animated considering the primitive conditions. In
addition to the bright flags on the wall and the vivid
colors of the women, the officers of the Presidio and
forts wore full dress uniform, either white coats
with red velvet vest, red pantaloons and sash, or
white trousers and scarlet coat and waistcoat faced
with green. The young men from the Mission wore
small clothes of a black silk, fastened at the knee
with silver buckles, and white silk stockings; two
gentlemen from Monterey wore the evening costume
of the capital, dove-colored small clothes, with white
silk waistcoat and stockings, and much fine lawn
and lace. The room was well lighted by many
wicks stuck in lumps of tallow. The Indian musi-
cians, soldiers recruited from a superior tribe in
the Santa Clara valley, were clad almost entirely
in scarlet, and danced sometimes as they played;
and Indian girls, in short red skirts and snow-white
smocks open at the throat, their long hair decorated
with flowers and ribbons, already passed about wine
and dulces. The windows were open. The sweet
night air blew in.

The contra-danza was not unlike the square
dances of England except that it was far more
graceful, and the men rivalled the women in their
supple glidings and bendings, doublings and sway-
ings. Concha danced with Ignacio Sal, Rafaella
with William Sturgis; their pliant grace, as facile
as grain rippling before the wind, would have put the