HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 219 



it was the rainy season. If the fire had occurred 

 during the dry season, and the prevalence of the 

 furious gales, the whole city, composed, as it was, of 

 canvas tents and wooden houses, must have been 

 destroyed. The event did not materially affect the 

 progress of the city ; for the burnt district was entirely 

 rebuilt within twenty days. 



The second great fire occurred on the night of the 

 4th of May, 1850. It broke out in the United States 

 Hotel, situated on the plaza, or Portsmouth Square — 

 the very heart of the city. The flames soon spread 

 to the adjoining buildings, and several of the principal 

 hotels were destroyed. Nothing could stop the pro- 

 gress of the fire but the tearing down of a whole block 

 of houses on one of the streets leading from the 

 Square. Five entire blocks of the business portion 

 of the city were destroyed — involving a loss of about 

 a million of dollars. To show the amount of enter- 

 prise and energy existing in San Francisco, no better 

 opportunity is afforded than to look at the state of 

 things in that city, ten days after the fire. We extract 

 from the Alta Californian of the loth of May, the 

 following remarks : 



"The Burned District. — Intimately as we are 

 acquainted with the predominant spirit of energy and 

 enterprise of our city, we have almost wondered at 

 the rapidity with which the burned district is being 

 again built up. It exceeds the speed with which the 

 work was accomplished after the December fire. 

 Already, in Portsmouth Square, the Bella Union and 

 St. Charles, houses of public resort, are opened and 

 hourly thronged. In Washington Street, two dry 

 goods stores, ' La Amarilla' and Juan Cima's, are 

 opened and stocked, and on both sides of the way 



