of our enterprising people, and while they have formed the chief resort of our whalers and oar navy in the Pacific, they have ministered to a trade more extensive on our part than on that of any other nation.
THE CALIFORNIAS.
In the preceding part of this letter, I gave yon some account of the Sandwich Islands, their trade and importance to our Union; and I will now proceed to present some notices of the Californias, with the view of drawing your attention to certain conclusions to which I have come, in regard to American interests in the Pacific.
Lower California, although discovered in 1534 by Grijalva, was almost unknown for more than a hundred years, when the first Jesuit missionaries commenced their labors in the year 1683. Salvatierra, Ugarte and Piccoli, with the Virgin for their patron, attempted the conquest with arms, and by moral influences; and although in 1786 fifteen missionary establishments had been made, yet the whole of the peninsula seems to have turned out barren and valueless to trade, except so far as the Pearl-fishery produced a very considerable revenue. In 1567, according to Acosta, six hundred and ninety-seven pounds of this precious article were imported into Seville; but in 1831, (the latest account I can find of any authority,) the whole fishery had dwindled into utter insignificance. There were then but four vessels and two boats engaged in it; and the two hundred divers who manned them, obtained, in all, but eighty-eight ounces of pearls, valued at little more than thirteen thousand dollars.
Upper California, however, is different in its natural characteristics. No great impression was made on it by the missionaries in their "spiritual conquest" until 1768. Since then it has gradually progressed, (under the influence, I believe, of the Franciscan monks,) until twenty-one missions are numbered within its limits, and twenty-three thousand and twenty-five Indians, troops and Creoles, have come within their dominion, of which number only about five thousand are of Spanish extraction. Each of these missions has a tract assigned to it of fifteen miles square; and the Indian population, gathered from the neighboring wandering tribes, is placed within its boundaries, under vigilant surveillance; worked, fed, clothed, taught the Christian doctrine, and subjected (according to Forbes,) to an absolute slavery. They are idle, stupid, pusillanimous, sickly, and have made no progress, either in the arts necessary for personal comfort or of national government
The portion of Upper California, at present occupied by settlers and missions, is about five hundred English miles in extent, and runs, in breadth, from the sea to the first ranges of hills on the west The area of this occupied land is about thirteen millions of acres, forming but an insignificant portion of the whole territory, which, in "superficial extent, is equal to many of the most extensive kingdoms of Europe." Beyond the western hills, about forty miles from the sea, the country is a wilderness, held by scattered tribes, but little known and seldom visited.
But all the explorers who have visited California, describe it as a magnificent country. The territory behind the highlands is "reckoned superior to the coast, and is said to consist of plains, lakes, and hills, beautifully diversified, and of the greatest natural fertility; capable of yielding every variety of vegetable
