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Updated: May 10, 2025
Making San Francisco my head-quarters, I paid visits to various parts of the State, down the Bay to Santa Clara, with its live oaks and sycamores, and its Jesuit College for boys; and San Jose, where is the best girls' school in the State, kept by the Sisters of Notre Dame, a town now famous for a year's session of ``The legislature of a thousand drinks, and thence to the rich Almaden quicksilver mines, returning on the Contra Costa side through the rich agricultural country, with its ranchos and the vast grants of the Castro and Soto families, where farming and fruit-raising are done on so large a scale.
Horses are always ready saddled in Spanish ranchos, and in half an hour from the time of our arrival we were again loping in the staring sunlight. But not as cheerfully as before. George and myself were weighed down by restraint, and Altascar was gravely quiet.
On the forest-covered sides of the more elevated mountains the rancho is a house of logs, a "log-cabin," with long hanging eaves and shingled roof, differing entirely from the log-cabin of the American backwoods, and far excelling the latter in neatness and picturesque appearance. So much for the "ranchos." About them there is some variety of style.
On their way the travelers saw a great number of Indians flying to regain their ranchos amid the mountains. The defection of Martin Paz had been followed by defeat. If the émeute had triumphed in some places, it had received its death-blow at Lima. The three cavaliers traveled rapidly, having but one idea, one object.
These restless Americanos, who bought pieces of land that were not large enough to pasture a goat, and called them ranchos caramba! what fools they were, always a-hurrying about! The wagon had stopped. Well, it would be time enough to move when some one called.
A few Americans, who own large ranchos, have American plows, and are doing better than the rest. Many ranchos have been abandoned, and their owners have gone to the mines. This state of things the energetic Anglo-Saxon will soon change. The immigration for the next few years will be immense, and the whole community will yield to American customs.
Every one seemed to live out of doors, and though the ranchos were widely scattered, there was much visiting and social gayety. All who could, traveled on horseback; while the mother of the family, the children, and old people used the clumsy carreta with its squeaking wheels. One of the prettiest sights was a wedding procession as it escorted the bride from her home to the mission church.
Ice, the first I have seen since entering California, formed in the branch, of the thickness of window-glass. We reached the valley of the Salinas about eleven o'clock A.M., and encamped for the day. The valley, as it approaches the ocean, is broad and fertile, and there are many fine ranchos upon it.
The Mexican estimates set down the population as amounting to 12,000, but an American, who has carefully examined the country, going down the whole length of the peninsula on the one side, and returning by the other, fixes it at 4000. The inhabitants are an imbecile race of mixed bloods and Indians, dwelling in the few small villages which the country contains, and upon the ranchos and haciendas.
The jury, after the case was referred to them, were what is called "hung;" they could not agree, and the matters in issue, therefore, remained exactly where they were before the proceedings were commenced. I attended one evening a fandango given by Mr. Ridley, an English gentleman, whose wife is a Californian lady. Several of the senoras and senoritas from the ranchos of the vicinity were present.
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