San Francisco/Yerba Buena: From the Beginning to the Gold Rush, 1769-1849

account of the early european visitors to San Francisco Bay, focusing on the area that became Yerba Buena, then San Francisco. The book ends with the discovery of gold in California, which signified the end of the villiage known as Yerba Buena. Imagine the green valleys of San Francisco, oak glens and cool creeks, a few barns and homes. Then imagine an influx of sailors, "Americans, Yankees, Spanish, French, Italians, Portuguese, English, Canadians, Irish, Scotch, Russians, Germans, Chinese, & c. Not a man was to be seen without a pistol and knife in his belt."