William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[66] to squaws. In every riot they are first and last; the first in outrage, and the last to be subdued. When Mexico threw off the yoke, they fought against the crown of Spain, and when that fight was done they turned against their comrades in the camp. Unstable as water, they rallied to the Single Star, and after causing the young republic of California much annoyance, they rallied to the Stars and Stripes.

This treachery brought men into these plains, compared to whom the Mexicans are boys, the Indians girls. Alert and strong, these strangers push the native to the wall. While the Hybrid stock-man is playing at cards or capering through a dance, his fields are fenced, his cattle driven away, his streamlets dammed, by these intruding and unsleeping Whites. What can the Hybrid do? American courts are in these strangers' hands. He cannot meet them in the field. What then? Must he lie down and sprawl at their feet?

Jesu Maria-no! He may take to the woods, become a bandit, and avenge the wrongs he is too feeble to resent in open strife.