nd duly and fairly
tried by the Committee. They confessed their guilt and were condemned to
be hanged. Their names being familiar and repulsive to all decent
citizens. They were hanged side by side in public view on August 24th,
1851. The sight striking terror to the hearts of other evildoers, who
were impressed by these examples that they could no longer be safe in
San Francisco, such as had been suspected and notified by the Committee,
quickly left the city; they, however, found no shelter in the interior.

This brings me to where I took up the Vigilance Committee of 1856.

San Francisco In 1847.

In view of the great and growing importance of the town of San Francisco
(Yerba Buena), situated on the great bay of the same name, we will give
our readers a few pertinent and fully reliable statements.

"The townsite, as recently surveyed, embraces an extent of one and
one-half square miles. It is regularly laid out, being intersected by
streets from 60 to 80 feet in width. The squares are divided into lots
of from 16 1/2 varas (the Spanish yard of 33 1/3 inches) front and 50
deep, to 100 varas square. The smaller and more valuable of these lots
are those situated between high and low water mark. Part of these lots
were sold in January last at auction, and brought from $50 to $600. The
established prices of 50 and 100 vara lots are $12 and $25.

San Francisco, last August, contained 459 souls, of whom 375 were
whites, four-fifths of these being under 40 years of age. Some idea of
the composition of the white population may be gathered from the
following statement as to the nationality of the larger portion:
English, 22; German, 27; Irish, 14; Scotch, 14: born in the United
States, 228; Californians, 89.

Previously to the first of April, 1847, there had been erected in the
town 79 buildings, nearly all of which had been erected within the two
years preceding, whereas in the next four months 78 more had been
constructed.

There can be no better evidence of the advantages and capabilities for
improvement of the place than this single fact."--St. Louis "Reville,"
February 12, 1848.

John A. Sutter.

I remember standing on the bank of the Sacramento River, talking with
Captain Sutter, in the fall of '49; he remarked, "I have moored my boats
in the tops of those cottonwood trees, where the driftwood showed not
less than 25 feet from the ground."

"The Plaza."

Portsmouth Square or the "Plaza," as we th