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Show 196 PERSONAL ADVENTURES often suffer severely from drought. We had several such deluges during our stay, the rain falling in spouts, and rolling in rivulets down the hills, filling every hollo,v, and converting a large portion of the immense and beautiful valley into a dangerous lagoon. I can with truth say, that I have never seen such rains, nor am I at all desirous of again witnessing them. The severity of the discipline here became so excessive, that irregularities soon broke out, which shortly afterwards ripened into absolute insubordination. The culprits were committed to the black-hole, many of them for offences extretnely trivial; and with the therrnometer at 80 and 90 in the month of May, their sufferings became severe to an excess. I ought to state that their place of confinement was simply one half of the guard-roo1n, which had been separated from the other by a strong party-wall of adobe, built up to the ceiling, and having but the very smallest aperture for the admission of licrht and air and this in t') ' quantities barely sufficient for the preservation • IN CALIFORNIA. 197 of life. At Monterey, two men had been suffocated, I understood, from their being confined in a similar hole; two of ours fainted soon, and were brought-to only by exposure · to a purer atmosphere. To all remonstrances, however, " Black Jack" turned a deaf ear ; and, as it soon appeared, they only rendered matters worse, for he sent a message to the commander of the Ciane sloop-of-war (which was· then lying off Mazatlan), to the effect that the garrison of San Jose was in a state of mutiny; and on the 14th of May she appeared in the roadstead. Immediately upon her arrival, four of the men were sent on board, doubly ironed, to be conveyed to Mazatlan, and thence to Monterey, for trial before a court-martial. T4e death of one of the natives, soon after our arrival here, afforded me an opportunity of witnessing the singular ceremonies observed on such occasions. The body, being enshrouded in white muslin, is bedecked with flowers, aud laid out upon a table. The friends and relatives are next invited, and a feast |