Buenaventura, from which the point is named. In the middle of this
crescent, directly opposite the anchoring ground, lie the mission and
town of Santa Barbara, on a low, flat plain, but little above the
level of the sea, covered with grass, though entirely without trees,
and surrounded on three sides by an amphitheatre of mountains, which
slant off to the distance of fifteen or twenty miles. The mission
stands a little back of the town, and is a large building, or rather
collection of buildings, in the center of which is a high tower, with
a belfry of five bells; and the whole, being plastered, makes quite a
show at a distance, and is the mark by which vessels come to anchor.
The town lies a little nearer to the beach- about half a mile from it-
and is composed of one-story houses built of brown clay- some of them
plastered- with red tiles on the roofs. I should judge that there
were about an hundred of them; and in the midst of them stands the
Presidio, or fort, built of the same materials, and apparently but
little stronger. The town is certainly finely situated, with a bay
in front, and an amphitheatre of hills behind.
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