It lies in a sort of semicircular amphitheater of about a mile in diameter, surrounded by a chain of small eminences, in which gold was found in great quantities. The diggings were chiefly deep diggings, worked by means of “coyote holes,” a hundred feet deep, and all the ground round the town was accordingly covered with windlasses and heaps of dirt. The heights at each end of the amphitheater had proved the richest spots, and were supposed to have been volcanoes. But many hills in the mines got the credit of having been volcanoes, for no other reason than that they were full of gold; and this was probably the only claim to such a distinction which could be made in this case.
The population was a mixture of equal proportions of French, Mexicans, and Americans, with a few stray Chinamen, Chilians, and suchlike.
The town itself, with the exception of two or three wooden stores and gambling-saloons, was all of canvas. Many of the houses were merely skeletons clothed in dirty rags of canvas, and it was not difficult to tell what part of the population they belonged to, even had there not been crowds of lazy Mexicans vegetating about the doors.
The Indians, who were pretty numerous about here, seemed to be a slightly superior race to those farther north. I judged so from the fact that they apparently had more money, and consequently must have had more energy to dig for it. They were also great gamblers, and particularly fond of monte, at which the Mexicans fleeced them of all their cash, excepting what they spent in making themselves ridiculous with stray articles of clothing.
But perhaps their appreciation of monte, and their desire to copy the costume of white men, are signs of a greater capability of civilization than they generally get credit for. Still their presence is not compatible with that of a civilized community, and, as the country becomes more thickly settled, there will be no longer room for them. Their country can be made subservient to man, but as they themselves cannot be turned to account, they must move off, and make way for their betters.
This may not be very good morality, but it is the way of the world, and the aborigines of California are not likely to share a better fate than those of many another country. And though the people who drive them out may make the process as gradual as possible by the system of Indian grants and reservations, yet, as with wild cattle, so it is with Indians, so many head, and no more, can live on a given quantity of land, and, if crowded into too small a compass, the result is certain though gradual extirpation, for by their numbers they prevent the reproduction of their means of subsistence.
At the time of my arrival in Moquelumne Hill, the town was posted all over with placards, which I had also observed stuck upon trees and rocks by the roadside as I traveled over the mountains. They were to this effect:—
“War! War!! War!!!
—————
The celebrated Bull-killing Bear,
GENERAL SCOTT,
will fight a Bull on Sunday the 15th inst., at 2 P.M.,
at Moquelumne Hill.
“The Bear will be chained with a twenty-foot chain in the middle of the arena. The Bull will be perfectly wild, young, of the Spanish breed, and the best that can be found in the country. The Bull’s horns will be of their natural length, and ‘not sawed off to prevent accidents.’ The Bull will be quite free in the arena, and not hampered in any way whatever.”
The proprietors then went on to state that they had nothing to do with the humbugging which characterized the last fight, and begged confidently to assure the public that this would be the most splendid exhibition ever seen in the country.