SOCIETY. 375 



bers, organized for the purpose of defeating Spanish land 

 claims on which squatters have settled, and for the purpose of 

 resisting the ejectment of squatters when possible. This se- 

 cret society has the support of thousands of squatters wlio 

 are not members. In May, 1861, these squatters refused to 

 allow some trespassers to be ejected under legal process from 

 the Chaboya rancho near San Jose. Fifteen hundred armed 

 men collected to set the law at defiance, and when the gov- 

 ernor proposed to send troops, the squatters of Sacramento, 

 Sonoma and Marin counties promised to send two armed men 

 for every soldier. At one time there was serious danger of 

 bloodshed, but the affair was settled by granting some squat- 

 ter demands not at all consistent with the dignity of the gov- 

 ernment. This secret organization, and the seditious feeling 

 among a multitude of persons not members, still exist, and 

 may yet cause serious trouble. 



§ 264. Ariti- Chinese Moh. — The white miners have a great 

 dislike to Chinamen, who are frequently driven away from 

 their claims, and expelled from districts by mobs. In such 

 cases the officers of the law do not ordinarily interfere, and no 

 matter how much the unfortunate yellow men may be beaten 

 or despoiled, the law does not attempt to restore them to their 

 rights or avenge their wrongs. 



§ 265. Deeds of Blood. — California has obtained a sad no- 

 toriety for its deeds of blood, and although the number of 

 these has very much decreased, still fatal affrays are common. 

 During 1855 a list was kept of all the homicides in the state, 

 and no list has been kept since that year, and therefore I refer 

 to a time so remote for statistics. It appears, then, from the 

 records of that year, that five hundred and thirty-eight persons 

 died by violence. Of these three hundred and fifty-seven were 

 whites, one hundred and thirty-three Indians, thirty-two Chi- 

 namen, and three negroes. The number of Indians killed by 

 the whites was no doubt much greater, for the two races were 

 at war in various parts of the state, and the skirmishes, which 

 almost invariably proved disastrous to the red men, were in 



