CHAPTER V SAN FRANCISCO A PRINT which represents Yerba Buena in 1846 shows two parallel lanes climbing stiffly from the water-front to a single cross-street, and there- after losing their identity in the gullied pinnacle which surmounts the bay. A few houses preempt corner lots. The sandy outskirts, blotched with dark herbage, roll off to the Twin Peaks. In the bight ride a half-dozen square-rigged craft ; the largest is the Portsmouth, from which Com- mander Montgomery came ashore to fly from the plaza pole the standard which signified the passing of the tiny settlement from Mexican to American control. The cove side of the plaza was given the name of this United States naval officer, and the plaza it- self became Portsmouth Square. In 1847 the Presidio, the Mission, and the Village of the Pleasant Herb were united under the one name, San Francisco. During the year, the ship- ping register showed a conspicuous increase in the number of trading-vessels entering the narrow 95
