There is a graphic account of the author’s first impressions of San Francisco.  “A furious wind was blowing down through a gap in the hills, filling the streets with dust.  On every side stood buildings of all kinds, began or half-finished, with canvas sheds open in front and covered with all kinds of signs, in all languages.  Great piles of merchandise were in the open air, for lack of storehouses.  The streets were full of people of as diverse and bizarre a character as their dwellings:  Yankees of every possible variety, native Californians in serapes and sombreros, Chilians, Sonorians, Kanakas from Hawaii, Chinese with long tails, Malays armed with everlasting creeses, and others, in their bearded and embrowned visages, it was impossible to recognize any especial nationality.”  “San Francisco by day and night” is the title of one of the best chapters in the book.

Our author made a foot journey to Monterey during the sitting of the Convention which formed the State Constitution.  He gives a pleasing account of the refined and polite society of this ancient Californian town; and makes particular mention of Dona Augusta Ximeno, a sister of one of the Californian delegates to the Convention, Don Pablo de la Guerra, as a woman whose nobility of character, native vigor and activity of intellect, and instinctive refinement and winning grace of manner, would have given her a complete supremacy in society, had her lot been cast in Europe or the United States.  Her house was the favorite resort of the leading members of the Convention, American and Californian.  She was thoroughly versed in Spanish literature, and her remarks on the various authors were just and elegant.  She was, besides, a fine rider, and could throw the lariat with skill, and possesses all those bold and daring qualities which are so fascinating when softened and made graceful by true feminine delicacy.

He describes the native Californians as physically and morally superior to the Mexicans of other States.  They are, as a class, finely built, with fresh, clear complexions.  The educated class very generally are and appear well satisfied with the change of affairs, but the majority still look with jealousy on the new comers, and are not pleased with the new customs and new laws.  The Californians in the Convention seemed every way worthy of their position.  General Vallejo is a man of middle years, tall, and of commanding presence—­with the grave and dignified expression of the old Castilian race.  With him were Cavarrubias, the old Secretary of the Government, Pico, Carvillo, Pedrorena, La Guerra, and a half-blood Indian member, Dominguez, who, together with many of the most respectable and wealthy citizens of California, is now excluded from voting by a clause of the Constitution, which denies that privilege to Indians and negroes.  This unjust exception—­a blot on an otherwise admirable Constitution—­was adopted after a warm debate, and against fierce opposition.  The attempt to prohibit free people of color from inhabiting the State failed by a large majority. The clause prohibiting slavery passed by the vote of every member.