of eight or ten acres was attached to the fort, laid
out with taste and skill, where flourished all kinds of
vegetables, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, olives, figs,
and almonds. Horses, cattle, and sheep cover the
surrounding plains; boats lie at the embarcadero.
The fort is a parallelogram of adobe walls, 500 feet long by 150 in breadth, with loop-holes and bastions at the angles, mounted with a dozen cannon that sweep the curtains. Within is a collection of gran- aries and warehouses, shops and stores, dwellings and outhouses, extending near and along the walls round the central buildmg occupied by the Swiss potentate, who holds sway as patriarch and priest, judge and father. The interior of the houses is rough, with rafters and unpanelled walls, with benches and deal tables, the exception being the audience-room and private apartments of the owner, who has ob- tained from the Russians a clumsy set of California laurel furniture.^ In front of the main building, on the small square, is a brass gun, guarded by the sentinel, whose measured tramp, lost in the hum of day, marks the stillness of the night, and stops alone beneath the belfry-post to chime the passing hour.
Throughout the day the enclosure presents an animated scene of work and trafficking, by bustling laborers, diligent mechanics, and eager traders, all to the chorus clang of the smithy and reverberating strokes of the carpenters. Horsemen dash to and fro at the bidding of duty and pleasure, and an occasional wagon creaks along upon the gravelly road-bed, sure to pause for recuperating purposes oefore the trad- ing store,^^ where confused voices mingle with laugh- ter and the sometimes discordant strains of drunken
- The first made in the country, he says, and ptrikingly superior to the
cmde furniture of the Calif omians, with rawhide and bullock -head chairs and bed -stretchers. SuUer^a Pers. Bem,^ MS., 164, et seq. Bryant describes the dining-room as having merely benches and dc^l table, yet displaying silver spoons and China bowU, the latter serving for dishes as well as cups. What I Saw, 26ft-70.
'^ One kept by Smith and Brannan. Prices at this time were $1 a foot for bone-shoeing, $1 a bushel for wheat, peas $1.50, unbolted flour $8 a 100 lbs.
