California | Page 8

he feared, from the great
change which a few weeks had made in this part of the world, that he
could offer me but indifferent hospitality. Every store and shed was
being crammed with bales of goods, barrels of flour, and a thousand
other things for which a demand has suddenly sprung up. The Captain's
own house was indeed just like an hotel crowded with many more
visitors than it could accommodate; still no one who came there, so the
Captain was good enough to say, recommended by his friend Sherman,
should have other than an hospitable reception. All that he could do,
however, he said, would be to place one sleeping-room at my service
for myself and such of my friends as I liked to share it with; and,
leaving me to arrange the matter with them, he went away, promising
to return and show us our quarters.
I told my companions of the Captain's offer, but they were satisfied to
rough it out of doors again to-night, and it was arranged that only
Bradley and myself should accept the sleeping accommodation offered
by Captain Sutter, as a good night's rest in comfortable quarters would
be more beneficial to our friend with the injured limb, than an outdoor
nap with a single blanket for a bed and a saddle for a pillow.
Two of our horses having cast their shoes, Malcolm and José walked
them round to the blacksmith's shop, where, after their losses were
repaired, a stock of shoes, nails, etc., were to be laid in for future
contingencies. McPhail and our Spanish friend undertook at the same
time to purchase a ten days' supply of provisions for us, and Bradley
agreed to look about the Fort and see if he could meet with another
servant. In this errand, I am sorry to say, he was not successful.
While these several commissions were executing, the Captain returned
and walked with me through the Fort. On our way he pointed out the
guard-house, the Indian soldiers attached to which had deserted to the
mines almost to a man; the woollen factory, with some thirty women
still at work; the distillery house, where the famous pisco is made; and
the blacksmiths' and wheelwrights' shops, with more work before them
than the few mechanics left will be able to get through in a month. Yet

all these men talked of starting off to the diggings in a day or two. The
Captain told me he had only been able to keep them by greatly
increased pay, and by an almost unlimited allowance of pisco and
whisky.
It was not easy to pick our way through the crowds of strange people
who were moving backwards and forwards in every direction. Carts
were passing to and fro; groups of Indians squatting on their haunches
were chattering together, and displaying to one another the flaring red
and yellow handkerchiefs, the scarlet blankets, and muskets of the most
worthless Brummagem make, for which they had been exchanging
their bits of gold, while their squaws looked on with the most perfect
indifference. I saw one chief, who had gone for thirty years with no
other covering than a rag to hide his nakedness, endeavouring to thrust
his legs into a pair of sailor's canvas trousers with very indifferent
success.
Inside the stores the bustle and noise were oven greater. Some
half-a-dozen sharp-visaged Yankees, in straw hats and loose frocks,
were driving hard bargains for dollars with the crowds of customers
who were continually pouring in to barter a portion of their stock of
gold for coffee and tobacco, breadstuff, brandy, and bowie-knives: of
spades and mattocks there were none to be had. In one corner, at a
railed-off desk, a quick-eyed old man was busily engaged, with weights
and scales, setting his own value on the lumps of golden ore or the bags
of dust which were being handed over to him, and in exchange for
which he told out the estimated quantity of dollars. Those dollars
quickly returned to the original deposit, in payment for goods bought at
the other end of the store.
Among the clouds of smoke puffed forth by some score of pipes and as
many cigarettos, there were to be seen, mingled together, Indians of
various degrees of civilisation, and corresponding styles of dress,
varying from the solitary cloth kilt to the cotton shirts and jackets and
trousers of Russia duck; with groups of trappers from as far up as
Oregon, clad in coats of buffalo hide, and with faces and hands so
brown and wrinkled that one would take their skins to be as tough as

the buffalo's, and almost as indifferent to a lump of lead. "Captain,"
said one of these gentry, shaking a bag of gold as we passed, "I