Besides the ordinary sources of information, we have for 1834 two formal lists of foreigners in the Monterey district, and a similar list for the Angeles district, so that probably few names have been missed. Of the ninety foreigners who appear in the records, however, many besides those known to be visitors do not reappear after 1834-5; and the pioneers proper as named in my list are thirty-six.[1] Prudon, Reid, and Stokes were perhaps those best known in California; and so far as I know, Janssens was the only survivor in 1884. The coming of the Mexican colony added several to the number of foreign residents, as had the New Mexican caravans of 1831-2 and Walker's overland expedition of 1833.
In 1835 also California had its visit, resulting in a book, both of a very different class from Coulter's of the preceding year, being Richard H. Dana's Two Years before the Mast, a work that requires but brief notice at this date, as no other about California has had more readers. The author, since a prominent lawyer and lecturer as well as writer of well known books, was then a boy in Harvard College, who shipped as a common sailor on the Pilgrim, with a view to cure a weakness of the eyes that interfered with his studies. He arrived at Santa Bárbara in January 1835, and left San Diego to return in May 1836 on the Alert, having visited repeatedly every port on the coast, and spent four months at the hide-houses of San Diego. His book was a connected narrative of his experience and observations during the two years' absence from Boston, and was first published in 1840.[2] Notwithstanding its truth,
- ↑ Pioneers of 1834: Wm J. Bailey, Chas Baric, Thos G. Bowen, John Colbert, Dav. Cooper, Luther Cooper, J. M. Covarrubias, Nathan Daly, Wm Daly, Wm Garuc, Horatio N. Hartnell, Henry Herd, Jos H. Hill, Gerard Hope, Chas Hubbard, Aug. Janssens, Chas Johnstone, Robert King, Wm Lumsden, John C. McLeod (?), Jos L. Majors, Misteril, Albert F. Morris, Pierre Olivier, Matt. Pelham, Dav. Philips, Victor Prudon, Hugo Reid, James Rogers, Thos Russell, Matias Sabici, John Smith, James Stokes, Wm Taylor, Andrew Watson, Ezekiel Whitton.
- ↑ [Dana] Two Years before the Mast. A Personal Narrative of Life at
