Late in the afternoon of September 19th, we arrived at the entrance to the Golden Gate, but only to find the sea enveloped in a dense fog, and the entrance through which we were in hope of passing at once, hidden from our view. The only resource was, in seaman’s phraseology, “to lay off” and on until morning, which we did in safety, although not without escaping in an almost miraculous manner from the greatest danger. The incident is worth relating, as it shows how it is possible, after having sailed so many thousands of miles in safety, upon arriving at your destination to meet with disaster through the ignorance of an incompetent seaman. It was the second mate’s watch on deck, the burly-headed seaman previously mentioned. About 11 P.M., as the Captain was about turning in for the night, the second mate called down the gang-way for the Captain. When asked what was wanted, he replied that right ahead, seen through the fog, was a square-rigged vessel. The Captain answered:
“Well, you know your business, of course.”
Almost instantly afterwards he again shouted:
“Captain, come quick! we are close aboard of her!”
The latter leaped from his bunk, and was upon deck in an instant, and saw at once the nationality and character of the square-rigged craft, looming up in a dense fog, immediately over our bow. He ordered the wheel hard a port, and the old ship swung readily around in the foam and swash, and within less than half a ship’s length of one of the great rocks of the Faralone Islands. In less than one minute more we would have crashed into, run afoul of, and knocked from its foundation into the deep sea beyond, one of the grandest structures of the whole group, but the presence of mind of our Captain saved it from utter destruction, as well as a few score of badly scared gold hunters. Upon the morning of the 20th, we sailed in through the Golden Gate, coming at anchor in front of the tented city of San Francisco, having made the passage from our native city to this place in the space of five months and seventeen days.
CHAPTER V.
The Arrival in San Francisco—Gold Machines—Going to the Mines—The Bullwhacker—Arrival in Hangtown—The View from the Hill.
THE city presented the appearance of a vast army encampment, and it was evident that the advance guard of Alexander’s army had arrived sure enough, and had conquered what they sought. In the contemplation of the scene as we saw it from the roof of the cook’s galley, we found deep consolation in the thought that in case the future would prove that we had travelled so many thousands of miles in search for gold, only to find upon our arrival that we had been badly sold, we were not alone at any rate. There was a grim satisfaction, therefore, in viewing the great number of vessels at anchor in the harbor from the various ports of the world, that had brought to the coast thousands of others for the same purpose.
Our voyage being ended upon our arrival in California, it is now, after upwards of forty years have passed since we sailed in through the Golden Gate, of some interest to know what has become of the passengers and crew of the old ship, and in fact of the ship also. The ship, after returning again to New Bedford, was fitted out for a whaling voyage and lost, I think in an ice pack in the Arctic Ocean. Captain Seabury, after serving for several years as master of a China steamer in the employ of the Pacific Mail Co., and also upon the Atlantic coast from New York to Aspinwall, a few years since retired from active service, and now lives in ease and comfort at his home in New Bedford. Of the passengers, there are but three of us at present remaining upon the Pacific Coast. Many of them died here. The greater portion of them returned to their Eastern homes; but a few of them are now left, and of all that number of gold hunters, not one of them succeeded in his anticipations of filling a pork barrel with the precious metal and but a small portion of them in filling an old boot-leg, or a beer-bottle, with the same.
It is necessary to explain here, that the ingenuity of many mechanics in the far-off Atlantic States had been exercised in the construction of various devices for the extraction of gold from the sand and soil which were, unfortunately, mixed with it. Our passengers, having full faith in their great value and efficacy, had brought quite a number of such machines with them. They were of all varieties and patterns; made of copper, iron, zinc and brass. Some of them were to be worked by a crank; others, more pretentious, having two cranks; whilst another patent gold washer, more economical and efficient, worked with a treadle. One variety was upright, requiring the miner to stand while using it. Still another, the inventor of which being of a more benevolent and humane temperament, was arranged in such a manner that the poor tired miner could sit in his arm-chair and take his comfort as he worked it.