152 CALIFORNIA. 



symptoms of cultivation, nor is the land on either side fit for it ; for 

 in the former direction it is mountainous, in the latter sandy, and in 

 both barren. The entrance to the harbour is striking : bold and rocky 

 shores confine the rush of the tide, which bore us on and through a 

 narrow passage into a large estuary: in this, several islands and rocks 

 lie scattered around: some of the islands are clothed with vegetation 

 to their very tops ; others are barren and covered with guano, having 

 an immense number of sea-fowls hovering over, around, and alighting 

 upon them. The distant shores of the bay extend north and south far 

 beyond the visible horizon, exhibiting one of the most spacious, and at 

 the same time safest ports in the world. To the east rises a lofty in- 

 land range, known by the name of La Sierra, brilliant with all the 

 beautiful tints that the atmosphere in this climate produces. 



Yerba Buena is the usual though by no means the best anchorage. 

 The town, as is stated, is not calculated to produce a favourable im- 

 pression on a stranger. Its buildings may be counted, and consist of a 

 large frame building, occupied by the agent of the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany, a store, kept by Mr. Spears, an American, a billiard-room and 

 bar, a poop cabin of a ship, occupied as a dwelling by Captain Hinck- 

 ley, a blacksmith's shop, and some out-buildings. These, though few 

 in number, are also far between. With these, I must not forget to 

 enumerate an old dilapidated adobe building, which has a conspicuous 

 position on the top of the hill overlooking the anchorage. When to 

 this we add a sterile soil and hills of bare rock, it will be seen that 

 Yerba Buena and the country around it are any thing but beautiful. 

 This description holds good when the tide is high, but at low water it 

 has for a foreground an extensive mud-flat, which does not add to the 

 beauty of the view. 



Although I was prepared for anarchy and confusion, I was surprised 

 when I found a total absence of all government in California, and even 

 its forms and ceremonies thrown aside. 



After passing through the entrance, we were scarcely able to dis- 

 tinguish the Presidio ; and had it not been for its solitary flag-staff, we 

 could not have ascertained its situation. From this staff no flag 

 floated ; the building was deserted, the walls had fallen to decay, the 

 guns were dismounted, and every thing around it lay in quiet. We 

 were not even saluted by the stentorian lungs of some soldier, so cus- 

 tomary in Spanish places, even after all political power as well as 

 military and civil rule has fled. I afterwards learned that the Presidio 

 was still a garrison in name, and that it had not been wholly aban- 

 doned ; but the remnant of the troops stationed there consisted of no 

 more than an officer and one soldier. I was not able to learn the rank 



