I have the honor to be, very respectfully, colonel, your obedient servant,
B. RILEY,
Brevet Brigadier-General U.S. Army, commanding.
Lieut.Col. W. G. Freeman,
Assistant Adjutant General U.S. Army,
Headquarters of the Army, New York.
Appendix M.
In the early part of 1848, Lieut. H. W. Halleck, of the Engineers, was ordered to make a reconnoisance of the coast of Lower California, with reference to the location of works of military defence. In his report to Colonel Mason, after giving a general description of the coast and harbors, and proposing a system of military defence, he submits some remarks upon the commercial and military importance of the peninsula. The whole report is interesting, and furnishes the most correct information upon the subject of the reconnoisance. It will form an interesting conclusion to a work which has been principally devoted to a description and history of Upper California.
La Paz, April 12, 1848.
Sir: In compliance with the instructions of the commanding general of the department to make a "reconnoisance of the coast of California, with reference to the location of works of military defence," I reported in my last upon so much as relates to the upper province, and I now submit a few remarks on the military defence of the peninsula of Lower California.
I. General description of the coast and harbors.—The principal ports of the coast of Lower California, visited by whaling and merchant vessels, are San Quintin, Magdalena, San Jose, La Paz, Escondido (near Loreto), and Mulige.—There are some other points which vessels occasionally touch for supplies and at trade, but they are comparatively of little commercial or military importance. The port of San Quintin, in latitude thirty degrees twenty-three minutes, is represented as affording a secure anchorage for vessels of every description, and to be sufficiently commodious for the reception of a numerous fleet. The extensive bay of Magdalena has acquired considerable notoriety from its being resorted to every winter by large numbers of whaling vessels. Its size gives it the character of an inland sea, its waters being navigable for the distance of more than a hundred miles. It furnishes several places of safe and commodious anchorage. The bay of San Jose, near Cape Saint Lucas, is much frequented by coasting vessels, and occasionally visited by whalers and men-of-war. Being the outlet of a fertile valley, extending some forty or fifty miles into the interior, it is probably the best place in the peninsula for supplying shipping with water and fresh provisions. It is, however, a mere roadstead, affording no protection whatever during the season of southeasters.
La Paz is the seat of government and the principal port of Lower California, and its extensive bay affords excellent places of anchorage for vessels of any size, and is sufficiently commodious for the most numerous fleets. The principal pearl fisheries are in this immediate vicinity, and also the most valuable mining districts. It is the outlet of the fertile valley of the Todos Santos, and of the produce of the whole country between Santiago and Loreto. The cove or estero, opposite the town of La Paz, furnishes spacious and safe anchorage, which may be reached by vessels drawing not more than eighteen or twenty feet of water; and the cove of Pichilingue, at the south-eastern extremity of the bay, and about six miles from the town, affords an excellent anchorage for vessels of any size; but the inner bay can be reached only by small merchant vessels. The bar, however, between the two is only a few yards in extent; and if the importance of the place should ever justify it, the channel might be made deeper without difficulty or great expense. The adjacent country being barren and mountainous, and the roads to the interior exceedingly difficult, this place can never be the outlet of much agricultural produce. But as the island of Carmen, nearly opposite the entrance to this bay, contains an almost inexhaustible supply of salt, very easy of access, it is possible that the trade in this article may eventually give considerable importance to the port of Escondido.