NAPA VALLEY. 19 
rail fence of red wood. Many fruit trees, grape vines, 
flowering shrubs, etc., are in a flourishing condition 
around his house. In no part of the Atlantic States or 
Mississippi Valley could such improvements be shown 
in the same time, except on prairie land. 
March 20th. This morning we called on Mr. 
Yaunt, a Missourian, and one of the oldest settlers in 
the valley. Mr. Y. came here some twelve or fifteen 
years ago, and obtained a large grant of land from 
the Government; he, however, has cultivated very 
little of it, but has used it, like the other great land- 
holders of the country, for a cattle range. The other 
original grantees of land in Napa Valley were Mr. 
Fowler, Dr. Bale, an Englishman, and Don Salvador 
Vallejo. The usual measure of land in this country, 
as well as in Mexico, is the square league, containing 
about five thousand acres. Senor Vallejo, who was 
the largest proprietor here, owned six square leagues, 
or thirty thousand acres. It is well for the country 
that these large estates are now being divided and 
brought into market. They will, doubtless, ere long 
be eagerly sought after, on account of their extraordi- 
nary fertility and beautiful situation, by gentlemen who 
wish to get away from the bustle of a great city, and 
enjoy the retirement of a country life.* 
I was desirous to have Mr. Yaunt accompany us 
* In an agreeable work by Lieutenant Revere, I find the following 
history of Mr. Yaunt: “This old man had led an adventurous and 
checkered life; in the course of which he had fought under Jackson at 
New Orleans, and in the Seminole war had been taken prisoner by the 
Indians, and actually bound to the stake. He had been a hunter and 
a trapper, and Indian fighter at large, in the heart of the continent, until 
