garrison soldiers in uniforms
of French cut and colour; by officers glittering in gold lace; by
townsmen in cloaks of broadcloth; by country gentlemen (haciendados) on
horseback; and herdsmen, or small farmers (rancheros) in their splendid
Californian costume.

True, some of these are still seen, but not as of yore, swaggering and
conspicuous. Amid the concourse of new-comers they move timidly,
jostled by rough men in red flannel shirts, buckskin and blanket coats,
with pistols in their belts, and knives hanging handy along their hips.
By others equally formidable, in Guernsey frocks, or wearing the
dreadnought jacket of the sailor; not a few scarce clothed at all,
shrouding their nakedness in such rags as remain after a long journey
overland, or a longer voyage by sea.

In all probability, since its beginning, the world never witnessed so
motley an assemblage of men, tramping through the streets of a seaport
town, as those seen in Yerba Buena, rebaptised San Francisco, in the
year of our Lord 1849.

And perhaps never a more varied display of bunting in one bay. In all
certainty, harbour never held so large a fleet of ships with so few men
to man them. At least one-half are crewless, and a goodly portion of
the remainder almost so. Many have but their captains and mates, with,
it may be, the carpenter and cook. The forecastle fellows are ashore,
and but few of them intend returning aboard. They are either gone off
to the gold-diggings, or are going. There has been a general
_debandade_ among the Jack-tars--leaving many a merry deck in forlorn
and silent solitude.

In this respect there is a striking contrast between the streets of the
town and the ships lying before it. In the former, an eager throng,
pushing, jostling, surging noisily along, with all the impatience of men
half-mad; in the latter, tranquillity, inaction, the torpor of lazy
life, as if the vessels--many of them splendid craft--were laid up for
good, and never again going to sea. And many never did--their hulks to
this day, like the skeletons of stranded whales, are seen lying along
that beach which was once Yerba Buena!

CHAPTER NINE.

A BRACE OF BRITISH OFFICERS.

Notwithstanding the abnormal condition of naval affairs above described,
and the difficulties to be dealt with, not all the vessels in San
Francisco Bay are crewless. A few still retain their full complement of
hands--these being mostly men-of-war, whose strict disciplin