A VARIETY OF THINGS.

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towards the opening of the corral. Duped by their leaders, as many a herd of wiser animals have been before, the wild cattle blindly followed, and the whole were snugly secured within the walls of the corral. The vaqueros then entered on horseback-for who should venture in on foot would be instantly gored to death-and, swinging their whizzing riatas, entangled such as were doomed to die. They also threw down young bulls, which were lashed by the horns, through holes bored for the purpose, to tame draught bullocks-an operation called “mancuerno," designed to prepare the animal for working purposes. Proper measures were also taken to prevent the number of bulls from exceeding their due proportion to the gentler sex.

A place was selected near the river-the Russian—and convenient to the corrals, of which there are several large ones-where the operation of skinning, trying out tallow, cutting the flesh into strips to be dried, and all that sort of disgusting thing, was carried on by half-a-dozen " hijos del pais" as superintendents, and any number of Indians as drudges.

The remarks I made concerning the adaptation of the Spanish language to the raising and management of horses, applies with equal force to the case of cattle. If the Spaniards are good for nothing else, there can be no question that they are not excelled as managers of cattle and horses, and to this vocation they are generally devoted wherever they are found. The training of the Californian horses, their unmoveable saddles to which the riata is attached, and their severe bitts, are all adapted to this end. I have often witnessed man and horse, made fast to a wild ferocious bull, dash at full speed down a fearful precipice which a practised pedestrian would have hesitated to descend.

It was the month of September, when the bears come down to the plains in search of the ripe acorns which fall to the ground, and which hereafter will furnish food for innumerable swine. We were promised a fight between a bull

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BULLS AND BEARS.

and bear, but had not time to remain to witness this edifying exhibition of " the noble science of self-defence."

This is a sport often enjoyed by the Californians. The bear being lassoed by the vaqueros is carried to a corral, and the other end of the riata being made fast to a bull, the amiable couple are allowed to fight it out together. A hempen rope of equal size would not bear the severe tension of the horse-hair cord of which the riata is made; and nothing tries its strength more thoroughly than these deathtugs between a bear and a bull. The bear sometimes climbs upon the fence of the corral, but is pulled back again by the bull, and they never abandon the conflict until one or the other is killed. It would seem incredible that the largest and most savage bull could be a match for the crushing force, the terrible scythe-like claws, and the dreadful jaws of a full-grown grizzly bear; but the knowing ones of the California fancy say that it is about. an even thing between them, the victory inclining as often to one side as the other. However, I would give odds on the bear.

It is somewhat singular that this system of matching the same kinds of ferocious beasts in deadly conflict, prevails extensively in the more enlightened Atlantic cities, especially in the city of New York. The practise is said to have been borrowed from the people of London, who were ever famous for their pugnacious propensities and their love of cruel sports. And what is quite as remarkable, is the fact that the results of these battles are about equal in California and New York. I have been struck, while reading the newspapers, with the ever-varying fortunes of the field contested by these combatants. One day, I have noticed that the bulls were victorious, and the very next it was announced that the bears were having it all their own way. Sometimes the bears appeared to be keeping the upper-hand for weeks together, and I have sympathised with the unfortunate bulls-when suddenly some very powerful animals of the bovine race appeared to come on the field, and for a suc

STARTLING NEWS.

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cession of weeks to rout all of the ursine breed that ven⚫tured to show their noses. It seems a great scandal that these cruel exhibitions should be kept up in the midst of a boasted civilization, and it is respectfully suggested that the civil authorities should interfere and prevent these savage encounters between irrational beasts, which destroy each other to the great moral and pecuniary detriment of the community :-for, of course, where such spectacles prevail, there must be more or less gambling, extending far and wide among the people, producing a lax state of the public morals, and inflicting much misery upon innocent women and children.

When I arrived within two miles of Sonoma, in the plain of a hot-spring, near which the caballada of my troop were accustomed to graze, I was told by the horse-guard that important news had arrived from the officer in command of Fort Sacramento. On reaching my quarters, I received a letter, stating that the Sacramento valley had been invaded by a force of one thousand Wallawalla Indians, the advanced guard of which, consisting of two hundred warriors, had encamped on Rio de las Plumas (Feather river), within a day's march of the fort. It therefore became necessary that I should immediately respond to the call made upon my command for assistance.

CHAPTER XV.

The Oregon Indians-A Theory-Californian Ponton-Muster at Sutter's Fort-Visit from Yellow-Bird-March to the ButesHistory of the "Invasion "-A Humane Proposition-Ague and Fever.

THE prospect of an engagement with a strong force of warlike savages, at a time when we were threatened with a most tedious tranquillity, was extremely welcome and cheering, especially in view of the fact that the enemy were the aggressors.

The Oregon Indians more nearly resemble those east of the Rocky Mountains than they do the Pacific tribes or families which inhabit California. Instead of being broken up into small communities, they exist in a state of nationality, and consequently are enabled to make, comparatively, powerful warlike demonstrations. They are animated by a more martial spirit than their feeble and indolent southern neighbors, and are capable of overrunning their villages, and exterminating them with very little effort. They also possess, in common with the north-western Indians east of the mountains, much of the spirit of traffic, and devote themselves to hunting, both for the sake of obtaining food, and to procure furs for the purposes of trade. In every physical point, they are a superior race to the Californian Indians, but they do not excel the latter in pursuits requiring the use of intellect, trading excepted. Indeed, there is no reason to doubt that the docile natives of California acquire the arts of civilized life far more readily than their ruder brethren of the north.

AN INDIAN THEORY.

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In comparing the northern and southern savages who inhabit the Pacific side of the North American continent, the student of history will not fail to hatch theories and arrive at conclusions suggested by the history of Europe, which, after all, may not be properly called "the old world" by comparison with America.

The traces, nay the positive evidences, which exist, of an era when the south-western Indians had attained a high civilization-except in their religion, which appears to have been of the lowest grade of idol-worship, polluted by human sacrifices-lead us to inquire into the probable causes of their relapse into utter barbarism. The Indians of Mexico, even at the date of the Spanish conquest, possessed an extensive and powerful empire, and still retained a degree of civilization very far above what is now known among their descendants. To account for their subsequent decline, is simply to know the familiar history of their wrongs. The outrages practised upon them by the conquerors were sufficient to have degraded and broken the spirit and nationality of a people much more hardy and advanced. The descendants of the victors themselves rapidly degenerated when transplanted to that magnificent country, and it is not surprising that the oppressed should sink lower and lower in consequence of the degradation of their oppressors.

But who shall say what point of advancement had been reached by the Mexican Indians centuries before the day of Montezuma ?-Even then they preserved the shadow of greatness. Their temples were still remarkable structures, evincing great knowledge of architecture. They possessed national archives, written in hieroglyphic, which are supposed to have carried back their history to a remote antiquity, and which were brutally destroyed by the bigotted priesthood, under the influence of religious fanaticism, or suppressed by the civil authorities for the purpose of removing the last vestige of Indian nationality. Who shall