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Show 142 PERSONAL ADVENTURES tated him who made it into the deep valley far beneath ; never resting but for a few minutes at a time, except at intervals or relays, averaging about twenty-five miles each, when we usually came up to a 'ranche, and refreshed ourselves with fresh meat, and sometimes vegetables and fruit. These rancltes generally occupied some picturesque spot, and the sight of then1 infused ne\v life into the whole party, man and beast ; the latter especially, whose instinct seetnerl to be even supe· rior to the intelligence of our guide, the animals being always first to give us due inti· mation that we were approaching quarters, by pricking up their ears, pa,ving and snorting, and increasing their pace. Many of these ranches were built of adobe, plastered over and whitewashed, and had good cavallards, and well-cultivated gardens, irrigated with much ingenuity. Indeed, it 'vas impossible to conten1plate them, contrasting as they did so singularly with the wild scenery around, without astonishment and even admiration at the enterprise 'vhich had erected, in regions IN CALIFORNIA. 143 so repulsive and ungrateful, these domestic mernorials of a tolerably advanced civiliza-tw• n. We had arrived within about seven miles of San Antonio, at one of the most miserable ranches we bad yet seen, when the word was passed to halt; whilst our colonel, with a party of twenty-five men, pushed forward to reconnoitre. They returned in the course of a cou.ple o~ hours, bringing us intelligence of thmr having surprised and taken prisoner the Mexican General Penada, one of the chief prornoters of the war, who had lingered in the town in consequence of a desperate 'vound received in one of his hands, during a violent q~arrel, follo\ved by a personal rencounter With one of the De Castro family and co l one l I·n the ~Iexican service. ' a Having resumed our march, and reached the town, we took up our quarters at the lower end of the priucipal square. We had captured, on our way, three Yakee Indians who were endeavouring to escape by one of the cross-roads ; they were confined in the |