Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/302

296 country to engage in this business. The Pueblo and Santa Barbara are both towns of considerable size, containing each, probably, a population of about two thousand. They are situated about twenty miles from the sea shore, and the inhabitants are engaged in stock raising, and the cultivation of the vine. There is anchorage for shipping at the Western termination of these valleys.

The Southern portion of the Province of California, called Lower California, is more populous than the portion which we have been considering; but its population consists almost entirely of Mexican Spaniards and Indians; there being but few "Foreigners" in that part of California. (The term Foreigners is used here to designate all others, except the Mexican Spaniards, and Indians; though they have been residents in the country for many years; have become citizens; or even though they have been born in the country; still they are foreigners, if they be the descendants of Americans, English, French, Dutch, or of any other people, except those whom we have excepted.) We have never traveled through Lower California, and are, therefore, incapable of making statements concerning it. But we have been informed, by those who were acquainted with it, that a great portion of it is mountainous, dry and sterile; and especially the Peninsula of California; and, although we have never tested, by actual observation, the correctness of this description, yet we have some corroborating evidence of its truth; since we have observed, in proceeding South from the Bay of San Francisco, that the country becomes, as we advance, gradually less fertile, and less favorable to vegetation; the cultivated land requiring frequent irrigation to counteract the effect of the Summer droughts; we have also observed that the country becomes more mountainous; the valleys less productive; and that timber is often almost entirely wanting. From this we