HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 101 



self in the heart of the Celestial Empire. The bar- 

 keeper — though he spoke excellent English — was a 

 Chinese, as were also the attendants. Every article 

 that was sold, even of the most trifling kind, was set 

 down, in Chinese characters, as it was disposed of; 

 it being the duty of one of the waiters to attend to 

 this department. This he did very cleverly and 

 quickly, having a sheet of paper for the purpose, on 

 which the article and the price were noted down in 

 Chinese characters, by means of a long, thin brush, 

 moistened in a solution of Indian or Chinese ink. As 

 I had always been given to understand that these 

 people were of dirty habits, I feel it only right to 

 state that I was delighted with the cleanliness of this 

 place, and am gratified to be able to bear testimony 

 to the injustice of such a sweeping assertion. 



" As for the French, they seemed entirely out of 

 their element in this Yankee town ; and this circum- 

 stance is not to be wondered at, when the climate and 

 the habits of the people are taken into consideration, 

 and also the strange deficiencies they must have 

 observed in the ordinary intercourse of life between 

 the citizens, so difierent from the polished address, 

 common even amongst the peasantry in their rudest 

 villages ; to say nothing of the difllculty of carrying 

 on business amongst a people whose language they did 

 not understand. But their universal goal was the 

 mines ; and to the mines they went, with very few 

 exceptions. 



" Speaking of them reminds me of a * Cafe Restau- 

 rant^' in San Francisco, kept by a very civil French- 

 man, and situated on the way to the Point. I mention 

 it, because I one day made here the most uncomfort- 

 able repast it had ever been my lot to sit down to. 



9* 



