PREFACE. V 



ate execution, and sometimes proceeded with a gravity and slow modera- 

 tion that might become the most august tribunals ; and by the estab- 

 lishment of what may be considered as a new nationality, with mental, 

 literary, physical, and social characteristics differing from those of other 

 portions of the American Union, although not aspiring in any way to 

 political separation. 



I am so much attached to California, that I could not live contentedly 

 elsewhere ; and I imagine that neither the earth, the sky, nor the people 

 of any other country, equal that of this State. I confess that I am an 

 enthusiast in her behalf and if I fail to do justice to her merits it will 

 not be for lack of affection. Neither will it be for any lack of attention 

 or industry. During the last twenty years, I have assiduously collected 

 every thing within my reach relative to the industry, resources, natural 

 history, and population of the State. I have looked through the news- 

 papers published between Crescent City and San Diego, and have ex- 

 amined all the books written about the country, Spanish, French, and 

 German, as well as English. I have been in the extreme north, and 

 the extreme south ; I have gone to both extremities by land and sea ; 

 I have traveled through her great interior valley, from Shasta to Tejon ; 

 I am intimately acquainted with her most fertile valleys and her most 

 productive gold-fields ; I know something of her mining and agriculture 

 by experience and practice ; and finally, I have endeavored to compress 

 into this book all the important attainable facts. 



I write of California while she is still youthful, and full of marvels ; 

 while her population is still unsettled ; while her business is still fluctu- 

 ating, her wages high, her gold abundant, and her birth still fresh in the 

 memory of men and women who have scarcely reached their majority ; 

 and I write of her while she still offers a wide field for the adventurous, 

 the enterprising, and the young, who have life before them, and wish to 

 commence it where they may have a free career, in full sight of great 

 rewards for success, and with few chances of failure. 



Some passages of this sixth, as well as of previous editions, were origi- 

 nally written for other publications, and though they first appeared 

 anonymously, are still mine. 



I add as appropriate to this place, and as indicative of the feelings 



