THE LITTLE LADY OF LAGUNITAS

A FRANCO-CALIFORNIAN ROMANCE

BY Richard Henry Savage






INTRODUCTION.





Forty-two years have passed since California's golden star first
glittered in the flag of the United States of America.

Its chequered history virtually begins with the rush for gold in
'48-'49.

Acquired for the evident purpose of extending slave-holding
territory, it was occupied for years by a multitude of cosmopolitan
"free lances," who swept away the defenceless Indians, and brutally
robbed the great native families, the old "Dons."

Society slowly made headway against these motley adventurers. Mad
riot, wildest excess, marked these earlier days.