The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1919-02-07
i. S. May Purchase
Lower California
Something About Interesting But
Little Known Part Of Mexico
Is Rich In Minerals But Barren
And Thinly Populated

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, January 81
ASSOCIATED Press Correspondence
Romantic Lower California again has
come into prominence through the in
PRODUCTION in Congress of a bill look
ing TO the purchase of that unique
peninsula.
"Baja' California, rejected by the
United States after the War with
Mexico as the tailend of an earth
quake, though recognized as rich in
natural is least known, ac-
cording to the few who have made a
scientific study of the peninsula, of
any area of similar size in the west
ern hemisphere.
Lower California, Economically styl-
ed "The Mother of california, has
figured in modern history for 400
years. 1t was in 1927 that the Spanish
captain-general, Fernando Cortez, sent
one of Bolboa's veterans, Alvera de
Saavedra from Tehuantepec, on the
west coast of Mexico, with instruc-
lions to try to find a strait supposed
at that time to form a link in a route
from Mexico, or New. Spain as it was
then known, to the newly discovered
Spice Islands, known to later genera
lions as the Philippines.
From Cortez' time down to the pre-
sent there have passed in review
through the pages of Lower Califor-
MAS history Spanish conquerors, Je-
suits, Dominicans and Franciscans,
and plunderers from many lands; I'm
tied States troops during the War
with Mexico, filibusters intent on set
ting up an Independent government,
and lastly the contending factions for
supremacy in MeXico's national ad-
ministration since the overthrow of
Porfirio Diaz as President.
1t was Diaz who bestowed on Lower
California, a title of "pobre Baja Ca
liforniaIi descriptive of he condition
in recent years and when uanslat-
ed is Poor Lower California.
Diaz's description fits the country
just as well as to it's typographical
aspect, and in some other respects,
for it is a jagged peninsula, 760 miles
long varying in width from 80 to
$50 miles, and traversed throughout
its length by an irregular range of
barren mountains of volcanic origin,
breaking off abruptly on the gulf side
and rambling off in a series of low
hills to the Pacific Coast. 1t has been
described by it's most recent explorer
as "a land great in its past and lean
in its present. A land where the
rattlesnake and the sidewinder, the
tarantula and the scorpin multiply,
and where sickness is unknown and
fivescore years no uncommon span of
life. A land of strange contradic-
tons"
While a territorial state of Mexico,
it nowhere touches other Mexican
soil, being separated from the main
land by the waters of the Colorado
river and the Gulf of California. In
1910 the population of the entire pc
ninsula was given at 52,244. There is
but one railroad in the country, aside
from "wheeZy" mine transways, and
that one, from MeXicali to Yuma, but
GO miles in length. The "caminos'' or
roads, of the mission days have fallen
into wretched state and in many
places have been practically obliter-
ated.
The peninsula is rich in mineral
wealth, at least one of its silver
mines in the southern district, hav-
ing been operated since 174S. Gold,
silver, copper, iron, coal, lead, gypsum
and salt are found, valuable marble
for building is everywhere abundant.
Mining experts agree that the miner
al have been scratched.
Cactus and mesquits have given
place in valleys where irrigation has
been possible to the cultivation of
%deciduous fruits, figs, dates, cereals,
and vegetables. Rainfall is scanty
and insufficient to support vegetation.
Tobacco, cotton, grapes, sugar cane
and native melons are grown. Horses,
cattle and sheep in limited numbers
are found in the most fertile valleys.