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16 LA REINA LOS ANGELES IN THREE CENTURIES

Los cAngelcs H arbor as the cAmerican pioneers knew it Now not even
Dead Man's Island remains

A Yankee Ship Drops Anchor
ND except for one small intrusion, such was Los Angeles when Jefferson had
A been succeeded by Madison m the Presidency and Napoleon had broken up
the Holy Roman Empire and saw the continent at his feet. For by 1810 Los
Angeles had made a gain of only 50 in population, its crop totals were stationary
and its herds were reduced. The intrusion referred to had no immediate effect, but
it was important nevertheless. As might be suspected, the intruder was an American.
In 1805 the good ship Lelia Byrd, with Captain Shaler in command, sailed into
San Pedro Harbor on a return tnp from the Hawaiian Islands to Boston. He had
been directed there by the Indians of Avalon, where he had stopped in quest of
fresh meat. He readily obtained what he wanted at San Pedro m exchange for
Yankee-manufactured goods. A half a century later Commodore Perry was to open
Japan to the trade of the world. Captain Shaler did the same great service at the
beginning of the nineteenth century for California, for after his return to New
England, the Yankee bngs and ships from other nations called regularly at San
Pedro, first in quest of otter skms and later for hides and tallow This trade dunng
the remainder of the Spanish period, or until 1821 of course, was contraband, but
during the Mexican period it was legal.
The illegal trade with the Yankee skippers was made possible by the ever-
growmg weakness of Spain in Amenca. The Napoleonic Wars kept Spam so busy
that she had little time to think of her Western colonies, and when King Fernando