"It is a by-word that at Mexico there are four things fair; that is to say, the women, the apparel, the horses, and the streets. But to this I may add the beauty of some of the coaches of the gentry, which do exceed in cost the best of the court of Madrid, and other parts of Christendom, for they spare no silver, nor gold, nor precious stones, nor cloth of gold, nor the best silks from China, to enrich them; and to the gallantry of their horses the pride of some doth add the cost of bridles and shoes of silver. The streets of Christendom must not compare with those in breadth and cleanness, but especially in the riches of the shops which do adorn them. Above all, the goldsmith's shops and works are to be admired. The [East] Indians, and the people of China, that have been made Christians, and every year come thither, have perfected the Spaniards in that trade. There is in the cloister of the Dominicans a lamp hanging in the Church, with three hundred branches wrought in silver, to hold so many candles, besides a hundred little lamps for oil set in it, every one being made with several workmanship so exquisitely that it is valued to be worth four hundred thousand ducats; and with such like curious works are many streets made more rich and beautiful from the shops of goldsmiths.
"To the by-word touching the beauty of the women I must add the liberty they enjoy for gaming, which is such that the day and night is too short for them to end a primera when once it is begun; nay, gaming is so common to them, that they invite gentlemen to their houses for no other end. To myself it happened that, passing along the streets in company with a friar that came with me the year before from Spain, a gentlewoman of great birth, knowing us to be new-comers, from her window called unto us, and, after two or three slight questions concerning Spain, asked us if we would come in and play with her a game at primera. Both men and women are excessive in their apparel, using more silks than stuffs and cloth. Precious stones and pearls farther much this vain ostentation. A hatband and rose made of diamonds in a gentleman's hat is common, and a hatband of pearls is ordinary in a tradesman; nay, a blackamore, or tawney young maid and slave, will make hard shift but she will be in fashion with her neck-chain and Bracelets of pearls, and her ear-bobs of considerable jewels.
MEXICAN COSTUMES.
"Their clothing is a petticoat of silk or cloth, with many silver or golden laces, with a very double ribbon of some light color, with long silver or golden tags hanging down in front the whole length of their petticoat to the ground, and the like behind; their waistcoats made like bodies, with skirts, laced likewise with gold and silver, without sleeves, and a girdle about their waist of great price, stuck with pearls and knobs of gold. Their sleeves are broad and open at the end, of Holland or fine China linen, wrought, some with colored silks, some with silk and gold, some with silk and silver, hanging down almost to the ground; the locks of their heads are covered with some wrought quoif, and over it another of net-work of silk, bound with a fair silk, or silver, or golden ribbon, which crosses the upper part of their foreheads, and hath commonly worked out in letters some light and foolish love posie; their bare, black, and tawney breasts, are covered with bobs hanging from their chains of pearls. And when they go abroad, they use a white mantle of lawn or cambric, rounded with a broad lace, which some put over their heads, the breadth reaching only to their middles behind, that their girdle and ribbons may be seen, and the two ends before reaching to the ground almost; others cast their mantles only upon their shoulders; and swaggerers like to cast the one end over the left shoulder, while with their right arm they support the lower part of it, more like roaring boys than honest civil maids. Their shoes are high and of many soles, the outside whereof of the profaner sort are plated over with a lift of silver, which is fastened with small nails with broad silver heads. Most of these are or have been slaves, though love have set them loose at liberty to enslave souls to sin and Satan; and for the looseness of their lives, and public scandals committed by them and the better sort of the Spaniards, I have heard them say often, who possessed more religion and fear of God, they verily thought God would destroy that city, and give up the country into the power of some other nation.
"And I doubt not but the flourishing of Mexico in coaches, horses, streets, women, and apparel, is very slippery, and will make those proud inhabitants slip and fall into the power and dominion of some other prince of this world, and hereafter, in the world to come, into the powerful hands of an angry Judge, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, which Paul saith (Heb. x. 31) is a fearful thing. For this city doth not only flourish in the ways aforesaid, but also in the superstitious worshiping of God and the saints they exceed Rome itself, and all other places of Christendom. And it is a thing which I have very much and carefully observed in all my travels, both in Europe and America, that in those cities wherein there is most lewd licentiousness of life, there is also most cost in the temples, and most public superstitious worship of God and the saints."
So much for worthy Thomas Gage, and his estimate of the Mexicans of his day.
AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA.
I arrived at San Francisco in the midst of the gold excitement. The town was crowded with rough-looking muscular men in red shirts, slouch hats, and trowsers over which were drawn high-topped boots. A Colt's revolver, a belt filled with gold, and an unshaven visage completed the tout ensemble of a crowd who were purchasing supplies for their companions in the mines. They strode along, conscious that they belonged to the Anglo-Saxon race and the aristocracy of labor. As they turned into the temporary houses or booths which then constituted the town, or threaded their way among the piles of merchandise that encumbered the streets, the effeminate natives instinctively shrunk back, conscious of their own imbecility; the Spanish Americans were overawed by their presence; and even Sidney convicts thought it most profitable to turn their thoughts to honest labor.
The miner had his vices too as well as his virtues. If you will follow him as he opens right and left a crowd that surrounds a table heaped with lumps of gold and silver coin, you will see how carelessly he throws down a piece of metal, looking sharply into the eye of the cunning dealer of the monté cards. If he detects a false move, he cocks his weapon, and draws the gold back into his bag and strides away.