362 APPENDIX. 
of our enterprising people, and while they have formed the chief resort of our 
whalers and our navy in the Pacific, tliey have ministered to a trade more exten- 
sive on our part than on that of any other nation. 
THE CALIFORNIAS. 
In the preceding part of this letter, I gave you some account of the Sandwich 
Islands, their trade and importance to our Union ; and I will now proceed to 
present some notices of the Californias, with the view of drawing your attention 
to certain conclusions to which I have come, in regard to American interests in 
the Pacific. 
Lower California, although discovered in 1534 by Grijalva, was ahnost un- 
known for more than a hundred years, when the first Jesuit missionaries com- 
menced their labors in the year 1683. Salvatierra, Ugarte and Piccoli, with the 
Virgin for their patron, attempted the conquest with arms, and by moral influ- 
ences ; and although in 1786 fifteen missionary establishments had been made, 
yet the whole of the peninsula seems to have turned out barren and valueless to 
trade, except so far as the Pearl-fishery produced a very considerable revenue. 
In 1587, according to Acosta, six hundred and ninety-seven pounds of this precious 
article were imported into Seville; but in 1831, (the latest account I can find of 
any autiiority,) tlie whole fishery had dwindled into utter insignificance. There 
were then but fuur vessels and two boats engaged in it ; and the two hundred 
divers who manned them, obtained, in all, but eighty-eight ounces of pearls, 
valued at little more than thirteen thousand dollars. 
Upper California, however, is different in its natural characteristics. No 
great impression was made on it by the missionaries in their " spiritual conquest" 
until 1768. Since then it has gradually progressed, (under the influence, I be- 
lieve, of the Franciscan monks,) until twenty-one missions are numbered within 
its limits, and twenty-three thousand and twenty-five Indians, troops and Creoles, 
have come within their dominion, of which number only about five thousand are 
of Spanish extraction. Each of these missions has a tract assigned to it of fifteen 
miles square ; and the Indian population, gathered from the neighboring wander- 
ing tribes, is placed within its boundaries, under vigilant surveillance ; worked, 
fed, clothed, taught the Christian doctrine, and subjected (according to Forbes,) 
to an absolute slavery. They are idle, stupid, pusillanimous, sickly, and have 
made no progress, either in the arts necessary for personal comfort or of national 
government. 
The portion of Upper California, at present occupied by settlers and missions, 
is about five hundred English miles in extent, and runs, in breadth, from the sea 
to the first ranges of hills on the west. The area of this occupied land is about 
thirteen millions of acres, forming but an insignificant portion of the whole terri- 
tory, which, in " superficial extent, is equal to many of the most extensive king- 
doms of Europe." Beyond the western hills, about forty miles from the sea, the 
country is a wilderness, held by scattered tribes, but little known and seldom 
visited. 
But all the explorers who have visited California, describe it as a magnifi- 
cent country. The territory behind the highlands is " reckoned superior to the 
coast, and is said to consist of plains, lakes, and hills, beautifully diversified, and 
of the greatest natural fertility ; capable of yielding every variety of vegetable 
