1. Rinaldo Rinaldini: The chivalrous hero of The Robber Captain (1797), a novel by the German author Christian August Vulpius.
2. war with Mexico: The US-Mexico War (1846–48). See Introduction, page xvii.
3. Castilians: An ethnic group in Castile, in central Spain.
4. Mexiques: Mexicans.
5. “monte”: A card game. Either the con game three-card monte (in which the dealer moves three cards around and the mark attempts to keep track of one of the cards), or a game of chance in which the dealer takes four cards, returns them to the deck, and flips cards until finding one that matches one of the original four.
6. Padre Jurata: Celedonio Dómeco de Jarauta (1814–48) was a Catholic priest who organized guerrilla companies during the US-Mexico War. After the war, he opposed the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and revolted against the Mexican government. He was captured and executed as a revolutionary.
7. rancheros: Wealthy property owners who held land grants (ranchos) in perpetuity in Alta California under Spanish and Mexican rule. After the United States acquired California in 1848, US settlers contested many of the rancheros’ claims.
8. fandango: A couples dance originating in Spain.
9. “the peaceful / Homes of men”: In 1847, Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine published an article about Pittsburgh, whose inhabitants “by their own efforts and industry have raised up a great city on these Western waters, and converted a wilderness into the peaceful homes of men . . .”
10. Arroyo Cantoova: Arroyo de Cantua [Cantua Creek] in present-day Fresno County. A historical marker at the site identifies it as the “HEADQUARTERS OF NOTORIOUS BANDIT JOAQUIN MURIETA.”
11. express rider: Mail carrier.
12. Tejon Indians: The Tejon nation, but possibly also a reference to the inhabitants of the Sebastian Indian Reservation (commonly known as the Tejon Indian Reseervation) established by the 1851 Tejon Treaty.
13. Sapatarra: Possibly a reference to Antonio Zapatero, a mission-educated Indian of mixed Kitanemuk and Hometwoli Tokuts ancestry. The Tejon Treaty was signed in a house built by Zapatero.
14. tête-a-tête: A one-on-one interaction (French).
15. bump of caution: A reference to phrenology, a nineteenth-century pseudo-science that attributed personal characteristics to features of a person’s head.
16. “greasers”: A racial slur for Mexicans popularized during the US-Mexican War, possible derived from the work of greasing wagons and animal hides.
17. arroyo: A brook or a dry stream bed that seasonally fills up (Spanish).
18. Celestials: A nineteenth-century term for Chinese people, derived from the translation of China as “Celestial Empire.”
19. no respecter of persons: A reference to the idea that divine judgment is impartial. See the King James Bible, Acts 10:34 and Romans 2.11.
20. long tail: During the Manchu dynasty in China, men were required to wear their hair in a braided queue as a sign of loyalty.
21. Grandee: A high-ranking Spanish aristocrat.
22. General Vallejo’s: Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807–90) was a Californio military officer and state senator.
23. tules: A species of sedge native to many freshwater marshes in North America.
24. Byron: George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), known as Lord Byron, was an English Romantic poet.
25. “Woman’s tears . . . unman in death”: From Lord Byron, “Euthanasia” (1912).
26. golden tree of the Hesperides: In Greek mythology, the garden of the Hesperides is the site of a tree with golden apples that impart immortality. The Hesperides are nymphs of the evening or sunset.
27. Bucephalus: The horse of the Macedonian emperor Alexander the Great.
28. “let loose for a thousand years”: In the New Testament book of Revelation, Satan is said to be bound for 1,000 years prior to being set loose upon the nations.
29. digger-trail: A trail used by people indigenous to the land that became the state of California. Among California’s settlers, “digger” was a racial slur for Indigenous people who acquired sustenance by hunting and gathering.
30. stereotyped jokes: A “stereotype” is a type of printing plate widely that was widely used in the nineteenth-century for mechanical reproduction.
31. Senati: A notorious bandit active in California during the 1850s.
32. yager: A jaeger (German) is a short-barreled rifle.
33. Alcalde: A government official in a Spanish town, or a Native official at a Spanish mission.
34. California trial: Extrajudicial “trials” without due process were common in the early years of California under US rule.
35. Cherokee Flat: An area in Butte County, California, formerly inhabited by the Maidu nation and settled by a group of Cherokee prospectors in 1849.
36. Foreign Miners’ Licenses: A reference to California’s Foreign Miners Tax, a $20 monthly tax on foreign miners first enacted in 1850, repealed in 1851, and reenacted in 1852. The law was modified to exempt any “free white person,” and the tax was collected primarily from Mexican, South American, and Chinese miners.
37. “Digger-Express”: A phrase (incorporating the derogatory term “digger”) for mail carried by a person indigenous to the land that became the state of California.
38. Judge Lynch: A personification of lynch law, or extrajudicial trials and executions.
39. Belshazzar’s: In the Old Testament book of Daniel, Belshazzar was a co-regent of Babylon whose knees shook with fear when he saw a hand writing on a wall that prophesized the fall of Babylon.
40. Cherokee superstition . . . silver bullet: This was a widespread and longstanding belief seen in European stories about supernatural creatures, such as the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Two Brothers” and the eighteenth century legend of the Beast of Gévaudan in France.
41. cloven-foot: In Western mythology and iconography, the Devil is frequently associated with cloven feet.
42. A petition . . . Legislature: See Introduction, page xx.
43. Tivola Gardens: Possibly a reference to the Tivoli gardens of Paris, the last of which was closed in 1842. By the 1850s, “Tivoli gardens” imitating the famous pleasure gardens of that name in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Tivoli, Italy, had been established throughout the United States.
44. Major Domo: The head domestic servant for a household.