s lieutenant.

The "sierra" through which our path lay was singularly wild and
picturesque. The rocks, thrown about in every fantastic shape, were
actually covered with the tendrils of the liana, whose great blue
flowers hung in luxuriant clusters from every cliff and crag. Wild fig
and almond trees--loaded with fruit, red guavas and limes, met us as
we advanced, till at length we found ourselves in the very centre of
a tract rich in every production of our gardens, and all growing in
spontaneous freedom and wildness. The yellow-flowering cactus and
the golden lobelia, that would have been the choicest treasures of a
conservatory in other lands, we here broke branches off to fan away the
mosquitoes and the gallinippers.

The farther we went, the more fruitful and luxuriant did the tract seem.
Oranges, peaches, and grapes, in all the profusion of their wildest
abundance, surrounded us, and even littered the very way beneath our
feet. To feel the full enchantment of such a scene, one should have been
a prairie traveller for weeks, long-wearied and heart-sore with the dull
monotony of a tiresome journey, with fevered tongue and scorching feet,
with eyeballs red from the glaring sun, and temples throbbing from the
unshaded lustre. Then, indeed, the change was like one of those wondrous
transformations of a fairy tale, rather than mere actual life. In the
transports of our delight we threw ourselves down among the flowering
shrubs, and covered ourselves with blossoms and buds; we bound the grape
clusters on our foreheads like bacchanals, and tied great branches of
the orange-tree round us as scarfs. In all the wantonness of children,
we tore the fruit in handfuls, and threw it around us. The wasteful
prodigality of nature seemed to suggest excess on our part, prompting us
to a hundred follies and extravagances. As if to fill up the measure of
our present joy by imparting the brightness of future hope, Hermose told
us that such little spots of luxuriant verdure were very often found in
the regions richest with gold, and that we might be almost certain
of discovering a valuable Placer in our immediate vicinity. There was
another, and that no inconsiderable, advantage attending these "Oases"
of fertility. The Indians never dared to intrude upon these precincts;
their superstition being that the "Treasure God," or the "Genius of
the Mine," always had his home in these places, and executed summary
vengeance upon all who dared to