568 MUEDEES. Book III. 
equality is combined with the most brutal insolence of 
.race — again to collect a population of Mexican and Indian 
labourers, whose natural position is that of a reasonable 
dependence to the large proprietors of the soil. It is at 
least my conviction, that undeniable wants and unchange- 
able conditions will produce in California classes of popu- 
lation with unequal political rights, without therefore leav- 
ing space to slavery, so that the course of the historical 
development in the United States will lead to three 
different forms of social organization. Under all circum- 
stances Los Angeles, with respect to commerce and inter- 
course, must one day acquire an importance independent 
of San Francisco, as it is the natural entrepot for the 
intercourse with the extended regions of the interior. 
At the time of my stay at Los Angeles, insecurity of life 
and bad morals prevailed to an extent by which the beauty 
of situation and climate, and other advantages of the place 
were counterbalanced, and quite a number of murders 
occurred in the short space of my sojourn. The fact of 
Indians being found dead in the streets at morning was 
scarcely thought of sufficient importance to constitute a 
case for a serious investigation. Those of the Indian tribes 
of California who have passed through the discipline of the 
ancient missions, and had acquired a certain civilization by 
this school, have sunk very deep in almost every respect 
since they have been left to themselves. In the streets of 
Los Angeles they could be seen gambling, intoxicated, 
quarrelling among each other, and often in the most dis- 
gusting situations. There were, however, other classes of 
the population not much above these wretches, under a 
moral point of view. Almost every night pistols were fired 
in the street under my windows, in consequence of disputes 
originating in gambling-houses and other places of ill 
