ned havoc
and death, fire and extermination, should any attempt be made to expel them. Fort Larkin the place was called, in honor of one of the ringleaders. The galley of a sailing-vessel, perforated with port-holes, had been planted as a fortress on the disputed lot, over- looking which, on a sandy eminence, stood a dilapi- dated shanty, the headquarters of the belligerents who thus aspired to become owners of lots by merely tak- ing possession of them. The next day a much larger meeting for the suppression of squatterism was held at Musical Hall.
More and more audacious the squatters of Mission street became every day. And the infection for ob- taining property without rendering an equivalent spread rapidly over the city. Soon there was scarcely a lot that was not fenced in and guarded, either by its rightful owner or by some wrongful claimant. Pres- ently squatter rose up against squatter, and fought each other. On Green street, between Stockton and Powell, James Lick owned a lot which two squatters claimed simultaneously. Murphy and Duffy being the contending claimants, and each backed by a sub- claimant. One party erected a fence, and when the other side attempted to pull it down, pistols were fired, and a woman and a man shot. The squatters were no less active than their opponents in holding meetings and forming secret associations. Before the disputed premises on Mission street armed men were stationed, who marched back and forth night and day like sen- tinels. The authorities at length took the matter up, and drove them away ; but scarcely were they out of sight before the squatters were back again in posses- sion, and nailing up their demolished fences. Finally they were efiectually dislodged ; the rightful owners were then placed in possession, and peace again smiled upon the sand-hills.
It was the fashion of purchasers of water-lots to stake off the limits of their submerged lands and fence them in by means of pile-drivers, paying little regard
