William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

“ [60] trade, but after paying our money, we held these licences at the governor's will. On any whimsey, he could put us on board the fleet, or drive us into the mountains. No civil rights were known. At gunshot, soldiers drove us into camp, and when the curfew tolled these soldiers compelled us to put out light and fire. The life we led was not a thing for women of our kin to share.”

“You were encamped, not settled in the country? ”

“You are right. No man among us thought of staying over nine or ten years; just long enough to make a pot of money out of hides and skins. Nobody cared to get the land; nobody thought of Monterey as home. Home! There was not one English woman, and not a dozen Spanish women in the province. Fair faces were as rare as gold; and never to be seen, except in some great officer's ranch. Not one man in fifty, even among the rich, could hope to get a European wife.”

“You were a lucky one?”

“ Ha, yes! My wife, a donia and seiora, was the daughter of an officer. She fell in love with my blue eye and yellow locks. Most of my rivals in that ”