HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 99 



" Here I met with another of the volunteers, who 

 proposing a walk, we went out together, and proceeded 

 to the Plaza. I found a good many old acquaintances 

 set up in business at this spot ; one, who had been a 

 captain, had recently turned money-broker, and now 

 kept an office for the exchange of coin and gold-dust, 

 having entered into partnership with a highly respect- 

 able and agreeable individual, of active business habits, 

 who promised to prove a great acquisition to the con- 

 cern. 



^'^Xe soon reached a low, long, adobj building, 

 situated at the upper side of the square, and which 

 my companion told me was the Custom House. To 

 the ri^ht of the Plaza stood the Saint Charles's 

 Hotel, a wooden edifice covered in with canvas, and 

 the Peytona House, an establishment of a similar 

 description, in both of which we did not fail to find 

 the usual games carried on. 



*' The streets leading down to the water-side contain 

 comparatively few hotels or eating-houses, they being 

 chiefly wood and canvas trading-stores. I observed 

 amongst them several newly opened auction and com- 

 mission-rooms, where goods were being put up, recom- 

 mended and knocked down in true Yankee style. An 

 immense number of wooden frame-houses in course of 

 erection met our view in every direction ; and upon 

 remarking that many of them appeared to have been 

 purposely left incomplete, I ascertained that this arose 

 from the extreme difficulty of procuring lumber, which, 

 on account of its scarcity, occasionally fetched an in- 

 credibly high price. A good deal of it is brought 

 from Oregon, and some from South America. Many 

 of the larger houses, but far inferior, notwithstanding, 

 to such of the same kind as could easily be procured 



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