200 



NEW CALIFORNIA. 



[1825. 



your anchorage in from seven to three fathoms, muddy bottom. There 

 is a sand and rocky bank running off the south-west point, in a south- 

 south-west direction, with four feet of water on it at low ebb. The 

 tide rises here about nine feet on the neap, and eleven feet on the 

 spring tides. 



April 8th. — We remained in this bay until Friday, the 8th, when we 

 got under way at four, A. M., and steered for port St. Diego, for the 

 purpose of building a whale-boat. At ten, A. M., we landed on Cenizas 

 Island, in search of fur-seals. Here we found about eight hundred sea- 

 elephants on a beach at the east side of the island ; and on the north 

 and west sides there were about four hundred sea-leopards. The ele- 

 phants were very tame, but the leopards were extremely wild, and 

 difficult to approach. 



Cenizas Island is about five miles in circumference ; lies eighteen 

 miles from the south-west point of St. Francisco, on a north-north-west 

 course, and is three miles west from the mainland. It is of volcanic 

 origin, and is entirely barren : the rocks have been melted into a com- 

 plete lava, and the lowland is covered with pumice-stone. There is 

 a reef lying off the north-east end of the island, about two miles, and 

 another off the north-west part, at nearly the same distance. The 

 coast from this to Point or Morro Hermoso, a distance of fifty 

 leagues south-east, is bold, and clear of dangers two miles from the 

 shore. The soundings are regular, gradually shallowing as you ap- 

 proach the land. 



We now continued plying to the northward, with the wind, between 

 the hours of ten, A. M., and seven, P. M., from north-north-west to west- 

 north-west ; and between the hours of nine in the evening and six or 

 seven the next morning, the wind blew from north-north- west to north- 

 north east. By taking advantage of the land and sea-breezes a ship 

 will here work to windward very rapidly. 



April Wth. — We arrived at the port of St. Diego on Monday, the 

 11th of April, and anchored in four fathoms of water, with the fort on 

 the west side of the bay bearing south-west, distance one mile. In 

 this situation we were completely landlocked, in as fine a bay for ves- 

 sels under three hundred tons as was ever formed by Nature in her most 

 friendly mood to mariners. 



The port of San Diego is in latitude 32° 39' N., long. 116° 51' W. ; 

 and a line drawn from this port, due east, to the mouth of the Colorado 

 river, would divide the peninsula from New California. This commo- 

 dious and spacious harbour was first discovered by Sebastian Viscaino, 

 in the yea. 1603, who also discovered another three hundred miles 

 farther north, which he named Monterey, and which subsequently be- 

 came the principal settlement of the Spaniards in this country. The 

 first mission founded in New California was at this port in 1769. 



Although Viscaino described New California in the most favourable 

 colours, as to fertility of soil and salubrity of climate, the Spaniards 

 still continued to neglect it, — clinging round the rude, steril peninsula 

 for the sake of the pearls, and the mines which had been discovered 

 on the mainland across the gulf. For nearly a century and a half 

 they were thus wasting their strength and treasure in attempting to 



