Historical and descriptive sketch book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino : comprising sketches of their topography, productions, history, scenery, and peculiar attractions, Part 1

Author: Menefee, C. A. (Campbell Augustus), 1846- 4n
Publication date: 1873
Publisher: Napa City, [Calif.] : Reporter Pub. House
Number of Pages: 404


USA > California > Napa County > Historical and descriptive sketch book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino : comprising sketches of their topography, productions, history, scenery, and peculiar attractions > Part 1
USA > California > Lake County > Historical and descriptive sketch book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino : comprising sketches of their topography, productions, history, scenery, and peculiar attractions > Part 1
USA > California > Sonoma County > Historical and descriptive sketch book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino : comprising sketches of their topography, productions, history, scenery, and peculiar attractions > Part 1
USA > California > Mendocino County > Historical and descriptive sketch book of Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino : comprising sketches of their topography, productions, history, scenery, and peculiar attractions > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27


ـطيف


حصـ


Gc 979.4 M52h 1166924


M. L.


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GENEALOGY COLLECTION


ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01148 4562


---


-


SHARE & BURR. S.F.


PLAZA AND BARRACKS OF SONOMA.


HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE


SKETCH BOOK


OF


Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino,


COMPRISING SKETCHES OF


THEIR TOPOGRAPHY, PRODUCTIONS, HISTORY, SCENERY. AND PECULIAR ATTRACTIONS.


979.4 m52h


BY C. A. MENEFEE.


NAPA CITY : REPORTER PUBLISHING HOUSE.


1873.


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by C. A. MENEFEE,


In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.


30.00


Caravan Book Store_


1166924 TO


The Pioneers of California,


THE BRAVE AND THE TRUE.


The purest Nobility, the Vanguard of Civilization,


THIS VOLUME IS


RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED


By the AUTHOR.


PREFACE.


The author of this volume offers no other apology for his appear- ance in the role of book-maker than the desire to assist in the per- petuating in memory the scenes, the events, and the men of the past and present, who have acted so prominent a part in the forma- tion and progress of our State and county; a lso the desire, fairly and honestly, to represent the beauties and attractions of the part of the State of which this volume treats. The merits of the subject are great, the endeavor to represent these merits fairly has been honest, und if the endeavor has failed, the failure is wholly attributable to the inability and want of judgment of the author. The work is purely local. It treats simply of local subjects, the early history, tlrc pioneers, the progress of civilization, and the present condition and attractive features of these four counties. The labor that it has cost has been very great; yet looking upon the country of which it treats, as the garden spot of California, the task has been a labor of love. The work has been completed under the most annoying and dis- couraging circumstances. A more than due share of delays and disappointments has attended its compilation and its publication. This is the first local work of the kind ever published in California, and the first book that has ever been printed in the State that has been so illustrated. all the engravings of which were made by Cali- fornia artists.


PREFACE.


The historical portion of Napa county was chiefly compiled by Mr. R. T. Montgomery. He likewise arranged a few of the biographical sketches. He was engaged to finish the whole of this county, but circumstances prevented him, and the author was com- . pelled to take up the half completed task, revise, re-compile, and complete.


The author here wishes to express his sincere thanks for the many courtesies that have been extended to him by numerous persons. And especially has he cause for expressing his gratitude to Mr. J. L. Edwards of St. Helena, Mr. Tunis of Lakeport, and Mr. A. O. Carpenter of Ukiah, for valuable assistance rendered. Much of the interesting matter herein contained is due to the interest these gen- tlemen took in the work, and the material aid they rendered.


Great as the work has been, and strong as the desire to have it complete, the work is far, very far from equaling what the author's ideal was when it was commenced. That it is imperfect he well knows; that many things of great moment, and many pioneers of note have been omitted, he freely acknowledges; but that it is the best that time and circumstances would admit, is claimed. It is so far from what he had intended, that it is with a feeling of mingled regret and disappointment that the author gives it to the reader. But, such as it is, with all its imperfections, it is placed before an appreciative public for their approval or condemnation.


-


CONTENTS.


NAPA COUNTY.


CHAPTER I.


THE INDIAN TRIBES. PAGE


Their general appearance. - Numbers and tribes. - Food and habits .- Cause of their decrease in numbers. - Sweat House .- Funeral rites and ideas of a future state. - - - 17


CHAPTER II.


NAPA COUNTY- GENERAL DESCRIPTION.


Location and boundary. - Formation of the land .- The Central Valley .- West side of the Valley .-- East side of the Valley. - The minor Valleys. - - -


32


CHAPTER III.


CLIMATE OF NAPA COUNTY.


Sea Breeze .-- Snow. - Spring Rains. - Harvesting. 41


CHAPTER IV.


.


PROGRESS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY.


Condition under Mexican rule .- Early business in Napa City .- The inhabitants .- The first Court House .- Im- provements in City and Valley. - The Napa Valley Rail- road .- The Schools. - - -


+5


CONTENTS. 8


CHAPTER V.


HISTORICAL MISCELLANY.


Early Records .- Early prices .- Case of N. McCauley .- Value of lands in 1852 .- Various items of Record .- County indebtedness in 1857 .- Election returns and tax- levies from 1857 to 1872. -


71


CHAPTER VI. HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS.


The Napa Reporter .- The Pioneer Press. - The Napa Regis- ter .- The Napa City Herald, and other papers .- Daily pa-


- pers.


8z


CHAPTER VII.


MINES AND MINERALS.


The great mineral excitement .- Phoenix Mining Company .- Redington Mining Company .- Pope Valley Mining Com- pany .- Washington Mining Company .- Hamilton Min- ing Company .- Valley Mining Company .- The Summit Mine .-- Oakville Mining Company .- New Burlington Mining Company .- Red Hill Mining Company .- Silver Bow Mining Company .- Overland Mining Company .- Mutual Mining Company .- Mammoth Mining Company. -Petroleum Company .- Coal Companies. -


CHAPTER VIII. MISCELLANEOUS CORPORATIONS.


Napa Valley Railroad .- The Bank of Napa. - Napa Gas Company .- Napa Valley Savings and Loan Society .- Pio- neer Engine Company. - Masonic Cemetery Association. - Town Hall Association .- Odd Fellows' Hall Association. -Napa Library Association .- Calistoga Hotel Company. -White Sulphur Springs Hotel Company. - Water Com- - 105


panics.


CHAPTER IX.


CHURCHES AND BENEVOLENT ORGANIZATIONS. Presbyterian Church, Napa. - Baptist Church. Napa. - Christ


88


CONTENTS.


Church, (Episcopal), Napa .- Presbyterian Church, St. Helena .- Methodist Church, Napa .- Catholic Church, Napa. - Christian Church, Napa .- Unitarian Society, Napa. - Presbyterian Church, Calistoga. - Methodist Church, Calistoga. - Methodist Church, St. Helena. - Bap- tist Church, St. Helena .- Napa Cemetery Association. - Napa Chapter R. A. M .- Yount Lodge, F. & A. M .- Napa Lodge. Odd Fellows. - St. Helena Lodge, Odd Fellows .- Emery Lodge, Good Templars .- Yountville Lodge. Good Templars .- Monroe Lodge, Good Tem- plars. -- St. Helena Lodge, F. & A. M .- Other Lodges. - 112


CHAPTER X.


EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. Napa Collegiate Institute. - Napa Ladies' Seminary. 121


CHAPTER XL. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHIC.AL.


George C. Yount. Capt. John Grigsby. Nathan Coombs. Guy Freeman Fling. Simpson Thompson. Governor Edward Stanley. Johnson Horrell. Capt. Robert West. William H. Nash. William Gouverneur Morris. John Lawley. Col. James Clyman. Elisha G. Young. Ralph Ellis. Peter D. Bailey. Charles Hopper. Governor L. W. Boggs. Joseph Mecklenberg. John Steckter. H. N. Amesbury. Lyman Chapman. J. H. Howland. J. B. Horrell. Samuel Heald. Wm. H. Winter. Thomas Earl. A. B. Walker. Wm. Baldridge. E. Biggs. G. N. Cornwell. Robert Crouch. John M. Patchett. W. Stillwagon. A. Y. Easterby. David IIudson. John York. William Russell. A. G. Clark. James H. Good-


man. Peter Storm. William Pope. Elias Barnett. R. D. Hopkins. R. T. Montgomery. A. J. Cox. Col. J. B. Chiles. Wm. HI. Baxter. E. N. Boynton. Beeby Robinson. C. P. Briggs. R. C. Gillaspy. Sim. Bu- ford. Chancellor Hartson. Samuel Brannan. B. W.


Arnold. Cayetano Juarez. John S. Stark. M. D. Rit- chie. C. H. Allen. -


125


IO


CONTENTS.


CHAPTER XII. TOWNS AND WATERING PLACES. Yountville .- St. Helena .- Monticello and Berryessa Val- ley .- Calistoga .- White Sulphur Springs .- Napa Soda Springs .-- Petrified Forest .- Mount St. Helena. - 185


CHAPTER XIII. AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES,


Hop Culture .- The Tea Plant .- Fruits and Nuts .- Stock Raising .- Other Productions .- Sericulture. -- Viniculture and Vine growers. - - -


196


CHAPTER XIV.


THE FUTURE OF MAPA.


The Labor Problem. - - I - 215 -


LAKE COUNTY.


CHAPTER 1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.


Clear Lake .- Big Valley .-- Blue Lakes, -Borax Lakes .- Sulphur Banks. -


- - 223


CHAPTER H.


HISTORICAL. SKETCH.


Elections. - 220


CHAPTER III. SOURCES OF WEALTH.


Agriculture, Mining, and Stock Raising. - 234


CHAPTER IV.


TOWNS AND WATERING PLACES. Lakeport .--- Lower Lake .- Middletown .--- Guenoc. -- Bartlett


I 1


CONTENTS.


Springs .- Beautiful Scenery .-- Harbin Springs. - Adams Springs .-- Sigler Springs .- Caldwell Springs .- Soda Bay. Cobb Valley .- In General. -- Moral and Social Status. - Financial Condition. - -


- 237


SONOMA COUNTY.


CHAPTER I. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.


Town of Sonoma and surrounding Valley .- Santa Rosa Val- lev. - Russian River Valley.


- 251


CHAPTER II. TOWNS AND WATERING PLACES.


Sonoma. -- Donohoe. - Petaluma. --- Santa Rosa. --- Healds- burg. - Cloverdale. --- Other places .-- Skaggs Springs. - The Geysers. To Tourists. 256


CHAPTER III.


SOURCES OF WEALTH.


Agricultural. - Pastoral .- Forests .- Mineral .- Vineyards. - 278


CHAPTER IV.


HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL.


Cyrus Alexander. Col. Agoston Haraszthy. Ransom Powell. A. P. Petit. WVm. Ross. John Mathews. F. L. Davis. Attila Haraszthy. D. Cook. A. G. Lyon. C. V. Stuart. Wm. B. Read. Wm. Ilood. James A. Shaw. N. J. S. Long. Louis Adler. O. W. Craig. H. Clark. Solomon Carriger. C. C. Carriger. Nicholas Carriger. C. W. Lubeck. L. W. Meyer. Franklin Sears. G. T. Pauli. Edward Neblett. Thos. Hopper. John Brown. W. S. M. Wright. E. Latapie. John In- graham. W. R. Morris. Wm. McPherson Hill. J. P. Walker. F. M. Leavenworth. Joseph Wright. Charles


·


1 2


CONTENTS.


Hall. J. R. Snyder. M. G. Vallejo. Wm. M. Boggs.


Wm. J. Reynolds. D. Chamberlain. Matheu Engler. J. K. Smith.


283


CHAPTER V.


GENERAL MISCELLANY.


Schools. --- Churches .- Benevolent Orders, etc .-- Railroad. Election Returns. - Value of Land. - - 514


MENDOCINO COUNTY.


GENERAL DESCRIPTION.


Location .- The Coast Division. - The Russian River Divis- ion .- The Eel River Division. -


33ª


CHAPTER 11.


GENERAL MISCELLANY.


Historical Sketch. - Resources of Mendocino. -


338


ADDENDA.


BIOGRAPHIES AND STATISTICS.


John York. J. B. Warfield. C. M. Hudspeth. James M. Hudspeth. - -


- 345


The Bar of Napa, - -


- 349


Tables showing progress of Napa City, - -


351 Statistics of the Four Counties, - - -


352 Valuation of property in Napa and Sonoma, -


353


- ClimateȚin Napa, - -


-


354


Vineyards in Napa and Sonoma, -


355


Plaza in Sonoma and Bear Flag Party, - -


357


ILLUSTRATIONS.


PAGE


Sonoma Barracks. Frontispiece.


Young Ladies' Seminary 16


At the Rancheria . 17


Scene from the White Sulphur Springs 45


R. T. Montgomery So


A. J. Cox. 80


R. D. Hopkins


So


Calistoga Springs, looking West


88


Napa Collegiate Institute


105


The Bank of Napa.


124


St. Helena Mountain, from Calistoga


125


Win. Gouverneur Morris


144


George C. Yount


176


WV. HI. Winter


176


Thos. Earl 176


ISS


White Sulphur Springs Hotel.


193


View at the Geysers. 196


Point Arena Light House 215


Uncle Sam, from Lakeport.


223


View of Harbin Springs


237


Gov. L. W. Boggs


248


Moonlight on Pluton Canon


266


'The Witches' Cauldron


271


J. R. Snyder . 288


Charles Hopper. 328


Scene at the Mouth of the Albion River 331


Napa Insane Asylum 244


Bank of J. H. Goodman & Co.


112


View in Cobb Valley


ODE TO NAPA.


BY R. M. S.


.


In the dark and sullen gloom Of years long since gone by, Once lay thy now happy homes Uncarved, unmade, unknown. The wild man trod thy rolling hills. And bent his springing bow, And sped his arrow at the game, And lived as Nature taught him how . Beaten trails among the brakes And tangled ferns he made, And in the clear and limpid streams His swarthy limbs he bathed.


Silence reigned o'er hill and dale. Save when his echoing whoop Rang from erag to peak Then floated on the gale ; Save, too, the hawk's shrill seream.


Or the night bird's lonely cry, Or the savage howl of cruel beast. Naught but thy old oaks can tell. Or the twinkling stars unfold The changes wrought, and what bofell,


· Through those long years of Nature's rale, Of earthquakes, storms, and floods, Of Summer suns, and Winter ronts : And yet, the Sage of Nature sces


-


15


ODE TO NAPA.


Symbols in rocks and tongues in trees, To him her hoary scars and shadowy signs Speak wisdom, truth and cloquence.


A change came o'er thy mystic life, Like the dawn of polar light The dark and gloom began to break And flee away as if in fright. One early morn the eurling smoke Of a stranger's camp fire rose, And melted away in the mists of the morn Like incense of the wild-thorn rose. A signal of the red-man's doom. Frought with a potency divine. His power supreme so long endured, Must swiftly, surely soon decline ; For e'er twelve moons shall wax and wane. A thousand camps shall brightly burn ; And pale-faced bands with nerves like steel. Though strangers in this Western land, Shall make the red-man feel the miglit And power of his conquering hand.


· By magie all the scene is changed : Where grew the lordly forest tree, The plowshare turns the fallow lea, The waving grain and rustling corn. Hill and dale in times adorn : And where the old adobe stood. Its roof red-tiled and low, A mansion now adorns the spot. And dripping fountains flow ; Beneath the city's busy tread Lie the wigwams of yore. And now high steeples mark the spot Where dusky maids in years before, At the same wigwam door, Sat thoughtless of their coming lot.


The steam-car rattles o'er the plains. The light'ning speaks in words. And where the light eanos Athwart the stream they shot, The paddled barge hor course pursues. With lungs of iron and breath of fire, She stems the tide with giant strength, The whirls and eddies heeding not ; And to thy mart like white winged birds, In search of bounteous fields, The sailing fleets do gather here


16


ODE TO NAPA.


To take the golden yield, The spoil of those who toil, Who sow and reap on thy rich soil And sail away to other marts, To furnish those who work the arts.


And when the evening chimes ring out,


And the faithful laborer's work is done, The motherly matron spreads the board And happy children full of glee, Haste to give their sire a kiss.


And when the holy Sabbath dawns.


Thy bells ring out, then pause, The echo'ing answer hearing, Peal on peal while ringing, And the joyons throng while nearing. Off"rings of faith are bringing.


No day e'er dawned with more apace, No sun with more of splendor rosc. Than when the stranger came And smiled at Nature's repose ;


The warm Sonth wind but gently blew.


And meekly bowed the flowers.


While twittering birds their carols sang. Half hid in leafy bowers ; The soft large moon looked mildly down ..


The stars but twinkled in mirth,


The swaying boughs the chorus joined And praised the new day's birth. Ring out ye bells, ring lond and clear. The spell-bound years are gone, New life and light are dawning here. While ph. ty and peace abound.


S


NAPA COUNTY.


1


1


1872


NAPA SEMINARY &


NAPA SEMINARY.


&V


AT THE RANCHERIA.


NAPA COUNTY :


AS IT WAS AND IS.


CHAPTER I.


THE INDIAN TRIBES,


PTTHE Indians inhabiting the region now known as Napa County did not differ essentially from the other tribes-those found in Southern and Middle California. They presented the same physical characteristics, habits and customs. They were generally of small stature, broad shouldered, and possessed of great strength. They were of swarthy complexion, beardless, and had long, coarse and straight black hair. The shape of their heads indicated a low rank in the intellectual scale, and a predominance of all the propensities of the brute creation. Indeed they seemed to be rather an intermediate race or connecting link between man and the brutes, scarcely supe-


18


NAPA COUNTY AS IT WAS AND IS.


rior to the higher types of the latter, and only in a few points resem- bling the lowest class of the former. A few exceptions existed, but as a race, they were inferior to all the aboriginal tribes of this continent.


It is exceedingly difficult at this time to give an accurate account of these tribes. Their numbers were never exactly known, their habits being migratory, and their camps seldom permanent for any great length of time. It is not probable that the Indians knew their own number, or that they cared to know, and their rapid disappearance has left very few of whom even to make inquiry, and perhaps none . who could give any definite information. We are therefore neces- sarily left to the alternative of estimating their numbers from the statements of early settlers and others who visited California at an early day.


Kit Carson says that in 1829, the valleys of California were full of Indians. He saw much of large and flourishing tribes that then ex- isted. When he again visited the State in 1859, they had mostly dis- appeared, and the people who resided in the localities where he had seen them, declared that they had no knowledge of them whatever. They had disappeared and left no record of the cause which had led to their extermination. No estimate of their numbers appears to have been made until 1823, and it was known that they had then greatly decreased.


Down to 1856 they thronged the streets of Napa City in great numbers, especially on Sundays, picking up odds and ends of cast- off clothing, occasionally fighting, and always getting drunk if the means were procurable. Male and female, they encumbered the side-walks, lounging or sleeping in the sun, half clad and squalid- pictures of humanity in its lowest state of degradation. Now an In- dian is rarely to be seen.


It was the custom of the Indians to establish their rancherias upon the grants of the early settlers, in order to gain a livelihood by oc- casional labor. In 1843 there were from fifty to one hundred upon Bale Rancho, four hundred upon the Caymus Rancho, six hundred upon the Salvador Rancho, a large number upon the Juarez and the Higuera Ranchos, and a still larger number at Soscol. These were in some sense permanently fixed and residing constantly in one place. Besides these there were thousands of nomads, who roam-


19


THE INDIAN TRIBES.


cd the valleys and mountains as caprice or hunger dictated. A few remain upon some of the ranchos named, but there are not one hundred altogether in the entire county.


George C. Yount, the first white settler in Napa Valley, (who ar- arrived here in 1831) said that, in round numbers, there were from 10,000 to 12,000 Indians ranging the country between Napa and Clear Lake. Of this number he says there were at least 3,000 in Napa County, and perhaps twice that number. It is only certain that they were very numerous, and that they have mostly disappeared. As late as in 1856, they were quite numerous in the environs of- Napa City, and were wont at certain times to make night hideous with their howlings among the willows along the banks of the river, with what purposes or motives we are left to conjecture.


At the time of Mr. Yount's arrival in the Valley, in 1831, there were six tribes of Indians in it, speaking different, although cognate dialects, and almost constantly at war with each other.


The Mayacomas tribe dwelt near the Hot Springs (Aguas Calien- tes) now Calistoga, at the upper end of this Valley, and the Callajo- manas, on the lands now known as the. Bale Rancho, near St. Hel- ena. The Caymus tribe dwelt upon the Yount Grant, to which they gave their name. The Napa Indians occupied the Mexican grant of Entré Napa, that is, the lands between Napa River and Napa Creek, to which they also gave their tribe name. The word Napa is said to signify "fish." The authority for this signification rests on the declaration of old pioneers, and is corroborated by the fact that in the cognate languages of the tribes on the northern coast, the word still bears the same signification. At least we have the in- formation from one who was among the Gold Bluff adventurers, and who made a fish trade with an Indian, selling his shirt from off his back in exchange for a salmon. Doubtless the Indian word for fish must have been strongly impressed upon his memory by such a transaction.


The Ulucas dwelt "on the East side of Napa River, near Napa City, and one of their words survives in the word Tulocay Ranch and Cemetery. The Soscol tribe occupied the Soscol Grant, on which are now situated the magnificent and extensive orchards of Messrs. Thompson, and of Morrissiana, the estate of Maj. Wm. Gouverneur Morris, U. S. Marshal.


The languages of the various tribes on this coast appear to have


-


20


NAPA COUNTY AS IT WAS AND IS.


some words in common, and in the opinion of the missionary wri- ters, were derived from one common stock, yet the dialects and idi- oms of the different tribes were so distinct and peculiar, as nearly to prevent verbal intercommunication among them.


The remnants of these tribes seem partially to have abandoned their native tongue since the occupation of the country by civilized men, and to have learned and adopted a large number of Spanish words, and more recently, some of our own language. These mix- ed with a goodly proportion of Indian, form a conglomerate "lingo," perhaps sufficiently expressive, but not remarkable for harmony or elegance.


The great numbers of these Indians is corroborated by the nu- merous circles of earth, stone and rubbish which mark the site of their rancherias, and by the remains of their inseparable "sweat- houses." They are found near springs or along the streams through- out Napa Valley and others adjacent. These perishable and per- ishing monuments tell us almost all that is to be known of a re- cently numerous, but almost extinct race. Of their wars and the causes of them we know nothing. Of their hopes, fears, joys and aspirations, we can form no conception. We only know that they were and are not-their poor remaining remnant being doomed to extinction as complete as that of the Narragansetts of New Eng- land, whose language, although preserved in print by the zealous mis- sionary, Elliott, in his Indian Bible, can no longer be deciphered by a single human being.


All these Indians were in fact, as in name, "Diggers." A con- siderable portion of their food consisted of wild edible roots, among which was the amole, or soap-root. They could dig small animals out from their burrows, and when hard pressed would eat almost anything that had life-even to earth worms. Of fish, they had at most seasons, an abundant supply. Grasshoppers were one of their favorite "dishes." They also made a kind of bread, some- times from acorns, with which the valleys abounded, sometimes of pine-nuts, and at others from the crushed kernels of the buckeye, washed to eliminate their bitter and noxious qualities.


Incredible as it may seem, and loathesome even to think of, it is well authenticated that they carefully gathered certain large, fat and reddish spotted worms, found at some seasons of the year upon the


0


21


THE INDIAN TRIBES.


stalks of grasses and wild oats and used them as "shortening" for their bread. The statement is made on the authority of a pioneer of unquestionable veracity, who was with a party of Indians, and who seeing one of them gathering every worm he met with and put- ting it in a pouch at his side, enquired what use was to be made of them. He had been eating of their bread, but it is hardly neces- sary to add that the stomach of even an old trapper, revolted from that hour against Indian cookery.


Their food.corresponded well with their position in the scale of humanity, and this was well nigh the lowest. Of the building of permanent and comfortable habitations, they had no knowledge. They constructed for themselves in the rainy season, rude shelters with the boughs of trees, by no means impervious to rain or wind, and which, architecturally considered, were far inferior to the hut of the bear, or the lairs of the lower animals. In summer they en- camped among the willows along the streams, or in the first thicket that promised even the semblance of protection from the elements. They deemed it unhealthy to sleep in a house, and indeed for them it probably was so. At least, when years afterwards, young Indians, male and female, were either captured or kidnapped, and made use of by white settlers as servants or slaves, as they were for several years, they seldom, lived more than two or three years, being gen- erally carried off by pulmonary diseases.


Before the period of the occupation of the country by Americans, the Mexicans tilled but a small portion of the soil, their chief pur- suit being stock-raising. Immense herds of cattle roamed over the country, and many of the Indians, either by stealth, or by trifling labor for the owners of grants, could obtain a supply of beef and corn and beans to eke out a precarious support from other sources. The sudden influx of an American population put an end to this condition of things. The wild cattle gradually disappeared. Game grew shy and scarce. The holders of land grants were encroached upon by "squatters," who appropriated the soil without ceremony, so that they had no longer any use for the services of the Indians, and no motive, even if they had the power, for supplying their wants, except in rare instances. The valleys were fenced up and cultivated, and the right of private domain asserted and enforced on the banks of streams where the Diggers had fished. from time im-




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