Its streets are
laid out without any regard to regularity. The buildings are generally
constructed of adobes one and two stories high, with flat roofs. The
public buildings are a church, quartel, and government house. Some of
the dwelling-houses are frames, and large. Few of them, interiorly or
exteriorly, have any pretensions to architectural taste, finish, or
convenience of plan and arrangement. The town is situated about 20 miles
from the ocean, in a extensive undulating plain, bounded on the north
by a ridge of elevated hills, on the east by high mountains whose
summits are now covered with snow, on the west by the ocean, and
stretching to the south and the south-east as far as the eye can reach.
The Rio St. Gabriel flows near the town. This stream is skirted with
numerous vineyards and gardens, inclosed by willow-hedges. The gardens
produce a great variety of tropical fruits and plants. The yield of the
vineyards is very abundant; and a large quantity of wines of a good
quality and flavour, and _aguardiente_, are manufactured here. Some of
the vineyards, I understand, contain as many as twenty thousand vines.
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