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Show 2 5 0 TEAVELS AND ADVENTUEES IN THE FAE WEST. At Los Angeles, I painted the portraits of the ex-governor, Don Pio Pico, and several other gentlemen. The whole country of Southern California, especially in Los Angeles county, is infested with millions of ground squirrels, which destroy vegetation, and are great nuisances to farmers, as well as to the community; they domesticate themselves in houses, and I have seen them jump on the dinner-table, overturning tumblers, etc. The country is overrun with them; various methods have been suggested to destroy them, but without effect; the most successful, however, is strychnine-large quantities of which are imported into California, for this express purpose. This virulent and active poison, for this rea. son, becomes an important article of trade. These squirrels, form the principal food of the numerous bands of degraded Indians, who live near the settlements. To the brothers Samuel and Joseph Labatt, merchants of Los Angeles, I am indebted for many acts of kindness; men who anticipate the necessities of their fellow-man, and spontaneously offer money advances to a perfect stranger, I have not often met with, " but when found, I make a note of it." With the view of not interrupting the incidental part of this book, I have preferred to place at the end of it, several sermons, illustrating the oratorical powers of Brigham Young, and some of his apostles and counsellors, as well as the "Revelations to Joseph Smith, on the patriarchal order of matrimony, or plurality of wives," (presented to the author by his excellency), which is the basis of the spiritual wife system, as now practised by the Mormons. |
