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Show • 96 PERSONAL ADVENTURES as in the country of which I am writing, its prosperity can be based on no permanent or enduring foundation. There is no doubt that, in the course of time, the continued influx of a more skilful and energetic population might effect a great change · in the general face of the country; but if, as I have reason to ap· prebend, the attraction which dra \VS to its shores such a number of adventurers, should become exhausted in a couple of years, the tide of emigration will become suddenly checked, the spirit of speculation paralyzed, and the thoughts of men directed again towards the homes they have so foolishly left, where, if competition be tnore keen, and riches more difficult of attainment, the rewards of industry are infinitely sweeter, and the enjoyments of civilized life more than sufficient to compen· sate for the cares and toils of its duties. On my \vay to the coffee-house, I revolved in my mind the expediency of disposing of my horse, and arrived at the conclusion that to keep him any longer, under the circum· stances, would be utter folly. It \vould be IN CALIFORNIA. 97 hard enough, after paying ten dollars per \veek for his support, to find him so reduced in condition, frorn insufficiency of food, as to be unable to travel in the spring. Chances of disposing of any sort of beast of burden were always to be found at this period. The very same afternoon, on returning from dinner, I met one of the volunteers named Gill, who informed me that, as he was going up to the mines to join his party, he should like to purchase him, adding, that as he was short of money, he would make a " trade" with me, and accordingly offered me thirty dollars and a saddle for hirn. Finding the saddle an old one, and moreover of the regular Mexican form, which is but little valued amongst the Californians, I refused. He then proposed let tin o· me have a shot gun instead of the saddle, and the same amount of hard cash which I o·ladly ' b accepted, the gun, although old, being appa-rently in good order. In a few days after .. Wards, Stevenson borrowed the piece from me, and kept it for about a week. In the mean time, Stevenson and his family VOL. II. F • |