It is subdivided into two provinces- Lower or Old
California, lying between the gulf and the 32d degree of latitude,
or near it; (the division line running, I believe, between the bay
of Todos Santos and the port of San Diego;) and New or Upper
California, the southernmost port of which is San Diego, in lat. 32
deg. 39', and the northernmost, San Francisco, situated in the large
bay discovered by Sir Francis Drake, in lat. 37 deg. 58', and called
after him by the English, though the Mexicans call it Yerba Buena.
Upper California has the seat of its government at Monterey, where is
also the custom-house, the only one on the coast, and at which every
vessel intending to trade on the coast must enter its cargo before it
can commence its traffic. We were to trade upon this coast exclusively,
and therefore expected to go to Monterey at first; but the captain's
orders from home were to put in at Santa Barbara, which is the central
port of the coast, and wait there for the agent who lives there, and
transacts all the business for the firm to which our vessel belonged.
The bay, or, as it was commonly called, the canal of Santa
Barbara, is very large, being formed by the main land on one side,
(between Point Conception on the north and Point St.
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