Start for Monterey
Horse equipments in California
The advantages of them
Rifles and Ruffians
Californian Scenery
Immense herds of cattle
Mission of Santa Clara
Pueblo of San José
A Californian farm-house
What it is like inside and out
Prolific crops of wheat
Saddle-sickness
The journey is resumed
Mission of San José
Arrival at Monterey
The Author's visit to Colonel Mason
Surgeons not wanted in California
Rumours of gold being found on the Sacramento
Characteristics of Monterey
Don Luis Palo and his sisters
What all Californian dinners consist of
The party return to San Francisco.
Monterey.--_May 4th_.--Started off early on the morning of the 2nd on
our journey to Monterey. We found our horses in readiness in the hotel
yard, in charge of a servant (here called a vaquero) of Mr. Bradley's.
The latter, having business to transact at Monterey, accompanied
us. My horse was equipped after the Spanish fashion, with the usual
high-pommelled cumbrous saddle, with a great show of useless trappings,
and clumsy wooden stirrups, and for a long time I found the riding
sufficiently disagreeable, though, doubtless, far more pleasant than
a coast journey would have been, with a repetition of the deadly
sea-sickness from which I had already suffered so much. I soon found
out, too, the advantages of the Spanish saddle, as enabling one to
keep one's seat when travelling over thorough broken country through
which our road ran. Bradley had told us to have our rifles in
readiness, as no one travels any distance here without that very
necessary protection, the mountains near the coast being infested with
lawless gangs of ruffians, who lie in wait for solitary travellers.
The first part of our ride lay through a dense thicket of underwood,
and afterwards across parched up valleys, and over low sandy hills;
then past large grazing grounds--where cattle might be counted by the
thousand--and numerous ranchos or farms, the white farm buildings,
surrounded by little garden patches, scattered over the hill sides.
We at length came to an extensive plain, with groups of oaks spread
over its surface, and soon afterwards reached the neglected Mission of
Santa Clara, where we halted for a few hours. On leaving here our road
was over a raised causeway some two or three miles in length, beneath
an avenue of shady trees, which extended as far as the outskirts of
the town of St. José. This town, or pueblo as it is called, is nothing
more than a mass of ill-arranged and ill built houses, with an ugly
church and a broad plaza, peopled by three or four hundred inhabitants.
Not being used to long journeys on horseback, I felt disposed to stop
here for the night, but Bradley urged us to proceed a few miles farther,
where we could take up our quarters at a rancho belonging to a friend
of his. Accordingly we pushed on, and, after a ride of about seven
miles, diverged from the main road, and soon reached the farm-house,
where we were well entertained, and had a good night's rest.
Like the generality of houses in California, this was only one story
high, and was built of piles driven into the ground, interlaced with
boughs and sticks, and then plastered over with mud and whitewashed.
The better class of farm-houses are built of adobes, or unburnt
bricks, and tiled over. The interior was as plain and cheerless as it
well could be. The floor was formed of the soil, beaten down till it
was as firm and hard as a piece of stone. The room set apart for our
sleeping accommodation boasted as its sole ornaments a Dutch clock and
a few gaudily-coloured prints of saints hung round the walls. The beds
were not over comfortable, but we were too tired to be nice. In the
morning I took a survey of the exterior, and saw but few cattle
stalled in the sheds around the house. The greater part, it sterns,
after being branded, are suffered to run loose over the neighbouring
pastures. There was a well-cultivated garden in the rear of the house,
with abundance of fruit trees and vegetables.
While we were at breakfast, Malcolm asked our host several questions
about his crops, and soon found that he was no practical agriculturist.
He had, however, at Bradley's suggestion, discarded the native wooden
plough for the more effective American implement. He told us that he
calculated his crop of wheat this year would yield a hundred fanegas
for every one sown; and, on our expressing our surprise at such a
bountiful return, said that sixty or over was the usual average. If
so, the soil must be somewhat wonderful. After expressing our thanks,
for the hospitality shown us, to the wife of our host, who was a very
pretty little dark-eyed woman, with a most winning way about her, we
started off to resume our journey. For my own part, I felt very loth
to proceed, for I was terribly fatigued by my performance of yesterday,
and suffered not a little from that disagreeable malady called
"saddle-sickness." Our Californian accompanied us some short distance
on our road, which lay for many miles through a wide valley, watered
by a considerable stream, and overgrown with oaks and sycamores. Low
hills rose on either hand, covered with dark ridges of lofty pine
trees, up which herds of elk and deer were every now and then seen
scampering. We at length entered upon a narrow road through a range of
green sheltering hills, and, passing the Mission of San Juan, crossed
a wide plain and ascended the mountain ridge which lay between us and
Monterey, where we arrived late in the day.
Next morning Mr. Bradley accompanied me to the Governor's house, where
we saw Colonel Mason, the new governor of the State. He received us
with great politeness, but said that the war, if war it deserved to be
called, was now at an end, that but a small number of troops were
stationed in the country, and that there was no vacancy for a surgeon.
"Indeed," he said, "considering that we have given up head-breaking,
and the climate is proverbially healthy, California is hardly the place
for doctors to settle in. Besides," said he, "the native Californians
all use the Temescal (a sort of air-bath) as a remedy for every
disorder." Colonel Mason then asked Mr. Bradley if he had heard the
reports of gold having been found on the Sacramento, as Mr. Fulsom had
casually mentioned in a letter to him that such rumours were prevalent
at San Francisco. Bradley replied that he had heard something about it,
but believed that there was no truth in the matter, although a few
fools had indeed rushed off to the reputed gold mines forthwith. With
this our interview terminated.
Monterey seems to be a rising town. The American style of houses is
superseding the old mud structures, and numbers of new huildings are
being run up every month. The hotel we stopped at has only been
recently opened by an American. Monterey is moreover a port of some
importance, if one may judge from the number of vessels lying at
anchor.
_May 7th_.--On Friday we dined at the house of Don Luis Palo, a
Californian gentleman of agreeable manners, whose father held office
here under the Spanish government previous to the Mexican Revolution.
I believe it is Don Luis's intention shortly to return to Spain. He is
unmarried, and his two sisters are the handsomest women I have yet
seen in this country; their beauty is quite of the Spanish style. A
dinner in California seems to be always the same--first soup and then
beef, dressed in various ways, and seasoned with chillies, fowls,
rice, and beans, with a full allowance of pepper and garlic to each
dish.
On Saturday we set out on our return, and after two days' hard riding
reached San Francisco to-day at 4, P.M.