It now appears that my suspicions of the natives on the Chagres river are verified, for I have learned that a boat’s company of six men, two women, and two children, who were on their way up with us, and whom we passed in the night, were murdered while asleep, and their bodies secreted in the bushes.
LV.
TRIPS TO BENECIA, SACRAMENTO, STOCKTON, CALEVARAS DIGGINGS, &c.
I took the steamer Wilson G. Hunt for two days and went up to Benecia, the pacific mail station, where I met my old friend Catherwood, and talked of Palestine matters. Rode out to Vallejo, the newly designed capital of California. The officers of the U.S. Barracks politely offered horses for the excursion; vast quantities of game, and immense number of cattle grazing in the neighborhood, but not a house yet erected, and doubtful if there will be. Crossed over to Martinez, and was amused at the horsemanship of the native Californian or Mexican race, who run their horses at full speed and bring them down suddenly on their haunches. Continued with next steamer to Sacramento up the river; streets muddy, from excessive rain; could not get in the country. The gambling-houses with bands of music in full blast; the miners crowding around with bags of gold, staking their all; the city building up rapidly; every variety of character to be found in this new country, good, bad, and indifferent. So much has been said by others it would be useless to enlarge. Expenses enormous; everybody employed at something. One young gentleman of New York was driving team at ten dollars per day; another, turned carpenter, was shingling a roof at the same wages; never drove a nail in his life until he came here, but necessity knows no law. A single crab costs fifty cents, equal to the price of an egg. With the tide of emigration these things will regulate themselves, and with more resources California will become one of the most productive States in the Union. Returned to San Francisco; took the steamer up San Pablo Bay, and the cut-off to Stockton, in company with a friend, the proprietor of a quartz-mine, in order to visit the gold district. Having procured a strong wagon and a pair of horses, india-rubber covers and blankets, a supply of barley for feed, off we started. The rain came down in torrents; stopped at a ranche and dried ourselves, drove to another, and passed the night in a double bed and mattress on the floor; sack wet through, clothing out to dry by a fire. Price, for horses and wagon twenty dollars per day; feed, each time twelve pounds of barley at two shillings, three dollars; meals a dollar and a half each. Next day rode to Cherokee Ranche; met a party of Americans, with arms in hand, in pursuit of Mexicans, near the Hawk’s Eye Ranche, and dared not stop, as they threatened the extermination of the Greasers, as they called the Mexicans. Passed a disagreeable night in a log-cabin. A vagabond of a fellow has just killed a Mexican in the woods near the cabin; the half-drunken scoundrel could not be turned out, and sat before a huge fire; the chimney of logs was carried up outside the rude hut. We lay in bunks upon our blankets and straw. I slept with one eye open, and my six-shooter in hand; finally at a late hour, in came a German in a red shirt and slouched hat, whom I soon recognised as being from Puerto Cabello. He told me, that in the war between Gen. Paez and Monagas he was obliged to fly. He was well connected, I had known his family, and it was a relief to meet him. Next day arrived at Carson’s Creek, having passed Calaveras Creek diggings, Angel’s Creek, and looked at the rocking-cradles and long toms of the miners, and passed through the villages of tents of the Mexicans who had deserted; met them on the road flying with their women, children, and donkeys.
The lassoing of a bull attracted my attention; the position of the horse, the shot, and falling of the animal, reminded me of the bull fights in Havana and Spain.
We finally arrived upon the summit of a high hill in a mountainous country; the valley filled with tents, and the earth thrown up by the diggers as by an earthquake. We lodged in an open cabin, built of staves rived out of the tree, without floor; a rude pine table; fried beef and potatoes, with coffee, and hot, hard, wheaten cakes was our food. The quartz rock produced abundantly. The opening, ten feet by seven, and ten feet in depth, had already produced the value of fifty thousand dollars. There were three casks in the cabin, headed up, full of quartz strongly charged with gold, besides sacks and bags. This important discovery was not yet known, otherwise it would have been dangerous; we were six persons sleeping upon straw, with a blazing fire, which gave light sufficient for an enemy to point through the opening anywhere, and kill the party. I felt anxious, and was glad to get away within three days. The operation of breaking the quartz was performed with rollers of stone drawn by mules; the more valuable pieces were broken with a pestle; some lumps weighed eight pounds. There were seven partners in this valuable claim. We came down with a quantity of the specimens, accompanied by Jack Hayes, the famous Texian ranger, who exhibited his skill with pistols in shooting the gopher, a little animal not unlike a ground mole. Ground squirrels abound in California, and are destructive to the crops. The scenery was at times magnificent; the thick heather, or undergrowth of the grizzly bear, in some parts is prominent. At one ranche the owner showed us some young cubs. There was some beautiful prairie country, capable of fine cultivation, and excellent grazing, which produces fine horses and horned cattle.
The wood-pecker provides for himself singularly in this country. I was struck with the mosaic appearance of some trees, and on examination found that this bird had bored holes in the thick bark, and set in the acorns for his winter’s supply. At one ranche the hogs, sheep, and cattle looked remarkably well. At another stopping point, the owner has a pet ram, who knew a Mexican at sight, and bucked him with his head; he had a perverted taste for an animal, and was very fond of tobacco. His owner had an inveterate hate for an Indian, who had killed a brother of his. The Indians are fast disappearing. I was glad to get back to San Francisco, to prepare for my Oregon trip.
1851.
LVI.
Oregon Territory, May 5, 1851.
By the powerful agency of ocean and river steamers, without disparagement to horse and mule force, I find myself transported from the southern mines of California, a distance of some nine hundred miles, and can scarcely realize that I am now writing in a log cabin of the Upper Willamette Valley, in which the first legislative committee of nine persons were sworn in office by the missionary (Rev. Jason Lee) after their election by a mass meeting of the early emigrants, in 1846, to decide if laws should be enacted for the territory. The interpreter, Dr. Newell, who is present, drove the first pair of oxen across the plains, and now occupies his claim of a mile square, or six hundred and forty acres.
After returning from the mines via Stockton, to San Francisco, I embarked with the ocean steamer Columbia for Astoria, and had the pleasure of meeting with an old friend, in the person of the Hon. Thomas Nelson, from Peekskill, recently appointed Chief Justice of Oregon, in company with the Surveyor General, J.B. Preston, and several ladies; among the number were five who came out from the States as school teachers, under the auspices of the Hon. Mr. Thurston, Delegate to Congress, who died at Acapulco, after having crossed the isthmus, and whose death creates a great sensation in the territory. He was a candidate for Member of Congress for the next term, against Gen. Lane, who now meets no opposition. We had an agreeable passage to the mouth of the Columbia, whose far-famed breakers troubled us but little, the weather being favorable. Cape Disappointment at the north, and Point Adams at the south, with its eight-mile entrance, scarcely showed us where lie hidden the frightful sand banks which have so long been the terror of the mariner.