290

ENORMOUS CACTI.

which, throughout the year, expends on it its fiercest rays. Nevertheless, in a few valleys and low table-lands, in the vicinity of the towns before enumerated, are seen the little "huertas" (gardens) of the simple inhabitants, yielding, in small quantities, all the tropical productions, of which the poor people possess the seeds or germs. All the rest of the country is taken possession of by every variety of the cactus, which attains an enormous size, and whose perennial green gives that delusive promise of fertility to which I have alluded. This plant flourishes without water, except the moisture derived from the light dews which it greedily drinks up at night. There are the melon, the Turks-head, and the tree cacti, all of great size, besides smaller sizes, of innumerable varieties, which, I regret, I am not botanist enough to describe. Their fleshy stems are well guarded with thorns, ranging from the bigness of a tenpenny nail to that of a fine cambric needle. Truly this is a botanical museum of cacti. The tree variety sometimes attains thirty feet in height, and it possesses sufficient woody consistence to make excellent firewood. These cacti are not without use to the inhabitants. Of the ligneous fibre of one species they make lines, nets, and even coarse cloth; and rough beams can be made of the spongy wood of one variety. I have often ridden through dense forests of cacti, and a beautiful sight it is to behold their flowers of the gaudiest hues, contrasting with their rich green limbs and trunks. Sometimes the blue jay and scarlet cardinal, sit chirping away on their tops, and these are apparently the only living creatures which do not fear their prickly contact.

The valley in which San José is situated is well watered, which is a great consideration in this country, where water is extremely scarce. The "huertas" on each side of the clear streams, produce dates, oranges, bananas, and other tropical fruits, besides excellent vegetables, the chief agricultural production being "panocha," or pan sugar, of which

considerable quantities are exported. The nature of the soil and climate appears particularly well adapted to the culture of the cane, and there are many very fine sugar plantations.

There is a remarkable hot-spring near San José, in the bed of the river, or rather, what is its bed during the freshet season. There are several ranchos in this neighborhood, but the country is not well adapted to grazing, and the breed of animals is small and puny. The cattle are frequently affected with a kind of mange, and are seldom fat, while the horses are mere ponies.

Nothing can be stated positively with regard to the lofty serrania of the interior, but it probably has a peculiarity which may be noted in other tropical regions, viz. successive terraces or table lands at different elevations, affording various gradations of climate. It is also supposed that this serrania contains valuable mines, including gold, silver, and quicksilver-but "quien sabe?"

Some few foreigners, with whom I have conversed, who have partially explored the serraina, think that many valuable products may be had from it; but a long time will probably elapse before it will be inhabited by man. It is certain that the alpine mountain ranges produce at different elevations, pines, and oaks, besides several varieties of palms, and that the mansanilla (logwood), sandal-wood, box of large size, several species of bastard mahogany, lignum vitæ, and other hard woods have been obtained-for I have seen specimens of them myself. The sandal-wood, if it exists in quantities, would well repay the expense of an exploration, for it is already nearly exhausted in the islands of the Pacific, whence the supply for the China market has hitherto been drawn. The talipot palm grows in the gardens, and its broad leaves are used to thatch the houses of the inhabitants.

South of Cape St. Lucas, is a small cluster of islands -which may be regarded as dependencies of the peninsula

292

SUPPOSED MINES.

-called by the Spaniards, who discovered them, the Revillagigedo islands; these are Socorro, Benedicto, and Rocapartida, which I name in the order of their respective sizes. Of these, Socorro is probably the only one of importance; and it is noted for an active volcano, which was in a state of eruption during our sojourn in the vicinity; and it is rather remarkable that shocks of an earthquake occurred during its continuance at Cape St. Lucas, leading one to the conclusion, that some sort of subterranean communication exists between the two places, as these shocks were not felt at any other part of the neighboring country. Valuable mines are already worked in the peninsula. The silver mines of San Antonio, produce to any who will work them-for they are not worked by any organized company as yet at the rate of ten, and even as high as twenty reals on every dollar invested, and this in the rude state of mining now practised.

No

The use of quicksilver has not yet been adopted at these mines, but it will now be so readily procured from Upper California, that the yield can be made much greater.* doubt the most magnificent field is open to the geologist, in the sierras of the peninsula, and also in those of Upper California. Their mineral wealth must be immense, if we may judge from specimens already discovered by the rude. and untaught efforts of the ignorant native population. Here is a virgin soil for the operations of the practical and scientific geologist; and men of capital and enterprise, will, ere long, turn their attention to it. Who can tell what vast mineral wealth such an exploration would reveal?

The climate of the peninsula is decidedly of a torrid character. I speak of the coast strip, which is the only part of which we possess any certain knowledge. The rays of the sun are very powerful every day in the year, and from the early matinal hours until nightfall, old Sol darts

* In view of a probable depreciation in the value of gold, these silver mines may become immensely valuable.

CLIMATE AND PEOPLE.

293

his fierce rays so savagely as to preclude any particulardesire to be stirring out of doors. In the high mountainranges, the weather is probably more tolerable. The nights, however, are cool. It seldom rains, and years often pass without a shower. Indeed, showers are expected only in the summer months, and the variation of temperature throughout the year is very small. Like all tropical countries, this peninsula is visited, at long intervals, by gales of wind, principally from the south, and they sometimes increase to hurricanes, and it is then prudent to stand from under.

The inhabitants of the peninsula are few in numbers, and are exclusively of the lowest orders of the Mexican mixed race, with the exception of a white family or two of Castilian descent. They are very thriftless, and of course very poor, idle, dissolute, and ignorant. In fact, they are almost as nearly in a state of nature as many of the rude heathen islanders of the Pacific. The climate does not require them to exert themselves, either for their bodily sustenance or to raise the few articles with which they obtain, by barter, the necessary wearing apparel for themselves and their families. Like other fools who compose the bulk of mankind they are excessively proud of the possession of finery and gewgaws of every kind. Their houses consist merely of cabins made of wattles of a light wood, or of reeds, and are roofed with the leaves of the talipot palm. Their furniture is composed merely of a hide stretched on four posts driven into the ground-floor, for au rez de chaussée, is the only story of their mansions, which are sometimes divided into two rooms by a slender and most transparent partition of reeds. A house for the lower and middling classes can be built for an expenditure of eight dollars, and makes quite a pleasant rural retreat, in its way. A few of the better class in San José and La Paz, have adobe houses, but then they are the aristocracy-the haut ton-the "upper ten," and "quite the Stilton." There is no severe exertion

requisite or practicable in this fiery clime, and the people are a merry, devil-may-care sort of bipeds, who take the world easily and philosophically, and perhaps are, on the whole, as happy as the victims of hot suppers and tradesman's bills, in more civilized countries. They seem always to be "descansando,"-resting-so that they enjoy a perpetual Sabbath. They are hospitable, and always glad to serve a stranger in their humble way, and it is probably no injury to their well-being that they are governed and regulated almost exclusively by their priests. On the whole, they are good-tempered, kind-hearted, and indolent; possessing a large share of that negative happiness which springs from the absence of care, anxiety, and responsibility.

The women are, many of them, very handsome, particularly when crossed with the white blood. In the many shady nooks on the banks of the river San José, one will always meet with gay and laughing groups of nut-brown wood nymphs, splashing in the crystal stream, often presenting the attitude of the goddess of the Pitti, washing out clothes, and giving rendezvous to their respective swains.

We hoisted the American flag in San José on the thirtieth of March, 1847, by order of Commodore Stockton, and soon afterwards we did the same at La Paz, taking possession of the whole peninsula in behalf of the United States. This was done without the least opposition by the inhabitants, the majority of them being well satisfied with the change. Our ship had thus the honor of hoisting the American flag as an act of military possession and occupation, at the most northern and southern points of the Californias.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL BURTON, of the New York Volunteer Regiment, with two companies, and a small battery of artillery, soon after assumed the military government of the district. In the following summer, the coast being left unguarded by a man-of-war during the souther months, one Pineda, a Mexican officer, Fray Vicento, a priest, and