HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



103 



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 niost-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 ad vantage of cheap living, were encamped 

 the major portion of the most recently arrived emi 

 grants, and, amongst the rest, those of the ship 

 Brooklyn, on one of the passengers of which the in 

 quest was about to be held. 



"This, then, was the 'Happy Valley ;' a term no 

 doubt applied to it in derision, taking into considera 

 tion the squalor, the discomfort, the filth, the misery, 

 and the distress that were rife there. 



"I am satisfied that much of the crime and lawless 

 ness 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 out 

 number 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 con- 



