574 LIST OF CHIME AND BLOODSHED. Book IIT. 
He who lives in an old and well-disciplined society, 
no doubt, has a right to say that he disregards the question 
whether men in Europe, under similar conditions of per- 
sonal equality and individual independence, would prove 
worse or better than in California. He has a right to 
declare that he does not like those conditions, however they 
may explain and excuse what he disapproves. This, in 
many respects is a matter of individual taste, in which I 
have no intention to interfere. My task here is merely to 
describe and explain. 
During my stay at San Francisco I collected from the 
newspapers of the whole State of California a list of the 
crime and bloodshed of a single week. Californian life, 
no doubt, has improved decidedly since that time ; 
but I repeat the enumeration here to show, by a state- 
ment of facts, the condition of society which then existed. 
The list runs as follows : — Suicide of Barrett. — At Sutter 
Creek shots are fired at a crowd, and a man is killed. — 
At San Gabriel, Americans, Mexicans, and Indians fire at 
each other, and several persons are mortally wounded. — 
Escobar and Sebado are executed. — At Bear Valley the 
Mexican inhabitants of the village make an attack upon 
several travellers : one of the latter is shot from his horse 
and stabbed to death. — The corpse of a Frenchman is 
found in the neighbourhood of the same village. — Two 
parties of Mexicans and Chilians fight about a woman, and 
two persons are killed. — A Mexican of Bear Valley, 
accused of being one of the murderers in the case above- 
mentioned, is arrested ; and, as he offers resistance, is 
killed. — Several Indians are hanged at Yreka. — Two white 
men are murdered at Scott's Biver. — Two muleteers 
are murdered on the road to Yreka. — In Sacramento City 
several persons are attacked in the streets. — At Shasta 
