Cabrillo tells of the Indians with whom he held communication.  They were timid and somewhat hostile at first, but easily appeased.  Some of them, especially those living on the islands (now known as San Clemente, Santa Catalina, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Cruz), were superior to those found inland.  They rowed in pine canoes having a seating capacity of twelve or thirteen men, and were expert fishermen.  They dressed in the skins of animals, were rude agriculturists, and built for themselves shelters or huts of willows, tules, and mud.

The principal written source of authority for our knowledge of the Indians at the time of the arrival of the Fathers is Fray Geronimo Boscana’s Chinigchinich:  A Historical Account, etc., of the Indians of San Juan Capistrano.  There are many interesting things in this account, some of importance, and others of very slight value.  He insists that there was a great difference in the intelligence of the natives north of Santa Barbara and those to the south, in favor of the former.  Of these he says they “are much more industrious, and appear an entirely distinct race.  They formed, from shells, a kind of money, which passed current among them, and they constructed out of logs very swift and excellent canoes for fishing.”

Of the character of his Indians he had a very poor idea.  He compares them to monkeys who imitate, and especially in their copying the ways of the white men, “whom they respect as beings much superior to themselves; but in so doing, they are careful to select vice in preference to virtue.  This is the result, undoubtedly, of their corrupt and natural disposition.”

Of the language of the California Indians, Boscana says there was great diversity, finding a new dialect almost every fifteen to twenty leagues.

They were not remarkably industrious, yet the men made their home utensils, bows and arrows, the several instruments used in making baskets, and also constructed nets, spinning the thread from yucca fibres, which they beat and prepared for that purpose.  They also built the houses.

The women gathered seeds, prepared them, and did the cooking, as well as all the household duties.  They made the baskets, all other utensils being made by the men.

The dress of the men, when they dressed at all, consisted of the skins of animals thrown over the shoulders, leaving the rest of the body exposed, but the women wore a cloak and dress of twisted rabbit-skins.  I have found these same rabbit-skin dresses in use by Mohave and Yumas within the past three or four years.