y spirituelle women, babbling brooks and
shady lawns, with a bowl of chicken salad, do very well when one goes a
picknicking in an omnibus, or canal boat; but when it is necessary to
rough it a bit in open air and unknown regions, we require something
more substantial.

Passing through the inner straits, above Angel Island, we entered the
bay of San Pablo, or Sinoma, and, with a pleasant breeze, steered for
the upper shores. It is a vast, circular sheet of water, twelve miles in
diameter, fenced in from the ocean, on one side, by a rim of broken
hills, closely abutting upon the bay; while to the north and east, the
land trends easily away, in less abrupt elevations, into the interior,
leaving a base of wide, fertile plains and valleys, verging upon the
shores.

A noble ship channel takes the direction of the eastern coast, leading
into the straits of Carquinez, an opening quite similar to the outer
passage from the sea. Our course lay in an opposite point, and, turning
to the left, we sailed over shallower depths, until late in the
afternoon, when, finding there was no water to spare betwixt the keel
and the bottom, we dropt anchor, two miles from the land. The barge was
presently manned, and leaving our butler, Mr. Bill Moulden, to exercise
his care and corkscrew over the comestibles, we rowed to the entrance of
a creek, where, after winding about in the serpentine tracks of an inlet
for, at the least, ten miles, we at last jumped on shore at the
_embarcadera_ of Sinoma. The gentleman to whom we were bound, not being
apprised of our coming, but two horses were to be procured, and the rest
of us trudged along on foot. The road was perfectly level, walking good,
and, with sparkling stars for lanterns, in an hour we found ourselves at
the residence of General Vallejo, were ushered through a spacious _porte
cocher_, into a large _sala_, and graciously received by the lady of the
mansion, whose husband chanced to be absent on important business. It
may be as well to state here, that Vallejo had been the most important
personage in Upper California, both from family influence, intelligence
and wealth. On the commencement of the war, notwithstanding the
annoyance he had experienced from the Bear party, he espoused the cause
of the United States; and, being blessed with a clear head and much
discernment, saw at a glance the benefit derivable for California by a
connection with a staunch Republic, in preference to letting the