doc241 - Schoenherr Home Page in Sunny Chula Vista

new settlement sprouting on the site of the present city. It was a period of fluctuating
hopes and fortunes, but without important achievement. In the two decades which separated
the war with Mexico from the beginning of the great Horton enterprise, the steamers
brought many visitors as well as settlers who became citizens of note. Several of
these men and women left interesting accounts which furnish a clear idea of the appearance
of town and country and of the features of local life.
Thus, Philip Crosthwaite tells us that in 1845, there was not a house between Old
Town and the Punta Rancho, owned by Don Santiago E. Argüello. The San Diego Mission
was partly dilapidated, but the main church edifice and some of the wings were in
good condition. The priest then in charge of the mission was Father Vicente Oliva, and
he came to the presidio on Sundays to celebrate mass. Besides olive orchards and
vineyards, the mission owned some horses, cattle, and sheep. Near the mission was a
large Indian village or ranchería. The principal business was the raising of cattle for their
hides and tallow.
Major Wm. H. Emory, who came with General Kearny in December, 1846, made
these observations:
"The town consists of a few adobe houses, two or three of which only have plank
doors. It is situated at the foot of a high hill on a sand-flat, two miles wide, reaching from
the head of San Diego Bay to False Bay. A high promontory, of nearly the same width,
runs into the sea for four or five miles, and is connected by the flat with the main-land.
The road to the hide-houses leads on the eastward of this promontory. The bay is a narrow
arm of the sea indenting the land for some four or five miles, easily defended, and
having twenty feet, making the greatest water twenty-five feet.... The rise is said to be
five feet of water at the lowest tide.
"San Diego is, all things considered, perhaps one of the best harbors on the
Coast, from Callao to Puget Sound, with a
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[Jose Guadalupe Estudillo]
single exception, that of San Francisco. In the opinion of some intelligent navy officers,
it is preferable even to this. The harbor of San Francisco has more water, but that of
San Diego has a more uniform climate, better anchorage, and perfect security from
winds in any direction."
One of the most famous visitors of early days was Bayard Taylor, who was here
in 1849, and managed to impress his literary genius upon his record. In his book, El Dorado,
or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (dedicated, by the way, to Lieutenant Edward
F. Beale), he says:
"Two mornings after, I saw the sun rise behind the mountains back of San Diego.
Point Loma, at the extremity of the bay, came in sight on the left, and in less than an
hour we were at anchor before the hide-houses at the landing place. The southern
shore of the bay is low and sandy; from the bluff heights at the opposite side a narrow
strip of shingly beach makes out into the sea, like a natural breakwater, leaving an entrance
not more than three hundred yards broad. The harbor is the finest on the Pacific,
with the exception of Acapulco, and capable of easy and complete defense. The old
hide-houses are built at the foot of the hills just inside the bay, and