 the ports of Mexico at such times and in such quanti- 

 ties as the demands of the market may require. In 

 the present variable state of Mexican trade, resulting 

 from an irregular and fluctuating tariff, which differs 

 for each port and changes with every change of 

 general or state administration, it is frequently neces- 

 sary to transfer vessels with their cargoes from one 

 port to another, or to keep them for weeks at sea, 

 standing off and on, so as to enable the agents to 

 arrange the rate of duties at the custom-house before 

 landing the cargoes. Sometimes the consignees are 

 obliged to send their vessels to the Sandwich islands 

 or Valparaiso until a change of administration will 

 enable them to avoid the exorbitant demands of some 



