The gold hunters : a first-hand picture of life in California mining camps in the early fifties

THE GOLD HUNTERS

*

THE GOLD HUNTERS

By J. D. BORTHWICK

A First-Hand Picture of Life in California
Mining Camps in the Early Fifties

EDITED BY

HORACE KEPHART

INTERNATIONAL FICTION LIBRARY

CLEVELAND NEW YORK

Made in U.S.A.

COIL .^82-"

Copyright. 1917

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

All rights reserved

PRESS or

THE COMMERCIAL BOOKBINDING CO.
CLEVELAND

INTRODUCTION

CALIFORNIA under Spanish and Mexican rule
was a lotus-land of lazy, good-natured, hospitable
friars, of tame and submissive Indian neophytes,
of vast savannas swarming with half-wild herds, of
orchards and gardens, vineyards and olive groves.
There was no mining, no lumbering, no machinery, no
commerce other than a contraband exchange of hides
and tallow for clothing, merchandise and manufac-
tures. There was no art, no science, no literature, no
news, save at rare intervals, from the outer world.
One day was like another from generation to gen-
eration. Everyone was content with his mode of life
or ignorant of any other. War never harassed the
Franciscans' drowsy realm, nor ever threatened, be-
yond a few opera bouffe affairs that began and ended
in loud talk and bloodless gesticulation.

Under the old Spanish law, foreign commerce was
prohibited and foreign travelers were excluded from
California. But Boston traders managed to evade
it by collusion with local officials; and strangers did
enter the land ; sailors and merchants of divers nation-
alities came across seas and settled along the coast,
while hunters and trappers crossed overland from the
States. Generally they were welcomed and encour-
aged to establish themselves in California, though in
defiance of the Mexican government. The foreign-

5

6 INTRODUCTION

ers, being for the most part men of enterprise and
energy, were respected and became influential. Many
of them married into native California families, were
naturalized, and acquired large estates. Among the
Americans was John A. S utter, formerly a Swiss
military officer, who, in 1839, was permitted to build
a fortified post on the present site of Sacramento.
He received a large grant of land around it, and be-
came a Mexican official.

As a result of the Mexican war, California was
ceded to the United States on the 2d of February,
1848. Nine days earlier an event occurred that was
destined to fix upon this splendid province the fascin-
ated gaze of all the world. On the 24th of January,
at Colonel Sutter's mill, near the present Coloma, a
workman named James W. Marshall discovered gold.

Within a few months amazingly rich placers were
found in river bars, creeks and gulches, of this and
the surrounding region. During the first year or two
of discovery it was not unusual for a miner to wash
or dig up a hundred ounces of gold in a day. Some
lucky strikes were made of five to ten times this
amount, and nuggets were picked up of from $1,000 to
$20,000 value. Within a few hundred yards of a
populous town, a man stubbed his toe against a pro-
truding rock; glaring in wrath at the stumbling-
block, he was thunderstruck at the sight of more gold
than quartz. A market gardener, abusing his sterile
soil for producing cabbages that were all stalk, was
quickly placated by finding gold adhering to their
roots; the cabbage-patch was successfully worked for
years, and pieces of gold of many pounds weight were
taken from it. Stories went abroad of places where

INTRODUCTION 7

the precious metal was blasted out in chunks, of ledges
so rich that it could be picked out of the fissures with
a bowie-knife, of men digging up gold as they would
potatoes, and of a competence being amassed by a
few hours' work with a tin spoon.

For two or three months the tales that came from
the diggings were received with incredulity; but when
larger and larger shipments of the yellow metal kept
coming to the coast there was a wild stampede for the
gold-fields. "Settlements were completely deserted;
homes, farms and stores abandoned. Ships deserted by
their sailors crowded the bay at San Francisco (there
were five hundred of them in July, 1850) ; soldiers
deserted wholesale, churches were emptied, town coun-
cils ceased to sit; merchants, clerks, lawyers and
judges and criminals, everybody, flocked to the foot-
hills. Soon, from Hawaii, Oregon and Sonora, from
the Eastern States, the South Seas, Australia, South
America and China came an extraordinary flow of the
hopeful and adventurous. In the winter of '48 the
rush began from the States to Panama, and in the
spring across the plains. It is estimated that 80,000
men reached the coast in 1849, about half of them
coming overland; three-fourths were Americans."
By 1851 the number of actual miners had risen to
about 140,000. From across the Atlantic there came
Britons, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, others speak-
ing strange tongues, until the mines of California were
likened to so many towers of Babel, and pantomime
often took the part of speech.

Never before had there been brought together, in
a far quarter of the earth, a body of men of so varied
trades and professions all massed in a twinkling to

8 INTRODUCTION

one common pursuit. Social distinctions vanished at
a touch. Soft-handed lawyers and clergymen wielded
pick and shovel side-by-side with born navvies, cooked
their own meals and washed their own clothes. No
honest labor lowered the dignity of a gentleman, since
that gentleman needs must wait upon himself and
provide for himself with the work of his own hands.
Out of this common necessity grew, as it were over-
night, a natural democracy in which all men met each
other on an equal footing. No deference was paid save
to conspicuous ability of such sort as was useful in
the work at hand.

The popular notion of a miner is that of a rude
and reckless fellow who "works one day with a tin
pan and gets drunk the next." There were, indeed,
many of this ilk in the gold-diggings; but in the main,
the miners of '49 were a picked and superior class of
men. It was not as if a bonanza had been struck
within easy reach of the riffraff of the nations. Cal-
ifornia, by the shortest route, was two thousand miles
from any well populated part of America, five thou-
sand from a European port. The journey thither
was expensive, and most of the men who undertook it
were such as had accumulated, by their own industry,
a good "stake" at home. They were adventurers, to
be sure; but what is an adventurer? One who haz-
ards a chance, especially a chance of danger. That
is the spirit which starts almost any enterprise that
demands courage, determination and self-reliance.
Beyond this, the argonauts were notably capable and
intelligent men, as their works soon proved. An un-
biased observer said of them: "Perhaps in no other
community so limited could one find so many well-

INTRODUCTION 9

informed and clever men — men of all nations who
have added the advantages of traveling to natural
abilities and a liberal education." Most of them
were charged with spontaneous and persistent energy.
Immediately, as by an electric shock, the Cali-
fornia of dreaming friars and lazy vaqueros was
tossed aside and an amazing industry whirred into
action.

When San Francisco was laid in ashes, not a day
was wasted in lamentation. Before the debris had
fairly cooled the work of rebuilding was started with
a rush. Soon the sand-hills were leveled, and rocks
were blasted out to make room for a greater city.
Brick buildings rose where there had been nothing
but shanties or canvas tents. Foundries were built
and shops were fitted with machinery brought half
around the world. To provide rapid transit to the
mines, large river steamers, of the same model as
those used on the Hudson, were bought in New York,
and, incredible as it may seem, these toplofty and
fragile craft were navigated around South America,
by way of the Straits of Magellan, and most of them
came safe into the Golden Gate. (The author of
this book declares his belief that a premium of 99
per cent, would not have insured them at Lloyd's
for a trip from Dover to Calais.) The mines them-
selves were as so many ant-hills swarming with hur-
rying workers. Where water was scarce, canals were
dug, or flumes were run for miles along mountain
sides and carried over gorges or valleys by viaducts;
even a large river was borne half a mile by an aque-
duct high above its native bed. So rapid was the
development of the country that, as our author says,

10 INTRODUCTION

California became a full-grown State while one-half
the world still doubted its existence.

Gold mining, of course, was a gamble; while some
"struck it rich" many others worked hard for noth-
ing. So gambling was in the very air. And so long
as common labor commanded at least five dollars
a day, so long as ships by the hundred lay idle at their
docks because sailors would rather take their chances
in the mines than a steady wage of two or three hun-
dred dollars a month, there was bound to be reckless
extravagance and wild dissipation. Most of the
miners were young men, too active, ebullient, viva-
cious, for quiet amusements in their hours of leisure.
There was no home life nor anything to suggest it.
In 1850 only two per cent, of the population of the
mining counties were women, and probably most of
these were of loose character. There was no standard
of respectability to be lived up to. So long as a
man did not interfere with the rights of others, he
was perfectly free, if he chose, to go to the devil
in his own way. Against the toil and hardships of
, the mining-field, against the gloom of disappointment
or the wild elation of success, human nature demanded
a counterpoise of some sort — and the only places in
all the wide land where the miner could find comfort,
luxury, gaiety, were the saloons and gambling-houses.

There being no sheriffs or policemen worthy the
name, every man went armed, prepared at an in-
stant's notice to redress his own real or fancied griev-
ances. Shootings and stabbings were frequent, though
in much less number actually than such conditions
might be expected to provoke — most men think twice
before stirring up trouble in a company where every-

INTRODUCTION 11

body carries a loaded gun and knows how to use it.
Formal law was powerless, through corrupt or ineffi-
cient officers, to keep in check the many scoundrels
and desperadoes that infested the cities and the dig-
gings; so the miners themselves administered sum-
mary justice by means of extemporized courts, and
for high crimes were prompt to inflict the highest
punishment after the verdict of Judge Lynch. It is
undeniable that, in a pioneer society, such rough-and-
ready justice was a necessity and that its effects were
salutary.

Yet when the first fever of excitement had passed
away, when the richest placers were exhausted, when
men settled down from prospecting and "rushes" to
the steady work of mining on a business basis, it is
wonderful how quickly the social order changed for
the better. Miners returning to San Francisco after
a year's absence scarcely recognized the place. Sub-
stantial buildings of brick and stone were replacing
the tinder-boxes that had been swept away by one
"great fire" after another — dressed granite for some
of them was even imported from China! Streets
that had been rubbish-heaps and quagmires were or-
derly and clean. A large number of respectable
women had arrived in California, and their influ-
ence was immediately noticeable in the refinement of
dress and decorum of the men. Places of rational
amusement had sprung up— clubs, reading-rooms, the-
aters— which replaced in great measure the gambling-
houses. In very many instances a quiet domestic life
had supplanted the old-time roistering in saloons.
Few, if any, cities ever showed such rapid progress
in manners and morals as well as in material things.

12 INTRODUCTION

Many narratives have been published by men who
participated in the stirring events of early California.
From among them I have chosen, after long research,
one written by a British artist, Mr. J. D. Borthwick,
and issued in Edinburgh in 1857. The original book
is now rare and sought for by collectors of western
Americana. It is here reprinted in full, with cer-
tain errors corrected. I do not know of another story
by an actual miner that is so well written and so true
to that wonderful life in the Days of Gold.

HORACE KEPHART.

October, 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 5

CHAPTER

I. ON TO THE GOLD FIELDS 15

II. ACROSS THE ISTHMUS -" 38 x

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 con-
ditions of men, old, young, and middle-aged, allured
by the hope of acquiring sudden wealth, and fasci-
nated 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 pas-
sengers, 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
15

16 THE GOLD HUNTERS

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.

Of these western-frontier men it is often said,
that they are never satisfied if there is any white
man between them and sundown. They are con-
stantly moving westward; for as the wild Indian is
forced to retire before them, so they, in their turn,
shrinking from the signs of civilization which their
own labors cause to appear around them, have to
plunge deeper into the forest, in search of that wild
border-life which has such charms for all who have
ever experienced it.

To men of this sort, the accounts of such a country
as California, thousands of miles to the westward of
them, were peculiarly attractive ; and so great was the
emigration, that many parts of the Western States
were nearly depopulated. The route followed by
these people was overland, across the plains, which
was the most congenial to their tastes, and the
most convenient for them, as, besides being already so
far to the westward, they were also provided with the
necessary wagons and oxen for the journey. For
the sake of mutual protection against the Indians,
they traveled in trains of a dozen or more wagons,
carrying the women and children and provisions, ac-
companied by a proportionate number of men, some
on horses or mules, and others on foot.

In May, 1851, I happened to be residing in New
York, and was seized with the California fever.
My preparations were very soon made, and a day
or two afterwards I found myself on board a small

ON TO CALIFORNIA 17

barque about to sail for Chagres with a load of Cali-
fornia emigrants. Our vessel was little more than
two hundred tons, and was entirely devoted to the
accommodation of passengers. The ballast was
covered with a temporary deck, and the whole inte-
rior of the ship formed a saloon, round which were
built three tiers of berths: a very rough extempore
table and benches completed the furniture. There
was no invidious distinction of cabin and steerage
passengers — in fact, excepting the captain's room,
there was nothing which could be called a cabin in
the ship. But all were in good spirits, and so much
engrossed with thoughts of California that there was
little disposition to grumble at the rough-and-ready
style of our accommodation. For my own part, I
knew I should have to rough it in California, and
felt that I might just as well begin at once as wait
till I got there.

We numbered about sixty passengers, and a nice
assortment we were. The majority, of course, were
Americans, and were from all parts of the Union;
the rest were English, French, and German. We
had representatives of nearly every trade, besides
farmers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and
nondescript "young men."

The first day out we had fine weather, with just
sea enough to afford the uninitiated an opportunity
of discovering the difference between the lee and the
weather side of the ship. The second day we had a
fresh breeze, which towards night blew a gale, and
for a couple of days we were compelled to lay to.

The greater part of the passengers, being from the
interior of the country, had never seen the ocean

18 THE GOLD HUNTERS

before, and a gale of wind was a thing they did not
understand at all. Those who were not too sick
to be able to form an opinion on the subject, were
frightened out of their senses, and imagined that all
manner of dreadful things were going to happen to
the ship. The first night of the gale, I was awakened
by an old fool shouting frantically to the company in
general to get up and save the ship, because he heard
the water rushing into her, and we should sink in a
few minutes. He was very emphatically cursed for
his trouble by those whose slumbers he had dis-
turbed, and told to hold his tongue, and let those
sleep who could, if he were unable to do so himself.

It was certainly, however, not very easy to sleep
that night. The ship was very crank, and but few
of the party had taken the precaution to make fast
their luggage; the consequence was, that boxes and
chests of all sizes, besides casks of provisions, and
other ship's stores, which had got adrift, were cruis-
ing about promiscuously, threatening to smash up the
flimsy framework on which our berths were built, and
endangering the limbs of any one who should venture
to turn out.

In the morning we found that the cook's galley
had fetched way, and the stove was rendered use-
less; the steward and waiters — landlubbers who were
only working their passage to Chagres — were as
sick as the sickest, and so the prospect for breakfast
was by no means encouraging. However, there were
not more than half-a-dozen of us who could eat any-
thing, or could even stand on deck; so we roughed it
out on cold beef, hard bread, and brandy-and-water.

ON TO CALIFORNIA 19

The sea was not very high, and the ship lay to
comfortably and dry; but, in the evening, some of the
poor wretches below had worked themselves up to
desperation, being sure, every time the ship laid over,
that she was never coming up again. At last, one
man, who could stand it no longer, jumped out of his
berth, and, going down on his knees, commenced clap-
ping his hands, and uttering the most dismal howls
and groans, interspersed with disjointed fragments of
prayers. He called on all hands to join him; but it
was not a form of worship to which many seemed to
be accustomed, for only two men responded to his
call. He very kindly consigned all the rest of the
company to a place which I trust none of us may
reach, and prayed that for the sake of the three
righteous men — himself and the other two — the ship
might be saved. They continued for about an hour,
clapping their hands as if applauding, and crying and
groaning most piteously — so bereft of sense, by fear,
that they seemed not to know the meaning of their
incoherent exclamations. The captain, however, at
last succeeded in persuading them that there was no
danger, and they gradually cooled down, to the great
relief of the rest of the passengers.

The next day we had better weather, but the sick-
list was as large as ever, and we had to mess again on
whatever raw materials we could lay our hands on —
red-herrings, onions, ham, and biscuit.

We deposed the steward as a useless vagabond,
and appointed three passengers to fill his place, after
which we fared a little better — in fact, as well as the
provisions at our command would allow. No one

20 THE GOLD HUNTERS

grumbled, excepting a few of the lowest class of men
in the party, who had very likely never been used to
such good living ashore.

When we got into the trade-winds we had delight-
ful weather, very hot, but with a strong breeze at
night, rendering it sufficiently cool to sleep in com-
fort. The all-engrossing subject of conversation, and
of meditation, was of course California, and the heaps
of gold we were all to find there. As we had secured
our passage only as far as Chagres, our progress from
that point to San Francisco was also a matter of
constant discussion. We all knew that every steamer
to leave Panama, for months to come, was already
full, and that hundreds of men were waiting there to
take advantage of any opportunity that might occur
of reaching San Francisco; but among our passen-
gers there were very few who were traveling in com-
pany; they were mostly all isolated individuals, each
"on his own hook," and every one was perfectly con-
fident that he at least would have no trouble in getting
along, whatever might be the fate of the rest of
the crowd.

We added to the delicacies of our bill of fare occa-
sionally by killing dolphins. They are very good
eating, and afford capital sport. They come in small
shoals of a dozen or so, and amuse themselves by
playing about before the bows of the vessel, when,
getting down into the martingale under the bowsprit,
one takes the opportunity to let drive at them with
the "grains," a small five-pronged harpoon.

The dolphin, by the way, is most outrageously and
systematically libeled. Instead of being the horrid,
big-headed, crooked-backed monster which it is gen-

ON TO CALIFORNIA 21

erally represented, it is the most elegant and highly-
finished fish that swims.

For three or four days before reaching Chagres, all
hands were busy packing up, and firing off and re-
loading pistols; for a revolver and a bowie-knife
were considered the first items in a California outfit.
We soon assumed a warlike appearance, and though
many of the party had probably never handled a
pistol in their lives before, they tried to wear their
weapons in a neglige style, as if they never had been
used to go without them.

There were now also great consultations as to what
sort of hats, coats, and boots, should be worn in cross-
ing the Isthmus. Wondrous accounts constantly ap-
peared in the New York papers of the dangers and
difficulties of these few miles of land-and-river trav-
el, and most of the passengers, before leaving New
York, had been humbugged into buying all manner
of absurd and useless articles, many of them made of
india-rubber, which they had been assured, and con-
sequently believed, were absolutely necessary. But
how to carry them all, or even how to use them, was
the main difficulty, and would indeed have puzzled
much cleverer men.

Some were equipped with pots, pans, kettles, drink-
ing-cups, knives and forks, spoons, pocket-filters (for
they had been told that the water on the Isthmus
was very dirty), india-rubber contrivances, which
an ingenious man, with a powerful imagination and
strong lungs, could blow up and convert into a bed,
a boat, or a tent — bottles of "cholera preventive,"
boxes of pills for curing every disease to which human
nature is liable; and some men, in addition to all this,

22 THE GOLD HUNTERS

determined to be prepared to combat danger in every
shape, bade defiance to the waters of the Chagres
river by buckling on india-rubber life-preservers.

Others of the party, who were older travelers, and
who held all such accoutrements in utter contempt,
had merely a small valise with a few necessary articles
of clothing, an oil-skin coat, and, very probably, a
pistol stowed away on some part of their person,
which would be pretty sure to go off when occasion
required, but not before.

At last, after twenty days' passage from New York,
we made Chagres, and got up to the anchorage
towards evening. The scenery was very beautiful.
We lay about three-quarters of a mile from shore,
in a small bay enclosed by high bluffs, completely
covered with dense foliage of every shade of green.

We had but little time, however, to enjoy the
scenery that evening, as we had scarcely anchored
when the rain began to come down in true tropical
style; every drop was a bucketful. The thunder and
lightning were terrific, and in good keeping with the
rain, which is one of the things for which Chagres is
celebrated. Its character as a sickly wretched place
was so well known that none of us went ashore that
night; we all preferred sleeping aboard ship.

It was very amusing to watch the change which
had been coming over some of the men on board.
They seemed to shrink within themselves, and to wish
to avoid being included in any of the small parties
which were being formed to make the passage up the
river. They were those who had provided them-
selves with innumerable contrivances for the protec-
tion of their precious persons against sun, wind, and

ON TO CALIFORNIA 23

rain, also with extraordinary assortments of very un-
tempting-looking provisions, and who were completely
equipped with pistols, knives, and other warlike
implements. They were like so many Robinson
Crusoes, ready to be put ashore on a desert island;
and they seemed to imagine themselves to be in just
such a predicament, fearful, at the same time, that
companionship with any one not provided with the
same amount of rubbish as themselves, might involve
their losing the exclusive benefit of what they sup-
posed so absolutely necessary. I actually heard one
of them refuse another man a chew of tobacco, say-
ing he guessed he had no more than what he could
use himself.

The men of this sort, of whom I am happy to say
there were not many, offered a striking contrast to
the rest in another respect. On arriving at Chagres
they became quite dejected and sulky, and seemed to
be oppressed with anxiety, while the others were in
a wild state of delight at having finished a tedious
passage, and in anticipation of the novelty and ex-
citement of crossing the Isthmus.

In the morning several shore-boats, all pulled by
Americans, came off to take us ashore. The landing
here is rather dangerous. There is generally a very
heavy swell, causing vessels to roll so much that
getting into a small boat alongside is a matter of
considerable difficulty; and at the mouth of the river
is a bar, on which are immense rollers, requiring good
management to get over them in safety.

We went ashore in torrents of rain, and when
landed with our baggage on the muddy bank of the
Chagres river, all as wet as if we had swum ashore,

24 THE GOLD HUNTERS

we were immediately beset by crowds of boatmen,
Americans, natives, and Jamaica niggers, all endeav-
oring to make a bargain with us for the passage
up the river to Cruces.

The town of Chagres is built on each side of the
river, and consists of a few miserable cane-and-mud
huts, with one or two equally wretched-looking
wooden houses, which were hotels kept by Americans.
On the top of the bluff, on the south side of the river,
are the ruins of an old Spanish castle, which look
very picturesque, almost concealed by the luxurious
growth of trees and creepers around them.

The natives seemed to be a miserable set of people,
and the few Americans in the town were most sickly,
washed-out-looking objects, with the appearance of
having been steeped for a length of time in water.

After breakfasting on ham and beans at one of the
hotels, we selected a boat to convey us up the river;
and as the owner had no crew engaged, we got him
to take two sailors who had run away from our vessel,
and were bound for California like the rest of us.

There was a great variety of boats employed on
the river — whale-boats, ships' boats, skiffs, and canoes
of all sizes, some of them capable of carrying fifteen
or twenty people. It was still raining heavily when
we started, but shortly afterwards the weather cleared
up, and we felt in better humor to enjoy the mag-
nificent scenery. The river was from seventy-five to
a hundred yards wide, and the banks were completely
hidden by the dense mass of vegetation overhanging
the water. There was a vast variety of beautiful
foliage, and many of the trees were draped in
creepers, covered with large flowers of most brilliant

ON TO CALIFORNIA 25

colors. One of our party, who was a Scotch gardener,
was in ecstasies at such a splendid natural flower-
show, and gave us long Latin names for all the
different specimens. The rest of my fellow-passengers
were a big fat man from Buffalo, two young South-
erners from South Carolina, three New Yorkers, and
a Swede. The boat was rather heavily laden, but for
some hours we got along very well, as there was but
little current. Towards the afternoon, however, our
two sailors, who had been pulling all the time, began
to flag, and at last said they could go no further
without a rest. We were still many miles from the
place where we were to pass the night, and as the
banks of the river presented such a formidable
barricade of jungle as to prevent a landing, we had
the prospect of passing the night in the boat, unless
we made the most of our time; so the gardener and I
volunteered to take a spell at the oars. But as we
ascended the river the current became much stronger,
and darkness overtook us some distance from our
intended stopping-place.

It became so very dark that we could not see
six feet ahead of us, and were constantly bumping
against other boats coming up the river. There were
also many boats coming down with the current at
such a rate, that if one had happened to run into us,
we should have had but a poor chance, and we were
obliged to keep shouting all the time to let our
whereabouts be known.

We were several times nearly capsized on snags,
and, as we really could not see whether we were
making any way or not, we came to the determina-
tion of making fast to a tree till the moon should rise.

26 THE GOLD HUNTERS

It was now raining again as heavily as ever, and
having fully expected to make the station that
evening, we had taken no provisions with us. We
were all very wet, very hungry, and more or less
inclined to be in a bad humor. Consequently, the
question of stopping or going ahead was not deter-
mined without a great deal of wrangling and dis-
cussion. However, our two sailors declared they
would not pull another stroke — the gardener and my-
self were in favor of stopping — and as none of the
rest of our number were at all inclined to exert
themselves, the question was thus settled for them,
although they continued to discuss it for their own
satisfaction for some time afterwards.

It was about eight o'clock, when, catching hold of
a bough of a tree twelve or fifteen feet from the
shore, we made fast. We could not attempt to land,
as the shore was so guarded by bushes and sunken
branches as to render the nearer approach of the boat
impossible.

So here we were, thirteen of us, with a propor-
tionate pile of baggage, cramped up in a small boat,
in which we had spent the day, and were now doomed
to pass the night, our miseries aggravated by torrents
of rain, nothing to eat, and, worse than that, nothing
to drink, but, worse than all, without even a dry
match wherewith to light a pipe. If ever it is ex-
cusable to chew tobacco, it surely is on such an
occasion as this. I had worked a good deal at the
oar, and from the frequent alterations we had
experienced of scorching heat and drenching rain, I
felt as if I could enjoy a nap, notwithstanding the

ON TO CALIFORNIA 27

disagreeableness of our position; but, fearing the con-
sequences of sleeping under such circumstances in
that climate, I kept myself awake the best way I
could.

We managed to get through the night somehow,
and about three o'clock in the morning, as the moon
began to give sufficient light to let us see where we
were, we got under way again, and after a couple of
hours' hard pulling, we arrived at the place we had
expected to reach the evening before.

It was a very beautiful little spot — a small natural
clearing on the top of a high bank, on which were
one or two native huts, and a canvas establishment
which had been set up by a Yankee, and was called a
"Hotel." We went to this hotel, and found some
twenty or thirty fellow-travelers, who had there
enjoyed a night's rest, and were now just sitting
down to breakfast at a long rough table which
occupied the greater part of the house. The kitchen
consisted of a cooking-stove in one corner, and
opposite to it was the bar, which was supplied with a
few bottles of bad brandy, while a number of canvas
shelves, ranged all round, constituted the dormitory.

We made up for the loss of our supper by eating a
hearty breakfast of ham, beans, and eggs, and started
again in company with our more fortunate fellow-
travelers. The weather was once more bright and
clear, and confined as we were between the densely
wooded and steaming banks of the river, we found
the heat most oppressive.

We saw numbers of parrots of brilliant plumage,
and a great many monkeys and alligators, at which

28 THE GOLD HUNTERS

there was a constant discharge of pistols and rifles,
our passage being further enlivened by an occasional
race with some of the other boats.

The river still continued to become more rapid, and
our progress was consequently very slow. The two
sailors were quite unable to work all day at the oars;
the owner of the boat was a useless encumbrance;
he could not even steer; so the gardener and myself
were again obliged occasionally to exert ourselves.
The fact is, the boat was overloaded; two men were
not a sufficient crew; and if we had not worked our-
selves, we should never have got to Cruces. I wanted
the other passengers to do their share of work for the
common good, but some protested they did not know
how to pull, others pleaded bad health, and the rest
very coolly said, that having paid their money to be
taken to Cruces, they expected to be taken there, and
would not pull a stroke; they did not care how long
they might be on the river.

It was evident that we had made a bad bargain,
and if these other fellows would not lend a hand, it
was only the more necessary that some one else
should. It was rather provoking to see them sitting
doggedly under their umbrellas, but we could not
well pitch them overboard, or put them ashore, and I
comforted myself with the idea that their turn would
certainly come, notwithstanding their obstinacy.

After a tedious day, during which we had, as be-
fore, deluges of rain, with intervals of scorching sun-
shine, we arrived about six o'clock at a native settle-
ment, where we were to spend the night.

It was a small clearing, with merely two or three
huts, inhabited by eight or ten miserable-looking

ON TO CALIFORNIA 29

natives, mostly women. Their lazy listless way of
doing things did not suit the humor we were in at
all. The invariable reply to all demands for some-
thing to eat and drink was poco tiempo (by-and-by),
said in that sort of tone one would use to a trouble-
some child. They knew very well we were at their
mercy — we could not go anywhere else for our supper
— and they took it easy accordingly. We succeeded
at last in getting supper in instalments — now a mouth-
ful of ham, now an egg or a few beans, and then a
cup of coffee, just as they would make up their minds
to the violent exertion of getting these articles ready
for us.

About half-a-dozen other boat-loads of passengers
were also stopping here, some fifty or sixty of us alto-
gether, and three small shanties were the only shelter
to be had. The native population crowded into one
of them, and, in consideration of sundry dollars,
allowed us the exclusive enjoyment of the other two.
They were mere sheds about fifteen feet square, open
all round; but as the rain was again pouring down,
we thought of the night before, and were thankful
for small mercies.

I secured a location with three or four others in
the upper story of one of these places — a sort of loft
made of bamboos about eight feet from the ground,
to which we climbed by means of a pole with notches
cut in it.

The next day we found the river more rapid than
ever. Oars were now useless — we had to pole the
boat up the stream; and at last the patience of the
rest of the party was exhausted, and they reluctantly
took their turn at the work. We hardly made twelve

30 THE GOLD HUNTERS

miles, and halted in the evening at a place called Dos
Hermanos where were two native houses.

Here we found already about fifty fellow-travelers,
and several parties arrived after us. On the native
landlord we were all dependent for supper; but we,
at least, were a little too late, as there was nothing
to be had but boiled rice and coffee — not even beans.
There were a few live chickens about, which we would
soon have disposed of, but cooking was out of the
question. It was raining furiously, and there were
sixty or seventy of us, all huddled into two small
places of fifteen feet square, together with a number
of natives and Jamaica negroes, the crews of some of
the boats. Several of the passengers were in differ-
ent stages of drunkenness, generally developing itself
in a desire to fight, and more particularly to pitch
into the natives and niggers. There seemed a pros-
pect of a general set-to between black and white,
which would have been a bloody one, as all the pas-
sengers had either a revolver or a bowie-knife — most
of them had both — and the natives were provided with
their machetes — half knife, half cutlass — which they
always carry, and know how to use. Many of the
Americans, however, were of the better class, and used
their influence to quiet the more unruly of their coun-
trymen. One man made a most touching appeal to
their honor not to "kick up a muss," as there was a
lady "of their own color" in the next room, who was
in a state of great agitation. The two rooms opened
into each other, and were so full of men that one
could hardly turn round, and the lady of our own
color was of course a myth. However, the more vio-

ON TO CALIFORNIA 31

lent of the crowd quieted down a little, and affairs
looked more pacific.

We passed a most miserable night. We lay down
as best we could, and were packed like sardines in a
box. All wanted to sleep; but if one man moved, he
woke half-a-dozen others, who again in waking roused
all the rest; so sleep was, like our supper, only to be
enjoyed in imagination, and all we could do was to
wait intently for daylight. As soon as we could see,
we all left the wretched place, none of us much im-
proved in temper, or in general condition. It was
still raining, and we had the pleasure of knowing that
we should not get any breakfast for two or three
hours.

We had another severe day on the river — hot sun,
heavy rains, and hard work; and in the afternoon we
arrived at Gorgona, a small village, where a great
many passengers leave the river and take the road
to Panama.

Cruces is about seven miles farther up the river,
and from there the road to Panama is said to be
much better, especially in wet weather, when the
Gorgona road is almost impassable.

The village of Gorgona consisted of a number of
native shanties, built, in the usual style, of thin canes,
between any two of which you might put your ringer,
and fastened together, in basket fashion, with the long
woody tendrils with which the woods abound. The
roof is of palm leaves, slanting up to a great height,
so as to shed the heavy rains. Some of these houses
have only three sides, others have only two, while
some have none at all, being open all round; and in

32 THE GOLD HUNTERS

all of them might be seen one or more natives swing-
ing in a hammock, calmly and patiently waiting for
time to roll on, or, it may be, deriving intense enjoy-
ment from the mere consciousness of existence.

There was a large canvas house, on which was
painted "Gorgona Hotel." It was kept by an Ameri-
can, the most unwholesome-looking individual I had
yet seen; he was the very personification of fever.
We had here a very luxurious dinner, having plan-
tains and eggs in addition to the usual fare of ham
and beans. The upper story of the hotel was a large
loft, so low in the roof that one could not stand
straight up in it. In this there were sixty or seventy
beds, so close together that there was just room to
pass between them; and as those at one end became
tenanted, the passages leading to them were filled up
with more beds, in such a manner that, when all were
put up, not an inch of the floor could be seen.

After our fatigues on the river, and the miserable
way in which we had passed the night before, such
sleeping accommodation as this appeared very invit-
ing; and immediately after dinner I appropriated one
of the beds, and slept even on till daylight. We met
here several men who were returning from Panama,
on their way home again. They had been waiting
there for some months for a steamer, by which they
had tickets for San Francisco, and which was coming
round the Horn. She was long overdue, however,
and having lost patience, they were going home, in
the vain hope of getting damages out of the owner
of the steamer. If they had been very anxious to go
to California, they might have sold their tickets, and
taken the opportunity of a sailing-vessel from Panama;

ON TO CALIFORNIA 33

but from the way in which they spoke of their griev-
ances, it was evident that they were home-sick, and
glad of any excuse to turn tail and go back again.

We had frequently, on our way up the river, seen
different parties of our fellow-passengers. At Gor-
gona we mustered strong; and we found that, not-
withstanding the disadvantage we had been under of
having an overloaded boat, we had made as good
time as any of them.

A great many here took the road for Panama, but
we determined to go on by the river to Cruces, for
the sake of the better road from that place. All our
difficulties hitherto were nothing to what we en-
countered in these last few miles. K was one con-
tinual rapid all the way, and in many places some of
us were obliged to get out and tow the boat, while
+he rest used the poles. ^^:

We were all heartily disgusted with the river, and
were satisfied, when we arrived at Cruces, that we
had got over the worst of the Isthmus; for however
bad the road might be, it could not be harder travel-
ing than we had already experienced.

Cruces was just such a village as Gorgona, with a
similar canvas hotel, kept by equally cadaverous-
looking Americans.

In establishing their hotels at different points on
the Chagres river, the Americans encountered great
opposition from the natives, who wished to reap all
the benefit of the travel themselves; but they were
too many centuries behind the age to have any chance
in fair competition; and so they resorted to personal
threats and violence, till the persuasive eloquence of
Colt's revolvers, and the overwhelming numbers of

34 THE GOLD HUNTERS

American travelers, convinced them that they were
wrong, and that they had better submit to their fate.
One branch of business which the natives had all
to themselves was mule-driving, and carrying baggage
over the road from Cruces to Panama, and at this
they had no competition to fear from any one. The
luggage was either packed on mules, or carried on
men's backs, being lashed into a sort of wicker-work
contrivance, somewhat similar to those used by French
porters, and so adjusted with straps that the weight
bore directly down on the shoulders. It was aston-
ishing to see what loads these men could carry over
such a road; and it really seemed inconsistent with
their indolent character, that they should perform,
so actively, such prodigious feats of labor. Two hun-
dred and fifty pounds weight was an average load for
a man to walk off with, doing the twenty-five miles
to Panama in a day and a half, and some men carried
as much as three hundred pounds. They were well
made, and muscular though not large men, and were
apparently more of the Negro than the Indian.

The journey to Panama was generally performed
on mules, but frequently on foot; and as the rest of
our party intended to walk, I determined also to
forego the luxury of a mule; so, having engaged men
to carry our baggage, we set out about two o'clock
in the afternoon.

The weather was fine, and for a short distance out
of Cruces the road was easy enough, and we were
beginning to think we should have a pleasant journey;
but we were very soon undeceived, for it commenced
to rain in the usual style, and the road became most
dreadful. It was a continual climb over the rocky

ON TO CALIFORNIA 35

beds of precipitous gullies, the gully itself perhaps
ten or twelve feet deep, and the dense wood on each
side meeting overhead, so that no fresh air relieved
one in toiling along. We could generally see rocks
sticking up out of the water, on which to put our feet,
but we were occasionally, for a considerable distance,
up to the knees in water and mud.

The steep banks on each side of us were so close
together, that in many places two packed mules could
not pass each other; sometimes, indeed, even a single
mule got jammed by the trunk projecting on either
side of him. It was a most fatiguing walk. When
it did not rain, the heat was suffocating; and when
it rained, it poured.

There was a place called the "Half-way House," to
which we looked forward anxiously as the end of our
day's journey; and as it was kept by an American,
we expected to find it a comparatively comfortable
place. But our disappointment was great, when
about dark, we arrived at this half-way house, and
found it to be a miserable little tent, not much more
than twelve feet square.

On entering we found some eight or ten travelers
in the same plight as ourselves, tired, hungry, wet
through, and with aching limbs. The only furniture
in the tent consisted of a rough table three feet long,
and three cots. The ground was all wet and sloppy,
and the rain kept dropping through the canvas over-
head. There were only two plates, and two knives
and forks in the establishment, so we had to pitch
into the salt pork and beans two at a time, while the
rest of the crowd stood round and looked at us; for
the cots were the only seats in the place, and they

36 THE GOLD HUNTERS

were so rickety that not more than two men could
sit on them at a time.

More travelers continued to arrive; and as the
prospect of a night in such a place was so exceedingly
dismal, I persuaded our party to return about half a
mile to a native hut which we had passed on the
road, to take our chance of what accommodation
we could get there. We soon arranged with the
woman, who seemed to be the only inhabitant of the
house, to allow us to sleep in it; and as we were all
thoroughly soaked, every sort of waterproof coat hav-
ing proved equally useless after the few days' severe
trial we had given them, we looked out anxiously for
any of the natives coming along with our trunks.

In the meantime I borrowed a towel from the old
woman of the shanty; and as it was now fair, I went
into the bush, and got one of our two sailors, who had
stuck by us, to rub me down as hard as he could.
This entirely removed all pain and stiffness; and
though I had to put on my wet clothes again, I felt
completely refreshed.

Not long afterwards a native made his appearance,
carrying the trunk of one of the party, who very gener-
ously supplied us all from it with dry clothes, when
we betook ourselves to our couches. They were not
luxurious, being a number of dried hides laid on the
floor, as hard as so many sheets of iron, and full of
bumps and hollows; but they were dry, which was all
we cared about, for we thought of the poor devils
sleeping in the mud in the half-way house.

The next morning, as we proceeded on our journey,
the road gradually improved as the country became
more open. We were much refreshed by a light breeze

ON TO CALIFORNIA 37

off the sea, which we found a very agreeable change
from the damp and suffocating heat of the forest; and
about mid-day, after a pleasant forenoon's walk, we
strolled into the city of Panama.

CHAPTER II

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS

ON our arrival we found the population busily
employed in celebrating one of their innumer-
able dias de fiesta. The streets presented a very
gay appearance. The natives, all in their gala-
dresses, were going the rounds of the numerous gaudi-
ly-ornamented altars which had been erected through-
out the town; and mingled with the crowd were
numbers of Americans in every variety of California
emigrant costume. The scene was further enlivened
by the music, or rather the noise, of fifes, drums, and
fiddles, with singing and chanting inside the churches,
together with squibs and crackers, the firing of cannon,
and the continual ringing of bells.

The town is built on a small promontory, and is
protected, on the two sides facing the sea, by batter-
ies, and, on the land side, by a high wall and a moat.
A large portion of the town, however, lies on the out-
side of this.

Most of the houses are built of wood, two stories
high, painted with bright colors, and with a corridor
and veranda on the upper story; but the best houses
are of stone, or sun-dried bricks plastered over and
painted.

The churches are all of the same style of archi-
tecture which prevails throughout Spanish America.

38

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 39

They appeared to be in a very neglected state, bushes,
and even trees, growing out of the crevices of the
stones. The towers and pinnacles are ornamented
with a profusion of pearl-oyster shells, which, shining
brightly in the sun, produce a very curious effect.

On the altars is a great display of gold and silver
ornaments and images; but the interiors, in other re-
spects, are quite in keeping with the dilapidated un-
cared-for appearance of the outside of the buildings.

The natives are white, black, and every interme-
diate shade of color, being a mixture of Spanish,
Negro, and Indian blood. Many of the women are
very handsome, and on Sundays and holidays they
dress very showily, mostly in white dresses, with
bright-colored ribbons, red or yellow slippers with-
out stockings, flowers in their hair, and round their
necks, gold chains, frequently composed of coins of
various sizes linked together. They have a fashion
of making their hair useful as well as ornamental,
and it is not unusual to see the ends of three or four
half-smoked cigars sticking out from the folds of
their hair at the back of the head; for though they
smoke a great deal, they never seem to finish a cigar
at one smoking. It is amusing to watch the old
women going to church. They come up smoking
vigorously, with a cigar in full blast, but, when they
get near the door, they reverse it, putting the lighted
end into their mouth, and in this way they take half-
a-dozen stiff pulls at it, which seems to have the
effect of putting it out. They then stow away the
stump in some of the recesses of their "back hair,"
to be smoked out on a future occasion.

The native population of Panama is about eight

40 THE GOLD HUNTERS

thousand, but at this time there was also a floating
population of Americans, varying from two to three
thousand, all on their way to California; some being
detained for two or three months waiting for a
steamer to come round the Horn, some waiting for
sailing vessels, while others, more fortunate, found
the steamer, for which they had tickets, ready for
them on their arrival. Passengers returning from
San Francisco did not remain any time in Panama,
but went right on across the Isthmus to Chagres.

The Americans, though so greatly inferior in num-
bers to the natives, displayed so much more life and
activity, even in doing nothing, that they formed by
far the more prominent portion of the population.
The main street of the town was densely crowded,
day and night, with Americans in bright red flannel
shirts, with the universal revolver and bowie-knife
conspicuously displayed at their backs.

Most of the principal houses in the town had been
converted into hotels, which were kept by Ameri-
cans, and bore, upon large signs, the favorite hotel
names of the United States. There were also num-
bers of large American stores or shops, of various
descriptions, equally obtruding upon the attention
of the public by the extent of their English signs,
while, by a few lines of bad Spanish scrawled on a
piece of paper at the side of the door, the poor
natives were informed, as mere matter of courtesy,
that they also might enter in and buy, if they had the
wherewithal to pay. Here and there, indeed, some
native, with more enterprise than his neighbors,
intimated to the public — that is to say, to the Ameri-

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 41

cans — in a very modest sign, and in very bad
English, that he had something or other to sell; but
his energy was all theoretical, for on going into his
store you would find him half asleep in his ham-
mock, out of which he would not rouse himself if he
could possibly avoid it. You were welcome to buy
.as much as you pleased ; but he seemed to think it very
hard that you could not do so without giving him at
the same time the trouble of selling.

Although all foreigners were spoken of as los
Americanos by the natives, there were among them
men from every country in Europe. The Frenchmen
were the most numerous, some of whom kept stores
and very good restaurants. There were also several
large gambling saloons, which were always crowded,
especially on Sundays, with natives and Americans
gambling at the Spanish game of monte; and, of
course, specimens were not wanting of that great
American institution, the drinking saloon, at the bars
of which a brisk business was done in brandy-smashes,
whisky-skins, and all the other refreshing compounds
for which the Americans are so justly celebrated.

Living in Panama was pretty hard. The hotels
were all crammed full; the accommodation they
afforded was somewhat in the same style as at Gor-
gona, and they were consequently not very inviting
places. Those who did not live in hotels had sleep-
ing-quarters in private houses, and resorted to the
restaurants for their meals, which was a much more
comfortable mode of life.

Ham, beans, chicken, eggs, and rice, were the
principal articles of food. The beef was dreadfully

42 THE GOLD HUNTERS

tough, stringy, and tasteless, and was hardly ever
eaten by the Americans, as it was generally found to
be very unwholesome.

There was here at this time a great deal of sick-
ness, and absolute misery, among the Americans.
Diarrhoea and fever were the prevalent diseases.
The deaths were very numerous, but were frequently
either the result of the imprudence of the patient
himself, or of the total indifference as to his fate on
the part of his neighbors, and the consequent want
of any care or attendance whatever. The heartless
selfishness one saw and heard of was truly disgusting.
The principle of "every man for himself" was most
strictly followed out, and a sick man seemed to be
looked upon as a thing to be avoided, as a hindrance
to one's own individual progress.

There was a hospital attended by American phy-
sicians, and supported to a great extent by Cali-
fornian generosity; but it was quite incapable of ac-
commodating all the sick; and many a poor fellow,
having exhausted his funds during his long deten-
tion here, found, when he fell sick, that in parting
with his money he had lost the only friend he had,
and was allowed to die, as little cared for as if he
had been a dog.

An American characteristic is a weakness for
quack medicines and specifics, and numbers of men
here fell victims to the national mania, chiefly
Yankees and Western men. Persons coming from a
northern climate to such a place as Panama, are natu-
rally apt at first to experience some slight derange-
ment of their general health, which, with proper
treatment, is easily rectified; but these fellows were

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 43

all provided with cholera preventive, fever preven-
tive, and boxes of pills for the prevention and the
cure of every known disease. The moment they
imagined that there was anything wrong with them,
they became alarmed, and dosed themselves with all
the medicines they could get hold of, so that when
they really were taken ill, they were already half
poisoned with the stutf they had been swallowing.
Many killed themselves by excessive drinking of the
wretched liquor which was sold under the name of
brandy, and others, by eating ravenously of fruit,
green or ripe, at all hours of the day, or by living, for
the sake of economy, on gingerbread and spruce-beer,
which are also American weaknesses, and of which
there were several enterprising Yankee manufacturers.

The sickness was no doubt much increased by the
outrageously filthy state of the town. There seemed
to be absolutely no arrangement for cleanliness what-
ever, and the heavy rains which fell, and washed
down the streets, were all that saved the town from
being swallowed up in the accumulation of its own
corruption.

Among the Americans en route for California were
men of all classes — professional men, merchants, labor-
ers, sailors, farmers, mechanics, and numbers of long
gaunt Western men, with rifles as long as themselves.
The hotels were too crowded to allow of any distinc-
tion of persons, and they were accordingly conducted
on ultra-democratic principles. Some faint idea of
the style of thing might be formed from a notice
which was posted up in the bar-room of the most
fashionable hotel. It ran as follows: "Gentlemen
are requested to wear their coats at table, if they have

44 THE GOLD HUNTERS

them handy." This intimation, of course, in effect
amounted to nothing at all, but at the same time
there was a great deal in it. It showed that the
landlord, being above vulgar prejudices himself, saw
the necessity, in order to please all his guests, of
overcoming the mutual prejudices existing between
broadcloth and fine linen, and red flannel with no
linen, — sanctioning the wearing of coats at table on
the part of the former, by making a public request
that they would do so, while, of the shirt-sleeve
gentlemen, those who had coats, and refused to wear
them, could still glory in the knowledge that they
were defying all interference with their individual
rights; and in behalf of the really coatless, those who
could not call a coat their own, the idea was kindly
suggested that that garment was only absent, because
it was not "handy."

As may be supposed, such a large and motley popu-
lation of foreigners, confined in such a place as
Panama, without any occupation, were not remark-
ably quiet or orderly. Gambling, drinking, and cock-
fighting were the principal amusements; and drunken
rows and fights, in which pistols and knives were
freely used, were of frequent occurrence.

The 4th of July was celebrated by the Americans
in great style. The proceedings were conducted as
is customary on such occasions in the United States.
A procession was formed, which, headed by a number
of fiddles, drums, bugles, and other instruments, all
playing "Yankee Doodle" in a very free and inde-
pendent manner, marched to the place of celebration,
a circular canvas structure, where a circus company
had been giving performances. When all were as-

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 45

sembled, the Declaration of Independence was read,
and the orator of the day made a flaming speech on
the subject of George III. and the Universal Yankee
nation. A gentleman then got up, and, speaking in
Spanish, explained to the native portion of the as-
sembly what all the row was about; after which
the meeting dispersed, and the further celebration of
the day was continued at the bars of the different
hotels.

I met with an accident here which laid me up for
several weeks. I suffered a good deal, and passed a
most weary time. All the books I could get hold of
did not last me more than a few days, and I had then
no other pastime than to watch the humming-birds
buzzing about the flowers which grew around my
window.

As soon as I was able to walk, I took passage in a
barque about to sail for San Francisco. She carried
about forty passengers; and as she had ample cabin
accommodation, we were so far comfortable enough.
The company was, as might be expected, very miscel-
laneous. Some were respectable men, and others were
precious vagabonds. When we had been out but a
few days, a fever broke out on board, which was not,
however, of a very serious character. I got a touch
of it, and could have cured myself very easily, but
there was a man on board who passed for a doctor,
having shipped as such: he had been physicking the
others, and I reluctantly consented to allow him to
doctor me also. He began by giving me some horrible
emetic, which, however, had no effect; so he continued
to repeat it, dose after dose, each dose half a tumbler-
ful, with still no effect, till, at last, he had given me

46 THE GOLD HUNTERS

so much of it, that he began to be alarmed for the
consequences. I was a little alarmed myself, and
putting my finger down my throat, I very soon re-
lieved myself of all his villainous compounds. I think
I fainted after it. I know I felt as if I were going to
faint, and shortly afterwards was sensible of a lapse
of time which I could not account for; but on inquir-
ing of some of my fellow-passengers, I could find no
one who had so far interested himself on my account
as to be able to give me any information on the
subject.

I took my own case in hand after that, and very
soon got rid of the fever, although the emetic treat-
ment had so used me up that for a fortnight I was
hardly able to stand. We afterwards discovered that
this man was only now making his debut as a physi-
cian. He had graduated, however, as a shoemaker, a
farmer, and I don't know what else besides; latterly
he had practised as a horse-dealer, and I have no
doubt it was some horse-medicine which he adminis-
tered to me so freely.

We had only two deaths on board, and in justice
to the doctor, I must say he was not considered to
have been the cause of either of them. One case was
that of a 3'oung man, who, while the doctor was treat-
ing him for fever, was at the same time privately
treating himself to large doses, taken frequently, of
bad brandy, of which he had an ample stock stowed
away under his bed. About a day and a half settled
him. The other was a much more melancholy case.
He was a young Swede — such a delicate, effeminate
fellow that he seemed quite out of place among the
rough and noisy characters who formed the rest of

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 47

the party. A few days before we left Panama, a
steamer had arrived from San Francisco with a great
many cases of cholera on board. Numerous deaths
had occurred in Panama, and considerable alarm pre-
vailed there in consequence. The Swede was attacked
with fever like the rest of us, but he had no force in
him, either mental or bodily, to bear up against sick-
ness under such circumstances ; and the fear of cholera
had taken such possession of him, that he insisted
upon it that he had cholera, and that he would die of
it that night. His lamentations were most piteous,
but all attempts to reassure him were in vain. He
very soon became delirious, and died raving before
morning. None of us were doctors enough to know
exactly what he died of, but the general belief was
that he frightened himself to death. The church-
service was read over him by the supercargo, many
of the passengers merely leaving their cards to be
present at the ceremony, and as soon as he was
launched over the side, resuming their game where
they had been interrupted ,* and this, moreover, was on
a Sunday morning. In future the captain prohibited
all card-playing on Sundays, but throughout the
voyage nearly one-half of the passengers spent the
whole day, and half the night, in playing the favorite
game of poker, which is something like brag, and at
which they cheated each other in the most barefaced
manner, so causing perpetual quarrels, which, how-
ever, never ended in a fight — for the reason, as it
seemed to me, that as every one wore his bowie-knife,
the prospect of getting his opponent's knife between
his ribs deterred each man from drawing his own, or
offering any violence whatever.

48 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The poor Swede had no friends on board; nobody
knew who he was, where he came from, or anything
at all about him; and so his effects were, a few days
after his death, sold at auction by order of the
captain, one of the passengers, who had been an
auctioneer in the States, officiating on the occasion.

Great rascalities were frequently practised at this
time by those engaged in conveying passengers, in
sailing vessels, from Panama to San Francisco. There
were such numbers of men waiting anxiously in
Panama to take the first opportunity that offered of
reaching California, that there was no difficulty in
filling any old tub of a ship with passengers; and,
when once men arrived in San Francisco, they were
generally too much occupied in making dollars, to
give any trouble on account of the treatment they
had received on the voyage.

Many vessels were consequently despatched with
a load of passengers, most shamefully ill supplied
with provisions, even what they had being of the
most inferior quality; and it often happened that they
had to touch in distress at the intermediate ports for
the ordinary necessaries of life.

We very soon found that our ship was no ex-
ception. For the first few days we fared pretty well,
but, by degrees, one article after another became used
up; and by the time we had been out a fortnight, we
had absolutely nothing to eat and drink, but salt
pork, musty flour, and bad coffee — no mustard,
vinegar, sugar, pepper, or anything of the sort, to
render such food at all palatable. It may be imagined
how delightful it was, in recovering from fever, when
one naturally has a craving for something good to

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 49

cat, to have no greater delicacy in the way of nour-
ishment than gruel made of musty flour, au naturel.

There was great indignation among the passengers.
A lot of California emigrants are not a crowd to be
trifled with, and the idea of pitching the supercargo
overboard was quite seriously entertained; but, for-
tunately for himself, he was a very plausible man,
and succeeded in talking them into the belief that
he was not to blame.

We would have gone into some port for supplies
but, of such grub as we had, there was no scarcity on
board, and we preferred making the most of it to in-
curring delay by going in on the coast, where calms
and light winds are so prevalent.

We killed a porpoise occasionally, and ate him.
The liver is the best part, and the only part generally
eaten, being something like pig's liver, and by no
means bad. I had frequently tasted the meat at sea
before; it is exceedingly hard, tough, and stringy, like
the very worst beefsteak that can possibly be imagined ;
and I used to think it barely eatable, when thoroughly
disguised in sauce and spices, but now, after being so
long under a severe salt-pork treatment, I thought
porpoise steak a very delicious dish, even without
any condiment to heighten its intrinsic excellence.

We had been out about six weeks, when we sighted
a ship, many miles off, going the same way as our-
selves, and the captain determined to board her, and
endeavor to get some of the articles of which we
were so much in need. There was great excitement
among the passengers; all wanted to accompany the
captain in his boat, but, to avoid making invidious
distinctions, he refused to take any one unless he

50 THE GOLD HUNTERS

would pull an oar. I was one of four who volunteered
to do so, and we left the ship amid clamorous in-
junctions not to forget sugar, beef, molasses, vinegar,
and so on — whatever each man most longed for. We
had four or five Frenchmen on board, who earnestly
entreated me to get them even one bottle of oil.

We had a long pull, as the stranger was in no
hurry to heave-to for us; and on coming up to her,
we found her to be a Scotch barque, bound also for
San Francisco, without passengers, but very nearly as
hadly off as ourselves. She could not spare us any-
thing at all, but the captain gave us an invitation to
dinner, which we accepted with the greatest pleasure.
It was Sunday, and so the dinner was of course the
best they could get up. It only consisted of fresh
pork (the remains of their last pig), and duff; but with
mustard to the pork, and sugar to the duff, it seemed
to us a most sumptuous banquet; and, not having the
immediate prospect of such another for some time to
come, we made the most of the present opportunity.
In fact, we cleared the table. I don't know what the
Scotch skipper thought of us, but if he really could
have spared us anything, the ravenous way in which
we demolished his dinner would surely have softened
his heart.

On arriving again alongside our own ship, with
the boat empty as when we left her, we were
greeted by a row of very long faces looking down on
us over the side; not a word was said, because they
had watched us with the glass leaving the other
vessel, and had seen that nothing was handed into
the boat; and when we described the splendid dinner
we had just eaten, the faces lengthened so much, and

ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 51

assumed such a very wistful expression, that it seemed
a wanton piece of cruelty to have mentioned the
circumstance at all.

But, after all, our hard fare did not cause us much
distress: we got used to it, and besides, a passage to
California was not like a passage to any other place.
Every one was so confident of acquiring an immense
fortune there in an incredibly short time, that he
was already making his plans for the future enjoy-
ment of it, and present difficulties and hardships
were not sufficiently appreciated.

The time passed pleasantly enough; all were dis-
posed to be cheerful, and amongst so many men there
are always some who afford amusement for the rest.
Many found constant occupation in trading off their
coats, hats, boots, trunks, or anything they possessed.
I think scarcely any one went ashore in San Francisco
with a single article of clothing which he possessed
in Panama; and there was hardly an article of any
man's wardrobe, which, by the time our voyage was
over, had not at one time been the property of every
other man on board the ship.

We had one cantankerous old Englishman on
board, who used to roll out, most volubly, good round
English oaths, greatly to the amusement of some of
the American passengers, for the English style of
cursing and swearing is very different from that
which prevails in the States. This old fellow was
made a butt for all manner of practical jokes. He
had a way of going to sleep during the day in all
sorts of places; and when the dinner-bell rang, he
would find himself tied hand and foot. They sewed
up the sleeves of his coat, and then bet him long

52 THE GOLD HUNTERS

odds he could not put it on, and take it off again,
within a minute. They made up cigars for him with
some powder in the inside; and in fact the jokes
played off upon him were endless, the great fun
being, apparently, to hear him swear, which he did
most heartily. He always fancied himself ill, and
said that quinine was the only thing that would save
him ; but the quinine, like everything else on board, was
all used up. However, one man put up some papers
of flour and salt, and gave them to him as quinine,
saying he had just found them in looking over his
trunk. Constant inquiries were then made after the
old man's health, when he declared the quinine was
doing him a world of good, and that his appetite was
much improved.

He was so much teased at last that he used to go
about with a naked bowie-knife in his hand, with
which he threatened to do awful things to whoever
interfered with him. But even this did not secure
him much peace, and he was such a dreadfully
crabbed old rascal that I thought the stirring-up he
got was quite necessary to keep him sweet.

After a wretchedly long passage, during which we
experienced nothing but calms, light winds, and
heavy contrary gales, we entered the Golden Gate
of San Francisco harbor with the first and only fair
wind we were favored with, and came to anchof
before the city about eight o'clock in the evening.

CHAPTER III

A CITY IN THE MAKING

THE entrance to San Francisco harbor is between
precipitous rocky headlands about a mile apart,
which have received the name of the Golden
Gate. The harbor itself is a large sheet of water,
twelve miles across at its widest point, and in length
forty or fifty miles, getting gradually narrower till at
last it becomes a mere creek.

On the north side of the harbor falls in the Sacra-
mento, a large river, to which all the other rivers of
California are tributary, and which is navigable for
large vessels as far as Sacramento city, a distance of
nearly two hundred miles.

The city of San Francisco lies on the south shore,
nearly opposite the mouth of the Sacramento, and
four or five miles from the ocean. It is built on a
semicircular inlet, about two miles across, at the foot
of a succession of bleak sandy hills, covered here and
there with scrubby brushwood. Before the discovery
of gold in the country, it consisted merely of a few
small houses occupied by native Californians, and
one or two foreign merchants engaged in the export
of hides and horns. The harbor was also a favor-
ite watering-place for whalers and men-of-war cruis-
ing in that part of the world.

53

54 THE GOLD HUNTERS

At the time of our arrival in 1851, hardly a vestige
remained of the original village. Everything bore
evidence of newness, and the greater part of the city
presented a makeshift and temporary appearance,
being composed of the most motley collection of
edifices, in the way of houses, which can well be
conceived. Some were mere tents, with perhaps a
wooden front sufficiently strong to support the sign
of the occupant; some were composed of sheets of
zinc on a wooden framework; there were numerous
corrugated iron houses, the most unsightly things
possible, and generally painted brown; there were
many imported American houses, all, of course,
painted white, with green shutters; also dingy-looking
Chinese houses, and occasionally some substantial
brick buildings; but the great majority were nonde-
script, shapeless, patchwork concerns, in the fabrica-
tion of which sheet-iron, wood, zinc, and canvas
seemed to have been employed indiscriminately; while
here and there, in the middle of a row of such houses,
appeared the hulk of a ship, which had been hauled
up, and now served as a warehouse, the cabins being
fitted up as offices, or sometimes converted into a
boarding-house.

The hills rose so abruptly from the shore that there
was not room for the rapid extension of the city, and
as sites were more valuable as they were nearer the
shipping, the first growth of the city was out into
the bay. Already houses had been built out on piles
for nearly half-a-mile beyond the original high-water
mark; and it was thus that ships, having been hauled
up and built in, came to occupy a position so com-
pletely out of their element. The hills are of a very

A CITY IN THE MAKING 55

loose sandy soil, and were consequently easily graded
sufficiently to admit of being built upon; and what
was removed from the hills was used to fill up the
space gained from the bay. This has been done to
such an extent, that at the present day the whole of
the business part of the city of San Francisco stands
on solid ground, where a few years ago large ships
lay at anchor; and what was then high-water mark
is now more than a mile inland.

The principal street of the town was about three-
quarters of a mile long, and on it were most of the
bankers' offices, the principal stores, some of the best
restaurants, and numerous drinking and gambling
saloons.

In the Plaza, a large open square, was the only
remaining house of the San Francisco of other days —
a small cottage built of sun-dried bricks. Two sides
of the Plaza were composed of the most imposing-
looking houses in the city, some of which were of
brick several stories high; others, though of wood,
were large buildings with handsome fronts in imita-
tion of stone, and nearly every one of them was a
gambling-house.

Scattered over the hills overhanging the town,
apparently at random, but all on specified lots, on
streets which as yet were only defined by rude fences,
were habitations of various descriptions, handsome
wooden houses of three or four stories, neat little
cottages, iron houses, and tents innumerable.

Rents were exorbitantly high, and servants were
hardly to be had for money; housekeeping was con-
sequently only undertaken by those who did not fear
the expense, and who were so fortunate as to have

56 THE GOLD HUNTERS

their families with them. The population, however,
consisted chiefly of single men, and the usual style of
living was to have some sort of room to sleep in, and
to board at a restaurant. But even a room to one-
self was an expensive luxury, and it was more usual
for men to sleep in their stores or offices. As for a
bed, no one was particular about that; a shake-down
on a table, or on the floor, was as common as anything
else, and sheets were a luxury but little thought of.
Every man was his own servant, and his own porter
besides. It was nothing unusual to see a respectable
old gentleman, perhaps some old paterfamilias, who
at home would have been horrified at the idea of doing
such a thing, open his store in the morning himself,
take a broom and sweep it out, and then proceed to
blacken his boots.

*The boot-blacking trade, however, was one which
rang up and flourished rapidly. It was monopo-
lized by Frenchmen, and was principally conducted
in the Plaza, on the long row of steps in front of the
gambling saloons. At first the accommodation af-
forded was not very great. One had to stand upon
one foot and place the other on a little box, while a
Frenchman, standing a few steps below, operated upon
it. Presently arm-chairs were introduced, and, the
bootblacks working in partnership, time was econo-
mized by both boots being polished simultaneously.
It was a curious sight to see thirty or forty men sitting
in a row in the most public part of the city having
their boots blacked, while as many more stood waiting
for their turn. The next improvement was being
accommodated with the morning papers while under-
going the operation ; and finally, the bootblacking

A CITY IN THE MAKING 57

fraternity, keeping pace with the progressive spirit of
the age, opened saloons furnished with rows of easy-
chairs on a raised platform, in which the patients sat
and read the news, or admired themselves in the
mirror on the opposite wall. The regular charge for
having one's boots polished was twenty-five cents, an
English shilling — the smallest sum worth mentioning
in California.

In 1851, however, things had not attained such a
pitch of refinement as to render the appearance of a
man's boots a matter of the slightest consequence.

As far as mere eating and drinking went, living
was good enough. The market was well supplied
with every description of game — venison, elk, ante-
lope, grizzly bear, and an infinite variety of wild-
fowl. The harbor abounded with fish, and the Sac-
ramento river was full of splendid salmon, equal in
flavor to those of the Scottish rivers, though in ap*
pearance not quite such a highly-finished fish, being
rather clumsy about the tail.

Vegetables were not so plentiful. Potatoes and
onions, as fine as any in the world, were the great
stand-by. Other vegetables, though scarce, were pro-
duced in equal perfection, and upon a gigantic scale.
A beetroot weighing a hundred pounds, and that looked
like the trunk of a tree, was not thought a very
remarkable specimen.

The wild geese and ducks were extremely numer-
ous all round the shores of the bay, and many men,
chiefly English and French, who would have scorned
the idea of selling their game at home, here turned
their sporting abilities to good account, and made
their guns a source of handsome profit. A French-

58 THE GOLD HUNTERS

man with whom I was acquainted killed fifteen
hundred dollars' worth of game in two weeks.

There were two or three French restaurants nearly
equal to some of the best in Paris, where the cheapest
dinner one could get cost three dollars; but there
were also numbers of excellent French and American
houses, at which one could live much more reason-
ably. Good hotels were not wanting, but they were
ridiculously extravagant places; and though flimsy
concerns, built of wood, and not presenting very os-
tentatious exteriors, they were fitted up with all the
lavish display which characterizes the fashionable ho-
tels of New York. In fact, all places of public resort
were furnished and decorated in a style of most bar-
baric splendor, being rilled with the costliest French
furniture, and a profusion of immense mirrors, gor-
geous gilding, magnificent chandeliers, and gold and
china ornaments, conveying an idea of luxurious refine-
ment which contrasted strangely with the appearance
and occupations of the people by whom they were fre-
quented.

San Francisco exhibited an immense amount of
vitality compressed into a small compass, and a degree
of earnestness was observable in every action of a
man's daily life. People lived more there in a week
than they would in a year in most other places.

In the course of a month, or a year, in San Fran-
cisco, there was more hard work done, more specula-
tive schemes were conceived and executed, more
money was made and lost, there was more buying and
selling, more sudden changes of fortune, more eating
and drinking, more smoking, swearing, gambling,
and tobacco-chewing, more crime and profligacy

A CITY IN THE MAKING 59

and, at the same time, more solid advancement made
by the people, as a body, in wealth, prosperity, and
the refinements of civilization, than could be shown
in an equal space of time by any community of the
same size on the face of the earth.

The every-day jog-trot of ordinary human exist-
ence was not a fast enough pace for Californians in
their impetuous pursuit of wealth. The longest
period of time ever thought of was a month. Money
was loaned, and houses were rented, by the month;
interest and rent being invariably payable monthly
and in advance. All engagements were made by the
month, during which period the changes and contin-
gencies were so great that no one was willing to
commit himself for a longer term. In the space of a
month the whole city might be swept off by fire, and
a totally new one might be flourishing in its place.
So great was the constant fluctuation in the prices of
goods, and so rash and speculative was the usual
style of business, that no great idea of stability could
be attached to anything, and the ever-varying aspect
of the streets, as the houses were being constantly
pulled down, and rebuilt, was emblematic of the
equally varying fortunes of the inhabitants.

The streets presented a scene of intense bustle and
excitement. The side-walks were blocked up with
piles of goods, in front of the already crowded
stores; men hurried along with the air of having
the weight of all the business of California on their
shoulders; others stood in groups at the corners
of the streets; here and there was a drunken man ly-
ing groveling in the mud, enjoying himself as unin-
terruptedly as if he were merely a hog; old miners,

60 THE GOLD HUNTERS

probably on their way home, were loafing about,
staring at everything, in all the glory of mining cos-
tume, jealous of every inch of their long hair and
flowing beards, and of every bit of California mud
which adhered to their ragged old shirts and patch-
work pantaloons, as evidences that they, at least, had
"seen tjie elephant."

Troops of newly arrived Frenchmen marched along,
en route for the mines, staggering under their equip-
ment of knapsacks, shovels, picks, tin wash-bowls, pis-
tols, knives, swords, and double-barrel guns — their
blankets slung over their shoulders, and their persons
hung around with tin cups, frying-pans, coffee-pots,
and other culinary utensils, with perhaps a hatchet and
a spare pair of boots. Crowds of Chinamen were also
to be seen, bound for the diggings, under gigantic bas-
ket-hats, each man with a bamboo laid across his shoul-
der, from each end of which was suspended a higgledy-
piggledy collection of mining tools, Chinese baskets
and boxes, immense boots and a variety of Chinese
"fixins," which no one but a Chinaman could tell the
use of, — all speaking at once, gabbling and chattering
their horrid jargon, and producing a noise like that
of a flock of geese. There were continuous streams
of drays drawn by splendid horses, and loaded with
merchandise from all parts of the world, and horse-
men galloped about, equally regardless of their own
and of other men's lives.

Two or three auctioneers might be heard at once,
"crying" their goods with characteristic California ve-
hemence, while some of their neighbors in the same
line of business were ringing bells to collect an audi-
ence— and at the same time one's ears were dinned with

A CITY IN THE MAKING 61

the discord of half-a-dozen brass bands, braying out
different popular airs from as many different gambling
saloons. In the midst of it all, the runners, or tooters,
for the opposition river-steamboats, would be cracking
up the superiority of their respective boats at the top
of their lungs, somewhat in this style: "One dollar
to-night for Sacramento, by the splendid steamer Sen-
ator, the fastest boat that ever turned a wheel from
Long wharf — with feather pillows and curled-hair
mattresses, mahogany doors and silver hinges. She has
got eight young-lady passengers to-night, that speak
all the dead languages, and not a colored man from
stem to stern of her." Here an opposition runner
would let out upon him, and the two would slang each
other in the choicest California Billingsgate for the
amusement of the admiring crowd.

Standing at the door of a gambling saloon, with
one foot raised on the steps, would be a well-dressed
young man, playing thimblerig on his leg with a
golden pea, for the edification of a crowd of gaping
greenhorns, some one of whom would be sure to bite.
Not far off would be found a precocious little black-
guard of fourteen or fifteen, standing behind a cask,
and playing on the head of it a sort of thimblerig
game with three cards, called 'Trench monte." He
first shows their faces, and names one — say the ace
of spades — as the winning card, and after thimblerig-
ging them on the head of the cask, he lays them in
a row with their faces down, and goes on proclaiming
to the public in a loud voice that the ace of spades
is the winning card, and that he'll "bet any man
one or two hundred dollars he can't pick up the ace
of spades." Occasionally some man, after watching

62 THE GOLD HUNTERS

the trick for a little, thinks it is the easiest thing pos-
sible to tell which is the ace of spades, and loses his
hundred dollars accordingly, when the youngster pock-
ets the money and his cards, and moves off to another
location, not being so soft as to repeat the joke too
often, or to take a smaller bet than a hundred dollars.

There were also newsboys with their shrill voices,
crying their various papers with the latest intelligence
from all parts of the world, and boys with boxes of
cigars, offering "the best Havana cigars for a bit
a-piece, as good as you can get in the stores for a
quarter." A "bit" is twelve and a half cents, or an
English sixpence, and for all one could buy with it,
was but little less useless than an English farthing.

Presently one would hear "Hullo! there's a muss!"
(Anglice, a row), and men would be seen rushing to
the spot from all quarters. Auction-rooms, gambling-
rooms, stores, and drinking-shops would be emptied,
and a mob collected in the street in a moment. The
"muss" would probably be only a difficulty between
two gentlemen, who had referred it to the arbitration
of knives or pistols; but if no one was killed, the
mob would disperse, to resume their various occupa-
tions, just as quickly as they had collected.

Some of the principal streets were planked, as was
also, of course, that part of the city which was built
on piles; but where there was no planking, the mud
was ankle-deep, and in many places there were mud-
holes, rendering the street almost impassable. The
streets were the general receptacle for every descrip-
tion of rubbish. They were chiefly covered with bits
of broken boxes and casks, fragments of hampers,
iron hoops, old tin cases, and empty bottles. In the

A CITY IN THE MAKING 63

vicinity of the numerous Jew slop-shops, they were
thickly strewed with old boots, hats, coats, and pan-
taloons; for the majority of the population carried
their wardrobe on their backs, and when they bought
a new article of dress, the old one which it was to
replace was pitched into the street.

I often wondered that none of the enterprising
"old clo" fraternity ever opened a business in Cali-
fornia. They might have got shiploads of old clothes
for the trouble of picking them up. Some of them
doubtless were not worth the trouble, but there were
always tons of cast-off garments kicking about the
streets, which I think an "old clo" of any ingenuity
could have rendered available. California was often
said to be famous for three things — rats, fleas, and
empty bottles; but old clothes might well have been
added to the list.

The whole place swarmed with rats of an enor-
mous size; one could hardly walk at night without
treading on them. They destroyed an immense deal
of property, and a good ratting terrier was worth his
weight in gold dust. I knew instances, however, of
first-rate terriers in Sacramento City (which for rats
beat San Francisco hollow) becoming at last so ut-
terly disgusted with killing rats, that they ceased to
consider it any sport at all, and allowed the rats to
run under their noses without deigning to look at
them.

As for the other industrious little animals, they
were a terrible nuisance. I suppose they were indig-
enous to the sandy soil. It was quite a common
thing to see a gentleman suddenly pull up the sleeve
of his coat, or the leg of his trousers, and smile in

64 THE GOLD HUNTERS

triumph when he caught his little tormentor. After
a few weeks' residence in San Francisco, one became
naturally very expert at this sort of thing.

Of the last article — the empty bottles — the enor-
mous heaps of them, piled up in all sorts of out-of-
the-way places, suggested a consumption of liquor
which was truly awful. Empty bottles were as plen-
tiful as bricks — and a large city might have been
built with them.

The appearance of the people, being, as they were,
a sort of world's show of humanity, was extremely
curious and diversified. There were Chinamen in all
the splendor of sky-blue or purple figured silk jackets,
and tight yellow satin continuations, black satin shoes
with thick white soles, and white gaiters; a fan in
the hand, and a beautifully plaited glossy pigtail
hanging down to the heels from under a scarlet
skull-cap, with a gold knob on the top of it. These
were the swell Chinamen; the lower orders of Ce-
lestials were generally dressed in immensely wide blue
calico jackets and bags, for they really could not be
called trousers, and on their heads they wore enor-
mous wickerwork extinguishers, which would have
made very good family clothes-baskets.

The Mexicans were very numerous, and wore their
national costume — the bright-colored scrape thrown
gracefully over the left shoulder, with rows of silver
buttons down the outside of their trousers, which
were generally left open, so as to show the loose white
drawers underneath, and the silver-handled bowie-
knife in the stamped leather leggins.

Englishmen seemed to adhere to the shooting-coat
style of dress, and the down-east Yankees to their

A CITY IN THE MAKING 65

eternal black dress-coat, black pantaloons, and black
satin waistcoat; while New Yorkers, Southerners, and
Frenchmen, came out in the latest Paris fashions.

Those who did not stick to their former style of
dress, indulged in all the extravagant license of Cali-
fornia costume, which was of every variety that ca-
price could suggest. No man could make his appear-
ance sufficiently bizarre to attract any attention. The
prevailing fashion among the rag-tag and bobtail was
a red or blue flannel shirt, wide-awake hats of every
conceivable shape and color, and trousers stuffed into
a big pair of boots.

Pistols and knives were usually worn in the belt at
the back, and to be without either was the exception
to the rule.

The few ladies who were already in San Francisco,
very naturally avoided appearing in public; but num-
bers of female toilettes, of the most extravagantly
rich and gorgeous materials, swept the muddy streets,
and added not a little to the incongruous variety of
the scene.

To a cursory visitor, auction-sales and gambling
would have appeared two of the principal features of
the city.

The gambling-saloons were very numerous, occu-
pying the most prominent positions in the leading
thoroughfares, and all of them presenting a more
conspicuous appearance than the generality of houses
around them. They were thronged day and night,
and in each was a very good band of music, the per-
formers being usually German or French.

On entering a first-class gambling-room, one found
a large well-proportioned saloon sixty or seventy feet

66 THE GOLD HUNTERS

long, brilliantly lighted up by several very fine chan-
deliers, the walls decorated with ornamental painting
and gilding, and hung with large mirrors and showy
pictures, while in an elevated projecting orchestra
half-a-dozen Germans were playing operatic music.
There were a dozen or more tables in the room,
each with a compact crowd of eager betters around
it, and the whole room was so filled with men that
elbowing one's way between the tables was a matter
of difficulty. The atmosphere was quite hazy with
the quantity of tobacco smoke, and was strongly im-
pregnated with the fumes of brandy. If one hap-
pened to enter while the musicians were taking a
rest, the quiet and stillness weie remarkable. Nothing
was heard but a slight hum of voices, and the con-
stant clinking of money; for it was the fashion, while
standing betting at a table, to have a lot of dollars in
one's hands, and to keep shuffling them backwards
and forwards like so many cards.

The people composing the crowd were men of every
class, from the highest to the lowest, and, though the
same as might be seen elsewhere, their extraordinary
variety of character and of dress appeared still more
curious from their being brought into such close juxta-
position, and apparently placed upon an equality.
Seated round the same table might be seen well-
dressed, respectable-looking men, and, alongside of
them, rough miners fresh from the diggings, with
well-filled buckskin purses, dirty old flannel shirts, and
shapeless hats; jolly tars half -seas over, not under-
standing anything about the game, nor apparently tak-
ing any interest in it, but having their spree out at
the gaming-table because it was the fashion, and good-

A CITY IN THE MAKING 67

humoredly losing their pile of five or six hundred or
a thousand dollars; Mexicans wrapped up in their
blankets smoking cigaritas, and watching the game
intently from under their broad-brimmed hats ; French-
men in their blouses smoking black pipes; and little
urchins, or little old scamps rather, ten or twelve years
of age, smoking cigars as big as themselves, with the air
of men who were quite up to all the hooks and crooks
of this wicked world (as indeed they were), and los-
ing their hundred dollars at a pop with all the non-
chalance of an old gambler; while crowds of men,
some dressed like gentlemen, and mixed with all sorts
of nondescript ragamuffins, crowded round, and
stretched over those seated at the tables, in order to
make their bets.

There were dirty, squalid, villainous-looking
scoundrels, who never looked straight out of their
eyes, but still were always looking at something, as
if they were "making a note of it," and who could
have made their faces their fortunes in some parts
of the world, by "sitting" for murderers, or ruffians
generally.

Occasionally one saw, jostled about unresistingly
by the crowd, and as if the crowd ignored its exist-
ence, the live carcass of some wretched, dazed, woe-
begone man, clad in the worn-out greasy habili-
ments of quondam gentility; the glassy unintelligent
eye looking as if no focus could be found for it, but
as if it saw a dim misty vision of everything all at
once; the only meaning in the face being about the
lips, where still lingered the smack of grateful enjoy-
ment of the last mouthful of whisky, blended with a
longing humble sigh for the speedy recurrence of any

68 THE GOLD HUNTERS

opportunity of again experiencing such an awakening
bliss, and forcibly expressing an unquenchable thirst
for strong drinks, together with the total absence of
all power to do anything towards relieving it, while
the whole appearance of the man spoke of bitter
disappointment and reverses, without the force to
bear up under them. He was the picture of sottish
despair, and the name of his duplicates was legion.

There was in the crowd a large proportion of sleek
well-shaven men, in stove-pipe hats and broadcloth;
but, however nearly a man might approach in appear-
ance to the conventional idea of a gentleman, it is
not to be supposed, on that account, that he either
was, or got the credit of being, a bit better than his
neighbors. The man standing next him, in the
guise of a laboring man, was perhaps his superior in
wealth, character, and education. Appearances, at
least as far as dress was concerned, went for nothing
at all. A man was judged by the amount of money
in his purse, and frequently the man to be most
courted for his dollars was the most to be despised for
his looks.

One element of mixed crowds of people, in the
States and in this country, was very poorly repre-
sented. There were scarcely any of the lower order
of Irish; the cost of emigration to California was
at that time too great for the majority of that class,
although now the Irish population of San Francisco
is nearly equal in proportion to that in the large
cities of the Union.

The Spanish game of monte, which was introduced
into California by the crowds of Mexicans who came

A CITY IN THE MAKING 69

there, was at this time the most popular game, and
was dealt almost exclusively by Mexicans. It is
played on a table about six feet by four, on each side
of which sits a dealer, and between them is the bank
of gold and silver coin, to the amount of five or ten
thousand dollars, piled up in rows covering a space of
a couple of square feet. The game is played with
Spanish cards, which are differently figured from the
usual playing-cards, and have only forty-eight in the
pack, the ten being wanting. At either end of the
table two compartments, are marked on the cloth,
on each of which the dealer lays out a card. Bets
are then made by placing one's stake on the card
betted on; and are decided according to which of
those laid out first makes its appearance, as the
dealer draws card after card from the top of the
pack. It is a game at which the dealer has such
advantages, and which, at the same time, gives him
such facilities for cheating, that any one who con-
tinues to bet at it is sure to be fleeced.

Faro, which was the more favorite game for
heavy betting, and was dealt chiefly by Americans,
is played on a table the same size as a monte table.
Laid out upon it are all the thirteen cards of a suit,
on any of which one makes his bets, to be decided
according as the same card appears first or second as
the dealer draws them two by two off the top of the
pack.

Faro was generally played by systematic gamblers,
who knew, or thought they knew, what they were
about; while monte, from its being apparently more
simple, was patronized by novices. There were also

70 THE GOLD HUNTERS

roulette and rouge-et-noir tables, and an infinite
variety of small games played with dice, and classed
under the general appellation of "chuck-a-luck."

I should mention that in California the word
gambler is not used in exactly the same abstract sense
as with us. An individual might spend all his time,
and gain his living, in betting at public gaming-
tables, but that would not entitle him to the distinc-
tive appellation of a gambler; it would only be said
of him that he gambled.

The gamblers were only the professionals, the men
who laid out their banks in public rooms, and in-
vited all and sundry to bet against them. They were
a distinct and numerous class of the community, who
followed their profession for the accommodation of
the public; and any one who did business with them
was no more a "gambler" than a man who bought a
pound of tea was a grocer.

At this time the gamblers were, as a general thing,
the best-dressed men in San Francisco. Many of
them were very gentlemanly in appearance, but there
was a peculiar air about them which denoted their
profession — so much so, that one might frequently
hear the remark, that such a person "looked like a
gambler." They had a haggard, careworn look
(though that was nothing uncommon in California),
and as they sat dealing at their tables, no fluctuation
of fortune caused the slightest change in the expres-
sion of their face, which was that of being intently
occupied with their game, but at the same time totally
indifferent as to the result. Even among the betters
the same thing was remarkable, though in a less de-
gree, for the struggle to appear unconcerned when

A CITY IN THE MAKING 71

a man lost his all, was often too plainly evident with
them.

The Mexicans showed the most admirable impas-
sibility. I have seen one betting so high at a monte
table that a crowd collected round to watch the result.
After winning a large sum of money, he finally staked
it all on one card, and lost, when he exhibited less
concern than many of the bystanders, for he merely
condescended to give a slight shrug of his shoulders
as he lighted his cigarita and strolled slowly off.

In the forenoon, when gambling was slack, the
gamblers would get up from their tables, and, leaving
exposed upon them, at the mercy of the heterogene-
ous crowd circulating through the room, piles of gold
and silver, they would walk away, seemingly as little
anxious for the safety of their money as if it were
under lock and key in an iron chest. It was strange
to see so much apparent confidence in the honesty of
human nature, and — in a city where robberies and vio-
lence were so rife, that, when out at night in unfre-
quented quarters, one walked pistol in hand in the mid-
dle of the street — to see money exposed in such a way as
would be thought madness in any other part of the
world. But here the summary justice likely to be
dispensed by the crowd, was sufficient to insure a
due observance of the law of meum and tuum.

These saloons were not by any means frequented
exclusively by persons who went there for the pur-
pose of gambling. Few men had much inducement
to pass their evenings in their miserable homes, and
the gambling-rooms were a favorite public resort, the
music alone offering sufficient attraction to many who
never thought of staking a dollar at any of the tables.

72 THE GOLD HUNTERS

Another very attractive feature is the bar, a long
polished mahogany or marble counter, at which two
or three smart young men officiated, having behind
them long rows of ornamental bottles, containing all
the numerous ingredients necessary for concocting
the hundred and one different "drinks" which were
called for. This was also the most elaborately-deco-
rated part of the room, the wall being completely
covered with mirrors and gilding, and further orna-
mented with china vases, bouquets of flowers, and
gold clocks.

Hither small parties of men are continually repair-
ing to "take a drink." Perhaps they each choose a
different kind of punch, or sling, or cocktail, requir-
ing various combinations, in different proportions, of
whisky, brandy, or gin, with sugar, bitters, pepper-
mint, absinthe, curagoa, lemon-peel, mint, and what
not; but the bar-keeper mixes them all as if by
magic, when each man, taking his glass, and tipping
those of all the rest as he mutters some sentiment,
swallows the compound and wipes his moustache.
The party then move off to make way for others, the
whole operation from beginning to end not occupy-
ing more than a couple of minutes.

CHAPTER IV

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED

A MOST useful quality for a California emigrant
was one which the Americans possess in a pre-
eminent degree — a natural versatility of disposi-
tion and adaptability to every description of pursuit or
occupation.

The numbers of the different classes forming the
community were not in the proportion requisite to
preserve its equilibrium. Transplanting oneself to
California from any part of the world involved an
outlay beyond the means of the bulk of the laboring
classes; and to those who did come to the country, the
mines were of course the great point of attraction; so
that in San Francisco the numbers of the laboring and
of the working classes generally, were not nearly equal
to the demand. The consequence was that laborers'
and mechanics' wages were ridiculously high; and, as
a general thing, the lower the description of labor, or
of service, required, the more extravagant in proportion
were the wages paid. Sailors' wages were two and
three hundred dollars per month, and there were
hundreds of ships lying idle in the bay for want of
crews to man them even at these rates. Every ship,
on her arrival, was immediately deserted by all hands;
for, of all people, sailors were the most unrestrainable
in their determination to go to the diggings; and it

74 THE GOLD HUNTERS

was there a common saying, of the truth of which
I saw myself many examples, that sailors, niggers,
and Dutchmen, were the luckiest men in the mines:
a very drunken old salt was always particularly lucky.

There was a great overplus of young men of edu-
cation, who had never dreamed of manual labor, and
who found that their services in their wonted capaci-
ties were not required in such a rough-and-ready,
every-man-for-himself sort of place. Hard work,
however, was generally better paid than head work,
and men employed themselves in any way, quite re-
gardless of preconceived ideas of their own dignity.
It was one intense scramble for dollars — the man
who got most was the best man — how he got them
had nothing to do with it. No occupation was con-
sidered at all derogatory, and, in fact, every one was
too much occupied with his own affairs to trouble
himself in the smallest degree about his neighbor.

A man's actions and conduct were totally unre-
strained by the ordinary conventionalities of civilized
life, and, so long as he did not interfere with the rights
of others, he could follow his own course, for good or
for evil, with utmost freedom.

Among so many temptations to err, thrust prom-
inently in one's way, without any social restraint to
counteract them, it was not surprising that many
men were too weak for such a trial and, to use an
expressive, though not very elegant phrase, went to
the devil. The community was composed of isolated
individuals, each quite regardless of the good opinion
of his neighbors; and, the outside pressure of society
being removed, men assumed their natural shape,
and showed what they really were, following their

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 75

unchecked impulses and inclinations. The human
nature of ordinary life appeared in a bald and naked
state, and the natural bad passions of men, with all
the vices and depravities of civilization, were indulged
with the same freedom which characterizes the life
of a wild savage.

There were, however, bright examples of the con-
trary. If there was a lavish expenditure in minister-
ing to vice, there was also munificence in the bestow-
ing of charity. Though there were gorgeous temples
for the worship of mammon, there was a sufficiency
of schools and churches for every denomination ;
while, under the influence of the constantly increasing
numbers of virtuous women, the standard of morals
was steadily improving, and society, as it assumed a
shape and a form, began to assert its claims to respect.

Although employment, of one sort or another, and
good pay, were to be had by all who were able and
willing to work, there was nevertheless a vast amount
of misery and destitution. Many men had come to
the country with their expectations raised to an un-
warrantable pitch, imagining that the mere fact of
emigration to California would insure them a rapid
fortune; but when they came to experience the severe
competition in every branch of trade, their hopes were
gradually destroyed by the difficulties of the reality.

Every kind of business, custom, and employment,
was solicited with an importunity little known in old
countries, where the course of all such things is in
so well-worn a channel, that it is not easily diverted.
But here the field was open, and every one was striv-
ing for what seemed to be within the reach of all
— a foremost rank in his own sphere. To keep one's

76 THE GOLD HUNTERS

place in the crowd required an unremitted exercise
of the same vigor and energy which were necessary
to obtain it; and many a man, though possessed of
qualities which would have enabled him to distinguish
himself in the quiet routine life of old countries, was
crowded out of his place by the multitude of com-
petitors, whose deficiency of merit in other respects
was more than counterbalanced by an excess of un-
scrupulous boldness and physical energy. A polished
education was of little service, unless accompanied by
an unwonted amount of democratic feeling; for the
extreme sensitiveness which it is otherwise apt to
produce, unfitted a man for taking part in such a
hand-to-hand struggle with his fellow-men.

Drinking was the great consolation for those who
had not moral strength to bear up under their dis-
appointments. Some men gradually obscured their
intellects by increased habits of drinking, and, equally
gradually, reached the lowest stage of misery and
want; while others went at it with more force, and
drank themselves into delirium tremens before theji
knew where they were. This is a very common
disease in California: there is something in the climate
which superinduces it with less provocation than in
other countries.

But, though drunkenness was common enough, the
number of drunken men one saw was small, consider-
ing the enormous consumption of liquor.

The American style of drinking is so different from
that in fashion in the Old World, and forms such an
important part of social intercourse, that it certainly
deserves to be considered one of the peculiar institu-
tions of the country.

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 77

In England a man reserves his drinking capaci-
ties to enhance the enjoyment of the great event of
the day, and to increase the comfortable feeling of
repletion which he experiences while ruminating over
it. Dinner divides his day into two separate exist-
ences, and drinking in the forenoon suggests the idea
of a man slinking off into out-of-the-way, mysterious
places, and boozily muddling himself in private with
quart pots of ale or numerous glasses of brandy-and-
water.

With Americans, however, the case is very different.
Dinner with them forms no such comfortable epoch
in their daily life: it brings not even the hour of rest
which is allowed to the laboring man — but it is one
of the necessities of human existence, and, as it pre-
cludes all other occupations for the time being, it is
despatched as quickly as possible. They do not
drink during dinner, nor immediately afterwards.
The most common excuse for declining the invitation
of a friend to "take a drink," is "Thank you, I've just
dined." They make the voyage through life under a
full head of steam all the time; they live more in a
given time than other people, and naturally have
recourse to constant stimulants to make up for the
want of intervals of abandon and repose. The
necessary amount of food they eat at stated hours,
but their allowance of stimulants is divided into a
number of small doses, to be taken at short intervals
throughout the day.

So it is that a style of drinking, which would ruin
a man's character in this or any other country where
eating and drinking go together, is in the States car-
ried on publicly and openly. The bars are the most

T8 THE GOLD HUNTERS

favorite resort, being situated in the most frequented
and conspicuous places; and here, at all hours of the
day, men are gulping down fiery mouthfuls of brandy
or gin, rendered still more pungent by the addition of
other ingredients, and softened down with a little
sugar and water.

No one ever thinks of drinking at a bar alone: he
looks round for some friend whom he can ask to join
him; it is not etiquette to refuse, and it is expected
that the civility will be returned: so that the system
gives the idea of being a mere interchange of compli-
ments; and many men, in submitting to it, are
actuated chiefly by a desire to show a due amount
of courtesy to their friends.

In San Francisco, where the ordinary rate of exist-
ence was even faster than in the Atlantic States, men
required an extra amount of stimulant to keep it up,
and this fashion of drinking was carried to excess.
The saloons were crowded from early morning till
late at night; and in each, two or three bar-keepers
were kept unceasingly at work, mixing drinks for
expectant groups of customers. They had no time
even to sell cigars, which were most frequently dis-
pensed at a miniature tobacconist's shop in another
part of the saloon.

Among the proprietors of saloons, or bars, the
competition was so great, that, from having, as is
usual, merely a plate of crackers and cheese on the
counter, they got the length of laying out, for several
hours in the forenoon, and again in the evening, a
table covered with a most sumptuous lunch of soups,
cold meats, fish, and so on, — with two or three
waiters to attend to it. This was all free — there was

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 79

nothing to pay for it: it was only expected that no
one would partake of the good things without taking
a "drink" afterwards.

This sort of thing is common enough in New
Orleans; but in a place like San Francisco, where the
plainest dinner any man could eat cost a dollar, it
did seem strange that such goodly fare should be pro-
vided gratuitously for all and sundry. It showed,
however, what immense profits were made at the bars
to allow of such an outlay, and gave an idea of the
rivalry which existed even in that line of business.

Another part of the economy of the American bar
is an instance of the confidence placed in the discre-
tion of the public — namely, the mode of dispensing
liquors. When you ask for brandy, the bar-keeper
hands you a tumbler and a decanter of brandy, and
you help yourself to as much as you please: the price
is all the same; it does not matter what or how big
a dose one takes: and in the case of cocktails, and
such drinks as the bar-keeper mixes, you tell him to
make it as light, or stiff, as you wish. This is the
custom even at the very lowest class of grogshops.
They have a story in the States connected with this,
so awfully old that I am almost ashamed to repeat it.
I have heard it told a thousand times, and always
located in the bar of the Astor House in New York;
so we may suppose it to have happened there.

A man came up to the bar, and asking for brandy,
was handed a decanter of brandy accordingly. Fill-
ing a tumbler nearly full, he drank it off, and, laying
his shilling on the counter, was walking away, when
the bar-keeper called after him, "Saay, stranger!
you've forgot your change — there's sixpence." "No,**

80 THE GOLD HUNTERS

he said, "I only gave you a shilling; is not it a shil-
ling a drink?" "Yes," said the bar-keeper; "selling
it retail we charge a shilling, but a fellow like you
taking it wholesale we only charge sixpence."

The American bar-keeper is quite an institution of
himself. He is a superior class of man to those en-
gaged in a similar capacity in this country, and has
no counterpart here. In fact, bar-keeping is a profes-
sion, in which individuals rise to eminence, and be-
come celebrated for their cocktails, and for their ad-
dress in serving customers. The rapidity and dex-
terity with which they mix half-a-dozen different
kinds of drinks all at once is perfectly wonderful;
one sees nothing but a confusion of bottles and
tumblers and cascades of fluids as he pours them
from glass to glass at arm's length for the better
amalgamation of the ingredients; and in the time it
would take an ordinary man to pour out a glass of
wine, the mixtures are ready, each prepared as accu-
rately as an apothecary makes up a prescription.

The bar-keepers in San Francisco exercised their
ingenuity in devising new drinks to suit the popular
taste. The most simple and the best that I know of
is a champagne cocktail, which is very easily made
by putting a few drops of bitters in a tumbler and
filling it up with champagne.

The immigration of Frenchmen had been so large
that some parts of the city were completely French in
appearance; the shops, restaurants, and estaminets,
being painted according to French taste, and exhibit-
ing French signs, the very letters of which had a
French look about them. The names of some of the
restaurants were rather ambitious — as the Trois

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 81

Freres, the Cafe de Paris, and suchlike; but these
were second and third-rate places; those which courted
the patronage of the upper classes of all nations, as-
sumed names more calculated to tickle the American
ear, — such as the Jackson House and the Lafayette.
They were presided over by elegantly dressed dames
du comptoir, and all the arrangements were in Parisian
style.

The principal American houses were equally good;
and there was also an abundance of places where those
who delighted in corn-bread, buckwheat cakes, pickles,
grease, molasses, apple-sauce, and pumpkin pie, could
gratify their taste to the fullest extent.

There was nothing particularly English about any
of the eating-houses; but there were numbers of
second-rate English drinking-shops, where John Bull
could smoke his pipe and swig his ale coolly and
calmly, without having to gulp it down and move off
to make way for others, as at the bars of the Ameri-
can saloons.

The Germans too had their lager-beer cellars, but
the noise and smoke which came up from them was
enough to deter any one but a German from ventur-
ing in.

There was also a Mexican quarter of the town,
where there were greasy-looking Mexican fondas, and
crowds of lazy Mexicans lying about, wrapped up in
their blankets, smoking cigaritas.

In another quarter the Chinese most did congre-
gate. Here the majority of the houses were of
Chinese importation, and were stores, stocked with
hams, tea, dried fish, dried ducks, and other very
Chinese eatables, besides copper pots

82 THE GOLD HUNTERS

and kettles, fans, shawls, chessmen, and all sorts of
curiosities. Suspended over the doors were brilliantly
colored boards, about the size and shape of a head-
board over a grave, covered with Chinese characters,
and with several yards of red ribbon streaming from
them; while the streets were thronged with long-
tailed Celestials, chattering vociferously as they rushed
about from store to store, or standing in groups study-
ing the Chinese bills posted up in the shop windows,
which may have been play-bills, — for there was a
Chinese theatre, — or perhaps advertisements inform-
ing the public where the best rat-pies were to be had.
A peculiarly nasty smell pervaded this locality, and it
was generally believed that rats were not so numerous
here as elsewhere.

Owing to the great scarcity of washerwomen,
Chinese energy had ample room to display itself in
the washing and ironing business. Throughout the
town might be seen occasionally over some small
house a large American sign, intimating that Ching
Sing, Wong Choo, or Ki-chong did washing and iron-
ing at five dollars a-dozen. Inside these places one
found two or three Chinamen ironing shirts with
large flat-bottomed copper pots full of burning char-
coal, and, buried in heaps of dirty clothes, half-a-dozen
more, smoking, and drinking tea.

The Chinese tried to keep pace with the rest of the
world. They had their theatre and their gambling
rooms, the latter being small dirty places, badly
lighted with Chinese paper lamps. They played a
peculiar game. The dealer placed on the table several
handfuls of small copper coins, with square holes
in them. Bets were made by placing the stake on

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 83

one of four divisions, marked in the middle of the
table, and the dealer, drawing the coins away from
the heap, four at a time, the bets were decided accord-
ing to whether one, two, three, or four remained at
the last. They are great gamblers, and, when their
last dollar is gone, will stake anything they possess:
numbers of watches, rings, and such articles, were
always lying in pawn on the table.

The Chinese theatre was a curious pagoda-looking
edifice, built by them expressly for theatrical purposes,
and painted, outside and in, in an extraordinary man-
ner. The performances went on day and night, with-
out intermission, and consisted principally of juggling
and feats of dexterity. The most exciting part of the
exhibition was when one man, and decidedly a man
of some little nerve, made a spread eagle of himself
and stood up against a door, while half-a-dozen others,
at a distance of fifteen or twenty feet, pelted the door
with sharp-pointed bowie-knives, putting a knife into
every square inch of the door, but never touching the
man. It was very pleasant to see, from the unflinch-
ing way in which the fellow stood it out, the confi-
dence he placed in the infallibility of his brethren.
They had also short dramatic performances, which
were quite unintelligible to outside barbarians. The
only point of interest about them was the extraordi-
nary gorgeous dresses of the actors; but the incessant
noise they made with gongs and kettle-drums was so
discordant and deafening that a few minutes at a
time was as long as any one could stay in the place.

There were several very good American theatres,
a French theatre, and an Italian opera, besides con-
certs, masquerades, a circus, and other public amuse-

84 THE GOLD HUNTERS

ments. The most curious were certainly the masquer-
ades. They were generally given in one of the large
gambling saloons, and in the placards announcing
that they were to come off, appeared conspicuously
also the intimation of "No weapons admitted"; "A
strong police will be in attendance." The company
was just such as might be seen in any gambling room ;
and, beyond the presence of half-a-dozen masks in
female attire, there was nothing to carry out the idea
of a ball or a masquerade at all; but it was worth
while to go, if only to watch the company arrive, and
to see the practical enforcement of the weapon clause
in the announcements. Several doorkeepers were in
attendance, to whom each man as he entered delivered
up his knife or his pistol, receiving a check for it,
just as one does for his cane or umbrella at the door
of a picture-gallery. Most men drew a pistol from
behind their back, and very often a knife along with
it; some carried their bowie-knife down the back of
their neck, or in their breast; demure, pious-looking
men, in white neckcloths, lifted up the bottom of
their waistcoat, and revealed the butt of a revolver;
others, after having already disgorged a pistol, pulled
up the leg of their trousers, and abstracted a huge
bowie-knife from their boot; and there were men,
terrible fellows, no doubt, but who were more likely
to frighten themselves than any one else, who pro-
duced a revolver from each trouser-pocket, and a
bowie-knife from their belt. If any man declared
that he had no weapon, the statement was so in-
credible that he had to submit to be searched ; an
operation which was performed by the doorkeepers,
who, I observed, were occasionally rewarded for their

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 85

diligence by the discovery of a pistol secreted in some
unusual part of the dress.

Some of the shops were very magnificently got up,
and would not have been amiss in Regent Street.
The watchmakers' and jewelers' shops especially were
very numerous, and made a great display of immense
gold watches, enormous gold rings and chains, with
gold-headed canes, and diamond pins and brooches of
a most formidable size. With numbers of men who
found themselves possessed of an amount of money
which they had never before dreamed of, and which
they had no idea what to do with, the purchase of
gold watches and diamond pins was a very favorite
mode of getting rid of their spare cash. Laboring
men fastened their coarse dirty shirts with a cluster
of diamonds the size of a shilling, wore colossal gold
rings on their fingers, and displayed a massive gold
chain and seals from their watch-pocket; while hardly
a man of any consequence returned to the Atlantic
States without receiving from some one of his friends
a huge gold-headed cane, with all his virtues and good
qualities engraved upon it.

A large business was also done in Chinese shawls,
and various Chinese curiosities. It was greatly the
fashion for men, returning home, to take with them
a quantity of such articles, as presents for their friends.
In fact, a gorgeous Chinese shawl seemed to be as
necessary for the returning Californian as a revolver
and bowie-knife for the California emigrant. There
was one large bazaar in particular where was exhib-
ited such a stock of the costliest shawls, cabinets,
workboxes, vases, and other articles of Chinese manu-
facture, with clocks, bronzes, and all sorts of drawing-

86 THE GOLD HUNTERS

room ornaments, that one would have thought it an
establishment which could only be supported in a
city like London or Paris.

Some of the streets in the upper part of the city
presented a very singular appearance. The houses
had been built before the grade of the different streets
had been fixed by the corporation, and there were
places where the streets, having been cut down
through the hills to their proper level, were nothing
more than wide trenches, with a perpendicular bank
on either side, perhaps forty or fifty feet high, and
on the brink of these stood the houses, to which access
was gained by ladders and temporary wooden stairs,
the unfortunate proprietor being obliged to go to the
expense of grading his own lot, and so bringing him-
self down to a level with the rest of the world. In
other places, where the street crossed a deep hollow,
it formed a high embankment, with a row of houses
at the foot of it, some nearly buried, and others already
raised to the level of the street, resting on a sort of
scaffolding, while, the foundation was being filled in
under them.

The soil was so sandy that the hills were easily
cut down, and for this purpose a contrivance was
used called a Steam Paddy, which did immense exe-
cution. It was worked by steam, and was somewhat
on the principle of a dredging-machine, but with only
one large bucket, which cut down about two tons of
earth at a time and emptied itself into a truck placed
alongside. From the spot where the Paddy was thus
walking into the hills a railway was laid, extending
to the shore, and trains of cars were continually
rattling down across the streets, taking the earth to

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 87

fill up those parts of the city which were as yet under
water.

Two or three years later, in '54, when an alteration
was made in the grade of some of the streets, large
brick and stone houses were raised several feet, by
means of a most ingenious application of hydraulic
pressure. Excavations were made, and under the
foundation-walls of the houses were inserted a num-
ber of cylinders about two feet in height, so that the
building rested entirely on the heads of the pistons.
The cylinders were all connected by pipes with a
force-pump, worked by a couple of men, who in this
way could pump up a five-story brick building three
or four inches in the course of the day. As the house
grew up, props were inserted in case of accidents; and
when it had been raised as far as the length of the
pistons would allow, the whole apparatus was read-
justed, and the operation was repeated till the re-
quired height was obtained. I went to witness the
process when it was being applied to a large corner
brick building, five stories high, with about sixty
feet frontage each way. The flagged sidewalk was
being raised along with it; but there was no interrup-
tion of the business going on in the premises, or any-
thing whatever to indicate to the passer-by that the
ground was growing under his feet. On going down
under the house, one saw that the building was de-
tached from the surrounding ground, and rested on a
number of cylinders; but the only appearance of work
being done was by two men quietly working a pump
amid a ramification of small iron pipes. The appa-
ratus had of course to be of an immense strength to
withstand the pressure to which it was subjected, and

88 THE GOLD HUNTERS

the utmost nicety was required in its adjustment, to
avoid straining and cracking the walls; but numbers
of large buildings were raised most successfully in this
way without receiving the slightest injury.

The hackney carriages of San Francisco were in-
finitely superior to those of any other city in the
world. One might have supposed that any old cab
which would hold together would have been good
enough for such a place; but, on the contrary, the
cabs — if cabs they could be called — were large hand-
some carriages, lined with silk, and brightly painted
and polished, drawn by pairs of magnificent horses, in
harness, which, like the carriages, was loaded with
silver. They would have passed anywhere for showy
private equipages, had the drivers only been in livery,
instead of being fashionably dressed individuals in
kid gloves. A London cabby would have stared in
astonishment at an apparition of a stand of such cabs,
and also at the fares which were charged. One could
not cross the street in them under five dollars. The
scale of cab-fares, however, was not out of proportion
to the extravagance of other ordinary expenses. The
drivers probably received two or three hundred dol-
lars a month (about £700 a year), and the horses alone
were worth from a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars
each.

None of the private carriages came at all near
the hacks in splendor. They were mostly of the
American "buggy" character, and were drawn by
fast-trotting horses. The Americans have a style and
taste in driving peculiarly their own; they study
neither grace nor comfort in their attitudes; speed is
the only source of pleasure; and a "three-minute

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 89

horse" — that is to say, one which trots his mile in
three minutes — is the only horse worth driving; while
anything -slower than a "two-forty (2m. 40$.) horse"
is not considered really fast.

A great many very fine horses had been imported
from Sydney, but these were chiefly used in drays
and under the saddle. The buggy horses were all
American, and had made the journey across the plains.
The native Californian horses are small, with great
powers of endurance, but are generally not very
tractable in harness.

On the arrival of the fortnightly steamer from
Panama with the mails from the Atlantic States and
from Europe, the distribution of letters at the post-
office occasioned a very singular scene. In the United
States the system of delivering letters by postmen
is not carried to the same extent as in this country.
In San Francisco no such thing existed as a postman;
every one had to call at the post-office for his letters.
The mail usually consisted of several wagon-loads
of letter-bags; and on its being received, notice was
given at the post-office at what hour the delivery
would commence, a whole day being frequently re-
quired to sort the letters, which were then delivered
from a row of half-a-dozen windows, lettered A to E,
F to K, and so on through the alphabet. Independ-
ently of the immense mercantile correspondence, of
course every man in the city was anxiously expecting
letters from home ; and for hours before the appointed
time for opening the windows, a dense crowd of
people collected, almost blocking up the two streets
which gave access to the post-office, and having the
appearance at a distance of being a mob; but on com-

90 THE GOLD HUNTERS

ing up to it, one would find that, though closely packed
together, the people were all in six strings, twisted
up and down in all directions, the commencement of
them being the lucky individuals who had been first
on the ground, and taken up their position at their
respective windows, while each new-comer had to fall
in behind those already waiting. Notwithstanding
the value of time, and the impatience felt by every
individual, the most perfect order prevailed: there
was no such thing as a man attempting to push him-
self in ahead of those already waiting, nor was there
the slightest respect of persons; every new-comer
quietly took his position, and had to make the best of
it, with the prospect of waiting for hours before he
could hope to reach the window. Smoking and chew-
ing tobacco were great aids in passing the time, and
many came provided with books and newspapers,
which they could read in perfect tranquillity, as there
was no unnecessary crowding or jostling. The prin-
ciple of "first come first served" was strictly adhered
to, and any attempt to infringe the established rule
would have been promptly put down by the omnip-
otent majority.

A man's place in the line was his individual prop-
erty, more or less valuable according to his distance
from the window, and, like any other piece of prop-
erty, it was bought and sold, and converted into cash.
Those who had plenty of dollars to spare, but could
not afford much time, could buy out some one who had
already spent several hours in keeping his place. Ten
or fifteen dollars were frequently paid for a good posi-
tion, and some men went there early, and waited pa-

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 91

tiently, without any expectation of getting letters, but
for the chance of turning their acquired advantage into
cash.

The post-office clerks got through their work briskly
enough when once they commenced the delivery, the
alphabetical system of arrangement enabling them to
produce the letters immediately on the name being
given. One was not kept long in suspense, and many
a poor fellow's face lengthened out into a doleful
expression of disbelief and disappointment, as, scarcely
had he uttered his name, when he was promptly
told there was nothing for him. This was a sentence
from which there was no appeal, however incredulous
one might be; and every man was incredulous; for
during the hour or two he had been waiting, he had
become firmly convinced in his own mind that there
must be a letter for him; and it was no satisfaction
at all to see the clerk, surrounded as he was by thou-
sands of letters, take only a packet of a dozen or so
in which to look for it: one would like to have had
the post-office searched all over, and if without suc-
cess, would still have thought there was something
wrong. I was myself upon one occasion deeply im-
pressed with this spirit of unbelief in the infallibility
of the post-office oracle, and tried the effect of another
application the next day, when my perseverance was
crowned with success.

There was one window devoted exclusively to the
use of foreigners, among whom English were not in-
cluded ; and here a polyglot individual, who would
have been a useful member of society of the Tower of
Babel, answered the demands of all European nations,

92 THE GOLD HUNTERS

and held communication with Chinamen, Sandwich
Islanders, and all the stray specimens of humanity
from unknown parts of the earth.

One reason why men went to little trouble or ex-
pense in making themselves comfortable in their
homes, if homes they could be called, was the constant
danger of fire.

The city was a mass of wooden and canvas build-
ings, the very look of which suggested the idea of a
conflagration. A room was a mere partitioned-off
place, the walls of which were sometimes only of can-
vas, though generally of boards, loosely put together,
and covered with any sort of material which happened
to be most convenient — cotton cloth, printed calico,
or drugget, frequently papered, as if to render it more
inflammable. Floors and walls were by no means so
exclusive as one is accustomed to think them; they
were not transparent certainly, but otherwise they
insured little privacy: a general conversation could
be very easily carried on by all the dwellers in a
house, while, at the same time, each of them was en-
joying the seclusion, such as it was, of his own apart-
ment. A young lady, who was boarding at one of
the hotels, very feelingly remarked that it was a most
disagreeable place to live in, because, if any gentleman
was to pop the question to her, the report would be
audible in every part of the house, and all the other
inmates would be waiting to hear the answer she might
give.

The cry of fire is dreadful enough anywhere, but to
any one who lived in San Francisco in those days it
must ever be more exciting and more suggestive of
disaster and destruction of property than it can be

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 93

to those who have been all their lives surrounded by
brick and stone, and insurance companies.

In other countries, when a fire occurs and a large
amount of property is destroyed, the loss falls on a
company — a body without a soul, having no individ-
ual identity, and for which no one, save perhaps a
few of the shareholders, has the slightest sympathy.
The loss, being sustained by an unknown quantity, as
it were, is not appreciated; but in San Francisco no
such institution as insurance against fire as yet existed.
To insure a house there would have been as great a
risk as to insure a New York steamer two or three
weeks overdue. By degrees, brick buildings were
superseding those of wood and pasteboard; but still,
for the whole city, destruction by fire, sooner or later,
was the dreaded and fully-expected doom. When
such a combustible town once ignited in any one
spot, the flames, of course, spread so rapidly that
every part, however distant, stood nearly an equal
chance of being consumed. The alarm of fire acted
like the touch of a magician's wand. The vitality of
the whole city was in an instant arrested and turned
from its course. Theatres, saloons, and all public
places, were emptied as quickly as if the buildings
themselves were on fire; the business of the moment,
whatever it was, was at once abandoned, and the
streets became filled with people rushing frantically
in every direction — not all towards the fire by any
means; few thought it worth while to ask even where
it was. To know there was fire somewhere was quite
sufficient, and they made at once for their house or
their store, or wherever they had any property that
might be saved; while, as soon as the alarm was

94 THE GOLD HUNTERS

given, the engines were heard thundering along the
streets, amid the ringing of the fire-bells and the
shouts of the excited crowd.

The fire-companies, of which several were already
organized, were on the usual American system — vol-
unteer companies of citizens, who receive no pay, but
are exempt from serving on juries and from some
other citizens' duties. They have crack fire-companies
just as we have crack regiments, and of these the fast
young men of the upper classes are frequently the
most enthusiastic members. Each company has its
own officers; but they are all under control of a "chief
engineer;'* who is appointed by the city, and who
directs the general plan of operations at a fire. There
is great rivalry among the different companies, who
vie with each other in making their turn-out as hand-
some as possible. They each have their own uniform,
but the nature of their duties does not admit of much
finery in their dress; red shirts and helmets are the
principal features in it. Their engines, however, are
got up in very magnificent style, being most elabo-
rately painted, all the iron-work shining like polished
steel, and heavily mounted with brass or silver. They
are never drawn by horses, but by the firemen them-
selves. A long double coil of rope is attached to the
engine, and is paid out as the crowd increases, till the
engine appears to be tearing and bumping along in
pursuit of a long narrow mob of men, who run as if
the very devil himself were after them.

Their esprit de corps is very strong, and connected
with the different engine-houses are reading-rooms,
saloons, and so on, for the use of the members of the
company, many of these places being in the same style

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 95

of luxurious magnificence as the most fashionable
hotels. On holidays, and on every possible occasion
which offers an excuse for so doing, the whole fire
brigade parade the streets in full dress, each company
dragging their engine after them, decked out in flags
and flowers, which are presented to them by their
lady-admirers, in return for the balls given by the
firemen for their entertainment. They also have field-
days, when they all turn out, and in some open part
of the city have a trial of strength, seeing which can
throw a stream of water to the greatest height, or
which can flood the other, by pumping water into each
other's engines.

As firemen they are most prompt and efficient, per-
forming their perilous duties with the greatest zeal
and intrepidity — as might indeed be expected of men
who undertake such a service for no hope of reward,
but for their own love of the danger and excitement
attending upon it, actuated, at the same time, by a
chivalrous desire to save either life or property, in
trying to accomplish which they gallantly risk, and
frequently lose, their own lives. This feeling is kept
alive by the readiness with which the public pay
honor to any individual who conspicuously distin-
guishes himself — generally by presenting him with a
gold or silver speaking-trumpet (that article being in
the States as much the badge of office of a captain of
a fire-company as with us of a captain of a man-of-
war), while any fireman who is killed in discharge of
his duties is buried with all pomp and ceremony by
the whole fire-brigade.

Two miles above San Francisco, on the shore of
the bay, is the Mission Dolores, one of those which

96 THE GOLD HUNTERS

were established in different parts of the country by
the Spaniards. It was a very small village of a few
adobe houses and a church, adjoining which stood a
large building, the abode of the priests. The land
in the neighborhood is flat and fertile, and was being
rapidly converted into market-gardens; but the vil-
lage itself was as yet but little changed. It had a look
of antiquity and completeness, as if it had been fin-
ished long ago, and as if nothing more was ever likely
to be done with it. As is the case with all Spanish-
American towns, the very style of the architecture
communicated an oppressive feeling of stillness, and
its gloomy solitude was only relieved by a few listless
unoccupied-looking Mexicans and native Californians.

The contrast to San Francisco was so great that
on coming out here one could almost think that the
noisy city he had left but half an hour before had
existence only in his imagination; for San Francisco
presented a picture of universal human nature boil-
ing over, while here was nothing but human stag-
nation— a more violent extreme than would have been
the wilderness as yet untrodden by man. Being but
a slightly reduced counterpart of what San Fran-
cisco was a year or two before, it offered a good point
of view from which to contemplate the miraculous
growth of that city, still not only increasing in ex-
tent but improving in beauty and in excellence in all
its parts, and progressing so rapidly that, almost from
day to day, one could mark its steady advancement
in everything which denotes the presence of a wealthy
and prosperous community.

The "Mission," however, was not suffered to re-
main long in a state of torpor. A plank road was

LIFE AT HIGH SPEED 97

built to it from San Francisco. Numbers of villas
sprang up around it, — and good hotels, a race-course,
and other attractions soon made it the favorite resort
for all who sought an hour's relief from the excite-
ment of the city.

At the very head of the bay, some sixty miles from
San Francisco, is the town of San Jose, situated in
an extensive and most fertile valley, which was all
being brought under cultivation, and where some
farmers had already made large fortunes by their
onions and potatoes, for the growth of which the soil
is peculiarly adapted. San Jose was the head-
quarters of the native Californians, many of whom
were wealthy men, at least in so far as they owned
immense estates and thousands of wild cattle. They
did not "hold their own," however, with the more
enterprising people who were now effecting such a
complete revolution in the country. Their property
became a thousandfold more valuable, and they had
every chance to benefit by the new order of things;
but men who had passed their lives in that sparsely
populated and secluded part of the world, directing
a few half-savage Indians in herding wild cattle,
were not exactly calculated to foresee, or to specu-
late upon, the effects of an overwhelming influx of
men so different in all respects from themselves;
and even when occasions of enriching themselves were
forced upon them, they were ignorant of their own
advantages, and were inferior in smartness to the men
with whom they had to deal. Still, although too slow
to keep up with the pace at which the country was now
going ahead, many of them were, nevertheless, men
of considerable sagacity, and appeared to no disad-

98 THE GOLD HUNTERS

vantage as members of the legislature, to which they
were returned from parts of the State remote from
the mines, and where as yet there were few American
settlers.

San Jose was quite out of the way of gold-hunters,
and there was consequently about the place a good
deal of the California of other days. It was at that
time, however, the seat of government; and, conse-
quently, a large number of Americans were here as-
sembled, and gave some life to the town, which had
also been improved by the addition of several new
streets of more modern-looking houses than the old
mud and tile concerns of the native Californians.

Small steamers plied to within a mile or two of
the town from San Francisco, and there were also
four-horse coaches which did the sixty miles in about
five hours. The drive down the valley of the San
Jose is in some parts very beautiful. The country
is smooth and open — not so flat as to appear monot-
onous— and is sufficiently wooded with fine oaks;
but towards San Francisco it becomes more hilly and
bleak. The soil is sandy; indeed, excepting a few
spots here and there, it is nothing but sand, and there
is hardly a tree ten feet high within as many miles
of the city.

CHAPTER V

OFF FOR THE MINES

1 REMAINED in San Francisco till the worst of
the rainy season was over, when I determined to
go and try my luck in the mines; so, leaving my
valuables in charge of a friend in San Francisco, I
equipped myself in my worst suit of old clothes, and,
with my blankets slung over my shoulder, I put my-
self on board the steamer for Sacramento.

As we did not start till five o'clock in the after-
noon, we had not an opportunity of seeing very much
of the scenery on the river. As long as daylight
lasted, we were among smooth grassy hills and valleys,
with but little brushwood, and only here and there a
few stunted trees. Some of the valleys are exceed-
ingly fertile, and all those sufficiently watered to
render them available for cultivation had already
been "taken up."

We soon, however, left the hilly country behind
us, and came upon the vast plains which extend the
whole length of California, bounded on one side by
the range of mountains which runs along the coast,
and on the other side by the mountains which con-
stitute the mining districts. Through these plains
flows the Sacramento river, receiving as tributaries
all the rivers flowing down from the mountains on
either side.

99 COLLC!'

100 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The steamer — which was a very fair specimen of
the usual style of New York river-boat — was crowd-
ed with passengers and merchandise. There were not
berths for one-half of the people on board; and so,
in company with many others, I lay down and slept
very comfortably on the deck of the saloon till about
three o'clock in the morning, when we were awakened
by the noise of letting off the steam on our arrival at
Sacramento.

One of not the least striking wonders of California
was the number of these magnificent river steamboats
which, even at that early period of its history, had
steamed round Cape Horn from New York, and now,
gliding along the California rivers at the rate of twen-
ty-two miles an hour, afforded the same rapid and
comfortable means of traveling, and sometimes at as
cheap rates, as when they plied between New York
and Albany. Every traveler in the United States has
described the river steamboats; suffice it to say here,
that they lost none of their characteristics in Califor-
nia; and, looking at these long, white, narrow, two-
story houses, floating apparently on nothing, so little
of the hull of the boat appears above water, and show-
ing none of the lines which, in a ship, convey an idea
of buoyancy and power of resistance, but, on the con-
trary, suggesting only the idea of how easy it would
be to smash them to pieces — following in imagination
these fragile-looking fabrics over the seventeen thou-
sand miles of stormy ocean over which they had been
brought in safety, one could not help feeling a degree
of admiration and respect for the daring and skill
of the men by whom such perilous undertakings had
been accomplished. In preparing these steamboats for

OFF FOR THE MINES 101

their long voyage to California, the lower story was
strengthened with thick planking, and on the forward
part of the deck was built a strong wedge-shaped
screen, to break the force of the waves, which might
otherwise wash the whole house overboard. They
crept along the coast, having to touch at most of the
ports on the way for fuel; and passing through the
Straits of Magellan, they escaped to a certain extent
the dangers of Cape Horn, although equal dangers
might be encountered on any part of the voyage.

But besides the question of nautical skill and indi-
vidual daring, as a commercial undertaking the send-
ing such steamers round to California was a very
bold speculation. Their value in New York is about
a hundred thousand dollars, and to take them round
to San Francisco costs about thirty thousand more.
Insurance is, of course, out of the question (I do not
think 99 per cent, would insure them in this country
from Dover to Calais) ; so the owners had to play a
neck-or-nothing game. Their enterprise was in most
cases duly rewarded. I only know of one instance —
though doubtless others have occurred — in which such
vessels did not get round in safety: it was an old
Long Island Sound boat; she was rotten before ever
she left New York, and foundered somewhere about
the Bermudas, all hands on board escaping in the
boats.

The profits of the first few steamers which arrived
out were of course enormous; but, after a while, com-
petition was so keen that for some time cabin fare
between San Francisco and Sacramento was only one
dollar; a ridiculously small sum to pay, in any part
of the world, for being carried in such boats two

102 THE GOLD HUNTERS

hundred miles in ten hours; but, in California at
that time, the wages of the common deck hands on
board these same boats were about a hundred dollars
a-month; and ten dollars were there, to the generality
of men, a sum of much less consequence than ten
shillings are here.

These low fares did not last long, however; the
owners of steamers came to an understanding, and
the average rate of fare from San Francisco to
Sacramento was from five to eight dollars. I have
only alluded to the one-dollar fares for the purpose
of giving an idea of the competition which existed
in such a business as "steamboating," which requires
a large capital; and from that it may be imagined
what intense rivalry there was among those engaged
in less important lines of business, which engrossed
their whole time and labor, and required the employ-
ment of all the means at their command.

Looking at the map of California, it will be seen
that the "mines" occupy a long strip of mountainous
country, which commences many miles to the eastward
of San Francisco, and stretches northward several
hundred miles. The Sacramento river running par-
allel with the mines, the San Joaquin joining it from
the southward and eastward, and the Feather river
continuing a northward course from the Sacramento
— all of them being navigable — present the natural
means of communication between San Francisco and
the "mines." Accordingly, the city of Sacramento —
about two hundred miles north of San Francisco —
sprang up as the depot for all the middle part of the
mines, with roads radiating from it across the plains
to the various settlements in the mountains. In like

OFF FOR THE MINES 103

manner the city of Marysville, being at the extreme
northern point of navigation of the Feather river, be-
came the starting-place and the depot for the mining
districts in the northern section of the State; and
Stockton, named after Commodore Stockton, of the
United States Navy, who had command of the Pacific
squadron during the Mexican war, being situated at
the head of navigation of the San Joaquin, forms the
intermediate station between San Francisco and all the
"southern mines."

Seeing the facilities that California thus presented
for inland navigation, it is not surprising that the
Americans, so pre-eminent as they are in that branch
of commercial enterprise, should so soon have taken
advantage of them. But though the prospective prof-
its were great, still the enormous risk attending the
sending of steamboats round the Horn might have
seemed sufficient to deter most men from entering
into such a hazardous speculation. It must be re-
membered that many of these river steamboats were
despatched from New York, on an ocean voyage of
seventeen thousand miles, to a place of which one-
half the world as yet even doubted the existence, and
when people were looking up their atlases to see in
what part of the world California was. The risk of
taking a steamboat of this kind to what was then such
an out-of-the-way part of the world, did not end with
her arrival in San Francisco by any means. The
slightest accident to her machinery, which there was at
that time no possibility of repairing in California, or
even the extreme fluctuations in the price of coal,
might have rendered her at any moment so much
useless lumber.

104 THE GOLD HUNTERS

In ocean navigation the same adventurous energy
was manifest. Hardly had the news of the discovery
of gold in California been received in New York,
when numbers of steamers were despatched, at an
expense equal to one-half their value, to take their
place on the Pacific in forming a line between the
United States and San Francisco via Panama; so that
almost from the commencement of the existence
of California as a gold-bearing country, steam-com-
munication was established between New York and
San Francisco, bringing the two places within twenty
to twenty-five days of each other. It is true the mail
line had the advantage of a mail contract from the
United States government; but other lines, without
any such fostering influence, ran them close in com-
petition for public patronage.

The Americans are often accused of boasting —
perhaps deservedly so; but there certainly are many
things in the history of California of which they may
justly be proud, having transformed her, as they did
so suddenly, from a wilderness into a country in which
most of the luxuries of life were procurable; and a
fair instance of the bold and prompt spirit of com-
mercial enterprise by which this was accomplished
was seen in the fact that, from the earliest days of
her settlement, California had as good means of both
ocean and inland steam-communication as any of the
oldest countries in the world.

Sacramento City is next in size and importance to
San Francisco. Many large commercial houses had
there established their headquarters, and imported
direct from the Atlantic States. The river is navigable
so far by vessels of six or eight hundred tons, and

OFF FOR THE MINES 105

in the early days of California, many ships cleared
directly for Sacramento from the different ports on
the Atlantic; but as the course of trade by degrees
found its proper channel, San Francisco became ex-
clusively the emporium for the whole of California,
and even at the time I write of, sea-going vessels
were rarely seen so far in the interior of the country
as Sacramento.

The plains are but very little above the average
level of the river, and a levee had been built all along
the front of the city eight or ten feet high, to save it
from inundation by the high waters of the rainy
season. With the exception of a few handsome
blocks of brick buildings, the houses were all of
wood, and had an unmistakably Yankee appearance,
being all painted white turned up with green, and
covered from top to bottom with enormous signs.

The streets are wide, perfectly straight, and cross
each other at right angles at equal distances, like the
lines of latitude and longitude on a chart. The street
nomenclature is unique — very democratic, inasmuch
as it does not immortalize the names of prominent
individuals — and admirably adapted to such a rec-
tangular city. The streets running parallel with the
river are numbered First, Second, Third Street, and
so on to infinity, and the cross streets are designated
by the letters of the alphabet. J Street was the
great central street, and was nearly a mile long; so
the reader may reckon the number of parallel streets
on each side of it, and get an idea of the extent of
the city. This system of lettering and numbering the
streets was very convenient, as, the latitude and longi-
tude of a house being given, it could be found at once.

106 THE GOLD HUNTERS

A stranger could navigate all over the town without
ever having to ask his way, as he could take an obser-
vation for himself at the corner of every street.

My stay in Sacramento on this occasion was
limited to a few hours. I went to a large hotel,
which was also the great staging-house, and here I
snoozed till about five o'clock, when, it being still
quite dark, the whole house woke up into active
life. About a hundred of us breakfasted by candle-
light, and, going out into the bar-room while day
was just dawning, we found, turned out in front
of the hotel, about four-and-twenty four-horse coaches,
all bound for4 different places in the mines. The
street was completely blocked up with them, and
crowds of men were taking their seats, while others
were fortifying themselves for their journey at the
bar.

The coaches were of various kinds. Some were
light spring-wagons — mere oblong boxes, with four
or five seats placed across them; others were of the
same build, but better finished, and covered by an
awning; and there were also numbers of regular
American stage-coaches, huge high-hung things which
carry nine inside upon three seats, the middle one
of which is between the two doors.

The place which I had intended should be the
scene of my first mining exploits, was a village re-
joicing in the suggestive appellation of Hangtown;
designated, however, in official documents as Placer-
ville. It received its name of Hangtown while yet
in its infancy from the number of malefactors who
had there expiated their crimes at the hands of Judge
Lynch. I soon found the stage for that place — it

OFF FOR THE MINES 107

happened to be one of the oblong boxes — and, pitch-
ing in my roll of blankets, I took my seat and lighted
my pipe that I might the more fully enjoy the scene
around me. And a scene it was, such as few parts
of the world can now show, and which would have
gladdened the hearts of those who mourn over the
degeneracy of the present age, and sigh for the good
old days of stage-coaches.

Here, certainly, the genuine old mail-coach, the
guard with his tin horn, and the jolly old coachman
with his red face, were not to be found; but the
horses were as good as ever galloped with Her Ma-
jesty's mail. The teams were all headed the same
way, and with their stages, four or five abreast, occu-
pied the whole of the wide street for a distance of
sixty or seventy yards. The horses were restive, and
pawing, and snorting, and kicking; and passengers
were trying to navigate to their proper stages through
the labyrinth of wheels and horses, and frequently
climbing over half-a-dozen wagons to shorten their
journey. Grooms were standing at the leaders' heads,
trying to keep them quiet, and the drivers were sit-
ting on their boxes, or seats rather, for they scorn a
high seat, and were swearing at each other in a very
shocking manner, as wheels got locked, and wagons
were backed into the teams behind them, to the dis-
comfiture of the passengers on the back-seats, who
found horses' heads knocking the pipes out of their
mouths. In the intervals of their little private
battles, the drivers were shouting to the crowds of
passengers who loitered about the front of the hotel;
for there, as elsewhere, people will wait till the last
moment; and though it is more comfortable to sit

108 THE GOLD HUNTERS

than to stand, men like to enjoy their freedom as long
as possible, before resigning all control over their
motions, and charging with their precious persons a
coach or a train, on full cock, and ready to go off, and
shoot them out upon some remote part of creation.

On each wagon was painted the name of the place
to which it ran; the drivers were also bellowing it
out to the crowd, and even among such a confusion
of coaches a man could have no difficulty in finding
the one he wanted. One would have thought that
the individual will and locomotive power of a man
would have been sufficient to start him on his journey;
but in this go-ahead country, people who had to go
were not allowed to remain inert till the spirit
moved them to go; they had to be "hurried up;" and
of the whole crowd of men who were standing about
the hotel, or struggling through the maze of wagons,
only one half were passengers, the rest were "runners"
for the various stages, who were exhausting all their
persuasive eloquence in entreating the passengers to
take their seats and go. They were all mixed up
with the crowd, and each was exerting his lungs to
the utmost. "Now then, gentlemen," shouts one of
them, "all aboard for Nevada City. Who's agoin'?
only three seats left — the last chance to-day for Ne-
vada City — take you there in five hours. Who's
there for Nevada City?" Then catching sight of
some man who betrays the very slightest appearance
of helplessness, or of not knowing what he is about,
he pounces upon him, saying, "Nevada City, sir? —
this way — just in time," and seizing him by the arm,
he drags him into the crowd of stages, and almost
has him bundled into that for Nevada City before the

OFF FOR THE MINES 109

poor devil can make it understood that it is Caloma
he wants to go to, and not Nevada City. His captor
then calls out to some one of his brother runners who
is collecting passengers for Caloma — "Oh Bill! — oh

Bill! where the are you?" "Hullo!" says Bill

from the other end of the crowd. "Here's a man for
Caloma!" shouts the other, still holding on to his
prize in case he should escape before Bill comes up to
take charge of him.

This sort of thing was going on all the time. It
was very ridiculous. Apparently, if a hundred men
wanted to go anywhere, it required a hundred more
to despatch them. There was certainly no danger
of any one being left behind; on the contrary, the
probability was, that any weak-minded man who hap-
pened to be passing by, would be shipped off to parts
unknown before he could collect his ideas.

There were few opposition stages, excepting for
Marysville, and one or two of the larger places; they
were all crammed full — and of what use these "run-
ners" or "tooters" were to anybody, was not very
apparent, at least to the uninitiated. But they are a
common institution with the Americans, who are not
very likely to support such a corps of men if their
services bring no return. In fact, it is merely part of
the American system of advertising, and forcing the
public to avail themselves of certain opportunities,
by repeatedly and pertinaciously representing to them
that they have it in their power to do so. In the
States, to blow your own horn, and to make as much
noise as possible with it, is the fundamental principle
of all business. The most eminent lawyers and doc-
tors advertise, and the names of the first merchants

110 THE GOLD HUNTERS

appear in the newspapers every day. A man's own
personal exertions are not sufficient to keep the world
aware of his existence, and without advertising he
would be to all intents and purposes dead. Modest
merit does not wait for its reward — it is rather too
smart for that — it clamors for it, and consequently
gets it all the sooner.

However, I was not thinking of this while sitting
on the Hangtown stage. I had too much to look at,
and some of my neighbors also took up my atten-
tion. I found seated around me a varied assortment
of human nature. A New Yorker, a Yankee, and an
English Jack-tar were my immediate neighbors, and
a general conversation helped to beguile the time till
the "runners" had succeeded in placing a passenger
upon every available spot of every wagon. There
was no trouble about luggage — that is an article not
much known in California. Some stray individuals
might have had a small carpet-bag — almost every man
had his blankets — and the western men were further
encumbered with their long rifles, the barrels poking
into everybody's eyes, and the butts in the way of
everybody's toes.

At last the solid mass of four-horse coaches began
to dissolve. The drivers gathered up their reins and
settled themselves down in their seats, cracked their
whips, and swore at their horses; the grooms cleared
out the best way they could; the passengers shouted
and hurrahed; the teams in front set off at a gallop;
the rest followed them as soon as they got room to
start, and chevied them up the street, all in a body,
for about half a mile, when, as soon as we got out of
town, we spread out in all directions to every point

OFF FOR THE MINES 111

of a semicircle, and in a few minutes I found myself
one of a small isolated community, with which four
splendid horses were galloping over the plains like
mad. No hedges, no ditches, no houses, no road in
fact — it was all a vast open plain, as smooth as a
calm ocean. We might have been steering by com-
pass, and it was like going to sea; for we emerged
from the city as from a landlocked harbor, and fol-
lowed our own course over the wide wide world.
The transition from the confinement of the city to the
vastness of space was instantaneous; and our late
neighbors, rapidly diminishing around us, and getting
hull down on the horizon, might have been bound
for the uttermost parts of the earth, for all we could
see that was to stop them.

To sit behind four horses tearing along a good road
is delightful at any time, but the mere fact of such
rapid locomotion formed only a small part of the
pleasure of our journey.

The atmosphere was so soft and balmy that it was
a positive enjoyment to feel it brushing over one's
face like the finest floss silk. The sky was clear and
cloudless, the bright sunshine warmed us up to a
comfortable temperature; and we were traveling over
such an expanse of nature that our progress, rapid
as it was, seemed hardly perceptible, unless measured
by the fast disappearing chimney tops of the city, or
by the occasional clumps of trees we left behind us.
The scene all round us was magnificent, and impressed
one as much with his own insignificance as though
he beheld the countries of the earth from the summit
of a high mountain.

Out of sight of land at sea one experiences a cer-

112 THE GOLD HUNTERS

tain feeling of isolation: there is nothing to connect
one's ideas with the habitable globe but the ship on
which one stands; but there is also nothing to carry
the imagination beyond what one does see, and the
view is limited to a few miles. But here, we were
upon an ocean of grass-covered earth, dotted with
trees, and sparkling in the sunshine with the gorgeous
hues of the dense patches of wild flowers; while far
beyond the horizon of the plains there rose mountains
beyond mountains, all so distinctly seen as to leave
no uncertainty as to the shape or the relative position
of any one of them, and fading away in regular
graduation till the most distant, though clearly de-
fined, seemed still to be the most natural and satis-
factory point at which the view should terminate. It
was as if the circumference of the earth had been lifted
up to the utmost range of vision, and there melted into
air.

Such was the view ahead of us as we traveled
towards the mines, where wavy outlines of mountains
appeared one above another, drawing together as
they vanished, and at last indenting the sky with the
snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada. On either side of
us the mountains, appearing above the horizon, were
hundreds of miles distant, and the view behind us was
more abruptly terminated by the Coast Range, which
lies between the Sacramento river and the Pacific.

It was the commencement of spring, and at that
season the plains are seen to advantage. But after a
few weeks of dry weather the hot sun burns up every
blade of vegetation, the ground presents a cracked
surface of hard-baked earth, and the roads are ankle-
deep in the finest and most penetrating kind of dust,

OFF FOR THE MINES 113

which rises in clouds like clouds of smoke, saturating
one's clothes, and impregnating one's whole system.

We made a straight course of it across the plains
for about thirty miles, changing horses occasionally
at some of the numerous wayside inns, and passing
numbers of wagons drawn by teams of six or eight
mules or oxen, and laden with supplies for the mines.

The ascent from the plains was very gradual, over
a hilly country, well wooded with oaks and pines.
Our pace here was not so killing as it had been.
We had frequently long hills to climb, where all
hands were obliged to get out and walk ; but we made
up for the delay by galloping down the descent on the
other side.

The road, which, though in some places very nar-
row, for the most part spread out to two or three times
the width of an ordinary road, was covered with
stumps and large rocks; it was full of deep ruts and
hollows, and roots of trees spread all over it.

To any one not used to such roads or to such
driving, an upset would have seemed inevitable. If
there was safety in speed, however, we were safe
enough, and all sense of danger was lost in admira-
tion of the coolness and dexterity of the driver as he
circumvented every obstacle, but without going one
inch farther than necessary out of his way to save us
from perdition. He went through extraordinary
bodily contortions, which would have shocked an
English coachman out of his propriety; but, at the
same time, he performed such feats as no one would
have dared to attempt who had never been used to
anything worse than an English road. With his
right foot he managed a brake, and, clawing at the

THE GOLD HUNTERS

reins with both hands, he swayed his body from side
to side to preserve his equilibrium, as now on the
right pair of wheels, now on the left, he cut the
"outside edge" round a stump or a rock; and when
coming to a spot where he was going to execute a
difficult maneuver on a piece of road which slanted
violently down to one side, he trimmed the wagon as
one would a small boat in a squall, and made us all
crowd up to the weather side to prevent a capsize.

When about ten miles from the plains, I first saw
the actual reality of gold-digging. Four or five
men were working in a ravine by the roadside, dig-
ging holes like so many grave-diggers. I then con-
sidered myself fairly in "the mines," and experienced a
disagreeable consciousness that we might be passing
over huge masses of gold, only concealed from us by
an inch or two of earth.

As we traveled onwards, we passed at intervals
numerous parties of miners, and the country assumed
a more inhabited appearance. Log-cabins and clap-
board shanties were to be seen among the trees; and
occasionally we found about a dozen of such houses
grouped together by the roadside, and dignified with
the name of a town.

For several miles again the country would seem to
have been deserted. That it had once been a busy
scene was evident from the uptorn earth in the ravines
and hollows, and from the numbers of unoccupied
cabins; but the cream of such diggings had already
been taken, and they were not now sufficiently rich
to suit the ambitious ideas of the miners.

After traveling about thirty miles over this moun-

OFF FOR THE MINES 115

tainous region, ascending gradually all the while, we
arrived at Hangtown in the afternoon, having ac-
complished the sixty miles from Sacramento city in
about eight hours.

CHAPTER VI

LOOKING FOR GOLD

THE town of Placerville — or Hangtown, as it
was commonly called — consisted of one long
straggling street of clapboard houses and log
cabins, built in a hollow at the side of a creek, and
surrounded by high and steep hills.

The diggings here had been exceedingly rich — men
used to pick the chunks of gold out of the crevices of
the rocks in the ravines with no other tool than a
bowie-knife; but these days had passed, and now
the whole surface of the surrounding country showed
the amount of real hard work which had been done.
The beds of the numerous ravines which wrinkle the
faces of the hills, the bed of the creek, and all the
little flats alongside of it, were a confused mass of
heaps of dirt and piles of stones lying around the
innumerable holes, about six feet square and five or
six feet deep, from which they had been thrown out.
The original course of the creek was completely oblit-
erated, its waters being distributed into numberless
little ditches, and from them conducted into the
"long toms" of the miners through canvas hoses,
looking like immensely long slimy sea-serpents.

The number of bare stumps of what had once been
gigantic pine trees, dotted over the naked hill-sides

116

LOOKING FOR GOLD 117

surrounding the town, showed how freely the ax had
been used, and to what purpose was apparent in the
extent of the town itself, and in the numerous log-
cabins scattered over the hills, in situations apparently
chosen at the caprice of the owners, but in reality
with a view to be near to their diggings, and at the
same time to be within a convenient distance of water
and firewood.

Along the whole length of the creek, as far as one
could see, on the banks of the creek, in the ravines,
in the middle of the principal and only street of the
town, and even inside some of the houses, were parties
of miners, numbering from three or four to a dozen,
all hard at work, some laying into it with picks, some
shoveling the dirt into the "long toms," or with long-
handled shovels washing the dirt thrown in, and
throwing out the stones, while others were working
pumps or baling water out of the holes with buckets.
There was a continual noise and clatter, as mud, dirt,
stones, and water were thrown about in all directions ;
and the men, dressed in ragged clothes and big boots,
wielding picks and shovels, and rolling big rocks about,
were all working as if for their lives, going into it
with a will, and a degree of energy, not usually seen
among laboring men. It was altogether a scene which
conveyed the idea of hard work in the fullest sense
of the words, and in comparison with which a gang
of railway navvies would have seemed to be merely
a party of gentlemen amateurs playing at working
pour passer le temps.

A stroll through the village revealed the extent to
which the ordinary comforts of life were attainable.
The gambling-houses, of which there were three or

118 THE GOLD HUNTERS

four, were of course the largest and most conspicuous
buildings; their mirrors, chandeliers, and other decora-
tions, suggesting a style of life totally at variance with
the outward indications of everything around them.

The street itself was in many places knee-deep in
mud, and was plentifully strewed with old boots,
hats, and shirts, old sardine-boxes, empty tins of pre-
served oysters, empty bottles, worn-out pots and ket-
tles, old ham-bones, broken picks and shovels, and
other rubbish too various to particularize. Here and
there, in the middle of the street, was a square hole
about six feet deep, in which one miner was digging,
while another was baling the water out with a bucket,
and a third, sitting alongside the heap of dirt which
had been dug up, was washing it in a rocker.
Wagons, drawn by six or eight mules or oxen, were
navigating along the street, or discharging their
strangely-assorted cargoes at the various stores; and
men in picturesque rags, with large muddy boots,
long beards, and brown faces, were the only inhabit-
ants to be seen.

There were boarding-houses on the table-d'hote
principle, in each of which forty or fifty hungry
miners sat down three times a day to an oilcloth-
covered table, and in the course of about three minutes
surfeited themselves on salt pork, greasy steaks,
and pickles. There were also two or three "hotels,"
where much the same sort of fare was to be had, with
the extra luxuries of a table-cloth and a superior
quality of knives and forks.

The stores were curious places. There was no spe-
cialty about them — everything was to be found in
them which it could be supposed that any one could

LOOKING FOR GOLD 119

possibly want, excepting fresh beef (there was a
butcher who monopolized the sale of that article).

On entering a store, one would find the storekeeper
in much the same style of costume as the miners, very
probably sitting on an empty keg at a rickety little
table, playing "seven up" for "the liquor" with one of
his customers.

The counter served also the purpose of a bar, and
behind it was the usual array of bottles and decanters,
while on shelves above them was an ornamental dis-
play of boxes of sardines, and brightly-colored tins of
preserved meats and vegetables with showy labels, in-
terspersed with bottles of champagne and strangely-
shaped bottles of . exceedingly green pickles, the whole
being arranged with some degree of taste.

Goods and provisions of every description were
stowed away promiscuously all round the store, in
the middle of which was invariably a small table with
a bench, or some empty boxes and barrels for the
miners to sit on while they played cards, spent their
money in brandy and oysters, and occasionally got
drunk.

The clothing trade was almost entirely in the hands
of the Jews, who are very numerous in California,
and devote their time and energies exclusively to sup-
plying their Christian brethren with the necessary arti-
cles of wearing apparel.

In traveling through the mines from one end to
the other, I never saw a Jew lift a pick or shovel to
do a single stroke of work, or, in fact, occupy himself
in any other way than in selling slops. While men
of all classes and of every nation showed such versa-
tility in betaking themselves to whatever business or

120 THE GOLD HUNTERS

occupation appeared at the time to be most advisable,
without reference to their antecedents, and in a coun-
try where no man, to whatever class of society he be-
longed, was in the least degree ashamed to roll up
his sleeves and dig in the mines for gold, or to en-
gage in any other kind of manual labor, it was a very
remarkable fact that the Jews were the only people
among whom this was not observable.

They were very numerous — so much so, that the
business to which they confined themselves could
hardly have yielded to every individual a fair average
California rate of remuneration. But they seemed to
be proof against all temptation to move out of their
own limited sphere of industry, and of course, con-
centrated upon one point as their energies were, they
kept pace with the go-ahead spirit of the times.
Clothing of all sorts could be bought in any part of
the mines more cheaply than in San Francisco, where
rents were so very high that retail prices of every-
thing were most exorbitant; and scarcely did twenty
or thirty miners collect in any out-of-the-way place,
upon newly discovered diggings, before the inevitable
Jew slop-seller also made his appearance, to play his
allotted part in the newly-formed community.

The Jew slop-shops were generally rattletrap erec-
tions about the size of a bathing-machine, so small that
one half of the stock had to be displayed suspended
from projecting sticks outside. They were filled with
red and blue flannel shirts, thick boots, and other arti-
cles suited to the wants of the miners, along with Colt's
revolvers and bowie-knives, brass jewelry, and dia-
monds like young Koh-i-Noors.

Almost every man, after a short residence in Call-

LOOKING FOR GOLD 121

fornia, became changed to a certain extent in his out-
ward appearance. In the mines especially, to the great
majority of men, the usual style of dress was one to
which they had never been accustomed; and those to
whom it might have been supposed such a costume was
not so strange, or who were even wearing the old
clothes they had brought with them to the country,
acquired a certain California air, which would have
made them remarkable in whatever part of the world
they came from, had they been suddenly transplanted
there. But to this rule also the Jews formed a very
striking exception. In their appearance there was
nothing at all suggestive of California; they were ex-
actly the same unwashed-looking, slobbery, slipshod
individuals that one sees in every seaport town.

During the week, and especially when the miners
were all at work, Hangtown was comparatively quiet;
but on Sundays it was a very different place. On
that day the miners living within eight or ten miles
all flocked in to buy provisions for the week — to spend
their money in the gambling-rooms — to play cards —
to get their letters from home — and to refresh them-
selves, after a week's labor and isolation in the moun-
tains, in enjoying the excitement of the scene according
to their tastes.

The gamblers on Sundays reaped a rich harvest;
their tables were thronged with crowds of miners,
betting eagerly, and of course losing their money.
Many men came in, Sunday after Sunday, and gam-
bled off all the gold they had dug during the week,
having to get credit at a store for their next week's
provisions, and returning to their diggings to work
for six days in getting more gold, which would all be

122 THE GOLD HUNTERS

transferred the next Sunday to the gamblers, in the
vain hope of recovering what had been already lost.

The street was crowded all day with miners loafing
about from store to store, making their purchases and
asking each other to drink, the effects of which began
to be seen at an early hour in the number of drunken
men, and the consequent frequency of rows and
quarrels. Almost every man wore a pistol or a knife
— many wore both — but they were rarely used. The
liberal and prompt administration of Lynch law had
done a great deal towards checking the wanton and
indiscriminate use of these weapons on any slight oc-
casion. The utmost latitude was allowed in the ex-
ercise of self-defence. In the case of a row, it was
not necessary to wait till a pistol was actually leveled
at one's head — if a man made even a motion towards
drawing a weapon, it was considered perfectly justifi-
able to shoot him first, if possible. The very preva-
lence of the custom of carrying arms thus in a great
measure was a cause of their being seldom used.
They were never drawn out of bravado, for when a
man once drew his pistol, he had to be prepared to
use it, and to use it quickly, or he might expect to be
laid low by a ball from his adversary; and again, if
he shot a man without sufficient provocation, he was
pretty sure of being accommodated with a hempen
cravat by Judge Lynch.

The storekeepers did more business on Sundays than
in all the rest of the week ; and in the afternoon
crowds of miners could be seen dispersing over the
hills in every direction, laden with the provisions they
had been purchasing, chiefly flour, pork and beans, and
perhaps a lump of fresh beef.

LOOKING FOR GOLD 123

There was only one place of public worship in
Hangtown at that time, a very neat little wooden edi-
fice, which belonged to some denomination of Metho-
dists, and seemed to be well attended.

There was also a newspaper published two or three
times a week, which kept the inhabitants "posted up"
as to what was going on in the world.

The richest deposits of gold were found in the beds
and banks of the rivers, creeks, and ravines, in the
flats on the convex side of the bends of the streams,
and in many of the flats and hollows high up in the
mountains. The precious metal was also abstracted
from the very hearts of the mountains, through tun-
nels drifted into them for several hundred yards; and
in some places real mining was carried on in the bowels
of the earth by means of shafts sunk to the depth of
a couple of hundred feet.

The principal diggings in the neighborhood of
Hangtown were surface diggings ; but, with the excep-
tion of river diggings, every kind of mining operation
was to be seen in full force.

The gold is found at various depths from the sur-
face; but the dirt on the bed-rock is the richest, as
the gold naturally in time sinks through earth and
gravel, till it is arrested in its downward progress by
the solid rock.

The diggings here were from four to six or seven
feet deep; the layer of "pay-dirt" being about a couple
of feet thick on the top of the bed-rock.

I should mention that "dirt" is the word univer-
sally used in California to signify the substance dug,
earth, clay, gravel, loose slate, or whatever other name
might be more appropriate. The miners talk of rich

124 THE GOLD HUNTERS

dirt and poor dirt, and of "stripping off" so many
feet of "top dirt" before getting to "pay-dirt," the
latter meaning dirt with so much gold in it that it
will pay to dig it up and wash it.

The apparatus generally used for washing was a
"long torn," which was nothing more than a wooden
trough from twelve to twenty-five feet long, and about
a foot wide. At the lower end it widens considerably,
and on the floor there is a sheet of iron pierced with
holes half an inch in diameter, under which is placed
a flat box a couple of inches deep. The long torn is
set at a slight inclination over the place which is to
be worked, and a stream of water is kept running
through it by means of a hose, the mouth of which is
inserted in a dam built for the purpose high enough
up the stream to gain the requisite elevation ; and while
some of the party shovel the dirt into the torn as fast
as they can dig it up, one man stands at the lower
end stirring up the dirt as it is washed down, separat-
ing the stones and throwing them out, while the earth
and small gravel falls with the water through the
sieve into the "ripple-box." This box is about five
feet long, and is crossed by two partitions. It is also
placed at an inclination, so that the water falling into
it keeps the dirt loose, allowing the gold and heavy
particles to settle to the bottom, while all the lighter
stuff washes over the end of the box along with the
water. When the day's work is over, the dirt is taken
from the "ripple-box" and is '''washed out" in a "wash-
pan," a round tin dish, eighteen inches in diameter,
with shelving sides three or four inches deep. In
washing out a panful of dirt, it has to be placed in
water deep enough to cover it over; the dirt is stirred

LOOKING FOR GOLD 125

up with the hands, and the gravel thrown out; the
pan is then taken in both hands, and by an indescrib-
able series of maneuvers all the dirt is gradually
washed out of it, leaving nothing but the gold and a
small quantity of black sand. This black sand is
mineral (some oxide or other salt of iron), and is so
heavy that it is not possible to wash it all out; it has
to be blown out of the gold afterwards when dry.

Another mode of washing dirt, but much more
tedious, and consequently only resorted to where a suf-
ficient supply of water for a long torn could not be
obtained, was by means of an apparatus called a
"rocker" or "cradle." This was merely a wooden
cradle, on the top of which was a sieve. The dirt was
put into this, and a miner, sitting alongside of it,
rocked the cradle with one hand, while with a dipper
in the other he kept baling water on to the dirt. This
acted on the same principle as the "torn," and had
formerly been the only contrivance in use; but it was
now seldom seen, as the long torn effected such a sav-
ing of time and labor. The latter was set immediately
over the claim, and the dirt was shoveled into it at
once, while a rocker had to be set alongside of the
water, and the dirt was carried to it in buckets from
the place which was being worked. Three men work-
ing together with a rocker — one digging, another carry-
ing the dirt in buckets, and the third rocking the
cradle — would wash on an average a hundred bucket-
fuls of dirt to the man in the course of the day. With
a "long torn" the dirt was so easily washed that parties
of six or eight could work together to advantage, and
four or five hundred bucketfuls of dirt a day to each
one of the party was a usual day's work.

126 THE GOLD HUNTERS

I met a San Francisco friend in Hangtown prac-
tising his profession as a doctor, who very hospitably
offered me quarters in his cabin, which I gladly ac-
cepted. The accommodation was not very luxurious,
being merely six feet of the floor on which to spread
my blankets. My host, however, had no better bed
himself, and indeed it was as much as most men cared
about. Those who were very particular preferred
sleeping on a table or a bench when they were to be
had ; bunks and shelves were also much in fashion ; but
the difference in comfort was a mere matter of imagi-
nation, for mattresses were not known, and an earthen
floor was quite as soft as any wooden board. Three
or four miners were also inmates of the doctor's cabin.
They were quondam New South Wales squatters, who
had been mining for several months in a distant part
of the country, and were now going to work a claim
about two miles up the creek from Hangtown. As
they wanted another hand to work their long torn with
them, I very readily joined their party. For several
days we worked this place, trudging out to it when
it was hardly daylight, taking with us our dinner,
which consisted of beefsteaks and bread, and return-
ing to Hangtown about dark; but the claim did not
prove rich enough to satisfy us, so we abandoned it,
and went "prospecting," which means looking about
for a more likely place.

A "prospector" goes out with a pick and shovel,
and a wash-pan; and to test the richness of a place
he digs down till he reaches the dirt in which it may
be expected that the gold will be found; and washing
out a panful of this, he can easily calculate, from the
amount of gold which he finds in it, how much could

LOOKING FOR GOLD 127

be taken out in a day's work. An old miner, looking
at the few specks of gold in the bottom of his pan,
can tell their value within a few cents; calling it a
twelve or a twenty cent "prospect," as it may be. If,
on washing out a panful of dirt, a mere speck of gold
remained, just enough to swear by, such dirt was said
to have only "the color," and was not worth digging.
A twelve-cent prospect was considered a pretty good
one; but in estimating the probable result of a day's
work, allowance had to be made for the time and labor
to be expended in removing top-dirt, and in otherwise
preparing the claim for being worked.

To establish one's claim to a piece of ground, all
that was requisite was to leave upon it a pick or
shovel, or other mining tool. The extent of ground
allowed to each individual varied in different dig-
gings from ten to thirty feet square, and was fixed
by the miners themselves, who also made their own
laws, defining the rights and duties of those holding
claims; and any dispute on such subjects was settled
by calling together a few of the neighboring miners,
who would enforce the due observance of the laws
of the diggings. After prospecting for two or three
days we concluded to take up a claim near a small
settlement called Middletown, two or three miles
distant from Hangtown. It was situated by the
side of a small creek, in a rolling hilly country, and
consisted of about a dozen cabins, one of which was
a store supplied with flour, pork, tobacco, and other
necessaries.

We found near our claim a very comfortable
cabin, which the owner had deserted, and in which
we established ourselves. We had plenty of fire-

128 THE GOLD HUNTERS

wood and water close to us, and being only two
miles from Hangtown, we kept ourselves well sup-
plied with fresh beef. We cooked our "dampers"
in New South Wales fashion, and lived on the fat
of the land, our bill of fare being beefsteaks, dam-
per, and tea for breakfast, dinner, and supper. A
damper is a very good thing, but not commonly
seen in California, excepting among men from New
South Wales. A quantity of flour and water, with
a pinch or two of salt, is worked into a dough,
and, raking down a good hardwood fire, it is placed
on the hot ashes, and then smothered in more hot
ashes to the depth of two or three inches, on the top
of which is placed a quantity of the still burning
embers. A very little practice enables one to judge
from the feel of the crust when it is sufficiently
cooked. The great advantage of a damper is, that
it retains a certain amount of moisture, and is as
good when a week old as when fresh baked. It is
very solid and heavy, and a little of it goes a great
way, which of itself is no small recommendation
when one eats only to live.

Another sort of bread we very frequently made
by filling a frying-pan with dough, and sticking it
upon end to roast before the fire.

The Americans do not understand dampers. They
either bake bread, using saleratus to make it rise, or
else they make flapjacks, which are nothing more
than pancakes made of flour and water, and are a
very good substitute for bread when one is in a hurry,
as they are made in a moment.

As for our beefsteaks, they could not be beat any-
where. A piece of an old iron-hoop, twisted into a

LOOKING FOR GOLD 129

serpentine form and laid on the fire, made a first-rate
gridiron, on which every man cooked his steak to his
own taste. In the matter of tea I am afraid we were
dreadfully extravagant, throwing it into the pot in
hand fuls. It is a favorite beverage in the mines —
morning, noon, and night — and at no time is it more
refreshing than in the extreme heat of midday.

In the cabin two bunks had been fitted up, one
above the other, made of clapboards laid crossways,
but they were all loose and warped. I tried to sleep
on them one night, but it was like sleeping on a
gridiron; the smooth earthen floor was a much more
easy couch.

CHAPTER VII

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN

WITHIN a few miles of us there was camped a
large tribe of Indians, who were generally
quite peaceable, and showed no hostility to the
whites.

Small parties of them were constantly to be seen
in Hangtown, wandering listlessly about the street,
begging for bread, meat, or old clothes. These
Digger Indians, as they are called, from the fact of
their digging for themselves a sort of subterranean
abode in which they pass the winter, are most
repulsive-looking wretches, and seem to be very little
less degraded and uncivilizable than the blacks of
New South Wales.

They are nearly black, and are exceedingly ugly,
with long hair, which they cut straight across the
forehead just above the eyes. They had learned the
value of gold, and might be seen occasionally in
unfrequented places washing out a panful of dirt,
but they had no idea of systematic work. What
little gold they got, they spent in buying fresh beef
and clothes. They dress very fantastically. Some,
with no other garment than an old dress-coat but-
toned up to the throat, or perhaps with only a hat
and a pair of boots, think themselves very well got
up, and look with great contempt on their neighbors
130

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 131

whose wardrobe is not so extensive. A coat with
showy linings to the sleeves is a great prize; it is
worn inside out to produce a better effect, and panta-
loons are frequently worn, or rather carried, with
the legs tied around the waist. They seemed to
think it impossible to have too much of a good thing;
and any man so fortunate as to be the possessor of
duplicates of any article' of clothing, puts them on one
over the other, piling hat upon hat after the manner
of "Old clo."

The men are very tenacious of their dignity, and
carry nothing but their bows and arrows, while the
attendant squaws are loaded down with a large creel
on the back, which is supported by a band passing
across the forehead, and is the receptacle for all the
rubbish they pick up. The squaws have also, of
course, to carry the babies; which, however, are not
very troublesome, as they are wrapped up in papoose-
frames like those of the North American Indians,
though of infinitely inferior workmanship.

They are very fond of dogs, and have always at
their heels a number of the most wretchedly thin,
mangy, starved-looking curs, of dirty brindle color,
something the shape of a greyhound, but only about
half his size. A strong mutual attachment exists
between the dogs and their masters; but the affection
of the latter does not move them to bestow much
food on their canine friends, who live in a state of
chronic starvation; every bone seems ready to break
through the confinement of the skin, and their whole
life is merely a slow death from inanition. They
have none of the life or spirit of other dogs, but crawl
along as if every step was to be their last, with a

132 THE GOLD HUNTERS

look of most humble resignation, and so conscious of
their degradation that they never presume to hold
any communion with their civilized fellow-creatures.
It is very likely that canine nature cannot stand such
food as the Indians are content to live upon, and of
which acorns and grasshoppers are the staple articles.
There are plenty of small animals on which one would
think that a dog could live very well, if he would
only take the trouble to catch them; but it would
seem that a dog, as long as he remains a companion
of man, is an animal quite incapable of providing for
himself.

A failure of the acorn crop is to the Indians a
national calamity, as they depend on it in a great
measure for their subsistence during the winter. In
the fall of the year the squaws are busily employed
in gathering acorns, to be afterwards stored in small
conical stacks, and covered with a sort of wicker-
work. They are prepared for food by being made
into a paste, very much of the color and consistency
of opium. Such horrid-looking stuff it is, that I
never ventured to taste it; but I believe that
the bitter and astringent taste of the raw material
is in no way modified by the process of manufac-
ture.*

As is the case with most savages, the Digger Indians
show remarkable instances of ingenuity in some of
their contrivances, and great skill in the manufacture
of their weapons. Their bows and arrows are very
good specimens of workmanship. The former are

* Usually the tannin was extracted by placing the acorn
flour in some sort of filter and letting water percolate
through it. — ED.

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 133

shorter than the bows used in this country, but re-
semble them in every other particular, even in the
shape of the pieces of horn at the ends. The head of
the arrow is of the orthodox cut, the three feathers
being placed in the usual position; the point, how-
ever, is the most elaborate part. About three inches
of the end is of a heavier wood than the rest of the
arrow, being very neatly spliced in with thin tendons.
The point itself is a piece of flint chipped down into
a flat diamond shape, about the size of a diamond on
a playing-card; the edges are very sharp, and are
notched to receive the tendons with which it is firmly
secured to the arrow.

The women make a kind of wicker-work basket of
a conical form, so closely woven as to be perfectly
water-tight, and in these they have an ingenious
method of boiling water, by heating a number of
stones in the fire, and throwing a succession of them
into the water till the temperature is raised to boiling
point.

We had a visit at our cabin one Sunday from an
Indian and his squaw. She was such a particularly
ugly specimen of human nature that I made her sit
down, and proceeded to take a sketch of her, to the
great delight of her dutiful husband, who looked over
my shoulder and reported progress to her. I offered
her the sketch when I had finished, but after ad-
miring herself in the bottom of a new tin pannikin,
the only substitute for a looking-glass which I could
find, and comparing her own beautiful face with her
portrait, she was by no means pleased, and would
have nothing to do with it. I suppose she thought I
had not done her justice; which was very likely, for

134 THE GOLD HUNTERS

no doubt our ideas of female beauty must have dif-
fered very materially.

Not many days after we had settled ourselves at
Middletown, news was brought into Hangtown that
a white man had been killed by Indians at a place
called Johnson's Ranch, about twelve miles distant.
A party of three or four men immediately went out
to recover the body, and to "hunt" the Indians.
They found the half-burned remains of the murdered
man ; but were attacked by a large number of Indians,
and had to retire, one of the party being wounded by
an Indian arrow. On their return to Hangtown
there was great excitement; about thirty men, mostly
from the Western States, turned out with their long
rifles, intending, in the first place, to visit the camp of
the Middletown tribe, and to take from them their
rifles, which they were reported to have bought from
the storekeeper there, and after that to lynch the
storekeeper himself for selling arms to the Indians,
which is against the law; for however friendly the
Indians may be, they trade them off to hostile tribes.

It happened, however, that on this particular day
a neighboring tribe had come over to the camp of the
Middletown Indians for the purpose of having a
fandango together; and when they saw this armed
party coming upon them, they immediately saluted
them with a shower of arrows and rifle-balls, which
damaged a good many hats and shirts, without
wounding any one. The miners returned their fire,
killing a few of the Indians; but their party being too
small to fight against such odds, they were compelled
to retreat; and as the storekeeper, having got a hint
of their kind intentions towards him, had made him-

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 135

self scarce, they marched back to Hangtown with-
out having done much to boast of.

When the result of their expedition was made
known, the excitement in Hangtown was of course
greater than ever. The next day crowds of miners
flocked in from all quarters, each man equipped with
a long rifle in addition to his bowie-knife and revolver,
while two men, playing a drum and a fife, marched
up and down the street to give a military air to the
occasion. A public meeting was held in one of the
gambling-rooms, at which the governor, the sheriff of
the county, and other big men of the place, were pres-
ent. The miners about Hangtown were mostly all
Americans, and a large proportion of them were men
from the Western States, who had come by the over-
land route across the plains — men who had all their
lives been used to Indian wiles and treachery, and
thought about as much of shooting an Indian as of
killing a rattlesnake. They were a rough-looking
crowd; long, gaunt, wiry men, dressed in the usual
old-flannel-shirt costume of the mines, with shaggy
beards, their faces, hands, and arms as brown as
mahogany, and with an expression about their eyes
which boded no good to any Indian who should come
within range of their rifles.

There were some very good speeches made at the
meeting; that of a young Kentuckian doctor was quite
a treat. He spoke very well, but from the fuss he
made it might have been supposed that the whole
country was in the hands of the enemy. The eyes of
the thirty States of the Union, he said, were upon
them; and it was for them, the thirty-first, to avenge
this insult to the Anglo-Saxon race, and to show the

136 THE GOLD HUNTERS

wily savage that the American nation, which could
dictate terms of peace or war to every other nation
on the face of the globe, was not to be trifled with.
He tried to rouse their courage, and excite their
animosity against the Indians, though it was quite un-
necessary, by drawing a vivid picture of the unburied
bones of poor Brown, or Jones, the unfortunate in-
dividual who had been murdered, bleaching on the
mountains of the Sierra Nevada, while his death was
still unavenged. If they were cowardly enough not
to go out and whip the savage Indians, their wives
would spurn them, their sweethearts would reject
them, and the whole world would look upon them
with scorn. The most common-sense argument in his
speech, however, was, that unless the Indians were
taught a lesson, there would be no safety for the strag-
gling miners in the mountains at any distance from a
settlement. Altogether he spoke very well, consider-
ing the sort of crowd he was addressing; and judg-
ing from the enthusiastic applause, and from the re-
marks I heard made by the men around me, he could
not have spoken with better effect.

The Governor also made a short speech, saying that
he would take the responsibility of raising a company
of one hundred men, at five dollars a day, to go and
whip the Indians.

The Sheriff followed. He "cal'lated" to raise out
of that crowd one hundred men, but wanted no man
to put down his name who would not stand up in his
boots, and he would ask no man to go any further
than he would go himself.

Those who wished to enlist were then told to come
round to the other end of the room, when nearly the

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 137

whole crowd rushed eagerly forward, and the re-
quired number were at once enrolled. They started
the next day, but the Indians retreating before them,
they followed them far up into the mountains, where
they remained for a couple of months, by which time
the wily savages, it is to be hoped, got properly
whipped, and were taught the respect due to white
men.

We continued working our claim at Middletown,
having taken into partnership an old sea-captain whom
we found there working alone. It paid us very well
for about three weeks, when, from the continued
dry weather, the water began to fail, and we were
obliged to think of moving off to other diggings.

It was now time to commence preparatory opera-
tions before working the beds of the creeks and rivers,
as their waters were falling rapidly; and as most of
our party owned shares in claims on different rivers,
we became dispersed. A young Englishman and my-
self alone remained, uncertain as yet where we should
go.

We had gone into Hangtown one night for provi-
sions, when we heard that a great strike had been
made at a place called 'Coon Hollow, about a mile
distant. One man was reported to have taken out
that day about fifteen hundred dollars. Before day-
light next morning we started over the hill, intending
to stake off a claim on the same ground; but even by
the time we got there, the whole hillside was already
pegged off into claims of thirty feet square, on each
of which men were commencing to sink shafts, while
hundreds of others were prowling about, too late to
get a claim which would be thought worth taking up.

138 THE GOLD HUNTERS

Those who had claims, immediately surrounding
that of the lucky man who had caused all the excite-
ment by letting his good fortune be known, were very
sanguine. Two Cornish miners had got what was
supposed to be the most likely claim, and declared
they would not take ten thousand dollars for it. Of
course, no one thought of offering such a sum; but
so great was the excitement that they might have
got eight hundred or a thousand dollars for their
claim before ever they put a pick in the ground. As
it turned out, however, they spent a month in sink-
ing a shaft about a hundred feet deep ; and after drift-
ing all round, they could not get a cent out of it,
while many of the claims adjacent to theirs proved
extremely rich.

Such diggings as these are called "coyote" dig-
gings, receiving their name from an animal called the
coyote, which abounds all over the plain lands of
Mexico and California, and which lives in the cracks
and crevices made in the plains by the extreme heat
of summer. He is half dog, half fox, and, as an Irish-
man might say, half wolf also. They howl most
dismally, just like a dog, on moonlight nights, and are
seen in great numbers skulking about the plains.

Connected with them is a curious fact in natural
history. They are intensely carnivorous — so are can-
nibals; but as cannibals object to the flavor of roasted
sailor as being too salt, so coyotes turn up their noses
at dead Mexicans as being too peppery. I have heard
the fact mentioned over and over again, by Americans
who had been in the Mexican war, that on going over
the field after their battles, they found their own com-
rades with the flesh eaten off their bones by the coyotes,

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 139

while never a Mexican corpse had been touched; and
the only and most natural way to account for this
phenomenon was in the fact that the Mexicans, by
the constant and inordinate eating of the hot pepper-
pod, the Chili Colorado, had so impregnated their sys-
tem with pepper as to render their flesh too savory a
morsel for the natural and unvitiatcd taste of the
coyotes.

These coyote diggings require to be very rich to
pay, from the great amount of labor necessary before
any pay-dirt can be obtained. They are generally
worked by only two men. A shaft is sunk, over
which is rigged a rude windlass, tended by one man,
who draws up the dirt in a large bucket while his
partner is digging down below. When the bed rock
is reached on which the rich dirt is found, excava-
tions are made all round, leaving only the necessary
supporting pillars of earth, which are also ultimately
removed, and replaced by logs of wood. Accidents
frequently occur from the "caving-in" of these dig-
gings, the result generally of the carelessness of the
men themselves.

The Cornish miners, of whom numbers had come
to California from the mines of Mexico and South
America, generally devoted themselves to these deep
diggings, as did also the lead-miners from Wisconsin.
Such men were quite at home a hundred feet or so
under ground, picking through hard rock by candle-
light; at the same time, gold mining in any way
was to almost every one a new occupation, and men
who had passed tJTeir lives hitherto above ground, took
quite as naturally to this subterranean style of dig-
ging as to any other.

140 THE GOLD HUNTERS

We felt no particular fancy for it, however, espe-
cially as we could not get a claim; and having heard
favorable accounts of the diggings on Weaver Creek,
we concluded to migrate to that place. It was about
fifteen miles off; and having hired a mule and cart
from a man in Hangtown to carry our long torn,
hoses, picks, shovels, blankets, and pot and pans, we
started early the next morning, and arrived at our
destination about noon. We passed through some
beautiful scenery on the way. The ground was not
yet parched and scorched by the summer sun, but was
still green, and on the hillsides were patches of wild-
flowers growing so thick that they were quite soft
and delightful to lie down upon. For some distance
we followed a winding road between smooth rounded
hills, thickly wooded with immense pines and cedars,
gradually ascending till we came upon a comparatively
level country, which had all the beauty of an English
park. The ground was quite smooth, though gently
undulating, and the rich verdure was diversified with
numbers of white, yellow, and purple flowers. The
oaks of various kinds, which were here the only tree,
were of an immense size, but not so numerous as
to confine the view; and the only underwood was
the mansanita, a very beautiful and graceful shrub,
generally growing in single plants to the height of
six or eight feet. There was no appearance of rug-
gedness or disorder; we might have imagined our-
selves in a well-kept domain; and the solitude, and
the vast unemployed wealth of nature, alone reminded
us that we were among the wild mountains of Cali-
fornia.

After traveling some miles over this sort of country,

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN

we got among the pine trees once more, and very soon
came to the brink of the high mountains overhanging
Weaver Creek. The descent was so steep that we
had the greatest difficulty in getting the cart down
without a capsize, having to make short tacks down
the face of the hill, and generally steering for a tree
to bring up upon in case of accidents. At the point
where we reached the Creek was a store, and scattered
along the rocky banks of the Creek were a few miners'
tents and cabins. We had expected to have to camp
out here, but seeing a small tent unoccupied near the
store, we made inquiry of the storekeeper, and rinding
that it belonged to him, and that he had no objection
to our using it, we took possession accordingly, and
proceeded to light a fire and cook our dinner.

Not knowing how far we might be from a store,
we had brought along with us a supply of flour, ham,
beans, and tea, with which we were quite independent.
After prospecting a little, we soon found a spot on the
bank of the stream which we judged would yield us
pretty fair pay for our labor. We had some dif-
ficulty at first in bringing water to the long torn,
having to lead our hose -a considerable distance up
the stream to obtain sufficient elevation; but we soon
got everything in working order, and pitched in.
The gold which we found here was of the finest kind,
and required great care in washing. It was in
exceedingly small thin scales — so thin, that in washing
out in a pan at the end of the day, a scale of gold
would occasionally float for an instant on the surface
of the water. This is the most valuable kind of gold
dust, and is worth one or two dollars an ounce more
than the coarse chunky dust.

142 THE GOLD HUNTERS

It was a wild rocky place where we were now
located. The steep mountains, rising abruptly all
round us, so confined the view that we seemed to
be shut out from the rest of the world. The nearest
village or settlement was about ten miles distant;
and all the miners on the Creek within four or five
miles living in isolated cabins, tents, and brush-
houses, or camping out on the rocks, resorted for pro-
visions to the small store already mentioned, which
was supplied with a general assortment of provisions
and clothing.

There had still been occasional heavy rains, from
which our*, tent was but poor protection, and we
awoke sometimes in the morning, rinding small pools
of water in the folds of our blankets, and everything
so soaking wet, inside the tent as well as outside,
that it w'as hopeless to attempt to light a fire. On
such occasions, raw ham, hard bread, and cold water
was all the breakfast we could raise; eking it out
however, with an extra pipe, and relieving our feel-
ings by laying in fiercely with pick and shoveL

The weather very soon, however, became quite
settled. The sky was always bright and cloudless;
all verdure was fast disappearing from the hills, and
they began to look brown and scorched. The heat
in the mines during summer is greater than in most
tropical countries. I have in some parts seen the
thermometer as high as 120 degrees in the shade dur-
ing the greater part of the day for three weeks at a
time; but the climate is not by any means so relaxing
and oppressive as in countries where, though the range
of the thermometer is much lower, the damp suffo-
cating atmosphere makes the heat more severely felt.

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 143

In the hottest weather in California, it is always
agreeably cool at night — sufficiently so to make a
blanket acceptable, and to enable one to enjoy a
sound sleep, in which one recovers from all the evil
effects of the previous day's baking; and even the
extreme heat of the hottest hours of the day, though
it crisps up one's hair like that of a nigger, is still
light and exhilarating, and by no means disinclines
one for bodily exertion.

We continued to work the claim we had first
taken for two or three weeks with very good success,
when the diggings gave out — that is to say, they
ceased to yield sufficiently to suit our ideas: so we
took up another claim about a mile further up the
creek; and as this was rather an inconvenient distance
from our tent, we abandoned it, and took possession
of a log cabin near our claim which some men had
just vacated. It was a very badly built cabin
perched on a rocky platform overhanging the rugged
pathway which led along the banks of the creek.

A cabin with a good shingle-roof is generally the
coolest kind of abode in summer; but ours was only
roofed with cotton cloth, offering scarcely any resist-
ance to the fierce rays of the sun, which rendered
the cabin during the day so intolerably hot that we
cooked and ate our dinner under the shade of a tree.

A whole bevy of Chinamen had recently made
their appearance on the creek. Their camp, consist-
ing of a dozen or so of small tents and brush houses,
was near our cabin on the side of the hill — too near
to be pleasant, for they kept up a continual chattering
all night, which was rather tiresome till we got used
to it.

144 THE GOLD HUNTERS

They are an industrious set of people, no doubt,
but are certainly not calculated for gold-digging.
They do not work with the same force or vigor as
American or European miners, but handle their tools
like so many women, as if they were afraid of hurt-
ing themselves. The Americans called it "scratch-
ing," which was a very expressive term for their style
of digging. They did not venture to assert equal
rights so far as to take up any claim which other
miners would think it worth while to work; but in
such places as yielded them a dollar or two a day
they were allowed to scratch away unmolested. Had
they happened to strike a rich lead, they would have
been driven off their claim immediately. They were
very averse to working in the water, and for four or
five hours in the heat of the day they assembled
under the shade of a tree, where they sat fanning
themselves, drinking tea, and saying "too muchee hot."

On the whole, they seemed a harmless, inoffensive
people; but one day, as we were going to dinner, we
heard an unusual hullaballoo going on where the
Chinamen were at work; and on reaching the place
we found the whole tribe of Celestials divided into
two equal parties, drawn up against each other in
battle array, brandishing picks and shovels, lifting
stones as if to hurl them at their adversaries' heads,
and every man chattering and gesticulating in the
most frantic manner. The miners collected on the
ground to see the "muss," and cheered the Chinamen
on to more active hostilities. But after taunting and
threatening each other in this way for about an hour,
during which time, although the excitement seemed
to be continually increasing, not a blow was struck

INDIANS AND CHINAMEN 145

nor a stone thrown, the two parties suddenly, and
without any apparent cause, fraternized, and moved
off together to their tents. What all the row was
about, or why peace was so suddenly proclaimed, was
of course a mystery to us outside barbarians; and the
tame and unsatisfactory termination of such warlike
demonstrations was a great disappointment, as we had
been every moment expecting that the ball would
open, and hoped to see a general engagement.

It reminded me of the way in which a couple of
French Canadians have a set-to. Shaking their fists
within an inch of each other's faces, they call each
other all the names imaginable, beginning with sacre
cochon, and going through a long series of still less
complimentary epithets, till finally sacre astrologe
caps the climax. This is a regular smasher; it is
supposed to be such a comprehensive term as to ex-
haust the whole vocabulary; both parties then give
in for want of ammunition, and the fight is over. I
presume it was by a similar process that the China-
men arrived at a solution of their difficulty; at all
events, discretion seemed to form a very large
component part of Celestial valor.

CHAPTER VIII
MINERS' LAW

THE miners on the creek were nearly all Ameri-
cans, and exhibited a great variety of mankind.
Some, it was very evident, were men who had
hitherto only worked with their heads; others one
would have set down as having been mechanics of
some sort, and as having lived in cities ; and there were
numbers of unmistakable backwoodsmen and farmers
from the Western States. Of these a large proportion
were Missourians, who had emigrated across the
plains. From the State of Missouri the people had
flocked in thousands to the gold diggings, and par-
ticularly from a county in that state called Pike
County.

The peculiarities of the Missourians are very
strongly marked, and after being in the mines but a
short time, one could distinguish a Missourian, or a
"Pike," or "Pike County," as they are called, from
the natives of any other western State. Their cos-
tume was always exceedingly old and greasy-looking;
they had none of the occasional foppery of the miner,
which shows itself in brilliant red shirts, boots with
flaming red tops, fancy-colored hats, silver-handled
bowie-knives, and rich silk sashes. It always seemed
to me that a Missourian wore the same clothes in
which he had crossed the plains, and that he was
keeping them to wear on his journey home again.

146

MINERS' LAW 147

Their hats were felt, of a dirty-brown color, and the
shape of a short extinguisher. Their shirts had per-
haps, in days gone by, been red, but were now a sort
of purple ; their pantaloons were generally of a snuffy-
brown color, and made of some woolly home-made
fabric. Suspended at their back from a narrow strap
buckled round the waist they carried a wooden-
handled bowie-knife in an old leathern sheath, not
stitched, but riveted with leaden nails; and over their
shoulders they wore strips of cotton or cloth as sus-
penders— mechanical contrivances never thought of
by any other men in the mines. As for their boots,
there was no peculiarity about them, excepting that
they were always old. Their coats, a garment not
frequently seen in the mines for at least six months
of the year, were very extraordinary things— exceed-
ingly tight, short-waisted, long-skirted surtouts of
homemade frieze of a greyish-blue color.

As for their persons, they were mostly long, gaunt,
narrow-chested, round-shouldered men, with long,
straight, light-colored, dried-up-looking hair, small
thin sallow faces, with rather scanty beard and mous-
tache, and small grey sunken eyes, which seemed
to be keenly perceptive of everything around them.
But in their movements the men were slow and
awkward, and in the towns especially they betrayed
a childish astonishment at the strange sights occasioned
by the presence of the divers nations of the earth.
The fact is, that till they came to California many
of them had never in their lives before seen two
houses together, and in any little village in the mines
they witnessed more of the wonders of civilization
than ever they had dreamed of.

148 THE GOLD HUNTERS

In some respects, perhaps, the mines of California
were as wild a place as any part of the Western
States of America; but they were peopled by a com-
munity of men of all classes, and from different
countries, who though living in a rough backwoods
style, had nevertheless all the ideas and amenities of
civilized life; while the Missourians, having come
direct across the plains from their homes in the back-
woods, had received no preparatory education to en-
able them to show off to advantage in such company.

And in this they labored under a great disadvantage,
as compared with the lower classes of people of every
country who came to San Francisco by way of
Panama or Cape Horn. The men from the interior
of the States learned something even on their journey
to New York or New Orleans, having their eyes
partially opened during the few days they spent in
either of those cities en route; and on the passage to
San Francisco they naturally received a certain degree
of polish from being violently shaken up with a crowd
of men of different habits and ideas from their own.
They had to give way in many things to men whose
motives of action were perhaps to them incompre-
hensible, while of course they gained a few new ideas
from being brought into close contact with such sorts
of men as they had hitherto only seen at a distance,
or very likely had never heard of. A little experience
of San Francisco did them no harm, and by the time
they reached the mines they had become very superior
men to the raw bumpkins they were before leaving
their homes.

It may seem strange, but it is undoubtedly true,
that the majority of men in whom such a change

MINERS' LAW 149

was most desirable became in California more hu-
manized, and acquired a certain amount of urbanity;
in fact, they came from civilized countries in the
rough state, and in California got licked into shape,
and polished.

I had subsequently, while residing on the Isthmus
of Nicaragua, constant opportunities of witnessing
the truth of this, in contrasting the outward-bound
emigrants with the same class of men returning to
the States after having received a California educa-
tion. Every fortnight two crowds of passengers
rushed across the Isthmus, one from New York, the
other from San Francisco. The great majority in
both cases were men of the lower ranks of life, and
it is of course to them alone that my remarks apply.
Those coming from New York — who were mostly
Americans and Irish — seemed to think that each man
could do just as he pleased, without regard to the
comfort of his neighbors. They showed no accom-
modating spirit, but grumbled at everything, and were
rude and surly m their manners; they were very raw
and stupid, and had no genius for doing anything for
themselves or each other to assist their progress, but
perversely delighted in acting in opposition to the reg-
ulations and arrangements made for them by the
Transit Company. The same men, however, on their
return from California, were perfect gentlemen in
comparison. They were orderly in their behavior;
though rough, they were not rude, and showed great
consideration for others, submitting cheerfully to any
personal inconvenience necessary for the common good,
and showing by their conduct that they had acquired
some notion of their duties to balance the very en-

150 THE GOLD HUNTERS

larged idea of their rights which they had formerly
entertained.

The Missourians, however, although they acquired
no new accomplishments on their journey to Cali-
fornia, lost none of those which they originally pos-
sessed. They could use an ax or a rifle with any
man. Two of them would chop down a few trees
and build a log cabin in a day and a half, and with
their long five-foot-barrel rifle, which was their con-
stant companion, they could "draw a bead" on a deer,
a squirrel, or the white of an Indian's eye, with equal
coolness and certainty of killing.

Though large-framed men, they were not remark-
able for physical strength, nor were they robust in
constitution; in fact, they were the most sickly set
of men in the mines, fever and ague and diarrhoea
being their favorite complaints.

We had many pleasant neighbors, and among them
were some very amusing characters. One man, who
went by the name of the "Philosopher," might
possibly have earned a better right to the name, if he
had had the resolution to abstain from whisky. He
had been, I believe, a farmer in Kentucky, and was
one of a class not uncommon in America, who, with-
out much education, but with great ability and im-
mense command of language, together with a very
superficial knowledge of some science, hold forth on
it most fluently, using such long words, and putting
them so well together, that, were it not for the
crooked ideas they enunciated, one might almost sup-
pose they knew what they were talking about.

Phrenology was this man's hobby, and he had all
the phrenological phraseology at his finger-ends. His

MINERS' LAW 151

great delight was to paw a man's head and to tell
him his character. One Sunday morning he came
into our cabin as he was going down to the store for
provisions, and after a few minutes' conversation, of
course he introduced phrenology; and as I knew I
should not get rid of him till I did so, I gave him my
permission to feel my head. He fingered it all over,
and gave me a very elaborate synopsis of my char-
acter, explaining most minutely the consequences of
the combination of the different bumps, and telling
me how I would act in a variety of supposed contin-
gencies. Having satisfied himself as to my character,
he went off, and I was in hopes I was done with him,
but an hour or so after dark, he came rolling into the
cabin just as I was going to turn in. He was as
drunk as he well could be; his nose was swelled and
bloody, his eyes were both well blackened, and alto-
gether he was very unlike a learned professor of
phrenology. He begged to be allowed to stay all
night; and as he would most likely have broken his
neck over the rocks if he had tried to reach his own
home that night, I made him welcome, thinking that
he would immediately fall asleep without troubling
me further. But I was very much mistaken; he had
no sooner lain down, than he began to harangue me
as if I were a public meeting or a debating society,
addressing me as "gentlemen," and expatiating on a
variety of topics, but chiefly on phrenology, the Demo-
cratic ticket, and the great mass of the people. He
had a bottle of brandy with him, which I made him
finish in hopes it might have the effect of silencing
him ; but there was unfortunately not enough of it for
that — it only made him worse, for he left the debating

152 THE GOLD HUNTERS

society and got into a bar-room, where, when I went
to sleep, he was playing "poker" with some imaginary
individual whom he called Jim.

In the morning he made most ample apologies,
and was very earnest in expressing his gratitude for
my hospitality. I took the liberty of asking him
what bumps he called those in the neighborhood of
his eyes. "Well, sir," he said, "you ask me a plain
question, I'll give you a plain answer. I got into a
'muss' down at the store last night, and was whip-
ped; and I deserved it too." As he was so penitent,
I did not press him for further particulars; but I
heard from another man the same day that when at
the store he had taken the opportunity of an audience
to lecture them on his favorite subject, and illus-
trated his theory by feeling several heads, and giving
very full descriptions of the characters of the indi-
viduals. At last he got hold of a man who must
have had something peculiar in the formation of his
cranium, for he gave him a most dreadful character,
calling him a liar, a cheat, and a thief, and winding
up by saying that he was a man who would murder
his father for five dollars.

The natural consequence was that the owner of
this enviable character jumped up and pitched into
the phrenologist, giving him the whipping which he
had so candidly acknowledged, and would probably
have murdered him without the consideration of the
five dollars, if the bystanders had not interfered.

Very near where we were at work, a party of
half-a-dozen men held a claim in the bed of the
creek, and had as usual dug a race through which to
turn the water, and so leave exposed the part they

MINERS' LAW 153

intended to work. This they were now anxious to
do, as the creek had fallen sufficiently low to admit
of it; but they were opposed by a number of
miners whose claims lay so near the race that they
would have been swamped had the water been turned
into it.

They could not come to any settlement of the
question among themselves; so, as was usual in such
cases, they concluded to leave it to a jury of miners;
and notice was accordingly sent to all the miners
within two or three miles up and down the creek,
requesting them to assemble on the claim in question
the next afternoon. Although a miner calculates an
hour lost as so much money out of his pocket, yet all
were interested in supporting the laws of the diggings ;
and about a hundred men presented themselves at the
appointed time. The two opposing parties then,
having tossed up for the first pick, chose six jury-
men each from the assembled crowd.

When the jury had squatted themselves all together
in an exalted position on a heap of stones and dirt,
one of the plaintiffs, as spokesman for his party,
made a very pithy speech, calling several witnesses to
prove his statements, and citing many of the laws of
the diggings in support of his claims. The defend-
ants followed in the same manner, making the most of
their case; while the general public, sitting in groups
on the different heaps of stones piled up between the
holes with which the ground was honeycombed, smoked
their pipes and watched the proceedings.

After the plaintiff and defendant had said all they
had to say about it, the jury examined the state of
the ground in dispute; they then called some more

154 THE GOLD HUNTERS

witnesses to give further information, and having laid
their shaggy heads together for a few minutes, they
pronounced their decision; which was, that the men
working on the race should be allowed six days to
work out their claims before the water should be
turned in upon them.

Neither party was particularly well pleased with
the verdict — a pretty good sign that it was an im-
partial one; but they had to abide by it, for had there
been any resistance on either side, the rest of the
miners would have enforced the decision of this
august tribunal. From it there was no appeal ; a jury
of miners was the highest court known, and I must
say I never saw a court of justice with so little hum-
bug about it.

The laws of the creek, as was the case in all the
various diggings in the mines, were made at meetings
of miners held for the purpose. They were generally
very few and simple. They defined how many feet
of ground one man was entitled to hold in a ravine —
how much in the bank, and in the bed of the creek;
how many such claims he could hold at a time; and
how long he could absent himself from his claim with-
out forfeiting it. They declared what was necessary
to be done in taking up and securing a claim which,
for want of water, or from any other cause, could not
be worked at the time; and they also provided for
various contingencies incidental to the peculiar nature
of the diggings.

Of course, like other laws they required constant
revision and amendment, to suit the progress of the
times ; and a few weeks after this trial, a meeting was
held one Sunday afternoon for legislative purposes.

MINERS' LAW 155

The miners met in front of the store to the number
of about two hundred; a very respectable-looking old
chap was called to the chair; but for want of that
article of furniture he mounted an empty pork-barrel,
which gave him a commanding position; another man
was appointed secretary, who placed his writing
materials on some empty boxes piled up alongside of
the chair. The chairman then, addressing the crowd,
told them the object for which the meeting had been
called, and said he would be happy to hear any
gentleman who had any remarks to offer; whereupon
some one proposed an amendment of the law relating
to a certain description of claim, arguing the point
in a very neat speech. He was duly seconded, and
there was some slight opposition and discussion; but
when the chairman declared it carried by the ayes, no
one called for a division, so the secretary wrote it all
down, and it became law.

Two or three other acts were passed, and when
the business was concluded, a vote of thanks to the
chairman was passed for his able conduct on the top
of the pork-barrel. The meeting was then declared
to be dissolved, and accordingly dribbled into the
store, where the legislators, in small detachments,
pledged each other in cocktails as fast as the store-
keeper could mix them. While the legislature was
in session, however, everything was conducted with
the utmost formality, for Americans of all classes
are particularly au fait at the ordinary routine of
public meetings.

After working our claim for a few* weeks, my
partner left me to go to another part of the mines,
and I joined two Americans in buying a claim five

156 THE GOLD HUNTERS

or six miles up the creek. It was supposed to be
very rich, and we had to pay a long price for it ac-
cordingly, although the men who had taken it up,
and from whom we bought it, had not yet even pros-
pected the ground. But the adjoining claims were
being worked, and yielding largely, and from the
position of ours, it was looked on as an equally good
one.

There was a great deal to be done, before it could
be worked, in the way of removing rocks and turning
the water; and as three of us were not sufficient to
work the place properly, we hired four men to assist
us, at the usual wages of five dollars a-day. It took
about a fortnight to get the claim into order before
we could begin washing, but we then found that our
labor had not been expended in vain, for it paid un-
commonly well.

When I bought this claim, I had to give up my
cabin, as the distance was so great, and I now camped
with my partners close to our claim, where we had
erected a brush house. This is a very comfortable
kind of abode in summer, and does not cost an hour's
labor to erect. Four uprights are stuck in the ground,
and connected with cross pieces, on which are laid
heaps of leafy brushwood, making a roof completely
impervious to the rays of the sun. Sometimes three
sides are filled in with a basketwork of brush, which
gives the edifice a more compact and comfortable ap-
pearance. Very frequently a brush shed of this sort
was erected over a tent, for the thin material of which
tents were usually made offered but poor shelter from
the burning sun.

When I left my cabin, I handed it over to a young

MINERS' LAW 157

man who had arrived very lately in the country, and
had just come up to the mines. On meeting him a
few days afterwards, and asking him how he liked
his new abode, he told me that the first night of his
occupation he had not slept a wink, and had kept
candles burning till daylight, being afraid to go to sleep
on account of the rats.

Rats, indeed! poor fellow! I should think there
were a few rats, but the cabin was not worse in that
respect than any other in the mines. The rats were
most active colonizers. Hardly was a cabin built in
the most out-of-the-way part of the mountains, before
a large family of rats made themselves at home in it,
imparting a humanized and inhabited air to the place.
They are not supposed to be indigenous to the country.
They are a large black species, which I believe those
who are learned in rats call the Hamburg breed.
Occasionally a pure white one is seen, but more fre-
quently in the cities than in the mines; they are prob-
ably the hoary old patriarchs, and not a distinct
species.*

They are very destructive, and are such notorious
thieves, carrying off letters, newspapers, handkerchiefs,
and things of that sort, with which to make their nests,
that I soon acquired a habit, which is common enough
in the mines, of always ramming my stockings tightly
into the toes of my boots, putting my neckerchief into
my pocket, and otherwise securing all such matters
before turning in at night. One took these precau-
tions just as naturally, and as much as a matter of
course, as when at sea one fixes things in such manner
that they shall not fetch way with the motion of the

* Albino freaks. — ED.

158 THE GOLD HUNTERS

ship. As in civilized life a man winds up his watch
and puts it under his pillow before going to bed; so
in the mines, when turning in, one just as instinctively
sets to work to circumvent the rats in the manner
described, and, taking ofE his revolver, lays it under
his pillow, or at least under the coat or boots, or what-
ever he rests his head on.

I believe there are individuals who faint or go into
hysterics if a cat happens to be in the same room with
them. Any one having a like antipathy to rats had
better keep as far away from California as possible,
especially from the mines. The inhabitants generally,
however, have no such prejudices; it is a free country
— as free to rats as to Chinamen; they increase and
multiply and settle on the land very much as they
please, eating up your flour, and running over you
when you are asleep, without ceremony.

No one thinks it worth while to kill individual rats
— the abstract fact of their existence remains the
same; you might as well wage war upon mosquitoes.
I often shot rats, but it was for the sport, not for the
mere object of killing them. Rat-shooting is capital
sport, and is carried on in this wise: The most
favorable place for it is a log cabin in which the
chinks have not been filled up, so that there is a space
of two or three inches between the logs; and the
season is a moonlight night. Then when you lie
down for the night (it would be absurd to call it
"going to bed" in the mines), you have your revolver
charged, and plenty of ammunition at hand. The
lights are of course put out, and the cabin is in dark-
ness; but the rats have a fashion of running along
the tops of the logs, and occasionally standing still,

MINERS' LAW 159

showing clearly against the moonlight outside; then is
your time to draw a bead upon them and knock them
over — if you can. But it takes a good shot to do
much at this sort of work, and a man who kills two
or three brace before going to sleep has had a very
splendid night's shooting.

CHAPTER IX

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT

WE worked our claim very successfully for about
six weeks, when the creek at last became so
dry that we had not water enough to run our
long torn, and the claim was rendered for the present
unavailable. It, of course, remained good to us for
next season; but as I had no idea of being there to
work it, I sold out my interest to my partners, and,
throwing mining to the dogs, I broke out in a fresh
place altogether.

I had always been in the habit of amusing myself
by sketching in my leisure moments, especially in the
middle of the day, for an hour or so after dinner,
when all hands were taking a rest — "nooning," as the
miners call it — lying in the shade, in the full enjoy-
ment of their pipes, or taking a nap. My sketches
were much sought after, and on Sundays I was beset
by men begging me to do something for them. Every
man wanted a sketch of his claim, or his cabin, or
some spot with which he identified himself; and as
they offered to pay very handsomely, I was satisfied
that I could make paper and pencil much more profit-
able tools to work with than pick and shovel.

My new pursuit had the additional attraction of
affording me an opportunity of gratifying the desire
which I had long felt of wandering over the mines,

160

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 161

and seeing all the various kinds of diggings, and the
strange specimens of human nature to be found in
them.

I sent to Sacramento for a fresh supply of drawing-
paper, for which I had only to pay the moderate sum
of two dollars and a half (ten shillings sterling) a
sheet; and rinding my old brother-miners very liberal
patrons of the fine arts, I remained some time in the
neighborhood actively engaged with my pencil.

I then had occasion to return to Hangtown. On
my arrival there, I went as usual to the cabin of my
friend the doctor, which I found in a pretty mess.
The ground on which some of the houses were built
had turned out exceedingly rich; and thinking that
he might be as lucky as his neighbors, the doctor
had got a party of six miners to work the inside of
his cabin on half shares. He was to have half the
gold taken out, as the rights of property in any sort
of house or habitation in the mines extend to the
mineral wealth below it. In his cabin were two
large holes, six feet square and about seven deep; in
each of these were three miners, picking and shovel-
ing, or washing the dirt in rockers with the water
pumped out of the holes. When one place had been
worked out, the dirt was all shoveled back into the
hole, and another one commenced alongside of it.
They took about a fortnight in this way to work all
the floor of the cabin, and found it very rich.

There was a young Southerner in Hangtown at
this time, who had brought one of his slaves with him
to California. They worked and lived together,
master and man sharing equally the labors and hard-
ships of the mines.

162 THE GOLD HUNTERS

One night the slave dreamed that they had been
working the inside of a certain cabin in the street,
and had taken out a great pile of gold. He told his
master in the morning, but neither of them thought
much of it, as such golden dreams are by no means
uncommon among the miners. A few nights after-
wards, however, he had precisely the same dream,
and was so convinced that their fortune lay waiting
for them under this particular cabin, that he suc-
ceeded at last in persuading his master to believe it
also. The master said nothing to any one about the
dream, but made some pretext for wishing to become
the owner of the cabin, and finally succeeded in buy-
ing it. He and his slave immediately moved in, and
set to work digging up the earthen floor, and the
dream proved to be so far true that before they had
worked all the ground they had taken out twenty
thousand dollars.

There were many slaves in various parts of the
mines working with their masters, and I knew fre-
quent instances of their receiving their freedom.
Some slaves I have also seen left in the mines by their
masters, working faithfully to make money enough
wherewith to buy themselves. Of course, as Cali-
fornia is a free State, a slave, when once taken there
by his master, became free by law ; but no man would
bring a slave to the country unless one on whose
fidelity he could depend.

Niggers, in some parts of the mines, were pretty
numerous, though by no means forming so large a pro-
portion of the population as in the Atlantic States.
As miners they were proverbially lucky, but they were

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 163

also inveterate gamblers, and did not long remain
burdened with their unwonted riches.

In the mines the Americans seemed to exhibit more
tolerance of negro blood than is usual in the States —
not that negroes were allowed to sit at table with
white men, or considered to be at all on an equality,
but, owing partly to the exigencies of the unsettled
state of society, and partly, no doubt, to the important
fact that a nigger's dollars were as good as any others,
the Americans overcame their prejudices so far that
negroes were permitted to lose their money in the
gambling rooms; and in the less frequented drinking-
shops they might be seen receiving drink at the hands
of white bar-keepers. In a town or camp of any size
there was always a "nigger boarding-house," kept, of
course, by a darky, for the special accommodation of
colored people; but in places where there was no such
institution, or at wayside houses, when a negro wanted
accommodation, he waited till the company had
finished their meal and left the table before he
ventured to sit down. I have often, on such occasions,
seen the white waiter, or the landlord, when he filled
that office himself, serving a nigger with what he
wanted without apparently doing any violence to his
feelings.

A very striking proof was seen, in this matter of
waiting, of the revolution which California life caused
in the feelings and occupations of the inhabitants.
The Americans have an intense feeling of repugnance
to any kind of menial service, and consider waiting
at table as quite degrading to a free and enlightened
citizen. In the United States there is hardly such a

164 THE GOLD HUNTERS

thing to be found as a native-born American waiting
at table. Such service is always performed by negroes,
Irishmen, or Germans; but in California, in the mines
at least, it was very different. The almighty dollar
exerted a still more powerful influence than in the
old States, for it overcame all pre-existing false
notions of dignity. The principle was universally
admitted, and acted on, that no honest occupation
was derogatory, and no questions of dignity inter-
fered to prevent a man from employing himself in
any way by which it suited his convenience to make
his money. It was nothing uncommon to see men of
refinement and education keeping restaurants or road-
side houses, and waiting on any ragamuffin who chose
to patronize them, with as much ernpressement as an
English waiter who expects his customary coppers.
But as no one considered himself demeaned by his
occupation, neither was there any assumption of a
superiority which was not allowed to exist; and what-
ever were their relative positions, men treated each
other with an equal amount of deference.

After being detained a few days in Hangtown
waiting for letters from San Francisco, I set out for
Nevada City, about seventy miles north, intending
from there to travel up the Yuba River, and see what
was to be seen in that part of the mines.

My way lay through Middletown, the scene of my
former mining exploits, and from that through a
small village, called Cold Springs, to Caloma, the
place where gold was first discovered. It lies at the
base of high mountains, on the south fork of the
American River. There were a few very neat well-
painted houses in the village; but as the diggings in

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 165

the neighborhood were not particularly good, there
was little life or animation about the place; in fact,
it was the dullest mining town in the whole country.

The first discovery of gold was accidentally made
at this spot by some workmen in the employment of
Colonel Sutter, while digging a race to convey water
to a saw-mill. Colonel Sutter, a Swiss by birth, had,
some years before, penetrated to California, and there
established himself. The fort which he built for pro-
tection against the Indians, and in which he resided,
is situated a few miles from where Sacramento City
now stands.

I dined at Caloma, and proceeded on my way -
having a stiff hill to climb to gain the high land lying
between me and the middle fork of the American
River. Crossing the rivers is the most laborious part
of California traveling; they flow so far below the
average level of the country, which, though exceed-
ingly rough and hilly, is comparatively easy to travel;
but on coming to the brink of this high land, and
looking down upon the river thousands of feet below
one, the summit of the opposite side appears almost
nearer than the river itself, and one longs for the
loan of a pair of wings for a few moments to save the
toil of descending so far, and having again to climb
an equal height to gain such an apparently short
distance.

Some miles from Caloma is a very pretty place
called Greenwood Valley — a long, narrow, winding
valley, with innumerable ravines running into it from
the low hills on each side. For several miles I
traveled down this valley: the bed of the creek which
flowed through it, and all the ravines, had been dug

166 THE GOLD HUNTERS

up, and numbers of cabins stood on the hillsides; but
at this season the creek was completely dry, and conse-
quently no mining operations could be carried on.
The cabins were ail tenantless, and the place looked
more desolate than if its solitude had never been dis-
turbed by man.

At the lower end of Greenwood Valley was a small
village of the same name, consisting of half-a-dozen
cabins, two or three stores, and a hotel. While stop-
ping here for the night, I enjoyed a great treat in the
perusal of a number of late newspapers — among others
.the Illustrated News, containing accounts of the Great
r£xhibition. In the mines one was apt to get sadly
behind in modern history. The express men in the
towns made a business of selling editions of the lead-
ing papers of the United States, containing the news
of the fortnight, and expressly got up for circulation
in California. Of these the most popular with
northern men was the New York Herald, and with
the southerners the New Orleans Delta. The Illus-
trated News was also a great favorite, being usually
sold at a dollar, while other papers only fetched half
that price. But unless one happened to be in some
town or village when the mail from the States arrived,
there was little chance of ever seeing a paper, as they
were all bought up immediately.

I struck the middle fork of the American River at
a place called Spanish Bar. The scenery was very
grand. Looking down on the river from the summit
of the range, it seemed a mere thread winding along
the deep chasm formed by the mountains, which were
so steep that the pine trees clinging to their sides
looked as though they would slip down into the river.

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 167

The face of the mountain by which I descended was
covered with a perfect trellis-work of zigzag trails,
so that I could work my way down by long or short
tacks as I felt inclined. On the mountain on the op-
posite side I could see the faint line of the trail which
I had to follow ; it did not look by any means inviting ;
and I was thankful that, for the present at any rate,
I was going downhill. Walking down a long hill,
however, so steep that one dare not run, though not
quite such hard work at the time as climbing up, is
equally fatiguing in its results, as it shakes one's knees
all to pieces.

I reached the river at last, and crossing over in a
canoe, landed on the "Bar."

What they call a Bar in California is the flat which
is usually found on the convex side of a bend in a river.
Such places have nearly always proved very 'rich, that
being the side on which any deposit carried down by
the river will naturally lodge, while the opposite bank
is generally steep and precipitous, and contains little
or no gold. Indeed, there are not many exceptions to
the rule that, in a spot where one bank of a river
affords good diggings, the other side is not worth
working.

The largest camps or villages on the rivers are on
the bars, and take their name from them.

The nomenclature of the mines is not very choice or
elegant. The rivers all retain the names given to
them by the Spaniards, but every little creek, flat, and
ravine, besides of course the towns and villages which
have been called into existence, have received their
names at the hands of the first one or two miners who
have happened to strike the diggings. The individual

168 THE GOLD HUNTERS

pioneer has seldom shown much invention or origin-
ality in his choice of a name; in most cases he has
either immortalized his own by tacking "ville" or
"town" to the end of it, or has more modestly chosen
the name of some place in his native State; but a vast
number of places have been absurdly named from,
some trifling incident connected with their first settle-
ment; such as Shirt Tail Canon, Whisky Gulch, Port
Wine Diggins, Humbug Flat, Murderer's Bar, Flap-
jack Canon, Yankee Jim's, Jackass Gulch, and
hundreds of others with equally ridiculous names.

Spanish Bar was about half a mile in length, and
three or four hundred yards wide. The whole place
was honeycombed with the holes in which the miners
were at work; all the trees had been cut down, and
there was nothing but the red shirts of the miners to
relieve the dazzling whiteness of the heaps of stones
and gravel which reflected the fierce rays of the sun
and made the extreme heat doubly severe.

At the foot of the mountain, as if they had been
pushed back as far as possible off the diggings, stood
a row of booths and tents, most of them of a very
ragged and worn-out appearance. I made for the
one which looked most imposing — a canvas edifice,
which, from the huge sign all along the front, assumed
to be the "United States" Hotel. It was not far from
twelve o'clock, the universal dinner-hour in the mines;
so I lighted my pipe, and lay down in the shade to
compose myself for the great event.

The American system of using hotels as regular
boarding-houses prevails also in California. The
hotels in the mines are really boarding-houses, for it
is on the number of their boarders they depend. The

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 169

transient custom of travelers is merely incidental.
The average rate of board per week at these institu-
tions was twelve or fifteen dollars, and the charge
for a single meal was a dollar, or a dollar and a half.

The "United States" seemed to have a pretty good
run of business. As the hour of noon (feeding time)
approached, the miners began to congregate in the
bar-room; many of them took advantage of the few
minutes before dinner to play cards, while the rest
looked on, or took gin cocktails to whet their appe-
tites. At last there could not have been less than
sixty or seventy miners assembled in the bar-room,
which was a small canvas enclosure about twenty feet
square. On one side was a rough wooden door com-
municating with the salle a manger; to get as near to
this as possible was the great object, and there was a
press against it like that at the pit door of a theatre
on a benefit night.

As twelve o'clock struck the door was drawn aside,
displaying the banqueting hall, an apartment some-
what larger than the bar-room, and containing two
long tables well supplied with fresh beef, potatoes,
beans, pickles, and salt pork. As soon as the door
was opened there was a shout, a rush, a scramble, and a
loud clatter of knives and forks, and in the course of
a very few minutes fifty or sixty men had finished
their dinner. Of course many more rushed into the
dining-room than could find seats, and the disap-
pointed ones came out again looking rather foolish,
but they "guessed there would be plenty to eat at the
second table."

Having had some experience of such places, I had
intended being one of the second detachment myself,

170 THE GOLD HUNTERS

and so I guessed likewise that there would be plenty
to eat at the second table, and "cal'lated" also that I
would have more time to eat it in than at the first.

We were not kept long waiting. In an incredibly
short space of time the company began to return to
the bar-room, some still masticating a mouthful of food,
others picking their teeth with their fingers, or with
sharp-pointed bowie-knives, and the rest, with a most
provokingly complacent expression about their eyes,
making horrible motions with their jaws, as if they
were wiping out their mouths with their tongues, de-
termined to enjoy the last lingering after-taste of the
good things they had been eating — rather a disgust-
ing process to a spectator at any time, but particularly
aggravating to hungry men waiting for their dinner.

When they had all left the dining-room, the door
was again closed while the table was being relaid. In
the meantime there had been constant fresh arrivals,
and there were now almost as many waiting for the
second table as there had been for the first. A crowd
very quickly began to collect round the door, and I
saw that to dine at number two, as I had intended, I
must enter into the spirit of the thing; so I elbowed
my way into the crowd, and secured a pretty good
position behind a tall Kentuckian, who I knew would
clear the way before me. Very soon the door was
opened, when in we rushed pell-mell. I labored
under the disadvantage of not knowing the diggings;
being a stranger, I did not know the lay of the tables,
or whereabouts the joints were placed; but im-
mediately on entering I caught sight of a good-look-
ing roast of beef at the far end of one of the tables,

GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT 171

at which I made a desperate charge. I was not so
green as to lose time in trying to get my legs over
the bench and sit down, and in so doing perhaps be
crowded out altogether; but I seized a knife and fork,
with which I took firm hold of my prize, and occupy-
ing as much space as possible with my elbows, I
gradually insinuated myself into my seat. Without
letting go the beef, I then took a look round, and
had the gratification of seeing about a dozen men
leaving the room, with a most ludicrous expression
of disappointment and hope long deferred. I have
no doubt that when they got into the bar-room they
guessed there would be lots to eat at table number
three ; I hope there was. I know there was plenty at
number two; but it was a "grab game" — every man
for himself. If I had depended on the waiter getting
me a slice of roast beef, I should have had the hungry
number threes down upon me before I had commenced
my dinner.

Good-humor, however, was the order of the day;
conversation, of course, was out of the question; but
if you asked a man to pass you a dish, he did do so
with pleasure, devoting one hand to your service,
while with his knife or fork, as it might be, in the
other, he continued to convey the contents of his
plate to their ultimate destination. I must say that
a knife was a favorite weapon with my convives, and
in wielding it they displayed considerable dexterity,
using it to feed themselves with such things as most
people would eat with a spoon, if eating for a wager,
or with a fork if only eating for ordinary purposes.

After dinner a smart-looking young gentleman

172 THE GOLD HUNTERS

opened a monte bank in the bar-room, laying out five
or six hundred dollars on the table as his bank. For
half an hour or so he did a good business, when the
miners began to drop off to resume their work.

CHAPTER X

v

URSUS HORRIBILIS

1MADE inquiries as to my route, and found that
the first habitation I should reach was a ranch
called the Grizzly-Bear House, about fifteen miles
off. The trail had been well traveled, and I had
little difficulty in finding my way. After a few hours'
walking, I was beginning to think that the fifteen
miles must be nearly up; and as I heard an occasional
crack of a rifle, I felt pretty sure I was getting near
the end of my journey.

The ground undulated like the surface of the ocean
after a heavy gale of wind, and as I rose over the top
of one of the waves, I got a glimpse of a log cabin a
few hundred yards ahead of me, which, seen through
the lofty colonnade of stately pines, appeared no bigger
than a rat-trap.

As I approached, I found it was the Grizzly-Bear
House. There could be no mistake about it, for a
strip of canvas, on which "The Grizzly-Bear House"
was painted in letters a foot and a half high, was
stretched along the front of the cabin over the door;
and that there might be no doubt as to the meaning of
this announcement, the idea was further impressed
upon one by the skin of an enormous grizzly bear,
which, spread out upon the wall, seemed to be taking
the whole house into its embrace.
173

174 THE GOLD HUNTERS

I found half-a-dozen men standing before the door,
amusing themselves by shooting at a mark with their
rifles. The distance was only about a hundred yards,
but even at that distance, when it comes to hitting a
card nailed to a pine-tree nine times out of ten, it is
pretty good shooting.

Before dark, four or five other travelers arrived,
and about a dozen of us sat down to supper together.
The house was nothing more than a large log cabin.
At one end was the bar, a narrow board three feet
long, behind which were two or three decanters and
some kegs of liquor, a few cigars in tumblers, some
odd bottles of champagne, and a box of tobacco.

A couple of benches and a table occupied the center
of the house, and sacks of flour and other provisions
stood in the corners. Out in the forest, behind the
cabin, was a cooking-stove, with a sort of awning
over it. This was the kitchen; and certainly the
cook could not complain of want of room; but, judg-
ing from our supper, he was not called upon to go
through any very difficult maneuvers in the practice
of his art. He knocked off his rifle practice about
half an hour before supper to go and light the kitchen
fire, and the fruits of his subsequent labors appeared
in a large potful of tea and a lot of beefsteaks. The
bread was uncommonly stale, from which I presumed
that, when he did bake, he baked enough to last for
about a week.

After supper, every man lighted his pipe, and
though all were sufficiently talkative, the attention of
the whole party became very soon monopolized by
two individuals, who were decidedly the lions of the
evening. One of them was a man from Illinois, who

URSUS HORRIBILIS 175

had been in the Mexican war, and who no doubt
thought he might have been a General Scott, if he
had only had the opportunity of distinguishing him-
self. He commented on the tactics of the generals
as if he knew more of warfare than any of them ; and
the awful yarns he told of how he and the American
army had whipped the Mexicans, and given them
"particular hell," as he called it, was enough to make
a civilian's hair stand on end. Some of his hearers
swallowed every word he said, without even making
a wry face at it; but as he tried to make out that all
the victories were gained by the Illinois regiment, in
which he served as full private, two or three of the
party, who knew something of the history of the war,
and came from other States of the Union, had no
idea of letting Illinois have all the glory of the achieve-
ments, and disputed the correctness of his statements.
Illinois, however, was too many for them; he was not
to be stumped in that way; he had a stock of authen-
tic facts on hand for any emergency, with which he
corroborated all his previous assertions. The resist-
ance he met with only stimulated him to greater
efforts, and the more one of his facts was doubted,
the more incredible was the next; till at last he de-
tailed his confidential conversations with General
Taylor, and made himself out to be a sort of a fellow
who swept Mexicans off the face of the earth as a
common man would kill mosquitoes.

He did not have all the talking to himself, how-
ever. One of the men who kept the house was a
bear-hunter by profession, and he had not hunted
grizzlies for nothing. He had tales to tell of desperate
encounters and hairbreadth escapes, to which the ad-

176 THE GOLD HUNTERS

ventures of Baron Munchausen were not a circum-
stance. He was a dry stringy-looking man, with
light hair and keen gray eyes. His features were
rather handsome, and he had a pleasing expression;
but he was so dried up and tanned by exposure and
the hard life he led, that his face conveyed no idea of
flesh. One would rather have expected, on cutting
into him, to find that he was composed of gutta-
percha, or something of that sort, and only colored
on the outside. He and Illinois listened to each
other's stories with silent contempt; in fact, they
pretended not to listen at all, but at the same time
each watched intently for the slightest halt in the
other's narrative; and while the Illinois man was
only taking breath during some desperate struggle
with the Mexicans, the hunter in a moment plunged
right into the middle of a bear-story, and was half
eaten up by a grizzly before we knew what he was
talking about; and as soon as ever that bear was dis-
posed of, Illinois immediately went on with his story
as if he had never been interrupted.

The hunter had rather the best of it; his yarns
were uncommonly tough and hard of digestion, but
there were no historical facts on record to bring
against him. He had it all his own way, for the only
witnesses of his exploits were the grizzlies, and he
always managed to dispose of them very effectually by
finishing their career along with his story. He
showed several scars on different parts of his gutta-
percha person which he received from the paws of the
grizzlies, and he was not the sort of customer whose
veracity one would care to question, especially as im-

URSUS HORRIBILIS 177

plicit faith so much increased one's interest in his ad-
ventures. One man nearly got into a scrape by
laughing at the most thrilling part of one of his best
stories. After firing twice at a bear without effect,
the bear, infuriated by the balls planted in his carcass,
was rushing upon him. He took to flight, and, load-
ing as he ran, he turned and put a ball into the bear's
left eye. The bear winked a good deal, but did not
seem to mind it much — he only increased his pace;
so the hunter, loading again, turned round and put
a ball into his right eye; whereupon the bear, now
winking considerably with both eyes, put his nose to
the ground, and began to run him down by scent.
At this critical moment, a great stupid-looking lout,
who had been sitting all night with his eyes and
mouth wide open, sucking in and swallowing every-
thing that was said, had the temerity to laugh incred-
ulously. The hunter flared up in a moment. "What
are you a-laafin' at?" he said. "D'ye mean to say I
lie?"

"Oh," said the other, "if you say it was so, I sup-
pose it's all right; you ought to know best. But I
warn't laafin' at you ; I was laafin' at the bar."

"What do you know about bars?" said the hunter,
"Did you ever kill a bar?"

The poor fellow had never killed a "bar," so the
hunter snuffed him out with a look of utter contempt
and pity, and went on triumphantly with his story,
which ended in his getting up a tree, where he sat and
peppered the bear as it went smelling round the
stump, till it at last fell mortally wounded, with I
don't know how many balls in its body.

178 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The grizzlies ar^ the commonest kind of bear found
in California, and are very large animals, weighing
sometimes sixteen or eighteen hundred pounds.*

Hunting them is rather dangerous sport, as they are
extremely tenacious of life, and when wounded invari-
ably show fight. But unless molested they do not
often attack a man; in fact, they are hardly ever seen
on the trails during the day. At night, however, they
prowl about, and carry off whatever comes in their
way. They had walked off with a young calf from
this ranch the night before, and the hunter was going
ent the next day to wreak his vengeance upon them.
A gri«t:ly is well worth killing, as he fetches a hundred
cUlkrs or more, according to his weight. The meat
is excellent, but it needs to be well spiced, for in proc-
ess of cooking it becomes saturated with bear's grease.
In the mines, however, pomatum is an article un-
known, and so no unpleasantly greasy ideas occur to
one while dining off a good piece of grizzly bear.

About ten o'clock, at the conclusion of a bear story,
there was a general move towards one corner of the
cabin where there were a lot of rifles, and where every
man had thrown his roll of blankets. The floor was
swept, and each one, choosing his own location, spread

* The grizzlies of early California were larger than those
of the Rocky Mountains, but estimates of their weight
were commonly exaggerated. The largest bear of any
species 'of which there is record was one killed by J. C
Tolman, in October, 1889, at the head of English Bay, on
Kadiak Island, Alaska. The skin, when moderate!}'
stretched on the ground, was 13 ft. 6 in. long by 11 ft.
6 in. wide ; length of head, 20 in. ; breadth, 12 in. ; length
of hind foot, 20 in.; breadth, 12 in.; weight of carcass
with entrails and blood removed, 1,656 Ibs.; estimated live
weight, a little over a ton. — ED.

URSUS HORRIBILIS 179

his blankets and lay down. Some slept in their boots,
while others took them off, to put under their heads
by way of pillows. I was one of the latter number,
being rather partial to pillows; and selecting a spot
for my head, where it would be as far from other heads
as possible, I lay down, and stretching out my feet
promiscuously, I was very soon in the land of dreams,
where I went through the whole Mexican campaign,
and killed more "bars" than ever the hunter had seen
in his life.

People do not lie abed in the morning in California;
perhaps they would not anywhere, if they had no bet-
ter beds than we had; so before daylight there was a
general resurrection, and a very general ablution was
performed in a tin basin which stood on a keg outside
the cabin, alongside of which was a barrel of water.
Over the basin hung a very small looking-glass, in
which one could see one eye at a time; and attached
to it by a long string was a comb for the use of those
gentlemen who did not travel with their dressing-
cases.

Some of the party, the warrior among the number,
commenced the day by taking a gin cocktail, the
hunter acting as bar-keeper, while his partner the cook,
who had been up an hour before any of us, chopping
wood and lighting a fire, was laying the table for
breakfast.

Breakfast was an affair of but very few moments,
and as soon as it was over, I set out in company with
three or four of the party, who were going the same
way.

We crossed the north fork of the American River
at Kelly's Bar, a very rocky little place, covered with

180 THE GOLD HUNTERS

a number of dilapidated tents. We had the usual
mountains to descend and ascend in crossing the river,
but on gaining the summit we found ourselves again
in a beautiful rolling country. Not far from the
river was a very romantic little place called Illinois-
town, consisting of three shanties and a saw-mill.
The pine trees in the neighborhood were of an enor-
mous size, and were being fast converted into lumber,
which was in great demand for various mining opera-
tions, and sold at 120 dollars per thousand feet. We
fared sumptuously on stewed squirrels at a solitary
shanty in the forest a few miles farther on.

These little wayside inns, or "ranches," as they are
usually called in the mines, are generally situated in
a spot which offers some capabilities of cultivation,
and where water, the great desideratum in the moun-
tains, is to be had all the year. The owners employ
themselves in fencing-in and clearing the land, and
by degrees give the place an appearance of comfort
and civilization. One finds such places in all the
different stages of improvement, from a small tent or
log cabin, with the wild forest around it as yet undis-
turbed, to good frame houses with two or three rooms,
a boarded floor, and windows, and surrounded by
several acres of cleared land under cultivation.

Oats and barley are the principal crops raised in
the mountains. In some of the little valleys a species
of wild oats, which makes excellent hay, grows very
luxuriantly. In passing through one such place,
where the grasshoppers were in clouds, we found a
number of Indian squaws catching them with small
nets attached to a short stick, in the style of an angler's
landing-net. I believe they bruise them and knead

URSUS HORRIBILIS 181

them into a paste, somewhat of the consistency of
potted shrimps; it may be as palatable also, but I can-
not speak from experience on that point. My com-
panions, as we traveled on, branched off one by one
to their respective destinations, and I was again alone
when I got to the ranch where I intended to pass the
night. It was somewhat the same style of thing as
the Grizzly-Bear House, but the house was larger,
and the accommodation more luxurious, inasmuch as
we had canvas bunks or shelves to sleep upon.

I went on next day along with a young miner from
Georgia, who was also bound for Nevada. We dined
at a place where we crossed Bear River; and a vil-
lainous bad dinner it was — nothing but bad salt pork,
bad pickled onions, and bad bread.

On resuming our journey, we were joined by a man
who said he always liked to have company on that
road. Several robberies and murders had been com-
mitted on it of late, and he very kindly pointed out
to us, as we passed it, the exact spot where, a few
days before, one man had been shot through the
head, and another through the hat. One was robbed
of seventy-five cents, the other of eight hundred dollars.

It was a very romantic place, and well calculated for
the operations of the gentlemen of the road, being a
little hollow darkened by the spreading branches of
a grove of oak trees; the underwood was thick and
very high, and as the trail twisted round trees and
bushes, a traveler could not see more than a few feet
before or behind him. We had our revolvers in
readiness; but I was not very apprehensive, as three
men, all showing pistols in their belts, are rather
more than those ruffians generally care to tackle.

182 THE GOLD HUNTERS

We arrived at Nevada City between five and six
o'clock, when I took a look round to find the most
likely place for a good supper, being particularly
ravenous after the long walk and the salt-pork dinner.
I found a house bearing the sign of "Hotel de Paris,"
and my choice was made at once. As I had half an
hour to wait for supper, I strolled about the town to
see what sort of a place it was. It is beautifully
situated on the hills bordering a small creek, and had
once been surrounded by a forest of magnificent pine
trees, which, however, had been made to become useful
instead of ornamental, and nothing now remained to
show that they had existed but the numbers of stumps
all over the hillsides. The bed of the creek, which
had once flowed past the town, was now choked up
with heaps of "tailings" — the washed dirt from
which the gold has been extracted — the white color
of the dirt rendering it still more unsightly. All
the water of the creek was distributed among a
number of small troughs, carried along the steep
banks on either side at different elevations, for the
purpose of supplying various quartz-mills and long
toms.

The town itself — or, I should say, the "City," for
from the moment of its birth it has been called Nevada
City — is, like all mining towns, a mixture of staring
white frame houses, dingy old canvas booths, and log
cabins.

The only peculiarity about the miners was the
white mud with which they were bespattered, espe-
cially those working in underground diggings, who were
easily distinguished by the quantity of dry white mud
on the tops of their hats.

URSUS HORRIBILIS 183

The supper at the Hotel de Paris was the best-got-
up thing of the kind I had sat down to for some
months. We began with soup — rather flimsy stuff,
but pretty good — then bouiili, followed by filct-de-
bceuf, with cabbage, carrots, turnips, and onions;
after that came what the landlord called a "god-dam
rosbif," with green peas, and the whole wound up
with a salad of raw cabbage, a cup of good coffee,
and cognac, I did impartial justice to every depart-
ment, and rose from the table powerfully refreshed.

The company were nearly all French miners, among
whom was a young Frenchman whom I had known in
San Francisco, and whom I hardly recognized in his
miner's costume.

We passed the evening together in some of the
gambling-rooms, where we heard pretty good music;
and as there were no sleeping quarters to be had at
the house where I dined, I went to an American
hotel close to it. It was in the usual style of a board-
ing-house in the mines, but it was a three-decker.
All round the large sleeping apartment were three
tiers of canvas shelves, partitioned into spaces six feet
long, on one of which I laid myself out, choosing the
top tier in case of accidents.

Next door was a large thin wooden building, in
which a theatrical company were performing. They
were playing Richard, and I could hear every word
as distinctly as if I had been in the stage-box. I
could even fancy I saw King Dick rolling his eyes
about like a man in a fit, when he shouted for "A
horse! a horse!" The fight between Richard and
Richmond was a very tame affair ; they hit hard while
they were at it, but it was too soon over. It was one-

184 THE GOLD HUNTERS

two, one-two, a thrust, and down went Dick. I
heard him fall, and could hear him afterwards gasp-
ing for breath and scuffling about on the stage in his
dying agonies.

After King Richard was disposed of, the orchestra,
which seemed to consist of two fiddles, favored us
with a very miscellaneous piece of music. There was
then an interlude performed by the audience, hooting,
yelling, whistling, and stamping their feet; and that
being over, the curtain rose, and we had Bombastes
Furioso. It was very creditably performed, but,
under the peculiar circumstances of the case, it did not
sound to me nearly so absurd as the tragedy.

Some half-dozen men, the only occupants of the
room besides myself, had been snoring comfortably
all through the performances, and now about a dozen
more came in and rolled themselves on to their re-
spective shelves. They had been at the theater, but
I am sure they had not enjoyed it so much as I did.

CHAPTER XI

ON THE TRAIL

IN this part of the country the pine trees are of an
immense size, and of every variety. The most
graceful is what is called the "sugar pine." It is
perfectly straight and cylindrical, with a comparatively
smooth bark, and, till about four-fifths of its height
from the ground, without a branch or even a twig.
The branches then spread straight out from the stem,
drooping a good deal at the extremities from the
weight of the immense cones which they bear. These
are about a foot and a half long, and under each leaf
is a seed the size of a cherrystone, which has a taste
even sweeter than that of a filbert. The Indians are
very fond of them, and make the squaws gather them
for winter food.

A peculiarity of the pine trees in California is
that the bark, from within eight or ten feet of the
ground up to where the branches commence, is com-
pletely riddled with holes, such as might be made
with musket-balls. They are, however, the work of
the woodpeckers, who, like the Indians, are largely
interested in the acorn crop. They are constantly
making these holes, in each of which they stow away
an acorn, leaving it as tightly wedged in as though it
were driven in with a sledge-hammer.

There were several quartz veins in the neighbor-

186 THE GOLD HUNTERS

hood of Nevada, some of which were very rich, and
yielded a large amount of gold; but, generally speak-
ing, they were so unscientifically and unprofitably
worked that they turned out complete failures.

Quartz mining is a scientific operation, of which
many of those who undertook to work the veins had
no knowledge whatever, nor had they sufficient capi-
tal to carry on such a business. The cost of erecting
crushing-mills, and of getting the necessary iron
castings from San Francisco, was very great. A vast
deal of labor had to be gone through in opening the
mine before any returns could be received ; and, more-
over, the method then adopted of crushing the quartz
and extracting the gold was so defective that not more
than one half of it was saved.

There is a variety of diggings here, but the richest
are deep diggings in the hills above the town, and are
worked by means of shafts, or coyote holes, as they
are called. In order to reach the gold-bearing dirt,
these shafts have to be sunk to the depth of nearly a
hundred feet, which requires the labor of at least
two men for a month or six weeks; and when they
have got down to the bottom, perhaps they may find
nothing to repay them for their perseverance.

The miners always calculate their own labor at
five dollars a day for every day they work, that being
the usual wages for hired labor; and if a man, after
working for a month in sinking a hole, finds no pay-
dirt at the bottom of it, he sets himself down as a
loser of a hundred and fifty dollars.

They make up heavy bills of losses against them-
selves in this way, but still there are plenty of men who
prefer devoting themselves to this speculative style

ON THE TRAIL 187

of digging, in hopes of eventually striking a rich lead,
to working steadily at surface diggings, which would
yield them, day by day, sure though moderate pay.

But mining of any description is more or less un-
certain, and any man "hiring out," as it is termed,
steadily throughout the year, and pocketing his five
dollars a day, would find at the end of the year that
he had done as well, perhaps, as the average of miners
working on their own hook, who spend a considerable
portion of their time in prospecting, and frequently,
in order to work a claim which may afford them a
month's actual washing, have to spend as long a time
in stripping off top-dirt, digging ditches, or perform-
ing other necessary labor to get their claim into work-
ing order; so that the daily amount of gold which
a man may happen to be taking out, is not to be taken
in itself as the measure of his prosperity. He may
take a large sum out of a claim, but may also have
spent as much upon it before he began to wash, and
half the days of the year he may get no gold at all.

There were plenty of men who, after two years*
hard work, were not a bit better off than when they
commenced, having lost in working one claim what
they had made in another, and having frittered away
their time in prospecting and wandering about the
country from one place to another, always imagining
that there were better diggings to be found than those
they were in at the time.

Under any circumstances, when a man can make
as much, or perhaps more, by working for himself,
he has greater pleasure in doing so than in working
for others; and among men engaged in such an ex-
citing pursuit as gold-hunting, constantly stimulated

188 THE GOLD HUNTERS

by the success of some one of their neighbors, it was
only natural that they should be loath to relinquish
their chance of a prize in the lottery, by hiring them-
selves out for an amount of daily wages which was
no more than any one, if he worked steadily, could
make for himself.

Those who did hire out were of two classes — cold-
blooded philosophers, who calculated the chances, and
stuck to their theory unmoved by the temptations
around them; and men who had not sufficient inven-
tive energy to direct their own labor and render it
profitable.

The average amount of gold taken out daily at that
time by men who really did work, was, I should think,
not less than eight dollars; but the average daily
yield of the mines to the actual population was prob-
ably not more than three or four dollars per head,
owing to the great number of "loafers," who did not
work more than perhaps one day in the week, and
spent the rest of their time in bar-rooms, playing cards
and drinking whisky. They led a listless life of mild
dissipation, for they never had money enough to get
very drunk. They were always in debt for their
board and their whisky at the boarding-house where
they lived; and when hard pressed to pay up, they
would hire out for a day or two to make enough for
their immediate wants, and then return to loaf away
their existence in a bar-room, as long as the boarding-
house keeper thought it advisable to give them credit.
I never, in any part of the mines, was in a store or
boarding-house that was not haunted by some men
of this sort.

Other men, with more energy in their dissipation,

ON THE TRAIL 189

and old sailors especially, would have periodical bursts,
more intense but of shorter duration. After min-
ing steadily for a month or two, and saving their
money, they would set to work to get rid of it as
fast as possible. An old sailor went about it most sys-
tematically. For the reason, as I supposed, that when
going to have a "spree," he imagined himself to have
come ashore off a voyage, he generally commenced
by going to a Jew's slop-shop, where he rigged himself
out in a new suit of clothes; he would then go the
round of all the bar-rooms in the place, and insist
on every one he found there drinking with him,
informing them at the same time (though it was
quite unnecessary, for the fact was very evident)
that he was "on the spree." Of course, he soon
made himself drunk, but before being very far gone
he would lose the greater part of his money to the
gamblers. Cursing his bad luck, he would then
console himself with a rapid succession of "drinks,"
pick a quarrel with some one who was not inter-
fering with him, get a licking, and be ultimately
rolled into a corner to enjoy the more passive phase
of his debauch. On waking in the morning he
would not give himself time to get sober, but would
go at it again, and keep at it for a week — most
affectionately and confidentially drunk in the fore-
noon, fighting drunk in the afternoon, and dead-drunk
at night. The next week he would get gradually
sober, and, recovering his senses, would return to his
work without a cent in his pocket, but quite contented
and happy, with his mind relieved at having had what
he considered a good spree. Four or five hundred
dollars was by no means an unusual sum for such a

190 THE GOLD HUNTERS

man to spend on an occasion of this sort, even with-
out losing much at the gaming-table. The greater
part of it went to the bar-keepers for "drinks," for the
height of his enjoyment was every few minutes to
ask half-a-dozen men to drink with him.

The amount of money thus spent at the bars in
the mines must have been enormous; the system of
"drinks" was carried still further than in San Fran-
cisco; and there were numbers of men of this de-
scription who were fortunate in their diggings, and
became possessed of an amount of gold of which
they could not realize the value. They only knew the
difference between having money and having none;
a hundred dollars was to them as good as a thousand,
and a thousand was in their ideas about the same as
a hundred. It did not matter how much they had
saved; when the time came for them to reward them-
selves with a spree after a month or so of hard work,
they made a clean sweep of everything, and spent
their last dollar as readily as the first.

I did not remain in Nevada, being anxious to get
down to the Yuba before the rainy season should
set in and put a stop to mining operations on the
river.

Foster's Bar, about thirty miles off, was the near-
est point on the Yuba, and for this place I started.
I was joined on leaving the town by a German,
carrying his gun and powder-horn: he was a hunter
by profession, as he informed me, having followed
that business for more than a year, rinding ready
sale for his game in Nevada.

The principal kinds of game in the mountains are
deer, quail, hares, rabbits, and squirrels. The quails,

ON THE TRAIL 191

which are very abundant, are beautiful birds, about
the size of a pigeon, with a top-knot on their head;
they are always in coveys, and rise with a whirr like
partridges..

My hunting companion was at present going after
deer, and, intending to stop out till he killed one,
he carried his blanket and a couple of days' pro-
visions.

I arrived about noon at a very pretty place called
Hunt's Ranch. It was a large log house, with several
well-cultivated fields around it, in which a number
of men were at work. At dinner here there was
the most extensive set-out of vegetables I ever saw
in the country, consisting of green peas, French beans,
cauliflower, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, pumpkins,
squash, and watermelons. It was a long time since
I had seen such a display, and not knowing when I
might have another opportunity, I pitched into them
right and left.

I was lighting my pipe in the bar-room after
dinner, when a man walked in whom I recognized
at once as one of my fellow passengers from New
York to Chagres. I was very glad to see him, as he
was one of the most favorable specimens of that
crowd; and according to the custom of the country,
we immediately ratified our renewed acquaintance
in a brandy cocktail. He was returning to his dig-
gings about ten miles off, and our roads being the
same, we set out together.

He gave me an account of his doings since he had
been in the mines, from which he did not seem to
have had much luck on his side, for most of the
money he had made he had lost in buying claims

192 THE GOLD HUNTERS

which turned out valueless. He had owned a share
in a company which was working a claim on the Yuba,
but had sold it for a mere trifle before it was ascer-
tained whether the claim was rich or not, and it was
now yielding 150 dollars a day to the man.

We crossed the Middle Yuba, a small stream, at
Emery's Bridge, where my friend left me, and I went
on alone, having six or seven miles to go to reach my
resting-place for the night.

I was now in a region of country so mountainous
as to be perfectly impassable for wheeled vehicles.
All supplies were brought to the various trading posts
from Marysville on trains of pack-mules.

"Packing," as it is called, is a large business. A
packer has in his train from thirty to fifty mules, and
four or five Mexicans to tend them — mule-driving,
or "packing," being one of the few occupations tf
which Mexicans devote themselves; and at this they
certainly do excel. Though generally a lazy, indolent
people, it is astonishing what activity and energy
they display in an employment which suits their
fancy. They drive the mules about twenty-five miles
a day; and in camping for the night, they have to
select a place where there is water, and where there
is also some sort of picking for the mules, which, in
the dry season, when every blade of vegetation is
burned up, is rather hard to find.

I came across a train of about forty mules, under
charge of four or five Mexicans, just as they were
about to unpack, and make their camp. The spot
they chose was a little grassy hollow in the middle of
the woods, near which flowed a small stream of beauti-
fully clear water. It was evidently a favorite camp-

ON THE TRAIL 193

ing ground, from the numbers of signs of old fires.
The mules seemed to know it too, for they all stopped
and commenced picking the grass. The Mexicans,
who were riding tough little Californian horses, im-
mediately dismounted and began to unpack, working
with such vigor that one might have thought they
were doing it for a wager.

Two men unpack a mule together. They first throw
over his head a broad leathern belt, which hangs over
his eyes to blind him and keep him quiet; then, one
man standing on each side, they cast off the numerous
hide ropes with which the cargo is secured ; and when
all is cast loose, each man removes his half of the
cargo and places it on the ground. Another mule is
then led up to the same spot, and unpacked in like
mariner; the cargo being all ranged along the ground
in a row, and presenting a very miscellaneous assort-
ment of sacks of flour, barrels of pork or brandy, bags
of sugar, boxes of tobacco, and all sorts of groceries
and other articles. When all the cargoes have been
unpacked, they then take off the aparejos, or large
Mexican pack-saddles, examining the back of each
mule to see if it is galled. The pack-saddles are all set
down in a row parallel with the cargo, the girth and
saddle-cloth of each being neatly folded and laid on
the top of it. The place where the mules have been
unpacked, between the saddles and the cargo, is
covered with quantities of rawhide ropes and other
lashings, which are all coiled up and stowed away in
a heap by themselves.

Every mule, as his saddle is taken off, refreshes
himself by rolling about in the dust; and when all are
unsaddled, the bell-horse is led away to water. The

194* THE GOLD HUNTERS

mules all follow him, and are left to their own de-
vices till morning.

The bell-horse of a train of mules is a very curious
institution. He is generally an old white horse, with
a small bell hung round his neck. He carries no
cargo, but leads the van in tow of a Mexican. The
mules will follow him through thick and thin, but
without him they will not move a step.

In the morning the mules are hunted up and driven
into camp, when they are tied together in a row
behind their pack-saddles, and brought round one by
one to be saddled and packed. To pack a mule well,
considerable art is necessary. His load must be so
divided that there is an equal weight on each side,
else the mule works at great disadvantage. If his load
is not nicely balanced and tightly secured, he cannot
so well pick his way along the steep mountain trails,
and, as not unfrequently happens, topples over and
rolls down to some place from which no mule returns.

CHAPTER XII

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS

1 ARRIVED about dusk at a ranch called the "Grass
Valley House," situated in a forest of pines. It
was a clapboard house, built round an old log cabin
which formed one corner of the building, and was now
the private apartment of the landlord and his wife. I
was here only six miles from Foster's Bar, and set out
for that place in the morning; but I made a mistake
somewhere, and followed a wrong trail, which led me
to a river, after walking six or seven miles without
meeting any one of whom I could ascertain whether
I was going right or not. The descent to the river
was very steep, and as I went down I had misgivings
that I was all wrong, and should have to come up
again, but I expected at least to find some one there
who could put me right. After scrambling down the
best way I could, and reaching the river, I was dis-
appointed to find nothing but the remains of an old
tent; there was not even a sign of any work having
been done there. The river flowed among huge
masses of rock, from which the banks rose so steep
and rugged that to follow the course of the stream
seemed out of the question. I thought, however,
that I could distinguish marks here and there on the
rocks, as if caused by traveling over them, and these
I followed with considerable difficulty for about half
195

196 THE GOLD HUNTERS

a mile, when they stopped at a place where the black-
ened rocks, the remains of burned wood, and a lot of
old sardine-boxes, showed that some one had been
camped. Here I fancied I could make out a trail
going straight up the face of the hill, on the same
side of the river by which I had come down. It
looked a hard road to travel, but I preferred trying
it to retracing my steps, especially as I judged it
would be a shorter way back to the house I had
started from.

I got on very well for a short distance, but very
soon lost all sign of a trail. I was determined, how-
ever, to make my way up, which I did by dint of
catching hold of branches of trees and bushes; and on
my hands I had to place my greatest dependence, for
the loose soil was covered with large stones, which
gave way under my feet, and which I could hear
rolling down far below me. Sometimes I came to a
bare face of rock, up which I had to work my passage
by means of the crevices and projecting ledges. It
was useless to consider whether more formidable
obstacles were still before me; my only chance was
to go ahead, for if I had attempted to go down again,
I should have found the descent rather too easy, and
probably have broken my neck. It was dreadfully
hot, and I was carrying my blankets slung over my
shoulder, which, catching on trees and rocks, impeded
my progress considerably; and though I was in pretty
good condition for this sort of work, I had several
times to get astride of a tree and take a spell.

At last, after a great deal of scrambling and climb-
ing, my shins barked, my clothes nearly torn off my
back, and my eyes half scratched out by the bushes,

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 197

completely blown, and suffocated with the heat, I
arrived at a place where I considered that I had got
over the worst of it, as the ascent seemed to become
a little more practicable. I was dying of thirst, and
would have given a very long price for a drink of
water; but the nearest water I expected to find was
at a spring about five miles off, which I had passed
in the morning. I could not help thinking what a
delightful thing a quart pot of Bass's pale ale would
be, with a lump of ice in it; then I thought I would
prefer a sherry cobbler, but I could not drink that
fast enough; and then it seemed that a quart pot of
ale would not be enough, that I would like to drink
it out of a bucket. I quaffed in imagination gigantic
goblets, one after another, of all sorts of delicious
fluids, but none of them did me any good; and so I
concluded that I had better think of something else
till I reached the spring.

The rest of the mountain was not very hard travel-
ing, and when once on the top of the range, I struck
off in a direction which I thought would hit my old
trail. I very soon got on to it, and after half an
hour's walking, I found the spring, where, as the Mis-
sourians say, "y°u may just bet your life," I did drink.

It was about three o'clock, and I thought my safest
plan was to return to the house I had started from
in the morning, about six miles off, where, on my
arrival, I learned that I had been misled by an Indian
trail, and had traveled far out of the right direction.
It was too late to make a fresh start that day, so I
was doomed to pass another night here, and in the
evening amused myself by sketching a train of pack-
mules which had camped near the house.

198 THE GOLD HUNTERS

I was just setting off in the morning, when two or
three men, who had seen me sketching the evening
before, came and asked me to take their likenesses for
them. As they were very anxious about it, I made
them sit down, and very soon polished them all off,
improving so much on their personal appearance, that
they evidently had no idea before that they were such
good-looking fellows, and expressed themselves highly
satisfied. As I was finishing the last one, an old
fellow came in, who, seeing what was up, was seized
with a violent desire to have his sweet countenance
"pictur'd off" likewise, to send to his wife. It struck
me that his wife must be a woman of singular taste
if she ever wished to see his face again. He was just
about the ugliest man I ever saw in my life. He
wanted to comb his hair, poor fellow, and make him-
self look as presentable as possible; but I had no
mercy on him, and, making him sit down as he was,
I did my best to represent him about fifty per cent,
uglier than he really was. He was in great distress
that he had not better clothes on for the occasion;
so, to make up for caricaturing his features, I im-
proved his costume, and gave him a very spicy black
coat, black satin waistcoat, and very stiff stand-up
collars. The fidelity of the likeness he never doubted,
being so lost in admiration of his dress, that he seemed
to think the face a matter of minor importance alto-
gether.

I did not take many portraits in the mines; but
from what little experience I had, I invariably found
that men of a lower class wanted to be shown in the
ordinary costume of the nineteenth century — that is
to say, in a coat, waistcoat, white shirt and neckcloth ;

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 199

while gentlemen miners were anxious to appear in
character, in the most ragged style of California dress.

I went to Foster's Bar after dinner with a man
who was on his way there from Downieville, a town
about thirty miles up the river. He told me that he
and his partner had gone there a few months before,
and had worked together for some time, when they
separated, his partner joining a company which had
averaged a hundred dollars a day to each man ever
since, while my friend had bought a share in another
company, and, after working hard for six weeks, had
not, as he expressed it, made enough to pay for his
grub. Such is mining.

Foster's Bar is a place about half a mile long, with
the appearance of having slipped down off the face of
the mountains, and thus formed a flat along the side of
the river. The village or camp consisted of a few
huts and cabins ; and all around on the rocks, wherever
it suited their convenience, were parties of miners
camping out.

I could only see one place which purported to be a
hotel, and to it I went. It was a large canvas house,
the front part of which was the bar-room, and behind
it the dining-room. Alongside of the former an addi-
tion had been made as a sleeping apartment, and here,
when I felt inclined to turn in about ten o'clock, I
was accommodated with a cot.

A gambling-room in San Francisco is a tolerably
quiet place, where little else is heard but good music
or the chinking of dollars, and where, if it were neces-
sary, one could sleep comfortably enough. But a
gambling-room in a small camp in the mines is a very
different affair. There not so much ceremony is ob-

200 THE GOLD HUNTERS

served, and the company are rather more apt to devote
themselves to the social enjoyment of drinking, quarrel-
ling, and kicking up a row generally. In this instance
the uproar beat all my previous experience, and sleep-
ing was out of the question. The bar-room, I found,
was also the gambling-room of the diggings. Four
or five monte tables were in full blast, and the room
was crowded with all the rowdies of the place. As
the night wore on and the brandy began to tell, they
seemed to be having a general fight, and I half ex-
pected to see some of them pitched through the canvas
into the sleeping apartment; or perhaps pistols might
be used, in which case I should have had as good a
chance of being shot as any one else.

I managed to drop off asleep during a lull in the
storm; but when I awoke at daylight, it was only
then finally subsiding. I found that some man had
broken a monte bank, and, on the strength of his good
fortune, had been treating the company to an un-
limited supply of brandy all night, which fully ac-
counted for the row ; but I did not fancy such sleeping
quarters, and made up my mind to camp out while I
remained in those diggings.

I selected a very pretty spot at the foot of a ravine,
in which was a stream of water; and, buying a tin
coffee-pot and some tea and sugar, I was completely
set up. There was a baker and butcher in the camp,
so I had very little trouble in my cooking arrange-
ments, having merely to boil my pot, and then raking
down the fire with my foot, lay a steak on the embers.

The weather was very hot and dry; but it was
getting late in the season, and I generally awoke in
the morning like the flowers the Irishman sings about

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 201

to Molly Bawn, "with their rosy faces wet with dew."
At least as far as the dew is concerned — for a rosy face
is a thing not seen in the mines, the usual color of
men's faces being a good standard leathery hue, a very
little lighter than that of a penny-piece — all rosiness
of cheek, where it ever existed, is driven out by the
hot sun and dry atmosphere.

I found camping out a very pleasant way of living.
With my blankets I made a first-rate awning during
the day; and if I could not boast of a bed of roses, I
at least had one of dahlias, for numbers of large flowers
of that species grew in great profusion all round my
camp, and these I was so luxurious as to pluck and
strew thickly on the spot where I intended to sleep.

I remained here for about three weeks; and for two
or three mornings before I left, I woke finding my
blankets quite white with frost. On such occasions
I was more active than usual in lighting my fire and
getting my coffee-pot under a full head of steam ; but
as soon as ever the sun was up, the frost was imme-
diately dispelled, and half an hour after sunrise one
was glad to get into the shade.

On leaving Foster's Bar, I went to a place a few
miles up the river, where some miners were at work,
who had asked me to visit their camp. The river
here flowed through a narrow rocky gorge (a sort of
place which, in California, is called by its Spanish
name a "canon"), and was flumed for a distance of
nearly half a mile; that is to say, it was carried past
in an aqueduct supported on uprights, being raised
from its natural bed, which was thus laid bare and
rendered capable of being worked. It was late when
I arrived, and the party of miners had just stopped

202 THE GOLD HUNTERS

work for the day. Some were taking off their wet
boots, and washing their faces in the river; others
were lighting their pipes or cutting up tobacco; and
the rest were collected round the fire, making bets as
to the quantity of gold which was being dried in an
old frying-pan. This was the result of their day's
work, and weighed four or five pounds. The banks
of the river were so rough and precipitous that, for
want of any level space on which to camp, they had
been obliged to raise a platform of stone and gravel.
On this stood a tent about twenty feet long, which
was strewed inside with blankets, boots, hats, old
newspapers, and such articles. In front of the tent
was a long rough table, on each side of which a young
pine tree, with two or three legs stuck into it here and
there, did duty as a bench, some of the bark having
been chipped off the top side, by way of making it an
easy seat. At the foot of the rocks, close to the table,
an immense fire was blazing, presided over by a darky,
who was busy preparing supper; for where so many
men messed together, it was economy to have a pro-
fessional cook, though his wages were frequently higher
than those paid to a miner. A quarter of beef hung
from the limb of a tree ; and stowed away, in beautiful
confusion, among the nooks and crannies of the rocks,
were sacks, casks, and boxes containing various articles
of provisions.

Within a few feet of us, and above the level of the
camp, the river rushed past in its wooden bed, spin-
ning round, as it went, a large water-wheel, by means
of which a constant stream of water was pumped up
from the diggings and carried off in the flume. The
company consisted of eight members. They were all

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 203

New Yorkers, and had been brought up to professional
and mercantile pursuits. The rest of the party were
their hired men, who, however, were upon a perfect
social equality with their employers.

When it was time to turn in, I was snown a space
on the gravelly floor of the tent, about six feet by
one and a half, where I might stretch out and dream
that I dwelt in marble halls. About a dozen men slept
in the tent, the others lying outside on the rocks.

My intention was from this camp to go on to
Downieville, about forty miles up the river; but I had
first to return to Foster's Bar for some drawing-paper
which I had ordered from Sacramento.

On my way I passed a most romantic little bridge,
formed by two pine trees, which had been felled so as
to span a deep and thickly wooded ravine. I sat
down among the bushes a short distance off the trail,
and was making a sketch of the place, when presently
a man came along riding on a mule. I was quite
aware that I should have a very suspicious appearance
to a passer-by, and I was in hopes he might not ob-
serve me. I had no object in speaking to him, espe-
cially as, had I hailed him from my ambuscade, he
might have been apt to reply with his revolver.

Just as he was passing, however, and when all I
could see of him was his head and shoulders, his eyes
wandered over the bank at the side of the trail, and
he caught sight of my head looking down on him over
the tops of the bushes. He gave a start, as I expected
he would, and addressed me with "Good morning,
Colonel." My promotion to the rank of colonel I
most probably owed to the fact that he thought it
advisable, under the circumstances, to be as concilia-

204 THE GOLD HUNTERS

tory as possible until he knew my intentions. I saw
a good deal of the same man afterwards, but he never
again raised me above the rank of captain. I replied
to his salutation, and he then asked the very natural
question, "What are ye a-doin' of over there?" I
gave an account of myself, which he did not seem to
think altogether satisfactory, but, after making some
remark on the weather, he passed on.

About an hour later, when I arrived at Foster's
Bar, I found him sitting in a store with some half-
dozen miners, to whom he had been recounting how
he had seen a man concealed in the bushes off the
trail. He expressed himself as having been "awful
skeered," and said that he had his pistol out, and was
thinking of shooting all the time he was speaking to
me. I told him I had mine lying by my side, and
would have returned the compliment, when, by way
of showing me what sort of a chance I should have
stood, he stuck up a card on a tree at about twenty
paces, and put six balls into it one after another out
of his heavy navy revolver. I confessed I could not
beat such shooting as that, and was very well pleased
that he had not taken it into his head to make a
target of me.

It seemed that he was an express carrier, and as
his partner had been robbed but a few days before,
very near the place of our meeting, his suspicions of
me were not at all unreasonable.

I was very desirous of seeing a friend of mine who
was mining at a place about twenty miles off, so,
having hired* a mule for the journey, I set off early
next morning, intending to return the same night.
My way was through a part of the country very little

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 205

traveled, and the trails were consequently very indis-
tinct, but I got full directions how to find my way,
where to leave the main trail, which side to take at
a place where the trail forked, where I should cross
another, and so on; also where I should pass an old
cabin, a forked pine tree, and other objects, by which
I might know that I was on the right road.

The man who gave me my directions said he hardly
expected that I would be able to keep the right trail.
I had some doubts about it myself, but I was deter-
mined to try at all events, and for seven or eight
miles I got along very well, knowing I was right by
the landmarks which I had passed.

The numbers of Indian trails, however, branching
off to right and left were very confusing, being not
a bit less indistinct than the trail I was endeavoring
to follow. At last I felt certain that I had gone
wrong, but as I fancied I was not going far out of
the right direction, I kept on, and shortly afterwards
came upon a small camp called Toole's Diggings.
I was told here that I had only come five miles out of
my way; and after dining and getting some fresh
directions, I set out again. Having ridden for
nearly an hour, I came to an Indian camp, situated by
the side of a small stream in a very dense part of the
forest. At first I could see no one but some children
amusing themselves with a swing hung from a branch
of an oak tree, but as I was going past, a number of
Indians came running out from their brush huts.
They were friendly Indians, and had picked up a few
words of English from loafing about the camps of the
miners. The usual style of salutation to them is,
"How d'ye do?" to which they reply in the same

206 THE GOLD HUNTERS

words; but if you repeat the question, as if you really
wanted to know the state of their health, they invari-
ably answer "fuss-rate." Accordingly, having ascer-
tained that they were all * 'fuss-rate," I mixed up a
little broken English, some mongrel Spanish, and a
word or two of Indian, and made inquiries as to my
way. In much the same sort of language they
directed me how to go; and though they seemed dis-
posed to prolong the conversation, I very quickly bade
them adieu and moved on, not being at all partial
to such company.

I followed the dim trail up hill and down dale for
several hours without seeing a human being, and I
felt quite satisfied that I was again off my road, but
I pushed on in hopes of reaching some sort of habita-
tion before dark. At last, in traveling up the side
of a small creek, just as the sun was taking leave of
us, I caught sight of a log cabin among the pine
trees. It seemed to have been quite recently built,
so I was pretty sure it was inhabited, and on riding
up I found two men in it, from whom I learned that
I was still five miles from my destination. They
recommended me to stop the night with them, as it
was nearly dark, and the trail was hard enough to find
by daylight.

I saw no help for it; so, after staking out the mule
where he could pick some green stuff, I joined my
hosts, who were just sitting down to supper. It was
not a very elaborate affair — nothing but tea and ham.
They apologized for the meagerness of the turn-out,
and especially for the want of bread, saying that they
had been away for a couple of days, and on their

SITTERS FOR PORTRAITS 207

return found that the Indians had taken the oppor-
tunity to steal all their flour.

We made the most of what we had, however, and
putting a huge log on the fire, we lighted our pipes,
and my entertainers, producing two violins, favored
me with a selection of nigger melodies.

They had been mining lately at the place which I
had been trying to reach all day, and in the course of
conversation I found that I had had all my trouble for
nothing, as the man whom I was in search of had a
few days before left the diggings for San Francisco.

The next morning I returned to Foster's Bar, my
friends putting me on a much shorter trail than the
roundabout road I had traveled the day before.

CHAPTER XIII

ON THE WAY TO DOWNIEVILLE

FROM Foster's Bar I set out for Downieville.
On leaving the river, I had as usual a long hill
to climb, but once on the top, the trail followed
the backbone of the ridge, and was comparatively easy
to travel. It was the main "pack-trail" to Downie-
ville, and, being traveled by all the trains of pack-
mules, was nearly ankle-deep in dust. The soil of
the California mountains is generally very red and
sterile, and has the property of being easily con-
verted into exceedingly fine dust, as red as brick-dust,
or into equally fine mud, according to the season of
the year. At the end of a day's journey in summer,
the color of a man's face is hardly discernible through
the thick coating of dust, which makes him look more
like a red Indian than a white man.

The scenery was very beautiful. The pine trees
were not too numerous to interrupt the view, and
the ridge was occasionally so narrow that, on either
hand, looking over the tops of the trees down below,
there was a vast panorama of pine-clad mountains,
on one side gradually diminishing, till, at a distance
of forty or fifty miles, they merged imperceptibly into
the plains, which, with the hazy heated atmosphere
upon them, looked like a calm ocean; while, on the
other side, one mountain ridge appeared above another,

208

ON THE WAY TO DOWNIEVILLE 209

more barren as they became more lofty, till at last
they faded away into a few hardly discernible snowy
peaks. It was a pleasing change when sometimes a
break occurred in the ridge, and the trail dipped into
a dark shady hollow, and, winding its way through
the dense mass of underwood, crossed a little stream
of water, and, leading up the opposite bank, gained
once more the open ground on the summit. I traveled
about fifteen miles without meeting any one, and
arrived at Slate Range House, a solitary cabin, so
called from being situated at the spot where one begins
to descend to Slate Range, a place where the banks of
the river are composed of huge masses of slate. I
dined here, and shortly afterwards overtook a little
Englishman, whose English accent sounded very re-
freshing. He had been in the country since before
the existence of gold was discovered ; but from his own
account he did not seem to have profited much in his
gold-hunting exploits from having had such a good
start.

I stopped all night at Oak Valley, a small camp,
consisting of three cabins and a hotel, and in the
morning I resumed my journey in company with
two miners, who had a pack-horse loaded with their
mining tools, their pots and pans, their blankets, and
all the rest of it. The horse, however, did not seem
to approve of the arrangement, for, after having gone
about a couple of miles, he wheeled round, and set off
back again through the woods as hard as he could
split, the pots and pans banging against his ribs, and
making a fearful clatter. My companions started in
chase of their goods and chattels ; but thinking the pair
of them quite a match for the old horse, and not caring

210 THE GOLD HUNTERS

how the race turned out, I left them to settle it among
themselves, and went on my way.

I met several trains of pack-mules, the jingling of
the bell on the bell-horse, and the shouts of the
Mexican muleteers, generally announcing their ap-
proach before they came in sight. They were re-
turning to Marysville; and as they have no cargo to
bring down from the mines, the mules were jogging
along very cheerily; when loaded, they relieve their
feelings by grunting and groaning at every step.

The next place I came to was a ranch called the
"Nigger Tent." It was originally a small tent, kept
by an enterprising nigger for the accommodation of
travelers; but as his fortunes prospered, he had built
a very comfortable cabin, which, however, retained
the name of the old establishment.

In the afternoon I arrived at the place where the
trail leaves the summit of the range, and commences
to wind down the steep face of the mountain to
Downieville. There was a ranch and a spring of
deliciously cold water, which was very acceptable, as
the last ten miles of my journey had been uphill nearly
all the way, and the heat was intense, but not a drop
of water was to be found on the road.

I overtook two or three miners on their way to
Downieville, and went on in company with them.
As we descended, we got an occasional view between
the pine trees of the little town far down below us,
so completely surrounded by mountains that it seemed
to be at the bottom of an immense hole in the ground.

I had heard so much of Downieville, that on reach-
ing the foot of the mountain I was rather disappointed
at first to find it apparently so small a place, but I

ON THE WAY TO DOWNIEVILLE 211

very soon discovered that there was a great deal com-
pressed into a small compass. There was only one
street in the town, which was three or four hundred
yards long; indeed, the mountain at whose base it
stood was so steep that there was not room for more
than one street between it and the river.

This was the depot, however, for the supplies of a
very large mining population. All the miners within
eight or ten miles depended on Downieville for their
provisions, and the street was consequently always a
scene of bustle and activity, being crowded with trains
of pack-mules and their Mexican drivers.

The houses were nearly all of wood, many of them
well-finished two-story houses, with columns and
verandas in front. The most prominent places in
the town were of course the gambling saloons, fitted
up in the usual style of showy extravagance, with the
exception of the mirrors; for as everything had to be
brought seventy or eighty miles over the mountains
on the backs of mules, very large mirrors were a
luxury hardly attainable; an extra number of smaller
ones, however, made up for the deficiency. There
were several very good hotels, and two or three French
restaurants; the other houses in the town were nearly
all stores, the mining population living in tents and
cabins, all up and down the river.

I put up at a French house, which was kept in very
good style by a pretty little Frenchwoman, and had
quite the air of being a civilized place. I was accom-
modated with half of a bedroom, in which there was
hardly room to turn round between the two beds; but
I was so accustomed to rolling myself in my blankets
and sleeping on the ground, or on the rocks, or at best

212 THE GOLD HUNTERS

being stowed away on a shelf with twenty or thirty
other men in a large room, that it seemed to me most
luxurious quarters. The salle a manger was under-
neath me, and as the floor was very thin, I had the
full benefit of all the conversation of those who in-
dulged in late suppers, whilst next door was a ten-pin
alley, in which they were banging away at the pins
all night long; but such trifles did not much disturb
my slumbers.

There was no lack of public amusements in the
town. The same company which I had heard in
Nevada were performing in a very comfortable little
theater — not a very highly decorated house, but laid
out in the orthodox fashion, with boxes, pit, and gal-
lery— and a company of American glee-singers, who
had been concertizing with great success in the various
mining towns, were giving concerts in a large room
devoted to such purposes. Their selection of songs
was of a decidedly national character, and a lady, one
of their party, had won the hearts of all the miners
by singing very sweetly a number of old familiar
ballads, which touched the feelings of the expatriated
gold-hunters.

I was present at their concert one night, when, at
the close of the performance, a rough old miner stood
up on his seat in the middle of the room, and after a
few preliminary coughs, delivered himself of a very
elaborate speech, in which, on behalf of the miners of
Downieville, he begged to express to the lady their
great admiration of her vocal talents, and in token
thereof begged her acceptance of a purse containing
500 dollars' worth of gold specimens. Compliments
of this sort, which the Scotch would call "wiselike,"

ON THE WAY TO DOWNIEVILLE 213

and which the fair cantatrice no doubt valued as
highly as showers of the most exquisite bouquets, had
been paid to her in most of the towns she had visited
in the mines. Some enthusiastic miners had even
thrown specimens to her on the stage.

Downieville is situated at what is called the Forks
of the Yuba River, and the town itself was frequently
spoken of as "The Forks" in that part of the country.
It may be necessary to explain that, in talking of the
forks of a river in California, one is always supposed
to be going up the river; the forks are its tributaries.
The main rivers received their names, which they still
retain, from the Spaniards and Indians; and the first
gold-hunting pioneers, in exploring a river, when they
came to a tributary, called one branch the north, and
the other the south fork. When one of these again
received a tributary, it either continued to be the north
or south fork, or became the middle fork, as the case
might be.

If a river was never to have more than two tribu-
taries, this would do very well, but the river above
Downieville kept on forking about every half-a-mile,
and the branches were all named on the same prin-
ciple, so that there were half-a-dozen north, middle,
and south forks.

The diggings at Downieville were very extensive;
for many miles above it on each fork there were num-
bers of miners working in the bed and the banks of
the river. The mountains are very precipitous, and
the only communication was by a narrow trail which
had been trodden into the hillside, and crossed from
one side of the river to the other, as either happened
to be more practicable; sometimes following the rocky

214 THE GOLD HUNTERS

bed of the river itself, and occasionally rising over
high steep bluffs, where it required a steady head and
a sure foot to get along in safety.

One spot in particular was enough to try the
nerve of any one but a chamois hunter. It was a
high bluff, almost perpendicular, round which the river
made a sweep, and the only possible, way of passing
it was by a trail about eighty feet above the river.
The trail hardly deserved the name — it was merely a
succession of footsteps, sometimes a few inches of a
projecting rock, or a root. Two men could pass each
other with difficulty, and only at certain places, by
holding on to each other; and from the trail to the
river all was clear and smooth, not a tree or a bush
to save one if he happened to miss his footing. At
one spot there was an indentation in the precipice,
where the rock was quite perpendicular: to get over
this difficulty, a young pine tree was laid across by
way of a bridge; it was only four or five inches in
diameter, and lay nearly a couple of feet outside of
the rock. In passing, one only rested one foot on
the tree, and with the other took advantage of the
inequalities in the face of the rock; while looking
down to see where to put one's feet, one saw far be-
low, between his outstretched legs, the most unin-
viting jagged rocks, strongly suggestive of sudden
death.

The miners had given this place the name of Cape
Horn. Those who were camped on the river above
it, were so used to it that they passed along with a
hop, step, and a jump, though carrying a week's provi-
sions on their backs, but a great many men had fallen
over, and been instantly killed on the rocks below.

ON THE WAY TO DOWNIEVILLE 215

The last victim, at the time I was there, was a
Frenchman, who very foolishly set out to return to
his camp from Downieville after dark, having to pass
this place on the way. He had taken the precaution
to provide himself with a candle and some matches
to light him round the Cape, but he was found dead
on the rocks the next morning.

CHAPTER XIV

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW

A FEW weeks before my arrival there, Downieville
had been the scene of great excitement on one of
those occasions when the people took on them-
selves the administration and execution of justice.

A Mexican woman one forenoon had, without prov-
ocation, stabbed a miner to the heart, killing him on
the spot. The news of the murder spread rapidly up
and down the river, and a vast concourse of miners
immediately began to collect in the town.

The woman, an hour or two after she committed
the murder, was formally tried by a jury of twelve,
found guilty, and condemned to be hung that after-
noon. The case was so clear that it admitted of no
doubt, several men having been witnesses of the whole
occurrence; and the woman was hung accordingly,
on the bridge in front of the town, in presence of
many thousand people.

For those whose ideas of the proper mode of ad-
ministering criminal law are only acquired from an
acquaintance with the statistics of crime and its
punishment in such countries as England, where a
single murder excites horror throughout the kingdom,
and is for days a matter of public interest, where
judicial corruption is unknown, where the instruments
of the law are ubiquitous, and its action all but infal-

216

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW 217

lible, — for such persons it may be difficult to realize
a state of things which should render it necessary, or
even excusable, that any number of irresponsible in-
dividuals should exercise a power of life and death
over their fellow men.

And no doubt many sound theories may be brought
forward against the propriety of administering Lynch
law; but California, in the state of society which then
existed, and in view of the total inefficiency, or worse
than inefficiency, of the established courts of justice,
was no place for theorizing upon abstract prin-
ciples. Society had to protect itself by the most
practical and unsophisticated system of retributive
justice, quick in its action, and whose operation, being
totally divested of all mystery and unnecessary cere-
mony, was perfectly comprehensible to the meanest
understanding — a system inconsistent with public safety
in old countries — unnecessary, in fact, where the
machinery of the law is perfect in all its parts — but
at the same time one which men most naturally adopt
in the absence of all other protection ; and any one who
lived in the mines of California at that time is bound
gratefully to acknowledge that the feeling of security
of life and person which he there enjoyed was due
in a great measure to his knowledge of the fact that
this admirable institution of Lynch law was in full and
active operation.

There were in California the elite of the most
desperate and consummate scoundrels from every part
of the world; and the unsettled state of the country,
the wandering habits of the mining population,
scattered, as they were, all over the mountains, and
frequently carrying an amount of gold on their persons

218 THE GOLD HUNTERS

inconvenient from its very weight, together with the
isolated condition of many individuals, strangers to
every one around them, and who, if put out of the
way, would never have been missed — all these things
tended apparently to render the country one where
such ruffians would have ample room to practice their
villainy. But, thanks to Lynch law, murders and
robberies, numerous as they were, were by no means
of such frequent occurrence as might have been ex-
pected, considering the opportunities and temptations
afforded to such a large proportion of the population,
who were only restrained from violence by a whole-
some regard for the safety of their own necks.

And after all, the fear of punishment of death is
the most effectual preventive of crime. To the class
of men among whom murderers are found, it is prob-
ably the only feeling which deters them, and its in-
fluence is unconsciously felt even by those whose sense
of right and wrong is not yet so dead as to allow
them to contemplate the possibility of their commit-
ting a murder. In old States, however, fear of the
punishment of death does not act with its full force
on the mind of the intending criminal, for the idea of
the expiation of his crime on the scaffold has to be
preceded in his imagination by all the mysterious and
tedious formalities of the law, in the uncertainty of
which he is apt to flatter himself that he will by some
means get an acquittal; and even if convicted, the
length of time which must elapse before his ultimate
punishment, together with the parade and circum-
stance with which it is attended, divests it in a great
measure of the feelings of horror which it is intended
to arouse.

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW 219

But when Lynch law prevails, it strikes terror to
the heart of the evil-doer. He has no hazy and un-
defined view of his ultimate fate in the distant future,
but a vivid picture is before him of the sure and
speedy consequence of crime. The formalities and
delays of the law, which are instituted for the protec-
tion of the people, are for the same reason abolished,
and the criminal knows that, instead of being tried
by the elaborate and intricate process of law, his very
ignorance of which leads him to over-estimate his
chance of escape, he will have to stand before a tri-
bunal of men who will try him, not by law, but by
hard, straightforward common-sense, and from whom
he can hope for no other verdict than that which his
own conscience awards him; while execution follows
so close upon sentence, that it forms, as it were, but
part of the same ceremony: for Californians were
eminently practical and earnest; what they meant to
do they did "right off," with all their might, and as
if they really meant to do it; and Lynch law was ad-
ministered with characteristic promptness and de-
cision. Sufficient time, however, or at least what was
considered to be sufficient time, was always granted to
the criminal to prepare for death. Very frequently
he was not hanged till the day after his trial.

An execution, of course, attracted an immense
crowd, but it was conducted with as little parade as
possible. Men were hung in the readiest way which
suggested itself — on a bough of the nearest tree, or
on a tree close to the spot where the murder was com-
mitted. In some instances the criminal was run up
by a number of men, all equally sharing the hang-
man 's duty ; on other occasions, one man was appointed

220 THE GOLD HUNTERS

to the office of executioner, and a drop was extempo-
rized by placing the culprit on his feet on the top of
an empty box or barrel, under the bough of a tree,
and at the given signal the box was knocked away
from under him.

Not an uncommon mode was, to mount the crimi-
nal on a horse or mule, when, after the rope was ad-
justed, a cut of a whip was administered to the back
of the animal, and the man was left suspended.

Petty thefts, which were of very rare occurrence,
were punished by so many lashes with a cowhide,
and the culprit was then banished from the camp. A
man who would commit a petty theft was generally
such a poor miserable devil as to excite compassion
more than any other feeling, and not unfrequently,
after his chastisement, a small subscription was raised
for him, to help him along till he reached some other
diggings.

Theft or robbery of any considerable amount, how-
ever, was a capital crime; and horse-stealing, to which
the Mexicans more particularly devoted themselves,
was invariably a hanging matter.

Lynch law had hitherto prevailed only in the mines;
but about this time it had been found necessary to
introduce it also in San Francisco. The number of
murders and robberies committed there had of late in-
creased to an alarming extent; and from the laxity
and corruption of those intrusted with the punish-
ment and prevention of crime, the criminal part of
the population carried on their operations with such
a degree of audacity, and so much apparent confidence
in the immunity which they enjoyed, that society, in
the total inefficiency of the system which it had insti-

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW 221

tuted for its defense and preservation, threatened to
become a helpless prey to the well-organized gang of
ruffians who were every day becoming more insolent
in their career.

At last human nature could stand it no longer, and
the people saw the necessity of acting together in self-
defence. A Committee of Vigilance was accordingly
formed, composed chiefly of the most prominent and
influential citizens, which had the cordial approval,
and the active support, of nearly the entire population
of the city.

The first action of the Committee was to take two
men out of jail who had already been convicted of
murder and robbery, but for the execution of whose
sentence the experience of the past afforded no guar-
antee. These two men, when taken out of the jail,
were driven in a coach and four at full gallop through
the town, and in half an hour they were swinging
from the beams projecting over the windows of the
store which was used as the committee rooms.

The Committee, during their reign, hanged four
or five men, all of whom, by their own confessions,
deserved hanging half-a-dozen times over. Their
confessions disclosed a most extensive and wealthy
organization of villainy, in which several men of com-
paratively respectable position were implicated. These
were the projectors and designers of elaborate schemes
of wholesale robbery, which the more practical mem-
bers of the profession executed under their superin-
tendence; and in the possession of some of these men
there were found exact plans of the stores of many of
the wealthiest merchants, along with programs of
robberies to come off.

222 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The operations of the Committee were not confined
to hanging alone; their object was to purge the city
of the whole herd of malefactors which infested it.
Most of them, however, were panic-struck at the first
alarm of Lynch law, and fled to the mines; but many
of those who were denounced in the confessions of
their brethren were seized by the Committee, and
shipped out of the country. Several of the most dis-
tinguished scoundrels were graduates from our penal
colonies; and to put a stop, if possible, to the further
immigration of such characters, the Committee boarded
every ship from New South Wales as she arrived, and
satisfied themselves of the respectability of each pas-
senger before allowing him to land.

The authorities, of course, were greatly incensed at
the action of the Vigilance Committee in taking from
them the power they had so badly used, but they
could do nothing against the unanimous voice of the
people, and had to submit with the best grace they
could.

The Committee, after a very short but very active
reign, had so far accomplished their object of suppress-
ing crime, and driving the scum of the population out
of the city, that they resigned their functions in favor
of the constituted authorities; at the same time, how-
ever, intimating that they remained alert, and only
inactive so long as the ordinary course of law was
found effectual.

From that time till the month of May, 1856, the
Vigilance Committee did not interfere; and to any
one familiar with the history of San Francisco during
this period, it will appear extraordinary that the
people should have remained so long inactive under

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW 223

the frightful mal-administration of criminal law to
which they were subjected.

The crime which at last roused the people from
their apathy, but which was not more foul than
hundreds which had preceded it, and only more ag-
gravated, inasmuch as the victim was one of the most
universally respected citizens of the State, was the
assassination, in open day and in the public street,
of Mr. James King, of William, by a man named
Casey.

The causes which had gradually been driving the
people to assert their own power, as they did on this
occasion, differed very materially from those which
gave birth to the Vigilance Committee of '51, when
their object was merely to root out a gang of house-
breakers.

To explain the necessity of the revolution which
took place in San Francisco in May, '56, would re-
quire a dissertation on San Francisco politics, which
might not be very interesting; suffice it to say, that
the power of controlling the elections had gradually got
into the hands of men who "stuffed" the ballot-boxes,
and sold the elections to whom they pleased; and the
natural consequences of such a state of things led to
the revolution.

In the Alta California of San Francisco of the 1st
of June [1857] is a short article, which gives such a
complete idea of the state of affairs that I take the
liberty to transcribe it. It was written when the
Vigilance Committee, having, a day or two before,
hanged two men, were still actively engaged making
numerous arrests; and it is remarkable that just at
this time the authorities actually hung a man too.

224 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The Aha announces the fact in the following
article : —

"A man was executed yesterday for murder, after
a due compliance with all forms of law.

"That he had been guilty of the crime for which
he suffered there can be no doubt ; and yet it is entirely
probable that, but for the circumstances which have
occurred in San Francisco within the past three weeks,
he never would have paid to the offended law the
penalty affixed to his crime.

"It is a very remarkable fact in the history of this
execution, that the condemned man, at the time of
the murder of Mr. King, was living only under the
respite of the Governor, and that that respite was
obtained through the active interposition of Casey,
who little dreamed that he would suffer the death-
penalty before the man whom he had labored to save.

"This is the third execution only, under the forms
of law, which has ever been had in San Francisco
since it became an American city. Murder after
murder has been committed, and murderer after
murderer has been arrested and tried. Those who
were blessed with friends and money have usually
succeeded in escaping through the forms of law be-
fore a conviction was reached. Those who failed in
this respect have, with the exceptions we have stated,
been saved from punishment through the unwarranted
interference of the executive officer of the State. So
murder has enjoyed in San Francisco almost a certain
immunity from punishment; and the consequence
has been that it has stalked abroad high-handed and
bold. Over a year ago, we understood the district
attorney to state, in an argument before a jury in a

THE REASON FOR LYNCH LAW 225

murder case, that, since the settlement of San Fran-
cisco by the American people, there had been twelve
hundred murders committed here. We thought at
the time the number stated was unduly large, and
think so still; but it has been large enough, beyond
doubt, to give us the unenviable reputation we have
obtained abroad.

"And yet, in spite of these facts, but three criminals
have suffered the death-penalty awarded to the crimes
of which they have been guilty. These were all
friendless, moneyless men. A sad commentary this
on that motto, 'Equal and exact justice to all,' which
we delight to blazon over our constitution and laws.

"Was it not time for a change — time, if need be,
for a revolution which should inaugurate a new state
of things — which should give an assurance that
human life should be protected from the hand of the
gentlemanly and moneyed assassin, as well as from the
miserable, the poor, and the friendless? Such a revo-
lution has been made by the people, and it has been
the inauguration of a new and bright era in our his-
tory, in which an assurance has been given that neither
the technicalities of a badly administered law, nor
the interference of the Executive, can save the mur-
derer from the punishment he justly merits. It has
been brought about by the very evils it is intended to
remedy. Had crime been punished here as it should
have been — had the law done its duty, Casey would
never have dared to shoot down the lamented King
in broad daylight, with the hope that through the
forms of law he would escape punishment. There
would have been no necessity for a Vigilance Com-
mittee, no need of a revolution. Let us hope that in

226 THE GOLD HUNTERS

future the law will be no longer a mockery, but be-
come, what it was intended by its founders to be, 'a
terror to evil-doers.' "

The number of murders here given is no doubt
appalling, but it is apt to give an idea of an infinitely
more dreadful state of society, and of much greater
insecurity of life to peaceable citizens than was
actually the case.

If these murders were classified, it would be found
that the frequency of fatal duels had greatly swelled
the list, while, in the majority of cases, the murders
would turn out to be the results of rencontres between
desperadoes and ruffians, who, by having their little
difficulties among themselves, and shooting and stab-
bing each other, and thus diminishing their own
numbers, were rather entitled to the thanks of the
respectable portion of the community.

It is very certain that in Sam Francisco crime was
fostered by the laxity of the law, but it is equally
reasonable to believe that in the mines, where Lynch
law had full swing, the amount of crime actually com-
mitted by the large criminally disposed portion of the
community, consisting of lazy Mexican ladrones and
cutthroats, well-trained professional burglars from
populous countries, and outcast desperadoes from all
the corners of the earth, was not so great as would
have resulted from the presence of the same men in
any old country, where the law, clothed in all its
majesty, is more mysterious and slow, however irre-
sistible, in its action.

CHAPTER XV

GROWING OVER NIGHT

WITHOUT having visited some distant place in
the mountains, such as Downieville, it was
impossible to realize fully the extraordinary
extent to which the country had, in so short a time,
been overrun and settled by a population whose energy
and adaptive genius had immediately seized and im-
proved every natural advantage which presented itself,
and whose quickly acquired wealth enabled them to
introduce so much luxury, and to afford employment
to so many of those branches of industry which usually
flourish only in old communities, that in some respects
California can hardly be said to have ever been a new
country, as compared with other parts of the world
to which that term is applied.

The men who settled the country imparted to it a
good deal of their own nature, which knows no period
of boyhood. The Americans spring at once from
childhood, or almost from infancy, to manhood ; and
California, no less rapid in its growth, became a full-
grown State, while one-half the world still doubted
its existence.

The amount of labor which had already been per-
formed in the mines was almost incredible. Every
river and creek from one end to the other presented
227

228 THE GOLD HUNTERS

a busy scene; on the "bars," of course, the miners were
congregated in the greatest numbers; but there was
scarcely any part of their course where some work
was not going on, and the flumes were so numerous,
that for about one-third of their length the rivers
were carried past in those wooden aqueducts.

The most populous part of the mines, however, was
in the high mountain-land between the rivers, and
here the whole country had been ransacked, every flat
and ravine had been prospected; and wherever exten-
sive diggings had been found, towns and villages had
sprung up.

Young as California was, it was in one respect older
than its parent country, for life was so fast that al-
ready it could show ruins and deserted villages. In
out-of-the-way places one met with cabins fallen into
disrepair, which the proprietors had abandoned to
locate themselves elsewhere; and even villages of
thirty or forty shanties were to be seen deserted and
desolate, where the diggings had not proved so pro-
ductive as the original founders had anticipated.

Labor, however, was not exclusively devoted to
mining operations. Roads had in many parts been
cut in the sides of the mountains, bridges had been
built, and innumerable saw-mills, most of them driven
by steam power, were in full operation, many of them
having been erected in anticipation of a demand for
lumber, and before any population existed around
them. Every little valley in the mountains where the
soil was at all fit for cultivation was already fenced
in, and producing crops of barley or oats; and canals,
in some cases forty or fifty miles long, were in course
of construction, to bring the waters of the rivers to the

GROWING OVER NIGHT 229

mountain-tops, to diggings which were otherwise un-
available.

Life for the most part was hard enough certainly,
but every village was a little city of itself, where one
could live in comparative luxury. Even Downieville
had its theater and concerts, its billiard-rooms and
saloons of all sorts, a daily paper, warm baths, and
restaurants where men in red flannel shirts, with bare
arms, spread a napkin over their muddy knees, and
studied the bill of fare for half an hour before they
could make up their minds what to order for dinner.

I was sitting on a rock by the side of the river
one day sketching, when I became aware that a most
ragamuffinish individual was looking over my shoulder.
He was certainly, without exception, the most tattered
and torn man I ever saw in my life ; even his hair and
beard gave the idea of rags, which was fully realized
by his costume. He was a complete caricature of an
old miner, and quite a picture by himself, seen from
any point of view.

The rim of his old brown hat seemed ready to drop
down on his shoulders at a moment's notice, and the
sides, having dissolved all connection with the crown,
presented at the top a jagged circumference, festooned
here and there with locks of light brown hair, while,
to keep the whole fabric from falling to pieces of its
own weight, it was bound round with a piece of
string in lieu of a hat-band. His hair hung all over
his shoulders in large straight flat locks, just as if a*
handkerchief had been nailed to the top of his head
and then torn into shreds, and a long beard of the
same pattern fringed a face as brown as a mahogany
table. His shirt had once been red flannel — of course

230 THE GOLD HUNTERS

it was flannel yet, what remained of it — but it was in
a most dilapidated condition. Half-way down to his
elbows hung some shreds, which led to the belief that
at one time he had possessed a pair of sleeves; but
they seemed to have been removed by the action of time
and the elements, which had also been busy with other
parts of the garment, and had, moreover, changed its
original scarlet to different shades of crimson and
purple. There was enough of his shirt lejt almost to
meet a pair of — not trousers, but still less mentionable
articles, of the same material as the shirt, and in the
same stage of decomposition. He must have had
trousers once on a time, but I suppose he had worn
them out ; and I could not help thinking what extraor-
dinary things they must have been on the morning
when he came to the conclusion that they were not good
enough to wear. I daresay he would have put them
on if he could, but perhaps they were so full of holes
that he did not know which to get into. His boots at
least had reached this point, and to acknowledge that
they had been boots was as much as a conscientious
man could say for them. They were more holes than
leather, and had no longer any title to the name of
boots.

He was a man between thirty and forty, and, not-
withstanding his rags, there was nothing in his ap-
pearance at all dirty or repulsive; on the contrary,
he had a very handsome, prepossessing face, with an
air about him which at once gave the idea that he
had been used to polite society. I was, consequently,
not surprised at the style of his address. He talked
with me for some time, and I found him a most
amusing and gentlemanly fellow. He was a German

GROWING OVER NIGHT 231

doctor, but it was hard to detect any foreign accent
in his pronunciation.

The claim he was working was a mile or two up
the river, and his company, he told me, was one of
the greatest curiosities in the country. It consisted
of two Americans, two Frenchmen, two Italians, two
Mexicans, and my ragged friend, who was the only
man in the company who spoke any language but his
mother tongue. He was captain of the company, and
interpreter-general for the crowd. I quite believed
him when he said it was hard work to keep them all
in order, and that when he was away no work could
be done at all, and for that reason he was now hurry-
ing back to his claim. But before leaving me he
said, "I saw you sketching from the trail, and I came
down to ask a favor of you."

There is as much vanity sometimes in rags as in
gorgeous apparel; and what he wanted of me was to
make a sketch of him, rags and all, just as he was.
To study such a splendid figure was exactly what I
wanted to do myself, so I made an appointment with
him for the next day, and begged of him in the mean-
time not to think of combing his hair, which, indeed,
to judge from its appearance, he had not done for
some time.

I found afterwards that he was a well-known
character, and went by the name of the Flying
Dutchman.

I passed by his claim one day, and such a scene it
was! The Tower of Babel was not a circumstance
to it. The whole of the party were up to their waists
in water, in the middle of the river, trying to build
a wing-dam. The Americans, the Frenchmen, the

232 THE GOLD HUNTERS

Italians, and the Mexicans, were all pulling in different
directions at an immense unwieldy log, and bestowing
on each other most frightful oaths, though happily
in unknown tongues; while the directing genius, the
Flying Dutchman, was rushing about among them,
and gesticulating wildly in his endeavors to pacify
them, and to explain what was to be done. He spoke
all the modern languages at once, occasionally talking
Spanish to a Frenchman, and English to the Italians,
then cursing his own stupidity in German, and blow-
ing them all up collectively in a promiscuous jumble
of national oaths, when they all came to a stand-still,
the Flying Dutchman even seeming to give it up in
despair. But after addressing a few explanatory
remarks to each nation separately, in their respective
languages, he persuaded them to try once more, when
they got along well enough for a few minutes, till
something went wrong, and then the Tower-of-Babel
scene was enacted over again.

What induced the Flying Dutchman to form a
company of such incongruous materials, and to take
so much trouble in trying to work it, I can't say,
unless it was a little of the same innocent vanity which
was apparent in his exaggerated style of dress.

There was a considerable number of Frenchmen
in the neighborhood of Downieville, but they kept
very much to themselves. So very few of them, even
of the better class, could speak English, and so few
American miners knew anything of French, that
scarcely ever were they found working together.

In common intercourse of buying and selling, or
asking and giving any requisite information, neither
party was ever very much at a loss; a few words of

GROWING OVER NIGHT 233

broken English, a word or two of French, and a large
share of pantomime, carried them through any con-
ference.

When any one capable of acting as interpreter
happened to be present, the Frenchman, in his im-
patience, was constantly asking him "Quest ce quil
ditf' "Quest ce quil ditT* This caught the ear
of the Americans more than anything else, and a
"Keskydee" came at last to be a synonym for a
"Parleyvoo."

The "Dutchmen" in the mines, under which de-
nomination are included all manner of Germans,
showed much greater aptitude to amalgamate with
the people around them. Frenchmen were always
found in gangs, but "Dutchmen" were usually met
with as individuals, and more frequently associated
with Americans than with their own countrymen. For
the most part they spoke English very well, and there
were none who could not make themselves perfectly
intelligible.

But in making such a comparison between the Ger-
mans and the French, it would not be fair to leave
unmentioned the fact that the great majority of the
former were men who had the advantage of having
lived for a greater or less time in the United States,
while the Frenchmen had nearly all immigrated in
shiploads direct from their native country.

About thirty miles above Downieville is one of the
highest mountains in the mines. The view from the
summit, which is composed of several rc-cky peaks in
line with each other, like the teeth of a saw, was said
to be one of the finest in California, and I was de-
sirous of seeing it ; but the mountain was on the verge

234 THE GOLD HUNTERS

of settlement, and there was no camp or house of
accommodation nearer to it than Downieville. How-
ever, the Frenchman in whose house I was staying
told me that a friend of his, who was mining there,
would be down in a day or two, and that he would
introduce me to him. He came down the next day
for a supply of provisions, and I gladly took the op-
portunity of returning with him.

The trail followed the river all the way, and was
very rough, many parts of it being nearly as bad as
"Cape Horn." The Frenchman had a pack-mule
loaded with his stock of provisions, which gave him
an infinity of trouble. He was such a bad packer
that the cargo was constantly shifting, and requiring
to be repacked and secured. At one spot, where there
was a steep descent from the trail to the river of about
a hundred feet, the whole cargo broke loose, and fell
to the ground. The only article, however, which
rolled off the narrow trail was a keg of butter, which
went bounding down the hill till it reached the bottom,
where at one smash it buttered the whole surface of
a large flat rock in the middle of the river. The
Frenchman climbed down by a circuitous route to
recover what he could of it, while I remained to re-
pack the cargo. Without further accident we arrived
about dark at my companion's cabin, where we found
his partners just preparing supper; — and a very good
supper it was; for, with only the ordinary materials
of flour, ham, and beef, it was astonishing what a
very superior, mess a Frenchman could get up.

After smoking an infinite number of pipes, I
stretched out on the floor, with my feet to the fire,
and slept like a top till morning, when, having got

GROWING OVER NIGHT 235

directions from the Frenchman as to my route, I set
out to climb the mountain. The cabin was situated
at the base of one of the spurs into which the moun-
tain branched off, and was about eight miles distant
from the summit.

When I had got about half-way up, I came in sight
of a quartz-grinding establishment, situated on an ex-
ceedingly steep place, where a small stream of water
came dashing over the rocks. In the face of the hill
a step had been cut out, on which a cabin was built,
and immediately below it were two "rasters"* in full
operation.

These are the most primitive kind of contrivances
for grinding quartz. They are circular places, ten or
twelve feet in diameter, flagged with flat stones, and
in these the quartz is crushed by two large heavy
stones dragged round and round by a mule harnessed
to a horizontal beam, to which they are also attached.

The quartz is already broken up into small pieces
before being put into the "raster," and a constant sup-
ply of water is necessary to facilitate the operation,
the stuff, while being ground, having the appearance
of a rich white mud. The Mexicans, who use this
machine a great deal, have a way of ascertaining when
the quartz is sufficiently ground, by feeling it between
the finger and thumb of one hand, while with the
other they feel the lower part of their ear; and when
the quartz has the same soft velvety feel, it is consid-
ered fine enough, and the gold is then extracted By
amalgamation with quicksilver.

A considerable amount of work had been done at

* Arrastres. — ED.

236 THE GOLD HUNTERS

this place. The quartz vein was several hundred
yards above the "rasters," and from it there was laid a
double line of railway on the face of the mountain,
for the purpose of bringing down the quartz. The
loaded car was intended to bring up the empty one;
but the railway was so steep that it looked as if a
car, once started, would never stop till it reached the
river, two or three miles below.

The vein was not being worked just now; and I
only found one man at the place, who was employed
in keeping the two mules at work in the "rasters."
He told me that the ascent from that point was so
difficult that it would be dark before I could return,
and persuaded me to pass the night with him, and
start early the next morning.

The nights had been getting pretty chilly lately,
and up here it was particularly so; but with the aid
of a blazing fire we managed to make ourselves com-
fortable. I lay down before the fire, with the pros-
pect of having a good sleep, but woke in the middle of
the night, feeling it most bitterly cold. The fact is,
the log cabin was merely a log cage, the chinks be-
tween the logs having never been filled up, and it had
come on to blow a perfect hurricane. The spot where
the cabin stood was very much exposed, and the gusts
of wind blew against it and through it as if it would
carry us all away.

This pleasant state of things lasted two days, during
which time I remained a prisoner in the cabin, as the
force of the wind was so great that one could scarcely
stand outside, and the cold was so intense that the
pools in the stream which ran past were covered with
ice. The cabin was but poor protection, the wind

GROWING OVER NIGHT 237

having full play through it, even blowing the tin
plates off the table while we were at dinner; and
heavy gusts coming down the chimney filled the cabin
with smoke, ashes, and burning wood. Two days of
this was rather miserable work, but with the aid of
my pencil and two or three old novels I managed to
weather it out.

The third day the gale was over, and though still
cold, the weather was beautifully bright and clear.
On setting out on my expedition to the summit of
the mountain, I had first to climb up the railway,
which went as far as the top of the ridge, where the
quartz cropped out in large masses. From this there
was a gradual ascent to the summit, about four miles
distant, over ground which was stony, like a newly
macadamized road, and covered with wiry brushwood
waist-high. This was rendered a still more pleasant
place to travel over by being infested by grizzly bears,
whose tracks I could see on every spot of ground
capable of receiving the impression of their feet. At
last I arrived at the foot of the immense masses of
rock which formed the summit of the mountain, and
the only means of continuing the ascent was by climb-
ing up long slides of loose sharp-cornered stones of all
sizes. Every step I took forward, I went about half
a step backward, the stones giving way under my feet,
and causing a general commotion from top to bottom.
On reaching the top of this place, after suffering a
£ood deal in my shins and shoe-leather, I found myself
on a ledge of rock, with a similar one forty or fifty
feet above me, to be gained by climbing another slide
of loose stones; and having spent about an hour in
working my passage up a succession of places of this

238 THE GOLD HUNTERS

sort, I arrived at the foot of the immense wall of solid
rock which crowned the summit of the mountain. To
reach the lowest point of the top of the perpendicular
wall above me, I had some fifteen or twenty feet to
climb the best way I could, and the prospect of any
failure in the attempt was by no means encouraging,
as, had I happened to fall, I should have been carried
down to the regions below with an avalanche of loose
rocks and stones. Even as I stood studying how I
should make the ascent by means of the projecting
ledges, and tracking out my course before I made the
attempt, I felt the stones beginning to give way under
my feet; and seeing there was no time to lose, I went
at it, and after a pretty hard struggle I reached the
top. This, however, was not the summit — I was only
between the teeth of the saw; but I was enabled to
gain the top of one of the peaks by means of a ledge,
about a foot and a half wide, which slanted up the
face of the rock. Here I sat down to enjoy the view,
and certainly I felt amply repaid for all the labor of
the ascent, by the vastness and grandeur of the pano-
rama around me. I looked back for more than a
hundred miles over the mountainous pine-clad region
of the "Mines," where, from the shapes of some of
the mountains, I could distinguish many places which
I had visited. Beyond this lay the wide plains of the
Sacramento Valley, in which the course of the rivers
could be traced by the trees which grew along their
banks; and beyond the plains the coast range was dis-
tinctly seen.

On the other side, from which I had made the
ascent, there was a sheer precipice of about two hun-
dred feet, at the foot of which, in eternal shade, lay

GROWING OVER NIGHT 239

heaps of snow. The mountains in this direction were
more rugged and barren, and beyond them appeared
the white peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The atmosphere
was intensely clear; it was as if there were no atmos-
phere at all, and the view of the most remote objects
was so vivid and distinct that any one not used to
such a clime would have been slow to believe that
their distance was so great as it actually was. Monte
Diablo, a peculiarly shaped mountain within a few
miles of San Francisco, and upwards of three hundred
miles* from where I stood, was plainly discernible,
and with as much distinctness as on a clear day in
England a mountain is seen at a distance of fifty or
sixty miles.

The beauty of the view, which consisted chiefly in
its vastness, was greatly enhanced by being seen from
such a lofty pinnacle. It gave one the idea of being
suspended in the air, and cut off from all communi-
cation with the world below. The perfect solitude of
the place was quite oppressive, and was rendered still
more awful by the occasional loud report of some
piece of rock, which, becoming detached from the
mass, went bounding down to seek a more humble
resting-place. The gradual disruption seemed to be
incessant, for no sooner had one fragment got out of
hearing down below, than another started after it.
There was a keen wind blowing, and it was so miser-
ably cold, that when I had been up here for about an
hour, I became quite benumbed and chilled. It was
rather ticklish work coming down from my exalted
position, and more perilous a good deal than it had
been to climb up to it; but I managed it without

* Under two hundred miles in an air line. — ED.

240 THE GOLD HUNTERS

accident, and reached the cabin of my quartz-grinding
friend before dark.

Here I found there had arrived in the meantime
three men from a ranch which they had taken up
in a small valley, about thirty miles farther up in the
mountains. There were no other white men in that
direction, and this cabin was the nearest habitation to
them. They had come in with six or seven mule-
loads of hay for the use of the unfortunate animals
who were kept in a state of constant revolution in the

CHAPTER XVI

A BAND OF WANDERERS

1 RETURNED to Downieville the next day, and
as the weather was now getting rather cold and
disagreeable, and I did not wish to be caught quite
so far up in the mountains by the rainy season, I began
to make my way down the river again to more acces-
sible diggings.

On leaving, I took a trail which kept along the
bank of the river for some miles, before striking up
to the mountain ridge. Immediately below the town
the mountain was very steep and smooth, and round
this wound the trail, at the height of three or four
hundred feet above the river. It was a mere beaten
path — so narrow that two men could not walk
abreast, while there was hardly a bush or a tree to
interrupt one's progress in rolling down from the trail
to the river.

When trains of pack-mules met at this place, they
had the greatest difficulty in passing. The "down
train," being of course unloaded, had to give way
to the other. The mules understood their own
rights perfectly well. Those loaded with cargo
kept sturdily to the trail, while the empty mules
scrambled up the bank, where they stood still till
the others had passed. It not unfrequently happened,
however, that a loaded mule got crowded off the trail,
241

242 THE GOLD HUNTERS

and rolled down the hill. This was always the last
journey the poor mule ever performed. The cargo
was recovered more or less damaged, but the remnants
of deceased mules on the rocks down below remained
as a warning to all future travelers. It was only a
few days before that a man was riding along here,
when, from some cause, his mule stumbled and fell
off the trail. The mule, of course, went as a small
contribution to the collection of skeletons of mules
which had gone before him; and his rider would have
shared the same fate, had he not fortunately been
arrested in his progress by a bush, the only object in
his course which could possibly have saved him.

The trail, after passing this spot, kept more among
the rocks on the river side; and though it was rough
traveling, the difficulties of the way were beguiled
by the numbers of miners' camps through which one
passed, and in observing the different varieties of min-
ing operations being carried on. For miles the river
was borne along in a succession of flumes, in which
were set innumerable water-wheels, for working all
sorts of pumps, and other contrivances for economizing
labor. The bed of the river was alive with miners;
and here and there, in the steep banks, were rows of
twenty or thirty tunnels, out of which came constant
streams of men, wheeling the dirt down to the river-
side, to be washed in their long toms.

At Goodyear's Bar, which is a place of some size,
the trail leaves the river, and ascends a mountain
which is said to be the worst in that part of the
country, and for my part I was quite willing to believe
it was. I met several men coming down, who were
all anxious to know if they were near the bottom.

A BAND OF WANDERERS 243

I was equally desirous to know if I was near the top,
for the forest of pines was so thick, that, looking up,
one could only get a glimpse -between the trees of the
zigzag trail far above.

About half-way up the mountain, at a break in the
ascent, I found a very new log cabin by the side of a
little stream of water. It bore a sign about as large
as itself, on which was painted the "Florida House";
and as it was getting dark, and the next house was
five miles farther on, I thought I would take up my
quarters here for the night. The house was kept by
an Italian, or an "Eyetalian," as he is called across
the Atlantic. He had a Yankee wife, with a lot of
children, and the style of accommodation was as good
as one usually found in such places.

I was the only guest that night; and as we sat by
the fire, smoking our pipes after supper, my host, who
was a cheerful sort of fellow, became very communi-
cative. He gave me an interesting account of his
California experiences, and also of his farming opera-
tions in the States, where he had spent the last few
years of his life. Then, going backwards in his career,
he told me that he had lived for some years in England
and Scotland, and spoke of many places there as if he
knew them well. I was rather curious to know in
what capacity such an exceedingly dingy-looking
individual had visited all the cities of the kingdom,
but he seemed to wish to avoid cross examination on
the subject, so I did not press him. He became
intimately connected in my mind, however, with
sundry plaster-of-Paris busts of Napoleon, the Duke
of Wellington, Sir Walter Scott, and other distin-
guished characters. I could fancy I saw the whole

244 THE GOLD HUNTERS

collection of statuary on the top of his head, and felt
very much inclined to shout out "Images!" to see what
effect it would have upon him.

In the course of the evening he asked me if I
would like to hear some music, saying that he played
a little on the Italian fiddle. I said I would be
delighted, particularly as I did not know the instru-
ment. The only national fiddle I had ever heard of
was the Caledonian, and I trusted this instrument of
his was a different sort of thing ; but I was very much
amused when it turned out to be nothing more or
less than a genuine orthodox hurdy-gurdy. It put
me more in mind of home than anything I had heard
for a long time. At the first note, of course, the
statuary vanished, and was replaced by a vision of
an unfortunate monkey in a red coat, while my
friend's extensive travels in the United Kingdom
became very satisfactorily accounted for, and I thought
it by no means unlikely that this was not the first
time I had heard the sweet strains of his Italian fiddle.
He played several of the standard old tunes; but
hurdy-gurdy music is of such a character that a little
of it goes a great way; and I was not sorry when a
couple of strings snapped — to the great disgust, how-
ever, of my friend, for he had no more with which to
replace them.

Hurdy-gurdy player or not, he was a very enter-
taining, agreeable fellow. I only hope all the frater-
nity are like him (perhaps they are, if one only knew
them), and attain ultimately to such a respectable
position in life, dignifying their instruments with the
name of Italian fiddles, and reserving them for the
entertainment of their particular friends.

A BAND OF WANDERERS 245

I was on my way to Slate Range, a place some
distance down the river, but the next day I only
went as far as Oak Valley, traveling the last few
miles with a young fellow from one of the Southern
States, whom I overtook on the way. He had been
mining, he told me, at Downieville, and was now
going to join some friends of his at a place some thirty
miles off.

At supper he did not make his appearance, which
I did not observe, as there were a number of men at
table, till the landlord asked me if that young fellow
who arrived with me was not going to have any
supper, and suggested that perhaps he was "strap-
ped," "dead-broke" — Anglice, without a cent in his
pocket. I had not inferred anything of the sort from
his conversation, but on going out and asking him
why he did not come to supper, he reluctantly ad-
mitted that the state of his finances would not admit
of it. I told him, in the language of Mr. Toots, that
it was of no consequence, and made him come in,
when he was most unceremoniously lectured by the
rest of the party, and by the landlord particularly,
on the absurdity of his intention of going supperless
to bed merely because he happened to be "dead-
broke," getting at the same time some useful hints
how to act under such circumstances in future from
several of the men present, who related how, when
they had found themselves in such a predicament,
they had, on frankly stating the fact, been made wel-
come to everything.

To be "dead-broke" was really, as far as a man's
immediate comfort was concerned, a matter of less
importance in the mines than in almost any other

246 THE GOLD HUNTERS

place. There was no such thing as being out of em-
ployment, where every man employed himself, and
could always be sure of ample remuneration for his
day's work. But notwithstanding the want of excuse
for being "strapped," it was very common to find
men in that condition. There were everywhere
numbers of lazy, idle men, who were always without a
dollar; and others reduced themselves to that state
by spending their time and money on claims which,
after all, yielded them no return, or else gradually
exhausted their funds in traveling about the country,
and prospecting, never satisfied with fair average
diggings, but always having the idea that better were
to be found elsewhere. Few miners located them-
selves permanently in any place, and there was a
large proportion of the population continually on the
move. In almost every place I visited in the mines,
I met men whom I had seen in other diggings. Some
men I came across frequently, who seemed to do
nothing but wander about the country, satisfied with
asking the miners in the different diggings how they
were ""making out," but without ever taking the
trouble to prospect for themselves.

Coin was very scarce, what there was being nearly
all absorbed by the gamblers, who required it for con-
venience in carrying on their business. Ordinary pay-
ments were made in gold dust, every store being pro-
vided with a pair of gold scales, in which the miner
weighed out sufficient dust from his buckskin purse
to pay for his purchases.

In general trading, gold dust was taken at sixteen
dollars the ounce; but in the towns and villages, at
the agencies of the various San Francisco bankers and

A BAND OF WANDERERS 247

express companies, it was bought at a higher price,
according to the quality of the dust, and as it was
more or less in demand for remittance to New York.

The express business of the United States is one
which has not been many years established, and which
was originally limited to the transmission of small
parcels of value. On the discovery of gold in Cali-
fornia, the express houses of New York immediately
established agencies in San Francisco, and at once be-
came largely engaged in transmitting gold dust to
the mint in Philadelphia, and to various parts of the
United States, on account of the owners in California.
As a natural result of doing such a business, they very
soon began to sell their own drafts on New York, and
to purchase and remit gold dust on their own account.

They had agencies also in every little town in the
mines, where they enjoyed the utmost confidence of
the community, receiving deposits from miners and
others, and selling drafts on the Atlantic States. In
fact, besides carrying on the original express busi-
ness of forwarding goods and parcels, and keeping up
an independent post-office of their own, they became
also, to all intents and purposes, bankers, and did as
large an exchange business as any legitimate banking
firm in the country.

The want of coin was equally felt in San Francisco,
and coins of all countries were taken into circulation
to make up the deficiency. As yet a mint had not
been granted to California, but there was a Govern-
ment Assay Office, which issued a large octagonal
gold piece of the value of fifty dollars — a roughly
executed coin, about twice the bulk of a crown-piece;
while the greater part of the five, ten, and twenty dol-

248 THE GOLD HUNTERS

lar pieces were not from the United States Mint, but
were coined and issued by private firms in San Fran-
cisco

Silver was still more scarce, and many pieces were
consequently current at much more than their value.
A quarter of a dollar was the lowest appreciable sum
represented by coin, and any piece approaching it in
size was equally current at the same rate. A franc
passed for a quarter of a dollar while a five-franc
piece only passed for a dollar, which is about its
actual worth. As a natural consequence of francs
being thus taken at 25 per cent, more than their real
value, large quantities of them were imported and
put into circulation. In 1854, however, the bankers
refused to receive them, and they gradually disap-
peared.

There was wonderfully little precaution taken in
conveying the gold down from the mountains, and
yet, although nothing deserving the name of an escort
ever accompanied it, I never knew an instance of an
attack upon it being attempted. On several occasions
I saw the express messenger taking down a quantity
of gold from Downieville. He and another man,
both well mounted, were driving a mule loaded with
leathern sacks, containing probably two or three
hundred pounds' weight of gold. They were well
armed, of course; but a couple of robbers, had they
felt so inclined, might easily have knocked them both
over with their rifles in the solitude of the forest,
without much fear of detection. Bad as California
was, it appeared a proof that it was not altogether
such a country as was generally supposed, when
large quantities of gold were thus regularly brought

A BAND OF WANDERERS 249

over the lonely mountain-trails, with even less pro-
tection than would have been thought necessary in
many parts of the Old World.

From Oak Valley I went down to Slate Range
with an American who was anxious I should visit
his camp there. After climbing down the mountain
side, we at last reached the river, which here was
confined between huge masses of slate rock, turning
in its course, and disappearing behind bold rocky
points so abruptly, that seldom could more of the
length than the breadth of the river be seen at a
time.

An hour's scrambling over the sharp-edged slate
rocks on the side of the river brought us to his camp,
or at least the place where he and his partners camped
out, which was on the bare rocks, in a corner so over-
shadowed by the steep mountain that the sun never
shone upon it. It was certainly the least luxurious
habitation, and in the most wild and rugged locality,
I had yet seen in the mines. On a rough board
which rested on two stones were a number of tin
plates, pannikins, and such articles of table furniture,
while a few flat stones alongside answered the pur-
pose of chairs. Scattered about, as was usual in all
miners' camps, were quantities of empty tins of pre-
served meats, sardines, and oysters, empty bottles of
all shapes and sizes, innumerable ham-bones, old
clothes, and other rubbish. Round the blackened
spot which was evidently the kitchen were pots and
frying-pans, sacks of flour and beans, and other pro-
visions, together with a variety of cans and bottles,
of which no one could tell the contents without
inspection; for in the mines everything is perverted

250 THE GOLD HUNTERS

from its original purpose, butter being perhaps stowed
away in a tin labeled "fresh lobsters," tea in a powder
canister, and salt in a sardine-box.

There was nothing in the shape of a tent or
shanty of any sort; it was not required as a shelter
from the heat of the sun, as the place was in the per-
petual shade of the mountain, and at night each man
rolled himself up in his blankets, and made a bed of
the smoothest and softest piece of rock he could find.

This part of the river was very rich, the gold being
found in the soft slate rock between the layers and
in the crevices.

My friend and his partners were working in a
"wing dam" in front of their camp, and the river,
being pushed back off one half of its bed, rushed
past in a roaring torrent, white with foam. A large
water-wheel was set in it, which worked several pumps,
and a couple of feet above it lay a pine tree, which
had been felled there so as to serve as a bridge, The
river was above thirty feet wide, and the tree, not
more than a foot and a half in diameter, was in its
original condition, perfectly round and smooth, and
was, moreover, kept constantly wet with the spray
from the wheel, which was so close that one could
almost touch it in passing. If one had happened to
slip and fall into the water, he would have had about
as much chance of coming out alive as if he had fallen
before the paddles of a steamer; and any gentleman
with shaky legs and unsteady nerves, had he been
compelled to pass such a bridge, would most probably
have got astride of it, and so worked his passage
across. In the mines, however, these "pine-log
crossings" were such a very common style of bridge,

A BAND OF WANDERERS 251

that every one was used to them, and walked them like
a rope-dancer: in fact, there was a degree of pleasant
excitement in passing a very slippery and difficult one
such as this.

CHAPTER XVII

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS

WHILE at this camp, I went down the river
two or three miles to see a place called Mis-
sissippi Bar, where a company of Chinamen
were at work. After an hour's climbing along the
rocky banks, and having crossed and recrossed the river
some half-dozen times on pine logs, I at last got down
among the Celestials.

There were about a hundred and fifty of them
here, living in a perfect village of small tents, all
clustered together on the rocks. They had a claim
in the bed of the river, which they were working by
means of a wing dam. A "wing dam," I may here
mention, is one which first runs half-way across the
river, then down the river, and back again to the
same side, thus damming off a portion of its bed with-
out the necessity of the more expensive operation of
lifting up the whole river bodily in a "flume."

The Chinamen's dam was two or three hundred
yards in length, and was built of large pine trees
laid one on the top of the other. They must have
had great difficulty in handling such immense logs
in such a place; but they are exceedingly ingenious
in applying mechanical power, particularly in con-
centrating the force of a large number of men upon

one point.

252

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS 253

There were Chinamen of the better class among
them, who no doubt directed the work, and paid the
common men very poor wages — poor at least for Cali-
fornia. A Chinaman could be hired for two, or at
most three dollars a day by any one who thought
their labor worth so much; but those at work here
were most likely paid at a still lower rate, for it was
well known that whole shiploads of Chinamen came
to the country under a species of bondage to some
of their wealthy countrymen in San Francisco, who,
immediately on their arrival, shipped them off to the
mines under charge of an agent, keeping them com-
pletely under control by some mysterious celestial
influence, quite independent of the accepted laws of the
country.

They sent up to the mines for their use supplies of
Chinese provisions and clothing, and thus all the gold
taken out by them remained in Chinese hands, and
benefited the rest of the community but little by
passing through the ordinary channels of trade.

In fact, the Chinese formed a distinct class, which
enriched itself at the expense of the country, abstract-
ing a large portion of its latent wealth without contrib-
uting, in a degree commensurate with their numbers,
to the prosperity of the community of which they
formed a part.

The individuals of any community must exist by
supplying the wants of others; and when a man
neither does this, nor has any wants of his own but
those which he provides for himself, he is of no use to
his neighbors; but when, in addition to this, he also
diminishes the productiveness of the country, he is a
positive disadvantage in proportion to the amount of

254 THE GOLD HUNTERS

public wealth which he engrosses, and becomes a public
nuisance.

What is true of an individual is true also of a class;
and the Chinese, though they were no doubt, as far
as China was concerned, both productive and con-
sumptive, were considered by a very large party in
California to be merely destructive as far as that
country was interested.

They were, of course, not altogether so, for such a
numerous body as they were could not possibly be so
isolated as to be entirely independent of others; but
any advantage which the country derived from their
presence was too dearly paid for by the quantity of
gold which they took from it; and the propriety of
expelling all the Chinese from the State was long
discussed, both by the press and in the Legislature;
but the principles of the American constitution pre-
vailed; the country was open to all the world, and
the Chinese enjoyed equal rights with the most favored
nation. In some parts of the mines, however, the
miners had their own ideas on the subject, and would
not allow the Chinamen to come among them; but
generally they were not interfered with, for they con-
tented themselves with working such poor diggings
as it was not thought worth while to take from them.

This claim on the Yuba was the greatest under-
taking I ever saw attempted by them.

They expended a vast deal of unnecessary labor
in their method of working, and their individual
labor, in effect, was as nothing compared with that
of other miners. A company of fifteen or twenty
white men would have wing-dammed this claim, and
worked it out in two or three months, while here

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS 255

were about a hundred and fifty Chinamen humbug-
ging round it all the season, and still had not worked
one half the ground.

Their mechanical contrivances were not in the usual
rough straightforward style of the mines; they were
curious, and very elaborately got up, but extremely
wasteful of labor, and, moreover, very ineffective.

The pumps which they had at work here were an
instance of this. They were on the principle of a
chain-pump, the chain being formed of pieces of wood
about six inches long, hinging on each other, with
cross-pieces in the middle for buckets, having about
six square inches of surface. The hinges fitted ex-
actly to the spokes of a small wheel, which was turned
by a Chinaman at each side of it working a miniature
treadmill of four spokes on the same axle. As
specimens of joiner-work they were very pretty, but
as pumps they were ridiculous; they threw a mere
driblet of water: the chain was not even encased
in a box — it merely lay in a slanting trough, so
that more than one half the capacity of the buckets
was lost. An American miner, at the expenditure
of one-tenth part of the labor of making such toys,
would have set a water-wheel in the river to work
an elevating pump, which would have thrown more
water in half an hour than four-and-twenty China-
men could throw in a day with a dozen of these gim-
crack contrivances. Their camp was wonderfully
clean: when I passed through it, I found a great
many of them at their toilet, getting their heads
shaved, or plaiting each other's pigtails; but most of
them were at dinner, squatted on the rocks in groups
of eight or ten round a number of curious little black

256 THE GOLD HUNTERS

pots and dishes, from which they helped themselves
with their chopsticks. In the center was a large
bowl of rice. This is their staple article, and they
devour it most voraciously. Throwing back their
heads, they hold a large cupful to their wide-open
mouths, and, with a quick motion of the chopsticks
in the other hand, they cause the rice to flow down
their throats in a continuous stream.

I received several invitations to dinner, but de-
clined the pleasure, preferring to be a spectator. The
rice looked well enough, and the rest of their dishes
were no doubt very clean, but they had a very
dubious appearance, and were far from suggesting
the idea of being good to eat. In the store I found
the storekeeper lying asleep on a mat. He was a
sleek dirty-looking object, like a fat pig with the
hair scalded off, his head being all close shaved
excepting the pigtail. His opium-pipe lay in his
hand, and the lamp still burned beside him, so I
supposed he was already in the seventh heaven.
The store was like other stores in the mines, inas-
much as it contained a higgledy-piggledy collection
of provisions and clothing, but everything was Chinese
excepting the boots. These are the only articles of
barbarian costume which the Chinaman adopts, and
he always wears them of an enormous size, on a scale
commensurate with the ample capacity of his other
garments.

The next place I visited was Wamba's Bar, some
miles lower down the river; and from here I intended
returning to Nevada, as the season was far advanced,
and fine weather could no longer be depended upon.

The very day, however, on which I was to start,

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS 257

the rain commenced, and came down in such torrents
that I postponed my departure. It continued to
rain heavily for several days, and I had no choice but
to remain where I was, as the river rose rapidly to
such a height as to be perfectly impassable. It was
now about eighty yards wide, and rushed past in a
raging torrent, the waves rolling several feet high.
Some of the miners up above, trusting to a longer
continuance of the dry season, had not removed their
flumes from the river, and these it was now carrying
down, all broken up into fragments, along with logs
and whole pine trees, which occasionally, as they got
foul of other objects, reared straight up out of the
water. It was a grand sight; the river seemed as if
it had suddenly arisen to assert its independence, and
take vengeance for all the restraints which had been
placed upon it, by demolishing flumes, dams, and
bridges, and carrying off everything within its reach.
The house I was staying in was the only one in
the neighborhood, and was a sort of half store, half
boarding-house. Several miners lived in it, and there
were, besides, two or three storm-stayed travelers
like myself. It was a small clapboard house, built
on a rock immediately over the river, but still so far
above it that we anticipated no danger from the
flood. We were close to the mouth of a creek, how-
ever, which we one night fully expected would send
the house on a voyage of discovery down the river.
Some drift-logs up above had got jammed, and so
altered the course of the stream as to bring it sweep-
ing past the corner of the house, which merely rested
on a number of posts. The waters rose to within
an inch or two of the floor; and as they carried logs

258 THE GOLD HUNTERS

and rocks along with them, we feared that the posts
would be carried away, when the whole fabric would
immediately slip off the rocks into the angry river a
few feet below. There was a small window at one
end through which we might have escaped, and this
was taken out that no time might be lost when the
moment for clearing out should arrive, while axes
also were kept in readiness, to smash through the
back of the house, which rested on terra firma. It
was an exceedingly dark night, very cold, and rain-
ing cats and dogs, so that the prospect of having to
jump out of the window and sit on the rocks till
morning was by no means pleasant to contemplate;
but the idea of being washed into the river was still
less agreeable, and no one ventured to sleep, as the
water was already almost up to the floor, and a very
slight rise would have smashed up the whole concern
so quickly, that it was best to be on the alert. The
house fortunately stood it out bravely till daylight,
when some of the party put an end to the danger by
going up the creek, and removing the accumulation
of logs which had turned the water from its proper
channel.

After the rain ceased, we had to wait for two
days till the river fell sufficiently to allow of its
being crossed with any degree of safety; but on the
third day, along with another man who was going to
Nevada, I made the passage in a small skiff — not
without considerable difficulty, however, for the river
was still much swollen, and covered with logs and
driftwood. On landing on the other side, we struck
straight up the face of the mountain, and soon gained

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS 259

the high land, where we found a few inches of snow
fast disappearing before the still powerful rays of the
sun.

We arrived at Nevada after a day and a half of
very muddy traveling, but the weather was bright
and clear, and seemed to be a renewal of the dry sea-
son. It did not last long, however, for a heavy snow-
storm soon set in, and it continued snowing, raining,
and freezing for about three weeks, — the snow lying
on the ground all the time, to the depth of three or
four feet. The continuance of such weather rendered
the roads so impracticable as to cut off all supplies
from Marysville or Sacramento, and accordingly
prices of provisions of all kinds rose enormously.
The miners could not work with so much snow on the
ground, and altogether there was a prospect of hard
times. Flour was exceedingly high even in San
Francisco, several capitalists having entered into a
flour-monopoly speculation, buying up every cargo
as it arrived, and so keeping up the price. In Nevada
it was sold at a dollar a pound, and in other places
farther up in the mountains it was doled out, as
long as the stock lasted, at three or four times that
price. In many parts the people were reduced to
the utmost distress from the scarcity of food, and the
impossibility of obtaining any fresh supplies. At
Downieville, the few men who had remained there
were living on barley, a small stock of which was
fortunately kept there as mule-feed. Several men
perished in the snow in trying to make their escape
from distant camps in the mountains; two or three
lost their lives near the ranch of my friend the Italian

260 THE GOLD HUNTERS

hurdy-gurdy player, while carrying flour down to
their camps on the river; and in some places people
saved themselves from starvation by eating dogs and
mules.

Men kept pouring into Nevada from all quarters,
starved out of their own camps, and all bearing the
same tale of starvation and distress, and glad to get
to a place where food was to be had. The town, being
a sort of harbor of refuge for miners in remote
diggings, became very full; and as no work could be
done in such weather, the population had nothing to
do but to amuse themselves the best way they could.
A theatrical company was performing nightly to
crowded houses; the gambling saloons were kept in
full blast; and in fact, every day was like a Sunday,
from the number of men one saw idling about, play-
ing cards, and gambling.

Although the severity of the weather interrupted
mining operations for the time, it was nevertheless a
subject of rejoicing to the miners generally, for many
localities could only be worked when plenty of water
was running in the ravines, and it was not unusual
for men to employ themselves in the dry season in
"throwing up" heaps of dirt, in anticipation of hav-
ing plenty of water in winter to wash it. This was
commonly done in flats and ravines where water
could only be had immediately after heavy rains.
It was easy to distinguish a heap of thrown-up dirt
from a pile of "tailings," or dirt already washed, and
property of this sort was quite sacred, the gold
being not less safe there — perhaps safer — than if
already in the pocket of the owner. In whatever
place a man threw up a pile of dirt, he might leave it

CHINESE IN THE EARLY DAYS 261

without any concern for its safety, and remove to
another part of the country, being sure to find it
intact when he returned to wash it, no matter how
long he might be absent.

CHAPTER XVIII

DOWN WITH THE FLOOD

1HAD occasion to return to San Francisco at this
time, and the journey was about the most un-
pleasant I ever performed. The roads had been
getting worse all the time, and were quite impassable
for stages or wagons. The mail was brought up by
express messengers, but other communication there was
none. The nearest route to San Francisco — that by
Sacramento — was perfectly impracticable, and the only
way to get down there was by Marysville, situated
about fifty miles off, at the junction of the Yuba and
Feather rivers.

I set out one afternoon with a friend who was also
going down, and who knew the way, which was
rather an advantage, as the trails wrere hidden under
three or four feet of snow. We occasionally, how-
ever, got the benefit of a narrow path, trodden down
by other travelers; and though we only made twelve
miles that day, we in that distance gradually emerged
from the snow, and got down into the regions of
mud and slush and rain. We stayed the night at
a road-side house, where we found twenty or thirty
miners starved out of their own camps, and in the
morning we resumed our journey in a steady pour of
rain. The mud was more than ankle-deep, but was
so well diluted with water that it did not cause much
262

DOWN WITH THE FLOOD 263

inconvenience in walking, while at the foot of every
little hollow was a stream to be waded waist-high;
for we were now out of the mining regions, and cross-
ing the rolling country between the mountains and the
plains, where the water did not run off so quickly.

When we reached the only large stream on our
route, we found that the bridge, which had been the
usual means of crossing, had been carried away, and
the banks on either side were overflowed to a con-
siderable distance. A pine tree had been felled across
when the waters were lower, but they now flowed
two or three feet over the top of it — the only sign
that it was there being the branches sticking up, and
marking its course across the river.

It was not very pleasant to have to cross such a
swollen stream on such a very visionary bridge, but
there was no help for it; so cutting sticks wherewith
to feel for a footing under water, we waded out till
we reached the original bank of the stream, where
we had to take to the pine log, and travel it as best
we could with the assistance of the branches, the
water rushing past nearly up to our waists. We had
fifty or sixty feet to go in this way, but the farther
end of the log rose nearly to the surface of the water,
and landed us on an island, from which we had to
pass to dry land through a thicket of bushes under
four feet of water.

Towards evening we arrived at a ranch, about
twenty miles from Marysville, which we made the
end of our day's journey. We were saturated with
rain and mud, but dry clothes were not to be had;
so we were obliged to pass another night under
hydropathic treatment, the natural consequence of

264 THE GOLD HUNTERS

which was that in the morning we were stiff and
sore all over. However, after walking a short dis-
tance, we got rid of this sensation — receiving a fresh
ducking from the rain, which continued to fall as
heavily as ever.

The plains, which we had now reached, were
almost entirely under water, and at every depression
in the surface of the ground a slough had to be
waded of corresponding depth — sometimes over the
waist. The road was only in some places discernible,
and we kept to it chiefly by steering for the houses,
to be seen at intervals of a few miles.

About six miles from Marysville we crossed the
Yuba, which was here a large rapid river a hundred
yards wide. We were ferried over in a little skiff,
and had to pull up the river nearly half a mile, so as^
to fetch the landing on the other side. I was not
sorry to reach terra firma again, such as it was, for
the boat was a flat-bottomed, straight-sided little thing,
about the size and shape of a coffin, and was quite
unsuitable for such work. The waves were running
so high that it was with the utmost difficulty we escaped
being swamped, and all the swimming that could
have been done in such a current would not have done
any one much good.

From this point to Marysville the country was still
more flooded. We passed several teams, which, in a
vain endeavor to get up to the mountains with sup-
plies, were hopelessly stuck in the mud at the bot-
tom of the hollows, with only the rim of the wheels
appearing above water.

Marysville is a city of some importance: being
situated at the head of navigation, it is the depot and

DOWN WITH THE FLOOD 265

starting-point for the extensive district of mining
country lying north and east of it. It is well laid
out in wide streets, containing numbers of large brick
and wooden buildings, and the ground it stands upon
is ten or twelve feet above the usual level of the
river. But when we waded up to it, we found the
portion of the town nearest the river completely
flooded, the water being nearly up to the first floor
of the houses, while the people were going about in
boats. In the streets farther back, however, it was
not so bad; one could get along without having to go
much over the ankles. The appearance of the place,
as seen through the heavy rain, was far from cheer-
ing. The first idea which occurred to me on behold-
ing it was that of rheumatism, and the second fever
and ague; but I was glad to find myself here, never-
theless, if only to experience once more the sensation
of having on dry clothes.

I learned that several men had been drowned on
different parts of the plains in attempting to cross
some of the immense pools or sloughs such as we
had passed on our way; while cattle and horses
were drowned in numbers, and were dying of starva-
tion on insulated spots, from which there was no
escape.

I saw plenty of this, however, the next day in
going down by the steamboat to Sacramento. The
distance is fifty or sixty miles through the plains all
the way, but they had now more the appearance of a
vast inland sea.

It would have been difficult to keep to the chan-
nel of the river, had it not been for the trees appear-
ing" on each side, and the numbers of squatters' shan-

266 THE GOLD HUNTERS

ties generally built on a spot where the bank was high
and showed itself above water, though in many cases
nothing but the roof of the cabin could be seen.

On the tops of the cabins and sheds, on piles of
firewood, or up in the trees, were fowls calmly wait-
ing their doom; while pigs, cows, and horses were all
huddled up together, knee-deep in water, on any little
rising ground which offered standing-room, dying by
inches from inanition. The squatters themselves were
busy removing in boats whatever property they could,
and at those cabins whose occupants were not yet
completely drowned out, a boat was made fast along-
side as a means of escape for the poor devils, who, as
the steamer went past, looked out of the door the very
pictures of woe and dismay. We saw two men sitting
resolutely on the top of their cabin, the water almost
up to their feet ; a boat was made fast to the chimney,
to be used when the worst came to the worst, but
they were apparently determined to see it out if pos-
sible. They looked intensely miserable, though they
would not own it, for they gave us a very feigned and
uncheery hurrah as we steamed past.

The loss sustained by these settlers was very great.
The inconvenience of being for a time floated off the
face of the earth in a small boat was bad enough of
itself; but to have the greater part of their worldly
possessions floating around them, in the shape of the
corpses of what had been their live stock, must have
rather tended to damp their spirits. However, Cali-
fornians are proof against all such reverses, — they are
like India-rubber, the more severely they are cast
down, the higher they rise afterwards.

It was hardly possible to conceive what an amount

DOWN WITH THE FLOOD 267

of rain and snow must have fallen to lay such a vast
extent of country under water ; and though the weather
was now improving, the rain being not so constant,
or so heavy, it would still be some time before the
waters could subside, as the snow which had fallen
in the mountains had yet to find its way down, an,
would serve to keep up the flood.

Sacramento City was in as wretched a plight as a
city can well be in.

The only dry land to be seen was the top of the
levee built along the bank of the river in front of the
town; all the rest was water, out of which rose the
houses, or at least the upper parts of them. The
streets were all so many canals crowded with boats
and barges carrying on the customary traffic; water-
men plied for hire in the streets instead of cabs, and
independent gentlemen poled themselves about on
rafts, or On extemporized boats made of empty boxes.
In one part of the town, where the water was not deep
enough for general navigation, a very curious style
of conveyance was in use. Pairs of horses were har-
nessed to large flat-bottomed boats, and numbers of
these vehicles, carrying passengers or goods, were to
be seen cruising about, now dashing through a foot
or two of mud which the horses made to fly in all
directions as they floundered through it, now ground-
ing and bumping over some very dry spot, and again
sailing gracefully along the top of the water, so deep
as nearly to cover the horses' backs.

The water in the river was some feet higher than
that in the town, and it was fortunate that the levee
did not give way, or the loss of life would have been
very great. As it was, some few men had been

268 THE GOLD HUNTERS

drowned in the streets. The destruction of property,
and the pecuniary loss to the inhabitants, were of
course enormous, but they had been flooded once or
twice before, besides having several times had their
city burned down, and were consequently quite used
to such disasters; in fact, Sacramento suffered more
from fire and flood together than any city in the
State, without, however, apparently retarding the
growing prosperity of the people.

I arrived in Sacramento too late for the steamer
for San Francisco, and so had the pleasure of passing
a night there, but I cannot say I experienced any
personal inconvenience from the watery condition of
the town.

It seemed to cause very little interruption to the
usual order of things in hotels, theaters, and other
public places; there was a good deal of anxiety as to
the security of the levee, in which was the only safety
of the city; but in the meantime the ordinary course
of pleasure and business was unchanged, except in
the substitution of boats for wheeled vehicles; and
the great source of consolation and congratulation
to the sufferers from the flood, and to the population
generally, was in endeavoring to compute how many
millions of rats would be drowned.

On arriving in San Francisco the change was very
great — it was like entering a totally different coun-
try. In place of cold and rain and snow, flooded
towns, and no dry land, or snowed-up towns in the
mountains with no food, here was a clear bright sky,
and a warm sun shining down upon a city where
everything looked bright and gay. It was nearly a
year since I had left San Francisco, and in the mean-

DOWN WITH THE FLOOD 269

time the greater part of it had been burned down
and rebuilt. The appearance of most of the prin-
cipal streets was completely altered; large brick
stores had taken the place of wooden buildings; and
so rapidly had the city extended itself into the bay
that the principal business was now conducted on
wide streets of solid brick and stone warehouses,
where a year before had been fifteen or twenty feet of
water. All, excepting the more unfrequented streets,
were planked, and had good stone or plank sidewalks,
so that there was but little mud notwithstanding the
heavy rains which had fallen. In the upper part of
the town, however, where the streets were still in
their original condition, the amount of mud was quite
inconceivable. Some places were almost impassable,
and carts might be seen almost submerged, which
half-a-dozen horses were vainly trying to extricate.

The climate of San Francisco has the peculiarity of
being milder in winter than in summer. Winter is by
far the most pleasant season of the year. It is cer-
tainly the rainy season, but it only rains occasionally,
and when it does it is not cold. The ordinary winter
weather is soft, mild, subdued sunshine, not unlike
the Indian summer of North America. The San
Francisco summer, however, is the most disagreeable
and trying season one can be subjected to. In the
morning and forenoon it is generally beautifully
bright and warm: one feels inclined to dress as one
would in the tropics; but this cannot be done with
safety, for one has to be prepared for the sudden
change in temperature which occurs nearly every day
towards the afternoon, when there blows in off the
sea a cold biting wind, chilling the very marrow in

270 THE GOLD HUNTERS

one's bones. The cold is doubly felt after the heat of
the fore part of the day, and to some constitutions
such extreme variations of temperature within the
twenty-four hours are no doubt very injurious, espe-
cially as the wind not unfrequently brings a damp
fog along with it.

The climate is nevertheless generally considered
salubrious, and is thought by some people to be one
of the finest in the world. For my own part, I much
prefer the summer weather of the mines, where the
sky is always bright, and the warm temperature of
the day becomes only comparatively cool at night,
while the atmosphere is so dry, that the heat, however
intense, is never oppressive, and so clear that every-
thing within the range of vision is as clearly and dis-
tinctly seen as if one were looking upon a flat sur-
face, and could equally examine each separate part of
it, so satisfactory and so minute in detail is the view
of the most distant objects.

Considering the very frequent use of pistols in San
Francisco, it is a most providential circumstance that
the climate is in a high degree favorable for the
cure of gunshot wounds. These in general heal very
rapidly, and many miraculous recoveries have taken
place, effected by nature and the climate, after the
surgeons, experienced as they are in that branch of
practice, had exhausted their skill upon the patient

CHAPTER XIX

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT

THE long tract of mountainous country lying
north and south, which comprises the mining
districts, is divided into the northern and south-
ern mines — the former having communication with
San Francisco through Sacramento and Marysville,
while the latter are more accessible by way of Stock-
ton, a city situated at the head of navigation of the
San Joaquin, which joins the Sacramento about fifty
miles above San Francisco.

My wanderings had hitherto been confined to the
northern mines, and when, after a short stay in San
Francisco, business again led me to Placerville, I
determined from that point to travel down through
the southern mines, and visit the various places of
interest en route.

It was about the end of March when I started.
The winter was quite over; all that remained of it
was an occasional heavy shower of rain; the air was
mild and soft, and the mountains, covered with fresh
verdure, were blooming brightly in the warm sun-
shine with many-colored flowers. In every ravine,
and through each little hollow in the high lands,
flowed a stream of water; and wherever water was
to be found, there also were miners at work. From
the towns and camps, where the supply of water was
271

272 THE GOLD HUNTERS

constant, and where the diggings could consequently
be worked at any time of the year, they had ex-
panded themselves over the whole face of the coun-
try; and in traveling through the depths of the for-
ests, just as the solitude seemed to be perfect, one
got a glimpse in the distance, through the dark col-
umns of the pine trees, of the red shirts of two or
three straggling miners, taking advantage of the short
period of running water to reap a golden harvest in
some spot of fancied richness. This was the season
of all others to see to the best advantage the grandeur
and beauty of the scenery, and at the same time to
realize how widely diffused and inexhaustible is the
wealth of the country. Inexhaustible is, of course,
only a comparative term; for the amount of gold
still remaining in California is a definite quantity be-
coming less and less every day, and already vastly
reduced from what it was when the mines lay intact
seven years ago; but still the date at which the yield
of the California mines is to cease, or even to begin
to fall off, seems to be as far distant as ever. In fact,
the continued labor of constantly increasing numbers
of miners, instead of exhausting the resources of the
mines, as some persons at first supposed would be the
case, has, on the contrary, only served to establish
confidence in the permanence of their wealth.

It is true that such diggings are now rarely to be
met with as were found in the early days, when the
pioneers, pitching, as if by instinct, on those spots
where the superabundant richness of the country had
broken out, dug up gold as they would potatoes; nor
is the average yield to the individual miner so great
as it was in those times. Subsequent research, how

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 273

ever, has shown that the gold is not confined to a
few localities, but that the whole country is saturated
with it. The mineral produce of the mines increases
with the population, though not in the same ratio;
for only a certain proportion of the immigrants be-
take themselves to mining, the rest finding equally
profitable occupation in the various branches of me-
chanical and agricultural industry which have of late
years sprung up; while the miner, though perhaps
not actually taking out as much gold as in 1849, is
nevertheless equally prosperous, for he lives amid the
comforts of civilized life, which he obtains at a rea-
sonable rate, instead of being reduced to a half-savage
state, and having to pay fabulous prices for every
article of consumption.

The first large camp on my way south from Hang-
town was Moquelumne Hill, about sixty miles dis-
tant, and as there were no very interesting localities
in the intermediate country, I traveled direct to that
place. After passing through a number of small
camps, I arrived about noon of the second day at
Jacksonville, a small village called after General
Jackson, of immortal memory. I had noticed a great
many French miners at work at I came along, and so
I was prepared to find it rather a French-looking
place. Half the signs over the stores and hotels were
French, and numbers of Frenchmen were sitting at
small tables in front of the houses playing at cards.

As I walked up the town I nearly stumbled over a
young grizzly bear, about the size of two Newfound-
land dogs rolled into one, which was chained to a
stump in the middle of the street. I very quickly
got out of his way; but I found afterwards that

274 THE GOLD HUNTERS

he was more playful than vicious. He was the pet
of the village, and was delighted when he could get
any one to play with, though he was rather beyond
the age at which such a playmate is at all desirable.
I don't think he was likely to enjoy long even the
small amount of freedom he possessed; he would
probably be caged up and shipped to New York;
for a live grizzly is there a valuable piece of prop-
erty, worth a good deal more than the same weight
of bear's meat in California, even at two dollars a
pound.

From this place there was a steep descent of two
or three miles to the Moquelumne River, which I
crossed by means of a good bridge, and, after ascend-
ing again to the upper world by a long winding
road, I reached the town of Moquelumne Hill, which
is situated on the very brink of the high land over-
hanging the river.

It lies in a sort of semicircular amphitheater of
about a mile in diameter, surrounded by a chain of
small eminences, in which gold was found in great
quantities. The diggings were chiefly deep diggings,
worked by means of "coyote holes," a hundred feet
deep, and all the ground round the town was accord-
ingly covered with windlasses and heaps of dirt.
The heights at each end of the amphitheater had
proved the richest spots, and were supposed to have
been volcanoes. But many hills in the mines got
the credit of having been volcanoes, for no other
reason than that they were full of gold; and this was
probably the only claim to such a distinction which
could be made in this case.

The population was a mixture of equal proportions

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 275

of French, Mexicans, and Americans, with a few stray
Chinamen, Chilians, and suchlike.

The town itself, with the exception of two or three
wooden stores and gambling-saloons, was all of can-
vas. Many of the houses were merely skeletons
clothed in dirty rags of canvas, and it was not diffi-
cult to tell what part of the population they belonged
to, even had there not been crowds of lazy Mexicans
vegetating about the doors.

The Indians, who were pretty numerous about
here, seemed to be a slightly superior race to those
farther north. I judged so from the fact that they
apparently had more money, and consequently must
have had more energy to dig for it. They were also
great gamblers, and particularly fond of monte, at
which the Mexicans fleeced them of all their cash,
excepting what they spent in making themselves
ridiculous with stray articles of clothing.

But perhaps their appreciation of monte, and their
desire to copy the costume of white men, are signs of
a greater capability of civilization than they gener-
ally get credit for. Still their presence is not com-
patible with that of a civilized community, and, as
the country becomes more thickly settled, there will
be no longer room for them. Their country can be
made subservient to man, but as they themselves can-
not be turned to account, they must move off, and
make way for their betters.

This may not be very good morality, but it is the
way of the world, and the aborigines of California are
not likely to share a better fate than those of many
another country. And though the people who drive
them out may make the process as gradual as pos-

276 THE GOLD HUNTERS

sible by the system of Indian grants and reservations,
yet, as with wild cattle, so it is with Indians, so many
head, and no more, can live on a given quantity of
land, and, if crowded into too small a compass, the
result is certain though gradual extirpation, for by
their numbers they prevent the reproduction of their
means of subsistence.

At the time of my arrival in Moquelumne Hill, the
town was posted all over with placards, which I had
also observed stuck upon trees and rocks by the road-
side as I traveled over the mountains. They were to
this effect: —

"WAR! WAR!! WAR!!!

The celebrated Bull-killing Bear,

GENERAL SCOTT,
will fight a Bull on Sunday the 15th inst., at 2 P.M.,

at Moquelumne Hill.

"The Bear will be chained with a twenty-foot chain in
the middle of the arena. The Bull will be perfectly wild,
young, of the Spanish breed, and the best that can be
found in the country. The Bull's horns will be of their
natural length, and 'not sawed off to prevent accidents/
The Bull will be quite free in the arena, and not hampered
in any way whatever."

The proprietors then went on to state that they
had nothing to do with the humbugging which char-
acterized the last fight, and begged confidently to
assure the public that this would be the most splendid
exhibition ever seen in the country.

I had often heard of these bull-and-bear fights as
popular amusements in some parts of the State, but
had never yet had an opportunity of witnessing them;
so, on Sunday the 15th, I found myself walking up

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 277

towards the arena, among a crowd of miners and
others of all nations, to witness the performances of
the redoubted General Scott.

The amphitheater was a roughly but strongly built
wooden structure, uncovered of course; and the outer
enclosure, which was of boards about ten feet high,
was a hundred feet in diameter. The arena in the
center was forty feet in diameter, and enclosed by a
very strong five-barred fence. From the top of this
rose tiers of seats, occupying the space between the
arena and the outside enclosure.

As the appointed hour drew near, the company
continued to arrive till the whole place was crowded ;
while, to beguile the time till the business of the day
should commence, two fiddlers — a white man and a
gentleman of color — performed a variety of appro-
priate airs.

The scene was gay and brilliant, and was one which
would have made a crowded opera-house appear
gloomy and dull in comparison. The shelving bank
of human beings which encircled the place was like
a mass of bright flowers. The most conspicuous ob-
jects were the shirts of the miners, red, white, and
blue being the fashionable colors, among which ap-
peared bronzed and bearded faces under hats of every
hue; revolvers and silver-handled bowie-knives glanced
in the bright sunshine, and among the crowd were
numbers of gay Mexican blankets, and red and blue
French bonnets, while here and there the fair sex was
represented by a few Mexican women in snowy-white
dresses, puffing their cigaritas in delightful anticipation
of the exciting scene which was to be enacted. Over
the heads of the highest circle of spectators was seen

278 THE GOLD HUNTERS

mountain beyond mountain fading away in the distance,
and on the green turf of the arena lay the great center
of attraction, the hero of the day, General Scott.

He was, however, not yet exposed to public gaze,
but was confined in his cage, a heavy wooden box
lined with iron, with open iron bars on one side,
which for the present was boarded over. From the
center of the arena a chain led into the cage, and at
the end of it no doubt the bear was to be found.
Beneath the scaffolding on which sat the spectators
were two pens, each containing a very handsome bull,
showing evident signs of indignation at his confinement.
Here also was the bar, without which no place of
public amusement would be complete.

There was much excitement among the crowd as
to the result of the battle, as the bear had already
killed several bulls; but an idea prevailed that in
former fights the bulls had not had fair play, being
tied by a rope to the bear, and having the tips of
their horns sawed off. But on this occasion the bull
was to have every advantage which could be given
him; and he certainly had the good wishes of the
spectators, though the bear was considered such a
successful and experienced bull-fighter that the bet-
ting was all in his favor. Some of my neighbors
gave it as their opinion, that there was "nary bull
in Calaforny as could whip that bar."

At last, after a final tattoo had been beaten on a
gong to make the stragglers hurry up the hill, prep-
arations were made for beginning the fight.

The bear made his appearance before the public
in a very bearish manner. His cage ran upon very
small wheels, and some bolts having been slipped

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 279

connected with the face of it, it was dragged out of
the ring, when, as his chain only allowed him to come
within a foot or two of the fence, the General was
rolled out upon the ground all of a heap, and very
much against his inclination apparently, for he made
violent efforts to regain his cage as it disappeared.
When he saw that was hopeless, he floundered half-
way round the ring at the length of his chain, and
commenced to tear up the earth with his fore-paws.
He was a grizzly bear of pretty large size, weighing
about twelve hundred pounds.

The next thing to be done was to introduce the
bull. The bars between his pen and the arena were
removed, while two or three men stood ready to put
them up again as soon as he should come out. But
he did not seem to like the prospect, and was not
disposed to move till pretty sharply poked up from
behind, when, making a furious dash at the red flag
which was being waved in front of the gate, he found
himself in the ring face to face with General Scott.

The General, in the meantime, had scraped a hole
for himself two or three inches deep, in which he was
lying down. This, I was told by those who had seen
his performances before, was his usual fighting attitude.

The bull was a very beautiful animal, of a dark
purple color marked with white. His horns were
regular and sharp, and his coat was as smooth and
glossy as a racer's. He stood for a moment taking
a survey of the bear, the ring, and the crowds of
people; but not liking the appearance of things in
general, he wheeled round, and made a splendid dash
at the bars, which had already been put up between
him and his pen, smashing through them with as

280 THE GOLD HUNTERS

much ease as the man in the circus leaps through a
hoop of brown paper. This was only losing time,
however, for he had to go in and fight, and might
as well have done so at once. He was accordingly
again persuaded to enter the arena, and a perfect
barricade of bars and boards was erected to prevent
his making another retreat. But this time he had
made up his mind to fight; and after looking
steadily at the bear for a few minutes as if taking
aim at him, he put down his head and charged furi-
ously at him across the arena. The bear received
him crouching down as low as he could, and though
one could hear the bump of the bull's head and horns
upon his ribs, he was quick enough to seize the bull
by the nose before he could retreat. This spirited
commencement of the battle on the part of the bull
was hailed with uproarious applause; and by having
shown such pluck, he had gained more than ever the
sympathy of the people.

In the meantime, the bear, lying on his back, held
the bull's nose firmly between his teeth, and em-
braced him round the neck with his fore-paws, while
the bull made the most of his opportunities in stamp-
ing on the bear with his hind-feet. At last the
General became exasperated at such treatment, and
shook the bull savagely by the nose, when a promis-
cuous scuffle ensued, which resulted in the bear throw-
ing his antagonist to the ground with his fore-paws.

For this feat the bear was cheered immensely, and
it was thought that, having the bull down, he would
make short work of him; but apparently wild beasts
do not tear each other to pieces quite so easily as is

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 281

generally supposed, for neither the bear's teeth nor
his long claws seemed to have much effect on the
hide of the bull, who soon regained his feet, and, dis-
engaging himself, retired to the other side of the ring,
while the bear again crouched down in his hole.

Neither of them seemed to be very much the worse
of the encounter, excepting that the bull's nose had
rather a ragged and bloody appearance; but after
standing a few minutes, steadily eyeing the General,
he made another rush at him. Again poor bruin's
ribs resounded, but again he took the bull's nose into
chancery, having seized him just as before. The
bull, however, quickly disengaged himself, and was
making off, when the General, not wishing to part
with him so soon, seized his hind-foot between his
teeth, and, holding on by his paws as well, was thus
dragged round the ring before he quitted his hold.

This round terminated with shouts of delight from
the excited spectators, and it was thought that the
bull might have a chance after all. He had been
severely punished, however; his nose and lips were a
mass of bloody shreds, and he lay down to recover
himself. But he was not allowed to rest very long,
being poked up with sticks by men outside, which
made him very savage. He made several feints to
charge them through the bars, which, fortunately, he
did not attempt, for he could certainly have gone
through them as easily as he had before broken into
his pen. He showed no inclination to renew the com-
bat; but by goading him, and waving a red flag over
the bear, he was eventually worked up to such a state
of fury as to make another charge. The result was

282 THE GOLD HUNTERS

exactly the same as before, only that when the bull
managed to get up after being thrown, the bear still
had hold of the skin of his back.

In the next round both parties fought more
savagely than ever, and the advantage was rather in
favor of the bear: the bull seemed to be quite used
up, and to have lost all chance of victory.

The conductor of the performances then mounted
the barrier, and, addressing the crowd, asked them if
the bull had not had fair play, which was unanimously
allowed. He then stated that he knew there was not
a bull in California which the General could not whip,
and that for two hundred dollars he would let in the
other bull, and the three should fight it out till one
or all were killed.

This proposal was received with loud cheers, and
two or three men going round with hats soon collected,
in voluntary contributions, the required amount. The
people were intensely excited and delighted with the
sport, and double the sum would have been just as
quickly raised to insure a continuance of the scene. A
man sitting next to me, who was a connoisseur in bear-
fights, and passionately fond of the amusement, in-
formed me that this was "the finest fight ever fit in
the country."

The second bull was equally handsome as the first,
and in as good condition. On entering the arena, and
looking around him, he seemed to understand the state
of affairs at once. Glancing from the bear lying on
the ground to the other bull standing at the opposite
side of the ring, with drooping head and bloody nose,
he seemed to divine at once that the bear was their
common enemy, and rushed at him full tilt The

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 283

bear, as usual, pinned him by the nose; but this bull
did not take such treatment so quietly as the other:
struggling violently, he soon freed himself, and, wheel-
ing round as he did so, he caught the bear on the
hind-quarters and knocked him over; while the other
bull, who had been quietly watching the proceedings,
thought this a good opportunity to pitch in also, and
rushing up, he gave the bear a dig in the ribs on the
other side before he had time to recover himself.
The poor General between the two did not know what
to do, but struck out blindly with his fore-paws with
such a suppliant pitiable look that I thought this the
most disgusting part of the whole exhibition.

After another round or two with the fresh bull, it
was evident that he was no match for the bear, and
it was agreed to conclude the performances. The
bulls were then shot to put them out of pain, and
the company dispersed, all apparently satisfied that
it had been a very splendid fight.

The reader can form his own opinion as to the
character of an exhibition such as I have endeavored
to describe. For my own part, I did not at first find
the actual spectacle so disgusting as I had expected I
should; for as long as the animals fought with spirit,
they might have been supposed to be following their
natural instincts; but when the bull had to be urged
and goaded on to return to the charge, the cruelty of
the whole proceeding was too apparent; and when
the two bulls at once were let in upon the bear, all
idea of sport or fair play was at an end, and it became
a scene which one would rather have prevented than
witnessed.

In these bull-and-bear fights the bull sometimes

284 THE GOLD HUNTERS

kills the bear at the first charge, by plunging his horns
between the ribs, and striking a vital part. Such was
the fate of General Scott in the next battle he fought,
a few weeks afterwards; but it is seldom that the
bear kills the bull outright, his misery being in most
cases ended by a rifle-ball when he can no longer
maintain the combat.

I took a sketch of the General the day after the
battle. He was in the middle of the now deserted
arena, and was in a particularly savage humor. He
seemed to consider my intrusion on his solitude as
a personal insult, for he growled most savagely, and
stormed about in his cage, even pulling at the iron
bars in his efforts to get out. I could not help think-
ing what a pretty mess he would have made of me
if he had succeeded in doing so; but I regarded with
peculiar satisfaction the massive architecture of his
abode; and, taking a seat a few feet from him, I
lighted my pipe, and waited till he should quiet down
into an attitude, which he soon did, though very
sulkily, when he saw that he could not help himself.

He did not seem to be much the worse for the
battle, having but one wound, and that appeared to
be only skin deep.

Such a bear as this, alive, was worth about fifteen
hundred dollars. The method of capturing them is
a service of considerable danger, and requires a great
deal of labor and constant watching.

A spot is chosen in some remote part of the moun-
tains, where it has been ascertained that bears are
pretty numerous. Here a species of cage is built,
about twelve feet square and six feet high, con-
structed of pine logs, and fastened after the manner

A BULL AND BEAR FIGHT 285

of a log cabin. This is suspended between two trees,
six or seven feet from the ground, and inside is hung
a huge piece of beef, communicating by a string with
a trigger, so contrived that the slightest tug at the
beef draws the trigger, and down comes the trap,
which has more the appearance of a log cabin sus-
pended in the air than anything else. A regular
locomotive cage, lined with iron, has also to be taken
to the spot, to be kept in readiness for bruin's accom-
modation, for the pine log trap would not hold him
long; he would soon eat and tear his way out of it.
The enterprising bear-catchers have therefore to re-
main in the neighborhood, and keep a sharp lookout.
Removing the bear from the trap to the cage is the
most dangerous part of the business. One side of
the trap is so contrived as to admit of being opened
or removed, and the cage is drawn up alongside, with
the door also open, when the bear has to be per-
suaded to step into his new abode, in which he travels
down to the more populous parts of the country, to
fight bulls for the amusement of the public.

CHAPTER XX

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD

THE want of water was the great obstacle in the
way of mining at Moquelumne Hill. As it
stood so much higher than the surrounding
country, there were no streams which could be in-
troduced, and the only means of getting a constant
supply was to bring the water from the Moquelumne
River, which flowed past, three or four thousand feet
below the diggings. In order to get the requisite ele-
vation to raise the waters so far above their natural
channel, it was found necessary to commence the canal
some fifty or sixty miles up the river. The idea had
been projected, but the execution of such a piece of
work required more capital than could be raised at the
moment; but the diggings at Moquelumne Hill were
known to be so rich, as was also the tract of country
through which the canal would' pass, that the specula-
tion was considered sure to be successful; and a com-
pany was not long after formed for the purpose of
carrying out the undertaking, which amply repaid
those embarked in it, and opened up a vast extent of
new field for mining operations, by supplying water
in places which otherwise could only have been worked
for two or three months of the year.

This was only one of many such undertakings in
California, some of which were even on a larger scale*
286

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD 287

The engineering difficulties were very great, from
the rocky and mountainous nature of the country
through which the canals were brought. Hollows
and valleys were spanned at a great height by aque-
ducts, supported on graceful scaffoldings of pine
logs, and precipitous mountains were girded by wooden
flumes projecting from their rocky sides. Throughout
the course of a canal, wherever water was wanted by
miners, it was supplied to them at so much an inch,
a sufficient quantity for a party of five or six men cost-
ing about seven dollars a day.

I remained a few days at Moquelumne Hill in
a holey old canvas hotel, which freely admitted both
wind and water; but in this respect it was not much
worse than its neighbors. A French physician re-
sided on the opposite side of the street in a tent not
much larger than a sentry-box, on the front of which
appeared the following promiscuous announcement, in
letters as large as the space admitted —

"PHARMACIEN DE PARIS.
DRUGS AND MEDICINES.

BOTICA.
DOCTOR — DENTISTE.

COLD CREAM.
DESTRUCTION TO RATS.

MORT AUX SOURIS."

From Moquelumne I went to Volcano Diggings, a
distance of eighteen miles, but which I lengthened to
nearly thirty by losing my way in crossing an un-
frequented part of the country where the trails were
verv indistinct.

288 THE GOLD HUNTERS

The principal diggings at Volcano are in the
banks of a gulch, called Soldiers' Gulch, from its
having been first worked by United States' soldiers,
and were of a peculiar nature, differing from any other
diggings I had seen, inasmuch as, though they had been
worked to a depth of forty or fifty feet from the sur-
face, they had been equally rich from top to bottom,
and as yet no bed-rock had been reached. It was
seldom such a depth of pay-dirt was found. The
gold was usually only found within a few feet of the
bottom, but in this case the stiff clay soil may have
retained the gold, and prevented its settling down so
readily as through sand or gravel. The clay was so
stiff that it was with difficulty it could be washed, and
lately the miners had taken to boiling it in large boilers,
which was found to dissolve it very quickly.

To mineralogists I should think that this is the
most interesting spot in the mines, from the great
variety of curious stones found in large quantities in
the diggings. One kind is found, about the size of
a man's head, which when broken appears veined with
successive brightly-colored layers round a beautifully-
crystallized cavity in the center, the whole being en-
veloped in a rough outside crust an inch in thickness.
The colors are more various and the veins closer to-
gether than those of a Scotch pebble, and the stone
itself is more flinty and opaque. Quantities of lava
were also found here, and masses of limestone rock
appeared above the surface of the ground.

This place lay north of Moquelumne Hill, and
might be called the most southern point of the northern
mines.

Between the scenery of the northern mines and that

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD 289

of the south there is a very marked difference, both
in the exterior formation of the country, and in the
kind of trees with which it is wooded. In both the
surface of the country is smooth — that is to say, there
is an absence of ruggedness of detail — the mountains
appear to have been smoothed down by the action of
water; but, both north and south, the country as a
whole is rough in the extreme, the mountain sides, as
well as the table-lands, being covered with swellings,
and deeply indented by ravines. An acre of level
land is hardly to be found. The difference, however,
exists in this, that in the north the mountains them-
selves, and every little swelling upon them, are of a
conical form, while in the south they are all more
circular. The mountains spread themselves out in
hemispherical projections one beyond another; and in
many parts of the country are found groups of
eminences of the same form, and as symmetrical as
if they had been shaped by artificial means.

There is just as much symmetry in the conical forms
of the northern mines, but they appear more natural,
and the pyramidal tops of the pine trees are quite in
keeping with the outlines of the country which they
cover; and it is remarkable that where the conical
formation ceases, there also the pine ceases to be the
principal tree of the country. There are pines, and
plenty of them, in the southern mines, but the country
is chiefly wooded with various kinds of oaks, and other
trees of still more rounded shape, with only here and
there a solitary pine towering above them to break the
monotony of the curvilinear outline.

As might be expected from this circular formation,
the rivers in the south do not follow such a sharp zig-

290 THE GOLD HUNTERS

zag course as in the north ; they take wider sweeps : the
mountains are not so steep, and the country generally
is not so rough. In fact, there is scarcely any camp
in the southern mines which is not accessible by
wheeled vehicles.

Besides this great change in the appearance of the
country, one could not fail to observe also, in travel-
ing south, the equally marked difference in the in-
habitants. In the north, one saw occasionally some
straggling Frenchmen and other European foreigners,
here and there a party of Chinamen, and a few Mexi-
cans engaged in driving mules, but the total number
of foreigners was very small : the population was almost
entirely composed of Americans, and of these the
Missourians and other western men formed a large
proportion.

The southern mines, however, were full of all sorts
of people. There were many villages peopled nearly
altogether by Mexicans, others by Frenchmen ; in some
places there were parties of two or three hundred
Chilians forming a community of their own. The
Chinese camps were very numerous; and besides all
such distinct colonies of foreigners, every town of the
southern mines contained a very large foreign popu-
lation. The Americans, however, were of course
greatly the majority, but even among them one re-
marked the comparatively small number of Missourians
and such men, who are so conspicuous in the north.

There was still another difference in a very impor-
tant feature — in fact, the most important of all — the
gold. The gold of the northern mines is generally
flaky, in exceedingly small thin scales; that of the
south is coarse gold, round and "chunky." The rivers

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD 291

of the north afford very rich diggings, while in the
south they are comparatively poor, and the richest de-
posits are found in the flats and other surface-diggings
on the highlands.

In the north there were no such canvas towns as
Moquelumne Hill. Log cabins and frame houses
were the rule, and canvas the exception; while in the
southern mines the reverse was the case, excepting in
some of the larger towns.

It is singular that the State should be thus divided
by nature into two sections of country so unlike in
many important points; and that the people inhabit-
ing them should help to heighten the contrast is equally
curious, though it may possibly be accounted for by
supposing that Frenchmen, Mexicans, and other
foreigners, preferred the less wild-looking country
and more temperate winters of the southern mines,
while the absence of the Western backwoodsmen in
the south was owing to the fact that they came to the
country across the plains by a route which entered the
State near Placerville. Their natural instinct would
have led them to continue on a westward course, but
this would have brought them down on the plains of
the Sacramento Valley, where there is no gold; so,
thinking that sunset was more north than south, and
knowing also there was more western land in that
direction, they spread all over the northern part of the
State, till they connected themselves with the settle-
ments in Oregon.

In the neighborhood of Volcano there is a curious
cave, which I went to visit with two or three miners.
The entrance to it is among some large rocks on the
bank of the creek, and is a hole in the ground just

292 THE GOLD HUNTERS

large enough to admit of a man's dropping himself into
it lengthways. The descent is perpendicular between
masses of rock for about twenty feet, and is accom-
plished by means of a rope; the passage then takes a
slanting direction for the same distance, and lands
one in a chamber thirty or forty feet wide, the roof
and sides of which are composed of groups of im-
mense stalactites. The height varies very much, some
of the stalactites reaching within four or five feet of
the ground; and there are several small openings in
the walls, just large enough to creep through, which
lead into similar chambers. We brought a number
of pieces of candle with us, with which we lighted up
the whole place. The effect was very fine; the stalac-
tites, being tinged with pale blue, pink, and green,
were grouped in all manner of grotesque forms, in one
corner giving an exact representation of a small petri-
fied waterfall.

Coming down into the cave was easy enough, the
force of gravity being the only motive power, but to
get out again we found rather a difficult operation.
The sides of the passage were smooth, offering no
resting-place for the foot; and the only means of pro-
gression was to haul oneself up by the rope hand over
hand — rather hard work in the inclined part of the
passage, which was so confined that one could hardly
use one's arms.

At the hotel I stayed at here I found very agreeable
company; most of the party were Texans, and were
doctors and lawyers by profession, though miners by
practice. For the first time since I had been in the
mines I here saw whist played, the more favorite games
being poker, euchre, and all-fours, or "seven up," as

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD 293

it is there called. There were also some enthusiastic
chess-players among the party, who had manufactured
a set of men with their bowie-knives; so what with
whist and chess every night, I fancied I had got into
a civilized country.

The day before I had intended leaving this village,
some Mexicans came into the camp with a lot of
mules, which they sold so cheap as to excite suspicions
that they had not come by them honestly. In the
evening it was discovered that they were stolen
animals, and several men started in pursuit of the
Mexicans; but they had already been gone some hours,
and there was little chance of their being overtaken.
I waited a day, in hopes of seeing them brought back
and hung by process of Lynch law, which would
certainly have been their fate had they been caught;
but, fortunately for them, they succeeded in making
good their escape. The men who had gone in chase
returned empty-handed, so I set out again for Moque-
lumne Hill on my way south.

I was put upon a shorter trail than the one by which
I had come from there; and though it was very dim
and little traveled, I managed to keep it: and passing
on my way through a small camp called Clinton,
inhabited principally by Chilians and Frenchmen, I
struck the Moquelumne River at a point several miles
above the bridge where I had crossed it before.

The river was still much swollen with the rains
and snow of winter, and the mode of crossing was
not by any means inviting. Two very small canoes
lashed together served as a ferry-boat, in which the
passenger hauled himself across the river by means of
a rope made fast to a tree on either bank, the force

294 THE GOLD HUNTERS

of the current keeping the canoes bow on. When I
arrived here, this contrivance happened to be on the
opposite side, where I saw a solitary tent which seemed
to be inhabited, but I hallooed in vain for some one
to make his appearance and act as ferryman. There
seemed to be a trail from the tent leading up the river ;
so, following that direction for about half a mile, I
found a party of miners at work on the other side —
one of whom, in the obliging spirit universally met
with in the mines, immediately left his work and came
down to ferry me across.

On the side I was on was an old race about eighteen
feet wide, through which the waters rushed rapidly
past. A pile of rocks prevented the boat from cross-
ing this, so there was nothing for it but to wade.
Some stones had been thrown in, forming a sort of
submarine stepping-stones, and lessening the depth to
about three feet; but they were smooth and slippery,
and the water was so intensely cold, and the current
so strong, that I found the long pole which the man
told me to take a very necessary assistance in making
the passage. On reaching the canoes, and being duly
enjoined to be careful in getting in and to keep per-
fectly still, we crossed the main body of the river ; and
very ticklish work it was, for the waves ran high, and
the utmost care was required to avoid being swamped.
We got across safe enough, when my friend put me
under additional obligations by producing a bottle of
brandy from his tent and asking me to "liquor," which
I did with a great deal of pleasure, as the water was
still gurgling and squeaking in my boots, and was so
cold that I felt as if I were half immersed in ice-cream.

After climbing the steep mountain side and walking

A MOUNTAIN OF GOLD 295

a few miles farther, I arrived at Moquelumne Hill,
having, in the course of my day's journey, gradually
passed from the pine-tree country into such scenery
as I have already described as .characterizing the
southern mines.

I went on the next morning to San Andres by a
road which wound through beautiful little valleys,
still fresh and green, and covered with large patches
of flowers. In one long gulch through which I passed,
about two hundred Chilians were at work washing
the dirt, panful by panful, in their large flat wooden
dishes. This is a very tedious process, and a most
unprofitable expenditure of labor; but Mexicans,
Chilians, and other Spanish Americans, most obstinately
adhered to their old-fashioned primitive style, although
they had the example before them of all the rest of the
world continually making improvements in the method
of abstracting the gold, whereby time was saved and
labor rendered tenfold more effective.

I soon after met a troop of forty or fifty Indians
galloping along the road, most of them riding double
— the gentlemen having their squaws seated behind
them. They were dressed in the most grotesque style,
and the clothing seemed to be pretty generally diffused
throughout the crowd. One man wore a coat, an-
other had the remains of a shirt and one boot, while
another was fully equipped in an old hat and a waist-
coat: but the most conspicuous and generally worn
articles of costume were the colored cotton handker-
chiefs with which they bandaged up their heads. As
they passed they looked down upon me with an air
of patronizing condescension, saluting me with the
usual "wally wally," in just such a tone that I could

296 THE GOLD HUNTERS

imagine them saying to themselves at the same time,
"Poor devil ! he's only a white man."

They all had their bows and arrows, and some were
armed besides with old guns and rifles, but they were
doubtless only going to pay a friendly visit to some
neighboring tribe. They were evidently anticipating
a pleasant time, for I never before saw Indians exhibit-
ing such boisterous good humor.

A few miles in from San Andres I crossed the
Calaveras, which is here a wide river, though not very
deep. There was neither bridge nor ferry, but fortu-
nately some Mexicans had camped with a train of
pack-mules not far from the place, and from them I
got an animal to take me across.

CHAPTER XXI

IN LIGHTER MOOD

IF one can imagine the booths and penny theaters on
a race-course left for a year or two till they are
tattered and torn, and blackened with the weather,
he will have some idea of the appearance of San Andres.
It was certainly the most out-at-elbows and disorderly
looking camp I had yet seen in the country.

The only wooden house was the San Andres Hotel,
and here I took up my quarters. It was kept by a
Missourian doctor, and being the only establishment of
the kind in the place, was quite full. We sat down
forty or fifty at the table-d'hote.

The Mexicans formed by far the most numerous
part of the population. The streets — for there were
two streets at right angles to each other — and the
gambling-rooms were crowded with them, loafing about
in their blankets doing nothing. There were three
gambling-rooms in the village, all within a few steps
of each other, and in each of them was a Mexican
band playing guitars, harps and flutes. Of course, one
heard them all three at once, and as each played a
different tune, the effect, as may be supposed, was
very pleasing.

The sleeping apartments in the hotel itself were all
full, and I had to take a cot in a tent on the other
207

298 THE GOLD HUNTERS

side of the street, which was a sort of colony of the
parent establishment. It was situated between two
gambling-houses, one of which was kept by a French-
man, who, whenever his musicians stopped to take
breath or brandy, began a series of doleful airs on an
old barrel-organ. Till how late in the morning they
kept it up I cannot say, but whenever I happened to
awake in the middle of the night, my ears were still
greeted by these sweet sounds.

There was one canvas structure, differing but little
in appearance from the rest, excepting that a small
wooden cross surmounted the roof over the door.
This was a Roman Catholic church. The only fitting
up of any kind in the interior was the altar, which
occupied the farther end from the door, and was dec-
orated with as much display as circumstances ad-
mitted, being draped with the commonest kind of
colored cotton cloths, and covered with candlesticks,
some brass, some of wood, but most of them regular
California candlesticks — old claret and champagne
bottles, arranged with due regard to the numbers and
grouping of those bearing the different ornamental
labels of St. Julien, Medoc, and other favorite brands.

I went in on Sunday morning while service was
going on, and found a number of Mexican women
occupying the space nearest the altar, the rest of the
church being filled with Mexicans, who all maintained
an appearance of respectful devotion. Two or three
Americans, who were present out of curiosity, natu-
rally kept in the background near the door, except-
ing two great hulking fellows who came swaggering
in, and jostled their way through the crowd of Mexi-
cans, making it evident, from their demeanor, that

IN LIGHTER MOOD 299

their only object was to show their supreme contempt
for the congregation, and for the whole proceedings.
Presently, however, the entire congregation went down
on their knees, leaving these two awkward louts stand-
ing in the middle of the church as sheepish-looking
a pair of asses as one could wish to see. They were
hemmed in by the crowd of kneeling Mexicans —
there was no retreat for them, and it was extremely
gratifying to see how quickly their bullying impudence
was taken out of them, and that it brought upon them
a punishment which they evidently felt so acutely.
The officiating priest, who was a Frenchman, after-
wards gave a short sermon in Spanish, which was
listened to attentively, and the people then dispersed
to spend the remainder of the day in the gambling-
rooms.

The same afternoon a drove of wild California
cattle passed through the camp, and as several head
were being drafted out, I had an opportunity of
witnessing a specimen of the extraordinary skill of the
Mexican in throwing the lasso. Galloping in among
the herd, and swinging the riata round his head, he
singles out the animal he wishes to secure, and, seldom
missing his aim, he throws his lasso so as to encircle its
horns. As soon as he sees that he has accomplished
this, he immediately wheels round his horse, who
equally well understands his part of the business, and
stands prepared to receive the shock when the bull
shall have reached the length of the rope. In his en-
deavors to escape, the bull then gallops round in a
circle, of which the center is the horse, moving slowly
round, and leaning over with one of his fore-feet
planted well out, so as to enable him to hold his own

300 THE GOLD HUNTERS

in the struggle. An animal, if he is not very wild,
may be taken along in this way, but generally another
man rides up behind him, and throws his lasso so as
to catch him by the hind-leg. This requires great
dexterity and precision, as the lasso has to be thrown
in such a way that the bull shall put his foot into the
noose before it reaches the ground. Having an ani-
mal secured by the horns and a hind-foot, they have
him completely under command; one man drags him
along by the horns, while the other steers him by the
hind-leg. If he gets at all obstreperous, however, they
throw him, and drag him along the ground.

The lasso is about twenty yards long, made of strips
of rawhide plaited, and the end is made fast to the
high horn which sticks up in front of the Mexican
saddle ; the strain is all upon the saddle, and the girth,
which is consequently immensely strong, and lashed up
very tight. The Mexican saddles are well adapted
for this sort of work, and the Mexicans are unques-
tionably splendid horsemen, though they ride too long
for English ideas, the knee being hardly bent at all.

Two of the Vigilance Committee rode over from
Moquelumne Hill next morning, to get the Padre to
return with them to confess a Mexican whom they
were going to hang that afternoon, for having cut
into a tent and stolen several hundred dollars. I un-
fortunately did not know anything about it till it was
so late that had I gone there I should not have been
in time to see the execution: not that I cared for the
mere spectacle of a poor wretch hanging by the neck,
but I was extremely desirous of witnessing the cere-
monies of an execution by Judge Lynch; and though

1JN LIGHTER MOOD 301

I was two or three years cruising about in the mines,
I never had the luck to be present on such an occasion.
I particularly regretted having missed this one, as,
from the accounts I afterwards heard of it, it must
have been well worth seeing.

The Mexican was at first suspected of the robbery,
from his own folly in going the very next morning
to several stores, and spending an unusual amount of
money on clothes, revolvers, and so on. When once
suspected, he was seized without ceremony, and on
his person was found a quantity of gold specimens
and coin, along with the purse itself, all of which
were identified by the man who had been robbed.
With such evidence, of course, he was very soon con-
victed, and was sentenced to be hung. On being told
of the decision of the jury, and that he was to be
hung the next day, he received the information as a
piece of news which no way concerned him, merely
shrugging his shoulders and saying, " 'std bueno," in
the tone of utter indifference in which the Mexicans
generally use the expression, requesting at the same
time that the priest might be sent for.

When he was led out to be hanged, he walked
along with as much nonchalance as any of the crowd,
and when told at the place of execution that he might
say whatever he had to say, he gracefully took off his
hat, and blowing a farewell whiff of smoke through
his nostrils, he threw away the cigarita he had been
smoking, and, addressing the crowd, he asked forgive-
ness for the numerous acts of villainy to which he had
already confessed, and politely took leave of the world
with "Adios, caballeros." He was then run up to a

302 THE GOLD HUNTERS

butcher's derrick by the Vigilance Committee, all the
members having hold of the rope, and thus sharing the
responsibility of the act.

A very few days after I left San Andres, a man
was lynched for a robbery committed very much in
the same manner. But if stringent measures were
wanted in one part of the country more than another,
it was in such flimsy canvas towns as these two places,
where there was such a population of worthless Mexi-
can canaille, who were too lazy to work for an honest
livelihood.

I went on in a few days to Angel's Camp, a village
some miles farther south, composed of well-built
wooden houses, and altogether a more respectable and
civilized-looking place than San Andres. The inhab-
itants were nearly all Americans, which no doubt ac-
counted for the circumstance.

While walking round the diggings in the afternoon,
I came upon a Chinese camp in a gulch near the
village. About a hundred Chinamen had here pitched
their tents on a rocky eminence by the side of their
diggings. When I passed they were at dinner or
supper, and had all the curious little pots and pans
and other "fixins" which I had seen in every Chinese
camp, and were eating the same dubious-looking
articles which excite in the mind of an outside bar-
barian a certain degree of curiosity to know what they
are composed of, but not the slightest desire to gratify
it by the sense of taste. I was very hospitably asked
to partake of the good things, which I declined; but
as I would not eat, they insisted on my drinking, and
poured me out a pannikin full of brandy, which they
seemed rather surprised I did not empty. They also

IN LIGHTER MOOD 303

gave me some of their cigaritas, the tobacco of which
is aromatic, and very pleasant to smoke, though
wrapped up in too much paper.

The Chinese invariably treated in the same hos-
pitable manner any one who visited their camps, and
seemed rather pleased than otherwise at the interest
and curiosity excited by their domestic arrangements.

In the evening, a ball took place at the hotel I
was staying at, where, though none of the fair sex
were present, dancing was kept up with great spirit
for several hours. For music the 'company were in-
debted to two amateurs, one of whom played the fiddle
and the other the flute. It is customary in the mines
for the fiddler to take the responsibility of keeping
the dancers all right He goes through the dance
orally, and at the proper intervals his voice is heard
above the music and the conversation, shouting loudly
his directions to the dancers, "Lady's chain," "Set to
your partner," with other dancing-school words of com-
mand; and after all the legitimate figures of the dance
had been performed, out of consideration for the
thirsty appetites of the dancers, and for the good of
the house, he always announced, in a louder voice than
usual, the supplementary finale of "Promenade to the
bar, and treat your partners." This injunction, as
may be supposed, was most rigorously obeyed, and the
"ladies," after their fatigues, tossed off their cocktails
and lighted their pipes just as in more polished circles
they eat ice-creams and sip lemonade.

It was a strange sight to see a party of long-
bearded men, in heavy boots and flannel shirts, going
through all the steps and figures of the dance with
so much spirit, and often with a great deal of grace,

304 THE GOLD HUNTERS

hearty enjoyment depicted on their dried-up sunburned
faces, and revolvers and bowie-knives glancing in their
belts; while a crowd of the same rough-looking cus-
tomers stood around, cheering them on to greater
efforts, and occasionally dancing a step or two quietly
on their own account. Dancing parties such as these
were very common, especially in small camps where
there was no such general resort as the gambling-
saloons of the larger towns. Wherever a fiddler
could be found to play, a dance was got up. Waltzes
and polkas were not so much in fashion as the lancers
which appeared to be very generally known, and, be-
sides, gave plenty of exercise to the light fantastic toes
of the dancers ; for here men danced, as they did every-
thing else, with all their might; and to go through
the lancers in such company was a very severe gym-
nastic exercise. The absence of ladies was a difficulty
which was very easily overcome, by a simple arrange-
ment whereby it was understood that every gentleman
who had a patch on a certain part of his inexpressibles
should be considered a lady for the time being. These
patches were rather fashionable, and were usually
large squares of canvas, showing brightly on a dark
ground, so that the "ladies" of the party were as
conspicuous as if they had been surrounded by the
usual quantity of white muslin.

A pas seul sometimes varied the entertainment. I
was present on one occasion at a dance at Foster's
Bar, when, after several sets of the lancers had
been danced, a young Scotch boy, who was probably
a runaway apprentice from a Scotch ship — for the
sailor-boy air was easily seen through the thick coat-
ing of flour which he had acquired in his present

IN LIGHTER MOOD 305

occupation in the employment of a French baker —
was requested to dance the Highland fling for the
amusement of the company. The music was good,
and he certainly did justice to it; dancing most
vigorously for about a quarter of an hour, shouting
and yelling as he was cheered by the crowd, and
going into it with all the fury of a wild savage in a
war-dance. The spectators were uproarious in their
applause. I daresay many of them never saw such an
exhibition before. The youngster was looked upon
as a perfect prodigy, and if he had drunk with all the
men who then sought the honor of "treating" him,
he would never have lived to tread another measure.

CHAPTER XXII

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS

FROM Angel's Camp I went on a few miles to
Carson's Creek, on which there was a small
camp, lying at the foot of a hill, which was
named after the same man. On its summit a quartz
vein cropped out in large masses to the height of thirty
or forty feet, looking at a distance like the remains of a
solid wall of fortification. It had only been worked a
few feet from the surface, but already an incredible
amount of gold had been taken out of it.

Every place in the mines had its traditions of
wonderful events which had occurred in the olden
times; that is to say, as far back as " '49" — for three
years in such a fast country were equal to a century;
and at this place the tradition was, that, when the
quartz vein was first worked, the method adopted
was to put in a blast, and, after the explosion, to go
round with handbaskets and pick up the pieces. I
believe this was only a slight exaggeration of the
truth, for at this particular part of the vein there had
been found what is there called a "pocket," a spot
not more than a few feet in extent, where lumps of
gold in unusual quantities lie imbedded in the rock.
No systematic plan had been followed in opening the
mine with a view to the proper working of it; but
several irregular excavations had been made in the
306

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS 307

rock wherever the miners had found the gold most
plentiful. For nearly a year it had not been worked
at all, in consequence of several disputes as to the
ownership of the claims; and in the meantime the
lawyers were the only parties who were making any-
thing out of it.

On the other side of the hill, however, was a claim
on the same vein, which was in undisputed possession
of a company of Americans, who employed a number
of Mexicans to work it, under the direction of an ex-
perienced old Mexican miner. They had three shafts
sunk in the solid rock, in a line with each other, to
the depth of two hundred feet, from which galleries
extended at different points, where the gold-bearing
quartz was found in the greatest abundance. No
ropes or windlasses were used for descending the
shafts; but at every thirty feet or so there was a sort
of step or platform, resting on which was a pole with
a number of notches cut all down one side of it; and
the rock excavated in the various parts of the mine
was brought up in leathern sacks on the shoulders of
men who had to make the ascent by climbing a
succession of these poles. The quartz was then con-
veyed on pack-mules down to the river by a cir-
cuitous trail, which had been cut on the steep side of
the mountain, and was there ground in the primi-
tive Mexican style in "rasters." The whole opera-
tion seemed to be conducted at a most unnecessary
expenditure of labor; but the mine was rich, and,
even worked in this way, it yielded largely to the
owners.

Numerous small wooden crosses were placed through-
out the mine, in niches cut in the rock for their recep-

308 THE GOLD HUNTERS

tion, and each separate part of the mine was named
after a saint who was supposed to take those working
in it under his immediate protection. The day before
I visited the place had been some saint's day, and the
Mexicans, who of course had made a holiday of it,
had employed themselves in erecting, on the side of the
hill over the mine, a large cross, about ten feet high,
and had completely clothed it with the beautiful wild-
flowers which grew around in the greatest profusion.
In fact, it was a gigantic cruciform nosegay, the
various colors of which were arranged with a great
deal of taste.

This mine is on the great quartz vein which trav-
erses the whole State of California. It has a direc-
tion northeast and southwest, perfectly true by
compass; and from many points where an extensive
view of the country is obtained, it can be distinctly
traced for a great distance as it "crops out" here
and there, running up a hillside like a colossal stone
wall, and then disappearing for many miles, till, true
to its course, it again shows itself crowning the
summit of some conical-shaped mountain, and appear-
ing in the distant view like so many short white
strokes, all forming parts of the same straight line.

The general belief was that at one time all the gold
in the country had been imbedded in quartz, which,
being decomposed by the action of the elements, had
set the gold at liberty, to be washed away with other
debris, and to find a resting-place for itself. Rich
diggings were frequently found in the neighborhood
of quartz veins, but not invariably so, for different
local causes must have operated to assist the gold in
traveling from its original starting-point.

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS 309

As a general rule, the richest diggings seemed to
be in the rivers at those points where the eddies gave
the gold an opportunity of settling down instead of
being borne further along by the current, or in those
places on the highlands where, owing to the flatness
of the surface or the want of egress, the debris had
been retained while the water ran off; for the first
idea one formed from the appearance of the moun-
tains was, that they had been very severely washed
down, but that there had been sufficient earth and
debris to cover their nakedness, and to modify the
sharp angularity of their formation.

I crossed the Stanislaus — a large river, which does
not at any part of its course afford very rich dig-
gings— by a ferry which was the property of two or
three Englishmen, who had lived for many years in
the Sandwich Islands. The force of the current was
here very strong, and by an ingenious contrivance
was made available for working the ferry. A stout
cable was stretched across the river, and traversing
on this were two blocks, to which were made fast the
head and stern of a large scow. By lengthening the
stern line, the scow assumed a diagonal position, and,
under the influence of the current and of the oppos-
ing force of the cable, she traveled rapidly across
the river, very much on the same principle on which
a ship holds her course with the wind abeam.

Ferries or bridges, on much-traveled roads, were
very valuable property. They were erected at those
points on the rivers where the mountain on each side
offered a tolerably easy ascent, and where, in conse-
quence, a line of travel had commenced. But very
frequently more easy routes were found than the one

310 THE GOLD HUNTERS

first adopted; opposition ferries were then started,
and the public got the full benefit of the competition
between the rival proprietors, who sought to secure
the traveling custom by improving the roads which
led to their respective ferries.

In opposition to this ferry on the Stanislaus, another
had been started a few miles down the river; so the
Englishmen, in order to keep up the value of their
property and maintain the superiority of their route,
had made a good wagon-road, more than a mile in
length, from the river to the summit of the mountain.

After ascending by this road and traveling five or
six miles over a rolling country covered with magnifi-
cent oak trees, and in many places fenced in and
under cultivation, I arrived at Sonora, the largest
town of the southern mines. It consisted of a single
street, extending for upwards of a mile along a sort
of hollow between gently sloping hills. Most of the
houses were of wood, a few were of canvas, and one
or two were solid buildings of sun-dried bricks. The
lower end of the town was very peculiar in appear-
ance as compared with the prevailing style of Cali-
fornia architecture. Ornament seemed to have been
as much consulted as utility, and the different tastes
of the French and Mexican builders were very plainly
seen in the high-peaked overhanging roofs, the stair-
cases outside the houses, the corridors round each
story, and other peculiarities; giving the houses —
which were painted, moreover, buff and pale blue —
quite an old-fashioned air alongside of the staring
white rectangular fronts of the American houses.
There was less pretence and more honesty about them
than about the American houses, for many of the

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS 311

latter were all front, and gave the idea of a much
better house than the small rickety clapboard or can-
vas concern which was concealed behind it. But
these fagades were useful as well as ornamental, and
were intended to support the large signs, which con-
veyed an immense deal of useful information. Some
small stores, in fact, seemed bursting with intelli-
gence, and were broken out all over with short spas-
modic sentences in English, French, Spanish, and
German, covering all the available space save the
door, and presenting to the passer-by a large amount
of desultory reading as to the nature of the property
within and the price at which it could be bought.
This, however, was not by any means peculiar to
Sonora — it was the general style of thing throughout
the country.

The Mexicans and the French also were very
numerous, and there was an extensive assortment of
other Europeans from all quarters, all of whom, save
French, English, and "Eyetalians," are in California
classed under the general denomination of Dutchmen,
or more frequently "d — d Dutchmen," merely for the
sake of euphony.

Sonora is situated in the center of an extremely
rich mining country, more densely populated than
any other part of the mines. In the neighborhood
are a number of large villages, one of which, Col-
umbia, only two or three miles distant, was not much
inferior in size to Sonora itself. The place took its
name from the men who first struck the diggings and
camped on the spot — a party of miners from the
state of Sonora in Mexico. The Mexicans discovered
many of the richest diggings in the country — not

312 THE GOLD HUNTERS

altogether, perhaps, through good luck, for they had
been gold-hunters all their lives, and may be supposed
to have derived some benefit from their experience.
They seldom, however, remained long in possession
of rich diggings; never working with any vigor, they
spent most of their time in the passive enjoyment of
their cigaritas, or in playing monte, and were conse-
quently very soon run over and driven off the field by
the rush of more industrious and resolute men.

There were a considerable number of Mexicans to
be seen at work round Sonora, but the most of those
living in the town seemed to do nothing but bask in
the sun and loaf about the gambling-rooms. How
they managed to live was not very apparent, but they
can live where another man would starve. I have no
doubt they could subsist on cigaritas alone for several
days at a time.

I got very comfortable quarters in one of the French
hotels, of which there were several in the town, be-
sides a number of good American houses; German
restaurants, where lager beer was drunk by the gallon ;
Mexican fondas, which had an exceedingly greasy look
about them; and also a Chinese house, where every-
thing was most scrupulously clean. In this latter
place a Chinese woman, dressed in European style,
sat behind the bar and served out drinkables to thirsty
outside barbarians, while three Chinamen entertained
them with celestial music from a drum something like
the top of a skull covered with parchment and stuck
upon three sticks, a guitar like a long stick with a
knob at the end of it, and a sort of fiddle with two
strings. I asked the Chinese landlord, who spoke a
little English, if the woman was his wife. "Oh, no,"

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS 313

he said, very indignantly, "only hired woman — China
woman; hired her for show — that's all." Some of
these Chinamen are pretty smart fellows, and this was
one of them. The novelty of the "show," however,
wore off in a few days, and the Chinawoman disap-
peared— probably went to show herself in other
diggings.

One could live here in a way which seemed per-
fectly luxurious after cruising about the mountains
among the small out-of-the-way camps; for, besides
having a choice of good hotels, one could enjoy most
of the comforts and conveniences of ordinary life;
even ice-creams and sherry-cobblers were to be had,
for snow was packed in on mules thirty or forty
miles from the Sierra Nevada, and no one took even
a cocktail without its being iced. But what struck
me most as a sign of civilization, was seeing a drunken
man, who was kicking up a row in the street, deliber-
ately collared and walked off to the lock-up by a
policeman. I never saw such a thing before in the
mines, where the spectacle of drunken men rolling
about the streets unmolested had become so familiar
to me that I was almost inclined to think it an in-
fringement of the individual liberty of the subject — or
of the citizen, I should say — not to allow this hog of
a fellow to sober himself in the gutter, or to drink
himself into a state of quiescence if he felt so inclined.
This policeman represented the whole police force in
his own proper person, and truly he had no sinecure.
He was not exactly like one of our own blue-bottles;
he was not such a stoical observer of passing events,
nor so shut out from all social intercourse with his
fellow-men. There was nothing to distinguish him

314 THE GOLD HUNTERS

from other citizens, except perhaps the unusual size
of his revolver and bowie-knife ; and his official dignity
did not prevent him from mixing with the crowd and
taking part in whatever amusement was going on.

The people here dressed better than was usual in
other parts of the mines. On Sundays especially,
when the town was thronged with miners, it was quite
gay with the bright colors of the various costumes.
There were numerous specimens of the genuine old
miner to be met with — the miner of '49, whose pride
it was to be clothed in rags and patches; but the pre-
vailing fashion was to dress well; indeed there was a
degree of foppery about many of the swells, who were
got up in a most gorgeous manner. The weather
was much too hot for any one to think of wearing a
coat, but the usual style of dress was such as to ap-
pear quite complete without it; in fact, a coat would
have concealed the most showy article of dress, which
was a rich silk handkerchief, scarlet, crimson, orange,
or some bright hue, tied loosely across the breast, and
hanging over one shoulder like a shoulder belt.
Some men wore flowers, feathers, or squirrel's tails
in their hats; occasionally the beard was worn plaited
and coiled up like a twist of tobacco, or was divided
into three tails hanging down to the waist. One
man, of original ideas, who had very long hair,
brought it down on each side of the face, and tied
it in a large bow-knot under his chin ; and many other
eccentricities of this sort were indulged in. The
numbers of Mexican women with their white dresses
and sparkling black eyes were by no means an un-
pleasing addition to the crowd, of which the Mexicans
themselves formed a conspicuous part in their varie-

SONORA AND THE MEXICANS 315

gated blankets and broad-brimmed hats. There were
men in bonnets rouges and bonnets bleus, the cut of
whose mustache and beard was of itself sufficient to
distinguish them as Frenchmen ; while here and there
some forlorn individual exhibited himself in a black
coat and a stove-pipe hat, looking like a bird of evil
omen among a flock of such gay plumage.

CHAPTER XXIII

BULL FIGHTING

A COMPANY of Mexican bull-fighters were at
this time performing in Sonora every Sunday
afternoon. The amphitheater was a large well-
built place, erected for the purpose on a small hill be-
hind the street. The arena was about thirty yards
in diameter, and enclosed in a very strong six-barred
fence, gradually rising from which, all round, were
several tiers of seats, shaded from the sun by an
awning.

I took the first opportunity of witnessing the spec-
tacle, and found a very large company assembled,
among whom the Mexicans and Mexican women in
their gay dresses figured conspicuously. A good band
of music enlivened the scene till the appointed hour
arrived, when the bull-fighters entered the arena.
The procession was headed by a clown in a fantastic
dress, who acted his part throughout the performances
uncommonly well, cracking jokes with his friends
among the audience, and singing comic songs. Next
came four men on foot, all beautifully dressed in
satin jackets and knee-breeches, slashed and em-
broidered with bright colors. Two horsemen, armed
with lances, brought up the rear. After marching
round the arena, they stationed themselves in their
various places, one of the horsemen being at the side

316

BULL FIGHTING 317

of the door by which the bull was to enter. The door
was then opened, and the bull rushed in, the horse-
man giving him a poke with his lance as he passed, just
to waken him up. The footmen were all waving their
red flags to attract his attention, and he immediately
charged at one of them; but, the man stepping grace-
fully aside at the proper moment, the bull passed on
and found another red flag waiting for him, which he
charged with as little success. For some time they
played with the bull in this manner, hopping and skip-
ping about before his horns with so much confidence,
and such apparent ease, as to give one the idea that
there was neither danger nor difficulty in dodging a
wild bull. The bull did not charge so much as he
butted, for, almost without changing his ground, he
butted .quickly several times in succession at the same
man. The man, however, was always too quick for
him, sometimes just drawing the flag across his face as
he stepped aside, or vaulting over his horns and catch-
ing hold of his tail before he could turn round.

After this exhibition one of the horsemen endeav-
ored to engage the attention of the bull, and when
he charged, received him with the point of his lance
on the back of the neck. In this position they strug-
gled against each other, the horse pushing against the
bull with all his force, probably knowing that that
was his only chance. On one occasion the lance
broke, when horse and rider seemed to be at the
mercy of the bull, but as quick as lightning the foot-
men were fluttering their flags in his face and divert-
ing his fury, while the horseman got another lance
and returned to the charge.

Shortly afterwards the footmen laid aside their

318 THE GOLD HUNTERS

flags and proceeded to what is considered a more
dangerous, and consequently more interesting, part of
the performances. They lighted cigars, and were
handed small pieces of wood, with a barbed point at
one end and a squib at the other. Having lighted
his squibs at his cigar, one of their number rushes up
in front of the bull, shouting and stamping before
him, as if challenging him to come on. The bull is
not slow of putting down his head and making at him,
when the man vaults nimbly over his horns, leaving
a squib fizzing and cracking on each side of his neck.
This makes the bull still more furious, but another
man is ready for him, who plays him the same trick,
and so they go on till his neck is covered with squibs.
One of them then takes a large rosette, furnished
in like manner with a sharp barbed point, and this,
as the bull butts at him, he sticks in his forehead
right between the eyes. Another man then engages
the bull, and, while eluding his horns, removes the
rosette from his forehead. This is considered a still
more difficult feat, and was greeted with immense
applause, the Mexican part of the audience screaming
with delight.

The performers were all uncommonly well made,
handsome men; their tight dresses greatly assisted
their appearance, and they moved with so much grace,
and with such an expression on their countenance of
pleasure and confidence, even while making their
greatest efforts, that they might have been supposed
to be going through the figures of a ballet on the
stage, instead of risking death from thr horns of a wild
bull at every step they executed. During the latter
part of the performance, being without their red flags,

BULL FIGHTING 319

they were of course in greater danger; but it seemed
to make no difference to them; they put a squib in
each side of the bull's neck, while evading his attack,
with as much apparent ease as they had dodged him
from behind their red flags. Sometimes, indeed,
when they were hard pressed, or when attacked by
the bull so close to the barrier that they had no room
to maneuver round him, they sprang over it in
among the spectators.

The next thing in the program was riding the
bull, and this was the most amusing scene of all. One
of the horsemen lassoes him over the horns, and the
other, securing him in his lasso by the hind-leg, trips
him up, and throws him without the least difficulty.
By keeping the lassoes taut, he is quite helpless. He
is then girthed with a rope, and one of the performers,
holding on by this gets astride of the prostrate
bull in such a way as to secure his seat, when the ani-
mal rises. The lassoes are then cast off, when the
bull immediately gets up, and, furious at finding a
man on his back, plunges and kicks most desperately,
jumping from side to side, and jerking himself vio-
lently in every way, as he vainly endeavors to bring
his horns round so as to reach his rider. I never
saw such horsemanship, if horsemanship it could be
called; nor did I ever see a horse go through such
contortions, or make such spasmodic bounds and leaps :
but the fellow never lost his seat, he stuck to the bull
as firm as a rock, though thrown about so violently
that it seemed enough to jerk the head off his body.
During this singular exhibition the spectators cheered
and shouted most uproariously, and the bull was
maddened to greater fury than ever by the footmen

320 THE GOLD HUNTERS

shaking their flags in his face, and putting more
squibs on his neck. It seemed to be the grand cli-
max; they had exhausted all means to infuriate the
bull to the very utmost, and they were now braving
him more audaciously than ever. Had any of them
made a slip of the foot, or misjudged his distance but
a hairbreadth, there would have been a speedy end of
him; but fortunately no such mishap occurred, for
the blind rage of the bull was impotent against their
coolness and precision.

When the man riding the bull thought he had
enough of it, he took an opportunity when the bull
came near the outside of the arena, and hopped off
his back on to the top of the barrier. A door was
then opened, and the bull was allowed to depart in
peace. Three or four more bulls in succession were
fought in the same manner. The last of them was to
have been killed with the sword ; but he proved one of
those sulky, treacherous animals who do not fight fair ;
he would not put down his head and charge blindly
at anything or everything, but only made a rush now
and then, when he thought he had a sure chance.
With a bull of this sort there is great danger, while
with a furiously savage one there is none at all — so say
the bull-fighters; and after doing all they could, with-
out success, to madden and irritate this sulky animal,
he was removed, and another one was brought in,
who had already shown a requisite amount of blind
fury in his disposition.

A long straight sword was then handed to the
matador, who, with his flag in his left hand, played
with the bull for a little, evading several attacks till
he got one to suit him, when, as he stepped aside

BULL FIGHTING 321

from before the bull's horns, he plunged the sword
into the back of his neck. Without a moan or a
struggle the bull fell dead on the instant, coming
down all of a heap, in such a way that it was evident
that even before he fell he was dead. I have seen
cattle butchered in every sort of way, but in none was
the transition from life to death so instantaneous.

This was the grand feat of the day, and was
thought to have been most beautifully performed.
The spectators testified their delight by the most
vociferous applause; the Mexican women waved their
handkerchiefs, the Mexicans cheered and shouted, and
threw their hats in the air, while the matador
walked proudly round the arena, bowing to the
people amid a shower of coin which his particular
admirers in their enthusiasm bestowed upon him.

I one day, at some diggings a few miles from
Sonora, came across a young fellow hard at work
with his pick and shovel, whom I had met several
times at Moquelumne Hill and other places. In the
course of conversation he told me that he was tired of
mining, and intended to practice his profession again;
upon which I immediately set him down as either a
lawyer or a doctor, there are such lots of them in the
mines. I had the curiosity, however, to- ask him
what profession he belonged to, — "Oh," he said, "I
am a magician, a necromancer, a conjuror!" The
idea of a magician being reduced to the level of an
ordinary mortal, and being obliged to resort to such
a matter-of-fact way of making money as digging
gold out of the earth, instead of conjuring it ready
coined out of other men's pockets, appeared to me so
very ridiculous that I could not help laughing at

322 THE GOLD HUNTERS

the thought of it. The magician was by no means
offended, but joined in the laugh; and for the next
hour or more he entertained me with an account of
his professional experiences, and the many difficulties
he had to encounter in practicing his profession in
such a place as the mines, where complete privacy
was so hard to be obtained that he was obliged to
practice the most secret parts of his mysterious science
in all sorts of ragged canvas houses, or else in rooms
whose rickety boarded walls were equally ineffectual in
excluding the prying gaze of the unwashed. He gave
me a great insight into the mysteries of magic, and
explained to me how he performed many of his tricks.
All the old-fashioned hat-tricks, he said, were quite out
of the question in California, where, as no two hats are
alike, it would have been impossible to have such an
immense assortment ready, from which to select a sub-
stitute for any nondescript head-piece which might be
given to him to perform upon. I asked him to show
me some of his sleight-of-hand tricks, but he said his
hands had got so hard with mining that he would
have to let them soften for a month or two before he
could recover his magical powers.

He was quite a young man, but had been regularly
brought up to his profession, having spent several
years as confederate to some magician of higher
powers in the States — somewhat similar, I presume,
to serving an apprenticeship, for when I mentioned
the names of several of his professional brethren
whose performances I had witnessed, he would say,
"Ah, yes, I know him; he was confederate to so-
and-so."

As he intended very soon to resume his practice, he

BULL FIGHTING 323

was on the look-out for a particularly smart boy to
initiate as his confederate; and I imagine he had
little difficulty in finding one, for, as a general thing,
the rising generation of California are supernaturally
smart and precocious.

I met here also an old friend in the person of the
Scotch gardener who had been my fellow-passenger
from New York to Chagres, and who was also one
of our party on the Chagres River. He was now
farming, having taken up a "ranch" a few miles from
Sonora, near a place called Table Mountain, where he
had several acres well fenced and cleared, and bearing
a good crop of barley and oats, and was busy clearing
and preparing more land for cultivation.

This Table Mountain is a very curious place, being
totally different in appearance and formation from
any other mountain in the country. It is a long
range, several miles in extent, perfectly level, and in
width varying from fifty yards to a quarter of a
mile, having somewhat the appearance, when seen
from a distance, of a colossal railway embankment.
In height it is below the average of the surround-
ing mountains; the sides are very steep, sometimes
almost perpendicular, and are formed, as is also the
summit, of masses of a burned-looking conglomerate
rock, of which the component stones are occasionally
as large as a man's head. The summit is smooth,
and black with these cinder-like stones; but at the
season of the year at which I was there, it was a most
beautiful sight, being thickly grown over with a pale-
blue flower, apparently a lupin, which so completely
covered this long level tract of ground as to give it
in the distance the appearance of a sheet of water.

324 THE GOLD HUNTERS

No one at that time had thought of working this
place, but it has since been discovered to be immensely
rich.

A break in this long narrow Table Mountain was
formed by a place called Shaw's Flats, a wide extent
of perfectly flat country, four or five miles across, well
wooded with oaks, and plentifully sprinkled over with
miner's tents and shanties.

The diggings were rich. The gold was very coarse,
and frequently found in large lumps; but how it got
there was not easy to conjecture, for the flat was on
a level with Table Mountain, and hollows intervened
between it and any higher ground. Mining here
was quite a clean and easy operation. Any old
gentleman might have gone in and taken a turn at it
for an hour or two before dinner just to give him an
appetite, without even wetting the soles of his boots:
indeed, he might have fancied he was only digging in
his garden, for the gold was found in the very roots
of the grass, and in most parts there was only a depth
of three or four feet from the surface to the bed-
rock, which was of singular character, being com-
posed of masses of sandstone full of circular cavities,
and presenting all manner of fantastic forms, caused
apparently by the long-continued action of water in
rapid motion.

CHAPTER XXIV

A CITY BURNED

WHILE I was in Sonora, the entire town, with
the greater part of the property it contained,
was utterly annihilated by fire.
It was about one o'clock in the morning when the
fire broke out. I happened to be awake at the time,
and at the first alarm I jumped up, and, looking out
of my window, I saw a house a short distance up the
street on the other side completely enveloped in
flames. The street was lighted up as bright as day,
and was already alive with people hurriedly removing
whatever articles they could from their houses before
the fire seized upon them.

I ran downstairs to lend a hand to clear the house,
and in the bar-room I found the landlady, en deshabille,
walking frantically up and down, and putting her
hand to her head as though she meant to tear all her
hair out by the roots. She had sense enough left,
however, not to do so. A waiter was there also, with
just as little of his wits about him; he was chatter-
ing fiercely, sacre'mg very freely, and knocking the
chairs and tables about in a wild manner, but not
making a direct attempt to save anything. It was
ridiculous to see them throwing away so much bodily
exertion for nothing, when there was so much to be
done, so I set the example by opening the door, and
325

326 THE GOLD HUNTERS

carrying out whatever was nearest. The other in-
mates of the house soon made their appearance, and
we succeeded in gutting the bar-room of everything
movable, down to the bar furniture, among which
was a bottle labelled "Quisqui."

We could save little else, however, for already the
fire had reached us. The house was above a hundred
yards from where the fire broke out, but from the
first alarm till it was in flames scarcely ten minutes
elapsed. The fire spread with equal rapidity in the
other direction. An attempt was made to save the
upper part of the town by tearing down a number of
houses some distance in advance of the flames; but it
was impossible to remove the combustible materials
of which they were composed, and the fire suffered
no check in its progress, devouring the demolished
houses as voraciously in that state as though they had
been left entire.

On the hills, between which lay the town, were
crowds of the unfortunate inhabitants, many of whom
were but half dressed, and had barely escaped with
their lives. One man told me he had been obliged to
run for it, and had not even time to take his gold
watch from under his pillow.

Those whose houses were so far distant from the
origin of the fire as to enable them to do so, had carried
out all their movable property, and were sitting
among heaps of goods and furniture, confusedly thrown
together, watching grimly the destruction of their
houses. The whole hillside was lighted up as brightly
as a well-lighted room, and the surrounding land-
scape was distinctly seen by the blaze of the burning
town, the hills standing brightly out from the deep

A CITY BURNED 327

black of the horizon, while overhead the glare of the
fire was reflected by the smoky atmosphere.

It was a most magnificent sight, and, more than
any fire I had ever witnessed, it impressed one with
the awful power and fury of the destroying element.
It was not like a fire in a city where man contends
with it for the victory, and where one can mark the
varied fortunes of the battle as the flames become
gradually more feeble under the efforts of the firemen,
or again gain the advantage as they reach some easier
prey; but here there were no such fluctuations in the
prospects of the doomed city — it lay helplessly wait-
ing its fate, for water there was none, and no resist-
ance could be offered to the raging flames, which
burned their way steadily up the street, throwing
over the houses which still remained intact the flush
of supernatural beauty which precedes dissolution,
and leaving the ground already passed over covered
with the gradually blackening and falling remains of
those whose spirit had already departed.

There was an occasional flash and loud explosion,
caused by the quantities of powder in some of the
stores, and a continual discharge of firearms was
heard above the roaring of the flames, from the num-
bers of loaded revolvers which had been left to their
fate along with more valuable property. The most
extraordinary sight was when the fire got firm hold
of a Jew's slop-shop; there was then a perfect whirl-
wind of flame, in which coats, shirts, and blankets
were carried up fifty or sixty feet in the air, and be-
came dissolved into a thousand sparkling atoms.

Among the crowds of people on the hillside there
was little of the distress and excitement one might

328 THE GOLD HUNTERS

have expected to see on such an occasion. The
houses and stores had been gutted as far as practic-
able of the property they contained, and all that it
was possible to do to save any part of the town had
already been attempted, but the hopelessness of such
attempts was perfectly evident.

The greater part of the people, it is true, were indi-
viduals whose wealth was safe in their buckskin
purses, and to them the pleasure of beholding such a
grand pyrotechnic display was unalloyed by any
greater individual misfortune than the loss of a few
articles of clothing; but even those who were sitting
hatless and shoeless among the wreck of their prop-
erty showed little sign of being at all cast down by
their disaster; they had more the air of determined
men, waiting for the fire to play out its hand before
they again set to work to repair all the destruction it
had caused.

The fire commenced about half-past one o'clock in
the morning, and by three o'clock it had almost
burned itself out. Darkness again prevailed, and
when day dawned, the whole city of Sonora had been
removed from the face of the earth. The ground on
which it had stood, now white with ashes, was
covered with still smoldering fragments, and the only
objects left standing were three large safes belonging
to different banking and express companies, with a
small remnant of the walls of an adobe house.

People now began to venture down upon the still
smoking site of the city, and, seeing an excitement
among them at the lower end of the town, I went
down to see what was going on. The atmosphere
was smoky and stifling, and the ground was almost

A CITY BURNED 329

too hot to stand on. The crowd was collected on a
place which was known to be very rich, as the ground
behind the houses had been worked, and a large
amount of gold having been there extracted, it was
consequently presumed that under the houses equally
good diggings would be found. During the fire,
miners had flocked in from all quarters, and among
them were some unprincipled vagabonds, who were
now endeavoring to take up mining claims on the
ground where the houses had stood, measuring off the
regular number of feet allowed to each man, and
driving in stakes to mark out their claims in the usual
manner.

The owners of the houses, however, were "on hand,"
prepared to defend their rights to the utmost. Men
who had just seen the greater part of their property
destroyed were not likely to relinquish very readily
what little still remained to them; and now, armed
with pistols, guns, and knives, their eyes bloodshot and
their faces scorched and blackened, they were tearing
up the stakes as fast as the miners drove them in, while
they declared very emphatically, with all sorts of
oaths, that any man who dared to put a pick into that
ground would not live half a minute. And truly a
threat from such men was one not to be disre-
garded.

By the laws of the mines, the diggings under a
man's house are his property, and the law being on
their side, the people would have assisted them in
defending their rights; and it would not have been
absolutely necessary for them to take the trouble of
shooting the miscreants, who, as other miners began
to assemble on the ground, attracted by the row,

330 THE GOLD HUNTERS

found themselves so heartily denounced that they
thought it advisable to sneak off as fast as possible.

The only buildings left standing after the fire were
a Catholic and a Wesleyan church, which stood on
the hill a little off the street, and also a large build-
ing which had been erected for a ball-room, or some
other public purpose. The proprietor of the principal
gambling-saloon, as soon as the fire broke out and he
saw that there was no hope for his house, imme-
diately made arrangements for occupying this room,
which, from its isolated position, seemed safe enough;
and into this place he succeeded in moving the greater
part of his furniture, mirrors, chandeliers, and so on.
The large sign in front of the house was also removed
to the new quarters, and the morning after the fire
— but an hour or two after the town had been burned
down — the new saloon was in full operation. The
same gamblers were sitting at the same tables, deal-
ing monte and faro to crowds of betters; the piano
and violin, which had been interrupted by the fire,
were now enlivening the people in their distress; and
the bar-keeper was as composedly as ever mixing cock-
tails for the thirsty throats of the million.

No time was lost by the rest of the population.
The hot and smoky ground was alive with men clear-
ing away rubbish; others were in the woods cutting
down trees and getting out posts and brushwood, or
procuring canvas and other supplies from the neigh-
boring camps.

In the afternoon the Phoenix began to rise. Amid
the crowds of workers on the long blackened tract of
ground which had been the street, posts began here
and there to spring up; presently crosspieces con-

A CITY BURNED 331

nected them; and before one could look around, the
framework was filled in with brushwood. As the
ground became sufficiently cool, people began to
move down their goods and furniture to where their
houses had been, where those who were not yet erecting
either a canvas or a brush house, built themselves a
sort of pen of boxes and casks of merchandise.

The fire originated in a French hotel, and among
the ashes of this house were found the remains of a
human body. There was merely the head and trunk,
the limbs being entirely burned off. It looked like
a charred and blackened log of wood, but the contour
of the head and figure was preserved; and it would
be hard to conceive anything more painfully expres-
sive of intense agony than the few lines which so
powerfully indicated what had been the contorted
position of the head, neck, and shoulders of the un-
fortunate man when he ceased to move. The coroner
held an inquest as soon as he could raise a jury out
of the crowd, and in the afternoon the body was
followed to the grave by several hundred Frenchmen.

This was the only death from the fire which was
discovered at the time, but among the ruins of an
adobe house, which for some reason was not rebuilt
for several weeks afterwards, the remains of another
body were found, and were never identified.

As for living on that day, one had to do the best
one could with raw materials. Every man had to
attend to his own commissariat; and when it was
time to think about dinner, I went foraging with a
friend among the promiscuous heaps of merchandise,
and succeeded in getting some boxes of sardines and
a bottle of wine. We were also fortunate enough to

332 THE GOLD HUNTERS

find some hard bread, so we did not fare very badly;
and at night we lay down on the bare hillside, and
shared that vast apartment with two or three thou-
sand fellow-lodgers. Happy was the man who had
saved his blankets, — mine had gone as a small con-
tribution to the general conflagration; but though the
nights were agreeably cool, the want of a covering,
even in the open air, was not a very great hardship.
The next day the growth of the town was still
more rapid. All sorts of temporary contrivances
were erected by the storekeepers and hotel-keepers
on the sites of their former houses. Every man was
anxious to let the public see that he was "on hand,"
and carrying on business as before. Sign-painters
had been hard at work all night, and now huge signs
on yard-wide strips of cotton cloth lined each side of
the street, in many cases being merely laid upon the
ground, where as yet nothing had been erected
whereon to display them. These canvas and brush
houses were only temporary. Every one, as soon as
lumber could be procured, set to work to build a
better house than the one he had lost; and within a
month Sonora was in all respects a finer town than
it had been before the fire.

CHAPTER XXV

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE

ON the 4th of July I went over to Columbia, four
miles distant from Sonora, where there were to
be great doings, as the latter place had hardly
yet recovered from the effects of the fire, and was still
in a state of transition. So Columbia, which was
nearly as large a town, was to be the place of cele-
bration for all the surrounding country.

Early in the forenoon an immense concourse of
people had assembled to take part in the proceedings,
and were employing themselves in the meantime in
drinking success to the American eagle, in the numer-
ous saloons and bar-rooms. The town was all stars
and stripes; they fluttered over nearly every house,
and here and there hung suspended across the street.
The day was celebrated in the usual way, with a con-
tinual discharge of revolvers, and a vast expenditure
of powder and squibs and crackers, together with an
unlimited consumption of brandy. But this was only
the over-flowing of individual enthusiasm; the regu-
lar program was a procession, a prayer, and an
oration.

The procession was headed by about half-a-dozen
ladies and a number of children — the teachers and
pupils of a school — who sang hymns at intervals, when
the brass band which accompanied them had blown

333

334 THE GOLD HUNTERS

themselves out of breath. They were followed by
the freemasons, to the number of a hundred or so, in
their aprons and other paraphernalia; and after them
came a company of about the same number of horse-
men, the most irregular cavalry one could imagine.
Whoever could get a four-legged animal to carry him,
joined the ranks; and horses, mules, and jackasses
were all mixed up together. Next came the hook
and ladder company, dragging their hooks and ladders
after them in regular firemen fashion ; and after them
came three or four hundred miners, walking two and
two, and dragging, in like manner, by a long rope,
a wheelbarrow, in which were placed a pick and
shovel, a frying-pan, an old coffee-pot, and a tin cup.
They were marshalled by half-a-dozen miners, with
long-handled shovels over their shoulders, and all sorts
of ribbons tied round their old hats to make a show.

Another mob of miners brought up the rear, draw-
ing after them a long torn on a pair of wheels. In the
torn was a lot of "dirt," which one man stirred up
with his shovel, as if he were washing, while a num-
ber of others alongside were hard at work throwing
in imaginary shovelfuls of dirt.

The idea was pretty good; but to understand the
meaning of this gorgeous pageant, it was necessary to
be familiar with mining life. The pick and shovel in
the wheelbarrow were the emblems of the miners'
trade, while the old pots and pans were intended to
signify the very rough style of his domestic life, par-
ticularly of his cuisine; and the party of miners at
work around the long torn was a representation of the
way in which the wealth of the country is wrested
from it by all who have stout hearts and willing

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE 335

hands, or stout hands and willing hearts — it amounts
to much the same thing.

The procession paraded the streets for two or
three hours, and proceeded to the bull-ring, where the
ceremonies were to be performed. The bull-ring
here was neither so large nor so well got up as the
one at Sonora, but still it could accommodate a very
large number of people. As the miners entered the
arena with their wheelbarrow and long torn, they
were immensely cheered by the crowds who had
already taken their seats, the band in the meantime
playing "Hail Columbia" most lustily.

The Declaration of Independence was read by a
gentleman in a white neckcloth, and the oration was
then delivered by the "orator of the day," who was a
pale-faced, chubby-cheeked young gentleman, with
very white and extensive shirt-collars. He indulged
in a great deal of buncombe about the Pilgrim Fathers,
and Plymouth Rock, the "Blarney-stone of America,"
as the Americans call it. George the Third and his
"red-coated minions" were alluded to in not very
flattering terms; and after having exhausted the past,
the orator, in his enthusiasm, became prophetic of the
future. He fancied he saw a distant vision of a great
republic in Ireland, England sunk into insignificance,
and all the rest of it.

The speech was full of American and local phraseol-
ogy, but the richness of the brogue was only the
more perceptible from the vain attempt to disguise
it. Many of the Americans sitting near me seemed
to think that the orator was piling up the agony a
little too high, and signified their disapprobation by
shouting "Gaas, gaas!" My next neighbor, an old

336 THE GOLD HUNTERS

Yankee, informed me that, in his opinion, "them
Pilgrim Fathers were no better than their neigh-
bors; they left England because they could not have
everything their own way, and in America were more
intolerant of other religions than any one had been
of theirs in England. I know all about 'em," he said,
"for I come from right whar they lived."

In the middle of the arena, during the ceremonies,
was a cage containing a grizzly bear, who had fought
and killed a bull by torchlight the night before.
His cage was boarded up, so that he was deprived
of the pleasure of seeing what was going on, but he
could hear all that was said, and expressed his opinion
from time to time by grunting and growling most
savagely.

After the oration, the company dispersed to answer
the loud summons of the numerous dinner-bells and
gongs, and in the afternoon there was a bull-fight,
which went off with great eclat.

It was announced in the bills that the celebrated
lady bull-fighter, the Senorita Ramona Perez, would
despatch a bull \vith the sword. This celebrated
senorita, however, turned out to be only the chief
matador, who entered the arena very well got up
as a woman, with the slight exception of a very
fine pair of mustaches, which he had not thought it
worth while to sacrifice. He had a fan in his hand,
with which he half concealed his face, as if from
modesty, as he curtseyed to the audience, who re-
ceived him with shouts of laughter — mixed with
hisses and curses, however, for there were some who
had been true believers in the senorita ; but the infidels
were the majority, and, thinking it a good joke,

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE 337

enjoyed it accordingly. The senorita played with the
bull for some little time with the utmost audacity,
and with a great deal of feminine grace, whisking
her petticoats in the bull's face with one hand, whilst
she smoothed down her hair with the other. At last
the sword was handed to her, which she received very
gingerly, also a red flag; and after dodging a few
passes from the bull, she put the sword most grace-
fully into the back of his neck, and, hardly conde-
scending to wait to see whether she had killed or not,
she dropped both sword and flag, and ran out of the
arena, curtsying, and kissing her hand to the spec-
tators, after the manner of a ballet-dancer leaving
the stage.

It was a pity the fellow had not shaved off his
mustache, as otherwise his acting was so good that
one might have deluded oneself with the belief that
it was really the celebrated senorita herself who was
risking her precious life by such a very ladylike
performance.

I had heard from many persons of two natural
bridges on a small river called Coyote Creek, some
twelve miles off; and as they were represented as
being very curious and beautiful objects, I determined
to pay them a visit. Accordingly, returning to
M'Lean's Ferry on the Stanislaus, at the point where
Coyote Creek joins that river, I traveled up the
Creek for some miles, clambering over rocks and
winding round steep overhanging banks, by a trail
so little used that it was hardly discernible. I was
amply repaid for my trouble, however, when, after
an hour or two of hard climbing in the roasting hot
sun, I at last reached the bridges, and found them

388 THE GOLD HUNTERS

much more beautiful natural curiosities than I had
imagined them to be.

Having never been able to get any very intelligible
account of what they really were, I had supposed
that some large rocks rolling down the mountain had
got jammed over the creek, by the steepness of the
rocky banks on each side, which I fancied would be
a very easy mode of building a natural bridge. My
idea, however, was very far from the reality. In
fact, bridges was an inappropriate name; they should
rather have been called caves or tunnels. How they
were formed is a question for geologists; but their
appearance gave the idea that there had been a sort
of landslip, which blocked up the bed of the creek
for a distance of two or three hundred feet, and to
the height of fifty or sixty above the bed of the
stream. They were about a quarter of a mile apart,
and their surface was, like that of the hills, perfectly
smooth, and covered with grass and flowers. The
interiors were somewhat the same style of place,
but the upper one was the larger and more curious
of the two. The faces of the tunnel were perpen-
dicular, presenting an entrance like a church door,
about twelve feet high, surrounded by huge stony
fungus-like excrescences, of a dark purple-and-green
color. The waters of the creek flowed in here, and
occupied all the width of the entrance. They were
only a few inches in depth, and gave a perfect reflec-
tion of the whole of the interior, which was a lofty
chamber some hundred feet in length, the straight
sides of which met at the top in the form of a
Gothic arch. At the further end was a vista of

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE 339

similarly arched small passages, branching off into
darkness. The walls were deeply carved into pillars
and grotesque forms, in which one could trace all
manner of fanciful resemblances; while at the base of
some of the columns were most symmetrically formed
projections, many of which might be taken for fonts,
the top of them being a circular basin containing
water. These projections were of stone, and had the
appearance of having congealed suddenly while in a
boiling state. There was a beautiful regularity in
the roughness of their surface, some of the rounded
forms being deeply carved with circular lines, similar
to the engine- turn ing on the back of a watch, and
others being rippled like a shirt of mail, the rippling
getting gradually and regularly finer, till at the top
the surface was hardly more rough than that of a
file. The walls and roof seemed to have been
smothered over with some stuff which had hardened
into a sort of cement, presenting a polished surface
of a bright cream-color, tinged here and there with
pink and pale-green. The entrance was sufficiently
large to light up the whole place, which, from its
general outline, gave somewhat the idea of a church;
for, besides the pillars, with their flowery ornaments,
the Gothic arches and the fonts, there was at one
side, near the entrance, one of these stone excrescences
much larger than the others, which would have
passed for a pulpit, overhung as it was by a projec-
tion of a similar nature, spreading out from the wall
several feet above it.

The sides of the arches forming the roof did not
quite meet at the top, but looked like the crests of

340 THE GOLD HUNTERS

two immense foaming waves, between which were
seen the extremities of numbers of pendants of a like
flowery form.

There was nothing rough or uncertain about the
place ; every part seemed as if it were elaborately
finished, and in strict harmony with the whole; and
as the rays of the setting sun fell on the water within
the entrance, and reflected a subdued light over the
brilliant hues of the interior, it looked like a gorgeous
temple, which no art could improve, and such as no
human imagination could have designed. At the
other end of the tunnel the water emerged from a
much smaller cave, which was so low as not to admit
of a man crawling in.

The caves, at each end of the other tunnel, were
also very small, though the architecture was of the
same flowery style. The faces of it, however, were
extremely beautiful. To the height of fifty or sixty
feet they presented a succession of irregular overhang-
ing projections, bulging out like immense mushrooms,
of which the prevailing hue was a delicate pink, with
occasional patches of bright green.

In any part of the Old World such a place would
be the object of a pilgrimage; and even where it
was, it attracted many visitors, numbers of whom
had, according to the established custom of snobhood,
acknowledged their own insignificance, and had
sought a little immortality for their wretched names
by scratching them on a large smooth surface by the
side of the entrance to the cave.

While I was there, an old Yankee miner came to
see the place. He paid a very hurried visit — he
had not even time to scratch his initials; but he was

THE DAY WE CELEBRATE 341

enthusiastic in his admiration of this beautiful object
of nature, which, however, he thought was quite
thrown away in such an out-of-the-way part of
creation. It distressed him to think that such a
valuable piece of property could not be turned to any
profitable account. "Now," said he, "if I had this
here thing jist about ten miles from New York City,
I'd show it to the folks at twenty-five cents a head,
and make an everlastin* pile of money out of it."

CHAPTER XXV£

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES

THE only miners on the Creek were Frenchmen,
two or three of whom lived in a very neat log
cabin, close to the tunnel. Behind it was a
small kitchen-garden in a high state of cultivation, and
alongside was a very diminutive fac-simile of the cabin
itself, which was tenanted by a knowing-looking little
terrier-dog.

The whole establishment had a finished and civil-
ized air about it, and was got up with a regard to
appearances which was quite unusual.

But of all the men of different nations in the mines,
the French were most decidedly those who, judging
from their domestic life, appeared to be most at home.
Not that they were a bit better than others able to
stand the hard work and exposure and privations, but
about all their huts and cabins, however roughly
constructed they might be, there was something in
the minor details which bespoke more permanency
than was suggested by the generality of the rude
abodes of the miners. It is very certain that, with-
out really expending more time or labor, or even
taking more trouble than other men about their
domestic arrangements, they did "fix things up"
with such a degree of taste, and with so much method
about everything, as to give the idea that their life
342

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES 343

of toil was mitigated by more than a usual share of
ease and comfort.

A backwoodsman from the Western States is in
some respects a good sort of fellow to be with in the
mountains, especially where there are hostile Indians
about, for he knows their ways, and can teach them
manners with his five-foot-barrel rifle when there is
occasion for it; he can also put up a log cabin in
no time, and is of course up to all the dodges of border
life; but this is his normal condition, and he can-
not be expected to appreciate so much as others, or to
be so apt at introducing, all the little luxuries of a
more civilized existence of which he has no knowl-
edge.

An old sailor is a useful man in the mines, when
you can keep brandy out of his reach; and, to do him
justice, there is method in his manner of drinking.
He lives under the impression that all human exist-
ence should be subdivided, as at sea, into watches; for
when ashore he only lengthens their duration, and
takes his watch below as a regular matter of duty,
keeping below as long as the grog lasts; after which
he comes on deck again, quite refreshed, and remains
as sober as a judge for two or three weeks. His
useful qualities, however, consist in the extraordi-
nary delight he takes in patching and mending, and
tinkering up whatever stands in need of such service.
He is great at sweeping and scrubbing, and keeping
things clean generally, and, besides, knows something
of tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering; in fact, he
can turn his hand to anything, and generally does it
artistically, while his resources are endless, for he has
a peculiar genius for making one thing serve the pur-

344 THE GOLD HUNTERS

pose of another, and is never at a loss for a substitute.

But whatever the specialties and accomplishments
of individuals or of classes, the French, as a nation,
were excelled by no other in the practice of the art
of making themselves personally comfortable. They
generally located themselves in considerable numbers,
forming small communities of their own, and always
appeared to be jolly, and enjoying themselves. They
worked hard enough while they were at it, but in
their intervals of leisure they gave themselves up to
what seemed at least to be a more unqualified enjoy-
ment of the pleasures of the moment than other
miners, who never entirely laid aside the earnest and
careworn look of the restless gold-hunter.

This enviable faculty, which the Frenchmen ap-
peared to possess in such a high degree, of bringing
somewhat of the comforts of civilized life along with
them, was no doubt a great advantage; but whether
it operated favorably or otherwise towards their
general success as miners, is not so certain. One
would naturally suppose that the more thoroughly a
man rested from mental or bodily labor, the more
able would he be for renewed exertions; but at the
same time, a man whose mind is entirely engrossed
and preoccupied with one idea, is likely to attain his
end before the man who only devotes himself to the
pursuit of that object at stated intervals.

However that may be, there is no question that,
as miners, the French were far excelled by the
Americans and by the English — for they are in-
separably mixed up together. There are thorough-
going Americans who, only a year or two ago, were
her Majesty's most faithful subjects, and who still in

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES 345

their hearts cherish the recollection. The Frenchmen,
perhaps, possessed industry and energy enough, if
they had had a more practical genius to direct it; but
in proportion to their numbers, they did not bear a
sufficiently conspicuous part, either in mining opera-
tions, or in those branches of industry which have for
their object the converting of the natural advantages
of a country to the service of man. The direction
of their energies was more towards the supplying of
those wants which presuppose the existence of a
sufficiently wealthy and luxurious class of consumers
than towards seizing on such resources of the country
as offered them the means of enriching themselves in
a manner less immediately dependent on their
neighbors.

Even as miners, they for the most part congre-
gated round large camps, and were never engaged in
the same daring undertakings as the Americans —
such as lifting half a mile of a large river from its
bed, or trenching for miles the sides of steep moun-
tains, and building lofty viaducts supported on scaf-
folding which, from its height, looked like a spider's
web; while the only pursuits they engaged in, ex-
cept mining, were the keeping of restaurants, esta-
minets, cafes chantants, billiard-rooms, and such
places, ministering more to the pleasures than to the
necessities of man; and not in any way adding to
the wealth of the country by rendering its resources
more available.

Comparing the men of different nations, the pur-
suits they were engaged in, and the ends they had
accomplished, one could not help being impressed
with the idea that if the mines had been peopled

346 THE GOLD HUNTERS

entirely by Frenchmen — if all tie productive resources
of the country had been in their hands — it would
yet have been many years before they would have
raised California to the rank and position of wealth
and importance which she now holds.

And it is quite fair to draw a general conclusion
regarding them, based upon such evidences of their
capabilities as they afforded in California ; for not only
did they form a very considerable proportion of the
population, but, as among people of other nations,
there were also among them men of all classes.

In many respects they were a most valuable
addition to the population of the country, especially
in the cities, but as colonizers and subjugators of a
new country, their inefficiency was very apparent.
They appeared to want that daring and independent
spirit of individual self-reliance which impels an
American or Englishman to disregard all counsel and
companionship, and to enter alone into the wildest
enterprise, so long as he himself thinks it feasible;
or, disengaging himself for the time being from all
communication with his fellow-men, to plunge into
the wilderness, and there to labor steadily, uncheered
by any passing pleasure, and with nothing to sustain
him in his determination but his own confidence in
his ability ultimately to attain his object.

One scarcely ever met a Frenchman traveling alone
in search of diggings; whereas the Americans and
English whom one encountered were nearly always
solitary individuals, "on their own hook," going to
some distant part where they had heard the diggings
were good, but at the same time ready to stop any-

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES 347

where, or to change their destination according to cir-
cumstances.

The Frenchmen were too gregarious; they were
either found in large numbers, or not at all. They
did not travel about much, and, when they did, were
in parties of half-a-dozen. While Americans would
travel hundreds of miles to reach a place which they
believed to be rich, the great object of the French-
men, in their choice of a location, seemed to be, to
be near where a number of their countrymen were
already settled.

But though they were so fond of each other's
company, they did not seem to possess that cohesive-
ness and mutual confidence necessary for the successful
prosecution of a joint undertaking. Many kinds of
diggings could only be worked to advantage by com-
panies of fifteen or twenty men, but Frenchmen were
never seen attempting such a combination. Occa-
sionally half-a-dozen or so worked together, but even
then the chances were that they squabbled among
themselves, and broke up before they had got their
claim into working order, and so lost their labor from
their inability to keep united in one plan of operation.

In this respect the Americans had a very great
advantage, for, though strongly imbued with the
spirit of individual independence, they are certainly
of all people in the world the most prompt to organize
and combine to carry out a common object. They
are trained to it from their youth in their innumer-
able, and to a foreigner unintelligible, caucus-meet-
ings, committees, conventions, and so forth, by means
of which they bring about the election of every

348 THE GOLD HUNTERS

officer in the State, from the President down to the
policeman; while the fact of every man belonging to a
fire company, a militia company, or something of that
sort, while it increases their idea of individual import-
ance, and impresses upon them the force of combined
action, accustoms them also to the duty of choosing
their own leaders, and to the necessity of afterwards
recognizing them as such by implicit obedience.

Certain it is that, though the companies of Ameri-
can miners were frequently composed of what seemed
to be most incongruous materials — rough, uneducated
men, and men of refinement and education — yet they
worked together as harmoniously in carrying out
difficult mining and engineering operations, under
the directions of their "captain," as if they had been
a gang of day-laborers who had no right to interfere
as to the way in which the work should be conducted.

The captain was one of their number, chosen for his
supposed ability to carry out the work; but if they
were not satisfied with his performances, it was a
very simple matter to call a meeting, at which the
business of deposing, or accepting the resignation of
the incompetent officer, and appointing a successor,
was put through with all the order and formality
which accompanies the election of a president of any
public body. Those who would not submit to the
decision of the majority might sell out, but the prose-
cution of a work undertaken was never abandoned or
in any way retarded by the discordance of opinion on
the part of the different members of the company.

Individuals could not work alone to any advan-
tage. All mining operations were carried on by
parties of men, varying in number according to the

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES 349

nature of their diggings; and the strange assortment
of dissimilar characters occasionally to be found thus
brought into close relationship was but a type of the
general state of society, which was such as completely
to realize the idea of perfect social equality.

There are occasions on which, among small com-
munities, an overwhelming emotion, common to all,
may obliterate all feeling of relative superiority; but
the history of the world can show no such picture of
human nature upon the same scale as was to be seen
in the mines, where, among a population of hundreds
of thousands of men, from all parts of the world, and
from every order of society, no individual or class was
accounted superior to another.

The cause of such a state of things was one which
would tend to produce the same results elsewhere. It
consisted in this, that each man enjoyed the capa-
bility of making as much money as his neighbor; for
hard labor, which any man could accomplish with
legs and arms, without much assistance from his
head, was as remunerative as any other occupation —
consequently, all men indiscriminately were found so
employing themselves, and mining or any other kind
of labor was considered as dignified and as honorable
a pursuit as any other.

In fact, so paramount was this idea, that in some
men it created an impression that not to labor was
degrading — that those who did not live by actual
physical toil were men who did not come up to the
scratch — who rather shirked the common lot of all,
"man's original inheritance, that he should sweat for
his poor pittance." I recollect once arriving in the
middle of the night in San Francisco, when it was

350 THE GOLD HUNTERS

not by any means the place it now is, and finding all
the hotels full, I was compelled to take refuge in an
establishment which offered no other accommodation
to the public than a lot of beds — half-a-dozen in a
room. When I was paying my dollar in the morning
for having enjoyed the privilege of sleeping on one of
these concerns, an old miner was doing the same.
He had no coin, but weighed out an ounce of dust,
and while getting his change he seemed to be study-
ing the keeper of the house, as a novel and interest-
ing specimen of human nature. The result showed
itself in an expression of supreme contempt on his
worn and sunburnt features, as he addressed the
object of his contemplation: "Say now, stranger, do
you do nothin' else but just sit thar and take a dollar
from every man that sleeps on them beds?"

"Yes, that's my business," replied the man.

"Well, then," said the miner after a little further
reflection, "it's a d — d mean way of making your
living, that's all I can say."

This idea was natural enough to the man who so
honestly expressed it, but it was an exaggeration of
that which prevailed in the mines, for no occupation
gave any man a superiority over his neighbors;
there was no social scale in which different classes
held different positions, and the only way in which a
man could distinguish himself from others was by
what he actually had in him, by his own personal
qualities, and by the use he could make of them;
and any man's intrinsic merit it was not difficult to
discover ; for it was not as in countries where the whole
population is divided into classes, and where individ-
uals from widely different stations are, when thrown

FRENCHMEN IN THE MINES 351

together, prevented, by a degree of restraint and
hypocrisy on both sides, from exhibiting themselves
exactly as they would to their ordinary associates.
Here no such obstacle existed to the most unreserved
intercourse; the habitual veil of imposition and hum-
bug, under which men usually disguise themselves
from the rest of the world, was thrown aside as a
useless inconvenience. They took no trouble to con-
ceal what passed within them, but showed themselves
as they were, for better or for worse as the case might
be — sometimes, no doubt, very much for the worse;
but in most instances first impressions were not so
favorable as those formed upon further acquaintance.

Society — so to call it — certainly wanted that super-
fine polish which gives only a cold reflection of what
is offered to it. There was no pinchbeck or Brum-
magem ware; every man was a genuine solid article,
whether gold, silver, or copper: he was the same
sterling metal all the way through which he was on
the surface; and the generous frankness and hearty
goodwill which, however roughly expressed, were the
prevailing characteristics of the miners, were the more
grateful to the feelings, as one knew that no secondary
or personal motive sneaked beneath them.

It would be hard to say what particular class of men
was the most numerous in the mines, because few re-
tained any distinguishing characteristic to denote
their former position.

The backwoodsman and the small farmer from the
Western States, who formed a very large proportion
of the people, could be easily recognized by many
peculiarities. The educated man, who had lived and
moved among gentlemen, was also to be detected

352 THE GOLD HUNTERS

under any disguise; but the great mass of the people
were men who, in their appearance and manners,
afforded little clue to their antecedents.

From the mode of life and the style of dress, men
became very much assimilated in outward appear-
ance, and acquired also a certain individuality of
manner, which was more characteristic of what they
now were — of the independent gold-hunter — than of
any other order of mankind.

It was easy enough, if one had any curiosity on
the subject, to learn something of a man's history,
for there was little reserve used in alluding to it.
What a man had been mattered as little to him as it
did to any one else; and it was refreshing to find, as
was generally the case, that one's preconceived ideas
of a man were so utterly at variance with the truth.

Among such a motley crowd one could select his
own associates, but the best-informed the most enter-
taining, and those in many respects the most desir-
able, were not always those whose company one
could have enjoyed where the inseparable barriers of
class are erected; — and it is difficult to believe that
any one, after circulating much among the different
types of mankind to be found in the mines, should
not have a higher respect than before for the various
classes which they represented.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE RESOURCEFUL AMERICANS

AFTER a month or two spent on the Tuolumne
and Merced rivers, and in the more sparsely
populated section of country lying still farther
south, I returned to Sonora, on my way to San
Francisco.

Here I took the stage for Stockton — a large open
wagon, drawn by five horses, three leaders abreast
We were well ballasted with about a dozen passengers,
the most amusing of whom was a hard, dried-up man,
dressed in a greasy old leathern hunting-shirt, and
inexpressibles to match, all covered with tags and
fringes, and clasping in his hand a long rifle, which
had probably been his bosom-friend all his life. He
took an early opportunity of informing us all that he
was from Arkansas; that he came to "Calaforny"
across the plains, and having been successful in the
diggings, he was now on his way home. He was like
a schoolboy going home for the holidays, so delighted
was he with the prospect before him. It seemed to
surprise him very much that all the rest of the party
were not also bound for Arkansas, and he evidently
looked upon us, in consequence, with a degree of
compassionate interest, as much less fortunate mortals,
and very much to be pitied.
353

354 THE GOLD HUNTEKS

We started at four o'clock in the morning, so as to
accomplish the sixty or seventy miles to Stockton
before the departure of the San Francisco steamer.
The first ten or twelve miles of our journey were
consequently performed in the dark, but that did not
affect our speed; the road was good, and it was only
in crossing the hollows between the hills that the
navigation was difficult; for in such places the diggings
had frequently encroached so much on the road as to
leave only sufficient space for a wagon to pass be-
tween the miners' excavations.

We drove about thirty miles before we were quite
out of the mining regions. The country, however,
became gradually less mountainous, and more suitable
for cultivation, and every half-mile or so we passed
a house by the roadside, with ploughed fields around
it, whose occupant combined farming with tavern-
keeping. This was all very pleasant traveling, but
the most wretched part of the journey was when
we reached the plains. The earth was scorched and
baked, the heat was more oppressive than in the
mountains, and for about thirty miles we moved
along enveloped in a cloud of dust, which soaked
into one's clothes and hair and skin as if it had
been a liquid substance. On our arrival in Stock-
ton we were of a uniform color all over — all
identity of person was lost as much as in a party of
chimney-sweeps; but fortunately the steamer did not
start for an hour, so I had time to take a bath, and
make myself look somewhat like a white man before
going on board.

The Stockton steamboats, though not so large as
those which run to Sacramento, were not inferior in

THE RESOURCEFUL AMERICANS 355

speed. We steamed down the San Joaquin at about
twenty miles an hour, and reached San Francisco at
ten o'clock at night.

San Francisco retained now but little resemblance
to what it had been in its earlier days. The same
extraordinary contrasts and incongruities were not to
be seen cither in the people or in the appearance of
the streets. Men had settled down into their proper
places; the various branches of business and trade had
worked for themselves their own distinct channels;
and the general style of the place was very much the
same as that of any flourishing commercial city.

It had increased immensely in extent, and its
growth had been in all directions. The barren sand-
hills which surrounded the city had been graded down
to an even slope, and were covered with streets of
well-built houses, and skirted by populous suburbs.
Four or five wide streets, more than a mile in lengthy
built up with solid and uniform brick warehouses,
stretched all along in front of the city, upon ground
which had been reclaimed from the bay; and between
these and the upper part of the city was the region
of fashionable shops and hotels, banks and other public
offices.

The large fleet of ships which for a long time, while
seamen's wages were exorbitantly high, lay idly in the
harbor, was now dispersed, and all the shipping
actually engaged in discharging cargo found accon>
modation alongside of the numerous piers which had
been built out for nearly a mile into the bay. All
manner of trades and manufactures \vere flourishing
as in a place a hundred years old. Omnibuses plied
upon the principal thoroughfares, and numbers of

356 THE GOLD HUNTERS

small steamboats ran to the watering-places which
had sprung up on the opposite shore.

The style of life had improved with the growth of
the city, and with the increased facilities of procur-
ing servants and house-room. The ordinary conven-
tionalities of life were observed, and public opinion
exercised its wonted control over men's conduct; for
the female part of creation was so numerously repre-
sented that births and marriages occupied a space in
the daily papers larger than they require in many more
populous places.

Female influence was particularly observable in the
great attention men paid to their outward appearance.
There was but little of the independent taste and
individuality in dress of other days ; all had succumbed
to the sway of the goddess of fashion, and the usual
style of gentleman's dress was even more elaborate
than in New York. All classes had changed, to a
certain extent, in this respect. The miner, as he is seen
in the mines, was not to be met with in San Francisco;
he attired himself in suitable raiment in Sacramento
or Stockton before venturing to show himself in the
metropolis.

Gambling was decidedly on the wane. Two or
three saloons were still extant, but the company to
be found in them was not what it used to be. The
scum of the population was there ; but respectable men,
with a character to lose, were chary of risking it by
"being seen in a public gambling-room; and, moreover,
the greater domestic comfort which men enjoyed,
and the usual attractions of social life, removed all
excuse for frequenting such places.

Public amusements were of a higft order. Bis*

THE BESOURCEFUL AMERICANS 857

cuccianti and Catherine Hayes were giving concerts,
Madame Anne Bishop was singing in English opera,
and the performances at the various theaters were
sustained by the most favorite actors from the
Atlantic States.

Extravagant expenditure is a marked feature in
San Francisco life. The same style of ostentation,
however, which is practiced in older countries, is
unattainable in California, and in such a country
would entirely fail in its effect. Extravagance, accord-
ingly, was indulged more for the purpose of procur-
ing tangible enjoyment than for the sake of show.
Men spent their money in surrounding themselves
with the best of everything, not so much for display
as from due appreciation of its excellence; for there
is no city of the same size or age where there is so
little provincialism; the inhabitants, generally, are
eminently cosmopolitan in their character, and judge
of merit by the highest standard.

As yet, the influence of California upon this country
[England] is not so much felt by direct communi-
cation as through the medium of the States. A very
large proportion of the English goods consumed in the
country find their way there through the New York
market, and in many cases in such a shape, as in
articles manufactured in the States from English
materials, that the actual value of the trade cannot be
accurately estimated. The tide of emigration from
this country to California follows very much the
same course. The English are there very numerous,
but those direct from England bear but an exceedingly
small proportion to those from the United States,
from New South Wales, and other countries; and the

358 THE GOLD HUNTERS

kttcr, no doubt, possessed a great advantage, for,
without undervaluing the merit of English mechanics
and workmen in their own particular trade, it must
be allowed that the same class of Americans are less
confined to one speciality, and have more general
knowledge of other trades, which makes them better
men to be turned adrift in a new country, where they
may have to employ themselves in a hundred different
ways before they find an opportunity of following
the trade to which they have been brought up. An
English mechanic, after a few years' experience of a
younger country, without losing any of the superiority
he may possess in his own trade, becomes more fitted
to compete with the rest of the world when placed
in a position where that speciality is unavailable.

California has afforded the Americans their first
opportunity of showing their capacity as colonists.
The other States which have, of late years, been
added to the Union, are not a fair criterion, for they
have been created merely by the expansion of the
outer circumference of civilization, by the restlessness
of the backwoodsman unaided by any other class; but
the attractions offered by California were such as to
draw to it a complete ready-made population of
active and capable men, of every trade and profes-
sion.

The majority of men went there with the idea of
digging gold, or without any definite idea of how
they would employ themselves; but as the wants of
a large community began to be felt, the men were
already at hand capable of supplying them; and the
result was, that in many professions, and in all the
various branches of mechanical industry, the same de*

THE RESOURCEFUL AMERICANS 359

gree of excellence was exhibited as is known in any
part of the world.

Certainly no new country ever so rapidly advanced
to the same high position as California; but it is
equally true that no country ever commenced its
career with such an effective population, or with the
same elements of wealth to work upon. There are
circumstances, however, connected with the early
history of the country which may not appear to be
so favorable to immediate prosperity and progress.
Other new countries have been peopled by gradual
accessions to an already formed center, from which
the rest of the mass received character and con-
sistency; but in the case of California the process
was much more abrupt. Thousands of men, hitherto
unknown to each other, and without mutual relation-
ship, were thrown suddenly together, unrestrained by
conventional or domestic obligations, and all more
intently bent than men usually are upon the one
immediate object of acquiring wealth. It is to be
wondered that chaos and anarchy were not at first
the result of such a state of things; but such was
never the case in any part of the country; and it is,
no doubt, greatly owing to the large proportion of
superior men among the early settlers, and to the
capacity for self-government possessed by all classes
of Americans, that a system of government was at
once organized and maintained, and that the country
was so soon entitled to rank as one of the most
important States of the Union.

The consequences to the rest of the world of the
gold of California it is not easy to determine, and it
B not for me to enter upon the great question as to

860 THE GOLD HUNTERS

die effect on prices of an addition to the quantity of
precious metals in the world of £250,000,000, which
in round numbers is the estimated amount of gold and
silver produced within the last eight years* It seems,
however, more than probable that the present high
range of prices may, to a certain extent, be caused by
this immense addition to our stock of gold and silver.
But the question becomes more complicated when we
consider the extraordinary impetus given to com-
merce and manufactures by this sudden production
of gold acting simultaneously with the equally ex-
panding influence of Free Trade. The time cannot
be far off when this important investigation must be
entered upon with all that talent which can be
brought to bear upon it. But this is the domain of
philosophers, and of those whose part in life it is
to do the deep-thinking for the rest of the world. I
have no desire to trespass on such ground, and abstain
also from fruitlessly wandering in the endless mazes
of the Currency question.

There are other thoughts, however, which cannot
but arise on considering the modern discoveries of
gold. When we see a new country and a new home
provided for our surplus population, at a time when
it was most required — when a fresh supply of gold,
now a necessary to civilization, is discovered, as we
were evidently and notoriously becoming so urgently
in want of it, we cannot but recognize the ruling hand
of Providence. And when we see the uttermost parts
of the earth suddenly attracting such an immense
population of enterprising, intelligent, earnest Anglo-
Saxon men, forming, with a rapidity which seems

*An overestimate: probably about $500,000,000.— ED.

THE RESOURCEFUL AMERICANS 361

miraculous, new communities and new powers such
as California and Australia, we must indeed look upon
this whole Golden Legend as one of the most won-
drous episodes in the history of mankind.

THE END.

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AUG 0 3 1993