DAWN AND THE DONS 170
This race antagonism gave birth to one of the most remarkable and extraordinary bandit careers of which any accurate and dependable record has ever been preserved. The story, interesting on its own account, is here related because of the illuminating picture it presents of the fundamental opposition of the two strains, Nordic and Latin, that in the early years of American occupation, met in California. The change to AngloSaxon rule had been sudden and complete; the gold rush in 1849 and 1850 had brought thousands of adventurers, whose sole aim was the acquirement of sudden wealth; and in those first mad years, love for California, which grows in the heart of everyone who comes within the alluring embrace of her magic charm, had to yield to the lure of gold. Joaquin Murietta was born in Mexico, in the State of Sonora, in 1832.
He came
of a good family, and was
educated in the schools of his native state. As a youth, he was genial and companionable and a favorite among his fellows. When a boy of seventeen, he fell desperately in love with a beautiful, black-eyed Mexican senor-
ita of Castilian descent, named
Rosita Felix, who returned his love with equal ardor. Rosita was then sixteen, and her proud father not only frowned on the courtship, but made it so unpleasant and disagreeable for Murietta that the youthful lover left Sonora for the goldfields of California. In accordance with their agreed plans, Rosita followed him. They were married, and began life in a mining camp on the
