370 CATTLE HIDES TALLOW HERDSMEN TRADE. 



men, who might wander over the plains and mountains in search of 

 their flocks, was peculiarly suited to a population emerging from the 

 nomadic state; and accordingly w r e find that the region was well 

 stocked, whilst the missions and their dependencies flourished. In 

 1831, Mr. Forbes tells us, that there were in this province, — 

 216,727 . . . . Horned Cattle, 

 32,100 . . . . Horses, 



2,844 .... Mules, 

 177 . . . . Asses, 

 153,455 ..... Sheep, 



1,873 .... Goats, 

 839 .... Swine. 

 In addition to these there were vast numbers, roaming at large, 

 which were not marked or branded, according to California laws, 

 as belonging to any of the jurisdictions, missions, haciendas or 

 towns. These were hunted and slain to prevent their interference 

 with the pasturage of the more useful and appropriated cattle ; yet 

 from all this multitude but little profit was gained except for hides 

 and tallow. Beef was not salted and prepared for foreign markets, 

 the dairy was altogether neglected, and butter and cheese almost 

 unknown. In the earlier days of the settlement, many thousand 

 cattle were annually driven either to the city of Mexico or to the 

 interior provinces from the large estates on the Pacific ; but that 

 traffic was gradually abandoned under the habitual sloth of the peo- 

 ple, nor was it until many years after the trade of the ports was 

 opened by the war of independence, that a comparatively brisk in- 

 tercourse opened with the Sandwich Islands and our own people, 

 who were willing to exchange their manufactures for the hides and 

 tallow of the Californians. 



Such was the condition of affairs in this primitive pastoral region 

 when the war between Mexico and the United States broke out. 

 For a long time the natives and settlers had been discontented with 

 their national government that usurped the milder sway of the 

 clergy; yet it is probable that most of the revolutionary movements 

 were founded on personal ambition and avarice rather than patriotic 

 impulses, nor is it likely that the territory would have secured its in- 

 dependence without the aid of a foreign power. British interests 

 had undoubtedly counselled the acquisition of California ; but the 

 fate of war suddenly threw it into our hands, and probably at the 

 very moment when English subjects and the Mexican government 

 were combining to exclude us from the positions on the Pacific 



