I was sorry to have lost the chance of hitting the slot of these beasts, for the bucks might easily have been secured with care, whereas, approached as they were, whilst drinking in marshy and treacherous ground, the bucks being on the outskirts made for the hills, whilst the poor frightened does became quagmired, and fell an easy prey.
About this time I received a visit from Sir Henry Huntly, and we started on an exploring expedition, but losing our way, found ourselves at length near Napa. Pulling up temporarily at a small house at the side of the creek to enquire the road, we found it occupied by half-a-dozen fine-looking fellows, who were sitting over their supper. The invitation to join them was too heartily offered to refuse, and Sir Henry and myself being armed each with a cast-iron knife and tin platter, attacked the provisions as men do who lose their way, and fall happily and unexpectedly on a savoury stew of antelope. We were glad enough also to be so kindly invited to pass the night there, for a day passed in the hot sun is very fatiguing, and once down, a man has to be kicked up again, particularly after a surfeit of antelope stew. So we lit our pipes, and then, as a matter of course, we allowed gradually to leak out who and what we were. Our entertainers consisted of four Americans and two Englishmen. These latter were army-men, who had thrown up their commissions in Canada to seek a rough and adventurous life in exchange for the dull routine of barracks. So far as roughness went, they had it in perfection, and they stood it well; but the roughest roughness palls, and an adventurous life, with its fevers and privations, and hard toil in the blistering sun, soon loses its charms, and then comes the yearning for home, and it is best then to have something to fall back upon.
There are few after all to whom either roughness or adventurous life comes aptly, although the proud man scorns to own he feels the privation he has sought as it were; but few of those who have sacrificed position, comforts, and friends elsewhere, for the pursuit of freedom and adventure, with wealth of course appearing in the distance, have realised their dreams, or have done otherwise in the long run than own their folly, and mourn it secretly. Some men are born for a wild and careless life—a happy liveliness of disposition, knowledge of the world, physical health, recklessness of personal safety, indifference to social position and home comfort, all fit them for it; their creed is to do as no one else does, (and they do none the worse for this); these men are few in number, and they can live when others starve. Observe the man in a hunting-field, who strikes out his own line of country, and that a new one to him; each fence may conceal a marl-pit, but he faces bravely all obstacles, and comes in right at last. Rash fool! says Jones as he opens a gate. Stupid ass! echoes Brown as he creeps through a gap! But no! Brown and Jones would be both fools and asses if they tried to do it, but to this man such work comes naturally.
As a rule the fate of the minnows who will pursue an unbeaten track is certain enough. It is generally a great mistake when men throw up on their own account a certain means of livelihood, to seek adventure and fortune in new gold countries. It is generally a great mistake when fathers with spendthrift sons, stupid sons, or lazy sons, say, “John, you are doing no good for yourself, here are five hundred pounds, go and try your luck in the diggings.� It was a great mistake when a party of gentlemen left England in 1849 for California in a yacht of their own, and having arrived at the diggings got disgusted, and returned very much out at elbows, with most melancholy reports respecting the goldfields. And these are great mistakes, for this reason, that patience under disappointment, and a disposition that can ever look sanguinely into the future, are as requisite for “rough life,� as strong hands, witting hearts and sound health.
Our entertainers occupied themselves in market-gardening, which is a peaceful and unexciting profession; and as the whole party were animated with a strong love of adventure, and were anxious for something more soul-stirring than weeding and watering beds of cabbages, soon after I last saw them they disbanded and dispersed, nor have I heard of them since.
Vegetables attain an unusual size in California, owing to the rich qualities of the maiden soil; but I have observed an insipidity in everything that has thus rapidly matured, and size is attained at the expense of loss of flavour. Onions and tomatas as large as cheese plates are common. Melons have attained the weight of fifty pounds. Wheat and oats grow to the height of eight and ten feet, and are very prolific in the ear; potatoes reach dimensions unheard of elsewhere, and the diameter of a cabbage is sometimes so large that the cabbage has to be seen to be believed in.
A brutal murder had been committed at Napa previous to our arrival; the murderer had been sentenced to death, and without any ostensible reason, a free pardon for this felon was granted by the governor of the state. During our stay here some of the most determined of the citizens of Napa frustrated this act of ill-timed mercy, and the murderer was found hung in his cell. No further notice was taken of the matter; but this act cannot be justified under any circumstances, for as the people elected the governor, and armed him with the right, had he so chosen, of setting free every convicted felon in the state, their election was a farce if his decision was not binding in the pardon he dispensed to the Napa murderer.
CHAPTER XII.
ANOTHER FIRE—MY GEOLOGICAL FRIEND—“BURNT OUTâ€�—SACRAMENTO—LEVEE—HULKS—RATS—VIGILANCE COMMITTEE—START FOR VOLCANO—CROCKETT—“RIGHT SIDE UP.â€�
June, 1851.