Francisco Avila would trade hides and tallow (a main ingredient in candles and soap) to acquire finer imported things from Mexico and beyond to furnish the house. French doors and window frames were ordered from Boston. These imports were brought to post-independence Mexican Alta California by ship over thousands of miles around the southern Cape Horn of South America. Avila wealth and goods to trade allowed the purchase of fine furnishings and goods from Mexico and New England, and Asia and Europe. Avila would also trade for household goods, from on merchant ships anchored in San Pedro Bay or San Diego pueblo's Mission Bay, which were carted inland by an ox-drawn carreta, a wooden bullock cart of the era.