ANALYSIS. XIV. Province of Old California. Cerro de la Giganta, is from fourteen to fifteen hundred metres in height, and appears of volcanic origin. This Cordillera is inhabited by animals, which from their form and their habits resemble the mouflon (ovis ammon) of Sardinia, of which Father Consag has given but a very imperfect account. The Spaniards call them wild sheep (carneros cimarones). They leap, like the ibex, with their head downwards; and their horns are curved on themselves in a spiral form. According to the observations of M. Costanzot, this animal differs essentially from the wild goats, which are of an ashy white (blanc cendré), larger and peculiar to New California, especially to the Sierra de Santa Lucia, near Monterey. Moreover, these goats, which belong, perhaps, to the antelope race, go in the country by the name of berendos, and like the chamois, have their horns curved backwards. At the foot of the mountains of California we From 4592 to 4920 feet. Trans. † Journal of a voyage to Old California and to the port of San Diego, drawn up in 1769, (MS). This interesting journal had been already printed at Mexico, when by orders of the ministry all the copies were confiscated. It is to be desired for the progress of zoology, that we should speedily know from the care of travellers the true specific characters which distinguish the carneros cimarones of Old California from the berendos of Monterey. STATISTICALXIV. Province of Old California. ANALYSIS. discover only sand, or a stony stratum, on which cylindrical cacti (organos del tunal) shoot up to extraordinary heights. We find few springs; and, through a particular fatality, it is remarked that the rock is naked where the water springs up, while there is no water where the rock is covered with vegetable earth. Wherever springs and earth happen to be together, the fertility of the soil is immense. It was in these points, of which the number is far from great, that the jesuits established their first missions. The maize, the jatropha, and the dioscorea, vegetate vigorously; and the vine yields an excellent grape, of which the wine resembles that of the Canary Islands. In general, however, Old California, on account of the arid nature of the soil and the want of water and vegetable earth in the interior of the country, will never be able to maintain a great population any more than the northern part of Sonora, which is almost equally dry and sandy. Of all the natural productions of California the pearls have, since the 16th century, been the chief attraction to navigators for visiting the coast of this desert country. They abound particularly in the southern part of the peninsula. Since the cessation of the pearl fishery near the island of Marguerite, opposite the coast of Araya, the gulfs of Panama and California are the only quarters in STATISTICAL }XIV. Province of Old California. the Spanish colonies which supply pearls for the commerce of Europe. Those of California are of a very beautiful water and large; but they are frequently of an irregular figure, disagreeable to the eye. The shell which produces the pearl is particularly to be found in the Bay of Ceralvo, and round the islands of Santa Cruz and San Jose. The most valuable pearls in the possession of the court of Spain were found in 1615 and 1665, in the expeditions of Juan Yturbi and Bernal de Piñadero. During the stay of the visitador Galvez in California, in 1768 and 1769, a private soldier in the presidio of Loreto, Juan Ocio, was made rich in a short time by pearl fishing on the coast of Ceralvo. Since that period the number of pearls of California brought annually to market is almost reduced to nothing. The Indians and negros, who follow the severe occupation of divers, are so poorly paid by the whites, that the fishery is considered as abandoned. This branch of industry languishes from the same causes which in South America have raised the price of the Peruvian sheep skins, the caoutchouc, and the febrifugal bark of the quinquina. Although Hernan Cortez spent more than 200,000 ducats of his patrimony* in his Califor • Upwards of 43,000l. sterling. Patrimony is not the cor STATISTICAL ANALYSIS.XIV. Province of Old California. nian expeditions; and formal possession of the peninsula was taken by Sebastian Viscaino, who deserves to be placed in the first rank of the navigators of his age; it was only in 1642* that the jesuits were able to form solid establishments there. Jealous of their power, they struggled successfully against the efforts of the monks of St. Francis, who endeavoured from time to time to introduce themselves among the Indians. They had still more difficult enemies to overcome, the soldiers of the military posts; for in the extremities of the Spanish possessions of the New Continent, on the limits of European civilization, the legislative and executive powers are distributed in a very strange manner. The poor Indian knows no other master than a corporal or a missionary. rect expression in this place, but property. Cortez's patrimony was never very great; and Bernal Diaz states, that what he had was expended on costly presents and preparations for his new-married wife, of whom he was very fond, before he set out on his celebrated expedition from the island of Cuba. Trans. * It is advanced only a few pages before this that the jesuits commenced their settlements in Old California in 1683; and we see a few lines after this that the foundation of Loreto, under the name of Presidio de San Dionisio, was only laid in 1697, and that the Spanish establishments in California became only considerable after 1744. Should not, therefore, the 1642 be 1742? Trans. STATISTICAL XIV. Province of Old California. ANALYSIS. In California the jesuits obtained a complete victory over the soldiery posted in the presidios. The court decided by a cedula real, that all the detachment of Loreto, even the captain, should be under the command of the father at the head of the missions. The interesting voyages of three jesuits, Eusebius Kühn, Maria Salvatierra, and Juan Uguarte, brought us acquainted with the physical situation of the country. The village of Loreto had been already founded, under the name of Presidio de San Dionisio, in 1697. Under the reign of Philip V. especially after the year 1744, the Spanish establishments in California became very considerable. The jesuits displayed there that commercial industry and that activity to which they are indebted for so many successes, and which have exposed them to so many calumnies in both Indies. In a very few years they built 16 villages in the interior of the peninsula. Since their expulsion in 1767, California has been confided to the Dominican monks of the city of Mexico; and it appears that they have not been so successful in their establishments of Old California, as the Franciscans have been on the coasts of New California. The natives of the peninsula who do not live in the missions are of all savages, perhaps, the nearest to what has been called the state of |