Suddenly he halted, and called Antonio to his side.
"Tell me, child, didst thou say that this coast was wild and desolate of man, beast, and habitation ?" "Truly I did, reverend father." "Then what is that ?" pointing to the shore.
Almost at their feet nestled a cluster of houses, at the head of an _arroyo_ reaching up from the beach.

They looked down upon the smoke of a manufactory chimney, upon strange heaps of material and curious engines scattered along the sands, with here and there moving specks of human figures.

In a little bay a schooner swung at her cables.
The _vaquero_ crossed himself in stupefied alarm.

"I know not, your reverence; it is only two years ago, before the _rodeo_, that I was here for strayed colts, and I swear by the blessed bones of San Antonio that it was as I said." "Ah! it is like these Americanos," responded the muleteer.

"I have it from my brother Diego that he went from San Jose to Pescadero two months ago across the plains, with never a hut nor _fonda_ to halt at all the way.