ous depths sucked in horse and dray, and occasionally man himself,) were crowded with human beings from every corner of the universe and of every tongue-all excited and busy, plotting, speaking, working, buying and selling town lots, and beach and water lots, shiploads of every kind of assorted merchandise, the ships themselves, if they could,-though that was not often,gold dust in hundred weights, ranches square leagues in extent, with their thousands of cattle-allotments in hundreds of contemplated towns, already prettily designed and laid out,―on paper, and, in short, speculating and gambling in every branch of modern commerce, and in many strange things peculiar to the time and the place. And every body made money, and was suddenly growing rich. The loud voices of the eager seller and as eager buyer-the laugh of reckless joy-the bold accents of successful speculation -the stir and hum of active hurried labor, as man and brute, horse and bullock, and their guides, struggled and managed through heaps of loose rubbish, over hills of sand, and among deceiving deep mud pools and swamps, filled the amazed newly arrived immigrant with an almost appalling sense of the exuberant life, energy and enterprise of the place. He breathed quick and faintly-his limbs grew weak as water-and his heart sunk within him as he thought of the dreadful conflict, when he approached and mingled among that confused and terrible business battle. Gambling saloons, glittering like fairy palaces, like them suddenly sprang into existence, studding nearly all sides of the plaza, and every street in its neighborhood. As if intoxicating drinks from the well plenished and splendid bar they each contained were insufficient to gild the scene, music added its loudest, if not its sweetest charms; and all was mad, feverish mirth, where fortunes were lost and won, upon the green cloth, in the twinkling of an eye. All classes gambled in those days, from the starched white neck-clothed professor of religion to the veriest black rascal that earned a dollar for blackening massa's boots. Nobody had leisure to think even for a moment of his occupation, and how it was viewed in Christian lands. The heated brain was never allowed to get cool while a bit of coin or dust was left. These saloons, therefore, were crowded, night and day, by impatient revellers who never could satiate themselves with excitement, nor get rid too soon of their golden heaps. We are, however, anticipating and going ahead too fast. We cannot help it. The very thought of that wondrous time is an electric spark that fires into one great flame all our fancies, passions and experiences of the fall of the eventful year, 1849. The remembrance of those days comes across us like the delirium of fever; we are caught by it before we are aware, and forthwith begin to babble of things which to our sober Atlantic friends seem more the ravings of a madman, than plain, dull realities. The world had perhaps never before afforded such a spectacle ; and probably nothing of the kind will be witnessed again for generations to come. Happy the man who can tell of those things which he saw and perhaps himself did, at San Francisco, at that time. He shall be an oracle to admiring neighbors. A city of twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants improvised—the people nearly all adult males, strong in person, clever, bold, sanguine, restless and reckless- -But really we must stop now, and descend to our simple "annals." CHAPTER VII. 1849. The Alta California newspaper established.-Delegates elected to the proposed convention to be held at San José.-New town council elected.-Three town councils at one time.-Meeting of the convention to frame a civil government postponed.-Public meeting respecting the conflicting coun cils.-Public meeting concerning negro slavery.-Town councils resigned, and legislative assembly chosen.-Arrival of the steamship California.-Address of delegates to civil government con vention.-Arrival of steamship Oregon, and Col. John W. Geary with the first United States mails.-General Riley announced territorial governor.-Acts of the legislative assembly and of the governor.-Meetings concerning municipal and State governments.-Growth, population and general prosperity of the city.-Gambling and other vices and crimes JANUARY 4th.-"The Star and Californian" is dropped, and the "Alta California," a weekly newspaper of the same character and appearance, and published by the same parties, is issued in its stead. JANUARY 8th.-Election of delegates to the proposed convention at San José, in conformity with the resolutions of the public meeting of 23d ultimo, when Wm. M. Stewart, Francis J. Lippitt, Elbert P. Jones, Myron Norton and John A. Patterson were chosen. JANUARY 15th.-New election of town council, which resulted in the choice of Stephen C. Harris, Lazarus Everhart, Stephen A. Wright, Daniel Starks, Isaac Montgomery, John Sirrine, and C. E. Wetmore. Mr. Sirrine was appointed president. There were at this period three town councils in San Francisco, viz. :—the old one of 1848, not yet dissolved, and those elected on the 27th December and 15th January respectively. The former of the two last insisted that the council of the previous year had expired the very day of its own election on the 27th December, and therefore the members met and transacted business as if it alone represented the town. A majority of the old council, however, insisted on continuing in office till those whom they considered their proper successors were chosen, and accordingly, they supported the council elected on the 15th January, and resolved to transier the municipal records into its hands. The citizens generally seemed adverse to the pretensions of the old council, as scarcely a fourth part of the numbers that voted on the 27th December voted on the second election of the 15th January. Strong party and personal feelings existed among the inhabitants at this time. The alcalde, T. M. Leavenworth, and his official acts, among other subjects of contention, were vigorously attacked by one party, and as strenuously defended by the other. JANUARY 24th. The corresponding committee for the District of San Francisco, on the suggestion of the delegates chosen at Monterey, recommend a postponement of the assembling of the convention for framing a civil government to the first day of May, in order to give the southern districts sufficient time to elect delegates and appear at the convention. The movement for the election of such delegates is general over the country, as the people are satisfied that the present state of civil disorganization cannot safely be longer permitted. FEBRUARY. It was estimated that the population was now about two thousand. FEBRUARY 12th.-Public meeting of citizens to consider the anomalous position of two town councils existing and acting, independently of each other, at the same time. Myron Norton was called upon to preside, and T. W. Perkins to act as secretary. George Hyde submitted a plan of municipal organization and government, which was adopted by the meeting; and resolutions were passed requesting the members of both councils to resign, and appointing an election of fifteen town councillors and three justices of the peace, to take place on the 21st instant. FEBRUARY 17th and 24th.-Public meetings to consider the propriety of instructing the delegates to the convention of the 1st of May to oppose any incipient act that might tend to the introduction of negro slavery into California. Capt. J. L. Folsom was chosen president, and B. R. Buckelew secretary. It was known that the whole delay of Congress in providing a territorial government had arisen from the disputes, and the apparent im possibility of agreement between the two great political parties on this subject. The inhabitants of the country itself might be said to be unanimous against slavery in all shapes among them; and they were justly indignant that the Atlantic politicians should pretend to dictate to them any thing on the matter. At these meetings, resolutions were passed, instructing the delegates of the San Francisco district, "by all honorable means to oppose any act, measure, provision or ordinance that is calculated to further the introduction of domestic slavery into the territory of California." FEBRUARY 21st.-In compliance with the wishes of the meeting of the 12th instant, the members of both town councils resigned their office, and an election of fifteen members of a legislative assembly and three justices of the peace took place this day, which it was hoped would settle all disputes between the rival partisans. The parties elected were as follows: Myron Norton, Stephen A. Wright, Justices of the Peace. Wm. M. Stewart. Thomas J. Roach, On the 5th proximo these gentlemen met, and chose various officials; but as the whole proceedings were afterwards set aside, it is unnecessary here to detail more of them. FEBRUARY 28th.-The steamship "California," being the first of the line of mail steamers along the coast, arrived. The citizens hailed her appearance with many cheers and other demonstrations of joy. General Persifer F. Smith, a passenger on this vessel, came to take command of the Pacific division of the military department of the United States, which comprehends Oregon and California. MARCH. An address to the people of California was issued by several of the delegates for San Francisco, Monterey, Sonoma, Sacramento, and other parts of the country, recommending a postponement of the meeting of the convention to frame a civil |