Excerpt from John Charity: A Romance of Yesterday, Containing Certin Adventures and Love-Passages in Alta California of John Charity, Yeoman of Cranberry-Orcas in the County of Hampshire, England, as Set Down by Himself

It was in the year 1837, when her Gracious Majesty Victoria ascended the throne of England, that I, John Charity, left England for Alta California. But before setting down the adventures that befell me, 'twere well, doubtless, to give the reader some brief information in regard to my birthplace, Cranberry-Orcas, in the County of Hampshire, my upbringing, and the causes that constrained a poor young man to leave his native land to seek beneath alien skies those gifts of the gods -fame and fortune.

The village of Cranberry-Orcas lies between Winchester and Southampton, upon the right bank of the silver Itchen, and a man may travel from John o' Groats to Land's End and nowhere find a prettier hamlet, nor one to which memory will cling more fondly.

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