CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| Introduction | [5] | |
| CHAPTER | ||
| [I.] | On to the Gold Fields | [15] |
| [II.] | Across the Isthmus | [38] |
| [III.] | A City in the Making | [53] |
| [IV.] | Life at High Speed | [73] |
| [V.] | Off for the Mines | [99] |
| [VI.] | Looking for Gold | [116] |
| [VII.] | Indians and Chinamen | [130] |
| [VIII.] | Miners’ Law | [146] |
| [IX.] | Gold is Where You Find It | [160] |
| [X.] | Ursus Horribilis | [173] |
| [XI.] | On the Trail | [185] |
| [XII.] | Sitters for Portraits | [195] |
| [XIII.] | On the Way to Downieville | [208] |
| [XIV.] | The Reason for Lynch Law | [216] |
| [XV.] | Growing Over Night | [227] |
| [XVI.] | A Band of Wanderers | [241] |
| [XVII.] | Chinese in the Early Days | [252] |
| [XVIII.] | Down With the Flood | [262] |
| [XIX.] | A Bull and Bear Fight | [271] |
| [XX.] | A Mountain of Gold | [286] |
| [XXI.] | In Lighter Mood | [297] |
| [XXII.] | Sonora and the Mexicans | [306] |
| [XXIII.] | Bull Fighting | [316] |
| [XXIV.] | A City Burned | [325] |
| [XXV.] | The Day We Celebrate | [333] |
| [XXVI.] | Frenchmen in the Mines | [342] |
| [XXVII.] | The Resourceful Americans | [353] |
The Gold Hunters
CHAPTER I
ON TO THE GOLD FIELDS
ABOUT the beginning of the year 1851, the rage for emigration to California from the United States was at its height. All sorts and conditions of men, old, young, and middle-aged, allured by the hope of acquiring sudden wealth, and fascinated with the adventure and excitement of a life in California, were relinquishing their existing pursuits and associations to commence a totally new existence in the land of gold.
The rush of eager gold-hunters was so great that the Panama Steamship Company’s office in New York used to be perfectly mobbed for a day and a night previous to the day appointed for selling tickets for their steamers. Sailing vessels were despatched for Chagres almost daily, carrying crowds of passengers, while numbers went by the different routes through Mexico, and others chose the easier, but more tedious, passage round Cape Horn.
The emigration from the Western States was naturally very large, the inhabitants being a class of men whose lives are spent in clearing the wild forests of the West, and gradually driving the Indian from his hunting-ground.