he first
American millionnaire of California.

_October 17_.--The last two mornings have been cloudy and cool. The
rainy season, it is thought by the weather-wise in this climate, will
set in earlier this year than usual. The periodical rains ordinarily
commence about the middle of November. It is now a month earlier, and
the meteorological phenomena portend "falling weather." The rains
during the winter, in California, are not continuous, as is generally
supposed. It sometimes rains during an entire day, without cessation,
but most generally the weather is showery, with intervals of bright
sunshine and a delightful temperature. The first rains of the year fall
usually in November, and the last about the middle of May. As soon as
the ground becomes moistened, the grass, and other hardy vegetation,
springs up, and by the middle of December the landscape is arrayed in a
robe of fresh verdure. The grasses grow through the entire winter, and
most of them mature by the first of May. The season for sowing wheat
commences as soon as the ground is sufficiently softened by moisture to
admit of ploughing, and continues until March or April.

We had made preparations this morning to visit a rancho, belonging to
General Vallejo, in company with the general and Mr. Larkin. This
rancho contains about eleven leagues of land, bordering upon a portion
of the Bay of San Francisco, twenty-five or thirty miles distant from
Sonoma. Just as we were about mounting our horses, however, a courier
arrived from San Francisco with despatches from Captain Montgomery,
addressed to Lieutenant Revere, the military commandant at this post,
giving such intelligence in regard to the insurrection at the south,
that we determined to return to San Francisco forthwith. Procuring
horses, and accompanied by Mr. Larkin, we left Sonoma about two o'clock
in the afternoon, riding at the usual California speed. After leaving
Sonoma plain we crossed a ridge of hills, and entered the fertile and
picturesque valley of Petaluma creek, which empties into the bay.
General Vallejo has an extensive rancho in this valley, upon which he
has recently erected, at great expense, a very large house.
Architecture, however, in this country is in its infancy. The money
expended in erecting this house, which presents to the eye no tasteful
architectural attractions, would, in the United States, have raised a
palace of symmetrical proportions, and adorned it with every requisite
or