NAPA VALLEY. oe 
return; and to negotiate my drafts on the government 
to meet these several expenditures, as well as to pay 
the officers and men attached to the Commission. 
No event that is worthy of mention occurred here, 
except a visit from a band of Diegeno Indians. A 
chief and several of his tribe were sent to me at my 
request by a Californian gentleman. They were a mis- 
erable, ill-looking set, with dark brown complexions 
and emaciated bodies; and though the weather was 
cold, they were but slightly, clad. Articles of old and. 
cast-off clothing, such as a tattered shirt and panta- 
loons, were all that the best could boast of. One, I 
think the chief, had a piece of a horse blanket around 
his cadaverous-looking body. I managed to get from 
them a vocabulary of their language; though I must 
confess that, with the exception of the Apache, I never 
found one so difficult to express, in consequence of the 
gutturals and nasals with which it abounded. I finally 
got the words so correct, that the Indians could recog- 
nise them, and give me the Spanish equivalents. I 
tried to write down some short sentences, but was 
obliged to give up the attempt as unsuccessful. I could 
not combine the words so as to be understood, in @ 
single instance. These Indians occupy the coast for 
some fifty miles above, and about the same distance 
below, San Diego, and extend about a hundred miles 
into the interior. They are the same who were mane 
to the first settlers as the Comeya tribe. 
I also found an Indian here from the Upper Sse 
mento River. He had been taken prisoner by the 
American troops about three years before, and was now 
lying with some of the officers. He was quick and 
