Show L k LAND SANS PEOPLE I I Eauny B Wards Success as an Inland Explorer AT SAN RAFAEL AND SAX TELMO Heaven Pity the People Upon Whom Nature Has Smiled so GraelouslyHov Pulque and Mescal arc Hade BAJA CALIFOKNIA Mexico June 9 ISS9 Special Corres ndenco of THE HEn ALDJUntil within the last few years the interior of this peninsula has never been explored except by wandering Indians and an occasional prospector who are not prone to giving their findings to the pub lc Of the main characteristics of the coast line we have heard more or less my t purpose is to find out what lies between THOSE TWO CHAINS OP HILLS that guard either shore from end to end Their bleak and frowning walls rise gradually grad-ually to the mountains that run down through the central portion of the long and and narrow tongue of land but between tem are blooming valleys mostly lying cst and w tof v hose people and products pro-ducts and possibiliies the world knows nothing I is no wonder people have not heard of them I Unless one possesss the patience of a Job the spinal column of a camel and the determination of grim death he might as well give up all idea of exploring them Let no dilettante tourist come down here expecting to make A PICNIC OK A PLEASUREPAItTT of disclosing tho secrets of this mysterious land which has preserved them inviolate through all the centuries in spite of greed Spaniards and zealous priests and specu latiug Yankees It is easy enough to otto ot-to the edges but the heart of the penin ula is still well nigh notcomeatable You journey pleasantly in a parlor car to San Francisco or San Diegoand wonder why your predecessors should prate of hardships From either of those points you may sail to Ensenada or all the way down around the peninsula stopping at the more important ports in a steamer by no means palatial as compared t the best Atlantic At-lantic vessels but tolerably comfortable 4 if there can be such a thing as comfort on the bounding billows But in that way you see nothing of the country your troubles begin when you leave the conveniences con-veniences of civilization and strike out into the wilderness It would not be so bad if i there were any peopleeven savages but an empty countrya totally unoccupied space in which you seem to be the only living soul like Adam before Eye wa created or like Crusoe on his desert island with nothing to light but rattlesnakes and starvation is disheartening to say the least There are people to be sure gath red at a few centers long distances apart but between those old settlements stretch hundreds of miles of terra incognita th section you burn to explore Laud at any port you like even at Eusenuda the headquarters head-quarters of AMERICAS AM > ENGLISH KXTrjltlKISE and attempt to make it the base of your inland operations it is the same stor eVer where you find yourself as helpless sis was the giant whom the Liliputian bound with tiny threads There are no railroads or stage lines to where you want to go nor highways nor byways You are in the condition of that first man as Milton describes him when The world was al before him where to choose and the matter mat-ter of choice is not so difficult as that of ex coution Love or lucre cannot procure r horses and carnages where such things do not exist and you cannot well strike of alone across the country without guides 01 supplies Unless by mere chance you are so lortunatc as to fall in with some party bent on a similar expedition your only alternative is to purchase horses blankets and camping outfit and hire native assist anco from point to point trusting to Providence Prov-idence and your lucky stars to bring you safely through and enable you to dispose of the circus when the outfit is completed Your scribe has traveled enough not to look for aowiiy bedsof ease and has learned to adapt herself pretty well to circumstances cir-cumstances Inmost places hOWEVER ISOLATED AND SKEMIMJIY 111 > rOUSAKCN tf one can speak the language the pres entatioa of proper credutials judicious use of money without appearing t possess pos-sess too much of i and precisely the same deportment that one would carry into church and society at home will generally win respectful attention and every reasonable facility within the command com-mand of the people They will scare up int r t ic rea S q some kind of conveyance or escort and pass one from village t village or from ranche t ranche commended to the care of their friends and these in turn will pass one on to others going themselves long distances if need be to ensure safety Leaving Santa Tomas with faces turned f always toward the south we follow a wagonroad up a very high steep hill then down again into the next valley the Chocolada even smaller and narrower than that we have just left being a mere gorge winding around the bases of the hills in places nothing more than a sandy riverbed which at certain seasons of the year must b flooded with a raging torrent Diverging caflous mark the way to La Estappana pretty and fertile valley of probably six hundred acres where the International company has a few colonists The Catles h almost continuous with the Guadalupe vailev a tract as level as a plank floor resembling re-sembling Estappana though considerably uf J f larger A stream winds i through the center cen-ter of both which however FLOWS CTSIDE DOWN twar the end of the summerthat is becomes be-comes dry on the surface but water maybe may-be found by digging down a couple of feet And so on through caiions and gorges between be-tween hills now bushy now barren we olt over rocks and sands and flowers and cacti to the celebrated valley of San Vicente The latter is of irregular shape cut blow b-low hills and mesas containing nearly seven thousand acres and traversed by the San Vicente river one of the largest on the peninsula The San Jose a branch of it is nearly as large as the main stream enters just above the settlement and many other afllucnts How in making a total drainage area for the basin of over three million acres Two miles below the settlement settle-ment this valley gives place t a ca on onl two miles from the which opens again only mies 1 ocean upon the mesas or table lands of fjd San Ysidro In this canon are located tho I wellknown Dclphina copper mines nThe mission of San Vicente Ferrer was founded in 1760 iti buildings being placed on a shelf of the hills overloolJug the lIe l-Ie and around thoir feet were punt the olive and prickley pear which have now become groves and thickets while the structures they were to serve and adorn have crumbled t dust heaps South from San Vicente extend A 3KKIES OP LOW HIILS t and table lands composed of gravelly loam which takes on a decided tinge of rod like the sacred soil of Virginia especially that between Washington D Ci and Harpers Har-pers Ferry Hero is a beautiful tableland called Mesa Colorado the word Colorado meaning redone of the loveliest up land tracts in California I is eleven miles long by little more than two wide with a general slope toward the south I connects with the Salade mesa tho latter leading dow a valley of the same name Hereabouts tiresome and useless chap parch of tho uplands suddenly gives place to rank heavy growth of b nc gves in the bottoms A fine breezi blowing straight from the nearby ocean makes a i funnel of the hills keeping it delightfully de-lightfully cool despite the lack of shae But there are no people hee i anew a-new world with no inhabitants but ourselves our-selves a silence that can be felt we shout we sing wo shout poetry and scraps oration borrowed from Marc Antony and Robert Ingcrsoll but the his throwback throw-back our words in mocking echoes making I the utter loneliness J more oppressive uter ionelucsa Northeast of the Salado which at this point is ten miles from San Vicente lies the Los Caches and Calentnra valleys both of which contain ranches We had not time to make s detour hunt them up but thought heaven pity the people upon whom XATDIII HAS SMILED SO OIIACIOUSLT but who are so completely isolated from their land as though they were located on an island in midocean Five miles further on is the Aqua Verdi Green water valley perfectly enclosed and beautifully level tapering toward tne west where it becomes a mere west for the admission of ocean gte breezes From this valley eastward too and beyond the San Rafael for at least eight consecutive miles the hisr covered with the magney plant Azan Americana American also a century plant in such dense profusion that to walk or ride between their spearlike points would be impossible Here is another future scourso of wealth for the Pennsula springing wild by the wayside i From it is made the national beverage pulque and the favorite intoxicant mescal the pulp after the liquor is extracted pull affords a good article of molasses the leaves dned and crusneu are aoout me I best paper pulp in the world and from this fibres ropes sacks thread etc are obtained To encourage home manufacture the Mexican government offers a cash subsidy of 830000 to every mill for the reduction re-duction of the magney when completed and in operation This region is crossed by the vale called San Rafael del sur of the south which must not be confounded with the valley of the same name east of Ensenoda at the Northern end of the peninsula I seems a pity that those who had the naming nam-ing of these places felt it their religious duty to stick so closely to the nomenclature stck cosely nomenca ture of the Saints the result being WEAItl OME REPETITION THAT IS OFTEN CONFUSING This Southern Rafael is very narrow where the road runs but widens out as it nears the sea A great river flows through it outlined by a heavy growth of willows cottonwood and sycamores blessed sight after the treeless leagues we have traversed I versed All along the roadside grow tall palms figs and the cultivated species of prickly pear The few people who live here appear t be devoted to the manufacture manufac-ture of mescal and probably for want of any other marhct to consume inordinate quantities of it temselves From San Rafael to San Telmo a distance dist-ance of thirtyseven miles the country is similar to that just passed except the last ten miles which leads through the roughest rough-est of mountain gorges Here we first found the jtitahayti fruit which groivs in most sections of central and sectons South America as well as in southern Mexico but nowhere in such perfection as in Baja California where it forms the principal prin-cipal food of the natives The branches of the pitahaya start from a brnk her 1 more than a foot high and gr nv pal U with each other in fluId columns to th thickness of a mans arm and ten er twelve feet long These columns are thickly covered cov-ered with thorns as is also the fruit The erel latter when ripe is of a rich red or yellow color according t the variety To the natives the pitahaya season is the most joyful joy-ful part of the year and they spend the time traveling about hunting for the fruit This is gathered by means of a pole to which is attached a hook of bone or wood with a net to catch the fruit In the southern south-ern part of the peninsula the pitahaya season sea-son begins in June and lasts till late in August in the northern part it later The lower valley of San Telmo Meto contains an old mission around which clusters a settlement of fifty or sixty Mexicans and Indians Grapes and tunas are raised here and from both wine is made The ruined mission has left few traces here in the way of improved civilization civi-lization The Indians are about as degraded de-graded as can well be imagined and the population in general leads a most primi tive existence FANNiE B WAHD |