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LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Burlington, N. ]., June 1, 1848.
Dear Sir,—It affords me pleasure to give you all the information I have about Lower California, derived from personal observation at several of its ports that I have visited, in the U S. ship Cyane, in 1846-47.
Cape St. Lucas, the southern extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, is in Lat. 22° 45' N., has a bay that affords a good harbor and anchorage, perfectly safe nine months in the year ; but it is open to the eastward, and the hurricanes which sometimes occur during July, August, and September, blow the strongest from the southeast, so that vessels will not venture in the bay during the hurricane season.    I have landed twice at the Cape in a small boat, and I think a breakwater can be built, at small cost, so as to make a safe harbor at all seasons.   Stone can be obtained with great ease from three cones of rocks rising from the sea, and forming the extreme southerly point of the Cape, called the Frayles.   Looking to the future trade and commerce of the Pacific ocean, this great headland must become a most important point as a depot for coal and merchandise, and a most convenient location for vessels trading on that coast to get their supplies.    Mr. Ritchie, now residing there, supplies a large number of whale-ships that cruise off the Cape, annually, with fresh provisions, fruits, and water.   The supplies are drawn from the valley of San Jose, twenty miles north of the Cape, as the land in its immediate vicinity is mountainous and sterile; but the valley of San Jose is extensive and well cultivated, producing the greatest variety of vegetables and fruits.   The sweet and Irish potato, tomato, cabbage, lettuce, beans, peas, beets, and carrots, are the vegetables; oranges, lemons, bananas, plantains, figs, dates, grapes, pomegranates, and olives, are its fruits. Good beef and mutton are cheap.    A large amount of sugarcane is grown, from which  is made panoche, a favorite sugar with the natives : it is the sirup from the cane boiled down, and run into cakes of a pound weight, and in appearance is like our maple-sugar.
Panoche, cheese, olives, raisins, dried figs, and dates, put up in ceroops of hide, with the great staples of the Californias—