The pueblo was then insignificant and apparently with no prospect of expansion or grandeur.

There were only a few houses there, chiefly of adobe construction, clustering about the Plaza.

The Presidio, west of the stray hamlet, and the Mission Dolores, to the southwest, were all that relieved a dreary landscape beyond.

There were the hills covered with chaparral and the shifting sands all around, and far to the south, where now are wide streets and great blocks of buildings.

The ground sloped towards the bay on the east, and a cove, long since filled in, which bore the name of Yerba Buena, extended up to Montgomery street.