could be kept to service, the wheels of progress here
must rest a while.
So also came to an end for a time the sittings of the town council, and the services of the sanctuary, all having gone after other gods. All through the Sundays the little church on the plaza was silent, and all through the week days the door of Alcalde Towns- end's office remained locked. As for the shipping, it was left to the anchor, even this dull metal some- times being inconstant. The sailors departing, cap- tain and officers could only follow their example. One commander, on observing the drift of affairs, gave promptly the order to put to sea. The crew refused to work, and that night gagged the watch, lowered the boat, and rowed away. In another instance the watch joined in absconding. Not long afterward a Peruvian brig entered the bay, the first within three weeks. The houses were there, but no one came out to welcome it. At length, hailing a Mexican who was passing, the captain learned that everybody had gone northward, where the valleys and mountains were of gold. On the instant the crew were off.^
'*So mn these stories. Ferry, Cal., 306-13. The captain who sought to pat to sea comTnanded the Flora, according to a letter in June of a merchant. JiobinsoH'9 Oold Beyiona, 29-30; Bevere'a Tour of Duty, 254. One of the first vessels to be deserted was a ship of the Hudson's Bay Ck)mpany lying at anchor in the bay; the sailors departing, the caotain followed them, leaving the vessel in charge of his wife and daughter. McKinstry, in the Lancanter Examiner, Loud complaints appear in the Cnl^fomian, Sept. 5, 1848; every ship loses most of her crew within forty -eight hours after arrival. See Brachttt, U, 8, Cavalry, 125-7. The first steamship, the California, arriving Feb. 28, 1840, was immediately deserted by her crew; Forbes asked Joues of the U. S. squadron for men to take charge of the ship, but the poor commodore had none. Cro8by*8 SUU,, MS., 12; AnnaUS, F., 220; First Steamship Pioneers, 124. To prevent desertion, the plan was tried of giving sailors two months' furlough; whereby some few returned, but most of them preferred liberty, wealth, and dissipation to the tyranny of service. Swanks Trip to the OM Mines, in C(U, Pioneers, MS., no. 49. Some Mexixams arriving, and finding the town depopulated of its natural defenders, broke into vacant houses auu took what they would. The Di(j(jer*s Iland-Book, 63. See also the Cali/or- ftian, Aug. 4, 1848; George McKinstry, in Lancaster Examiner ;St(M:kton J nd., Oct 19, 1875; Barstow^s Stat.^ MS., 3-4; Sac, 111., 7; Forbes' Gold Betjion, 17-18; TuthilCsCal, 235-44; Three Weeks in Oold MineM, 4; Canon's Early Bee., 8-4; Lants, Kal,, 24-31; Hayes* Col. Cal. Notes, v. 85; Berue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 1, 1849, 469; Quarterly Beview, no. 91, 1852,608; nUi^Ws Min- ing, 17; Brooks* Four Months, 18; Overland Monthly, xi. 12-13; Byan's Judget and Crim,^ 72-7; Am, Quat, Beg., ii. 288-95, giving the rejK>rts of Larkin,
