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Show 36 PERSONAL ADVE~TURES into the cabin where her husband was having his wound dressed. A portion of the vessel arnid-ships, which had been taken possession of by a dense multitude of traders and speculators, acquired, from . .this circumstance, the nickname of " Chatham Street," or the " Jewry," the majority being Israelites, or their connexions. The shuffiing, the confusion, the noise, and the chafferin()' were indescribable, varied as the O' scene was by falls over boxes, and trunks, and bales of miscellaneous merchandize, and by " rough-and-tu1nble" fights, to say nothing of the jargon of tongues frotn every known country and kingdom, interspersed with the strangest oaths, the oddest jests, and the quaintest commentaries upon the quality, price, and manufacture, of the heterogeneous mass of articles put up for sale. We were nearing Rio, and, therefore, every one 'vanted money, and sought to procure it as best he could. As we proceeded, the love of barter appeared to increase, until it degenerated from legitimate trading into a system of gam- IN CALIFORNIA. 37 bling, disguised under the name of'' rafHes," the chances being dependant upon the cast of dice; thus many articles were disposed of, which, but for this ingenious resource, would probably have ren1ained on hand. f I may here mention, that, a1nongst other modes of passing the tirne, the volunteers resorted to a recreation far more amusing to the spectators on such occasions, and to the actors in the comedy, than to him ·who 'vas selected to figure the rnost prominently in it. This was called " blanketing," the nature of which operation is, doubtless, sufficiently fan1iliar to all not to require a special description at rny hands. It was not, at any time, decidedly popular ; but so inveterate was the love of mischief in Judson, O'Reilly, and a fe,v others, and so strong the party they got together to support them, that remonstrance and resistance were alike unavailing when they presented themselves to seize the victim on whom their evil eye had fallen. Appeal to the Captain was alike useless; he stuck hard and fast to his text of '' not inter- |