I was alone, and lodged, as I have before
mentioned, just on the extreme point of the
peninsula. All boats that went up or down
the bay were obliged to double it, on which
occasion it frequently happened that people
came on shore, and made my house the object
of repeated attacks, especially during night.
To shoot me in my bed would have been a
very easy task. The boards of which the
walls were made had large crevices, and at
all events would have proved an insufficient
security against rifle-balls. Therefore I
fastened a second range of planks round my
bed, at the distance of about one foot from
the wall, and filled up the intermediate space
with sand. As a further precaution against
cases of extreme danger,! constructed a powdermine
under the threshold, which I could set
fire to any moment I should find it necessary
to do so. But my greatest safeguard was a
loose plank on the ground-floor. When I
was beset by superior numbers, I could lift
it up, and slip through an aperture into the
room under the house. Thence I crept
unobserved into the long, high grass which
grew at the back of the house, and then,
describing a wide circuit, I came behind the
back of the besiegers, whence, sheltered by
stones and holes, and sure of an easy retreat,
I opened fire from my double-barrelled rifle.

Although I had hitherto always succeeded
in victoriously repelling aggressors, my position
had been sometimes very dangerous,
and, at all events, it was by no means a
pleasant night's entertainment after a hard
day's work, to get up from my bed, and to
move like a snake in the cold air and wet
grass;—I would fain have it stopped, and the
sooner the better.

Some days after the Irish Captain had
succeeded as well in the public meetings as in
the closet of the Cornelia Rancho, a boat laden
with stolen beef was captured, and the
cattle-thieves were taken prisoners, by the Frenchmen
of Low Point. The thieves were tied, put
under a boat turned upside down, and closely
watched. Meanwhile, the heroes of the day
kindled a large fire, and prepared out of the
booty a real Homeric meal, on which they
feasted, until early the next morning, when
the prisoners were marched to San Francisco,
and handed over to the civil authorities, by
the Captain himself. He was rather elated
by the first splendid success. But when the
Frenchmen came next time to the town, they
saw the supposed prisoners strut very
majestically, in the best caballero attitude, on
Long Wharf, the principal market-place of
San Francisco. As soon as the thieves
observed the Frenchmen, they became so abusive
to them, that the poor fellows were obliged
to pull away their boats at full speed, without
even selling the fish they came to dispose
of. This news, when it reached our peninsula,
produced general indignation against
the magistrates in the town; and the excitement
reached its highest pitch when it was
known, next day, that in the previous night
all the milk-cows of the Irish Captain had
been butchered and carried away. A second
general meeting was immediately held.

The Irish Captain made another very clever
speech. It would be foolish, he said, to hope
for redress of our griefs from the judicial
authorities. To be convinced thereof we had
only to look upon the way in which the
cattle-stealing was carried on. A butcher,
when short of meat, generally lent a small
sum of money, say ten or fifteen dollars, to a
native caballero, who, of course, gambled
and lost all he possessed. The caballero
would not have troubled himself about
repaying his debt, but that he wished to get
some more money from the butcher. When
he came back to the latter to tell his misfortune,
he found that his creditor was a very
reasonable man. "If you have no money," the
butcher said, "never mind, you may pay me in
beef instead of dollars." The caballero accepted
this liberal proposal, and the butcher
provided him with a boat, some guns, ammunition,
provisions, brandy, and some more
dollars. So the caballero, accompanied by
two or three friends, set out for the purpose
of killing and carrying away any cattle they
could get hold of. As they knew the country
well, they generally succeeded in their
enterprise, and their employer was provided
with cheap meat. In case, however, they
were taken prisoners, the butcher was bound
by honour, and much more by interest, to
support them. The butcher had his lawyer,
and the lawyer had great influence with the
magistrates. Generally speaking, the thieves
were set at liberty the same day. If, however,
the case were a more serious one, and
the plaintiffs had powerful relations, then the
butcher himself came forth, and his
fellow-butchers, and their clients, and friends, and
all that numerous class of people who had an
interest in defeating the ends of justice. The
authorities, if they did not connive at, were, at
all events, too weak to withstand so powerful
a force against them, and yielded—sometimes
after the show of a mock trial.

With this introductory statement, the Irish
Captain moved that the inhabitants of the
peninsula should form themselves into a
permanent committee, and take upon
themselves all the duties of police and
courts-martial. No suspected persons should be
allowed to land. Thieves and other criminals
should be tried before the committee, and,
if found guilty, executed on the spot.

The Captain's motion was passed without
opposition. This, our Committee of Vigilance,
although one of the last in importance, was the
first organised in California that I have ever
heard of, and was called into action as early as
the next night. At midnight, when I was asleep,
I was aroused by the arrival of a large party
on foot and on horseback. It was the Irish
Captain with the Frenchmen from Low
Point, who had received hints that a great