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CHAPTER I.

FIRST MENTION AND NAMES OF CALIFORNIA.

AFTER the subjugation of the empire of Montezuma by Fernando Cortez, in 1522, pearls, emeralds, turquoises, garnets, and particular specimens of gold, silver, and copper, fell to the lot of the conquerors, among much other spoils of treasure. The courtiers of the Aztec emperor informed the Spaniards that these treasures came from the countries and coasts of the ocean, a great way to the west and northwest of the capital. The King of Michoacan and the caciques of his province of Colima called this country of treasures Ciguatan, a name adopted by the conquerors until they first discovered the shores of the gulf below 27°, when it often went by the name of Santiago, from a place on the coast of Tehuantepec, where Cortez dispatched his first expedition of 1532. It was, after 1532, called Santa Cruz, from the bay where anchored Ximenez, the first European who was certainly known to have landed on the peninsula. At this time it also obtained the name of Islas de Perlas, from the accounts and specimens brought to Cortez by the companions of Ximenez. It was then often called the Islas Amazones, from a fable current in Mexico of a nation of female warriors in these parts, and also bay, or gulf, or country "de Ballenas," or whales. After the visit of Cortez in 1535, it first acquired the name of California, or the Islas de California. After the death of Cortez, it often went by the name of Islas Carolinas, from the Emperor Charles V., or from Charles the Second of Spain, under which term it is set down in many old maps and charts, and as late as that of Anson in 1740. After the Jesuit settlement of 1690 the name of California became more and more confirmed, until, on the publication of the Jesuit Histories after 1750, it became permanently recognized in history, navigation, and geography, under that title. After the settlements of San Diego and Monterey of 1770, the lower portions began to be styled California Peninsular, California Antigua or Vieja, and Baja California, and the country beyond the Gila junction of the Colorado and its parallel to the ocean, as Nueva California, California Norte, and Alta California. It was not till the American conquest of 1846 that the name of the peninsula was confirmed in commerce as Lower California, and the northern countries as Upper California, by which terms they are now more fully known in politics and letters than the Spanish titles, leaving out the political divisions of this last, forming subsequent to 1846 what is now known as the Pacific domain of the United States of America. After A. D. 1800, the two sections were commonly termed Las dos Californias, or Las Californias, or in English The two Californias-a term so convenient as to be frequently applied to this day, as others are too lengthy or prolix. The Spaniards and Mexicans sometimes use the term La California and La Californiana, the country or pertaining to the things of The Californias. Mr. E. E. Hale, of Boston, brings excellent proof of the origin of the name California, from a Queen of the Amazons called California, of the Greco-Syrian countries, contained in an old Crusader romance, much read in the times of Cortez and Columbus, for a memoir of which see papers of Hale, published in 1863 and 1864.

THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA-ITS TITLES.

This great arm of the Pacific, which penetrates the American continent deeper than any other in the New World, runs from near 23° to that of 31° 30', or a length of say 600 geographical miles, to where it receives the waters of the Colorado of the West. It acquired its name of the Golfo de Cortez, or Mar de Cortez, from the great captain, who visited it in 1537. Its

other names of Mar Vermiglion, Mar Rojo, and Mar Vermijo, seem to have been first applied in 1537-1540, after the explorations of Ulloa and Alarcon, from the reddish color of its waters, and the accounts given of its shores by Nuno de Guzman and his officers, the first conquerors of Sinaloa. After the discovery of its entirety by Kino, in 1700, it became known as Mar Laurentano, from the Virgin of Loretto, patroness of the California missions, Seno California, Mar California, when in the Jesuit maps from 1730 to 1772 it is set down as Golfo de California, the English of which last, Gulf of California, is what is its most acceptable, most confirmed, and widest-known title in 1866. The Gulf of California bathes the entire lengths of the eastern shores of Lower California and of the western boundaries of the States of Sinaloa and Sonora, until these lines are absorbed by the waters of the Colorado; that is, its shore line is 1,200 miles in length. In its northern parts it is full of sand-bars, shoals, hidden rocks, shallow soundings, and dangerous currents, while its southern portions contain the finest harbors, bays, and anchorages, with the safest navigation for the major portion of the year. Its breadth ranges all the way from 20 miles at its head to 250 miles at its entrance between Cape San Lucas and the port of Mazatlan.

ITS OCEAN LINES, COASTS, AND NORTHERN LIMITS.

From Cape San Lucas, in a little below 23°, the ocean coast carries a general northwest direction for the distance of, say, 700 geographical miles to a parallel line one marine league from the southernmost point of the Bay of San Diego, near a place called Tia Juana, according to the Mexican treaty of 1848. To identify this line beyond dispute, a marble monument was erected by the boundary commissioners of the United States and Mexico in 1850, opposite the Coronado Islets, and which monument is situated in a fraction over 32° 31′ of latitude, and 117° 06′ longitude of Greenwich. The ocean shores run at least 100 miles farther north than those of the extreme head of the gulf. This section of the peninsula, for 50 nautical leagues on the sea-coast below the boundary, is one of the finest districts for health, climate, and fertility, the climate particularly being one of the most uniform and delightful in the world.

THE ISLANDS OF THE OCEAN AND GULF COASTS.

The first island on the Pacific, after passing Cape San Lucas, is that of Santa Margarita, which is 22 miles in length and 5 to 10 miles in breadth, according to De Fleury's map of 1864. According to Payot's map of 1863, there are several unnamed islands in the bay of Magdalena, of which Margarita forms its southern defence, not at all inserted in De Fleury's map of 1864, nor is there any description of these either in Belcher or Findley. In fact, this part of the coast has never been accurately located, a crying evil, as one steamer and several vessels have been lost or greatly damaged in these parts since 1850. The small island of Cresciente is within sight of Margarita to the northeast, and only two or three miles from the mainland.

About 280 miles above Margarita is the island of Natividad, some four miles long and two broad. This, with the island of Cedros, forms the southwest defences of the bay of Sebastian Viscaino, so called from that navigator's anchorage here in 1602. Cedros is some 25 miles long by five in breadth; to the west of it are the small islets of San Benito. Going up the coast, no other important islands are met with till that of San Geronimo is reached, 140 miles from Cedros, and situated opposite the Mission of La Rosario, and which is only four or five miles in length. The last island met with after Geronimo is Cenisas, near the bay of San Quentin, which is only two or three miles in length.

The island of Guadelupe, nearly due west from Cedros, and 120 miles from the coast in lat. 28° 45', is also included in the territory of Lower California.

The position of this island was definitely fixed by Admiral Du Petit Thouars in November, 1837, though it was approximately located on several old Spanish and other charts even prior to 1820; it is only a mass of rocks some 20 miles in circumference, and has often been visited since 1850 by California otterhunters and whalers.

Going from Cape San Lucas up the gulf, about 100 miles north, the first island of the gulf is that of Ceralbo (or White Hills), some 12 miles in length, and stated to contain copper mines of great value. The second is Espíritu Santo, about six miles long, containing also very rich copper-mines. This last island blocks the mouth of the bay of La Paz, which runs southeast for some 20 miles, in the western corners of which is the minor bay called Pichilingue, containing the small island of San Juan Nepoceno. The third island is the small one of San Francisco, in sight of which is the fourth, known as San José, and some 12 miles long. The fifth island is called Santa Catalina, and within five or six miles of it is the sixth, called Montserrat: these two are about 10 miles in circumference each. The seventh island is the celebrated one of Carmen, which contains beyond all dispute the richest, most peculiar, and most accessible saltmine in the whole world, and entirely inexhaustible. The Jesuits, about 1730, asked from the viceroy a grant of this mine in perpetuity, from which they would maintain their California establishments free of cost to the king's treasury. Carmen Island is about 25 miles long by six broad, and is within a few hours' sail of the old town of Loretto. Five or six miles beyond it is the eighth island, called Coronados, of a few miles' extent. Farther up from Carmen some 30 miles is the ninth island, San Ildefonso, and within two or three hours' sail, that of Santa Isabel, the tenth, at the mouth of Moleje Bay: both of these, with three or four others in the bay aforesaid, are only a few miles in extent. The three islands called Galapagos, 30 miles above Moleje, are the eleventh, and are also only of few miles' extent; the Gallapagos are some 25 miles in front and to the west of Tortugas Island, which is in midchannel and within sight of the port of Guaymas on the Sonora coast: this island may be set down for the Sonora coast, and, it is said, has an extinct volcano on it. The thirteenth island is Trinidad, and the fourteenth San Bernarbe, both some 20 miles in circumference and about 40 miles above the Gallapagos. The fifteenth are the Sal Si Puedes, three small islands, within sight of two others, known as Las Animas and Raza, which together form an archipelago very dangerous for their impetuous currents. To the west of Las Animas, there is a number of small islands close to the mainland, which are not well known by name in geography. Between the mainland and these, to the eastward, is the Canal de Ballenas, or Whales, which divides off the sixteenth, or Great Island of Angel de la Guarda, 50 miles in length and about 15 in breadth. Northward of Angel, some 50 miles in the bay of San Felipe de Jesus, is the rocky islet or farallon of Santa Felicia. Twenty miles farther northeast is the seventeenth island, called San Eugenio, about seven miles around, and sometimes called Farallon de San Eugenio, from a rocky islet close by, off the southern coast of which are some extremely dangerous sunken rocks and ledges. Immediately north of San Eugenio, at the narrowest part of the gulf, are the eighteenth islands, known as Las Reyes, which block the entrance of the Colorado and gulf. Above these last are a number of large flat islands, formed by the bores of the river and gulf, which are enclosed within the banks of the river, and a regular network of similar formations is found nearly to the junction of the Gila, and which all belong to Mexican territory.

Coming down the gulf from the river on the west shore of Sonora, or the eastern waters of the gulf, is first the small island of Patos, which is some 130 miles southeast of San Eugenio. A narrow strait divides this from the large island of Tiburon, some 20 miles long and 10 broad, and which can be seen from above the city of Hermosillo in clear weather. Below Tiburon,

some 25 miles, is San Pedro Martyr Island, and 30 miles farther south is that of San Marco, a few miles north of Guaymas, the bay of which port has several small islets. To the south of Guaymas, 50 miles, is the small island of Lobos. At the mouth of the River Sinaloa are five or six small islands, among the principal of which is San Ignacio and Macapula. Below the mouth of the River Culiacan are several long, low islands along the coast, which are, however, very little known in navigation or commerce. To the south of these last, to the port of Mazatlan, the coast is generally clean, with open aspects; seaward at the mouth of the gulf, where the ocean swells, in the hurricane months, beat with immense surfs and rollers of overwhelming force. After the stormy season has past, the navigation of the gulf is one of the safest and most delightful in any sea, for more than eight months of the year. But the above-named islands of the eastern waters belong in no way to Lower California, but pertain entirely to Sinaloa and Sonora.

All this immense stretch and lines of 1,200 miles of gulf coast and 700 miles of ocean shores, with their islands, are entirely unfixed hydrographically, either in books, charts, or maps, except a few points by Spanish navigators, between 1770 and 1800, by the English and French, between 1824 and 1850, and by Americans, between 1846 and 1866, the most accurate of which are those of Admiral Belcher in 1839, confined, however, only to four or five localities on the ocean coast. With the wealth of minerals, fisheries, agriculture, and commerce, which is opening on these wonderful territories, and the immense amount of shipping which sail daily within sight of its sea lines, the scientific survey of them by competent persons is loudly called for by the principal maritime powers of the world: probably it could be better done by a joint commission of hydrographists of the great naval powers. There is not an island in all those we have mentioned, in the gulf or in the Pacific, except Santa Margarita, Cedros, and Guadelupe, whose true positions or superficial dimensions are known in navigation, geography, or history, and only a few of them are inhabited, and then only by a few fishermen. If all these islands, which contain immense resources in excellent harbors, in minerals, in fisheries, and in pearl-oyster banks, were joined together, they would make a district of country 100 miles long by 80 miles broad, and at a rough estimate, they would make one-fifteenth of the superficies of the peninsula.

CHAPTER II.

THE HARBORS, BAYS, AND PORTS OF THE PENINSULA.

COMING from San Diego to the south on the Pacific, the best-known harbors are:

First. The Bay of Todos Santos, near which is the well-known locality, called the Sausal de Camacho, where salt has been procured in abundance since 1855. It makes a fine harbor for vessels under 400 tons, and is now often resorted to by whalers and others. A grant of great extent covers the lands of this bay, claimed by José Y. Limantour.

Second. To the southward, about 100 miles, is the fine bay and port of San Quintin, sometimes called in maps and charts San Francisco, and also Bay of the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne; San Quintin is the term now generally known in navigation. The apex of the bay at the north has valuable salinas or salt-beds, which have been worked since 1853, and the salt from its superior quality is well known in the San Francisco markets. A large grant of land is also laid down here as belonging to Limantour.

Third. To the southward, some 130 miles, is the great bay of Sebastian Viscaino, made by Cedros and Natividad Islands; its western aspects are entirely open to the west for one-half of its length. It has a small arm at its

northern apex, called Pescado Blanca, where is a valuable salt-bed, in the vicinity of which is the grant of Mr. Millatowitch, a well-known Russian citizen of California. Several extensive lagoons make into the land, according to Payot's map, which are laid down in no other map. A third grant, some 60 miles long and 20 broad, covering all the neighboring lands of the bay, is also here claimed by Limantour. Valuable salinas are found all along the shores of this bay, which was discovered by Viscaino in 1602, though on many maps it is put down as the Bay of San Francisco and also Saint Sebastian; on others, the Bay of Magdalena is located here.

Fourth. Some 10 miles below Natividad Island is the small bay of San Bartholomew, often called Turtle Bay, which contains valuable fisheries of turtle, used for the supply of the San Francisco market.

Fifth. One hundred miles below San Bart's, after doubling Point Abreojos, is Ballenas Bay, which in 27° runs into the land for 20 miles, and is the resort of innumerable whales in the calving season, and from which hundreds of tons of oil have been shipped to San Francisco and the East since 1853.

Sixth. One hundred and fifty miles below Ballenas opens up the Great Gulf or Bay of La Magdalena, discovered by Cabrillo in 1542, rediscovered by Viscaino in 1602, and found from the descriptions of this last by the Jesuit Father Guillen in 1719. It is often mentioned by Spanish navigators, and is one of the most extensive on the west coast of America, but was not known properly in navigation till Admiral Belcher's visit of 1839. The bay forms into a great many ramifications and arms, and is about 50 miles in extreme length, with several low, sandy islands, as well as rocky ones; its breadth ranges all the way from 5 to 20 miles. For the last 50 years it has been the resort of American whalers, sealers, and other hunters, and since 1854 regular establishments of this class from California have aggregated on its shores until quite a settlement is now formed. It is also much resorted to by Chinamen from San Francisco for gathering the mollusk called aulon, the meat of which is so much esteemed by the wealthy people of China.

Seventh. Some 50 miles below Magdalena the small bay of Todos Santos Mission is reached, near which are some of the most fertile spots of the peninsula.

Eighth. About 35 miles farther (south), at the extremity of Lower California, Cape San Lucas, the most celebrated promontory on the west coast of America, is reached. And here we begin to turn north and east up the grand portals of the Gulf of California, of whose best harbors, ports, and bays, we shall now make such detail as is warranted from what has been noted of them, not a single one of which, however, has been properly surveyed.

Ninth. The first is the roadstead of the old Mission of San José, often called San José del Cabo or of the Cape, from its proximity to Cape San Lucas, and appears to be the same as the Bay of San Bernarbe or Porto Seguro of old charts; from the cape it is distant some 20 miles near the mouth of the small river or arroyo of San José. This is a frequent stopping-place for whalers, and the schooners running from Guaymas, Mazatlan, San Francisco, and San Blas, and a considerable quantity of fertile land is found in its vicinity.

Tenth. Eighty miles above San José is the well-known bay of La Paz, which penetrates the land to the south some 25 miles from Espíritu Santo Island, having a varying breadth of from 6 to 10 miles. This is one of the safest and finest bays and harbors in the two Californias, and has been known in navigation and history for 350 years. It has been celebrated all this time for the abundance of pearl oysters, and has produced pearls among the most valued gems of the jeweller and lapidary, and prized in the regalia of kings, emperors, and princes. It was the centre of operations of the American naval and military forces in 1846 to 1848, and is now the depot for the Mexican coast line of steamers from San Francisco. Since 1830 it has been the capital of Lower California, where all government operations centre.

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