sanctioned by reason and the understanding. They all alike despised superstition and abhorred despotism. In conclusion, I may add, that, had such a race of men as I saw in the mountains and villages of California at an early period of its settlement existed at the time of the conquest of Mexico, they would have revolutionized the world.
We have heard much of the immorality, excessive extravagance and luxury of the cities of California; but the following picture of the state of the city of Mexico in the heyday of its prosperity, five years before it was destroyed by an inundation, is from the black-letter volume of Thomas Gage, of which I have already availed myself.
"Almost all Mexico is now built with very fair and spacious houses, with gardens of recreation. The streets are very broad; in the narrowest of them three coaches may go, and in the broadest of them six may go in the breadth of them, which makes the city seem a great deal bigger than it is. In my time it was thought to be of between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, Spaniards, who are so proud and rich, that half the city was judged to keep coaches; for it was a most credible report that in Mexico there were about 15,000 coaches.
"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]