sole publisher of the "Californian," issued the first number of the second volume of that paper at the former town, much enlarged and every way improved. This therefore was the second newspaper established in our city, at a time when the permanent population did not exceed four hundred.

From the columns of these early papers we extract much. curious information regarding the number and elements of the population of San Francisco in the latter part of June, 1847. The following table shows the total number of inhabitants, the sex and age of the whites, and the sex of the Indians, Sandwich Islanders, and negroes; excluding the officers and soldiers of the detachment of New York volunteers stationed there at the time :

From this table it will be seen that upwards of four-fifths of the whole population were under forty years of age; while more than one-half were between twenty and forty-the prime of life. Under twenty, the sexes were nearly equal in number; but above that age, the vast majority were males. These circumstances must be borne in mind when the reader considers the restless enterprise, energy and capability exhibited by the comparatively small population of the town. We have already alluded to the mixture of foreigners who settled in San Fran

cisco. We now give the birth-places of the above white population :

Born in the United States, 228; in California, 38; other Mexican departments, 2; Canada, 5; Chili, 2; England, 22; France, 3; Germany, 27; Ireland, 14; Scotland, 14; Switzerland, 6; at sea, 4; Denmark, Malta, New Holland, New Zea

land, Peru, Poland, Russia, Sandwich Islands, Sweden and West Indies, one each.

As of the number stated to have been born in California, eight were children of immigrant parents, it will be seen that the total population of Spanish or Mexican descent was only thirty-two. Three-fifths of the total inhabitants were of direct American origin; and perhaps one-fifth more was composed of people who had previously settled or lived in the United States. The Americans, however, as may be supposed, were from every,

State in the Union, and were often as different from each other in personal characteristics, as if they had been so many foreigners of separate countries.

The number who could read and write was two hundred and seventy-three; those who could read, but not write, were thirteen; while those who could neither read nor write, were eightynine.

From these statements it appears that the number who could neither read nor write bore a near relation to the number of inhabitants under ten years of age. At that period, it may be mentioned, there was only one school in the place, and no proper facilities were as yet given for bestowing a suitable education upon the young.

The occupations or professions of the white males were as follows:-1 minister; 3 doctors; 3 lawyers; 2 surveyors; 1 school-teacher; 11 agriculturalists; 7 bakers; 6 blacksmiths; 1 brewer; 6 brick-makers; 7 butchers; 2 cabinet makers; 26 carpenters; 1 cigar-maker; 13 clerks; 3 coopers; 1 gardener; 5 grocers; 2 gunsmiths; 3 hotel-keepers; 20 laborers; 4 masons; 11 merchants; 1 miner; 1 morocco-case maker; 6 inland navigators; 1 ocean navigator; 1 painter; 6 printers; 1 saddler; 4 shoemakers; 1 silversmith; 4 tailors; 2 tanners; 1 watchmaker; 1 weaver.

The places in which the inhabitants conducted their business, were as follows, viz. :-shops, 1 apothecary, 2 blacksmith, 3 butcher, 1 cabinet maker, 2 carpenter, 1 cigar-maker, 2 cooper, 1 gun-smith, 1 shoemaker, 2 tailor, and 1 watchmaker; 8 stores; 7 groceries; 2 hotels ; 1 wind-mill; 1 horse-mill; 2 printingoffices; and 3 bakeries.

The Indians, Sandwich Islanders, and negroes, who formed nearly one-fifth of the population, were mostly employed as servants and porters. Many of the Sandwich Islanders were engaged in navigating the bay, and were very expert boatmen.

On the 30th of January, 1847, the following important "ordinance" appeared in the "California Star."

"AN ORDINANCE.

"WHEREAS, the local name of Yerba Buena, as applied to the settlement or town of San Francisco, is unknown beyond the district; and has been ap

plied from the local name of the cove, on which the town is built: Therefore, to prevent confusion and mistakes in public documents, and that the town may have the advantage of the name given on the public map,

"IT IS HEREBY ORDAINED, that the name of SAN FRANCISCO shall hereafter be used in all official communications and public documents, or records appertaining to the town.

"Published by order,

"WASH'N A. Bartlett,

"Chief Magistrate.

"J. G. T. DUNLEAVY, Municipal Clerk."

Mr. Bartlett was the first alcalde of San Francisco under the American flag. He was a lieutenant in the United States navy; and on being subsequently ordered to his ship, Mr. Edwin Bryant was appointed in his place, and sworn into office on the 22d day of February, 1847. This gentleman had travelled the previous year across the country from Independence, Mo., to the Pacific, and had subsequently joined Col. Fremont as a volunteer in the reduction of California. Shortly afterwards, he published in New York an interesting account of his travels under the title, "What I saw in California." Before Mr. Bryant's appointment to the chief-magistracy, Mr. George Hyde had acted for a short time as temporary alcalde.

Under the laws of Mexico, an alcalde had the entire control of municipal affairs, and administered justice pretty much. according to his own ideas of the subject; without being tied down to precedents and formal principles of law. He could make grants of building-lots within the town boundaries to intending settlers; and really in general, his right of administration (except in cases of importance, either civil or criminal), seems to have been only limited by his power to carry his decrees into effect. When the Americans seized the country, and until peace should be declared or a formal constitution adopted, they were obliged to make use of the existing machinery of local government and the customary laws that regulated it. They accordingly every where appointed alcaldes, or chief-magistrates of towns and districts (it was of little consequence that they were not lawyers, but only ministers, doctors, adventurers, men of business, or of pleasure, and the like), and instructed them to dispense justice in the best manner they could, paying always

as much regard as possible to the national laws of Mexico and the provincial customs of California.

The laws of Mexico reserved to the governor of a province the disposal of lands in towns within a certain number of feet. below high-water mark. By this time, from the number of ships arriving in the Bay of San Francisco, it was becoming absolutely necessary that proper facilities should be given for the discharge and the reception of cargoes, and that wharves and other landing-places should be built across the great mud flat close upon the beach at the town, and extended to deep water, so that vessels could lie alongside. Upon the application therefore of the alcalde, Mr. Bryant, the then governor of California, General Kearny, in anticipation that the country was ultimately to become American, formerly renounced, on the 10th of March, 1847, in favor of the municipal authorities, the beach and water property lying between the points known as the Rincon and Fort Montgomery, upon the conditions stated in his decree. An extended survey and plan of the town had been previously commenced by Mr. Jasper O'Farrell, under the instructions of the former alcalde, Mr. Bartlett, and were now continued so as to embrace the beach and water property. When this survey was completed, the shore lots, as distinguished from those on the beach, were disposed of by private sale to applicants at a fixed price put on them by the alcalde, agreeably to the Mexican customs. The plan of the city, as surveyed and mapped out by Mr. O'Farrell, fronted the cove, and included the Telegraph Hill and the Rincon. It extended about three quarters of a mile from north to south, and two miles from east to west, and embraced about one and a half square miles. As the disposal of the beach and water lots was a great event in the history of San Francisco, we give a copy of the advertisement announcing the sale, and which was published in the "California Star," of the town, and in the "Californian," of Monterey, in conformity with the governor's decree :

"GREAT SALE OF VALUABLE REAL ESTATE IN THE TOWN OF SAN FRANCISCO, UPPER CALIFORNIA.

"By the following decree of His Excellency, General S. W. Kearny, Governor of California, all the right, title and interest, of the United States, and