Rogers and I now took the pack-saddle we had borrowed of Mr. French to use on our trip to Death Valley and return, and carried it to the saloon on the east side of the plaza, where we were to place it if we got back safely, and delivered it to the man in charge, with many thanks to Mr. French for his favors to us, and sent him word that we would always remember him and be ready to do him a similar or equal favor if ever we were able.  We considered him a good benevolent man, and such he proved to be when he offered us fat oxen, good beans, and any other thing we needed.  He told the people in the house who we were, which no doubt influenced them kindly in our favor when we arrived.

At the saloon there was a large room with tables in it and gambling going on actively.  Money changed hands very rapidly, drinks at the bar were frequent, and the whole affair moved forward with the same regularity as any mercantile business.  The door stood wide open and any one could come and go at his pleasure.  Quite a number of black-eyed, fair looking women circulated among the crowd, and this, to us, seemed quite out of place, for we had never seen women in saloons before.  We watched the game awhile to see some losing and some gaining, the result being quite exciting; but as neither of us had any money, we could not have joined in the game had we been so disposed; so we looked on awhile and then took a seat on the ground outside of the house.

Here we talked over our chances of getting to the mines.  All the clothes we had were on our backs and feet and those were the poorest of the poor.  We had no money.  I had the little black-eyed mule, and Rogers had the watch Arcane had given him.  Mr. Moody had said it was 500 miles to San Francisco, and 150 miles further to the mines, so that after the hard travel of a year we were still a long way off from the place we started for.

We could not see any way to make a living here.  There was no land cultivated, not a fence, nothing to require labor of any kind.  The valley was rich enough and produced great crops of grass, and the cattle and horses we had seen grazing seemed to be about all the use they put it to.  It looked as if the people must live principally on meat.  I thought if we could manage to get a little provision together, such as flour and beans, that I could pack there on the mule, and I was pretty sure I could find game that would be better meat than we had lived on during the last two months on the desert.

We looked around to see if we could find something to do to earn a little for a start, but were not successful.  In our walk about this city of mud we saw many things that seemed strange to us.  There were more women than men, and more children than grown-up people, while the dogs were plenty.  At the edge of the town, near the river were some grape vines fenced in with living willows, interlaced in some places with dry vines.  The Indians moved very moderately around