"All which I saw, and part of which I was."
--_Dryden_.




CHAPTER I.

Geographical sketch of California
Its political and social institutions
Colorado River
Valley and river of San Joaquin
Former government
Presidios
Missions
Ports and commerce.


For the general information of the reader, it will be proper to give a
brief geographical sketch of California, and some account of its
political and social institutions, as they have heretofore existed.

The district of country known geographically as Upper California is
bounded on the north by Oregon, the forty-second degree of north
latitude being the boundary line between the two territories; on the
east by the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra de los Mimbres, a