These people have no fences round their cleared or cultivated land, although they raise an immense amount of stock, such as horses, mules and horned cattle all of which range at large over these extensive prairies all seasons of the year, many being in a manner totally wild, so much so, that when they wish to milk a cow, they mount one of their coursers and noose her, fasten the cord to a tree, and then tie her feet, when she is forced to be quiet. During our whole stay in this country I have never seen any thing like a stable or a barn, as a shelter for the dumb brutes – nor did I ever see any one feeding an animal, unless it was a favourite cow or horse that was sick. This, however, is not at all singular as any number of animals could subsist, and be in good order all seasons of the year, on these plains, as in many spots the grass is green the whole year round. The months of August, September and October are the least enticing to animals, as it is the warmest and driest season of the year. As soon as August sets in the beasts inhabiting the dry prairies and hills, repair to the low wet ground, where they can get enough to subsist upon until the dry season passes away. The rainy season commences generally in the latter part of October, and continues until the first and sometimes middle of January, when the weather becomes fair and the farmers sow their grain, such as wheat and rye. During this wet weather the animals grow fat, and the inhabitants employ the principal part of this time in catching and domesticating them. This fair weather generally lasts about two months, or until the first of March, when the rain again descends and continues until about the middle of June – the grain, however, grows amp; ripens during the wet weather. It then keeps dry month or so until the farmers gather crops – which occupies about a month, the warm weather sets in; destroying all kinds of vegetation, giving but a poor subsistance to the dumb brutes, and the country the appearance of an unproductive climate. About the end of the dry season (say about the first of November) the face of nature in this country has more the appearance of spring in the United States than any other part of the year, and, as there is no winter nor freezing weather here it may be said that August, September and October, is their only winter, (to substitute warm for cold) as, at the end of this period the face of nature assumes a new dress and vegetation shoots forth precisely in the manner that it does in Pennsylvania when the frost leaves the ground in the Spring of the year. The dry season is occupied by the inhabitants in gathering the mules into large droves and driving them off to the market at Santa Fee, a distance of 12 or 1400 miles from this part of the coast, through a wild and desert country. Here they meet with ready sale at a profitable price from the traders of Missouri, who repair to Santa Fee annually for that purpose. These traders are generally well supplied with merchandize which they exchange at Santa Fee for gold and silver, and with these Calafornian traders for mules and Spanish hides. The price of a mule at Santa Fee is generally from 6 to $10. – Merchandize is sold at a great advance, particularly silks, jewelry and groceries.
The principal part of their hides are sold to U. S. vessels trading on the coast. When a trading vessel anchors on the coast for the purpose of trading, the news is spread over the whole country like wild fire. The owners of cattle, who are of the wealthier class, collect together all the poorer Spaniards and Indians for the purpose of catching and butchering the cattle, in order to get their hides. This is the commencement of their sporting season. They are all mounted on their fleetest horses, and on these occasions the hunters go in pairs, one provided with a noose and the other with a spear or lance, which is used in cutting the sinews of the animals hind legs after it is noosed, which causes it to fall to the ground, after which they are easily despatched. After they strip off the hides and take out the tallow, and sometimes the choice part of the meat, the remainder of the carcase is left on the ground to be devoured by the wolves. The hides are then stretched out on the ground, and the tallow moulded into large cakes. As a compensation for their labour, the butchers, or hunters, receive one third of all the tallow they can collect. When the vessel is about leaving the coast, the hides and tallow which has been collected, is conveyed to the beach, where the hides are sold at $1.50 a piece, and the tallow at 4 cents per pound.
The greater part of this cargo is paid for in merchandize at high prices, but which is as valuable here as money itself, and much more useful. A vessel loaded with hides and tallow from this coast is of the greatest value, and has afforded an easy path to wealth for many of the American merchants.
After travelling leisurely along through their country, which still continued thinly inhabited by these people, and passing two small missionary establishments, we arrived at a small town called St. Hose, or St. Joseph, about 10 miles south of Monterey, where we arrived on the 25th of December. This is also a missionary station, and the largest of any we had yet encountered, containing about 900 Indians, principally from the mountains. This station is constructed and managed similar to that of St. Juan, except the church, which is much larger, and built with a greater display of the arts of civilization. Here we remained for two days, employing our time in watching the proceedings of these Indians in their devotional exercises. The manoeuvres of those who have been lately converted to the christian religion (being of the Catholic faith,) is something very singular, as they at one moment manifest the most unbounded transports of joy, and the next throw themselves into the greatest paroxysm of weeping and lamentation. – We then continued our journey and soon arrived at Monterey, which town is build on a beautiful situation on the south side of Monterey Bay – this Bay being formed by Kings river. This is the Capital of Upper, or North Calafornia, and under the government of New Mexico. The town is small containing only about 30 or 40 dwelling houses, one church, one calaboose a part of which is used as a house of justice, or in other words, a court house, where the Governor transacts his public business, and a kind of a fort, built in a commanding situation on the edge of the bay, to be used in the defence of the town in case an attack should be made upon it from the sea, containing several pieces of artillery.
This bay is very deep, affording an excellent harbor for any number of vessels. The town has every natural advantage that a seaport could desire; and if a proper spirit of enterprise prevailed among the inhabitants, it might be made to flourish equal to any other town in the dominions of New Mexico. Vessels sailing along the coast of the Pacific to the north, all stop here to take in supplies, as it is the last white settlement they pass, until they reach the Russian dominions of the North-West; but as the inhabitants raise no grain only what is used for home consumption; the mariner is only enabled to supply his vessel with meat and water. – Besides the advantage the agriculturalist might derive by supplying vessels with provisions, he might be enabled to carry on a large exporting business – as the soil and climate is very calculated to raise large crops of grain. Another prominent advantage the town of St. Joseph would have, is the facility of internal communication with the Indians now inhabiting the prairies and mountains of the interior, or the white race, who, it may reasonably be expected, will have undisputed dominion over this entire region before long.