avigable for large vessels, and
boast many excellent harbours;--the large white pelican with the bag
under his bill, is the only gainer by the abundance of fish they
produce. During the centuries of Spanish supremacy in California, even
the exertion of procuring a net has been deemed too great. How
abundantly and happily might thousands of families subsist here! and how
advantageously might the emigrants to Brazil have preferred this spot
for colonization! There, they have to struggle with many difficulties,
are often oppressed by the government, and always suffer under a
scorching sun. Here, they would have found the climate of the South of
Germany, and a luxuriant soil, that would have yielded an ample
recompense for the slightest pains bestowed upon it.

After a few hours' sail, we came to a deep creek opening to the right,
and on its shores we perceived the mission of St. Francisco rising among
wooded hills. The tide by this time had ebbed, the wind had died away,
and we proceeded slowly by the aid of oars: this induced us, after
rowing about fifteen miles, to land, at noon, on a pleasant little
island. We made a blazing fire; and as every sailor understands
something of cookery, a dinner was soon dressed, which eaten in the open
air in beautiful weather, under the shade of spreading oaks, appeared
excellent.

While the sailors were reposing, we examined the island. Its northern
shore was tolerably high, and rose almost perpendicularly from the sea.
Its soil, as that of all the country about the bay of St. Francisco,
consists, under the upper mould, of a variegated slate; probably the
foot of man had never before trodden it. But a short time since, no
boat was to be found in the neighbourhood, and now each mission
possesses only one large barge in which the reverend Fathers pass up and
down the rivers that discharge themselves into the northern half of the
bay, to seek among the Indians who are occasionally seen on their banks,
for proselytes to recruit the ranks of their laborious subjects. The
only canoes of the Indians are made of plaited reeds, in which they sit
up to their hips in water. That no one has yet attempted to build even
the simplest canoe in a country which produces a super-abundance of the
finest wood for the purpose, is a striking proof of the indolence of the
Spaniards, and the stupidity of the Indians.

Our island was surrounded by wild ducks and other sea-fowl; the
white-headed eagle hovered