SAN FEANCISCO AND END OF JOURNEY. 537 



Nor was It alone the '* California " which was de- 

 serted. Five hundred ships lay in the San Francisco 

 Harbor deserted, the crews, wild for gold, carrying off 

 the ship's boats in their eagerness to reach land ; very 

 often the commander leading, or at least joining in the 

 fliglit. Many vessels that year were left to rot ; many 

 were dragged on shore and used as lodging houses. 



In the spring, San Francisco seemed deserted, only 

 two thousand inhabitants being left. The heart of the 

 city began to quail. Thousands thronging through 

 her harbor, yet so few to stay ! But winter brought 

 the miners back to civilization again, and the popula- 

 tion swelled to twenty thousand. 



San Francisco was at this time mainly a city of 

 tents, although there was a sprinkling of adobe houses, 

 and a few frame buildings. It was a community of 

 men. The census of 1850 show^ed that only eight per 

 cent, of the population were women. It was, more- 

 over, a community of young men; scarcely a grey 

 head was to be seen in it. 



Men were there from all the European nations, 

 together with Moors and Abyssinians from Africa, 

 Mongols, Malays, and Hindoos from Asia and Aus- 

 tralia. Turks, Hebrews, and Hispano-Americans 

 jostled the ubiquitous Yankee, in the new streets of 

 San Francisco. 



The predominant dress, we are told, was "checked 

 and woollen shirts, mainly red and blue, open at the 

 bosom which could boast of shaggy robustness, or 

 ^sely secured by a kerchief; pantaloons tucked into 

 ^igh and wrinkled boots, and belted at the waist, 

 where bristled an arsenal of knife and pistols. Beard 

 and hair emancipated from thraldom, revelled in long 



