Book excerpt: Anyone who ever wondered about pioneer life in 18th-century Alta California will find this book a treasure-trove of basic information. This hardy group of pioneers traveled on foot and horseback across thousands of miles of desert to settle California. From these transcriptions and translations of fifty-two memorias (requisitions) and facturas (invoices) for goods delivered to the Santa Barbara Presidio between 1781 and 1810, emerges the clearest picture yet obtained of these mestizo people and their everyday life on the outermost fringes of the Spanish Empire.