Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820Cook, Sherburne Friend
History
Colonial Expeditions to the Interior of California Central Valley, 1800-1820
Cook, Sherburne Friend
California -- Discovery and exploration; California -- History -- To 1846 -- Sources; Central Valley (Calif.)
Thus I stayed for an hour. After a lot of yelling and insults we decided
that we would wait for them in their village and that they would not
abandon it. It was found to be a matter of two miles by boat from
where we had left them to the place where their village was situated.
I quickly went back and embarked. Having gone upstream, we reached the
parallel of the village, which was situated about four hundred paces
northwest of the bank, and did not encounter its inhabitants, for they
had all run away. Nor could we reach it on account of the great amount
of water in the intervening space, for the river was flowing at a very
high level. I sent some Indians but they brought back only a decrepit
old man, who had hidden himself because he could not follow the others
in their flight. He was given a present and sent off.
I wanted much to stay here until the following day but the irritation
shown by the Reverend Father Fray Narciso Duran, who wanted to turn
around, determined me to accede to his wishes and retreat, although with
inward misgivings. The Reverend Father Fray Ramón Abella improved the
time by constructing a cross, which he blessed with solemnity and which
we worshiped with much devotion. This place was given the name of San
Bernardino, whose day our Holy Mother Church was celebrating. At five
o'clock in the afternoon of this day we turned around and took a
southerly direction downstream. The boats traveled with great speed
with the current. We stopped to camp for the night without having
noticed anything of particular interest.
This river, as measured in its narrowest part, is 200 varas wide and 7,
8, and 10 brazas deep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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