As soon as information of a reliable character was received in the Atlantic states regarding the mineral wealth of California, a large portion of the population became more or less excited, and many of an adventurous nature were at once determined to leave their homes and seek their fortunes on the western slope of the snowy mountains.
The query then arose, which was the cheapest, best and most expeditious route to reach San Francisco?
The long and tedious voyage of five or six months “around Cape Horn,” though perhaps the cheapest, was viewed by many as being almost beyond endurance.
The route by the Isthmus of Panama was attended by difficulties and dangers in crossing the Isthmus from Chagres to Panama, a distance of about fifty miles. This journey was performed in boats up the Chagres river, and thence by mules to Panama.
The journey by the latter route from New York to San Francisco had usually been performed in about thirty days and had usually been considered the better route.
So great was the rush to California by the way of the Isthmus in a short time, or as early as January, the tickets by that route were largely sold in advance for several trips, and thousands of passengers who had taken passage to Chagres were unable to get any conveyance from there to California, and were compelled either to remain at Panama for weeks, and in many instances for months, or to return to New York or Boston.
This congested state of affairs rendered the Mail route extremely objectionable. While thousands were waiting for a passage at Panama, a large percentage of those waiting passengers were sick with the Panama fever or other tropical diseases, and many died from such diseases.
Numerous companies were organized during the winter with the intention of pursuing the land route across the extensive western plains and the Rocky Mountains, which was thought could be accomplished in from sixty to eighty days.
It will be remembered that all the country between the Missouri river and the Sacramento valley, which was called “The Great American Desert,” was almost an unbroken wilderness. No white people were then allowed to settle in that vast territory.
As soon as I had sufficient reasons for believing California to be what it had been represented to be as a gold bearing country, I was determined to go myself; and after taking a prospective view of the difficulties and dangers incident to a protracted detention on the Isthmus and the tediousness of a long, monotonous journey via Cape Horn, I finally concluded to cross the country by land; believing it would be an interesting and romantic journey and one not entirely free from difficulties and hardships.