The
Women Carry This Peculiarity Of Speaking To A Much Greater Extreme
Than The Men, Who Have More Evenness And Stateliness Of Utterance.
A Common Bullock-Driver, On Horseback, Delivering A Message, Seemed
To Speak Like An Ambassador At An Audience.
In fact, they sometimes
appeared to me to be a people on whom a curse had fallen, and stripped
them of everything but their pride, their manners, and their voices.
Another thing that surprised me was the quantity of silver that
was in circulation. I certainly never saw so much silver at one
time in my life, as during the week that we were at Monterey.
The truth is, they have no credit system, no banks, and no way
of investing money but in cattle. They have no circulating medium
but silver and hides - which the sailors call "California bank notes."
Everything that they buy they must pay for in one or the other of
these things. The hides they bring down dried and doubled, in
clumsy ox-carts, or upon mules' backs, and the money they carry
tied up in a handkerchief; - fifty, eighty, or an hundred dollars
and half dollars.
I had never studied Spanish while at college, and could not speak
a word, when at Juan Fernandez; but during the latter part of the
passage out, I borrowed a grammar and dictionary from the cabin,
and by a continual use of these, and a careful attention to every word
that I heard spoken, I soon got a vocabulary together, and began
talking for myself. As I soon knew more Spanish than any of the
crew, (who indeed knew none at all,) and had been at college and
knew Latin, I got the name of a great linguist, and was always sent
for by the captain and officers to get provisions, or to carry letters
and messages to different parts of the town. I was often sent to get
something which I could not tell the name of to save my life; but
I liked the business, and accordingly never pleaded ignorance.
Sometimes I managed to jump below and take a look at my dictionary
before going ashore; or else I overhauled some English resident
on my way, and got the word from him; and then, by signs, and the
help of my Latin and French, contrived to get along. This was a
good exercise for me, and no doubt taught me more than I should
have learned by months of study and reading; it also gave me
opportunities of seeing the customs, characters, and domestic
arrangements of the people; beside being a great relief from
the monotony of a day spent on board ship.
Monterey, as far as my observation goes, is decidedly the pleasantest
and most civilized-looking place in California. In the centre
of it is an open square, surrounded by four lines of one-story
plastered buildings, with half a dozen cannon in the centre; some
mounted, and others not. This is the "Presidio," or fort. Every
town has a presidio in its centre; or rather, every presidio has a
town built around it; for the forts were first built by the Mexican
government, and then the people built near them for protection. The
presidio here was entirely open and unfortified. There were several
officers with long titles, and about eighty soldiers, but they were
poorly paid, fed, clothed, and disciplined. The governor-general,
or, as he is commonly called, the "general," lives here; which makes
it the seat of government. He is appointed by the central government
at Mexico, and is the chief civil and military officer. In addition to
him, each town has a commandant, who is the chief military officer,
and has charge of the fort, and of all transactions with foreigners
and foreign vessels; and two or three alcaldes and corregidores,
elected by the inhabitants, who are the civil officers. Courts and
jurisprudence they have no knowledge of. Small municipal matters are
regulated by the alcaldes and corregidores; and everything relating
to the general government, to the military, and to foreigners,
by the commandants, acting under the governor-general. Capital
cases are decided by him, upon personal inspection, if he is near;
or upon minutes sent by the proper officers, if the offender is at a
distant place. No Protestant has any civil rights, nor can he hold
any property, or, indeed, remain more than a few weeks on shore,
unless he belong to some vessel. Consequently, the Americans and
English who intend to remain here become Catholics, to a man;
the current phrase among them being, - "A man must leave his
conscience at Cape Horn."
But to return to Monterey. The houses here, as everywhere else
in California, are of one story, built of clay made into large bricks,
about a foot and a half square and three or four inches thick, and
hardened in the sun. These are cemented together by mortar of the
same material, and the whole are of a common dirt-color. The floors
are generally of earth, the windows grated and without glass; and
the doors, which are seldom shut, open directly into the common
room; there being no entries. Some of the more wealthy inhabitants
have glass to their windows and board floors; and in Monterey
nearly all the houses are plastered on the outside. The better houses,
too, have red tiles upon the roofs. The common ones have two or
three rooms which open into each other, and are furnished with a
bed or two, a few chairs and tables, a looking-glass, a crucifix of
some material or other, and small daubs of paintings enclosed in
glass, and representing some miracle or martyrdom. They have no
chimneys or fire-places in the houses, the climate being such as to
make a fire unnecessary; and all their cooking is done in a small
cook-house, separated from the house. The Indians, as I have said
before, do all the hard work, two or three being attached to each
house; and the poorest persons are able to keep one, at least, for
they have only to feed them and give them a small piece of coarse
cloth and a belt, for the males; and a coarse gown, without shoes
or stockings, for the females.
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