California occupies a geographical position of the first rank and importance, and must eventually control the commerce of the vast Pacific. With a coast extending more than six hundred miles from north to south, indented with numerous bays and harbours, connected with her golden interior almost to the base of the lofty Sierra by navigable streams, blessed with a mild and salubrious climate, and capable of sustaining a large population, she must one day become the entrepôt of the commerce of the East. With South America on the one side and Oregon on the other—the vast empire of China, the rich isles of the Indies, Polynesia, Japan, and the Sandwich Islands, lying close at hand—a steam communication will connect her with the most distant of these points in a few weeks. When with iron bands she is connected with the great valley of the Mississippi, and thence with the shores of the Atlantic, the commerce which now is borne around Cape Horn must inevitably pass through her borders; and long ere that is accomplished, the completion of the railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, or a ship canal across that of Tehuantepec, will bind her with a closely woven chain to the eastern shores of our Union.
The following pages have been written currente calamo, in moments stolen from the cares of business, within sound of the click of hammers, the grating of saws, and all the noise, bustle, excitement, speculation, and confusion of San Francisco, and on the eve of my departure for a further exploration of the great southern mines. Under these circumstances, no particular regard has been paid to style. It is not to be expected that a California gold-hunter can afford to bestow hours on the mere polishing of sentences and rounding of periods like a Parisian litterateur. They contain a narrative of my journey to, and life and adventures in, the golden region of California, during the autumn, winter, and spring of 1848-9, with a full and complete description of the principal placers, the process of extracting gold from the earth, and the necessary machines and implements; a theory of the origin of the golden sands; an account of the gold-bearing quartz of the Sierra Nevada; a history of the rise and progress of the principal new towns and cities; the formation of the state government, and a six months’ residence on the Gulf of Lower California. I have endeavoured to give a truthful narrative, and statistics upon which reliance may be placed, with a view to a better understanding of the subject than can be gained from the garbled, and in some cases maliciously untrue statements, which have flooded the eastern press, written in some cases by men who have never been farther than the town of San Francisco or Stockton, and who of course know nothing of the country or the placers.
The statements of one attracted to California by other charms than those of gold, a resident within her borders for nearly three years, conversant with the language, manners, and customs of her inhabitants, an observer of her wonderful growth, and a gold-digger for six months, will undoubtedly be received with consideration; and if I succeed in imparting to my readers (every one of whom has probably a brother or some dear friend here), a correct idea of this interesting region, to which the eyes of the whole world are now directed, I shall have achieved my object.
At the time of the discovery of the placers, I was stationed at La Paz, Lower California, but being ordered to Upper California, arrived at Monterey in the middle of June, 1848, about six weeks after the discovery had been made public. The most extravagant stories were then in circulation, but they were mostly viewed as the vagaries of a heated fancy by the good people of Monterey. I was ordered to the Pueblo de los Angelos for duty, where I arrived on the fourth day of July, and remained with the detachment with which I was connected until it was disbanded, on the 18th day of September, 1848. The day of our disbandment was hailed with joy such as a captive must feel on his release from slavery. For three long months we had anxiously awaited the event. The stories from the mines breathed the spirit of the Arabian tales, and visions of “big lumps” floated before our eyes. In three days La Ciudad de los Angelos was deserted by its former occupants, and wagons and horses laden with tin pans, crowbars, iron pots, shovels, pork, and pickaxes, might have been seen on the road to the placers. On the 18th of October, I reached San Francisco, where a curious state of things was presented. Gold dust and coin were as plentiful as the sea-shore sands, and seemed to be thought about as valuable. The town had but little improved since I first saw it, as upon the discovery of the mines it had been nearly deserted by its inhabitants. Real estate had been slowly depreciating for several months, and the idea of San Francisco being a large city within two years had not yet been broached. Merchandise of all descriptions was exceedingly high. Flour was selling at $50 per barrel; dried beef 50 cents per pound; coffee 50 cents; shovels $10 each; tin pans $5 do.; crow-bars $10 do.; red flannel shirts $5 do.; common striped shirts $5 do.; common boots $16 per pair; and everything else in proportion. I made a few purchases and held myself in readiness to start for the placers.
San Francisco, January 1st, 1850.
SIX MONTHS IN THE GOLD MINES.
CHAPTER I.
Departure for the Mines—The Victims—Adventures of a Night on San Francisco Bay—Voyage in a Launch—My Companion Higgins—Resolutions of the Passengers—The Bay of San Pablo—The Straits of Carquinez—Benicia—The Bay of Suisun—The Sacramento—Beautiful Scenery—Montezuma—Monte Diablo—Camp on Shore—Hala-chum-muck—Firing the Woods—Schwartz’s Rancho—A “manifest destiny” Man—Involuntary Baptism—Sacramento City—The Embarcadero.
Armed with a pickaxe, shovel, hoe, and rifle, and accoutred in a red flannel shirt, corduroy pants, and heavy boots, and accompanied by two friends, I found myself, on the afternoon of the 25th of October, 1848, wending my way to the only wharf in San Francisco, to take passage for the golden hills of the Sierra Nevada. The scenes that for days had met my eyes, and even as I was stepping on board the launch, might have damped the ardour of a more adventurous man. Whole launch-loads of miserable victims of fever and ague were daily arriving from the mining region—sallow, weak, emaciated and dispirited—but I had nerved myself for the combat, and doubt not that I would have taken passage when I did and as I did, had the arch-enemy of mankind himself stood helmsman on the little craft that was to bear me to El Dorado. We had engaged and paid our passage, and such was our eagerness to get a conveyance of some kind, that we had not even looked at the frail bark in which we were to entrust our now more than ever before valuable bodies.