I remember very well, soon after our arrival, that we were all invited to witness a play called “Adam and Eve.”  Eve was personated by a pretty young girl known as Dolores Gomez, who, however, was dressed very unlike Eve, for she was covered with a petticoat and spangles.  Adam was personated by her brother—­the same who has since become somewhat famous as the person on whom is founded the McGarrahan claim.  God Almighty was personated, and heaven’s occupants seemed very human.  Yet the play was pretty, interesting, and elicited universal applause.  All the month of February we were by day preparing for our long stay in the country, and at night making the most of the balls and parties of the most primitive kind, picking up a smattering of Spanish, and extending our acquaintance with the people and the costumbrea del pais.  I can well recall that Ord and I, impatient to look inland, got permission and started for the Mission of San Juan Bautista.  Mounted on horses, and with our carbines, we took the road by El Toro, quite a prominent hill, around which passes the road to the south, following the Saunas or Monterey River.  After about twenty miles over a sandy country covered with oak-bushes and scrub, we entered quite a pretty valley in which there was a ranch at the foot of the Toro.  Resting there a while and getting some information, we again started in the direction of a mountain to the north of the Saunas, called the Gavillano.  It was quite dark when we reached the Saunas River, which we attempted to pass at several points, but found it full of water, and the quicksands were bad.  Hearing the bark of a dog, we changed our course in that direction, and, on hailing, were answered by voices which directed us where to cross.  Our knowledge of the language was limited, but we managed to understand, and to founder through the sand and water, and reached a small adobe-house on the banks of the Salinas, where we spent the night:  The house was a single room, without floor or glass; only a rude door, and window with bars.  Not a particle of food but meat, yet the man and woman entertained us with the language of lords put themselves, their house, and every thing, at our “disposition,” and made little barefoot children dance for our entertainment.  We made our supper of beef, and slept on a bullock’s hide on the dirt-floor.  In the morning we crossed the Salinas Plain, about fifteen miles of level ground, taking a shot occasionally at wild-geese, which abounded there, and entering the well-wooded valley that comes out from the foot of the Gavillano.  We had cruised about all day, and it was almost dark when we reached the house of a Senor Gomez, father of those who at Monterey had performed the parts of Adam and Eve.  His house was a two-story adobe, and had a fence in front.  It was situated well up among the foot-hills of the Gavillano, and could not be seen until within a few yards.  We hitched our horses to the fence and went in just as Gomez was about to