The Spaniards—those indefatigable treasure-seekers—who discovered the hidden riches of the Cordilleras, had been in possession of California for above two centuries. From the year 1602, Sebastian Viscaino, the founder of Monterey, had learnt from the Indians, dispersed throughout that country, that it abounded in gold and silver. Nevertheless, instead of planting a colony of miners to examine the soil, the Spaniards sent thither a body of missionaries, who proclaimed the gospel, and at the same time instructed the natives in the rudiments of civilization and of agriculture.
In 1846 there was scarcely 10,000 of the original Spanish creoles, when a body of some hundreds of adventurers from the United States, under General Taylor, invaded and took possession of the country. The Government of the Union, in demanding its cession from Mexico, thought chiefly of an aggrandisement of territory; they wanted ports on the Pacific and a rival colony to Oregon. Little was it expected that in the valleys which descended from the Sierra Nevada would be found mines of gold likely to become the principal attractions to colonization, and a district whose exuberant products would be shortly disseminated throughout the markets of Europe, as well as of America.
The extension of the population of California which so speedily occurred, is greatly due to the truly fabulous success of the first washings; the miners naturally first planted themselves on the richest “placers,” they rather culled the produce, than exhausted it; they frequently discovered “pépites” weighing several ounces, if not pounds of gold; a clever workman made his fortune in a few days.
In June, 1848, Mr. Larkin, Consul of the United States at Monterey, valued the day’s work of a gold seeker at an average of 15 to 25 dollars ([74]133 to 267 francs). Colonel Mason, in his report of August, considered the produce of a day’s work of 4,000 European or Indian miners at [75]30,000 to 40,000 dollars, giving an average of about 10 dollars [76](53 francs) to each workman. Captain Folson writes about a month later, “I do not think that there can exist richer deposits in the world. I have myself ascertained that an active workman can collect from [77]25 to 40 dollars per day, valuing the gold at 16 dollars the ounce.” Mr. Butler King, whose report is of still later date, places the average day’s work per man at about 16 dollars, or one ounce of gold.
During the second period of working, when the miners flocked to the “placers,” and disputed every inch of the golden soil, the yield began to diminish in a very marked degree. A local mining journal, the “Placer Times,” of 26th October, 1850, giving a resumé of the proceedings of the season, including the encampment from the River de la Plume to the River Consumnes, covering an extent of about 100 miles, and occupied by 60,000 gold-seekers, estimated the mean result of a day’s work at from six dollars on the River de la Plume, to four dollars on the l’Yuba and Ours, and five dollars on the American Fork. The information collected by our consuls at the beginning of 1850, gives a result of one to two ounces per day in the Valley of the Sacramento, and from one to four in the newer regions of St. Joaquim. The diminishing produce, comparing one year with the other, was not without some compensation. If the miner gained less, he did not spend as much. The extravagant rise on all sorts of provisions, clothes, and tools, had been brought down to a more reasonable limit:—they no longer paid [78]one dollar for a pound of bread; [79]eighty dollars for an outer covering; [80]fifty dollars a-day for the use of a cart with two oxen, or [81]5000 dollars for a cask of brandy. An artizan could no longer command sixteen dollars for a day’s work. Europe, the United States, and other nations, shipped to California cargoes of provisions and of manufactured goods; competition soon lowered the prices. Roads were made from the “placers” to San Francisco; bridges were thrown over the rivers; they established stores of provisions and merchandize at every canteen. Towns sprung up like mushrooms, and in 1850 San Francisco numbered 50,000 inhabitants. The production of gold in California appears to have now arrived at its third period. The miners have acquired a certain experience, their modes of working are less primitive, and they are more settled. The want of order is diminishing, and the average produce is increasing. The accounts from San Francisco in April, 1852, mentioned “placers” in the valley of the Sacramento, where a day’s working yielded from [82]fifteen to twenty dollars, and others on the frontier of Oregon, where the average was from [83]five to ten. On the frontier of Sonora the washings of the auriferous clay yielded [84]seven to eight dollars a day with the roughest description of work; all agreed that eight hours hard work should produce everywhere from six to [85]eight dollars, if the plain be rich; and as the miner could live on from [86]two to three dollars a day, he might reckon on a gain of from [87]400 to 500 dollars during the season. However, by the latest accounts, it would appear that the “placers” are beginning to be exhausted. 100,000 miners turning over continuously for three years the alluvial sands, (already successfully explored by the first comers in 1848 and 1849,) could hardly fail to extract everything of value. It remains now to explore the auriferous quartz veins which may extend to the centre of the Sierra Nevada. This new work, however, requires large capital, and extensive combinations. The success of such operations has hitherto been but moderate.
The auriferous richness of the quartz rocks in California appears sufficient to remunerate the speculator; and foreign capital is not deficient at St. Francisco. Whence is it, then, that the quartz mines have hitherto been but slightly attractive? It has arisen from the want of the requisite and essential conditions for the progress of such undertakings.
Property in “placers” or in mines is not yet sufficiently secure; it is neither yet placed fully under the safeguard of law, nor is it protected by police regulations. Anarchy still reigns in this new country;—not only have the miners to defend their persons and their acquisitions against the incursions from Indian tribes; not only are crimes and offences common (lynch law maintaining a permitted existence instead of laws and police); but every one appears to hold his property by right of first comer: a miner chooses the spot he likes best; a strong arm and a carbine, with a steady eye, are his title deeds. To seize upon a rich “placer” from a miner too weak to resist, is called in the slang of the district, to “jump a claim.” The President of the United States himself, stated in his last message, that “The mineral lands should remain free to every citizen;” and the Secretary of State has added, “that the right of occupancy should be submitted only to such laws as the miners themselves thought fit to make.”
The continuous flow of emigration, and the continuous working of the gold districts, appear to indicate, that in spite of many reverses and sufferings, the mass of emigrants consider the result as likely to be profitable. Without approaching to the fabulous accounts of the early adventurers, these results have certainly largely exceeded in magnificence those of any former period in history; let us endeavour to particularize some of them.
Mr. Butler King, in his report to the Secretary of State, in 1850, after a careful examination of California, values the washings and gold working of the two years, 1848 and 1849, at [88]40,000,000 dollars. The basis of this calculation, the first officially presented, was a produce of 1000 dollars ([89]5350 francs) per miner, per annum.
According to Mr. Butler King, American emigration hardly began to flow towards California until September, 1849; up to that period, foreigners, principally from Mexico and Oregon, had reaped all the profit of the washings. The San Francisco Herald estimated, that at the end of 1850, the gold produce of California, for the twenty-one months between 1 April, 1849, and 31 December, 1850, at the sum of 68,587,591 dollars (nearly [90]367,000,000 francs). According to the documents published in France by the Minister of Commerce, which appear to have been derived from local statistics, the produce was rather less than the above. From 1 April, 1849, to 31 March, 1851, in two years, it was raised to [91]329,000,000 francs.