he place contained some five
hundred inhabitants, the dwellings all of the adobie mud-built order of
architecture, with but one road between them: for ten leagues around the
land is most fertile, and the country in many respects appears to
possess great advantages, and has the reputation of being the garden of
Upper California. We saw quantities of fruits, peas, peaches, and
grapes, very unripe, but the natives like them the better green.

Under no contingency does the natural face of Upper California appear
susceptible of supporting a very large population; the country is hilly
and mountainous; great dryness prevails during the summers, and
occasionally excessive droughts parch up the soil for periods of twelve
or eighteen months. Only in the plains and valleys where streams are to
be found, and even those will have to be watered by artificial
irrigation, does there seem the hope of being sufficient tillable land
to repay the husbandman and afford subsistence to the inhabitants. Sheep
and cattle may be raised to any extent; as the gentle slopes, clothed in
rich wild grasses, afford excellent districts for grazing.

We breakfasted at the residence of a plain, sensible and industrious
family of emigrants from Virginia, named Campbell; then strolling to the
banks of a little rivulet, we took siesta beneath the shade of drooping
willows, surrounded by groups of brunettas washing in the pools near by.
In the afternoon my fellow travellers left me for their hunt among the
mountains; and upon learning that Commodore Stockton was in the village,
I immediately made my homage. He was by long odds the most popular
person in California, and by his enthusiasm, energy, and determination,
accomplished more, even with the limited means at his command, in the
acquisition of this valuable territory, than any other man before or
since, who has planted his foot on the soil.

The following day was Sunday, the Fourth of July, and moreover the fast
day of the Patron Saint of California--_Nuestra Senora del Refugio_.
Meeting Miss Ellen Murphy and brother on the road bound to high mass at
the mission, I agreed to accompany them and return to their rancho in
the evening. There was a large assemblage in Santa Clara, and we
attended church. The building was oblong, painted roughly in fresco, and
decorated with a number of coarse paintings, and lots of swallow-tailed,
green and yellow satin pennants dangling from the ceiling. During
service an i