⁵ Presumably, this is a reference to manmade fires.

⁶ A Spanish league was approximately 2.6 miles.

⁷ The Spaniards considered their recovery a miracle, but present-day botanists suggest that the scurvy might have been alleviated by their eating food containing large amounts of Vitamin C, perhaps either food given to them by the Native Americans, or blackberries and rose hips. See Browning, 1992, p. 113, note.

⁸ The Villa de Branciforte was one of three civilian (hence "villa" as opposed to mission) settlements established by the Spanish in Alta California, the other two being San José and Los Angeles. Located on the coastal terrace across the San Lorenzo River from Mission Santa Cruz, the town never received the support it needed from the Spanish government.

⁹ During the Spanish era, ranchos were lands used by the missions as pasturage for their herds. The boundaries of these tracts of land were generally vague and ill-defined. Later, during the Mexican era, the word rancho came to mean a clearly defined tract of land owned by a private individual.

¹⁰ A Spanish vara was 33 inches.

¹¹ Shore whaling was the practice of hunting whales in thirty-foot whaleboats and then towing the carcass back to shore for processing. John Pope Davenport pioneered the practice on the Pacific Coast in Monterey in 1853 with a crew of Azorean whalers. Davenport moved his whaling operation to Soquel in 1865 and then moved to the landing at the mouth of Agua Puerca Creek. Though some historians have written that he whaled at this last location, there is no evidence to support that contention. He gave his occupation as whaler when interviewed by the census taker in Monterey in 1860, but he responded with the occupation of wharfinger when he was interviewed at the landing in 1870 (Census 1860, 1870; Orlando pers. comm., 2000).

¹² The Project Achives (interviews) contain a discussion of early dry farming and dairying. The pattern of dairies and hay fields described by Frank "Lud" McCrary is probably close to the pattern in the late 1880s. See especially the annotated 1928 aerial in the Project Airphoto Archives for a depiction of early dry farming operations.

¹³ Claus Spreckels had just purchased most of the Aptos Rancho and was laying out an extensive farming operation there, east of present-day Aptos.

¹⁴ The bark from the tanoak tree was the source of tannin for the early tanning industry in California. The trees were felled, the bark peeled from the logs and shipped off the landings. See Lud McCrary Interview, Appendix 1.2.1.

¹⁵ Though the Azores Island were part of Portugal and emigrants from there were technically Portuguese, they preferred (and continue) to be called Azoreans (Santos, 1995).

¹⁶ Pigeon Point was named for the clipper ship Carrier Pigeon that wrecked there in 1853 (Alta 6/10/1853).

¹⁷ The California State Fish Commission was established in 1870 and, as the Fish and Game Commission, began to hire wardens in 1878. The warden in Santa Cruz County reported to the county Board of Supervisors.

¹⁸ For a complete list of the regulations, see Lydon, 1997, p. 85.