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Show 348 PERSONAL ADVENTURES CHAPTER XXX. "A good wife is a crown to her husband"-A begrrar on horseback-" All is not gold that glitters" -Cares and a:xieties of wealth-Another outbreak on board-San Diego-San Pedro-A mining-party in a fix-A death on board-San :SI~s-A happy riddance~Acapulco-The harbour and its 1nc1dents. · Returning to my narrative, after this brief digression, I need hardly tell n1y readers that the passengers of the vessel in which I was embarked presented son1e am using varieties and shades of character. Amonast them were to be 0 found some rough illustrations of "the beggar on horseback''-rnen who, having obtained the sudden possession of 'vealth, w·ere now deterInined, as Sarn Slick says, " to go the full figure, and do the thing genteel," by taking the rnost expensive berths, and strutting about in all the consciousness of their new-born importance. But the n1ore sensible and to tl1eir credit be it sa~~' the majority of th'e 1nin' ers preferred econo· llliZing their hard-earned gains and remaining in the second or steerao·e-cabin : for there were b ' but t'vo classes of berths on Loard this vessel. As, in the congregation of doubtful and reckless IN CALIFORNIA. 349 characters thus brought together, it was unsafe for the passengers to keep their 1noney in their trunks, or even about their persons, it was usually placed in care of the Captain, who received it on condition of being paid a certain per-centage on the amount for his trouble. There were but two ladies on board, both of whom were married, and had several children to tnke care of on the voyage. Their husbands had acquired some little money, but had not secured anything like a competency, by the hazardous experi1nent they had made in emigrating 'vith their wives and families to this remote region. No better proof could be afforded, than their haste to return to their native land, that the future prospects of the country w. ere not such as to ind nee any one to remain a moment lon<or er than was necessary for the partial attainn1ent of his obiect. One of these ladies the dauo·hter of a elergyman, and a ' 0 woman of considerable intelligence and most amiable manners bad taken her place with her family in the ste~rage, and exposed herself 'vithout a murmur to all the inconveniences and disagreeable associations that I have been describin o· as incident to that part of the vessel. H .0 er history n1ay serve as a 1e s son to t.h ose fi.n. e ladies who affect to think that education unfits them for the hon1ely duties and exertions of ad- |