TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
59 
were lowing and frolicking out their freedom on the kind 
and beautiful earth. But man was raising the murderous 
blade against his fellow ! 
Mr. Larkin made arrangements with the government to¬ 
day to furnish the prisoners with food and drink. Their 
cells were examined and found destitute of floors! The 
ground within was so wet that the poor fellows sunk into it 
several inches at every step. On this they stood, sat and 
slept! From fifty to sixty were crowded into a room 
eighteen or twenty feet square ! They could not all sit at 
once, even in that vile pool, still less lie down ! The cells 
were so low and tight that the only way of getting air enough 
to sustain life, was to divide themselves into platoons, each of 
which in turn stood at the grate awhile to breathe ! Most of 
them had been in prison seven or eight days, with no food 
except a trifling quantity, clandestinely introduced by a few 
daring countrymen outside. When I arrived at the prisons 
some of them were frantic; others in a stupor of exhaustion; 
one appeared to be dying ! An American citizen went to 
the governor with a statement of their condition, and demand¬ 
ed that both Americans and Britons should be handsomely 
treated; that they should have air, food, drink, permission to 
bathe, and dry hides wherewith to cover the mud in their cells. 
Since our arrival the Don Quixote had been lying off and 
on. She usually ran out one morning and swept into the 
harbor the next. This circumstance, together with the fact 
that this American was always on the shore when the vessel 
passed the anchorage, making signals to her, which neither 
himself nor those on board understood, created the idea that 
he was an official of the American Government, and as 
such, had rights which it would be well to respect. This 
impression was much strengthened, both by the accidental 
circumstance of his wearing a cutlass with an eagle upon 
its hilt, and his holding restraints imposed on his acts as 
highly insulting and disrespectful! This course of con¬ 
duct had the effect designed. Those cowardly apologies of 
