kings and Lord
of lords, which Paul saith (Heb. x. 31) is a fearful thing. For this
city doth not only flourish in the ways aforesaid, but also in the
superstitious worshiping of God and the saints they exceed Rome itself,
and all other places of Christendom. And it is a thing which I have
very much and carefully observed in all my travels, both in Europe and
America, that in those cities wherein there is most lewd licentiousness
of life, there is also most cost in the temples, and most public
superstitious worship of God and the saints."

So much for worthy Thomas Gage, and his estimate of the Mexicans of his
day.

AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA.

I arrived at San Francisco in the midst of the gold excitement. The
town was crowded with rough-looking muscular men in red shirts, slouch
hats, and trowsers over which were drawn high-topped boots. A Colt's
revolver, a belt filled with gold, and an unshaven visage completed the
_tout ensemble_ of a crowd who were purchasing supplies for their
companions in the mines. They strode along, conscious that they
belonged to the Anglo-Saxon race and the aristocracy of labor. As they
turned into the temporary houses or booths which then constituted the
town, or threaded their way among the piles of merchandise that
encumbered the streets, the effeminate natives instinctively shrunk
back, conscious of their own imbecility; the Spanish Americans were
overawed by their presence; and even Sidney convicts thought it most
profitable to turn their thoughts to honest labor.

The miner had his vices too as well as his virtues. If you will follow
him as he opens right and left a crowd that surrounds a table heaped
with lumps of gold and silver coin, you will see how carelessly he
throws down a piece of metal, looking sharply into the eye of the
cunning dealer of the monte cards. If he detects a false move, he cocks
his weapon, and draws the gold back into his bag and strides away.

Such were the men who knew no fear, and dreaded no labor or fatigue,
and who have made California in five short years a state more powerful
than the Republic of Mexico.

In an interior town I was called to practice as an attorney. My first
client was the driver of an ox-team, who was suing for extra services
in addition to his regular wages of five hundred dollars a month and
board (Doe _vs._ Pickett). My office was a space of four feet by six,
partitioned off by two cotton sheets, in the corner of a canvas store