seem to possess all imaginable humanity.  All the time we were there, and constantly among many hundreds of them, there was nothing to be seen but the most agreeable harmony, and most affectionate behaviour to each other.  When any of us gave any thing eatable to one person, he always divided it among all who were around him, reserving the smallest share to himself.  They seldom walked singly, but mostly in pairs, hand in hand.  They seemed of meek and gentle dispositions, having no appearance of cruelty in their countenances or behaviour, yet seemed haughty towards their women.  They lead a careless life, having every thing in common, and seemed to desire nothing beyond the necessaries of life.  They never once offered to pilfer or steal any of our tools or other utensils; and such was their honesty, that my men having forgotten their axes one day on shore, while cutting wood, which was noticed by one of the natives, he told it to the king, who sent into the wood for the axes, and restored them with much apparent satisfaction.

Their language is guttural and harsh, and they talk a great deal, but I could never understand a single word they spoke.  Their dwellings were very mean, being scarcely sufficient to shelter them.  Their diet is, I believe, mostly fish, which they frequently eat raw, but they sometimes bake it in the sand.  They seldom want abundance of this food, as the men go out to sea on their bark-logs, and are very expert harponiers.  Their harpoons are made of hard wood, and with these they strike the largest albicores, and bring them ashore on their bark-logs, which they row with double paddles.  This seemed strange to us, who had often experienced the strength of these fish; for frequently when we had hold of one of these with very large hooks, made fast to eight-strand twine, we had to bring the ship to, to bring them in, and it was then as much as eight or ten men could do; so that one would expect, when an Indian had struck one of these fish, from his light float, it would easily run away with the man and the bark-log; but they have some sleight in their way of management, by which the strength and struggling of these fish are all in vain.  There are hardly any birds to be seen in this country except a few pelicans.

When the Californians want to drink, they wade into the river, up to their middles, where they take up the water in their hands, or stoop down and suck it with their mouths.  Their time is occupied between hunting, fishing, eating, and sleeping; and having abundant exercise, and rather a spare diet, their lives are ordinarily prolonged to considerable age, many of both sexes appearing to be very old, by their faces being much wrinkled, and their hair very grey.  Their bows are about six feet long, with strings made of deer’s sinews, but their arrows seemed too long for their bows; and considering that they have no adequate tools, these articles must require much time in making.  The shafts of their arrows consist