The Country Abounds In Grapes, Yet They
Buy Bad Wines Made In Boston And Brought Round By Us, At An Immense
Price, And Retail It Among Themselves At A Real (12½ Cents) By
The Small Wine-Glass.
Their hides, too, which they value at two
dollars in money, they give for something which costs seventy-five
Cents in Boston; and buy shoes (like as not, made of their own hides,
and which have been carried twice around Cape Horn) at three or
four dollars, and "chicken-skin" boots at fifteen dollars apiece.
Things sell, on an average, at an advance of nearly three hundred
per cent upon the Boston prices. This is partly owing to the heavy
duties which the government, in their wisdom, with the intent, no
doubt, of keeping the silver in the country, has laid upon imports.
These duties, and the enormous expenses of so long a voyage, keep
all merchants, but those of heavy capital, from engaging in the
trade. Nearly two-thirds of all the articles imported into the
country from round Cape Horn, for the last six years, have been by
the single house of Bryant, Sturgis & Co., to whom our vessel belonged,
and who have a permanent agent on the coast.
This kind of business was new to us, and we liked it very well for
a few days, though we were hard at work every minute from daylight
to dark; and sometimes even later.
By being thus continually engaged in transporting passengers with
their goods, to and fro, we gained considerable knowledge of the
character, dress, and language of the people. The dress of the
men was as I have before described it. The women wore gowns of
various texture - silks, crape, calicoes, etc., - made after the
European style, except that the sleeves were short, leaving the arm
bare, and that they were loose about the waist, having no corsets.
They wore shoes of kid, or satin; sashes or belts of bright colors;
and almost always a necklace and ear-rings. Bonnets they had none.
I only saw one on the coast, and that belonged to the wife of an
American sea-captain who had settled in San Diego, and had imported
the chaotic mass of straw and ribbon, as a choice present to his
new wife. They wear their hair (which is almost invariably black,
or a very dark brown) long in their necks, sometimes loose,
and sometimes in long braids; though the married women often
do it up on a high comb. Their only protection against the sun
and weather is a large mantle which they put over their heads,
drawing it close round their faces, when they go out of doors,
which is generally only in pleasant weather. When in the house,
or sitting out in front of it, which they often do in fine weather,
they usually wear a small scarf or neckerchief of a rich pattern.
A band, also, about the top of the head, with a cross, star, or
other ornament in front, is common. Their complexions are various,
depending - as well as their dress and manner - upon their rank; or,
in other words, upon the amount of Spanish blood they can lay claim to.
Those who are of pure Spanish blood, having never intermarried with
the aborigines, have clear brunette complexions, and sometimes, even
as fair as those of English women. There are but few of these families
in California; being mostly those in official stations, or who, on the
expiration of their offices, have settled here upon property which they
have acquired; and others who have been banished for state offences.
These form the aristocracy; inter-marrying, and keeping up an exclusive
system in every respect. They can be told by their complexions, dress,
manner, and also by their speech; for, calling themselves Castilians,
they are very ambitious of speaking the pure Castilian language,
which is spoken in a somewhat corrupted dialect by the lower
classes. From this upper class, they go down by regular shades,
growing more and more dark and muddy, until you come to the pure
Indian, who runs about with nothing upon him but a small piece
of cloth, kept up by a wide leather strap drawn round his waist.
Generally speaking, each person's caste is decided by the quality
of the blood, which shows itself, too plainly to be concealed,
at first sight. Yet the least drop of Spanish blood, if it be
only of quadroon or octoroon, is sufficient to raise them from
the rank of slaves, and entitle them to a suit of clothes - boots,
hat, cloak, spurs, long knife, and all complete, though coarse
and dirty as may be, - and to call themselves Españolos, and to
hold property, if they can get any.
The fondness for dress among the women is excessive, and is often
the ruin of many of them. A present of a fine mantle, or of a
necklace or pair of ear-rings, gains the favor of the greater part
of them. Nothing is more common than to see a woman living in
a house of only two rooms, and the ground for a floor, dressed in
spangled satin shoes, silk gown, high comb, and gilt, if not gold,
ear-rings and necklace. If their husbands do not dress them well
enough, they will soon receive presents from others. They used to
spend whole days on board our vessels, examining the fine clothes
and ornaments, and frequently made purchases at a rate which
would have made a seamstress or waiting-maid in Boston open
her eyes.
Next to the love of dress, I was most struck with the fineness of
the voices and beauty of the intonations of both sexes. Every
common ruffian-looking fellow, with a slouched hat, blanket cloak,
dirty under-dress, and soiled leather leggins, appeared to me to be
speaking elegant Spanish. It was a pleasure, simply to listen to
the sound of the language, before I could attach any meaning to it.
They have a good deal of the Creole drawl, but it is varied with an
occasional extreme rapidity of utterance, in which they seem to skip
from consonant to consonant, until, lighting upon a broad, open
vowel, they rest upon that to restore the balance of sound.
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