At Acapulco there was a row with the authorities on shore, which resulted in the imprisonment of one of our steerage passengers. Here was a time; there were two other steamers in the harbor, full of passengers for California, many of whom were of the same class with ours. The news of the imprisonment of this man caused a great excitement. A meeting was held on the beach, and resolutions passed to rescue him at any rate. The cause of his imprisonment was for grossly insulting a Spanish officer, and I do not hesitate to say that in nearly all the difficulties that have taken place between these natives of Granada and California Indians, from the commencement of emigration to the present time, 1856, where lives have been lost, and men have been maimed and robbed, that some turbulent, unprincipled Western men, have been the agressors, wdio, being better armed, and possessing more bodily strength, have robbed and otherwise insulted these harmless people, who of course will seek for retaliation, and then the whole country is up in arms for revenge.
I have been an eyewitness to many of these scenes. The man before alluded to, was liberated on the payment of a fine of fifty dollars, and on the morning of sailing, the officer who had been insulted, having business on board, was met in the gangway by this fellow who had before insulted him, and here he added another cowardly assault, which might have stopped the steamer had it not been settled on the spot. We sailed from Acapulco for San Francisco, where we arrived after a passage of thirty-five days from Panama. All over the hills, as far as the eye could see, were white tents. The bay was crowded with every sort of a thing in the shape of a vessel, the flags of every nation under heaven floating in the breeze.
San Francisco was filled with gamblers, rogues of every species, cut throats, highway robbers, Sydney convicts, villanous commission merchants and bankers, fraudulent auctioneers, hypocrites, apologies for courts, and some of the most miserable and contemptible pettifoggers that could be scraped together from every section of our country. Every sort of government official, from the Collector to the Harbor* Master, looked out to feather their own nests, and succeeded in getting a pretty good pile of Uncle Sam's money. I have given a pretty good catalogue of characters, every one of which I think can be identified by others as well as myself, as it happened that I was simpleton enough to get into the fangs of some of these worthies.
Notwithstanding the broad sweep I have taken, I don't wish to be understood as saying that there were no honest men among them, for there were men who were honest then, and have continued so up to this time, and with whom I would trust millions, whose reputation for honesty remains intact. I shall pass over this description of California men and manners for the present, and mention a few incidents that occurred during my residence there, then leave the country in possession of its ruler and owner, the Devil, and would say to any who may see their own characters among those that I have drawn, as the caricature printer said to me at Windsor, Chap, xix: " I have a right to make a print or a picture, if n/)t obscene, on any subject I choose, and if any one sees their own likeness there, they must call me a clever painter for making so ffood an imitation." My first object, after I landed, was to find my son; and on enquiry, ascertained that he had gone to the Sandwich Islands.
I found the fellow who had cheated him, and to all appearances was, when I saw him, fast going to perdition; notwithstanding, only a few months hefore, he was receiving $190,000 a year for his gambling houses and brothels. And when I last saw him, he was a worthless vagabond; just what others, whose names I could call, must surely come to, according to the retributive justice of Heaven. I have already seen the fate of some, and others are sure to come along in their turn. Capt. B., myself, and one other of our companions, took up with a temporary residence in a half-built shanty, and continued to live there as well as our circumstances would permit.
All sorts of provisions were abominably dear, besides being very scarce. Capt. B. and I were waiting at San Francisco for the arrival of vessels from Boston, in which we were concerned. There was a brig at Sacramento, which had been there a few weeks, owned by a company of which I was unfortunately one. I was obliged to wait several clays before an opportunity offered of getting up from San Francisco, as no steamer had yet been put on the river, although there was one fitting for that purpose, by a commission house, that were thought to be somewhat richer than the Rothschilds; but they run along a little while, and finally funked out, and became beggars. This boat was advertised to sail next day, at 4, P.