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.)
_36th day and 26 [October]._ In the afternoon of this day the camp was
raised and we crossed over to where an oak park runs along the course
of the San Pedro River, discovered by the expedition of last April, in
1806. We traveled about eight leagues, four of them in front of the oak
forest and the other four into the forest toward the east. For we found
the river to be without water on account of the extremely thick growth
of willow, cottonwood, torote, and ash, together with the great quantity
of sand. Following the river bed toward the mountains one encounters
water quite sufficient for the foundation of a mission. This is a river
with fine water, excellent lands for crops, pasturage, etc. There is
much timber in the mountains, pine and redwood.[36]
_37th day and 27 [October]._ In the morning of this day, continuing
upstream for a league, we came upon a small village which was part
of another large one called Coyehete. The latter according to the
information given by the Indians will have 400 people. There was no one
in this village who could be baptized, because, although they wanted
baptism and begged for a mission, they were all young people. From this
village we took an easterly course and at about a league from the river
we came upon an arroyo which we called San Cayetano, discovered at the
same time as the river described previously.[37] It was found to be dry,
but has many large pools capable of supporting a great number of cattle.
This stream is bordered by an abundance of trees, willows and some oaks,
but the land is poor.
Continuing in the same easterly direction we reached after four leagues
of travel another stream, large in the rainy season, but at present
dry.[38] It has a few willow trees. From this stream we followed a
ravine without leaving it for most of the day, for it is very long,
and at sunset reached a big creek bed with considerable willow and an
immense area of sand.[39] It now being very late, we made every effort
to find water but were unable to do so. For this reason we began to dig
and, having gone down about two yards, we finally found enough for the
troops, although it was bad. The horses, which were quite thirsty, had
not drunk since morning and were forced to abstain until we should
arrive at a river of great volume that had been found earlier this year
by an expedition from the presidio of Santa Barbara. This we were going
to search for. We spent the night in this valley with no other matter
worth noting than that it was very cold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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