The People Are Generally Suspicious
Of Foreigners, And They Would Not Be Allowed To Remain, Were It Not
That They
Become good Catholics, and by marrying natives, and
bringing up their children as Catholics and Mexicans, and not
teaching them
The English language, they quiet suspicion, and even
become popular and leading men. The chief alcaldes in Monterey and
Santa Barbara were both Yankees by birth.
The men in Monterey appeared to me to be always on horseback.
Horses are as abundant here as dogs and chickens were in Juan
Fernandez. There are no stables to keep them in, but they are
allowed to run wild and graze wherever they please, being branded,
and having long leather ropes, called "lassos," attached to their
necks and dragging along behind them, by which they can be easily
taken. The men usually catch one in the morning, throw a saddle and
bridle upon him, and use him for the day, and let him go at night,
catching another the next day. When they go on long journeys,
they ride one horse down, and catch another, throw the saddle and
bridle upon him, and after riding him down, take a third, and so
on to the end of the journey. There are probably no better riders
in the world. They get upon a horse when only four or five years
old, their little legs not long enough to come half way over his
sides; and may almost be said to keep on him until they have grown
to him.
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