DAWN AND THE DONS 171
Stanislaus river. This was in the early months of 1850, Joaquin then being eighteen and Rosita seventeen. All accounts agree that they were then a happy couple. Murietta, according to the historian Bancroft, was of medium height, somewhat slender in figure, extremely active and athletic, and no less graceful in movement than handsome in person. He had a high forehead, an intellectual cast of countenance, large, black, blazing eyes that could kindle with enthusiasm, or melt with tenderness,
and a well shaped mouth
that showed
at
once firmness and sensuality. His manner was frank and cordial, and he had a pleasing voice. Though youthful in appearance, he had the faculty of commanding both fear and respect. He took up a placer mining claim on the Stanislaus river, which proved to be quite rich, and which he was successfully working when the incident occurred that changed the current of his life. One evening there came to the cabin where he and Rosita were living, a party of Americans somewhat under the influence of alcoholic stimulants, and ordered him to leave the camp, telling him a Mexican had no right to mine there, and saying that they didn’t propose to have any Greaser around their diggings. Pointing to Rosita, one of the visiting party with an added sneering remark said, “And take
her with you.”
This enraged Murietta, and he hotly told the intruders that they must not speak so of his wife. A fight ensued in which Murietta was knocked senseless and Rosita was roughly handled.
