[3] Alison.
[4] In Paris, after the Revolution in April and May, it was stated there were 300,000 persons out of employment, including the dependants of those without work. This number was, doubtless, fearfully great out of a population of 1,200,000 souls. But it was exceeded in some parts of Great Britain. In April 1848, the number of unemployed persons in and around Glasgow was so excessive, that an examination of them was made, by order of the magistrates of that city, with a view to an application to government for assistance. The men out of work were found, in that city and its vicinity, to be 31,000, which, allowing two and a half dependants to each male, implies 93,000 persons destitute of employment, out of a population at that time estimated at 360,000; being somewhat more than 300,000 out of 1,200,000 in Paris.
[5] Sights in the Gold Regions, and Scenes by the Way. By Theodore T. Johnson. New York: 1849.
The California and Oregon Trail: being Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life. By Francis Parkman, Jun. New York and London: 1849.
Los Gringos; or an Inside View of Mexico and California: with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia. By Lieutenant Wise, U.S.N. New York and London: 1850.
[6] "A cañon is the narrow opening between two mountains, several hundred and sometimes a thousand feet in depth; rising, some of them, like perpendicular cliffs on either hand, as if torn asunder by a violent convulsion of nature. Through these pour the rushing mountain torrents of the wet diggins of the gold regions of California."—Sights in the Gold Regions, p. 180.
[7] At Sutter's saw-mill, from which the Culloma valley takes its second name, Mr Johnson saw and conversed with Mr Marshall, a proprietor of the mill, and one of the first discoverers of the gold. The discovery was made when cutting out the mill-race, across a portion of the former bed of a stream. "He pointed out to us the particular location of the first discoveries. This is some fifty yards below the mill, where a large fir-tree extends across the race. He stated that they threw up a good deal of gold, mixed with the sand and clay, before they seriously examined it, or ascertained its character." It must have struck many as singular, that gold mines so near the surface should so long have been unobserved. California was explored as far back as the year 1700 by the Jesuit Eusebio Kino, who first ascertained it to be part of the great American continent, and not an island, as was previously believed: Soon afterwards, missionary stations were established there, paving the way for the Spanish conquest of the country. Some of the padres still remain, but their mission-houses are dilapidated, and their influence is gone. To them Mr Johnson attributes the long concealment of the metallic wealth of California. "That these priests were cognisant of the abundance of the precious metal at that period, (a century ago,) is now well known; but they were members of the extraordinary society of the Jesuits, which, jealous of its all-pervading influence, and dreading the effect of a large Protestant emigration to the western, as well as to the eastern shores of America, applied its powerful injunctions of secrecy to the members of the order; and their faithful obedience, during so long a period, is another proof both of the strength and the danger of their organisation."—Sights in the Gold Regions, p. 111.
[8] "This 'placer,' or bar, is simply the higher portion of the sandy and rocky bed of the stream which, during the seasons of high water, is covered with the rushing torrent, but was now partially or entirely exposed. This is covered with large stones and rocks, or, on the smooth sand, with clumps of stunted bushes or trees."—Sights in the Gold Regions, 177.
[9] John Howard and the Prison-World of Europe. From original and authentic Documents. By Hepworth Dixon.
[10] 1773. High Sheriff of Bedfordshire—visited many county and town jails.