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Show 350 PERSONAL ADVENTURES verRity, and who, instead of aiding and cheering the efforts of their husbands by their own patient endurance and industry, sit down repining over the position they have either voluntarily abandoned or lost, and become a burden and a discouragement to the men they profess to love. Mrs. E had married a poor but industrious and well-principled man, who, finding that he could not support his family as he wished in the States, determined on emigrating with them to the land of which such 'vonderful accounts of fortunes suddenly and easily realized, and of a future pregnant with the hopes of boundless prosperity, had reached him in his humble abode. On land· ing in California, he had found, like many others, that he had been the dupe of exaggeration, and that it would require the most laborious exertions, and the most painful sacrifices on the part of himself and family, to maintain themselves in their ne'v position. Being a sensible man, however, and blessed with a partner whose ad· vice and aid were invaluable under the circumstances, he set to work, and after struggling hard in various branches of trade, had succeeded in realizin~ a few thousand dollars. No small 0 portion of this had been however earned by the ' ' wife, by washing linen at nine or ten dollars the dozen pieces-the ordinary rate of payment for this necessary element of comfort. On the IN CALIFORNIA. 351 whole, ho,vever, they were returning poor; the struggles and privations of their ne'v life had proved too severe for then1 ; and, although they had to look to a long futurity, and to the establishrnent and well-being of their children, they were abandoning without regret a country where apparently these objects could most easily be attained. They had possession of a small cabin partitioned off the steerage part of the vessel, which did not, however, prevent them from being unwilling listeners to the rude and but too often obscene conversation of the rough beings that occupied the latter. Amongst the spectacles of filth and uncleanliness by which one was surrounded, it was quite refreshing to behold the neatness and tidiness that distinguished every member of this little fan1ily ; the ever watchful tenderness of the mother seeming to delight in the contrast. Although only what was strictly termed steerage- passengers, Mrs. E and her family were in the habit of cominO' upon deck every after-o • noon, and seating themselves under the awning stretched over the after-cabin. In no case should this privilege be refused to any "rell conducted woman at sea; and on the Pacific coast, at the period of which I atn speaking, the passengers were usually glad of any accession to the number of females. To n1ost of us, therefore, the so- |