HISTORY OF CALirOKXIA. 497 



or military importance. The port of San Quintin, 

 in latitude thirty degreCvS twenty-three minutes, is re- 

 presented as affording a secure anchorage for vessels 

 of every description, and to be suiliciently commo- 

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

 tensive bay of ^lagdalcna has acquired considerable 

 notoriety from its being resorted to qycyj "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 commodiou?^ 

 anchorage. The bay of San Jose, near Capo Saint 

 Lucas, is much frequented by coastiug 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 suflSciently commodious for the most 

 numerous fleets. The principal pearl fisheries are 

 in this immediate vicinitv, 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 



42* 



32 



