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appropriating $25,000 for building purposes. Convicts were kept in the Yuma jail up to July 1876, when they were removed to the prison then ready. There were then seven only, and during the next six months three more were added, making ten prisoners in the Arizona penitentiary on the 1st of January

1877.

CHAPTER XIX.

SOME INDIAN EPISODES.

Believe me, it is not necessary to a man's respectability that he should commit a murder. Many a man has passed through life most respectably, without attempting any species of homicide. A man came to me as the candidate for the place of my servant, just then vacant. He had the reputation of having dabbled a little in our art, some said, not without merit. What startled me, however, was, that he supposed this art to be part of the regular duties in my service. Now that was a thing I would not allow. So I said at once, if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing'; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time. -De Quincey.

THE natives of California were quick to learn the purchasing power of gold, but they did not thereby become greedy of it like their white brethren. When they wanted a sack of flour, or a few pounds of tobacco, or a bottle of brandy, some of them went to the river and washed out the gold necessary for their purchases. They were badly cheated at first, having no knowledge of the value white men put upon the metal, and they would as readily give a handful of it as a smaller quantity, if they had it, for whatever struck their fancy, something to eat, or to drink, a gaudy handkerchief, or a garment.

Time and intercourse with the more cunning race sharpened their wits a little. Then they adopted a method of their own in making purchases, In parties of five or ten they would first stroll through the store, carefully observe several articles, and settle in their own mind what they would buy, but saying nothing to the shop-keeper. Then they would retire to a little

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distance, and seating themselves in a circle on the ground gravely discuss matters. One after another they then went to the store and made their purchases, returning afterward to their place in the circle. And their method of barter was frequently in this wise: Upon a leaf, or piece of paper, one would pour out perhaps a teaspoonful of gold-dust, and taking it to the shopkeeper, point to the article desired and ejaculate, ugh! which being interpreted meant, "I will give you this for that. If the shopkeeper took it, well; if he refused it the Indian would withdraw, increase the pile of dust, and return, repeating the operation until the amount was large enough to procure the article. Again, if it was biscuits they desired, of which a teaspoonful of dust in the days of '48, would buy but half a dozen, and they wanted several dozen, they would go and come, never at any one time bringing more than the first measure of dust, receiving six each time until they had secured all they required, or until their dust was gone.

The Mexican serape was quite becoming to the California root digger, and took his fancy wonderfully. In the absence of a serape, however, an American blanket would do, and for this, of a quality worth $4 or $5, they cheerfully paid Weber, the Coloma shopkeeper, $100. Before the end of 1848 thousands of savages, who up to that had lived on roots and acorns, and had paraded the forests as naked as Adam in the garden, were arrayed in gorgeous apparel costing $500, conspicuous in which was gaudy calico, red handkerchiefs, hat, shirt, pantaloons, and blanket or serape. For food, in place of acorns and mashed grasshoppers, they purchased almonds and raisins at $16 a pound; and for a bottle of whiskey they paid $16.

While the Reverend Mr Colton was playing miner on the Stanislaus, in the autumn of 1848, there came to his camp three wild men, attracted thither by a red belt which each of them wanted; so they first bought it and then gambled to see which should have

it. "They could speak only their native dialect," said Colton, "not a word of which I could understand. We had to make ourselves intelligible by signs. They wanted to purchase the belt, and each faid down a piece of gold, which were worth in the aggregate some $200. I took one of the pieces and gave the Indian to whom it belonged the belt. They made signs for a piece of coin. I offered them an eagle but it was not what they wanted; a Spanish mill dollar, but they wanted something smaller; a fifty-cent piece, and they signified it would do. Taking the coin they fastened it in the end of a stick so as to expose nearly the entire circle, and set it up about forty yards distant. Then they cast lots, by a bone which they threw into the air, for the order in which they should discharge their arrows. The one who had the first shot drew his long, sinewy bow and missed; the second, he missed; the third, and he missed, though the arrow of each flew so near the coin that it would have killed a deer at that distance. The second now shot first and grazed the coin; then the third, who broke his string and shot with the bow of the second, but missed. And now the first took his turn and struck the coin, whirling it off at a great distance. The other two gave him the belt which he tied around his head instead of a blanket, and away they started over the hills full of wild life and glee, leaving the coin as a thing of no importance in the bushes where it had been whirled."

To the discharged volunteer, Henry I. Simpson, who was there in August 1848, the natives at work near Mormon island appeared exceedingly singular, They were dressed in strange fantastic guise; instead of the breech clout, which used to be their chief article of the toilet, gaudy calicoes, bright colored handkerchiefs, and strips of red cloth were showily exhibited about their persons. The first party with whom we came up, consisted of an old Indian with his squaw, and a youth about fifteen; they seemed to

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be working on their own account, though most of the Indians work by the day for some employer, who furnishes them with food, and pays a regular per diem -sometimes as much as twenty dollars a day, but more generally at the rate of an ounce and a half of gold, the current rate of which is from ten to twelve. dollars per ounce. When we came within sight of this party, they were in a short, deep ravine, very busily employed digging with small machetes, or Spanish knives; and as soon as they perceived us, they looked with some vexation of manner, as though they feared we were coming to interfere with their rights of discovery. I may here remark that a nice regard is almost always had for such rights. A party finding a good bed of gold, is seldom or never interfered with by others at least the immediate vicinity of their operations is not trespassed upon. As an evidence of this feeling of natural justice, I learned that there was, at the mill of Captain Sutter, a fine bank of deposit which had not been touched, out of respect to the rights of the captain, who, of course, had no real ownership in the matter. The Indians soon became satisfied that we had no intention of trespassing, and began their work again, the old fellow jabbering away in bad Spanish in reply to our inquiries. He had about his person, in an uncouth-looking buckskin pouch, from six to eight ounces of gold, as I should judge, which he exhibited with some exultation. While we were engaged with the old man, the boy, who had progressed some few yards ahead in his work, uttered a sudden, ugh! which is the Indian expression of wonder. We all turned toward him, and saw him holding up, with an expression of irrepressible delight, a large lump of gold incrusted with earth and gravel, which seemed as big as a man's fist. The old fellow rushed toward him with quite an un-Indian-like eagerness, and taking it from his hand, commenced rapidly cleaning it of the dirt and gravel, which he accomplished with peculiar skill, and in less than a minute