196 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



" The mules themselves are, as I have already stated, 

 so worn-out, and broken-down, that it requires the 

 utmost vigilance and care on the part of their riders 

 to prevent them dropping, and precipitating them into 

 the mire. In order to guard as much as possible 

 against this contingency, whenever ladies travel this 

 route, they are obliged to discard the side-saddle, and 

 resort to a less feminine style of equitation. I overtook 

 a party of about twenty persons on the road, amongst 

 whom was a married lady on her way to the States ; 

 and I watched her rather curiously, to observe how 

 she got over the difficulties that beset her. Being 

 fortified with that article of male attire, the figurative 

 possession of which is said to denote domestic ascen- 

 dency, she thought it incumbent upon her, I suppose, 

 to display all the courage and nerve that should 

 properly be encased in it. Several times, when I 

 fancied that both she and her mule were on the point 

 of being capsized, she recovered herself with ad- 

 mirable presence of mind, and seemed to enjoy the 

 risk exceedingly. 



"As to myself, I floundered on as well as I could 

 with a mule tottering beneath me from sheer exhaus- 

 tion, and sinking every minute up to his knees in 

 mud. It seemed to me that we were making little or 

 no progress ; and I became thoroughly tired and dis- 

 heartened. I do not know any temptation, however 

 powerful, that would again induce me to encounter 

 the never-ending series of difficulties and annoyances 

 that laid in w T ait for me at every step ; and I must 

 candidly own, that even the force of female example, 

 of which I had so merry a specimen before me, did 

 not at all shame me into a less impatient endurance 

 of them. 



