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in the morning they went aboard and asked permission of the Captain to have a dance, as a ceremony of the renewal of friendship after their recent dispute. To which the Captain replied that he was willing that they should do so. Accord

ingly, at eight o'clock in the morning, a company of Chiefs came and danced on the quarter-deck, having, in the meantime, ordered their people to arm themselves with knives, so that while they were dancing they could jump aboard and kill the whole crew, which they did; for while they were dancing they made presents of otter skins to the Captain, and also to the sailors, who in a short time had collected on the quarter-deck, when suddenly the Indians fell upon them in their defenceless condition and butchered all save two, who escaped and concealed themselves; the Indians carrying off everything that could be removed during the whole of that day and night, and until twelve o'clock the following day; having, in the meantime, discovered the two hidden sailors, who, after some cruel treatment, were handed over to the Chief, who spared their lives, and they are now at that place. On the following day the ship was beached, and her decks and part of cargo burnt. Quatlazape has made a fortification at the place where the Spaniards were established.

This is all the account I am able to give of the matter, and I pray you, in the name of God, to come aboard our ship and see the needy circumstances in which we are placed, destitute of wood and water, and our vessel needing repairs. Trusting in your Christian charity, and that of your nation, we hope to be permitted to remain in this port the time necessary to obtain supplies and make repairs, since otherwise, we will certainly lose our ship.

God preserve your life many years.

JAMES ROWAN."

Times have changed, and Yankee Captains are not now so meek in the Port of San Francisco. We do not know what John Brown had been doing in March, nor can we vouch for the truth of all the particulars of their adventures on the northwest coast, especially not for the number of escopetas and other arms carried by each Indian. The loss of the Boston was doubtless communicated to her owners and the public by John Brown and Thomas Rab(v)en, on their return to the United States. The guardians of this port do not note now the arrival of foreign ships by the hour of evening prayers. There was a contrast of national habits then, between the shore and and the Yankee ships; and the same contrast exists undimin

ished between the California of 1803 and 1860. From time to time other American vessels, traders to the northwest coast and whalers, are said to have occasionally entered these waters, but as it was a Spanish colony there could be no American commerce; and it was after the independence, therefore, that the hide trade sprung up.

With the beginning of the century, earthquakes make their appearance for the first time of record in the archives, and with startling effect. I prefer, on this subject, to give the words of the contemporaneous documents.

Account of earthquake at San Juan Bautista, as given in letter of Capt. of Presidio of Monterey, to Gov. Arrillaga, on the 31st of Oct., 1800 :

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"I have to inform your Excellency that the Mission of San Juan Bautista, since the 11th inst., has been visited by severe earthquakes; that Pedro Adriano Martinez, one of the Fathers of said Mission, has informed me that, during one day, there were six severe shocks; that there is not a single habitation, although built with double walls, that has not been injured from roof to foundation, and that all are threatened with ruin; and that the Fathers are compelled to sleep in the wagons to avoid danger, since the houses are not habitable. At the place where the rancheria is situated, some small openings have been observed in the earth, and also in the neighborhood of the river Pajaro there is another deep opening, all resulting from the earthquakes. These phenomena have filled the Fathers and inhabitants of that Mission with consternation.

"The Lieutenant Don Raymundo Carillo has assured me the same, for on the 18th he stopped for night at this Mission (San Juan,) on his journey from San José, and being at supper with one of the Fathers, a shock was felt, so powerful, and attended with such a loud noise as to deafen them, when they fled to the court, without finishing their supper, and that about 11 o'clock at night the shock was repeated with almost equal strength.

"The Fathers of the Mission say that the Indians assure them that there have always been earthquakes at that place, and that there are certain cavities caused by the earthquakes, and that salt-water has flowed from the same.

"All of which 1 communicate to you for your information. "May our Lord preserve your life many years. "HERMENEGILDO SAL

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San Juan Bautista is the Mission between Monterey and San José, about twenty miles from the former and forty from the latter. The next mention comes nearer home.

Account of earthquake at Presidio of San Francisco, given by Luis Argüello, Capt. of Presidio, to Gov. Arrillaga, on the 17th of July, 1808,

"I have to report to your Excellency that since the 21st of June last to the present date, twenty-one shocks of earthquakes have been felt in this Presidio, some of which have been so severe that all the walls of my house have been cracked, owing to the bad construction of the same, one of the ante-chambers being destroyed; and if up to this time no greater damage has been done, it has been for the want of materials to destroy, there being no other habitations. The barracks of the Fort of San Joaquin, [the name of the fort at the Presidio,] have been threatened with entire ruin, and I fear if these shocks continue some unfortunate accident will happen to the troops at the Presidio.

"God preserve the life of you Excellency many years. "LUIS ARGUEllo.

"San Francisco, July 17th, 1808."

It could not be said now, if such shocks as these were to come again, that the damage was limited by the "want of material to destroy." I acknowledge a preference for one-story houses, and built of wood.

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About this time the Russians were first seen in California. "Von Resanoff, Chamberlain of the Emperor of Russia, re"turning from his embassy to Japan, after having inspected by "order of the Court of St. Petersburg, the ports, establish"ments, and trading houses that the Imperial Russian-American Fur Company possessed, as well on the side of Asia, at "Kamschatka and in the Aleutian Islands, as on the Con"tinent and Islands of the north-west coast of America, "anchored at the Port of San Francisco, in the month of May, "1807." So says the French traveller De Mofras, who visited "California in the years 1841 and '42." An English traveler, Sir George Simson, Governor in Chief of the Hudson Bay Company's Territories, who was here in the same year with De Mofras, thus makes us acquainted with one of the parties

to a story of romantic love, the first consequence of the advent of the Russians.

"After dinner, (at Captain John Wilson's in Santa Barbara) we were joined by the remainder of our party, the Cowlitz having by this time come to an anchor; and we again sallied forth to see a few more of the lions. Among the persons whom we met this afternoon, was a lady of some historical celebrity. Von Resanoff, having failed, as elsewhere stated, in his attempt to enter the Columbia in 1806, continued his voyage as far as San Francisco, when, besides purchasing immediate supplies for Sitka, he endeavored in negotiation with the Commandante of the District and the Governor of the Province, to lay the fonndation of a regular intercourse between Russian America and the California settlements. In order to cement the national union, he proposed uniting himself with Doña Concepcion Argüello, one of the Commandante's daughters, his patriotism clearly being its own reward, if half of Langsdorff's description was correct. "She was lively and animated, had sparkling, love inspiring eyes, beautiful teeth, pleasing and expressive features, a fine form, and a thousand other charms, yet her manners were perfectly simple and artless."

"The Chancellor, who was himself of the Greek Church, regarded the difference of religion with the eyes of a lover and a politician; but as his Imperial Master might take a less liberal view of the matter, he posted away to St. Petersburg, with the intention, if he should there be successful, of subsequently visiting Madrid, for the requisite authority to carry his schemes into full effect. But the Fates, with a voice more powerful than that of Emperors and Kings, forbade the bans; and Von Resanoff died on his road to Europe at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, of a fall from his horse.

"Thus at once bereaved of her lover, and disappointed in the hope of being the pledge of friendship between Russia and Spain, Doña Concepcion assumed the habit, but not, I believe the formal vows of a Nun, dedicating her life to the instruction of the young, and the consolation of the sick. This little romance could not fail to interest us, and notwithstanding the ungracefulness of her conventual costume, and the ravages

of an interval of time, which had tripled her years, we could still discover in her face and figure, in her manners and conversation, the remains of those charms which had won for the youthful beauty, Von Rosanoff's enthusiastic love, and Langs. dorff's equally enthusiastic admiration. Though Doña Concepcion apparently loved to dwell on the story of her blighted affections, yet, strange to say, she knew not, till we mentioned it to her, the immediate cause of the Chancellor's sudden death. This circumstauce might, in some measure be explained by the fact, that Langsdorff's work was not published before 1814; but even then, in any other country than California, a lady who was still young, would snrely have seen a book, which besides detailing the grand incident of her life, presented so gratifying a portrait of her charms."

How strange, as he justly remarks, that Doña Concepcion had never seen that book though it had been printed more than 25 years! [Gen. Vallejo, who was on the stand, here informed Mr. R. that this lady had died about eight months ago.]

The Russians, in 1812, came down from the North and established themselves at the port of Bodega, with one hundred Russians and one hundred Kodiak Indians. It is said that they asked permission of the Spanish authorities before doing so. The archives are full, however, of documents from 1812 up, showing the jealousy and fear with which they were regarded by Spain, and afterwards by Mexico. They occupied a strip along the the coast from Bodega northwards, and only a few leagues in depth, but without any precisely fixed limits. In 1841 this establishment was at its best, consisting of 800 Russians or Russo-Asiatics, with a great number of native Indian tribes around them working for wages. It was to circumscribe these intruders that the priests crossed over and founded the Mission of San Rafael, in 1819, and of San Francisco Solano, at Sonoma, in 1823, and commenced another at Santa Rosa, in 1827. The Russians raised some grain and cattle, and trapped enormously. De Mofras, whom I follow, says that the Kodiaks, in their seal-skin boats, made bloody warfare upon the seals, beavers, and especially the otters, that

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