the men maintained their lordly dignity, and left all
the gold-digging to the women. These obtained
sometimes two or three dollars a day each, and with
the proceeds of their labor they bought food and
finery.
One would think that with thousands of acres of valuable land stocked by immense herds, with gardens and orchards and fields of grahi, the influx of a vast gold-producing and agricultural population, requiring food and farms, would have made the great grant- holders monarchs of wealth and mdustry. But such was not the result. The old Mexican-Californians hereupon proved themselves a community of children. No sooner was the discovery of gold announced than hired laborers, mechanics, herders, and retainers dropped their implements, abandoned their trust, and rushed for the mines. No amount of money which the landed proprietor could offer was sufficient to hold them. Thus left defenceless, he was overrun by swarms of adventurers, who drove off his cattle, shot his Indians, and took possession of his ground.
Even the sedate gente de razon caught the infec- tion, and taking with them their servants and retain- ers, hastened to the mines, and selecting a favorable spot, put their men at work, while they sat in their tents in state, or strutted about from camp to camp, or louno^ed down amono- the boulders. The relations of man and master, however, were soon severed in the mines, the one casting off old ties and and affec- tions and setting up for himself, and the other return- ing home to mourn to the end of his days over the rapacity of the Yankees, and his loss of opportunity and loss of property, which, after all, were due for the most part to himself.
The soldiers in the service of the United States were also seized with the gold fever, and abandoning their posts, ran off to the placers. It was almost impossible to retain crews on their ships. The pioneer steamship, California, on her first voyage lost all her
