194 
CALIFORNIA. 
the cause that led it to risk destruction. This seems to be the great 
and all-powerful instinctive passion of these wild animals, and frequently 
retains them within reach of the deadly rifle. Considering the quantity 
of game, the success attendant on our tyro hunters was not equal to 
their anticipations, and convinced them that it is much easier to bring 
down an elk in anticipation than in reality. The accidents were few, 
and only one annoyance was experienced, in the chase-of a skunk, 
which obliged the officer to part with his clothes. The wild-fowl 
scarcely claimed attention, the elk and large animals being so abundant. 
The flesh of the elk was much preferred by the party to that of the 
deer. 
On the 6th, the survey being finished down to this point, they de¬ 
scended the river, on their return to the ship. On the 8th, they had 
arrived at the mouth of the river, and the Straits of Kaquines. On the 
9th, at midnight, they reached the Vincennes, after an absence of 
twenty days. Subsequent to this date, on the 20th, Lieutenant-Com¬ 
mandant Ringgold proceeded again, with six boats, to examine the 
bay of San Pablo, and the streams that flow into it, and also up the 
San Joachim, until it branched off to the southward and eastward. 
This party returned to the ship on the 29th. 
Whilst the Vincennes was at Sausalito, the officers made visits to 
the different places around, and received many persons on board, 
priests as well as laymen; and as their estancias or mission-houses 
were far removed, they became guests for a longer time than was 
agreeable to most of the officers. A Californian needs no pressing to 
stay, as long as he is pleased with the place; and that he should be so, 
it is not necessary to furnish him with luxuries: he is content with 
coarse fare, provided he can get enough of strong drink to minister to 
his thirst. I have already spoken of the great consumption of spirits 
that is said to take place in this country; and from the experience we 
had of it, the accounts certainly are not exaggerated. The palm for 
intemperance was, I think, generally given to the padres, some of 
whom, notwithstanding their clerical robes, did ample justice to every 
drinkable offered them; and so well were they pleased, that some of 
them made a visit of three days’ duration, and were even then disin¬ 
clined to leave. It is not to be denied that they left the same impres¬ 
sion of their characters on board that it has been heretofore said they 
bear on shore. The officers all seemed disposed to draw a veil over 
the conduct to which they were witnesses, and I will not be the one 
to raise it, as it can be of little benefit, and might perhaps be applicable 
to only a few of the order. 
Our intercourse with Senor Martinez and his family was much 
