CALIFORNIA. 33 



CHAPTER IV 



CALIFORNIA. 



San Francisco in 1851 — Population — Frequent Fires— Summary Justice 

 — Abundance of Rats — Commerce — Desertion of Sailors — Gold 

 Placers — Exorbitant Prices of Certain Commodities — Gambling 

 Hells in San Francisco — Free Fights — Murder of Successful 

 Miners — Expeditions of Marquis de Pindray and Count Raousset 

 Boulbon in Sonora — Death of Marquis de Pindray — Capture of 

 Hermosillo — Death of Garnier — Battle of Guaymas — Execution 

 of Raous=et Boulbon — Magnanimity of General Yanez. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



HEX I landed in San Francisco, California had be- 

 longed to the United States for three years only, and 

 a considerable change had taken place in that country, inhabited 

 only by a few scattered missions during the domination of the 

 Spaniards, San Francisco was at that time a city of 80,000 

 inhabitants, living in about 10,000 houses, nearly all of them 

 built of wood. Hence the frequency of destructive fires. About 

 three weeks before our arrival, one of them, the fiercest of all, 

 had destroyed about one-third of the buildings, and workmen 

 were seen everywhere building new ones. Shortly after our 

 arrival all of them were rebuilt. Cases of goods were to be seen 

 everywhere in the streets, also pieces of furniture, in fact 

 everything bulky, and with all that robberies were very scarce. 

 It is true that justice was very prompt and effectual. Once I 

 assisted at the catching of a thief, and in less than an hour 

 he was condemned and hanged from the balcony of the house 

 where the theft was committed. This summary justice was 

 executed by a few citizens who had united together and formed 

 a Committee of Public Safetv. 



I remained in San Francisco from the 15th of August, 

 185 1, to the end of August, 1852, and during that time I saw 

 manv fires ; but the burning of twenty to thirty houses was 

 considered as of no consequence. From August to the end of 

 December I lived at the small bav, about one mile and a half 



