The first visitors from the United States to come
to California were men engaged ins hunting sea otter along the western
coast of North America. The skin of a full-grown sea otter was five
feet long and more than two feet wide, with a thick, black, glossy
fur highlighted by silvery hair. A pelt's value when shipped to the
Chinese port of Canton was about $300. Sea otters could be found
at many points along the coast from the Aleutians to Baja California,
and some of the greatest concentrations were in the bays and channels
of Alta California.
Ebenezer Dorr, captain of the aptly named ship
the Otter, sailed along the California coast in 1796 and collected
hundreds of sea-otter
pelts. Dorr put into Monterey for fresh supplies of water and wood,
but Spanish mercantile restrictions prohibited him from engaging
in any trade.
Other American ships followed the lead of the Otter.
They occasionally defied Spanish prohibitions and engaged in clandestine
trade with
local otter hunters. Trading was encouraged by local officials
only after the achievement of Mexican independence in 1821, but
by then
the sea otter had been nearly exterminated along the coast of
California.
