History of the State of California. Frost John

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СКАЧАТЬ dollars a-year, cost here at least 10,000 dollars to build them, the lots on which they were erected being valued at sums varying from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars, according to the locality. Many spots of ground, just large enough for a small trading-house or a tent to stand upon, let at from 1200 to 2000 dollars.

      "Amongst the various emigrants who daily flocked into the city – for each day brought its fresh arrivals – were numerous Chinese, and a very considerable number of Frenchmen, from the Sandwich Islands and from South America. The former had been consigned, with houses and merchandise, to certain Americans in San Francisco, to whom they were bound by contract, as laborers, to work at a scale of wages very far below the average paid to mechanics and others generally. The houses they brought with them from China, and which they set up where they were wanted, were infinitely superior and more substantial than those erected by the Yankees, being built chiefly of logs of wood, or scantling, from six to eight inches in thickness, placed one on the top of the other, to form the front, rear, and sides; whilst the roofs were constructed on an equally simple and ingenious plan, and were remarkable for durability.

      "These Chinese had all the air of men likely to prove good citizens, being quiet, inoffensive, and particularly industrious. I once went into an eating-house, kept by one of these people, and was astonished at the neat arrangement and cleanliness of the place, the excellence of the table, and moderate charges. It was styled the 'Canton Restaurant;' and so thoroughly Chinese was it in its appointments, and in the manner of service, that one might have easily fancied one's self in the heart of the Celestial Empire. The barkeeper – though he spoke excellent English – was a Chinese, as were also the attendants. Every article that was sold, even of the most trifling kind, was set down, in Chinese characters, as it was disposed of; it being the duty of one of the waiters to attend to this department. This he did very cleverly and quickly, having a sheet of paper for the purpose, on which the article and the price were noted down in Chinese characters, by means of a long, thin brush, moistened in a solution of Indian or Chinese ink. As I had always been given to understand that these people were of dirty habits, I feel it only right to state that I was delighted with the cleanliness of this place, and am gratified to be able to bear testimony to the injustice of such a sweeping assertion.

      "As for the French, they seemed entirely out of their element in this Yankee town; and this circumstance is not to be wondered at, when the climate and the habits of the people are taken into consideration, and also the strange deficiencies they must have observed in the ordinary intercourse of life between the citizens, so different from the polished address, common even amongst the peasantry in their rudest villages; to say nothing of the difficulty of carrying on business amongst a people whose language they did not understand. But their universal goal was the mines; and to the mines they went, with very few exceptions.

      "Speaking of them reminds me of a 'Café Restaurant,' in San Francisco, kept by a very civil Frenchman, and situated on the way to the Point. I mention it, because I one day made here the most uncomfortable repast it had ever been my lot to sit down to. Yet this was not owing to any lack of attention on the part of the proprietor, to any inferiority in the quality of his provisions, or to any deficiency of culinary skill in their preparation; but simply to the prevalence of the pest to which I have already alluded as invading my own tent, namely, the dust. The house was built chiefly of wood, and had a canvas roof, but this was insufficient to keep out the impalpable particles with which the air was charged, and which settled upon and insinuated themselves into every article in the place. There was dust on the counter, on the shelves, on the seats, on the decanters, and in them; on the tables, in the salt, on my beef-steak, and in my coffee. There was dust on the polite landlord's cheeks, and in his amiable wife's eyes, which she was wiping with the corner of a dusty apron. I hurried my meal, and was paying my score, when I caught sight of my own face in a dusty-looking and dust-covered glass near the bar, and saw that I too had become covered with it, my entire person being literally encrusted with a coat of powder, from which I experienced considerable difficulty in cleansing myself.

      "Notwithstanding all I had seen of San Francisco, there yet existed here a world apart, that I should never have dreamed of, but for my being one day called upon to act upon a jury appointed to sit in inquest over a person who had died there. This place was called the 'Happy Valley.'

      "Previously to our repairing thither, we attended at the court-house, to take the usual oath. Proceeding then through the lower part of the town, we reached the beach, along which, by the water-side, we walked for a distance of three miles – up to our ancles in mud and sand – until we came to a spot where there were innumerable tents pitched, of all sizes, forms, and descriptions, forming an irregular line stretching along the shore for about two miles.

      "The ground was, of course, low, damp, and muddy; and the most unmistakeable evidences of discomfort, misery, and sickness, met our view on every side, for the locality was one of the unwholesomest in the vicinity of the town. Yet here, to avoid the payment of enormous ground-rents, and at the same time to combine the advantage of cheap living, were encamped the major portion of the most recently arrived emigrants, and, amongst the rest, those of the ship Brooklyn, on one of the passengers of which the inquest was about to be held.

      "This, then, was the 'Happy Valley;' a term no doubt applied to it in derision, taking into consideration the squalor, the discomfort, the filth, the misery, and the distress that were rife there.

      "I am satisfied that much of the crime and lawlessness that is prevalent in California – particularly in towns like San Francisco, where the ruder sex are congregated exclusively and in large multitudes – is attributable to the want of the humanizing presence of women. In San Francisco there were about ten thousand males, and scarcely a hundred females; for, although in many parts of California the latter outnumber the former, the national prejudice against color was too strong for legitimate amalgamation to take place."

      Such was San Francisco soon after the discovery of the riches of the Sacramento region. From an insignificant settlement, sometimes the resort of whaling-vessels, and of a few traders, it was quickly transferred into a city, with an extensive and constantly increasing commerce. In its streets and squares, erected where, just before, was a desert plain, people of almost every nation were seen busily engaged in traffic, or preparing for departure to the gold region. It seemed the work of the enchanter.

      Although, like San Francisco, Monterey was almost deserted by its inhabitants upon the receipt of information of the gold discovery, it soon began to give signs of improvement. The bay, upon the shore of which the town is located, is more exposed to the swell of the sea, and to the north-west storms, than the Bay of San Francisco, and therefore the harbor is inferior. Yet Monterey received a considerable share of the tide of emigration. Those who stopped there were generally persons who intended to make a permanent settlement, and engage in mercantile pursuits; and, therefore, though the increase of the town was not so rapid as that of San Francisco, it carried with it more denotements of stability.

      The town is situated on a short bend near the entrance of the bay, upon its southern side. The point of land which partly protects its harbor from the sea is called Point Pinos. A very neat and pretty appearance is presented by the houses of the native Californians, which are generally constructed of adobés and white-plastered. Those of the Americans are easily distinguished by their being built of logs and planks, and presenting a more substantial, but rougher appearance. The town is surrounded by hills, covered with lofty pine trees. Upon a height which overlooks the town and harbor, a fort was built by the Americans during the war with Mexico, and a military force continued there till after the treaty of peace.

      The country in the neighborhood of Monterey is fertile, and yields ample reward to the agriculturist. There would, therefore, be no lack of supplies of provisions, but for the indolence of the Californians, owning the different ranches in the surrounding country. From this cause, great scarcity of provisions of all kinds is often the result. Notwithstanding the additions made by Yankee enterprise and innovation, the general manners and customs of the inhabitants of Monterey retain all their old Spanish character; and some of the customs of the СКАЧАТЬ