After laying over one day
with the old American we resumed our journey.
The next place we struck was Monterey, where is now the famous
Hotel del Monte, about two hundred miles from Los Angeles. Here we
did not find a man who could speak a word of English, and we found
the Mexicans still more selfish than in Los Angeles.
We began to think that the old white man had told the truth, for
we would not have been surprised at any time to have been attacked
by a band of Mexicans.
While here I saw two persons that I thought to be curiosities.
They were of Indian parentage, light complexion and had eyes of a
pink color. One was a boy about twenty years old and the other a
girl of sixteen, and were brother and sister. It was claimed that
they could see well after night, but could not see their way on a
bright, sunny day.
These Indians were said to be of the Mojave tribe, that inhabited
a portion of the country some six hundred miles east of Monterey,
near the Mojave desert. I have since learned that such freaks are
called albinos.
The reader will no doubt wonder why we came this round-about away
to get to San Francisco. The reason is that in coming a more
direct course we would have passed through a country that was
infested with wild tribes of Indians; that is, tribes hostile to
the whites. There being only two of us the chances were it would
have proved a very unhealthy trip for us at that time.
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