m J^.^^5^^^z&^ THREE YEiARS CALIFORNIA, llEV. WALTER COLTON, U. S. N. LATE ALCALDE OF MONTEREY ; AUTHOR OF " DECK AND PORT,' ETC., ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & CO. NO. 51 JOHN-STREET. CINCINNATI:— H. W. DERBY & CO. 1850. . Of*' ^ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and fifty, Bv A. S. BARNES & COMPANY, 111 the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Stxrxottpxd dt RICHARD C. VALENTINE. N»w York. F. C. GtJTlERREZ, Primer, No. SI John-ilreel, comer of Dutch, GEN. MARIANO GUADALUPE VALLEJO, ONE OF CALIFORNIA S DISTINGUISHED SONS, TUE INTERESTS OF FREEDOM, HUMANITY, AND EDUCATION HAVE FO0ND AN ABLE ADVOCATE AND MUNIFICENT BENEFACTOR, iaiji© llolumc IS HOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR. Grt /< o c a PREFACE. Many events of moment occurred in California during my residence of three years in that country, and which were sketched in a journal kept by me at the time. They are interspersed with anecdotes and incidents of a less general concern, but which may not be without some interest with the reader, as affording a clue to the leading features of society, and traits of individual character. The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad ; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an in- tense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been : the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. She has sprung at once from the shackles of colonial servitude to all the advantages and dignities of a sovereign state. Her emigrants are rusliing from every continent and isle ; they crest every mountain, they cover every sea ; they sweep in like a cloud from the Pacific, they roll down like a torrent from the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. They crowd to her bosom to gather gold ; their hammers and drills, their mattocks and spades divert the deep stream, and are echoed from a thousand caverned hills ; the level plain, the soaring cliff and wombed mountain, give up their glowing treasures. But the gifts of nature here are not confined to her sparkling sands and veined rocks, they extend to the productive forces of her soil ; they lie along her water-courses, through her verdant valleys, and wave in her golden grain ; tliey reel in her vintage, they blush in her fruits, while her soft zephyrs, as they float the landscape, scatter per- fume from their odorous wings. But with all these gifts disease is here with its pale victuns, and sorrow with its willovz-wove shrine. There is no hind Ic&s 1* 6 PREFACE. relieved by the smiles and soothing cares of woman. If Eilen witli its ambrosial fruits and