100 RETURN FROM SAN FRANCISCO 
of the usage they had met with from the strangers. 
Their report was doubtless very favorable; for soon 
after they all came with them to see the Spaniards. 
Most of them were painted or besmeared with black 
and white, and their heads loaded with feathers. The 
general and others received them with great courtesy, 
distributing among them several things, and a great 
many fish which had been caught with the net in their 
presence. The kind of paint they used looked like a 
mixture of silver and blue color; and on asking them 
by signs what it was, they gave them a piece of metal- 
lic ore, from whence they made it; and signified by 
sions that a certain people up the country, who had 
beards and were clothed like the Spaniards, made from 
this material very fine ribbons, resembling the laces on 
the soldiers’ buff coats; and some like that on a pur- 
ple velvet doublet, in which the general was then 
dressed; adding, that these men, by their dress, com- 
plexion, and customs, seemed to be of the same coun- 
try with themselves. The Indians were quite trans- 
ported with the good treatment shown them, and 
every third day came for biscuit and fish, bringing 
with them skins of several kinds of beasts, as sables, 
wild cats, and the nets with which they catch them.’* 
Another interesting account of San Diego is con- 
tained in a letter written by Father Junipero Serra to 
Father Palou, in the year 1769, when the former 
landed here for the purpose of establishing the mis- 
sion :+ 
‘‘My dear Friend and Sir:—Thank God, I arrived 
* Torquemada Monarchia Indiana, lib. v. 
+ Palou. Vida de Fray Junipero Serra, p. 76. 
