Whether this story were true or not, the ending was in strict accordance with all my own observation. I had at different times encountered many of the first year miners, but, though they all professed to have met with the like incredible success, not one of them was then a whit the better. They no sooner succeeded in scraping together a few thousands than they either got into a drunken frolic and drank it all up—which was no difficult matter with liquor at fifty dollars a bottle—or went down to San Francisco, where they found at the gaming table a still more expeditious riddance. This universal delirium must be ascribed in part to the ease with which they obtained their wealth; but far more to the character of the men themselves—disbanded soldiers—runaway sailors—and the half savage scouts or pioneers of civilization scattered over California and the adjacent countries.
[CHAPTER XV.]
Having at length concluded to remain at Ford's Bar, we became impatient to make some improvement in our style of living; for, indeed, we were all of us of a somewhat soft and luxurious temper, and began already to pine after the fleshpots of Egypt that we had so unwillingly left behind us at Mormon Island. Our only cooking utensil was a coffee-pot—we dipped our biscuit into a mixture of ants and butter, and sweetened our coffee with ants and sugar in nearly equal proportions. This is, I dare say, very delightful to read of, but for some reason we did not find it so pleasant in actual experience; and accordingly the last week in April St. John walked to Georgetown, and returned the next day with Tertium, bringing another rocker, and the more indispensable of our kitchen furniture. The judge had not yet arrived with the remainder of our goods, and they therefore left the tent still standing in the ghostly forest.
The next thing was to provide ourselves with a more commodious habitation. We ripped the fly apart, and having sewed it together again in the form of a small tent, set it up in a very convenient and agreeable situation, a short distance from that we had hitherto occupied. Between it and the water a flight of rude steps led down a few feet on to a narrow shelf, or platform, terminating on the side next the tent in a low wall, against which we built a fire-place of stones. By the side of this platform, which we intended to use as a kitchen, was another of somewhat narrower limits, which, being on a level with the water and shaded by a low-hanging tree, furnished a pleasant dining-room and place of resort in the small hours of the afternoon.
As we had long wearied of eating nothing softer than ship-biscuit, we now determined to follow the example of all around us, and, like good housewives, bake our own bread. Our first experiments were not very encouraging. The saleratus and citric acid we used instead of yeast produced but a very slight effervescence, and our loaves were nowise remarkable for lightness. For a long time, we were in the habit, on baking a new batch, of throwing a morsel into the creek, and if it floated, which did not often happen, it was considered a prodigious triumph, which only the most fortunate conjuncture of circumstances could hope ever to equal.
But in process of time we abandoned this imperfect method, and first allowing our dough to sour, neutralized the acid with a due proportion of saleratus, and thus succeeded in producing loaves which, as Dr. B. pertinently remarked, may have been surpassed, but have never been equalled. Our first cakes—I think I see them now, round, saffron-coloured, of a lead-and-leathery consistence—were baked in the universal frying-pan, which, like acting in oratory, is the first, second, and third requisite in a California kitchen. But this requiring too much time, St. John, who was something of a tinker, manufactured a baker, or reflector, out of a tin box that had contained salmon or pickled herring, and with this our success was every way satisfactory.
Our claim on the bar, originally of small extent, and, as we have seen, of no great depth, was rapidly lessening, and nothing now remained but a circle of a few yards in diameter. When we first commenced operations, a tent occupied the centre of our ground, and we at once laid siege against it in regular form. We pushed our works nearer and nearer, and with so much spirit and success, that by the fifth day we had obtained possession of one of the most important outworks—the kitchen; and having thus stopped his supplies, we had strong hopes of compelling the enemy to an unconditional surrender. He held out, however, nearly a week longer; but then, seeing us about to undermine his outer wall, he sounded a parley, and to avoid the horrors of a storm, agreed to evacuate the premises, and marched out with all the honours of war. This was the general rule, the right of the miners being considered paramount to all others, and no one being allowed to occupy, for building or similar purposes, ground that contained gold enough to pay for washing.
As a few days would finish our work on this spot, it became necessary to look out for another. We could find none, however, of any promise unappropriated, except one a few feet in width, half a mile down the river, and which at present resembled the little Frenchman's water-lots too closely to be of any great value; but trusting that we should not have so long to wait before walking over our property, we threw an old pick into the river, leaving the handle just projecting above the surface, as a notice to all concerned that we intended to work the claim as soon as possible. Some more ingenious individuals kept always on hand a store of worn-out picks and broken shovels to be used for this very purpose; and as long as they were undetected, succeeded in retaining possession of several claims all at the same time; so that the new-comer often found, to his dismay, every available point defended by this superannuated batallion.