Over this hill we saw three men coming
down, dressed partly like sailors and partly like Californians; one of
them having on a pair of untanned leather trowsers and a red baize
shirt. When they came down to us, we found that they were
Englishmen, and they told us that they had belonged to a small Mexican
brig which had been driven ashore here in a southeaster, and now lived
in a small house just over the hill. Going up this hill with them,
we saw, just behind it, a small, low building, with one room,
containing a fire-place, cooking apparatus, etc., and the rest of it
unfinished, and used as a place to store hides and goods. This, they
told us, was built by some traders in the Pueblo, (a town about thirty
miles in the interior, to which this was the port,) and used by them
as a storehouse, and also as a lodging place when they came down to
trade with the vessels. These three men were employed by them to
keep the house in order, and to look out for the things stored in
it. They said that they had been there nearly a year; had nothing to
do most of the time, living upon beef, hard bread, and frijoles (a
peculiar kind of bean very abundant in California).
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