Beyond, to the westward of the landing place, were dreary
sand-hills, with little grass to be seen, and few trees, and beyond
them higher hills, steep and barren, their sides gullied by the rains.
Some five or six miles beyond the landing-place, to the right, was a
ruinous Presidio, and some three or four miles to the left was the
Mission of Dolores, as ruinous as the Presidio, almost deserted,
with but few Indians attached to it, and but little property in
cattle. Over a region far beyond our sight there were no other human
habitations, except that an enterprising Yankee, years in advance of
his time, had put up, on the rising ground above the landing, a shanty
of rough boards, where he carried on a very small retail trade between
the hide ships and the Indians. Vast banks of fog, invading us from
the North Pacific, drove in through the entrance, and covered the
whole bay; and when they disappeared, we saw a few well-wooded
islands, the sand-hills on the west, the grassy and wooded slopes on
the east, and the vast stretch of the bay to the southward, where we
were told lay the Missions of Santa Clara and San Jose, and still
longer stretches to the northward and northeastward, where we
understood smaller bays spread out, and large rivers poured in their
tributes of waters.
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