But this is not the only part of the world where it is prudent to look on every man as a rogue until you know him to be honest.
Having completed my mining calculations to my entire satisfaction (unfortunately), I returned to Vallejo, and on my arrival there discovered that the order for this young city had been countermanded by the government. Everybody was preparing for departure, and as the place owned a justice of the peace, writs were being served in every direction. My hotel[17]
was placed under execution on account of the two horsetails, before-mentioned; the law was arrayed against me, but as in Vallejo the law’s authority was represented by one man, and the individual supposed to be amenable was represented by another, the law did not always get the best of it, and as far as my own case was concerned, it consisted in requesting the sheriff to leave the premises, which he did gladly enough, having business of his own to look after. Many of those who come overland to California, bring one or two young blacks from the plantations with them; these of course if not previously freed, become so on their arrival, but they are in all cases much attached to their masters, and are very useful servants, so much so, that they assume great importance and begin to think that nothing can be done without them. I was amused one day at overhearing one of these young niggers, who being aroused from his sweet slumber, under a waggon, by his master’s reiterated cries of “Bob,� drew himself slowly out and muttered, “Bob here, Bob there, Bob everywhere; b’lieve, by Gad, you could’t come to California without Bob.� “What’s that you say, sir,� said his master, who unluckily heard the last part of the speech. There was no reply, but Bob made for the hills there and then, and his guilty conscience would not permit him to appear for three days, when he returned very thin, but set himself to work so assiduously, that it really did appear as if nothing could be done without him.
I paid a short visit to San Francisco, and returned with such stores as I thought necessary, and with these, Barnes and Thomas started at once for Tuttle Town.
Among these stores was a bale of canvas, of which I determined my next Californian house should be built, and a barrel of gunpowder, with which I contemplated disturbing the bowels of the earth.
Rowe had decided upon accompanying me, a circumstance which I shall never regret, for he was in every respect an excellent companion to the day I parted with him. In mountain life, a friend whose tastes are congenial to your own is indeed an acquisition; for each happiness is doubled then, and let misfortune come as it will, its sting is ever allayed by the sympathy of one true heart beside you.
With the “Old Soldier,� “Choctaw,� “Tiger,� and “Bevis,� we embarked late one evening on board a Stockton steam-boat; this latter was naturally a slow boat, but she managed to perform her journey in as good time as the rest, for her engineer was a famous fellow, who held life cheap, and maintained as his creed that “she was bound to go anyhow;� so she went anyhow, trembling fore and aft, with an engine-room full of steam, and a blaze from her funnel that lit up the banks of the river on either side. There were few passengers on board, which was fortunate, as there were few sleeping bunks.
It is not customary to undress when seeking repose in these bunks; in fact, decency forbids you doing so; for they are openly exposed on either side of the saloon, and this latter is generally filled up, for the best part of the night, by card-players.
A placard informs you that “gentlemen are requested not to go to bed in their boots;� but as the proprietors do not guarantee that your boots shall not be stolen if you take them off, this request is seldom complied with. I remember attending a political meeting in a little church at Benicia; in each pew was a poster, which requested that you would neither cut the wood-work, nor spit on the floor, but the authorities had provided no spittoons, so, as a gentleman observed to me whilst inside the sacred edifice, “what the something was a man to do who chewed�?
At daylight we were at Stockton, and landing our horses we were soon in the saddle and making the most of the cooler part of the day. Nothing worthy of mention occurred on our journey, excepting that at the end of forty miles our animals were as fresh as when they started. We pulled up to dine at the Stanislaus, which river we crossed in a ferry. An acquaintance of mine once crossed at this spot under peculiar circumstances. He was proceeding from one digging to another, and had three quarters of a pound of gold dust sown up in his pantaloons; he was an Englishman, and after the manner of many of his countrymen, he carried an umbrella, which nothing could induce him to part with.