[Illustration: Burt, sc.] THE LAND OF GOLD; OR, =Three Years in California.= BY REV. WALTER COLTON, U. S. N., AUTHOR OF “SHIP AND SHORE,” &c. * * * * * =New York:= D. W. EVANS & CO., 677 BROADWAY. 1860. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and fifty, BY S. A. ROLLO & COMPANY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. TO GEN. MARIANO GUADALUPE VALLEJO, ONE OF CALIFORNIA’S DISTINGUISHED SONS, IN WHOM THE INTERESTS OF FREEDOM, HUMANITY, AND EDUCATION HAVE FOUND AN ABLE ADVOCATE AND MUNIFICENT BENEFACTOR =This Volume= IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. Many events of moment occurred in California during my residence of three years in that country, and which were sketched in a journal kept by me at the time. They are interspersed with anecdotes and incidents of a less general concern, but which may not be without some interest with the reader, as affording a clue to the leading features of society, and traits of individual character. The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an intense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been: the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. She has sprung at once from the shackles of colonial servitude to all the advantages and dignities of a sovereign state.