California has been fortunate in her historians. Every student of the history of the Pacific coast is indebted to the monumental work of Hubert H. Bancroft. Three titles concern the period of the Forty-niners: _The History of California_, 7 vols. (1884-1890); _California Inter Pocula, 1848-56_ (1888); _Popular Tribunals_, 2 vols. (1887). Second only to these volumes in general scope and superior in some respects is T.H. Hittell's _History of California_, 4 vols. (1885-1897). Two other general histories of smaller compass and covering limited periods are I.B. Richman's _California under Spain and Mexico, 1535-1847_ (1911), and Josiah Royce's _California, 1846-1856_ (1886). The former is a scholarly but rather arid book; the latter is an essay in interpretation rather than a narrative of events. One of the chief sources of information about San Francisco in the days of the gold fever is _The Annals of San Francisco_ (1855) by Soulé and others. Contemporary accounts of California just before the American occupation are of varying value. One of the most widely read books is R.H. Dana's _Two Years before the Mast_ (1840). The author spent parts of 1835 and 1836 in California. _The Personal Narrative of James O. Pattie_ (1831) is an account of six years' travel amid almost incredible hardships from St. Louis to the Pacific and back through Mexico. W.H. Thomes's _On Land and Sea, or California in the Years 1843, '44, and '45_ (1892) gives vivid pictures of old Mexican days. Two other books may be mentioned which furnish information of some value: Alfred Robinson, _Life in California_ (1846) and Walter Colton, _Three Years in California_ (1850). Personal journals and narratives of the Forty-niners are numerous, but they must be used with caution. Their accuracy is frequently open to question. Among the more valuable may be mentioned Delano's _Life on the Plains and among the Diggings_ (1854); W.G. Johnston's _Experience of a Forty-niner_ (1849); T.T. Johnson's _Sights in the Gold Region and Scenes by the Way_ (1849); J.T. Brooks's _Four Months among the Gold-Finders_ (1849); E.G. Buffum's _Six Months in the Gold Mines_ (1850)--the author was a member of the "Stevenson Regiment"; James Delevan's _Notes on California and the Placers: How to get there and what to do afterwards_ (1850); and W.R. Ryan's _Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California, in 1848-9_ (1850). Others who were not gold-seekers have left their impression of California in transition, such as Bayard Taylor in his _Eldorado_, 2 vols. (1850), and J.W. Harlan in his _California '46 to '88_ (1888). The latter was a member of Frémont's battalion. The horrors of the overland journey are told by Delano in the book already mentioned and by W.L. Manly, _Death Valley in '49_ (1894).