The book begins: Santa Barbara lies far to leeward, with a coast facing to the north and east. It is the richest of the sugar countries. Plantations cover all the lowland along its seven hundred miles of seaboard, then above the lowland is foothill, covered with forest, rising to the Sierras of the Three Kings, which make the country's frontier. The city of Santa Barbara lies at the angle of the coast in the bight of a bay. The old town covers the southern, the new town the northern, horn of the bay: in between are the docks and quays.