HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 263 



tain it is, that were we to judge of the quantity of 

 gold obtained in California, by the amount received 

 in the United States, we would fall far too short of 

 the truth. 



The growth of the commerce of California neces- 

 sarily carries with it the growth of all those cities 

 and towns which have any commercial advantages, 

 or which are connected with the various ports. Not 

 only has San Francisco constantly in her harbor a 

 tremendous fleet of merchant vessels from all parts of 

 the world, pouring into her lap the commodities neces- 

 sary to a new country and a rapid building city, and 

 Sacramento, the commerce of the mines continually 

 passing through it, but all the towns along the coast have 

 felt the impulse, and have become the seat of a traffic 

 of some sort. San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Pedro, 

 and Monterey, are all commercial ports, which have 

 become the resort of those traders who wish to 

 escape the crowd of competitors to be met with at the 

 more northern towns, and to have a pleasant place 

 of residence besides. Los Angeles, twenty-five miles 

 from the port of San Pedro is the centre of an ex- 

 tensive inland trade, and from its being a delightful 

 place of residence, will contribute to the building up 

 of San Pedro in a greater degree than the commerce 

 of San Pedro can influence it. 



At present, San Francisco is a city of about thirty 

 thousand inhabitants, and in spite of the repeated 

 visitations of the calamity of destructive fire, it has 

 suffered no stoppage in its rapid progress. On the 

 contrary, these fires seem to give a new impulse to the 

 energy and enterprise of its inhabitants, and, by im- 

 pressing upon them the utility of building their houses 

 and stores of the more substantial brick, to have 



