460 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1 708. 



it with hammers. It is a very good commodity in New Spain, where salt is 

 scarce. 



California has been known near two centuries ; and its coasts are famous for 

 the pearl fishery, which has made the Europeans so desirous of estiblishing a 

 trade here. I doubt not but there are mines to be found in several places, if 

 they were sought for ; since the country is under the same degree as the pro- 

 vinces of Cinalao and Sonora, where there are very rich ones. Yet the Cali- 

 fornians, amidst all this plenty and riches of their country, content them- 

 selves with what is only necessary for life. The inland parts of the country are 

 very populous, especially towards the north : and though there is scarcely a 

 town, but what has 20, 30, 40, or 50 families in it, yet they have no houses, 

 but defend themselves from the heat of the sun in the day time under the shade 

 of the trees, and of their leaves and branches make a sort of roof against the 

 inclemency of the night. In winter they shut themselves up in caves in the 

 earth, and live there together little better than so many beasts. 



The men go naked : they wear about their head, a fine linen fillet, or sort of 

 net-work ; and about their neck, and sometimes about their arms, for ornament, 

 mother of pearl in divers figures, very finely wrought, and prettily intermixed 

 with little round fruits, somewhat like the beads of a chaplet. They have no 

 other arms than bows and arrows, and a sort of javelin, which they always carry 

 in their hand, either to kill their game, or defend themselves from their ene- 

 mies ; for their towns often make war on each other. The women are some- 

 what more modestly clothed, wearing from their waste down to their knees a 

 kind of apron, made of reeds very neatly wrought and matted together. They 

 cover their shoulders with the skins of beasts, and like the men, wear about 

 their heads a curious kind of net-work. They also have necklaces of mother 

 of pearl, mixed with the stones of some sorts of fruit and sea-shells, hanging 

 down to their waste ; and in like manner bracelets of the same. 



The common employment of both men and women, is spinning. They 

 make their thread of long plants, which serve them instead of hemp and flax ; 

 or else of a cotton-like substance, found in the shell of some sorts of fruit. 

 Of the finer sort of thread, they make the ornaments above-mentioned, and of 

 the coarser fishing-nets, and sacks or bags for several uses. The men also, of 

 certain plants, whose fibres are very close and thick set, and which they are 

 very well skilled in working, employ themselves in making dishes, and other 

 kitchen utensils, of all fashions and sizes. The smaller pieces serve for drink- 

 ing cups : those that are larger, for plates and dishes, and sometimes for um- 

 brellas for the women ; and the largest sort for baskets to gather fruit in, and 



