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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/76244-0.txt b/76244-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..149266b --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10361 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76244 *** + + + + + + [Illustration: + + J. D. BORTHWICK. M. & N. HANHART, LITH. + + OUR CAMP ON WEAVER CREEK.] + + + + + THREE YEARS + + IN + CALIFORNIA + + + BY + + J. D. BORTHWICK + + + WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR + + + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS + EDINBURGH AND LONDON + MDCCCLVII + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + PAGE + +California fever in the States--The start--New York to +Panama--Shipboard--Chagres--Crossing the Isthmus--The +river--Cruces--Gorgona, 1-25 + + +CHAPTER II. + +Panama in July 1851--Its architecture--Shops--Churches--Dirt--Diseases +and diversions--Embark for San Francisco--Fever--Hard +fare--Arrival, 26-42 + + +CHAPTER III. + +San Francisco--Appearance of the houses--Growth +of the city--The Plaza--Ships in the +streets--Living--Boot-blacks--Restaurants--Hotels, 43-64 + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Scarcity of labouring men--High wages--Want of social +restraint--Intense rivalry in all pursuits--Disappointed +hopes--Drunkenness--American style of drinking--The bars--Free +luncheons--The bar-keeper--Variety of national houses--The +Chinese--Chinese stores and washermen--Theatres and +gambling-rooms--Masquerades--“No weapons admitted”--Magnificent +shops--Grading the streets--Steam Paddy--Raising +houses--Cabs--Post-office--Fire--Fire companies--Mission Dolores--San +José--Native Californians, 65-93 + + +CHAPTER V. + +Start for the Mines--The Sacramento River--American river-steamboats in +California--Natural facilities for inland navigation, and promptness of +the Americans in taking advantage of them--Sacramento City--Appearance +of the houses--Street nomenclature--Staging--Four-and-twenty four-horse +coaches start together--The plains--The scenery--The weather--The +mountains--Mountain roads and American drivers--First sight of +gold-digging--Arrival at Hangtown, 94-111 + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Hangtown--First impression of “the Diggins”--Idea of a +mining town--Gambling-houses--The street--The stores--Jew +slop-shops--The Jews: their peculiarities--Hangtown on a +Sunday--Bowie-knives and revolvers--Gold-deposits--Method of +washing--Long-toms--Rockers--Prospecting--Middletown--Our +ménage, 112-127 + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Digger Indians--Their love of dress--Their dogs--Their food--Their +ingenuity--Indian female beauty, or otherwise--“Hunting” the +Indians, and teaching them manners--’Coon Hollow--Coyote +Diggings--Coyotes--Weaver Creek--The weather and the +climate--Chinamen--A celestial “muss,” 128-145 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +The Missourians--Pike county: their appearance--Humanising effects +of California--Difference between the outward-bound Californians +and the same men on their return home--The accomplishments +of the Missourians--A phrenologer--A jury of miners--A civil +suit--We buy a claim--A “brush-house”--Rats: how to circumvent +them--Rat-shooting, 146-160 + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Hangtown--Digging in the houses--A golden vision--Slaves in +California--Negroes--Caloma--First discovery of gold--Greenwood +Valley--“The Illustrated News”--Middle fork of the American +River--A “bar”--“Spanish bar”--Nomenclature of the mines--A +table-d’hôte, 161-174 + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Grizzly-Bear House--Its cuisine--An Illinois warrior and the +Mexican campaign--A bear-hunter--Bear stories--Grizzlies--Soft +pillows--“Ranches”--Wild oats--Grasshoppers, and grasshopper +paste--Arrival at Nevada City--Situation and general appearance of the +city--Supper at the Hôtel de Paris--A three-decker--Richard III. and +Bombastes Furioso, 175-187 + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Pine-trees--Sugar-pines--Woodpeckers and acorns--Quartz veins--Coyote +Diggings--Speculative mining--Hiring out--Average yield of +the mines--Loafers--An old sailor on a spree--Start for the +Yuba--Vegetables--An old friend--“Packing”--Mexican packers and +pack-mules, 188-198 + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Start for Foster’s Bar--A hard road to +travel--Portrait-painting--Flattering likenesses--Foster’s +Bar--Sleeping under difficulties--Camping out--Camp of a flaming +company--Dangers of sketching--Taken for a highwayman, and raised to +the rank of colonel--A long journey for nothing--A soiree musicale in +the forest, 199-212 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Start for Downieville--Scenery and +habitations on the way--Downieville--The +houses--Saloons--Restaurants--Theatres--Concerts--“The Forks”--“Cape +Horn,” 213-221 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Lynch law--Necessity for such an institution in California--The +protection afforded by it--Its efficiency for the prevention +and punishment of crime--Summary executions--Manner of +execution--Maladministration of law in San Francisco--The Vigilance +Committee--The revolution of May 1856--Statistics of murders, 222-234 + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Rapid growth of California--Amount of labour performed--Luxury +and hardship--A ragged man--The Flying Dutchman--Foppery +in rags--A study--The Tower of Babel--Frenchmen--A +“Keskydee”--“Dutchmen”--Climbing a mountain--An extensive +view, 235-249 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Travelling down the river--Mining operations--The Florida House--A +hurdy-gurdy player--“Dead-broke”--Wandering habits of the +miners--Coin--Express companies--Slate-Range--A camp--A “pine-log +crossing,” 250-261 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Mississippi Bar--A Chinese camp--Chinese miners: their mechanical +contrivances--The Chinese in California--The rainy season--A flood +in the river--Nevada City--Snow-storm--Starved out--“Thrown-up” +dirt, 262-272 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Start for San Francisco--A journey--Flood--Marysville--The plains +under water--“Drowned-out” squatters--Sacramento--Sailing in the +streets--Dead rats--San Francisco--Changes since the year before--Fine +weather--The climate, 273-283 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +The northern and the southern mines--Spring--The mines +inexhaustible--Produce of gold--Jacksonville--A pet bear--Moquelumne +Hill--The population--The houses--Indians: their ultimate fate--A +bull-and-bear fight--Trapping bears, 284-300 + + +CHAPTER XX. + +Want of water--Canals--Engineering difficulties--Volcano +Diggings--Boiling dirt--Northern and southern mines--Difference +in scenery, gold, and inhabitants--Visit to a cave--Whist and +chess--Mexican horse-thieves--Crossing the Moquelumne--Chilian +miners--An Indian cavalcade, 301-312 + +CHAPTER XXI. + +San Andres--A ragged camp--Mexicans--Gambling-rooms--Music--A +church--Throwing the lasso--Lynch law--An execution--Angel’s +Camp--Chinese--A ball--The “Lancers”--The Highland Fling, 313-322 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +Carson’s Hill--Rich quartz mine--Mexican mode of working it--The quartz +vein of California--Gold-deposits--The Stanislaus River--Ferries and +bridges--Sonora--The houses and inhabitants--Hotels and restaurants--A +knowing Chinaman--The police--Gentlemen’s fashions, 323-333 + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +A bull-fight--Riding the bull--Killing with the sword--A +magician--Necromancy in the mines--Table Mountain--Shaw’s +Flats, 334-343 + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +Fire in Sonora--Rapid progress of the fire, and total destruction of +the town--The burned-out inhabitants--Deaths by fire--Rebuilding of the +town, 344-352 + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +The Fourth of July--The procession--The celebration--The oration--A +bull-fight--A lady bull-fighter--Natural bridges, 353-362 + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +French miners--Their ménage--Their capacity as miners--Frenchmen as +colonists--Social equality in the mines--The reason of it--And the +result, 363-374 + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +The Stockton stage--The plains--San Francisco--Its +progress--Improvement in style of living--Female +influence--Extravagance--First settlement of California--Effective +population--Americans as colonists--English in California--Modern +discoveries of gold--Their consequences, 375-384 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +CAMP,--_Frontispiece_. PAGE + +MONTE, 118 + +FARO, 192 + +A FLUME ON THE YUBA, 208 + +CHINESE CAMP, 265 + +BULL-FIGHT, 296 + +A BALL IN THE MINES, 320 + +SHAW’S FLATS, 343 + + + + +THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + CALIFORNIA FEVER IN THE STATES--THE START--NEW YORK TO + PANAMA--SHIPBOARD--CHAGRES--CROSSING THE ISTHMUS--THE + RIVER--CRUCES--GORGONA. + + +About the beginning of the year 1851, the rage for emigration to +California from the United States was at its height. All sorts and +conditions of men, old, young, and middle-aged, allured by the hope of +acquiring sudden wealth, and fascinated 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 passengers, 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 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 +constantly moving westward; for as the wild Indian is forced to retire +before them, so they, in their turn, shrinking from the signs of +civilisation which their own labours 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 that +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 waggons +and oxen for the journey. For the sake of mutual protection against the +Indians, they travelled in trains of a dozen or more waggons, carrying +the women and children and provisions, accompanied 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 barque about to sail for +Chagres with a load of California 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 +interior 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 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 awoke 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 disturbed, 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 cruising 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 useless; 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 anything, or +could even stand on deck; so we roughed it out on cold beef, hard bread, +and brandy-and-water. + +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 +clapping 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 +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 delightful weather, very hot, +but with a strong breeze at night, rendering it sufficiently cool to +sleep in comfort. 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 passengers there were very few who were +travelling in company; they were mostly all isolated individuals, each +“on his own hook,” and every one was perfectly confident 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 occasionally 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 +libelled. Instead of being the horrid, big-headed, crooked-backed +monster which it is generally 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 reloading 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 negligé 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 crossing the Isthmus. Wondrous accounts +constantly appeared in the New York papers of the dangers and +difficulties of these few miles of land-and-river travel, 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 consequently 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, drinking-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, 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 travellers, 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 themselves with innumerable contrivances for the protection of +their precious persons against sun, wind, and rain, also with +extraordinary assortments of very untempting-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 supposed so absolutely necessary. I actually heard one of them +refuse another man a chew of tobacco, saying 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 excitement 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 swam +ashore, we were immediately beset by crowds of boatmen, Americans, +natives, and Jamaica niggers, all endeavouring 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 humour to enjoy the magnificent 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 colours. One +of our party, who was a Scotch gardener, was in ecstacies 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 Southerners 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 +determination of making fast to a tree till the moon should rise. 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 +humour. Consequently, the question of stopping or going ahead was not +determined without a great deal of wrangling and discussion. However, +our two sailors declared they would not pull another stroke--the +gardener and myself were in favour 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 proportionate 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 +excusable 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 alternations we +had experienced of scorching heat and drenching rain, I felt as if I +could enjoy a nap, notwithstanding the disagreeables of our position; +but, fearing the consequences 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 weigh 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 canvass +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-travellers, 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 canvass 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-travellers. 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 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 ourselves, +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 before, deluges of rain, +with intervals of scorching sunshine, we arrived about six o’clock at a +native settlement, 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 natives, mostly women. Their lazy +listless way of doing things did not suit the humour we were in at all. +The invariable reply to all demands for something to eat and drink was +_poco tiempo_ (by-and-by), said in that sort of tone one would use to a +troublesome 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 mouthful of +ham, now an egg or a few beans, and then a cup of coffee, just as they +could 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 altogether, 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 storey 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 miles, and halted in the evening +at a place called Dos Hermanos, where were two native houses. + +Here we found already about fifty fellow-travellers, 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 different stages +of drunkenness, generally developing itself in a desire to fight, and +more particularly to pitch into the natives and niggers. There seemed a +prospect of a general set-to between black and white, which would have +been a bloody one, as all the passengers 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 +countrymen. One man made a most touching appeal to their honour not to +“kick up a muss,” as there was a lady “of their own colour” 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 colour was of course a myth. However, the more +violent 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 improved 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 rain, 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 finger, 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 all of them might be seen +one or more natives swinging in a hammock, calmly and patiently waiting +for time to roll on, or, it may be, deriving intense enjoyment from the +mere consciousness of existence. + +There was a large canvass house, on which was painted “Gorgona Hotel.” +It was kept by an American, the most unwholesome-looking individual I +had yet seen; he was the very personification of fever. We had here a +very luxurious dinner, having plantains and eggs in addition to the +usual fare of ham and beans. The upper storey 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 inviting; 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; but +from the way in which they spoke of their grievances, 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 Gorgona we mustered strong; and we found that, +notwithstanding 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 encountered +in these last few miles. It was one continued rapid all the way, and in +many places some of us were obliged to get out and tow the boat, while +the 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 travelling than we +had already experienced. + +Cruces was just such a village as Gorgona, with a similar canvass 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 American +travellers, 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 astonishing 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 labour. Two hundred 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 beds of precipitous gullies, the gully +itself perhaps ten or twelve feet deep, and the dense wood on each side +meeting over head, 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 travellers 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 canvass 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 were so rickety that not more than two men could sit on them +at a time. + +More travellers 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 having 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 mean time 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 generously 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 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. + + PANAMA IN JULY 1851--ITS + ARCHITECTURE--SHOPS--CHURCHES--DIRT--DISEASES AND + DIVERSIONS--EMBARK FOR SAN FRANCISCO--FEVER--HARD FARE--ARRIVAL. + + +On our arrival we found the population busily employed in celebrating +one of their innumerable _dias de fiesta_. The streets presented a very +gay appearance. The natives, all in their gala-dresses, were going the +rounds of the numerous gaudily-ornamented altars which had been erected +throughout 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 batteries, and, on the land side, by a high +wall and a moat. A large portion of the town, however, lies on the +outside of this. + +Most of the houses are built of wood, two storeys high, painted with +bright colours, and with a corridor and verandah on the upper storey; +but the best houses are of stone, or sun-dried bricks plastered over and +painted. + +The churches are all of the same style of architecture which prevails +throughout Spanish America. 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 respects, are quite in keeping with +the dilapidated uncared-for appearance of the outside of the buildings. + +The natives are white, black, and every intermediate shade of colour, +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-coloured ribbons, red or yellow +slippers without 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 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 numbers 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 Americans, and bore, upon large signs, the +favourite hotel names of the United States. There was also numbers 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 a +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 neighbours, intimated to the public--that is to +say, to the Americans--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 hammock, 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 +Gorgona, and they were consequently not very inviting places. Those who +did not live in hotels had sleeping-quarters in private houses, and +resorted to the restaurants for their meals, which was a much more +comfortable mode of life. + +Ham, beans, chickens, eggs, and rice, were the principal articles of +food. The beef was dreadfully 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 sickness, and absolute +misery, among the Americans. Diarrhœa 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 neighbours, 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 an hospital attended by American physicians, and supported to +a great extent by Californian generosity; but it was quite incapable of +accommodating all the sick; and many a poor fellow, having exhausted his +funds during his long detention 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 naturally apt at first to experience some +slight derangement of their general health, which, with proper +treatment, is easily rectified; but these fellows were all provided with +cholera preventive, fever preventive, 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 +stuff 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 whatever, 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, labourers, 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 distinction 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 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 population of foreigners, +confined in such a place as Panama, without any occupation, were not +remarkably 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 independent manner, marched to the place of +celebration, a circular canvass structure, where a circus company had +been giving performances. When all were assembled, 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 assembly 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 miscellaneous. 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 tumblerful, with still +no effect, till, at last, he had given me 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 relieved myself of all his +villanous compounds. I think I fainted after it. I know I felt as if I +was going to faint, and shortly afterwards was sensible of a lapse of +time which I could not account for; but on inquiring 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 treatment 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 _début_ as a physician. 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 administered 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 young man, who, while the doctor was treating 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 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 prevailed 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 sickness 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 favourite 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, however, 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. + +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 exception. 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 eat, to have no greater delicacy in the way of +nourishment, 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, +fortunately 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 incurring delay by going in on the coast, where calms and light +winds are so prevalent. + +We killed a porpoise occasionally, and eat 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 ourselves, and the captain determined to board +her, and endeavour 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 would pull an oar. I +was one of four who volunteered to do so, and we left the ship amid +clamorous injunctions 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 badly off as +ourselves. She could not spare us anything 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 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 enjoyment of it, and present difficulties and +hardships were not sufficiently appreciated. + +The time passed pleasantly enough; all were disposed 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 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 +Gates of San Francisco harbour with the first and only fair wind we were +favoured with, and came to anchor before the city about eight o’clock in +the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + SAN FRANCISCO--APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSES--GROWTH OF THE CITY--THE + PLAZA--SHIPS IN THE + STREETS--LIVING--BOOT-BLACKS--RESTAURANTS--HOTELS. + + +The entrance to San Francisco harbour is between precipitous rocky +headlands about a mile apart, and which have received the name of the +Golden Gates. The harbour 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 harbour falls in the Sacramento, 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 +harbour was also a favourite watering-place for whalers and men-of-war, +cruising in that part of the world. + +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 +numbers of 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 nondescript, shapeless, patchwork concerns, in +the fabrication of which, sheet-iron, wood, zinc, and canvass, 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 +completely out of their element. The hills are of a very 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 in 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 imitation +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 storeys, neat little cottages, iron houses, and tents +innumerable. + +Rents were exorbitantly high, and servants were hardly to be had for +money; housekeeping was consequently only undertaken by those who did +not fear the expense, and who were so fortunate as to have 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 oneself 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 +shakedown 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 sprung up and flourished +rapidly. It was monopolised 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 afforded 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 boot-blacks working in partnership, time was +economised 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 undergoing the operation; and finally, the +boot-blacking 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, +antelope, grizzly bear, and an infinite variety of wildfowl. The +harbour abounded with fish, and the Sacramento river was full of +splendid salmon, equal in flavour to those of the Scottish rivers, +though in appearance 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 produced 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 numerous 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 Frenchman 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 reasonably. Good hotels were +not wanting, but they were ridiculously extravagant places; and though +flimsy concerns, built of wood, and not presenting very ostentatious +exteriors, they were fitted up with all the lavish display which +characterises the fashionable hotels of New York. In fact, all places +of public resort were furnished and decorated in a style of most +barbaric splendour, being filled with the costliest French furniture, +and a profusion of immense mirrors, gorgeous gilding, magnificent +chandeliers, and gold and china ornaments, conveying an idea of +luxurious refinement which contrasted strangely with the appearance and +occupations of the people by whom they were frequented. + +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 Francisco, there was more +hard work done, more speculative 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, and, +at the same time, more solid advancement made by the people, as a body, +in wealth, prosperity, and the refinements of civilisation, 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 existence 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 contingencies 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 +lying grovelling in the mud, enjoying himself as uninterruptedly as if +he were merely a hog; old miners, probably on their way home, were +loafing about, staring at everything, in all the glory of mining +costume, 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 patchwork pantaloons, as evidences that they, at least, had +“seen the elephant.” + +Troops of newly arrived Frenchmen marched along, _en route_ for the +mines, staggering under their equipment of knapsacks, shovels, picks, +tin wash-bowls, pistols, 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 basket-hats, +each man with a bamboo laid across his shoulder, from both ends of which +were 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 horsemen 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 vehemence, while some of their neighbours +in the same line of business were ringing bells to collect an +audience--and at the same time one’s ears were dinned with 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 Senator, 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 coloured 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 blackguard of fourteen or fifteen, standing behind a +cask, and playing on the head of it a sort of thimblerig game with three +cards, called “French monte.” He first shows their faces, and names +one--say the ace of spades--as the winning card, and after +thimblerigging 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 the trick for a little, thinks it +the easiest thing possible to tell which is the ace of spades, and loses +his hundred dollars accordingly, when the youngster pockets 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 Havannah 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!” (_Anglicé_, 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 occupations, 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 +mudholes, rendering the street almost impassable. The streets were the +general receptacle for every description 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 vicinity of the numerous +Jew slop-shops, they were thickly strewed with old boots, hats, coats, +and pantaloons; 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 California. 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 enormous 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 +utterly 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 indigenous 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 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 enormous 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 plentiful 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 splendour 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 their hand, and a +beautifully plaited glossy pigtail hanging down to their heels from +under a scarlet scull-cap, with a gold knob on the top of it. These were +the swell Chinamen; the lower orders of Celestials 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 an enormous +wicker-work extinguisher, which would have made a very good family +clothes-basket. + +The Mexicans were very numerous, and wore their national costume--the +bright-coloured serape 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 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 California costume, which was of every +variety that caprice could suggest. No man could make his appearance +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 colour, 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 numbers 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, occupying 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 performers being usually German or French. + +On entering a first-class gambling room, one found a large +well-proportioned saloon sixty or seventy feet long, brilliantly lighted +up by several very fine chandeliers, 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 impregnated with the fumes of brandy. If +one happened to enter while the musicians were taking a rest, the quiet +and stillness were remarkable. Nothing was heard but a slight hum of +voices, and the constant chinking 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 juxtaposition, 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 +understanding anything about the game, nor apparently taking any +interest in it, but having their spree out at the gaming-table because +it was the fashion, and good-humouredly 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; Frenchmen 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 losing their hundred dollars at a pop with all the +_nonchalance_ 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, villanous-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 existence, the live carcass of some wretched, +dazed, woebegone man, clad in the worn-out greasy habiliments 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 enjoyment of the last mouthful of whisky, +blended with a longing humble sigh for the speedy recurrence of any +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 appearance 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 neighbours. The man standing next him, in +the guise of a labouring 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 represented. 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 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 continues to bet at it is sure to be fleeced. + +Faro, which was the more favourite 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 patronised by novices. There were also 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 distinctive 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 invited 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 +expression 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 +degree, for the struggle to appear unconcerned when a man lost his all, +was often too plainly evident. + +The Mexicans showed the most admirable impassibility. 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 +heterogeneous 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 violence were so rife, that, +when out at night in unfrequented quarters, one walked pistol in hand in +the middle 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 purpose of gambling. Few men had much inducement +to pass their evenings in their miserable homes, and the gambling-rooms +were a favourite public resort, the music alone offering sufficient +attraction to many who never thought of staking a dollar at any of the +tables. + +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-decorated part of the room, the wall being completely +covered with mirrors and gilding, and further ornamented with china +vases, bouquets of flowers, and gold clocks. + +Hither small parties of men are continually repairing to “take a drink.” +Perhaps they each choose a different kind of punch, or sling, or +cocktail, requiring various combinations, in different proportions, of +whisky, brandy, or gin, with sugar, bitters, peppermint, absinthe, +curaçoa, 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 occupying more than a couple +of minutes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + SCARCITY OF LABOURING MEN--HIGH WAGES--WANT OF SOCIAL + RESTRAINT--INTENSE RIVALRY IN ALL PURSUITS--DISAPPOINTED + HOPES--DRUNKENNESS--AMERICAN STYLE OF DRINKING--THE BARS--FREE + LUNCHEONS--THE BAR-KEEPER--VARIETY OF NATIONAL HOUSES--THE + CHINESE--CHINESE STORES AND WASHER-MEN--THEATRES AND + GAMBLING-ROOMS--MASQUERADES--“NO WEAPONS ADMITTED”--MAGNIFICENT + SHOPS--GRADING THE STREETS--STEAM PADDY--RAISING + HOUSES--CABS--POST-OFFICE--FIRE--FIRE COMPANIES--MISSION + DOLORES--SAN JOSÉ--NATIVE CALIFORNIANS. + + +A most useful quality for a California emigrant was one which the +Americans possess in a pre-eminent degree--a natural versatility of +disposition, 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 labouring 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 labouring and +of the working classes generally, were not nearly equal to the demand. +The consequence was that labourers’ and mechanics’ wages were +ridiculously high; and, as a general thing, the lower the description of +labour, 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 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 education, who had never +dreamed of manual labour, and who found that their services in their +wonted capacities 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 regardless 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 considered 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 +neighbour. + +A man’s actions and conduct were totally unrestrained by the ordinary +conventionalities of civilised 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 the utmost freedom. + +Among so many temptations to err, thrust prominently 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 neighbours; and, the outside pressure of society being +removed, men assumed their natural shape, and showed what they really +were, following their 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 +civilisation, were indulged with the same freedom which characterises +the life of a wild savage. + +There were, however, bright examples of the contrary. If there was a +lavish expenditure in ministering to vice, there was also munificence in +the bestowing 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 unwarrantable 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 striving for what seemed to +be within the reach of all--a foremost rank in his own sphere. To keep +one’s place in the crowd required an unremitted exercise of the same +vigour 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 competitors, whose +deficiency of merit in other respects was more than counterbalanced by +an excess of unscrupulous 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 disappointments. 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 they 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, considering 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 +institutions of the country. + +In England a man reserves his drinking capacities 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 existences, 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 labouring man--but it is one of +the necessities of human existence, and, as it precludes 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 carried on publicly and openly. The bars are the most +favourite 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 compliments; 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 existence 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 dispensed 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 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 provided +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 discretion 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. Filling 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,” he said, “I only gave you a shilling; +is not it a shilling 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 engaged in a similar capacity in this +country, and has no counterpart here. In fact, bar-keeping is a +profession, in which individuals rise to eminence, and become celebrated +for their cocktails, and for their address in serving customers. The +rapidity and dexterity 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 accurately +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 exhibiting +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 +Frères, the Café de Paris, and suchlike; but these were second and +third-rate places; those which courted the patronage of the upper +classes of all nations, assumed 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 American saloons. + +The Germans too had their _lager bier_ cellars, but the noise and smoke +which came up from them was enough to deter any one but a German from +venturing 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 congregate. Here the majority of +the houses were of Chinese importation, and were stores, stocked with +hams, tea, dried fish, dried ducks, and other very nasty-looking Chinese +eatables, besides copper-pots and kettles, fans, shawls, chessmen, and +all sorts of curiosities. Suspended over the doors were +brilliantly-coloured 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 studying the Chinese bills +posted up in the shop windows, which may have been play-bills,--for +there was a Chinese theatre,--or perhaps advertisements informing 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 ironing 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 charcoal, 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 +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 according 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 manner. The performances went on day and night, without +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 +unflinching way in which the fellow stood it out, the confidence 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 extraordinary +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 concerts, masquerades, a circus, and other public +amusements. The most curious were certainly the masquerades. 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 produced 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 incredible that he had to +submit to be searched; an operation which was performed by the +doorkeepers, who, I observed, were occasionally rewarded for their +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 jewellers’ 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 favourite mode of +getting rid of their spare cash. Labouring 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 exhibited +such a stock of the costliest shawls, cabinets, workboxes, vases, and +other articles of Chinese manufacture, with clocks, bronzes, and all +sorts of drawing-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 +himself 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 +execution. 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 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 number 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-storey 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 readjusted, and the operation was repeated till the +required height was obtained. I went to witness the process when it was +being applied to a large corner brick building, five storeys high, with +about sixty feet frontage each way. The flagged side-walk was being +raised along with it; but there was no interruption of the business +going on in the premises, or anything 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 detached 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 apparatus had of course to be of +an immense strength to withstand the pressure to which it was subjected, +and 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 infinitely 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 +handsome 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 dollars 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 splendour. +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 +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 +(2° 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 waggon-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 required 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. +Independently 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 coming 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 himself 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 chewing 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 principle 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 omnipotent majority. + +A man’s place in the line was his individual property, more or less +valuable according to his distance from the window, and, like any other +piece of property, 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 position, and some men went there early, and waited patiently, +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 thousands 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 success, would still have thought +there was something wrong. I was myself upon one occasion deeply +impressed 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 included; and here a polyglot individual, who +would have been a useful member of society in the Tower of Babel, +answered the demands of all European nations, 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 expense 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 canvass buildings, 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 +canvass, 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 enjoying the seclusion, such as it was, of +his own apartment. 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. + +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 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 individual 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 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 organised, were on the +usual American system--volunteer 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 handsome 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 elaborately 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 themselves. 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 was 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 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, performing 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 honour to any individual who +conspicuously distinguishes 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 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 neighbourhood is flat and fertile, and +was being rapidly converted into market-gardens; but the village itself +was as yet but little changed. It had a look of antiquity and +completeness, as if it had been finished long ago, and as if nothing +more was ever likely to be done to 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 boiling over, while here +was nothing but human stagnation--a more violent extreme than would have +been the wilderness as yet untrodden by man. Being but a slightly +reduced counterpart of what San Francisco 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 extent, 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 remain long in a state of +torpor. A plank road was 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 favourite resort for all who sought an +hour’s relief from the excitement of the city. + +At the very head of the bay, some sixty miles from San Francisco, is the +town of San José, 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 José was the +headquarters 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 speculate 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 disadvantage 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 José 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, +consequently, a large number of Americans were here assembled, 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 José is +in some parts very beautiful. The country is smooth and open--not so +flat as to appear monotonous--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. + + START FOR THE MINES--THE SACRAMENTO RIVER--AMERICAN + RIVER-STEAMBOATS IN CALIFORNIA--NATURAL FACILITIES FOR INLAND + NAVIGATION, AND PROMPTNESS OF THE AMERICANS IN TAKING ADVANTAGE OF + THEM--SACRAMENTO CITY--APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSES--STREET + NOMENCLATURE--STAGING--FOUR-AND-TWENTY FOUR-HORSE COACHES START + TOGETHER--THE PLAINS--THE SCENERY--THE WEATHER--THE + MOUNTAINS--MOUNTAIN ROADS AND AMERICAN DRIVERS--FIRST SIGHT OF + GOLD-DIGGING--ARRIVAL AT HANGTOWN. + + +I 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 myself on board the steamer for Sacramento. + +As we did not start till five o’clock in the afternoon, 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 exceedingly 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 constitute the mining districts. +Through these plains flows the Sacramento river, receiving as +tributaries all the rivers flowing down from the mountains on either +side. + +The steamer--which was a very fair specimen of the usual style of New +York river-boat--was crowded 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 awoke 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 twenty-two miles an hour, +afforded the same rapid and comfortable means of travelling, and +sometimes at as cheap rates, as when they plied between New York and +Albany. Every traveller in the United States has described the river +steamboats; suffice it to say here, that they lost none of their +characteristics in California; and, looking at these long, white, +narrow, two-storey houses, floating apparently on nothing, so little of +the hull of the boat appears above water, and showing none of the lines +which, in a ship, convey an idea of buoyancy and power of resistance, +but, on the contrary, 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 thousand 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 their long voyage to California, the lower storey 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 individual daring, as a +commercial undertaking the sending 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, competition 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 hundred miles in ten hours; but, in +California at that time, the wages of the common deck hands on board +those 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 labour, and required the employment 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 parallel 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 depôt 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 manner the +city of Marysville, being at the extreme northern point of navigation of +the Feather river, became the starting-place and the depôt 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 profits 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 remembered 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. + +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 first commencement of the existence of California as a +gold-bearing country, steam-communication 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 +competition 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 commercial 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 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 exclusively 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 “levée” 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 immortalise the names of prominent individuals--and +admirably adapted to such a rectangular 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 longitude of a house being given, it could be found at +once. A stranger could navigate all over the town without ever having to +ask his way, as he could take an observation 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 candlelight, 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 for 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-waggons--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 rejoicing in the suggestive appellation of +Hangtown; designated, however, in official documents as Placerville. 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 happened to be one of +the oblong boxes--and, pitching 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 Majesty’s +mail. The teams were all headed the same way, and with their stages, +four or five abreast, occupied 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 waggons to shorten their journey. +Grooms were standing at the leaders’ heads, trying to keep them quiet, +and the drivers were sitting 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 waggons were backed into the teams +behind them, to the discomfiture 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 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 waggon 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 waggons, 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 Nevada 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 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 happened 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 “runners” 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 doctors advertise, and the names of the first merchants +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 +clamours 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 neighbours also took up my +attention. I found seated around me a varied assortment of human nature. +A New-Yorker, a Yankee, and an English Jack-tar were my immediate +neighbours, and a general conversation helped to beguile the time till +the “runners” had succeeded in placing a passenger upon every available +spot of every waggon. 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 buts 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 hurraed; +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 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 compass, and it +was like going to sea; for we emerged from the city as from a landlocked +harbour, and followed 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 neighbours, 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 travelling 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 certain 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 gradation till the most +distinct, though clearly defined, seemed still to be the most natural +and satisfactory 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 travelled 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, 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 waggons 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 narrow, 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 admiration 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 break, and, clawing at the 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 manœuvre on a piece of road +which slanted violently down to one side, he trimmed the waggon 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, +digging holes like so many grave-diggers. I then considered 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 travelled onwards, we passed at intervals numerous parties of +miners, and the country assumed a more inhabited appearance. Log-cabins +and clapboard 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 travelling about thirty miles over this mountainous region, +ascending gradually all the while, we arrived at Hangtown in the +afternoon, having accomplished the sixty miles from Sacramento city in +about eight hours. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + HANGTOWN--FIRST IMPRESSION OF “THE DIGGINS”--IDEA OF A MINING + TOWN--GAMBLING HOUSES--THE STREET--THE STORES--JEW SLOP-SHOPS--THE + JEWS: THEIR PECULIARITIES--HANGTOWN ON A SUNDAY--BOWIE-KNIVES AND + REVOLVERS--GOLD-DEPOSITS--METHOD OF WASHING--LONG + TOMS--ROCKERS--PROSPECTING--MIDDLETOWN--OUR MENAGE. + + +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 obliterated, its waters +being distributed into numberless little ditches, and from them +conducted into the “long toms” of the miners through canvass 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 surrounding the town, showed how freely +the axe 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 shovelling 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 labouring 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 four, were of course the largest and most conspicuous +buildings; their mirrors, chandeliers, and other decorations, 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 preserved oysters, empty bottles, worn-out pots and +kettles, old ham-bones, broken picks and shovels, and other rubbish too +various to particularise. 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. Waggons, 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 inhabitants to +be seen. + +There were boarding-houses on the _table-d’hôte_ 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 specialty about +them--everything was to be found in them which it could be supposed that +any one could possibly want, excepting fresh beef (there was a butcher +who monopolised 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 display of boxes of sardines, and brightly-coloured tins of +preserved meats and vegetables with showy labels, interspersed 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 supplying their Christian brethren with the necessary +articles of wearing apparel. + +In travelling 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 versatility in betaking +themselves to whatever business or occupation appeared at the time to be +most advisable, without reference to their antecedents, and in a country +where no man, to whatever class of society he belonged, was in the least +degree ashamed to roll up his sleeves and dig in the mines for gold, or +to engage in any other kind of manual labour, 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, concentrated 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 +everything 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 erections 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 articles suited +to the wants of the miners, along with Colt’s revolvers and +bowie-knives, brass jewellery, and diamonds like young Koh-i-Noors. + +Almost every man, after a short residence in California, became changed +to a certain extent in his outward 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 whatever at +all suggestive of California; they were exactly the same +unwashed-looking, slobbery, slip-shod 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 themselves, after a week’s labour and isolation in the +mountains, 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 gambled 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 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 + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK, DEL^{T.} M & N HANHART, LITH. + +MONTÉ IN THE MINES] + +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 occasion. The utmost latitude was allowed in the exercise of +self-defence. In the case of a row, it was not necessary to wait till a +pistol was actually levelled at one’s head--if a man made even a motion +towards drawing a weapon, it was considered perfectly justifiable to +shoot him first, if possible. The very prevalence 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. + +There was only one place of public worship in Hangtown at that time, a +very neat little wooden edifice, which belonged to some denomination of +Methodists, 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 tunnels 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 neighbourhood of Hangtown were surface +diggings; but, with the exception of river diggings, every kind of +mining operation was to be seen in full force. + +The gold is found at various depths from the surface; 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 universally 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 +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 tom,” 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 the +floor of it is there 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 tom 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 tom as fast as they can dig it up, +one man stands at the lower end stirring up the dirt as it is washed +down, separating 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 +up with the hands, and the gravel thrown out; the pan is then taken in +both hands, and by an indescribable series of manœuvres 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 sufficient supply of water for a long tom 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 “tom,” and had formerly been the only contrivance in use; but it was +now seldom seen, as the long tom effected such a saving of time and +labour. The latter was set immediately over the claim, and the dirt was +shovelled 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 working together with a rocker--one digging, +another carrying the dirt in buckets, and the third rocking the +cradle--would wash on an average a hundred bucketfuls of dirt to the man +in the course of the day. With a “long tom” 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. + +I met a San Francisco friend in Hangtown practising his profession as a +doctor, who very hospitably offered me quarters in his cabin, which I +gladly accepted. 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 imagination, +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 tom 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 returning 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 “prospecter” 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 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 colour,” 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 labour 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 diggings 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 neighbouring 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 +firewood and water close to us, and being only two miles from Hangtown, +we kept ourselves well supplied 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, damper, 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 up on 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 anywhere. A piece of an +old iron-hoop, twisted into a 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 handfuls. It is a favourite beverage in the +mines--morning, noon, and night--and at no time is it more refreshing +than in the extreme heat of mid-day. + +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. + + DIGGER INDIANS--THEIR LOVE OF DRESS--THEIR DOGS--THEIR FOOD--THEIR + INGENUITY--INDIAN FEMALE BEAUTY, OR OTHERWISE--“HUNTING” THE + INDIANS, AND TEACHING THEM MANNERS--COON HOLLOW--COYOTE + DIGGINGS--COYOTES--WEAVER CREEK--THE WEATHER AND THE + CLIMATE--CHINAMEN--A CELESTIAL “MUSS.” + + +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 uncivilisable 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 buttoned 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 neighbours 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 pantaloons +are frequently worn, or rather carried, with the legs tied round the +waist. They seem 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 their 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 papooses 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 a dirty +brindled colour, 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 look of most humble +resignation, and so conscious of their degradation that they never +presume to hold any communion with their civilised 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 all 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 colour 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 manufacture. + +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 shorter than the bows used in +this country, but resemble 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, however, 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 on 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 admiring +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 no doubt our ideas of female beauty must have +differed 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 neighbouring 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 himself scarce, they marched back +to Hangtown without 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 present. 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 overland 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 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 unnecessary, by drawing a vivid picture of +the unburied bones of poor Brown, or Jones, the unfortunate individual +who had been murdered, bleaching 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 straggling miners in the mountains at any distance from a +settlement. Altogether he spoke very well, considering the sort of crowd +he was addressing; and judging from the enthusiastic applause, and from +the remarks 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 whole crowd rushed eagerly forward, and the +required 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 operations 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 myself alone remained, +uncertain as yet where we should go to. + +We had gone into Hangtown one night for provisions, 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 daylight 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. + +Those who had claims, immediately surrounding that of the lucky man who +had caused all the excitement 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 sinking a shaft +about a hundred feet deep; and after drifting 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” diggings, 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 Irishman 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 cannibals; but as cannibals object to the +flavour 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 comrades with the flesh eaten off their bones by the coyotes, 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 system with pepper as to render +their flesh too savoury a morsel for the natural and unvitiated taste of +the coyotes. + +These coyote diggings require to be very rich to pay, from the great +amount of labour 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, excavations 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 diggings, 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 candlelight; at the same time, gold mining in any way was to +almost every one a new occupation, and men who had passed their lives +hitherto above ground, took quite as naturally to this subterranean +style of digging as to any other. + +We felt no particular fancy for it, however, especially as we could not +get a claim; and having heard favourable 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 tom, 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 wildflowers +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 ruggedness or +disorder; we might have imagined ourselves 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 California. + +After travelling some miles over this sort of country, 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 finding 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 labour. We had some difficulty at first in bringing water to the +long tom, 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. + +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 provisions 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, finding small +pools of water in the folds of our blankets, and everything so soaking +wet, inside the tent as well as outside, that it was 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 feelings 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° in the shade during 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 suffocating atmosphere makes +the heat more severely felt. 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’s, 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 resistance to the fierce rays of the sun, which rendered the cabin +during the day so intolerably hot, that we cooked and eat our dinner +under the shade of a tree. + +A whole bevy of Chinamen had recently made their appearance on the +creek. Their camp, consisting 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. + +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 +vigour as American or European miners, but handle their tools like so +many women, as if they were afraid of hurting themselves. The Americans +called it “scratching,” 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 +nor a stone thrown, the two parties suddenly, and without any apparent +cause, fraternised, 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 _sacré cochon_, +and going through a long series of still less complimentary epithets, +till finally _sacré astrologe_ caps the climax. This is a regular +smasher; it is supposed to be such a comprehensive term as to exhaust +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 +Chinamen arrived at a solution of their difficulty; at all events, +discretion seemed to form a very large component part of Celestial +valour. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + THE MISSOURIANS--PIKE COUNTY: THEIR APPEARANCE--HUMANISING EFFECTS + OF CALIFORNIA--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OUTWARD-BOUND CALIFORNIANS + AND THE SAME MEN ON THEIR RETURN HOME--THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE + MISSOURIANS--A PHRENOLOGER--A JURY OF MINERS--A CIVIL SUIT--WE BUY + A CLAIM--A “BRUSH-HOUSE”--RATS: HOW TO CIRCUMVENT + THEM--RAT-SHOOTING. + + +The miners on the creek were nearly all Americans, 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 unmistakeable 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 particularly 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 costume 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-coloured 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. Their hats were felt, of a dirty-brown colour, and +the shape of a short extinguisher. Their shirts had perhaps, in days +gone by, been red, but were now a sort of purple; their pantaloons were +generally of a snuffy-brown colour, 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 suspenders--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--exceedingly tight, short-waisted, long-skirted surtouts of +home-made frieze of a greyish-blue colour. + +As for their persons, they were mostly long, gaunt, narrow-chested, +round-shouldered men, with long, straight, light-coloured, +dried-up-looking hair, small thin sallow faces, with rather scanty beard +and moustache, 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 civilisation than ever they had dreamed of. + +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 +community 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 civilised life; while the Missourians, having come +direct across the plains from their homes in the backwoods, had received +no preparatory education to enable them to show off to advantage in such +company. + +And in this they laboured 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 incomprehensible, 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 was most desirable became in California more +humanised, and acquired a certain amount of urbanity; in fact, they came +from civilised 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 education. 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 neighbours. They showed no +accommodating spirit, but grumbled at everything, and were rude and +surly in 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 +regulations 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 behaviour; 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 enlarged idea of their rights +which they had formerly entertained. + +The Missourians, however, although they acquired no new accomplishments +on their journey to California, lost none of those which they originally +possessed. They could use an axe 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 constant +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 remarkable 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 diarrhœa being their +favourite complaints. + +We had many pleasant neighbours, 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, without +much education, but with great ability and immense 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 suppose 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 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 character, explaining most minutely the consequences of +the combination of the different bumps, and telling me how I would act +in a variety of supposed contingencies. 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 altogether 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 +laid 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 Democratic 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 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 neighbourhood 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 +whipped; 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 favourite subject, and illustrated his theory by +feeling several heads, and giving very full descriptions of the +characters of the individuals. 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 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 jurymen 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 defendants 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 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 were particularly well pleased with the verdict--a pretty +good sign that it was an impartial 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 humbug 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 without 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. +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 storekeeper 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 or six miles up the creek. It was supposed to be very rich, and we +had to pay a long price for it accordingly, although the men who had +taken it up, and from whom we bought it, had not yet even prospected 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 labour had not been expended in vain, for it paid +uncommonly 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 labour 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 +appearance. 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 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 colonisers. 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 humanised 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 +frequently in the cities than in the mines; they are probably 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 +precautions just as naturally, and as much as a matter of course, as +when at sea one fixes things in such a manner that they shall not fetch +way with the motion of the ship. As in civilised 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 off his revolver, lays it +under his pillow, or at least under the coat or boots, or whatever 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 +mosquitos. 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 favourable 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 darkness; but the rats have a fashion of running along the tops of +the logs, and occasionally standing still, 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. + + HANGTOWN--DIGGING IN THE HOUSES--A GOLDEN VISION--SLAVES IN + CALIFORNIA--NEGROES--CALOMA--FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD--GREENWOOD + VALLEY--“THE ILLUSTRATED NEWS”--MIDDLE FORK OF THE AMERICAN + RIVER--A “BAR”--“SPANISH BAR”--NOMENCLATURE OF THE MINES--A + TABLE-D’HÔTE. + + +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 +tom, 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 enjoyment 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 all offered to pay very handsomely, I +was satisfied that I could make paper and pencil much more profitable +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, 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 finding my old brother-miners very +liberal patrons of the fine arts, I remained some time in the +neighbourhood 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 +neighbours, 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 shovelling, 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 shovelled 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 labours and hardships of +the mines. + +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 afterwards, however, he had precisely the same dream, and was so +convinced that their fortune lay waiting for them under this particular +cabin, that he succeeded at last in persuading his master to believe it +also. He 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 +buying 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 frequent 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 California 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 proportion of the population as in the Atlantic +States. As miners they were proverbially lucky, but they were 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 drinks +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 coloured 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 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 question of dignity interfered +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 roadside houses, and +waiting on any ragamuffin who chose to patronise them, with as much +_empressement_ 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 whatever 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 the +neighbourhood 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 protection 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 travelling; they flow so far below the average level of the +country, which, though exceedingly 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 travelled down this +valley: the bed of the creek which flowed through it, and all the +ravines, had been dug up, and numbers of cabins stood on the hill-sides; +but at this season the creek was completely dry, and consequently no +mining operations could be carried on. The cabins were all tenantless, +and the place looked more desolate than if its solitude had never been +disturbed 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 stopping 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 Exhibition. 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 leading 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 _Illustrated News_ was also a great favourite, 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. The face of the mountain by which I descended was covered with a +perfect trellice-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 +opposite 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 down hill. 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 names 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 pioneer has seldom shown much invention or originality in +his choice of a name; in most cases he has either immortalised 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 settlement; such as Shirt Tail Cañon, Whisky Gulch, +Port Wine Diggins, Humbug Flat, Murderer’s Bar, Flapjack 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 canvass 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 transient +custom of travellers is merely incidental. The average rate of board per +week at these institutions 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 appetites. At last there could not have been less than sixty +or seventy miners assembled in the bar-room, which was a small canvass +enclosure about twenty feet square. On one side was a rough wooden door +communicating with the _salle à 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 somewhat 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 disappointed 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, 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, +determined to enjoy the last lingering after-taste of the good things +they had been eating--rather a disgusting 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 mean time 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 laboured 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 +immediately on entering I caught sight of a good-looking roast of beef +at the far end of one of the tables, 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 occupying 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-humour, 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 favourite 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 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. + + THE GRIZZLY-BEAR HOUSE--ITS CUISINE--AN ILLINOIS WARRIOR AND THE + MEXICAN CAMPAIGN--A BEAR-HUNTER--BEAR STORIES--GRIZZLIES--SOFT + PILLOWS--“RANCHES”--WILD OATS--GRASSHOPPERS, AND GRASSHOPPER + PASTE--ARRIVAL AT NEVADA CITY--SITUATION AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF + THE CITY--SUPPER AT THE HÔTEL DE PARIS--A THREE-DECKER--RICHARD + III. AND BOMBASTES FURIOSO. + + +I made 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 travelled, 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 canvass, 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. + +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 travellers 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 centre 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, judging from our supper, he was not called upon to +go through any very difficult manœuvres 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 labours +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 monopolised by two individuals, who were decidedly the lions of the +evening. One of them was a man from Illinois, who 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 himself. 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 achievements, 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 authentic facts on hand for any +emergency, with which he corroborated all his previous assertions. The +resistance 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 detailed 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, however. 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 adventures of Baron Munchausen were +not a circumstance. He was a dry stringy-looking man, with light hair +and keen grey 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 coloured 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 disposed 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 +implicit faith so much increased one’s interest in his adventures. 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, loading 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 everything that was said, +had the temerity to laugh incredulously. 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 suppose 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 he went smelling round the stump, till he at last +fell mortally wounded, with I don’t know how many balls in his body. + +The grizzlies are 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 invariably 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 out the +next day to wreak his vengeance upon them. A grizzly is well worth +killing, as he fetches a hundred dollars or more, according to his +weight. The meat is excellent, but it needs to be well spiced, for in +process of cooking it becomes saturated with bear’s grease. In the +mines, however, pomatum is an article unknown, 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 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 a-bed in the morning in California; perhaps they would +not anywhere, if they had no better 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 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 +Illinoistown, consisting of three shanties and a saw-mill. The +pine-trees in the neighbourhood were of an enormous size, and were being +fast converted into lumber, which was in great demand for various mining +operations, 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 mountains, 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 civilisation. 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 undisturbed, 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 them into a +paste, somewhat of the consistency of potted shrimps; it may be as +palatable also, but I cannot speak from experience on that point. My +companions, as we travelled 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 canvass 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 +villanous 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 committed 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 traveller +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. + +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 “Hôtel 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 has 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 hill-sides. +The bed of the creek, which had once flowed past the town, was now +choked up with heaps of “trailings”--the washed dirt from which the gold +has been extracted--the white colour 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 canvass booths, and +log-cabins. + +The only peculiarity about the miners was the white mud with which they +were bespattered, especially those working in underground diggings, who +were easily distinguished by the quantity of dry white mud on the tops +of their hats. + +The supper at the Hôtel 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 bouilli, followed by filet-de-bœuf, with +cabbage, carrots, turnips, and onions; after that came what the landlord +called a “god-dam rosbif,” with green pease, and the whole wound up with +a salad of raw cabbage, a cup of good coffee, and cognac. I did +impartial justice to every department, and rose from 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 +recognised 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 boarding-house in the mines, but it was a +three-decker. All round the large sleeping-apartment were three tiers of +canvass 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-two, one-two, a thrust, and down +went Dick. I heard him fall, and could hear him afterwards gasping 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, favoured 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 respective shelves. +They had been at the theatre, but I am sure they had not enjoyed it so +much as I did. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + PINE-TREES--SUGAR-PINES--WOODPECKERS AND ACORNS--QUARTZ + VEINS--COYOTE DIGGINGS--SPECULATIVE MINING--HIRING OUT--AVERAGE + YIELD OF THE MINES--LOAFERS--AN OLD SAILOR ON A SPREE--START FOR + THE YUBA--VEGETABLES--AN OLD FRIEND--“PACKING”--MEXICAN PACKERS AND + PACK-MULES. + + +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, and 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 completely 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 neighbourhood of Nevada, some of +which were very rich, and yielded a large amount of gold; but, generally +speaking, 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 capital 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 labour had to be gone through +in opening the mine before any returns could be received; and, moreover, +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 labour 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 labour at five dollars a-day for +every day they work, that being the usual wages for hired labour; 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 themselves in this way, but +still there are plenty of men who prefer devoting themselves to this +speculative style 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 uncertain, 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 performing other necessary labour to get their claim +into working 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 exciting pursuit as +gold-hunting, constantly stimulated by the success of some one of their +neighbours, it was only natural that they should be loth to relinquish +their chance of a prize in the lottery, by hiring themselves 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 inventive energy +to direct their own labour 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 +probably 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, and old sailors +especially, would have periodical bursts, more intense but of shorter +duration. After mining 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 systematically. 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, + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK, DEL M & N HANHART, LITH. + +FARO] + +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 interfering 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 forenoon, 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 man to +spend on an occasion of this sort, even without 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 +Francisco; and there were numbers of men of this description who were +fortunate in their diggings, and became possessed of an amount of gold +of which they could not realise 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 themselves 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 nearest 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, +finding ready sale for his game in Nevada. + +The principal kinds of game in the mountains are deer, quail, hares, +rabbits, and squirrels. The quails, 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’ provisions. + +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 pease, French beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, +pumpkins, squash, and water-melons. 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 recognised 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 +favourable 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 diggings 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 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 +ascertained 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 to +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 beautifully clear water. It was +evidently a favourite camping-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, immediately dismounted and began to unpack, working +with such vigour 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 +manner; the cargo being all ranged along the ground in a row, and +presenting a very miscellaneous assortment 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 raw-hide 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 mules all follow him, and are left to their own +devices 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. + + START FOR FOSTER’S BAR--A HARD ROAD TO + TRAVEL--PORTRAIT-PAINTING--FLATTERING LIKENESSES--FOSTER’S + BAR--SLEEPING UNDER DIFFICULTIES--CAMPING OUT--CAMP OF A FLAMING + COMPANY--DANGERS OF SKETCHING--TAKEN FOR A HIGHWAYMAN, AND RAISED + TO THE RANK OF COLONEL--A LONG JOURNEY FOR NOTHING--A SOIREE + MUSICALE IN THE FOREST. + + +I 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 disappointed 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 +travelling over them, and these I followed with considerable difficulty +for about half a mile, when they stopped at a place where the blackened +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, however, 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 climbing, my shins barked, +my clothes nearly torn off my back, and my eyes half scratched out by +the bushes, 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 travelling, 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 Missourians say, “you 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 travelled 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. + +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 himself 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 improved 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 +altogether. + +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; 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 canvass-house, the front part of which was the +bar-room, and behind it the dining-room. Alongside of the former an +addition 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 necessary, 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 observed, and the company are rather more +apt to devote themselves to the social enjoyment of drinking, +quarrelling, and kicking up a row generally. In this instance the uproar +beat all my previous experience, and sleeping 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 expected +to see some of them pitched through the canvass 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 unlimited supply of brandy all +night, which fully accounted 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 arrangements, 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 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 colour 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 immediately 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 “cañon”), 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 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 professional +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, spinning 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 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 shown 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 observe me. I +had no object in speaking to him, especially 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 + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK DEL^{T.} M & N HANHART, IMP^T + +A “FLUME” ON THE YUBA RIVER.] + +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 conciliatory 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 travelled, and the trails were +consequently very indistinct, 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 determined 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 endeavouring 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 words; but if you repeat +the question, as if you really wanted to know the state of their health, +they invariably answer “fuss-rate.” Accordingly, having ascertained 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 disposed 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 habitation +before dark. At last, in travelling 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 apologised for the meagreness 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 return found that the Indians had taken the opportunity 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, +favoured 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 travelled the day +before. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + START FOR DOWNIEVILLE--SCENERY AND HABITATIONS ON THE + WAY--DOWNIEVILLE--THE HOUSES, + SALOONS--RESTAURANTS--THEATRES--CONCERTS--“THE FORKS”--“CAPE HORN.” + + +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 +Downieville, and, being travelled 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 +converted 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 colour 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, 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 +travelled 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 refreshing. 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 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 approach before they come in sight. They were returning +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 travellers; 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 up hill 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 reaching the foot of the +mountain I was rather disappointed at first to find it apparently so +small a place, but I very soon discovered that there was a great deal +compressed 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-storey houses, with columns and verandahs 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 civilised +place. I was accommodated 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 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 à manger_ was underneath me, and as the floor was very thin, +I had the full benefit of all the conversation of those who indulged 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 +theatre--not a very highly decorated house, but laid out in the orthodox +fashion, with boxes, pit, and gallery--and a company of American +glee-singers, who had been concertising 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,” 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 tributaries, 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 principle, 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 numbers 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 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 below, between his outstretched +legs, the most uninviting 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 provisions on +their backs, but a great many men had fallen over, and been instantly +killed on the rocks below. + +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. + + LYNCH LAW--NECESSITY FOR SUCH AN INSTITUTION IN CALIFORNIA--THE + PROTECTION AFFORDED BY IT--ITS EFFICIENCY FOR THE PREVENTION AND + PUNISHMENT OF CRIME--SUMMARY EXECUTIONS--MANNER OF + EXECUTION--MALADMINISTRATION OF LAW IN SAN FRANCISCO--THE VIGILANCE + COMMITTEE--THE REVOLUTION OF MAY 1856--STATISTICS OF MURDERS. + + +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 +themselves the administration and execution of justice. + +A Mexican woman one forenoon had, without provocation, 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 +afternoon. 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 administering 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 +infallible,--for such persons it may be difficult to realise a state of +things which should render it necessary, or even excusable, that any +number of irresponsible individuals 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 theorising upon abstract principles. 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 ceremony, 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 élite 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 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 practise their villany. +But, thanks to Lynch law, murders and robberies, numerous as they were, +were by no means of such frequent occurrence as might have been +expected, considering the opportunities and temptations afforded to such +a large proportion of the population, who were only restrained from +violence by a wholesome 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 probably the only feeling which deters them, and its influence 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 +committing 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 circumstance with which it is +attended, divests it in a great measure of the feelings of horror which +it is intended to arouse. + +But when Lynch law prevails, it strikes terror to the heart of the +evil-doer. He has no hazy and undefined 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 protection 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 tribunal 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 +administered with characteristic promptness and decision. 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 committed. In some +instances the criminal was run up by a number of men, all equally +sharing the hangman’s duty; on other occasions, one man was appointed to +the office of executioner, and a drop was extemporised 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 criminal on a horse or mule, +when, after the rope was adjusted, 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 cow-hide, and the culprit was then banished 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, however, 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 increased to +an alarming extent; and from the laxity and corruption of those +intrusted with the punishment 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 impunity which they +enjoyed, that society, in the total inefficiency of the system which it +had instituted for its defence and preservation, threatened to become a +helpless prey to the well-organised 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, and 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 gaol who +had already been convicted of murder and robbery, but for the execution +of whose sentence the experience of the past afforded no guarantee. +These two men, when taken out of the gaol, 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 organisation of +villany, in which several men of comparatively respectable position were +implicated. These were the projectors and designers of elaborate schemes +of wholesale robbery, which the more practical members of the profession +executed under their superintendence; 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 programmes of robberies to come off. + +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 +distinguished 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 passenger 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 suppressing crime, and driving the scum of +the population out of the city, that they resigned their functions in +favour of the constituted authorities; at the same time, however, +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 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 +aggravated, 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 housebreakers. + +To explain the necessity of the revolution which took place in San +Francisco in May ’56 would require 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 is a short +article, which gives such a complete idea of the state of affairs that I +take the liberty to transcribe it. It is written when the Vigilance +Committee, having, a day or two before, hanged two men, are still +actively engaged making numerous arrests; and it is remarkable that just +at this time the authorities actually hang a man too. + +The _Alta_ announces the fact in the following article:-- + +“A man was executed yesterday for murder, after a due compliance with +all the 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 laboured 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 before 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 murder case, that, +since the settlement of San Francisco 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 +monied assassin, as well as from the miserable, the poor, and the +friendless? Such a revolution has been made by the people, and it has +been the inauguration of a new and bright era in our history, 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 +murderer 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 Committee, no need of a +revolution. Let us hope that in future the law will be no longer a +mockery, but become, 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 stabbing 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 San 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 +committed 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 +irresistible, in its action. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + RAPID GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA--AMOUNT OF LABOUR PERFORMED--LUXURY AND + HARDSHIP--A RAGGED MAN--THE FLYING DUTCHMAN--FOPPERY IN RAGS--A + STUDY--THE TOWER OF BABEL--FRENCHMEN--A + “KESKYDEE”--“DUTCHMEN”--CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN--AN EXTENSIVE VIEW. + + +Without having visited some distant place in the mountains, such as +Downieville, it was impossible to realise 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 improved 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 labour which had already been performed in the mines was +almost incredible. Every river and creek from one end to the other +presented 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 +extensive 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 already 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 productive +as the original founders had anticipated. + +Labour, 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 +mountain-tops, to diggings which were otherwise unavailable. + +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 theatre 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 realised by his costume. He was a complete +caricature of an old miner, and quite a picture of 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 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 left 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 +extraordinary 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, notwithstanding his rags, +there was nothing in his appearance 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 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 hurrying back +to his claim. But before leaving me he said, “I saw you sketching from +the trail, and I came down to ask a favour 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 meantime 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 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 endeavours 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 +blowing 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 neighbourhood 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 were ever very much at a loss; a +few words of broken English, a word or two of French, and a large share +of pantomime, carried them through any conference. + +When any one capable of acting as interpreter happened to be present, +the Frenchman, in his impatience, was constantly asking him “Qu’est ce +qu’il dit?” “Qu’est ce qu’il dit?” This caught the ear of the Americans +more than anything else, and a “Keskydee” came at last to be a synonyme +for a “Parleyvoo.” + +The “Dutchmen” in the mines, under which denomination 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 Germans 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 ship-loads 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 rocky +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 desirous of seeing it; but +the mountain was on the verge of settlement, and there was no camp or +house of accommodation nearer to it than Downieville. However, 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 opportunity 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 repack 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 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 mountain 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 exceedingly 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 supply 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 considered fine enough, and the gold is then +extracted by amalgamation with quicksilver. + +A considerable amount of work had been done at 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 comfortable. I lay down before the fire, with the prospect 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 between 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 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 macadamised +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 climbing 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 good 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 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 +labour of the ascent, by the vastness and grandeur of the panorama +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 of the 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 +distinctly seen. + +On the other side, from which I had made the ascent, there was a sheer +precipice of about two hundred feet, at the foot of which, in eternal +shade, lay 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 atmosphere 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 +communication 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 miserably 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 accident, and reached the cabin of my quartz-grinding +friend before dark. + +Here I found there had arrived in the mean time 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 muleloads of hay for the use of the unfortunate animals who +were kept in a state of constant revolution in the “rasters.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + TRAVELLING DOWN THE RIVER--MINING OPERATIONS--THE FLORIDA HOUSE--A + HURDY-GURDY PLAYER--“DEAD-BROKE”--WANDERING HABITS OF THE + MINERS--COIN--EXPRESS COMPANIES--SLATE-RANGE--A CAMP--A “PINE-LOG + CROSSING.” + + +I 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 accessible 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, 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 travellers. 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 travelling, the difficulties of the +way were beguiled by the numbers of miners’ camps through which one +passed, and in observing the different varieties of mining 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 economising labour. 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. 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 communicative. He gave me an interesting account of his California +experiences, and also of his farming operations 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 distinguished characters. I could fancy I saw +the whole 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 instrument. 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, however, of my friend, for he had no more +with which to replace them. + +Hurdy-gurdy player or not, he was a very entertaining agreeable fellow. +I only hope all the fraternity 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. + +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, travelling 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 “strapped,” “dead-broke”--_Anglicé_, +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 admitted 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 welcome 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 place. There was no such thing as being out of employment, 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 travelling 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 themselves 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 convenience in carrying on their business. +Ordinary payments were made in gold dust, every store being provided +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 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 +California, the Express houses of New York immediately established +agencies in San Francisco, and at once became 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 business 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 Government +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 dollar +pieces were not from the United States Mint, but were coined and issued +by private firms in San Francisco. + +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 disappeared. + +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 over the lonely mountain-trails, with even less +protection 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 +overshadowed 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 purpose of chairs. Scattered about, as was usual in all miners’ +camps, were quantities of empty tins of preserved 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 provisions, 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 from its original purpose, butter +being perhaps stowed away in a tin labelled “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 perpetual 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, 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. + + MISSISSIPPI BAR--A CHINESE CAMP--CHINESE MINERS: THEIR MECHANICAL + CONTRIVANCES--THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA--THE RAINY SEASON--A FLOOD + IN THE RIVER--NEVADA CITY--SNOW-STORM--STARVED OUT--“THROWN-UP” + DIRT. + + +While at this camp, I went down the river two or three miles to see a +place called Mississippi 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 without 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 concentrating the force of a large number of men upon +one point. + +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 California. A Chinaman could be hired for two, or at most +three dollars a-day by any one who thought their labour 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 completely under control by +some mysterious celestial influence, quite independent of the 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, abstracting a large portion of its latent +wealth without contributing, 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 +neighbours; 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 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 consumptive, 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 prevailed; the country +was open to all the world, and the Chinese enjoyed equal rights with the +most favoured nation. In some parts of the mines, however, the miners +had their own ideas on the subject, + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK DEL^{T.} M & N HANHART, LITH. + +CHINESE CAMP IN THE MINES] + +and would not allow the Chinamen to come among them; but generally they +were not interfered with, for they contented 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 undertaking I ever saw attempted +by them. + +They expended a vast deal of unnecessary labour in their method of +working, and their individual labour, 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 were about a hundred and fifty Chinamen humbugging +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 labour, 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, hingeing on each other, with cross-pieces +in the middle for buckets, having about six square inches of surface. +The hinges fitted exactly 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 labour 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 Chinamen could throw in a day with +a dozen of these gimcrack 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 pots and dishes, +from which they helped themselves with their chopsticks. In the centre +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 declined 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 heavens. The store was like other stores in +the mines, inasmuch 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, 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 neighbourhood, and +was a sort of half store, half boarding-house. Several miners lived in +it, and there were, besides, two or three storm-stayed travellers 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, however, 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 sweeping 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 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 raining 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 +drift-wood. On landing on the other side, we struck straight up the face +of the mountain, and soon gained 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 travelling, +but the weather was bright and clear, and seemed to be a renewal of the +dry season. 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 +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 harbour 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 were 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, playing 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 having 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 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. + + START FOR SAN FRANCISCO--A JOURNEY--FLOOD--MARYSVILLE--THE PLAINS + UNDER WATER--“DROWNED OUT” SQUATTERS--SACRAMENTO--SAILING IN THE + STREETS--DEAD RATS--SAN FRANCISCO--CHANGES SINCE THE YEAR + BEFORE--FINE WEATHER--THE CLIMATE. + + +I had occasion to return to San Francisco at this time, and the journey +was about the most unpleasant I ever performed. The roads had been +getting worse all the time, and were quite impassable for stages or +waggons. 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 were hidden +under three or four feet of snow. We occasionally, however, got the +benefit of a narrow path, trodden down by other travellers; 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 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 crossing 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 considerable +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 which was, that in the morning we were stiff and +sore all over. However, after walking a short distance, 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 endeavour to get up to the +mountains with supplies, were hopelessly stuck in the mud at the bottom +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 depôt and 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 cheering. The first idea which occurred to me on beholding it was +that of rheumatism, and the second fever and ague; but I was glad to +find myself here, nevertheless, 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 starvation 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 channel of the river, had it +not been for the trees appearing on each side, and the numbers of +squatters’ shanties 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 waiting 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 alongside 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 possible. 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, Californians 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 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, +and 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; watermen plied for hire in the streets instead of +cabs, and independent gentlemen poled themselves about on rafts, or on +extemporised 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 harnessed 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 grounding 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 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, theatres, 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 mean time 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 +endeavouring 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 country. 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 time the +greater part of it had been burned down and rebuilt. The appearance of +most of the principal 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 +side-walks, 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 certainly 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 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, especially 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 everything +within the range of vision is as clearly and distinctly seen as if one +were looking upon a flat surface, 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 +favourable 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. + + THE NORTHERN AND THE SOUTHERN MINES--SPRING--THE MINES + INEXHAUSTIBLE--PRODUCE OF GOLD--JACKSONVILLE--A PET + BEAR--MOQUELUMNE HILL--THE POPULATION--THE HOUSES--INDIANS: THEIR + ULTIMATE FATE--A BULL-AND-BEAR FIGHT--TRAPPING BEARS. + + +The long tract of mountainous country lying north and south, which +comprises the mining districts, is divided into the northern and +southern mines--the former having communication with San Francisco +through Sacramento and Marysville, while the latter are more accessible +by way of Stockton, 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 sunshine with many-coloured 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 +constant, and where the diggings could consequently be worked at any +time of the year, they had expanded themselves over the whole face of +the country; and in travelling through the depths of the forests, just +as the solitude seemed to be perfect, one got a glimpse in the distance, +through the dark columns 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 realise 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 becoming 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 labour 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, however, 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 betake +themselves to mining, the rest finding equally profitable occupation in +the various branches of mechanical 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 civilised life, which he obtains at a +reasonable 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 Hangtown was Moquelumne Hill, +about sixty miles distant, and as there were no very interesting +localities in the intermediate country, I travelled 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 as 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 Newfoundland 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 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 property, 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 +ascending 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 overhanging the river. + +It lies in a sort of semicircular amphitheatre 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 accordingly covered with windlasses and heaps +of dirt. The heights at each end of the amphitheatre 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 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 canvass. Many of the houses were merely +skeletons clothed in dirty rags of canvass, and it was not difficult 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 civilisation +than they generally get credit for. Still their presence is not +compatible with that of a civilised 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 +cannot 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 possible 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 travelled 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 characterised 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 +towards the arena, among a crowd of miners and others of all nations, to +witness the performances of the redoubted General Scott. + +The amphitheatre 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 centre +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 colour--performed a variety of appropriate 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 objects were the shirts of the miners, +red, white, and blue being the fashionable colours, among which appeared +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 mountain +beyond mountain fading away in the distance, and on the green turf of +the arena lay the great centre 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 centre 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 betting was all in his favour. Some of +my neighbours 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, preparations 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 +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 mean time, 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 colour 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 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 furiously 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 mean time, the bear, lying on his back, held the bull’s nose +firmly between his teeth, and embraced him round the neck with his +fore-paws, while the bull made the most of his opportunities in stamping +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 +promiscuous scuffle ensued, which resulted in the bear throwing 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 +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, disengaging 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 combat; 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 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 favour 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 me, who was a connoisseur +in bear-fights, and passionately fond of + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK, DEL^{D.} M. & H. HANHART, LITH. + +BULL & BEAR FIGHT.] + +the amusement, informed 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 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, wheeling 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 endeavoured 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 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 +humour. 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 thinking 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 of 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 labour and constant watching. + +A spot is chosen in some remote part of the mountains, 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, constructed of pine +logs, and fastened after the manner 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 suspended +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 accommodation, 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 remain in the neighbourhood, and keep a +sharp look-out. + +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 persuaded 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. + + WANT OF WATER--CANALS--ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES--VOLCANO + DIGGINGS--BOILING DIRT--NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN MINES--DIFFERENCE IN + SCENERY, GOLD, AND INHABITANTS--VISIT TO A CAVE--WHIST AND + CHESS--MEXICAN HORSE-THIEVES--CROSSING THE MOQUELUMNE--CHILIAN + MINERS--AN INDIAN CAVALCADE. + + +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 introduced, 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 elevation 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 speculation was +considered sure to be successful; and a company 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. 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 aqueducts, 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 costing +about seven dollars a-day. + +I remained a few days at Moquelumne Hill in a holey old canvass hotel, +which freely admitted both wind and water; but in this respect it was +not much worse than its neighbours. A French physician resided 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 of-- + + “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 unfrequented part of the country where the trails were very +indistinct. + +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 surface, 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-coloured +layers round a beautifully-crystallised cavity in the centre, the whole +being enveloped in a rough outside crust an inch in thickness. The +colours are more various and the veins closer together 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 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 themselves, 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 zigzag 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 travelling south, the equally marked +difference in the inhabitants. In the north, one saw occasionally some +straggling Frenchmen and other European foreigners, here and there a +party of Chinamen, and a few Mexicans 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 population. +The Americans, however, were of course greatly the majority, but even +among them one remarked the comparatively small number of Missourians +and such men, who are so conspicuous in the north. + +There was still another difference in a very important 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 of the north afford very +rich diggings, while in the south they are comparatively poor, and the +richest deposits are found in the flats and other surface-diggings on +the highlands. + +In the north there were no such canvass towns as Moquelumne Hill. +Log-cabins and frame-houses were the rule, and canvass 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 inhabiting 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 +settlements in Oregon. + +In the neighbourhood 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 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 accomplished 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 immense 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 stalactites, 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 petrified 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 progression 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 favourite games being poker, +eucre, and all-fours, or “seven up,” as 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 civilised 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 +Moquelumne 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 travelled, 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 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 crossing 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 perfectly +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 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 characterising the southern mines. + +I went on the next morning to San Andres by a road which winded 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 labour; 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 labour 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, another had the remains of a shirt and one +boot, while another was fully equipped in an old hat and a waistcoat: +but the most conspicuous and generally worn articles of costume were the +coloured cotton handkerchiefs with which they bandaged up their heads. +As they passed they looked down upon me with an air of patronising +condescension, saluting me with the usual “wally wally,” in just such a +tone that I could 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 neighbouring tribe. They were evidently anticipating a +pleasant time, for I never before saw Indians exhibiting such boisterous +good-humour. + +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 fortunately 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. + + SAN ANDRES--A RAGGED CAMP--MEXICANS--GAMBLING-ROOMS--MUSIC--A + CHURCH--THROWING THE LASSO--LYNCH LAW--AN EXECUTION--ANGEL’S + CAMP--CHINESE--A BALL--THE “LANCERS”--THE HIGHLAND FLING. + + +If one can imagine the booths and penny theatres 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’hôte. + +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 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 Frenchman, 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 canvass 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 decorated with as much display as circumstances +admitted, being draped with the commonest kind of coloured 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 +favourite 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, naturally kept in the background near the +door, excepting two great hulking fellows who came swaggering in, and +jostled their way through the crowd of Mexicans, making it evident, from +their demeanour, that 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 standing 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, afterwards 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 +_reatu_ 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 endeavours to escape, the +bull then gallops round in a circle, of which the centre 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 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 animal +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 raw hide +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 unquestionably 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 unfortunately 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 ceremonies of an execution by Judge Lynch; +and though 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 convicted, 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, “’stá 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 forgiveness for the numerous acts of villany to which he had +already confessed, and politely took leave of the world with “Adios, +caballeros.” He was then run up to a 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 canvass towns as these two places, where there was such a +population of worthless Mexican _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 civilised-looking place than San Andres. The inhabitants +were nearly all Americans, which no doubt accounted 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 barbarian 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 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 hospitable 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 indebted 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 +command; 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, 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 customers stood around, cheering them + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK DEL^{T.} M & N HANHART, LITH. + +A BALL IN THE MINES.] + +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, +besides, gave plenty of exercise to the light fantastic toes of the +dancers; for here men danced, as they did everything else, with all +their might; and to go through the “Lancers” in such company was a very +severe gymnastic exercise. The absence of ladies was a difficulty which +was very easily overcome, by a simple arrangement 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 +canvass, 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 coating of flour which he had acquired in his +present 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 drank with all the men +who then sought the honour of “treating” him, he would never have lived +to tread another measure. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + CARSON’S HILL--RICH QUARTZ MINE--MEXICAN MODE OF WORKING IT--THE + QUARTZ VEIN OF CALIFORNIA--GOLD DEPOSITS--THE STANISLAUS + RIVER--FERRIES AND BRIDGES--SONORA--THE HOUSES AND + INHABITANTS--HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS--A KNOWING CHINAMAN--THE + POLICE--GENTLEMEN’S FASHIONS. + + +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 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 mean time the lawyers were the only +parties who were making anything 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 +experienced 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 men’s +shoulders, who had to make the ascent by climbing a succession of these +poles. The quartz was then conveyed on pack-mules down to the river by a +circuitous trail, which had been cut on the steep side of the mountain, +and was there ground in the primitive Mexican style in “rasters.” The +whole operation seemed to be conducted at a most unnecessary expenditure +of labour; but the mine was rich, and, even worked in this way, it +yielded largely to the owners. + +Numerous small wooden crosses were placed throughout the mine, in niches +cut in the rock for their reception, 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 wildflowers which grew around +in the greatest profusion. In fact, it was a gigantic cruciform nosegay, +the various colours of which were arranged with a great deal of taste. + +This mine is on the great quartz vein which traverses the whole State of +California. It has a direction north-east and south-west, 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 hill-side like a colossal +stonewall, and then disappearing for many miles, till, true to its +course, it again shows itself crowning the summit of some conical-shaped +mountain, and appearing 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 neighbourhood of quartz veins, but not +invariably so, for different local causes must have operated to assist +the gold in travelling from its original starting-point. + +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 high-lands 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 mountains +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 diggings--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 opposing force of the +cable, she travelled rapidly across the river, very much on the same +principle on which a ship holds her course with the wind a-beam. + +Ferries or bridges, on much-travelled 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 +consequence, a line of travel had commenced. But very frequently more +easy routes were found than the one 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 +travelling 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 waggon-road, more than a mile in length, from the river to +the summit of the mountain. + +After ascending by this road and travelling five or six miles over a +rolling country covered with magnificent 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 canvass, and one or two +were solid buildings of sun-dried bricks. The lower end of the town was +very peculiar in appearance as compared with the prevailing style of +California 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 +staircases outside the houses, the corridors round each storey, 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 latter were all front, and gave the idea of a much better house than +the small rickety clapboard or canvass concern which was concealed +behind it. But these façades were useful as well as ornamental, and were +intended to support the large signs, which conveyed an immense deal of +useful information. Some small stores, in fact, seemed bursting with +intelligence, and were broken out all over with short spasmodic +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 centre of an extremely rich mining country, +more densely populated than any other part of the mines. In the +neighbourhood are a number of large villages, one of which, Columbia, +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 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 vigour, they +spent most of their time in the passive enjoyment of their cigaritas, +or in playing monte, and were consequently 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, besides a number of good American +houses, German restaurants, where lager-bier was drunk by the gallon; +Mexican fondas, which had an exceedingly greasy look about them; and +also a Chinese house, where everything 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,” 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 disappeared--probably went to show herself +in other diggings. + +One could live here in a way which seemed perfectly 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 +civilisation, was seeing a drunken man, who was kicking up a row in the +street, deliberately 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 infringement +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 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 colours 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 prevailing 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 appear 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 unpleasing addition to the +crowd, of which the Mexicans themselves formed a conspicuous part in +their variegated 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. + + A BULL-FIGHT--RIDING THE BULL--KILLING WITH THE SWORD--A + MAGICIAN--NECROMANCY IN THE MINES--TABLE MOUNTAIN--SHAW’S FLATS. + + +A company of Mexican bull-fighters were at this time performing in +Sonora every Sunday afternoon. The amphitheatre was a large well-built +place, erected for the purpose on a small hill behind 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 spectacle, 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 embroidered with bright +colours. 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 of the door by which the +bull was to enter. The door was then opened, and the bull rushed in, the +horseman 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 gracefully 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 skipping 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 catching hold +of his tail before he could turn round. + +After this exhibition one of the horsemen endeavoured 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 struggled +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 footmen were fluttering their flags +in his face and diverting his fury, while the horseman got another lance +and returned to the charge. + +Shortly afterwards the footmen laid aside their 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 the horns of a wild bull at every +step they executed. During the latter part of the performance, being +without their red flags, 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 manœuvre round him, they sprang over it +in among the spectators. + +The next thing in the programme 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 animal +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 violently in +every way, as he vainly endeavours 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 shaking their flags in his face, and putting more squibs on his +neck. It seemed to be the grand climax; 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, without 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 +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 practise 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 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 practising his profession in +such a place as the mines, where complete privacy was so hard to be +obtained that he was obliged to practise the most secret parts of his +mysterious science in all sorts of ragged canvass 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 substitute 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 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 surrounding 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. No one at +that time had thought of working this + +[Illustration: + +J. D. BORTHWICK DEL^{T.} M & N HANHART, LITH. + +SHAW’S FLATS.] + +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 +miners’ 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 composed 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. + + FIRE IN SONORA--RAPID PROGRESS OF THE FIRE, AND TOTAL DESTRUCTION + OF THE TOWN--THE BURNED-OUT INHABITANTS--DEATHS BY FIRE--REBUILDING + OF THE TOWN. + + +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 down stairs 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 chattering fiercely, sacréing 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 carrying out whatever was nearest. +The other inmates 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 “Ouisqui.” + +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 +hill-side was lighted up as brightly as a well-lighted room, and the +surrounding landscape was distinctly seen by the blaze of the burning +town, the hills standing brightly out from the deep 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 waiting its fate, for water there was +none, and no resistance 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 numbers 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 whirlwind of +flame, in which coats, shirts, and blankets were carried up fifty or +sixty feet in the air, and became dissolved into a thousand sparkling +atoms. + +Among the crowds of people on the hill-side there was little of the +distress and excitement one might have expected to see on such an +occasion. The houses and stores had been gutted as far as practicable 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 individuals 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 property 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 smouldering 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 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 endeavouring 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 disregarded. + +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, 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 building 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, immediately 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, dealing +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 cocktails +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 clearing away rubbish; others were in the woods +cutting down trees and getting out posts and brushwood, or procuring +canvass and other supplies from the neighbouring camps. + +In the afternoon the Phœnix 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 cross pieces connected +them; and before one could look round, 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 canvass 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 +expressive 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 unfortunate 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 find +some hard bread, so we did not fare very badly; and at night we lay down +on the bare hill-side, and shared that vast apartment with two or three +thousand fellow-lodgers. Happy was the man who had saved his +blankets,--mine had gone as a small contribution 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 canvass 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 FOURTH OF JULY--THE PROCESSION--THE CELEBRATION--THE ORATION--A + BULL-FIGHT--A LADY BULL-FIGHTER--NATURAL BRIDGES. + + +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 celebration 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 mean +time in drinking success to the American Eagle, in the numerous 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 continual discharge of +revolvers, and a vast expenditure of powder in squibs and crackers, +together with an unlimited consumption of brandy. But this was only the +overflowing of individual enthusiasm; the regular programme 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 +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 horsemen, 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, drawing after them a long-tom +on a pair of wheels. In the tom was a lot of “dirt,” which one man +stirred up with his shovel, as if he were washing, while a number 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, particularly of his _cuisine_; and the party of +miners at work around the long-tom 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 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-tom, they +were immensely cheered by the crowds who had already taken their seats, +the band in the mean time 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 bunkum +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 phraseology, 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 neighbour, an old +Yankee, informed me that, in his opinion, “them Pilgrim Fathers were no +better than their neighbours; 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 _éclat_. + +It was announced in the bills that the celebrated lady bull-fighter, the +Señorita Ramona Perez, would despatch a bull with the sword. This +celebrated señorita, 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 received him with shouts of laughter--mixed with hisses and curses, +however, for there were some who had been true believers in the +señorita; but the infidels were the majority, and, thinking it a good +joke, enjoyed it accordingly. The señorita 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 gracefully +into the back of his neck, and, hardly condescending to wait to see +whether she had killed or not, she dropped both sword and flag, and ran +out of the arena, curtseying, and kissing her hand to the spectators, +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 señorita 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 travelled 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 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 perpendicular, presenting an entrance like a +church door, about twelve feet high, surrounded by huge stony +fungus-like excrescences, of a dark purple-and-green colour. 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 reflection 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 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-turning 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-colour, 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, and which would have passed for a pulpit, overhung as +it was by a projection 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 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, and 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 overhanging 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 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 XXVI. + + FRENCH MINERS--THEIR MÉNAGE--THEIR CAPACITY AS MINERS--FRENCHMEN AS + COLONISTS--SOCIAL EQUALITY IN THE MINES--THE REASON OF IT--AND THE + RESULT. + + +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 civilised 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, without really expending more time or labour, 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 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 +cannot be expected to appreciate so much as others, or to be so apt at +introducing, all the little luxuries of a more civilised existence of +which he has no knowledge. + +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 existence 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 +extraordinary 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 purpose 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 enjoyment 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 appeared to possess in such a +high degree, of bringing somewhat of the comforts of civilised life +along with them, was no doubt a great advantage; but whether it operated +favourably 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 labour, 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 +inseparably mixed up together--there are thoroughgoing Americans who, +only a year or two ago, were her Majesty’s most faithful subjects, and +who still in 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 +operations, 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 neighbours. + +Even as miners, they for the most part congregated 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 mountains, and building lofty +viaducts supported on scaffolding which, from its height, looked like a +spider’s web; while the only pursuits they engaged in, except mining, +were the keeping of restaurants, estaminets, cafés 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 pursuits 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 entirely by +Frenchmen--if all the 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 colonisers 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 labour 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 travelling 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 anywhere, or to change their destination +according to circumstances. + +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 Frenchmen, 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 cohesiveness and mutual confidence necessary for the +successful prosecution of a joint undertaking. Many kinds of diggings +could only be worked to advantage by companies of fifteen or twenty men, +but Frenchmen were never seen attempting such a combination. +Occasionally 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 labour +from their inability to keep united in one plan of operations. + +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 organise and +combine to carry out a common object. They are trained to it from their +youth in their innumerable, and to a foreigner unintelligible, +caucus-meetings, committees, conventions, and so forth, by means of +which they bring about the election of every 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 importance, 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 recognising them as such by implicit obedience. + +Certain it is that, though the companies of American 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-labourers 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 prosecution 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 advantage. All mining operations +were carried on by parties of men, varying in number according to the +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 realise the idea of perfect social equality. + +There are occasions on which, among small communities, 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 result elsewhere. It consisted in this, that each man enjoyed +the capability of making as much money as his neighbour; for hard +labour, 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 labour was +considered as dignified and as honourable a pursuit as any other. + +In fact, so paramount was this idea, that in some men it created an +impression that not to labour 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 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 studying the keeper of the house, as a novel and interesting +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 neighbours; 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 individuals from widely +different stations are, when thrown 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 humbug, under which men usually disguise themselves +from the rest of the world, was thrown aside as a useless inconvenience. +They took no trouble to conceal 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 favourable as those formed upon further +acquaintance. + +Society--so to call it--certainly wanted that superfine polish which +gives only a cold reflection of what is offered to it. There was no +pinchbeck or Brummagem 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 retained 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 recognised +by many peculiarities. The educated man, who had lived and moved among +gentlemen, was also to be detected 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 appearance, 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 entertaining, and those in many respects the +most desirable, 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 STOCKTON STAGE--THE PLAINS--SAN FRANCISCO--ITS + PROGRESS--IMPROVEMENT IN STYLE OF LIVING--FEMALE + INFLUENCE--EXTRAVAGANCE--FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA--EFFECTIVE + POPULATION--AMERICANS AS COLONISTS--ENGLISH IN CALIFORNIA--MODERN + DISCOVERIES OF GOLD--THEIR CONSEQUENCES. + + +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 waggon, 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. + +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 +waggon to pass between 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, and whose +occupant combined farming with tavern-keeping. This was all very +pleasant travelling, 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 Stockton we were of a uniform colour 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 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 either 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 sandhills 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 length, 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 harbour, was now dispersed, and +all the shipping actually engaged in discharging cargo found +accommodation alongside of the numerous piers which had been built out +for nearly a mile into the bay. All manner of trades and manufactures +were flourishing as in a place a hundred years old. Omnibuses plied upon +the principal thoroughfares, and numbers of 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 procuring servants and house-room. The ordinary +conventionalities of life were observed, and public opinion exercised +its wonted control over men’s conduct; for the female part of creation +was so numerously represented, 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 high order. Biscaccianti and Catherine Hayes +were giving concerts, Madame Anne Bishop was singing in English opera, +and the performances at the various theatres were sustained by the most +favourite actors from the Atlantic States. + +Extravagant expenditure is a marked feature in San Francisco life. The +same style of ostentation, however, which is practised in older +countries, is unattainable in California, and in such a country would +entirely fail in its effect. Extravagance, accordingly, was indulged +more for the purpose of procuring 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 is not so much +felt by direct communication 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 +latter, 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 +civilisation, 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 profession. + +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 degree +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 favourable to immediate prosperity and progress. Other new +countries have been peopled by gradual accessions to an already formed +centre, from which the rest of the mass received character and +consistency; but in the case of California the process was much more +abrupt. Thousands of men, hitherto unknown to each other, and without +mutual relationship, 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 organised 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 is not for me to enter upon the great +question as to the 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 commerce +and manufactures by this sudden production of gold acting simultaneously +with the equally expanding 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 civilisation, +is discovered, as we were evidently and notoriously becoming so urgently +in want of it, we cannot but recognise 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 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 wondrous +episodes in the history of mankind. + + +THE END. + + +PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. + + + + +WORKS PUBLISHED + +BY + +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, + +EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + +THE HISTORY OF EUROPE, + +FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN 1789 TO THE BATTLE OF +WATERLOO. + +By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L. + +Library Edition (the Eighth), Fourteen Volumes Demy Octavo, with +Portraits, £10, 10s. 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CLAYTON. + +Engraved by EDMUND EVANS, DALZIEL Brothers, GREEN, &c. + +In square 8vo, elegantly bound in cloth, price 21s.; or in morocco, +price 32s. + +“This sumptuously-printed book, with its vellum-like paper, its +exquisite wood-engravings, rivalling in light and shadow, in softness of +aerial perspective, in translucence of water, and in truth of foliage, +the most highly-finished steel plates of the annuals and books of beauty +of by-past years, is an unique and worthy issue of the great poem of +Pollok, a bard who has now safely assumed a pedestal in the temple of +poetic fame.”--_Morning Advertiser._ + + +Second Edition. + +In small 8vo, with a Frontispiece, price 5s. + +JESSIE CAMERON: A HIGHLAND STORY. + +By the Lady Rachel Butler. + +“Those who read ‘Jessie Cameron’ will desire at once that Lady Butler +should continue to write Highland stories. It is a sweet and tender +tale, and proves, on the part of the writer, a knowledge of humble life +and character which can scarcely exist without a heartfelt sympathy with +the joys and sorrows of the poor. This sympathy is abundantly manifested +in the romance of Jessie Cameron’s loves and griefs and heroism--the +heroism, the grief, the love, all equally touching, refined, +unaffected.... No one can take up this very agreeable volume without +becoming interested, and following its graceful drama to the +end.”--_Athenæum._ + + +THE SKETCHER. + +By the Rev. John Eagles, M.A. Oxon. + +ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE. + +Handsomely printed in 8vo, 10s. 6d. + +“This volume, called by the appropriate name of ‘The Sketcher,’ +is one that ought to be found in the studio of every English +landscape-painter.... More instructive and suggestive readings for young +artists, especially landscape-painters, can scarcely be found.”--_The +Globe._ + + +ESSAYS; HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS. + +By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L. + +Three Volumes Demy Octavo, 45s. + +“They stamp him as one of the most learned, able, and accomplished +writers of the age.... His Essays are a splendid supplement to his +History, and the two combined exhibit his intellect in all its breadth +and beauty.”--_Dublin University Magazine._ + + +Foolscap Octavo, 5s. + +LECTURES ON THE POETICAL LITERATURE + +OF THE PAST HALF-CENTURY. + +By D. M. Moir (Δ). + +“A delightful volume.”--_Morning Chronicle._ + +“Exquisite in its taste and generous in its criticisms.”--_Hugh Miller._ + + +POETICAL WORKS OF D. M. MOIR (Δ). + +WITH PORTRAIT, AND MEMOIR BY THOMAS AIRD. + +Two Volumes Foolscap Octavo, 14s. + +“These are volumes to be placed on the favourite shelf, in the familiar +nook that holds the books we love, which we take up with pleasure and +lay down with regret”--_Edinburgh Courant._ + + +POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS AIRD. + +A New Edition, complete in One Volume, Small Octavo. + +Price 6s. + + +Second Edition, Crown Octavo, 10s. 6d. + +THE POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER. + +Translated by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart. + +“The translations are executed with consummate ability. The technical +difficulties attending a task so great and intricate have been mastered +or eluded with a power and patience quite extraordinary; and the public +is put in possession of perhaps the best translation of a foreign poet +which exists in our language. Indeed, we know of none so complete and +faithful.”--_Morning Chronicle._ + + +LADY LEE’S WIDOWHOOD. + +By Lieut.-Col. E. B. Hamley, + +Captain, R.A. + +A New Edition, complete in One Volume, price 6s. + + +ZAIDEE: A ROMANCE. + +By Mrs. Oliphant. + +In Three Volumes, Post Octavo, price £1, 11s. 6d. + + +KATIE STEWART: A TRUE STORY. + +Second Edition, in Foolscap Octavo, with Frontispiece and Vignette, 6s. + +“A singularly characteristic Scottish story, most agreeable to read and +pleasant to recollect. The charm lies in the faithful and life-like +pictures it presents of Scottish character and customs, and manners, and +modes of life.”--_Tait’s Magazine._ + + +Second Edition, Post Octavo, price 10s. 6d. + +THE QUIET HEART. + +By the Author of “Katie Stewart.” + +“We cannot omit our emphatic tribute to ‘The Quiet Heart,’ a story +which, with its deep clear insight, its gentle but strengthening +sympathies, and its pictures so delicately drawn, has captivated +numerous readers, and will confer on many a memory a good and pleasant +influence.”--_Excelsior._ + + +THE MOTHER’S LEGACIE TO HER UNBORNE CHILDE. + +By Elizabeth Joceline. + +EDITED BY THE VERY REV. PRINCIPAL LEE. + +32mo, 4s. 6d. + +“This beautiful and touching legacie.”--_Athenæum._ + +“A delightful monument of the piety and high feeling of a truly noble +mother.”--_Morning Advertiser._ + + + + +FARM ACCOUNTS. + + +In royal 8vo, bound in cloth, price 2s. 6d., + +A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF FARM BOOK-KEEPING; + +BEING THAT RECOMMENDED IN “THE BOOK OF THE FARM” + +BY HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E.; + +ALSO, + + SEVEN FOLIO ACCOUNT-BOOKS, constructed in accordance with the + system, Printed and Ruled throughout, and bound in separate + volumes; the whole being specially adapted for keeping, by an easy + and accurate method, an account of all the Transactions of the + Farm. + + +THE ACCOUNT-BOOKS CONSIST OF-- + + =I. CASH-BOOK=--Ruled with double money-columns for _Dr._ and _Cr._, + showing the Cash received for produce sold off the Farm, the money + paid on account of the Farm; and all general Cash and Banking + transactions. Price 2s. 6d. + + =II. LEDGER=--Ruled with single money columns, _Dr._ and _Cr._ on + separate pages, containing Accounts with every Person or Company + having transactions with the Farm. Price 5s. + + =III. FARM ACCOUNT=--Contains the Cash received for all the Produce + sold off the Farm, and the Cash paid for all the commodities + required for the Farm, and these alone. Thus the Balance between + the _Dr._ and _Cr._ sides of the Farm Account, at the end of the + Agricultural Year, shows whether the farm has returned or consumed + the largest amount of Cash. Price 2s. 6d. + + =IV. CORN ACCOUNT=--Comprises all accounts and statements connected + with--1. Wheat; 2. Barley; 3. Oats; 4. Straw; 5. Potatoes; 6. + Turnips, Mangold-Wurzel, Carrots and Parsnips. These accounts show + all the particulars connected with the different species of + produce--the time when grain is thrashed--the parties to whom it + has been sold--the uses which have been made of it on the Farm--the + Balance of Grain on hand at any time in the Corn-barn and + Granary--the weight of the Grain, and the prices obtained for it. + Price 3s. 6d. + + =V. LIVE-STOCK ACCOUNT=--Consists of Accounts relating to--1. Cattle; + 2. Sheep; 3. Pigs; 4. Horses; showing the particulars of every + species of Live-Stock, the disposal of them, the cash paid and the + prices obtained for them, and the numbers on hand at different + periods. Price 3s. + + =VI. LABOUR: ACCOUNT-BOOK=--Contains, 1. Labour Journal; 2. Labour + Account,--the former for showing the Labourers’ names, the days of + the week on which they have been employed, and a register of the + number of work-days in each week; the latter forming a summary of + the amount of all the manual labour executed on the Farm in the + course of a year, including the Harvest Expenses. Price 3s. + + =VII. FIELD-WORKERS’ ACCOUNT.=--This is a simple form of keeping the + Daily Labour-Account, enabling the total number of Days in which + work has been done for half a year to be summed up and calculated + at the rate of wages per day, when the gross amount of the half + year’s earnings is brought out distinctly. Price 2s. 6d. + +_The Account-Books are sold separately, and the price of the complete +Set, in Eight Volumes, is 24s. 6d._ + + +ALSO, + +A LABOUR ACCOUNT OF THE ESTATE. + +This form of Labour Account is specially constructed for the use of +Country Gentlemen, whether residing at home or abroad, who require +returns to be made to them of the species of work which daily engages +the time of their labourers in whatever capacity, and whether male or +female; that is, besides Labourers and Field-Workers, the form is as +well adapted to Gardeners, Foresters, Hedgers, Roadmakers, Quarriers, +Miners, Gamekeepers, and Dairymaids. Price 2s. 6d. + + * * * * * + + “We have no hesitation in saying, that of the many systems of + keeping farm-accounts which are in vogue, there is not one which + will bear comparison with that just issued by Messrs Blackwood, + according to the recommendations of Mr Stephens in his invaluable + ‘Book of the Farm.’ The great characteristic of this system is its + simplicity. When once the details are mastered, which it will take + very little trouble to accomplish, it will be prized as the + clearest method to show the profit and loss of business, and to + prove how the soundest and surest calculations can be arrived at. + We earnestly recommend a trial of the entire series of Books--they + must be used as a whole to be thoroughly profitable--for we are + convinced the verdict of our agricultural friends who make such a + trial will speedily accord with our own--that they owe a deep debt + of gratitude both to Mr Stephens and Messrs Blackwood for providing + a method so complete and satisfactory to their hands.”--_Bell’s + Messenger._ + + “From experience we can strongly recommend this system to all + actual and commencing agriculturists, combining, as it does, all + the elements of utility with simplicity.”--_The Field._ + + “Mr Stephens is so thoroughly conversant with all that is essential + to be set down in the Farmer’s Account-Book, that it is something + to find him induced to prepare a set of books for the + agriculturist. These we find reduced by him to what must be + regarded as the simplest and most essential element of a sound + double entry system.... The ease and obvious accuracy of these + books abundantly recommend them.”--_Notts Guardian._ + + +WORKS OF PROFESSOR WILSON. + +EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, + +Professor Ferrier. + +Publishing Quarterly, in Crown Octavo, price 6s. each Volume. + +The Volumes published contain-- + + +NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ. + +Complete in Four Volumes, with GLOSSARY and INDEX, price 24s. + + +ESSAYS, CRITICAL AND IMAGINATIVE. + +CONTRIBUTED TO BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE. + +Vols. 5, 6, and 7. + +Future Volumes will contain-- + +RECREATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER NORTH. +POEMS. +TALES. +LECTURES ON MORAL PHILOSOPHY. + + +In Octavo, price 14s., with Illustrations by the Author. + +THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA. + +By J. D. Borthwick. + + +WORKS OF SAMUEL WARREN, D.C.L. + +A Cheap Edition, in 5 Vols., price 24s. bound in cloth, viz.:-- + + VOL. I. DIARY OF A LATE PHYSICIAN, 5s. 6d. +VOLS. II. & III. TEN THOUSAND A-YEAR, 2 vols., 9s. + VOL. IV. NOW AND THEN, &c., 4s. 6d. + VOL. V. MISCELLANIES, 5s. + + +WORKS OF THE REV. THOMAS M‘CRIE, D.D., + +EDITED BY HIS SON, + +Professor M‘Crie. + +A New Edition, in Four Volumes, crown 8vo, price 6s. each. + +VOL. I. LIFE OF JOHN KNOX. + II. LIFE OF ANDREW MELVILLE. + III. HISTORY OF THE REFORMATIONS IN ITALY AND IN SPAIN. + IV. REVIEW OF SIR W. SCOTT’S “TALES OF MY LANDLORD,” SERMONS, &C. + + +Octavo, with Map and other Illustrations, Fourth Edition, 14s. + +RUSSIAN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA IN THE AUTUMN OF 1852. + +WITH A VOYAGE DOWN THE VOLGA AND A TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF THE DON +COSSACKS. + +By Laurence Oliphant, Esq. + +Author of a “Journey to Nepaul,” &c. + +“The latest and best account of the actual state of +Russia.”--_Standard._ + +“The book bears ex facie indisputable marks of the shrewdness, +quick-sightedness, candour, and veracity of the author. It is the +production of a gentleman, in the true English sense of the +word.”--_Daily News._ + + +In Octavo, Illustrated with Engravings, price 12s. 6d., + +MINNESOTA AND THE FAR WEST. + +By Laurence Oliphant, Esq., + +Late Civil Secretary and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs in +Canada; Author of “The Russian Shores of the Black Sea,” &c. + +ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE. + + +Second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, price 4s. + +LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. + +By G. F. Ruxton, Esq. + +“One of the most daring and resolute of travellers.... A volume fuller +of excitement is seldom submitted to the public.”--_Athenæum._ + + +Two Volumes Octavo, with Maps, &c., price £1, 10s. + +NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH SYRIA AND PALESTINE. + +By Lieut. Van De Velde. + +“He has contributed much to the knowledge of the country, and the +unction with which he speaks of the holy places which he has visited, +will commend the book to the notice of all religious readers. His +illustrations of Scripture are numerous and admirable.”--_Daily News._ + + +Second Edition, in Crown Octavo, price 10s. 6d. + +INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC: THE THEORY OF KNOWING AND BEING. + +By James F. Ferrier, A.B., Oxon. + +Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, St Andrews. + +“It is a pleasure to meet with a man who, in these days of half-beliefs +and feeble assertions, will venture to speak thus strongly. It is a +still greater pleasure to meet with a man of profound thought and +astonishing subtlety, who is able to express the most abstruse meanings +in the most simple language, and to scatter the light spray of wit and +pleasantry over those abysses of thought which lead down to the terrible +Domdaniel roots of the ocean. We find it difficult to mention any other +English work on metaphysics, with even half its power of thought, which +can be compared with it in point of style. ‘The Institutes of +Metaphysic’ is indeed the most suggestive work on the subject that has +been published for many a long year, and it is the most +readable.”--_Daily News._ + + +BURNETT TREATISE + +(SECOND PRIZE.) + +In One Vol. Octavo, price 10s. 6d. + +THEISM: THE WITNESS OF REASON AND NATURE TO AN ALL-WISE AND BENEFICENT +CREATOR. + +By the Rev. J. Tulloch, D.D. + +Principal and Primarius Professor of Theology, St Mary’s College, St +Andrews. + + +ON THE ORIGIN AND CONNECTION OF THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE; + +WITH SYNOPSIS OF PARALLEL PASSAGES AND CRITICAL NOTES. + +By James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill, F.R.S. + +Author of the “Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul.” Medium Octavo, price +16s. + +“Displays much learning, is conceived in a reverential spirit, and +executed with great skill.... No public school or college ought to be +without it.”--_Standard._ + + +In Octavo, price 14s. + +HISTORY OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT REFUGEES. + +By Prof. Charles Weiss of the Lycee Buonaparte. + +“We have risen from the perusal of Mr Weiss’s book with feelings of +extreme gratification. The period embraced by this work includes the +most heart-stirring times of the eventful History of Protestantism, and +is of surpassing interest.”--_Britannia._ + + +DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY. + +_NOW COMPLETED_, + +In Two large Volumes Royal Octavo, embellished with 1353 Engravings, + +THE BOOK OF THE GARDEN. + +By Charles M‘Intosh, + +Late Curator of the Royal Gardens of His Majesty the King of the +Belgians, and latterly of those of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, at +Dalkeith Palace. + + +_Each Volume may be, had separately, viz._:-- + +I.--ARCHITECTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL. Pp. 776, embellished with 1073 +Engravings, price £2., 10s. + +II.--PRACTICAL GARDENING. Pp. 876, embellished with 280 Engravings, +price £1, 17s. 6d. + +“We must congratulate both editor and publishers on the completion of +this work, which is every way worthy of the character of all concerned +in its publication. The scientific knowledge and great experience of the +editor in all that pertains to horticulture, not only as regards +cultivation, but as a landscape-gardener and garden architect, has +enabled him to produce a work which brings all that is known of the +various subjects treated of down to the present time; while the manner +in which the work is illustrated merits our highest approval.”--_The +Florist._ + +“Mr M‘Intosh’s splendid and valuable ‘Book of the Garden’ is at length +complete by the issue of the second volume. It is impossible in a notice +to do justice to this work. There is no other within our knowledge at +all to compare with it in comprehensiveness and ability; and it will be +an indispensable possession for the practical gardener, whether amateur +or professional.”--_The London Guardian._ + + +In Two Volumes Royal Octavo, price £3, handsomely bound in cloth, with +upwards of 600 Illustrations. + +THE BOOK OF THE FARM. + +DETAILING THE LABOURS OF THE + +FARMER, FARM-STEWARD, PLOUGHMAN, SHEPHERD, HEDGER, CATTLE-MAN, +FIELD-WORKER, AND DAIRY-MAID, AND FORMING A SAFE MONITOR FOR STUDENTS IN +PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. + +By Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E. + +Corresponding Member of the Société Imperiale et Centrale d’Agriculture +of France, and of the Royal Agricultural Society of Galicia. + +_THE EIGHTH THOUSAND._ + +“The best practical book I have ever met with.”--_Professor Johnston._ + +“We assure agricultural students that they will derive both pleasure and +profit from a diligent perusal of this clear directory to rural labour. +The experienced farmer will perhaps think that Mr Stephens dwells upon +some matters too simple or too trite to need explanation; but we regard +this as a fault leaning to virtue’s side in an instructional book. The +young are often ashamed to ask for an explanation of simple things, and +are too often discouraged by an indolent or supercilious teacher if they +do. But Mr. Stephens entirely escapes this error, for he indicates every +step the young farmer should take, and, one by one, explains their +several hearings.... We have thoroughly examined these volumes; but to +give a full notice of their varied and valuable contents would occupy a +larger space than we can conveniently devote to their discussion; we +therefore, in general terms, commend them to the careful study of every +young man who wishes to become a good practical farmer.”--_Times._ + +“A work, the excellence of which is too well known to need any remarks +of ours.”--_Farmers’ Magazine._ + + +Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: + +style of the architure=> style of the architecture {pg 90} + +covered with magnicent=> covered with magnificent {pg 328} + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76244 *** diff --git a/76244-h/76244-h.htm b/76244-h/76244-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c56caf --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/76244-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10340 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> +<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + +<meta charset="utf-8"> +<title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Three years in California, by J. D. Borthwick. +</title> +<style> + +a:link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + + link {background-color:#ffffff;color:blue;text-decoration:none;} + +a:visited {background-color:#ffffff;color:purple;text-decoration:none;} + +a:hover {background-color:#ffffff;color:#FF0000;text-decoration:underline;} + +.big {font-size: 130%;} + +body{margin-left:4%;margin-right:6%;background:#ffffff;color:black;font-family:"Times New Roman", serif;font-size:medium;} + +.blockquot {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;} + +.c {text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.caption {font-weight:normal;} +.caption p{font-size:75%;text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.fint {text-align:center;text-indent:0%; +margin-top:2em;} + +.figcenter {margin:3% auto 3% auto;clear:both; +text-align:center;text-indent:0%;} + +.hang {text-indent:-2%;margin-left:2%;font-size:75%;} + + h1 {margin-top:5%;text-align:center;clear:both; +font-weight:normal;} + + h2 {margin-top:4%;margin-bottom:2%;text-align:center;clear:both; + font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;} + + h3 {margin:4% auto 2% auto;text-align:center;clear:both;} + + hr {width:90%;margin:2em auto 2em auto;clear:both;color:black;} + + hr.full {width: 60%;margin:2% auto 2% auto;border-top:1px solid black; +padding:.1em;border-bottom:1px solid black;border-left:none;border-right:none;} + + img {border:none;} + +.lftspc {margin-left:.25em;} + +.nind {text-indent:0%;} + + p {margin-top:.2em;text-align:justify;margin-bottom:.2em;text-indent:4%;} + +.pagenum {font-style:normal;position:absolute; +left:95%;font-size:55%;text-align:right;color:gray; +background-color:#ffffff;font-variant:normal; +font-style:normal;font-weight:normal; +text-decoration:none;text-indent:0em;} + +.pdd {padding-left:1em;text-indent:-1em;} + +.r {text-align:right;margin-right: 5%;} + +.rt {text-align:right;vertical-align:bottom;} + +small {font-size: 70%;} + + sup {font-size:75%;vertical-align:top;} + +.smcap {font-variant:small-caps;font-size:100%;} + +table {margin-top:2%;margin-bottom:2%;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;border:none;} + + ul {list-style-type:none;text-indent:-1em;} +.un {text-decoration:underline;} + +div.trans {border:dotted 2px black; +margin:1em auto;max-width:80%;} + +div.trans p{text-align:center;} + +.toc {margin:1em auto;max-width:10em; +border:2px solid black;text-indent:0%;text-align:center;} + +div.bks p{text-align:center;} +</style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76244 ***</div> +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="327" height="550" alt=""> +<br> +<img src="images/inside-front.jpg" width="334" height="550" alt=""> +</div> + +<p class="toc"> + +<a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a><br> +<a href="#ILLUSTRATIONS">Illustrations</a><br> +<a href="#transcrib">Transcriber's note</a><br> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="CAMP"> +<a href="images/ill_001.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="550" height="330" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK. M. & N. HANHART, LITH. + +OUR CAMP ON WEAVER CREEK."></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">M. & N. HANHART, LITH.</span></small> + +<br> +OUR CAMP ON WEAVER CREEK.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_i">{i}</a></span></p> + +<h1> +T H R E E   Y E A R S<br> +<br> +<small>IN</small><br><br> +C A L I F O R N I A</h1> + +<p class="c">BY<br> +<br> +J. D. BORTHWICK<br> +<br> +<br><small> +WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR</small><br> +<br> +<br> +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS<br> +EDINBURGH AND LONDON<br> +MDCCCLVII<br></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_ii">{ii}</a></span>  </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_iii">{iii}</a></span>  </p> + +<h2><a id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table> +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td class="rt"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">California fever in the States—The start—New York to Panama—Shipboard—Chagres—Crossing +the Isthmus—The river—Cruces—Gorgona,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_1">1-25</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Panama in July 1851—Its architecture—Shops—Churches—Dirt—Diseases +and diversions—Embark for San Francisco—Fever—Hard +fare—Arrival,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_26">26-42</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">San Francisco—Appearance of the houses—Growth of the city—The +Plaza—Ships in the streets—Living—Boot-blacks—Restaurants—Hotels,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_43">43-64</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Scarcity of labouring men—High wages—Want of social restraint—Intense +rivalry in all pursuits—Disappointed hopes—Drunkenness—American +style of drinking—The bars—Free luncheons—The bar-keeper—Variety +of national houses—The Chinese—Chinese stores +and washermen—Theatres and gambling-rooms—Masquerades—“No +weapons admitted”—Magnificent shops—Grading the streets—Steam +Paddy—Raising houses—Cabs—Post-office—Fire—Fire companies—Mission +Dolores—San José—Native Californians,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_65">65-93</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Start for the Mines—The Sacramento River—American river-steamboats +in California—Natural facilities for inland navigation, and promptness +of the Americans in taking advantage of them—Sacramento City—Appearance +of the houses—Street nomenclature—Staging—Four-and-twenty +four-horse coaches start together—The plains—The scenery—The +weather—The mountains—Mountain roads and American drivers—First +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_iv">{iv}</a></span>sight of gold-digging—Arrival at Hangtown,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_94">94-111</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Hangtown—First impression of “the Diggins”—Idea of a mining town—Gambling-houses—The +street—The stores—Jew slop-shops—The +Jews: their peculiarities—Hangtown on a Sunday—Bowie-knives and +revolvers—Gold-deposits—Method of washing—Long-toms—Rockers—Prospecting—Middletown—Our +ménage,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_112">112-127</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Digger Indians—Their love of dress—Their dogs—Their food—Their +ingenuity—Indian female beauty, or otherwise—“Hunting” the Indians, +and teaching them manners—’Coon Hollow—Coyote Diggings—Coyotes—Weaver +Creek—The weather and the climate—Chinamen—A +celestial “muss,”</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_128">128-145</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">The Missourians—Pike county: their appearance—Humanising effects of +California—Difference between the outward-bound Californians and the +same men on their return home—The accomplishments of the Missourians—A +phrenologer—A jury of miners—A civil suit—We buy a +claim—A “brush-house”—Rats: how to circumvent them—Rat-shooting,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_146">146-160</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Hangtown—Digging in the houses—A golden vision—Slaves in California—Negroes—Caloma—First +discovery of gold—Greenwood Valley—“The +Illustrated News”—Middle fork of the American River—A +“bar”—“Spanish bar”—Nomenclature of the mines—A table-d’hôte,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_161">161-174</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">The Grizzly-Bear House—Its cuisine—An Illinois warrior and the Mexican +campaign—A bear-hunter—Bear stories—Grizzlies—Soft pillows—“Ranches”—Wild +oats—Grasshoppers, and grasshopper paste—Arrival +at Nevada City—Situation and general appearance of the city—Supper +at the Hôtel de Paris—A three-decker—Richard III. and Bombastes +Furioso,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_175">175-187</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Pine-trees—Sugar-pines—Woodpeckers and acorns—Quartz veins—Coyote +Diggings—Speculative mining—Hiring out—Average yield of +the mines—Loafers—An old sailor on a spree—Start for the Yuba—Vegetables—An +old friend—“Packing”—Mexican packers and pack-mules,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_188">188-198</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Start for Foster’s Bar—A hard road to travel—Portrait-painting—Flattering +likenesses—Foster’s Bar—Sleeping under difficulties—Camping out—Camp +of a flaming company—Dangers of sketching—Taken for a +highwayman, and raised to the rank of colonel—A long journey for +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_v">{v}</a></span>nothing—A soiree musicale in the forest,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_199">199-212</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Start for Downieville—Scenery and habitations on the way—Downieville—The +houses—Saloons—Restaurants—Theatres—Concerts—“The +Forks”—“Cape Horn,”</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_213">213-221</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Lynch law—Necessity for such an institution in California—The protection +afforded by it—Its efficiency for the prevention and punishment of +crime—Summary executions—Manner of execution—Maladministration +of law in San Francisco—The Vigilance Committee—The revolution of +May 1856—Statistics of murders,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_222">222-234</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Rapid growth of California—Amount of labour performed—Luxury and +hardship—A ragged man—The Flying Dutchman—Foppery in rags—A +study—The Tower of Babel—Frenchmen—A “Keskydee”—“Dutchmen”—Climbing +a mountain—An extensive view,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_235">235-249</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Travelling down the river—Mining operations—The Florida House—A +hurdy-gurdy player—“Dead-broke”—Wandering habits of the miners—Coin—Express +companies—Slate-Range—A camp—A “pine-log +crossing,”</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_250">250-261</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Mississippi Bar—A Chinese camp—Chinese miners: their mechanical contrivances—The +Chinese in California—The rainy season—A flood in the +river—Nevada City—Snow-storm—Starved out—“Thrown-up” dirt,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_262">262-272</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Start for San Francisco—A journey—Flood—Marysville—The plains +under water—“Drowned-out” squatters—Sacramento—Sailing in the +streets—Dead rats—San Francisco—Changes since the year before—Fine +weather—The climate,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_273">273-283</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">The northern and the southern mines—Spring—The mines inexhaustible—Produce +of gold—Jacksonville—A pet bear—Moquelumne Hill—The +population—The houses—Indians: their ultimate fate—A bull-and-bear +fight—Trapping bears,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_284">284-300</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Want of water—Canals—Engineering difficulties—Volcano Diggings—Boiling +dirt—Northern and southern mines—Difference in scenery, +gold, and inhabitants—Visit to a cave—Whist and chess—Mexican +horse-thieves—Crossing the Moquelumne—Chilian miners—An Indian +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_vi">{vi}</a></span>cavalcade,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_301">301-312</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">San Andres—A ragged camp—Mexicans—Gambling-rooms—Music—A +church—Throwing the lasso—Lynch law—An execution—Angel’s Camp—Chinese—A +ball—The “Lancers”—The Highland Fling,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_313">313-322</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Carson’s Hill—Rich quartz mine—Mexican mode of working it—The +quartz vein of California—Gold-deposits—The Stanislaus River—Ferries +and bridges—Sonora—The houses and inhabitants—Hotels and restaurants—A +knowing Chinaman—The police—Gentlemen’s fashions,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_323">323-333</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">A bull-fight—Riding the bull—Killing with the sword—A magician—Necromancy +in the mines—Table Mountain—Shaw’s Flats,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_334">334-343</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">Fire in Sonora—Rapid progress of the fire, and total destruction of the +town—The burned-out inhabitants—Deaths by fire—Rebuilding of the +town,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_344">344-352</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">The Fourth of July—The procession—The celebration—The oration—A +bull-fight—A lady bull-fighter—Natural bridges,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_353">353-362</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">French miners—Their ménage—Their capacity as miners—Frenchmen as +colonists—Social equality in the mines—The reason of it—And the +result,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_363">363-374</a></td></tr> + +<tr><th colspan="2"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII.</a></th></tr> + +<tr><td class="pdd">The Stockton stage—The plains—San Francisco—Its progress—Improvement +in style of living—Female influence—Extravagance—First settlement +of California—Effective population—Americans as colonists—English +in California—Modern discoveries of gold—Their consequences,</td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_375">375-384</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_vii">{vii}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + +<table> +<tr><td><a href="#CAMP">CAMP—<i>Frontispiece</i>.</a></td><td class="rt"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td><a href="#MONTE">MONTE,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_118">118</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#FARO">FARO,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#A_FLUME_ON_THE_YUBA">A FLUME ON THE YUBA,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_208">208</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHINESE_CAMP">CHINESE CAMP,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_265">265</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#BULL-FIGHT">BULL-FIGHT,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_296">296</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#A_BALL_IN_THE_MINES">A BALL IN THE MINES,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_320">320</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#SHAWS_FLATS">SHAW’S FLATS,</a></td><td class="rt"><a href="#page_343">343</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_viii">{viii}</a></span>  </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_1">{1}</a></span>  </p> + +<h2><a id="THREE_YEARS_IN_CALIFORNIA"></a>THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA.</h2> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">CALIFORNIA FEVER IN THE STATES—THE START—NEW YORK TO +PANAMA—SHIPBOARD—CHAGRES—CROSSING THE ISTHMUS—THE +RIVER—CRUCES—GORGONA.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">About</span> the beginning of the year 1851, the rage for emigration to +California from the United States was at its height. All sorts and +conditions of men, old, young, and middle-aged, allured by the hope of +acquiring sudden wealth, and fascinated 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_2">{2}</a></span>sengers, while numbers went by the different +routes through Mexico, and others chose the easier, but more tedious, +passage round Cape Horn.</p> + +<p>The emigration from the Western States was 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.</p> + +<p>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 +constantly moving westward; for as the wild Indian is forced to retire +before them, so they, in their turn, shrinking from the signs of +civilisation which their own labours 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.</p> + +<p>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 that +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 waggons +and oxen for the journey. For the sake of mutual protection against the +Indians, they travelled in trains of a dozen or more waggons,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_3">{3}</a></span> carrying +the women and children and provisions, accompanied by a proportionate +number of men, some on horses or mules, and others on foot.</p> + +<p>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 barque about to sail for +Chagres with a load of California 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 +interior 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_4">{4}</a></span> farmers, engineers, lawyers, doctors, +merchants, and nondescript “young men.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the passengers, being from the interior of the +country, had never seen the ocean 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 awoke 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 disturbed, and told to hold his tongue, and let +those sleep who could, if he were unable to do so himself.</p> + +<p>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 cruising about promiscuously, threatening to smash +up the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_5">{5}</a></span> flimsy framework on which our berths were built, and endangering +the limbs of any one who should venture to turn out.</p> + +<p>In the morning we found that the cook’s galley had fetched way, and the +stove was rendered useless; 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 anything, or +could even stand on deck; so we roughed it out on cold beef, hard bread, +and brandy-and-water.</p> + +<p>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 +clapping 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_6">{6}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +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.</p> + +<p>When we got into the trade-winds we had delightful weather, very hot, +but with a strong breeze at night, rendering it sufficiently cool to +sleep in comfort. 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_7">{7}</a></span>gers there were very few who were +travelling in company; they were mostly all isolated individuals, each +“on his own hook,” and every one was perfectly confident that he at +least would have no trouble in getting along, whatever might be the fate +of the rest of the crowd.</p> + +<p>We added to the delicacies of our bill of fare occasionally 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.</p> + +<p>The dolphin, by the way, is most outrageously and systematically +libelled. Instead of being the horrid, big-headed, crooked-backed +monster which it is generally represented, it is the most elegant and +highly-finished fish that swims.</p> + +<p>For three or four days before reaching Chagres, all hands were busy +packing up, and firing off and reloading 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 negligé style, as if they never had been used to +go without them.</p> + +<p>There were now also great consultations as to what sort of hats, coats, +and boots, should be worn in cross<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_8">{8}</a></span>ing the Isthmus. Wondrous accounts +constantly appeared in the New York papers of the dangers and +difficulties of these few miles of land-and-river travel, 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 consequently 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.</p> + +<p>Some were equipped with pots, pans, kettles, drinking-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, 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.</p> + +<p>Others of the party, who were older travellers, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_9">{9}</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 themselves with innumerable contrivances for the protection of +their precious persons against sun, wind, and rain, also with +extraordinary assortments of very untempting-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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_10">{10}</a></span> +companionship with any one not provided with the same amount of rubbish +as themselves, might involve their losing the exclusive benefit of what +they supposed so absolutely necessary. I actually heard one of them +refuse another man a chew of tobacco, saying he guessed he had no more +than what he could use himself.</p> + +<p>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 excitement of crossing the Isthmus.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 swam +ashore, we were immediately beset by crowds of boatmen, Americans, +natives, and Jamaica niggers, all endeavouring to make a bargain with us +for the passage up the river to Cruces.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_11">{11}</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 humour to enjoy the magnificent 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 colours. One +of our party, who was a Scotch gardener,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_12">{12}</a></span> was in ecstacies 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 Southerners 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We were several times nearly capsized on snags, and, as we really could +not see whether we were<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_13">{13}</a></span> making any way or not, we came to the +determination of making fast to a tree till the moon should rise. 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 +humour. Consequently, the question of stopping or going ahead was not +determined without a great deal of wrangling and discussion. However, +our two sailors declared they would not pull another stroke—the +gardener and myself were in favour 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So here we were, thirteen of us, with a proportionate 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 +excusable to chew tobacco, it surely is on such an<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_14">{14}</a></span> occasion as this. I +had worked a good deal at the oar, and from the frequent alternations we +had experienced of scorching heat and drenching rain, I felt as if I +could enjoy a nap, notwithstanding the disagreeables of our position; +but, fearing the consequences of sleeping under such circumstances in +that climate, I kept myself awake the best way I could.</p> + +<p>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 weigh again, and after a couple of hours’ +hard pulling, we arrived at the place we had expected to reach the +evening before.</p> + +<p>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 canvass +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-travellers, 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 canvass shelves, ranged all +round, constituted the dormitory.</p> + +<p>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-<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_15">{15}</a></span>travellers. 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.</p> + +<p>We saw numbers of parrots of brilliant plumage, and a great many monkeys +and alligators, at which there was a constant discharge of pistols and +rifles, our passage being further enlivened by an occasional race with +some of the other boats.</p> + +<p>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 ourselves, +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_16">{16}</a></span> well pitch them overboard, or +put them ashore, and I comforted myself with the idea that their turn +would certainly come, notwithstanding their obstinacy.</p> + +<p>After a tedious day, during which we had, as before, deluges of rain, +with intervals of scorching sunshine, we arrived about six o’clock at a +native settlement, where we were to spend the night.</p> + +<p>It was a small clearing, with merely two or three huts, inhabited by +eight or ten miserable-looking natives, mostly women. Their lazy +listless way of doing things did not suit the humour we were in at all. +The invariable reply to all demands for something to eat and drink was +<i>poco tiempo</i> (by-and-by), said in that sort of tone one would use to a +troublesome 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 mouthful of +ham, now an egg or a few beans, and then a cup of coffee, just as they +could make up their minds to the violent exertion of getting these +articles ready for us.</p> + +<p>About half-a-dozen other boat-loads of passengers were also stopping +here, some fifty or sixty of us altogether, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_17">{17}</a></span> we +thought of the night before, and were thankful for small mercies.</p> + +<p>I secured a location with three or four others in the upper storey 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.</p> + +<p>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 miles, and halted in the evening +at a place called Dos Hermanos, where were two native houses.</p> + +<p>Here we found already about fifty fellow-travellers, 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 different stages +of drunkenness, generally developing itself in a desire to fight, and +more particularly to pitch into the natives and niggers. There seemed a +prospect of a general set-to between black and white, which<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_18">{18}</a></span> would have +been a bloody one, as all the passengers had either a revolver or a +bowie-knife—most of them had both—and the natives were provided with +their <i>machetes</i>—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 +countrymen. One man made a most touching appeal to their honour not to +“kick up a muss,” as there was a lady “of their own colour” 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 colour was of course a myth. However, the more +violent of the crowd quieted down a little, and affairs looked more +pacific.</p> + +<p>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 improved 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.</p> + +<p>We had another severe day on the river—hot sun, heavy rain, and hard +work; and in the afternoon we<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_19">{19}</a></span> arrived at Gorgona, a small village, +where a great many passengers leave the river and take the road to +Panama.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 finger, 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 all of them might be seen +one or more natives swinging in a hammock, calmly and patiently waiting +for time to roll on, or, it may be, deriving intense enjoyment from the +mere consciousness of existence.</p> + +<p>There was a large canvass house, on which was painted “Gorgona Hotel.” +It was kept by an American, the most unwholesome-looking individual I +had yet seen; he was the very personification of fever. We had here a +very luxurious dinner, having plantains and eggs in addition to the +usual fare of ham and beans. The upper storey 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_20">{20}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 inviting; 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; but +from the way in which they spoke of their grievances, it was evident +that they were home-sick, and glad of any excuse to turn tail and go +back again.</p> + +<p>We had frequently, on our way up the river, seen different parties of +our fellow-passengers. At Gorgona we mustered strong; and we found that, +notwithstanding the disadvantage we had been under of having an +overloaded boat, we had made as good time as any of them.</p> + +<p>A great many here took the road for Panama, but we determined to go on +by the river to Cruces, for<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_21">{21}</a></span> the sake of the better road from that +place. All our difficulties hitherto were nothing to what we encountered +in these last few miles. It was one continued rapid all the way, and in +many places some of us were obliged to get out and tow the boat, while +the rest used the poles.</p> + +<p>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 travelling than we +had already experienced.</p> + +<p>Cruces was just such a village as Gorgona, with a similar canvass hotel, +kept by equally cadaverous-looking Americans.</p> + +<p>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 American +travellers, convinced them that they were wrong, and that they had +better submit to their fate.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_22">{22}</a></span> 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 astonishing 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 labour. Two hundred 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 beds of precipitous gullies, the gully +itself perhaps ten or twelve feet deep, and the dense wood on each side +meeting over head, so that no fresh air relieved<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_23">{23}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>On entering we found some eight or ten travellers 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 canvass 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_24">{24}</a></span> were so rickety that not more than two men could sit on them +at a time.</p> + +<p>More travellers 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 having 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.</p> + +<p>In the mean time 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.</p> + +<p>Not long afterwards a native made his appearance, carrying the trunk of +one of the party, who very generously 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_25">{25}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_26">{26}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">PANAMA IN JULY 1851—ITS +ARCHITECTURE—SHOPS—CHURCHES—DIRT—DISEASES AND +DIVERSIONS—EMBARK FOR SAN FRANCISCO—FEVER—HARD FARE—ARRIVAL.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> our arrival we found the population busily employed in celebrating +one of their innumerable <i>dias de fiesta</i>. The streets presented a very +gay appearance. The natives, all in their gala-dresses, were going the +rounds of the numerous gaudily-ornamented altars which had been erected +throughout 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.</p> + +<p>The town is built on a small promontory, and is protected, on the two +sides facing the sea, by batteries, and, on the land side, by a high +wall and a moat. A large portion of the town, however, lies on the +outside of this.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_27">{27}</a></span></p> + +<p>Most of the houses are built of wood, two storeys high, painted with +bright colours, and with a corridor and verandah on the upper storey; +but the best houses are of stone, or sun-dried bricks plastered over and +painted.</p> + +<p>The churches are all of the same style of architecture which prevails +throughout Spanish America. 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.</p> + +<p>On the altars is a great display of gold and silver ornaments and +images; but the interiors, in other respects, are quite in keeping with +the dilapidated uncared-for appearance of the outside of the buildings.</p> + +<p>The natives are white, black, and every intermediate shade of colour, +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-coloured ribbons, red or yellow +slippers without 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_28">{28}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The native population of Panama is about eight 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.</p> + +<p>The Americans, though so greatly inferior in numbers 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.</p> + +<p>Most of the principal houses in the town had been<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_29">{29}</a></span> converted into +hotels, which were kept by Americans, and bore, upon large signs, the +favourite hotel names of the United States. There was also numbers 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 a +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 neighbours, intimated to the public—that is to +say, to the Americans—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 hammock, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_30">{30}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>Living in Panama was pretty hard. The hotels were all crammed full; the +accommodation they afforded was somewhat in the same style as at +Gorgona, and they were consequently not very inviting places. Those who +did not live in hotels had sleeping-quarters in private houses, and +resorted to the restaurants for their meals, which was a much more +comfortable mode of life.</p> + +<p>Ham, beans, chickens, eggs, and rice, were the principal articles of +food. The beef was dreadfully tough, stringy, and tasteless, and was +hardly ever eaten by the Americans, as it was generally found to be very +unwholesome.</p> + +<p>There was here at this time a great deal of sickness, and absolute +misery, among the Americans. Diarrhœa 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 neighbours, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_31">{31}</a></span> looked upon as a thing to be avoided, as a hindrance to +one’s own individual progress.</p> + +<p>There was an hospital attended by American physicians, and supported to +a great extent by Californian generosity; but it was quite incapable of +accommodating all the sick; and many a poor fellow, having exhausted his +funds during his long detention 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.</p> + +<p>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 naturally apt at first to experience some +slight derangement of their general health, which, with proper +treatment, is easily rectified; but these fellows were all provided with +cholera preventive, fever preventive, 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 +stuff 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_32">{32}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The sickness was no doubt much increased by the outrageously filthy +state of the town. There seemed to be absolutely no arrangement for +cleanliness whatever, 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.</p> + +<p>Among the Americans <i>en route</i> for California were men of all +classes—professional men, merchants, labourers, 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 distinction 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 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_33">{33}</a></span> the part of the former, by making a public request +that they would do so, while, of the shirt-sleeve gentlemen, those who +<i>had</i> 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.”</p> + +<p>As may be supposed, such a large and motley population of foreigners, +confined in such a place as Panama, without any occupation, were not +remarkably 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.</p> + +<p>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 independent manner, marched to the place of +celebration, a circular canvass structure, where a circus company had +been giving performances. When all were assembled, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_34">{34}</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 miscellaneous. 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 tumblerful, with still +no effect, till, at last, he had given me so much of it, that he began +to be alarmed for the consequences. I was a little alarmed myself, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_35">{35}</a></span> +putting my finger down my throat, I very soon relieved myself of all his +villanous compounds. I think I fainted after it. I know I felt as if I +was going to faint, and shortly afterwards was sensible of a lapse of +time which I could not account for; but on inquiring 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.</p> + +<p>I took my own case in hand after that, and very soon got rid of the +fever, although the emetic treatment 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 <i>début</i> as a physician. 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 administered to me so freely.</p> + +<p>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 young man, who, while the doctor was treating 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_36">{36}</a></span> rough and +noisy characters who formed the rest of 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 prevailed 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 sickness 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 favourite 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, however, never ended in a fight—for the reason, as it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_37">{37}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We very soon found that our ship was no exception. For the first few +days we fared pretty well, but, by degrees, one article after another +became used<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_38">{38}</a></span> 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 eat, to have no greater delicacy in the way of +nourishment, than gruel made of musty flour, <i>au naturel</i>.</p> + +<p>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, +fortunately for himself, he was a very plausible man, and succeeded in +talking them into the belief that he was not to blame.</p> + +<p>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 incurring delay by going in on the coast, where calms and light +winds are so prevalent.</p> + +<p>We killed a porpoise occasionally, and eat 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_39">{39}</a></span> porpoise +steak a very delicious dish, even without any condiment to heighten its +intrinsic excellence.</p> + +<p>We had been out about six weeks, when we sighted a ship, many miles off, +going the same way as ourselves, and the captain determined to board +her, and endeavour 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 would pull an oar. I +was one of four who volunteered to do so, and we left the ship amid +clamorous injunctions 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.</p> + +<p>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 badly off as +ourselves. She could not spare us anything 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_40">{40}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 assumed such a very wistful +expression, that it seemed a wanton piece of cruelty to have mentioned +the circumstance at all.</p> + +<p>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 enjoyment of it, and present difficulties and +hardships were not sufficiently appreciated.</p> + +<p>The time passed pleasantly enough; all were disposed 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_41">{41}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_42">{42}</a></span> old man’s health, when he +declared the quinine was doing him a world of good, and that his +appetite was much improved.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After a wretchedly long passage, during which we experienced nothing but +calms, light winds, and heavy contrary gales, we entered the Golden +Gates of San Francisco harbour with the first and only fair wind we were +favoured with, and came to anchor before the city about eight o’clock in +the evening.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_43">{43}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">SAN FRANCISCO—APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSES—GROWTH OF THE CITY—THE +PLAZA—SHIPS IN THE +STREETS—LIVING—BOOT-BLACKS—RESTAURANTS—HOTELS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> entrance to San Francisco harbour is between precipitous rocky +headlands about a mile apart, and which have received the name of the +Golden Gates. The harbour 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.</p> + +<p>On the north side of the harbour falls in the Sacramento, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_44">{44}</a></span> 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 +harbour was also a favourite watering-place for whalers and men-of-war, +cruising in that part of the world.</p> + +<p>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 +numbers of 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 nondescript, shapeless, patchwork concerns, in +the fabrication of which, sheet-iron, wood, zinc, and canvass, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_45">{45}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 +completely out of their element. The hills are of a very 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.</p> + +<p>The principal street of the town was about three-quarters of a mile +long, and in it were most of the bankers’ offices, the principal stores, +some of the best restaurants, and numerous drinking and gambling +saloons.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_46">{46}</a></span>tion +of stone, and nearly every one of them was a gambling-house.</p> + +<p>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 storeys, neat little cottages, iron houses, and tents +innumerable.</p> + +<p>Rents were exorbitantly high, and servants were hardly to be had for +money; housekeeping was consequently only undertaken by those who did +not fear the expense, and who were so fortunate as to have 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 oneself 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 +shakedown 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.</p> + +<p>The boot-blacking trade, however, was one which sprung up and flourished +rapidly. It was monopo<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_47">{47}</a></span>lised 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 afforded 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 boot-blacks working in partnership, time was +economised 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 undergoing the operation; and finally, the +boot-blacking 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As far as mere eating and drinking went, living was good enough. The +market was well supplied with every description of game—venison, elk, +antelope, grizzly bear, and an infinite variety of wild<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_48">{48}</a></span>fowl. The +harbour abounded with fish, and the Sacramento river was full of +splendid salmon, equal in flavour to those of the Scottish rivers, +though in appearance not quite such a highly-finished fish, being rather +clumsy about the tail.</p> + +<p>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 produced 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 <i>very</i> remarkable specimen.</p> + +<p>The wild geese and ducks were extremely numerous 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 Frenchman with whom I was acquainted killed fifteen +hundred dollars’ worth of game in two weeks.</p> + +<p>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 reasonably. Good hotels were +not wanting, but they were ridiculously extravagant places; and though +flimsy concerns, built of wood, and not presenting very ostentatious +exteriors, they were fitted up with all the lavish display which +characterises the fashionable hotels of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_49">{49}</a></span> New York. In fact, all places +of public resort were furnished and decorated in a style of most +barbaric splendour, being filled with the costliest French furniture, +and a profusion of immense mirrors, gorgeous gilding, magnificent +chandeliers, and gold and china ornaments, conveying an idea of +luxurious refinement which contrasted strangely with the appearance and +occupations of the people by whom they were frequented.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In the course of a month, or a year, in San Francisco, there was more +hard work done, more speculative 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, and, +at the same time, more solid advancement made by the people, as a body, +in wealth, prosperity, and the refinements of civilisation, than could +be shown in an equal space of time by any community of the same size on +the face of the earth.</p> + +<p>The every-day jog-trot of ordinary human existence 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;<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_50">{50}</a></span> interest and rent being invariably payable +monthly and in advance. All engagements were made by the month, during +which period the changes and contingencies 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.</p> + +<p>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 +lying grovelling in the mud, enjoying himself as uninterruptedly as if +he were merely a hog; old miners, probably on their way home, were +loafing about, staring at everything, in all the glory of mining +costume, 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 patchwork pantaloons, as evidences that they, at least, had +“seen the elephant.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_51">{51}</a></span>”</p> + +<p>Troops of newly arrived Frenchmen marched along, <i>en route</i> for the +mines, staggering under their equipment of knapsacks, shovels, picks, +tin wash-bowls, pistols, 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 basket-hats, +each man with a bamboo laid across his shoulder, from both ends of which +were 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 horsemen galloped about, equally regardless of their own +and of other men’s lives.</p> + +<p>Two or three auctioneers might be heard at once, “crying” their goods +with characteristic California vehemence, while some of their neighbours +in the same line of business were ringing bells to collect an +audience—and at the same time one’s ears were dinned with the discord +of half-a-dozen brass bands, braying out different popular airs from as +many different gambling saloons. In the midst<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_52">{52}</a></span> 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 Senator, 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 coloured 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.</p> + +<p>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 blackguard of fourteen or fifteen, standing behind a +cask, and playing on the head of it a sort of thimblerig game with three +cards, called “French monte.” He first shows their faces, and names +one—say the ace of spades—as the winning card, and after +thimblerigging 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.” +Occasion<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_53">{53}</a></span>ally some man, after watching the trick for a little, thinks it +the easiest thing possible to tell which is the ace of spades, and loses +his hundred dollars accordingly, when the youngster pockets 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.</p> + +<p>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 Havannah 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.</p> + +<p>Presently one would hear “Hullo! there’s a muss!” (<i>Anglicé</i>, 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 <i>difficulty</i> 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 occupations, just as +quickly as they had collected.</p> + +<p>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 +mudholes, rendering the street almost impassable. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_54">{54}</a></span> streets were the +general receptacle for every description 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 vicinity of the numerous +Jew slop-shops, they were thickly strewed with old boots, hats, coats, +and pantaloons; 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.</p> + +<p>I often wondered that none of the enterprising “old clo” fraternity ever +opened a business in California. 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.</p> + +<p>The whole place swarmed with rats of an enormous 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 +utterly disgusted with killing rats, that<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_55">{55}</a></span> they ceased to consider it +any sport at all, and allowed the rats to run under their noses without +deigning to look at them.</p> + +<p>As for the other industrious little animals, they were a terrible +nuisance. I suppose they were indigenous 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 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.</p> + +<p>Of the last article—the empty bottles—the enormous 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 plentiful as +bricks—and a large city might have been built with them.</p> + +<p>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 splendour 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 their hand, and a +beautifully plaited glossy pigtail hanging down to their heels from +under a scarlet scull-cap, with a gold knob on the top of it. These were +the swell Chinamen; the lower orders of Celestials were generally +dressed in immensely wide blue calico jackets and bags, for they really +could<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_56">{56}</a></span> not be called trousers, and on their heads they wore an enormous +wicker-work extinguisher, which would have made a very good family +clothes-basket.</p> + +<p>The Mexicans were very numerous, and wore their national costume—the +bright-coloured serape 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.</p> + +<p>Englishmen seemed to adhere to the shooting-coat style of dress, and the +down-east Yankees to their eternal black dress-coat, black pantaloons, +and black satin waistcoat; while New Yorkers, southerners, and +Frenchmen, came out in the latest Paris fashions.</p> + +<p>Those who did not stick to their former style of dress, indulged in all +the extravagant license of California costume, which was of every +variety that caprice could suggest. No man could make his appearance +sufficiently <i>bizarre</i> 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 colour, and trousers +stuffed into a big pair of boots.</p> + +<p>Pistols and knives were usually worn in the belt at the back, and to be +without either was the exception to the rule.</p> + +<p>The few ladies who were already in San Francisco, very naturally avoided +appearing in public; but numbers of female toilettes, of the most +extrava<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_57">{57}</a></span>gantly rich and gorgeous materials, swept the muddy streets, and +added not a little to the incongruous variety of the scene.</p> + +<p>To a cursory visitor, auction-sales and gambling would have appeared two +of the principal features of the city.</p> + +<p>The gambling saloons were very numerous, occupying 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 performers being usually German or French.</p> + +<p>On entering a first-class gambling room, one found a large +well-proportioned saloon sixty or seventy feet long, brilliantly lighted +up by several very fine chandeliers, 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 impregnated with the fumes of brandy. If +one happened to enter while the musicians were taking a rest, the quiet +and stillness were remarkable. Nothing was heard but a slight hum of +voices, and the con<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_58">{58}</a></span>stant chinking 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.</p> + +<p>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 juxtaposition, 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 +understanding anything about the game, nor apparently taking any +interest in it, but having their spree out at the gaming-table because +it was the fashion, and good-humouredly 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; Frenchmen 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 losing their hundred dollars at a pop with all the +<i>nonchalance</i> of an old gambler; while crowds of men, some dressed like<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_59">{59}</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>There were dirty, squalid, villanous-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.</p> + +<p>Occasionally one saw, jostled about unresistingly by the crowd, and as +if the crowd ignored its existence, the live carcass of some wretched, +dazed, woebegone man, clad in the worn-out greasy habiliments 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 enjoyment of the last mouthful of whisky, +blended with a longing humble sigh for the speedy recurrence of any +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.</p> + +<p>There was in the crowd a large proportion of sleek<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_60">{60}</a></span> well-shaven men, in +stove-pipe hats and broadcloth; but, however nearly a man might approach +in appearance 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 neighbours. The man standing next him, in +the guise of a labouring 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.</p> + +<p>One element of mixed crowds of people, in the States and in this +country, was very poorly represented. 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.</p> + +<p>The Spanish game of <i>monte</i>, which was introduced into California by the +crowds of Mexicans who came 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_61">{61}</a></span> 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 continues to bet at it is sure to be fleeced.</p> + +<p>Faro, which was the more favourite 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.</p> + +<p>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 patronised by novices. There were also 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.”</p> + +<p>I should mention that in California the word <i>gambler</i> is not used in +exactly the same abstract sense<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_62">{62}</a></span> 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 distinctive appellation of a +gambler; it would only be said of him, that he gambled.</p> + +<p>The gamblers were only the professionals, the men who laid out their +banks in public rooms, and invited 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.</p> + +<p>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 +expression 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 +degree, for the struggle to appear unconcerned when a man lost his all, +was often too plainly evident.</p> + +<p>The Mexicans showed the most admirable impas<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_63">{63}</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 +heterogeneous 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 violence were so rife, that, +when out at night in unfrequented quarters, one walked pistol in hand in +the middle 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 <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>.</p> + +<p>These saloons were not by any means frequented exclusively by persons +who went there for the purpose of gambling. Few men had much inducement +to pass their evenings in their miserable homes, and the gambling-rooms +were a favourite public resort, the music alone offering sufficient +attraction to many who never thought of staking a dollar at any of the +tables.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_64">{64}</a></span></p> + +<p>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-decorated part of the room, the wall being completely +covered with mirrors and gilding, and further ornamented with china +vases, bouquets of flowers, and gold clocks.</p> + +<p>Hither small parties of men are continually repairing to “take a drink.” +Perhaps they each choose a different kind of punch, or sling, or +cocktail, requiring various combinations, in different proportions, of +whisky, brandy, or gin, with sugar, bitters, peppermint, absinthe, +curaçoa, 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 occupying more than a couple +of minutes.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_65">{65}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">SCARCITY OF LABOURING MEN—HIGH WAGES—WANT OF SOCIAL +RESTRAINT—INTENSE RIVALRY IN ALL PURSUITS—DISAPPOINTED +HOPES—DRUNKENNESS—AMERICAN STYLE OF DRINKING—THE BARS—FREE +LUNCHEONS—THE BAR-KEEPER—VARIETY OF NATIONAL HOUSES—THE +CHINESE—CHINESE STORES AND WASHER-MEN—THEATRES AND +GAMBLING-ROOMS—MASQUERADES—“NO WEAPONS ADMITTED”—MAGNIFICENT +SHOPS—GRADING THE STREETS—STEAM PADDY—RAISING +HOUSES—CABS—POST-OFFICE—FIRE—FIRE COMPANIES—MISSION +DOLORES—SAN JOSÉ—NATIVE CALIFORNIANS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">A most</span> useful quality for a California emigrant was one which the +Americans possess in a pre-eminent degree—a natural versatility of +disposition, and adaptability to every description of pursuit or +occupation.</p> + +<p>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 labouring 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_66">{66}</a></span> numbers of the labouring and +of the working classes generally, were not nearly equal to the demand. +The consequence was that labourers’ and mechanics’ wages were +ridiculously high; and, as a general thing, the lower the description of +labour, 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 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.</p> + +<p>There was a great overplus of young men of education, who had never +dreamed of manual labour, and who found that their services in their +wonted capacities 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 regardless 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 considered at +all derogatory, and, in fact, every one was<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_67">{67}</a></span> too much occupied with his +own affairs to trouble himself in the smallest degree about his +neighbour.</p> + +<p>A man’s actions and conduct were totally unrestrained by the ordinary +conventionalities of civilised 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 the utmost freedom.</p> + +<p>Among so many temptations to err, thrust prominently 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 neighbours; and, the outside pressure of society being +removed, men assumed their natural shape, and showed what they really +were, following their 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 +civilisation, were indulged with the same freedom which characterises +the life of a wild savage.</p> + +<p>There were, however, bright examples of the contrary. If there was a +lavish expenditure in ministering to vice, there was also munificence in +the bestowing 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 +con<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_68">{68}</a></span>stantly-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.</p> + +<p>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 unwarrantable 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.</p> + +<p>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 striving for what seemed to +be within the reach of all—a foremost rank in his own sphere. To keep +one’s place in the crowd required an unremitted exercise of the same +vigour 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 competitors, whose +deficiency of merit in other respects was more than counterbalanced by<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_69">{69}</a></span> +an excess of unscrupulous 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.</p> + +<p>Drinking was the great consolation for those who had not moral strength +to bear up under their disappointments. 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 <i>delirium tremens</i> +before they 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.</p> + +<p>But, though drunkenness was common enough, the number of drunken men one +saw was small, considering the enormous consumption of liquor.</p> + +<p>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 +institutions of the country.</p> + +<p>In England a man reserves his drinking capacities 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_70">{70}</a></span> it. +Dinner divides his day into two separate existences, 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.</p> + +<p>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 labouring man—but it is one of +the necessities of human existence, and, as it precludes 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 <i>abandon</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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 carried on publicly and openly. The bars are the most +favourite resort, being situated in the most frequented<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_71">{71}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 compliments; and many men, +in submitting to it, are actuated chiefly by a desire to show a due +amount of courtesy to their friends.</p> + +<p>In San Francisco, where the ordinary rate of existence 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 dispensed at a miniature tobacconist’s shop +in another part of the saloon.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_72">{72}</a></span> cold meats, fish, and so on,—with two or +three waiters to attend to it. This was all free—there was nothing to +pay for it: it was only expected that no one would partake of the good +things without taking a “drink” afterwards.</p> + +<p>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 provided +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.</p> + +<p>Another part of the economy of the American bar is an instance of the +confidence placed in the discretion 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.</p> + +<p>A man came up to the bar, and asking for brandy, was handed a decanter +of brandy accordingly. Fill<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_73">{73}</a></span>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,” he said, “I only gave you a shilling; +is not it a shilling 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.”</p> + +<p>The American bar-keeper is quite an institution of himself. He is a +superior class of man to those engaged in a similar capacity in this +country, and has no counterpart here. In fact, bar-keeping is a +profession, in which individuals rise to eminence, and become celebrated +for their cocktails, and for their address in serving customers. The +rapidity and dexterity 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 accurately +as an apothecary makes up a prescription.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The immigration of Frenchmen had been so large<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_74">{74}</a></span> that some parts of the +city were completely French in appearance; the shops, restaurants, and +estaminets, being painted according to French taste, and exhibiting +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 +Frères, the Café de Paris, and suchlike; but these were second and +third-rate places; those which courted the patronage of the upper +classes of all nations, assumed names more calculated to tickle the +American ear,—such as the Jackson House and the Lafayette. They were +presided over by elegantly dressed <i>dames du comptoir</i>, and all the +arrangements were in Parisian style.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 American saloons.</p> + +<p>The Germans too had their <i>lager bier</i> cellars, but the noise and smoke +which came up from them was enough to deter any one but a German from +venturing in.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_75">{75}</a></span></p> + +<p>There was also a Mexican quarter of the town, where there were +greasy-looking Mexican <i>fondas</i>, and crowds of lazy Mexicans lying +about, wrapped up in their blankets, smoking cigaritas.</p> + +<p>In another quarter the Chinese most did congregate. Here the majority of +the houses were of Chinese importation, and were stores, stocked with +hams, tea, dried fish, dried ducks, and other very nasty-looking Chinese +eatables, besides copper-pots and kettles, fans, shawls, chessmen, and +all sorts of curiosities. Suspended over the doors were +brilliantly-coloured 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 studying the Chinese bills +posted up in the shop windows, which may have been play-bills,—for +there was a Chinese theatre,—or perhaps advertisements informing 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_76">{76}</a></span>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 charcoal, and, buried in heaps of dirty +clothes, half-a-dozen more, smoking, and drinking tea.</p> + +<p>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 +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 according 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.</p> + +<p>The Chinese theatre was a curious pagoda-looking edifice, built by them +expressly for theatrical purposes, and painted, outside and in, in an +extraordinary manner. The performances went on day and night, without +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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_77">{77}</a></span> 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 +unflinching way in which the fellow stood it out, the confidence 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 extraordinary +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.</p> + +<p>There were several very good American theatres, a French theatre, and an +Italian opera, besides concerts, masquerades, a circus, and other public +amusements. The most curious were certainly the masquerades. 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_78">{78}</a></span> 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 produced 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 incredible that he had to +submit to be searched; an operation which was performed by the +doorkeepers, who, I observed, were occasionally rewarded for their +diligence by the discovery of a pistol secreted in some unusual part of +the dress.</p> + +<p>Some of the shops were very magnificently got up, and would not have +been amiss in Regent Street. The watchmakers’ and jewellers’ 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_79">{79}</a></span> gold watches and diamond pins was a very favourite mode of +getting rid of their spare cash. Labouring 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.</p> + +<p>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 exhibited +such a stock of the costliest shawls, cabinets, workboxes, vases, and +other articles of Chinese manufacture, with clocks, bronzes, and all +sorts of drawing-room ornaments, that one would have thought it an +establishment which could only be supported in a city like London or +Paris.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_80">{80}</a></span> 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 +himself 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.</p> + +<p>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 +execution. 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 fill +up those parts of the city which were as yet under water.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_81">{81}</a></span> +pressure. Excavations were made, and under the foundation-walls of the +houses were inserted a number 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-storey 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 readjusted, and the operation was repeated till the +required height was obtained. I went to witness the process when it was +being applied to a large corner brick building, five storeys high, with +about sixty feet frontage each way. The flagged side-walk was being +raised along with it; but there was no interruption of the business +going on in the premises, or anything 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 detached 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 apparatus had of course to be of +an immense strength to withstand the pressure to which it was subjected, +and 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_82">{82}</a></span></p> + +<p>The hackney carriages of San Francisco were infinitely 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 +handsome 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 dollars a-month +(about £700 a-year), and the horses alone were worth from a thousand to +fifteen hundred dollars each.</p> + +<p>None of the private carriages came at all near the hacks in splendour. +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 +horse”—that is to say, one which trots his mile in<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_83">{83}</a></span> three minutes—is +the only horse worth driving; while anything slower than a “two-forty +(2° 40´) horse” is not considered really fast.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 waggon-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 required 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. +Independently 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_84">{84}</a></span> which gave access +to the post-office, and having the appearance at a distance of being a +mob; but on coming 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 himself 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 chewing 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 principle 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 omnipotent majority.</p> + +<p>A man’s place in the line was his individual property, more or less +valuable according to his distance from the window, and, like any other +piece of property, it was bought and sold, and converted into cash. +Those who had plenty of dollars to spare, but could<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_85">{85}</a></span> 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 position, and some men went there early, and waited patiently, +without any expectation of getting letters, but for the chance of +turning their acquired advantage into cash.</p> + +<p>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 thousands 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 success, would still have thought +there was something wrong. I was myself upon one occasion deeply +impressed 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_86">{86}</a></span></p> + +<p>There was one window devoted exclusively to the use of foreigners, among +whom English were not included; and here a polyglot individual, who +would have been a useful member of society in the Tower of Babel, +answered the demands of all European nations, and held communication +with Chinamen, Sandwich Islanders, and all the stray specimens of +humanity from unknown parts of the earth.</p> + +<p>One reason why men went to little trouble or expense in making +themselves comfortable in their homes, if homes they could be called, +was the constant danger of fire.</p> + +<p>The city was a mass of wooden and canvass buildings, 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 +canvass, 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 enjoying the seclusion, such as it was, of +his own apartment. 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_87">{87}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 to +those who have been all their lives surrounded by brick and stone, and +insurance companies.</p> + +<p>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 individual 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_88">{88}</a></span> 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 given, the engines +were heard thundering along the streets, amid the ringing of the +fire-bells and the shouts of the excited crowd.</p> + +<p>The fire-companies, of which several were already organised, were on the +usual American system—volunteer 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 handsome 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_89">{89}</a></span> got up in very +magnificent style, being most elaborately 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 themselves. 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 was after them.</p> + +<p>Their <i>esprit de corps</i> 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 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.</p> + +<p>As firemen they are most prompt and efficient, performing 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_90">{90}</a></span> 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 honour to any individual who +conspicuously distinguishes 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.</p> + +<p>Two miles above San Francisco, on the shore of the bay, is the Mission +Dolores, one of those which 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 neighbourhood is flat and fertile, and +was being rapidly converted into market-gardens; but the village itself +was as yet but little changed. It had a look of antiquity and +completeness, as if it had been finished long ago, and as if nothing +more was ever likely to be done to 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_91">{91}</a></span> few listless unoccupied-looking Mexicans and native +Californians.</p> + +<p>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 boiling over, while here +was nothing but human stagnation—a more violent extreme than would have +been the wilderness as yet untrodden by man. Being but a slightly +reduced counterpart of what San Francisco 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 extent, 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.</p> + +<p>The “Mission,” however, was not suffered to remain long in a state of +torpor. A plank road was 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 favourite resort for all who sought an +hour’s relief from the excitement of the city.</p> + +<p>At the very head of the bay, some sixty miles from San Francisco, is the +town of San José, situated in an extensive and most fertile valley, +which was<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_92">{92}</a></span> 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 José was the +headquarters 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 speculate 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 disadvantage 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.</p> + +<p>San José was quite out of the way of gold-hunters,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_93">{93}</a></span> 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, +consequently, a large number of Americans were here assembled, 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.</p> + +<p>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 José is +in some parts very beautiful. The country is smooth and open—not so +flat as to appear monotonous—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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_94">{94}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">START FOR THE MINES—THE SACRAMENTO RIVER—AMERICAN +RIVER-STEAMBOATS IN CALIFORNIA—NATURAL FACILITIES FOR INLAND +NAVIGATION, AND PROMPTNESS OF THE AMERICANS IN TAKING ADVANTAGE OF +THEM—SACRAMENTO CITY—APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSES—STREET +NOMENCLATURE—STAGING—FOUR-AND-TWENTY FOUR-HORSE COACHES START +TOGETHER—THE PLAINS—THE SCENERY—THE WEATHER—THE +MOUNTAINS—MOUNTAIN ROADS AND AMERICAN DRIVERS—FIRST SIGHT OF +GOLD-DIGGING—ARRIVAL AT HANGTOWN.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">I remained</span> 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 myself on board the steamer for Sacramento.</p> + +<p>As we did not start till five o’clock in the afternoon, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_95">{95}</a></span>ingly fertile, and all those sufficiently watered +to render them available for cultivation had already been “taken up.”</p> + +<p>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 constitute the mining districts. +Through these plains flows the Sacramento river, receiving as +tributaries all the rivers flowing down from the mountains on either +side.</p> + +<p>The steamer—which was a very fair specimen of the usual style of New +York river-boat—was crowded 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 awoke by +the noise of letting off the steam on our arrival at Sacramento.</p> + +<p>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 twenty-two miles an hour, +afforded the same rapid and comfortable means of travelling, and +sometimes at as cheap rates, as when they plied between New York and +Albany. Every traveller in the United<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_96">{96}</a></span> States has described the river +steamboats; suffice it to say here, that they lost none of their +characteristics in California; and, looking at these long, white, +narrow, two-storey houses, floating apparently on nothing, so little of +the hull of the boat appears above water, and showing none of the lines +which, in a ship, convey an idea of buoyancy and power of resistance, +but, on the contrary, 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 thousand 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 their long voyage to California, the lower storey 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.</p> + +<p>But besides the question of nautical skill and individual daring, as a +commercial undertaking the sending such steamers round to California was +a very bold speculation. Their value in New York is about<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_97">{97}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The profits of the first few steamers which arrived out were of course +enormous; but, after a while, competition 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 hundred miles in ten hours; but, in +California at that time, the wages of the common deck hands on board +those 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_98">{98}</a></span> 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 labour, and required the employment of +all the means at their command.</p> + +<p>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 parallel 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 depôt 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 manner the +city of Marysville, being at the extreme northern point of navigation of +the Feather river, became the starting-place and the depôt 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_99">{99}</a></span> 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.”</p> + +<p>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 profits 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 remembered 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_100">{100}</a></span> 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 <i>via</i> Panama; so that +almost from the first commencement of the existence of California as a +gold-bearing country, steam-communication 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 +competition for public patronage.</p> + +<p>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 commercial 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_101">{101}</a></span> 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 exclusively 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.</p> + +<p>The plains are but very little above the average level of the river, and +a “levée” 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.</p> + +<p>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 immortalise the names of prominent individuals—and +admirably adapted to such a rectangular 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_102">{102}</a></span> extent of the city. This system +of lettering and numbering the streets was very convenient, as, the +latitude and longitude of a house being given, it could be found at +once. A stranger could navigate all over the town without ever having to +ask his way, as he could take an observation for himself at the corner +of every street.</p> + +<p>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 candlelight, 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 for 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.</p> + +<p>The coaches were of various kinds. Some were light-spring-waggons—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.</p> + +<p>The place which I had intended should be the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_103">{103}</a></span> scene of my first mining +exploits, was a village rejoicing in the suggestive appellation of +Hangtown; designated, however, in official documents as Placerville. 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 happened to be one of +the oblong boxes—and, pitching 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.</p> + +<p>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 Majesty’s +mail. The teams were all headed the same way, and with their stages, +four or five abreast, occupied 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 waggons to shorten their journey. +Grooms were standing at the leaders’ heads, trying to keep them quiet, +and the drivers were sitting on their boxes, or seats rather, for they +scorn a<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_104">{104}</a></span> high seat, and were swearing at each other in a very shocking +manner, as wheels got locked, and waggons were backed into the teams +behind them, to the discomfiture 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 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.</p> + +<p>On each waggon 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 waggons, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_105">{105}</a></span> 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 Nevada 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 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.</p> + +<p>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 happened to be passing by, would be shipped off to +parts unknown before he could collect his ideas.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_106">{106}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 “runners” 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 doctors advertise, and the names of the first merchants +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 +clamours for it, and consequently gets it all the sooner.</p> + +<p>However, I was not thinking of this while sitting on the Hangtown stage. +I had too much to look at, and some of my neighbours also took up my +attention. I found seated around me a varied assortment of human nature. +A New-Yorker, a Yankee, and an English Jack-tar were my immediate +neighbours, and a general conversation helped to beguile the time till +the “runners” had succeeded in placing a pas<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_107">{107}</a></span>senger upon every available +spot of every waggon. 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 buts in the way of everybody’s +toes.</p> + +<p>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 hurraed; +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 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 compass, and it +was like going to sea; for we emerged from the city as from a landlocked +harbour, and followed 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 neighbours, rapidly diminishing around us, +and getting hull down on the horizon, might have been<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_108">{108}</a></span> bound for the +uttermost parts of the earth, for all we could see that was to stop +them.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 travelling 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.</p> + +<p>Out of sight of land at sea one experiences a certain 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_109">{109}</a></span> relative position of +any one of them, and fading away in regular gradation till the most +distinct, though clearly defined, seemed still to be the most natural +and satisfactory 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.</p> + +<p>Such was the view ahead of us as we travelled 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.</p> + +<p>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, which rises in clouds like clouds of +smoke, saturating one’s clothes, and impregnating one’s whole system.</p> + +<p>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 waggons drawn by teams of six or eight +mules or oxen, and laden with supplies for the mines.</p> + +<p>The ascent from the plains was very gradual, over a hilly country, well +wooded with oaks and pines.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_110">{110}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The road, which, though in some places very narrow, 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.</p> + +<p>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 admiration 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 break, and, clawing at the 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 manœuvre on a piece of road +which slanted violently down to one side, he trimmed<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_111">{111}</a></span> the waggon as one +would a small boat in a squall, and made us all crowd up to the weather +side to prevent a capsize.</p> + +<p>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, +digging holes like so many grave-diggers. I then considered 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.</p> + +<p>As we travelled onwards, we passed at intervals numerous parties of +miners, and the country assumed a more inhabited appearance. Log-cabins +and clapboard 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After travelling about thirty miles over this mountainous region, +ascending gradually all the while, we arrived at Hangtown in the +afternoon, having accomplished the sixty miles from Sacramento city in +about eight hours.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_112">{112}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">HANGTOWN—FIRST IMPRESSION OF “THE DIGGINS”—IDEA OF A MINING +TOWN—GAMBLING HOUSES—THE STREET—THE STORES—JEW SLOP-SHOPS—THE +JEWS: THEIR PECULIARITIES—HANGTOWN ON A SUNDAY—BOWIE-KNIVES AND +REVOLVERS—GOLD-DEPOSITS—METHOD OF WASHING—LONG +TOMS—ROCKERS—PROSPECTING—MIDDLETOWN—OUR MENAGE.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_113">{113}</a></span> six feet deep, from which they had been thrown out. The +original course of the creek was completely obliterated, its waters +being distributed into numberless little ditches, and from them +conducted into the “long toms” of the miners through canvass hoses, +looking like immensely long slimy sea-serpents.</p> + +<p>The number of bare stumps of what had once been gigantic pine trees, +dotted over the naked hill-sides surrounding the town, showed how freely +the axe 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.</p> + +<p>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 shovelling 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_114">{114}</a></span> were all +working as if for their lives, going into it with a will, and a degree +of energy, not usually seen among labouring 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 +<i>pour passer le temps</i>.</p> + +<p>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 four, were of course the largest and most conspicuous +buildings; their mirrors, chandeliers, and other decorations, suggesting +a style of life totally at variance with the outward indications of +everything around them.</p> + +<p>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 preserved oysters, empty bottles, worn-out pots and +kettles, old ham-bones, broken picks and shovels, and other rubbish too +various to particularise. 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. Waggons, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_115">{115}</a></span> long beards, and brown faces, were the only inhabitants to +be seen.</p> + +<p>There were boarding-houses on the <i>table-d’hôte</i> 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.</p> + +<p>The stores were curious places. There was no specialty about +them—everything was to be found in them which it could be supposed that +any one could possibly want, excepting fresh beef (there was a butcher +who monopolised the sale of that article).</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 display of boxes of sardines, and brightly-coloured tins of +preserved meats and vegetables with showy labels, interspersed with +bottles of champagne and strangely-shaped bottles of exceedingly green +pickles, the whole being arranged with some degree of taste.</p> + +<p>Goods and provisions of every description were<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_116">{116}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 supplying their Christian brethren with the necessary +articles of wearing apparel.</p> + +<p>In travelling 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 versatility in betaking +themselves to whatever business or occupation appeared at the time to be +most advisable, without reference to their antecedents, and in a country +where no man, to whatever class of society he belonged, was in the least +degree ashamed to roll up his sleeves and dig in the mines for gold, or +to engage in any other kind of manual labour, it was a very remarkable +fact that the Jews were the only people among whom this was not +observable.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_117">{117}</a></span> own limited sphere of +industry, and of course, concentrated 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 +everything 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.</p> + +<p>The Jew slop-shops were generally rattletrap erections 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 articles suited +to the wants of the miners, along with Colt’s revolvers and +bowie-knives, brass jewellery, and diamonds like young Koh-i-Noors.</p> + +<p>Almost every man, after a short residence in California, became changed +to a certain extent in his outward 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_118">{118}</a></span> there. But to this rule also the Jews formed a very +striking exception. In their appearance there was nothing whatever at +all suggestive of California; they were exactly the same +unwashed-looking, slobbery, slip-shod individuals that one sees in every +seaport town.</p> + +<p>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 themselves, after a week’s labour and isolation in the +mountains, in enjoying the excitement of the scene according to their +tastes.</p> + +<p>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 gambled 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 transferred +the next Sunday to the gamblers, in the vain hope of recovering what had +been already lost.</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="MONTE"> +<a href="images/ill_002.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="550" height="334" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK, DELT. M & N HANHART, LITH. + +MONTÉ IN THE MINES"></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK, DELT. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">M & N HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +MONTÉ IN THE MINES</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_119">{119}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">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 occasion. The utmost latitude was allowed in the exercise of +self-defence. In the case of a row, it was not necessary to wait till a +pistol was actually levelled at one’s head—if a man made even a motion +towards drawing a weapon, it was considered perfectly justifiable to +shoot him first, if possible. The very prevalence 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There was only one place of public worship in<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_120">{120}</a></span> Hangtown at that time, a +very neat little wooden edifice, which belonged to some denomination of +Methodists, and seemed to be well attended.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 tunnels 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.</p> + +<p>The principal diggings in the neighbourhood of Hangtown were surface +diggings; but, with the exception of river diggings, every kind of +mining operation was to be seen in full force.</p> + +<p>The gold is found at various depths from the surface; 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I should mention that “dirt” is the word universally used in California +to signify the substance dug,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_121">{121}</a></span> earth, clay, gravel, loose slate, or +whatever other name might be more appropriate. The miners talk of rich +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.</p> + +<p>The apparatus generally used for washing was a “long tom,” 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 the +floor of it is there 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 tom 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 tom as fast as they can dig it up, +one man stands at the lower end stirring up the dirt as it is washed +down, separating 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_122">{122}</a></span> 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 +up with the hands, and the gravel thrown out; the pan is then taken in +both hands, and by an indescribable series of manœuvres 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.</p> + +<p>Another mode of washing dirt, but much more tedious, and consequently +only resorted to where a sufficient supply of water for a long tom 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 “tom,” and had formerly been the only contrivance in use; but it was +now seldom seen, as the long tom effected such a saving of time and +labour. The latter was set immediately over the claim, and the dirt was +shovelled into it at once, while a rocker had to be set alongside of the +water, and the dirt was carried to it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_123">{123}</a></span> in buckets from the place which +was being worked. Three men working together with a rocker—one digging, +another carrying the dirt in buckets, and the third rocking the +cradle—would wash on an average a hundred bucketfuls of dirt to the man +in the course of the day. With a “long tom” 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.</p> + +<p>I met a San Francisco friend in Hangtown practising his profession as a +doctor, who very hospitably offered me quarters in his cabin, which I +gladly accepted. 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 imagination, +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 tom with<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_124">{124}</a></span> 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 returning 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.</p> + +<p>A “prospecter” 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 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 colour,” 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 labour to be expended in removing top-dirt, and in otherwise +preparing the claim for being worked.</p> + +<p>To establish one’s claim to a piece of ground, all that was requisite +was to leave upon it a pick or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_125">{125}</a></span> shovel, or other mining tool. The extent +of ground allowed to each individual varied in different diggings 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 neighbouring 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.</p> + +<p>We found near our claim a very comfortable cabin, which the owner had +deserted, and in which we established ourselves. We had plenty of +firewood and water close to us, and being only two miles from Hangtown, +we kept ourselves well supplied 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, damper, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_126">{126}</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Another sort of bread we very frequently made by filling a frying-pan +with dough, and sticking it up on end to roast before the fire.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As for our beefsteaks, they could not be beat anywhere. A piece of an +old iron-hoop, twisted into a 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 handfuls. It is a favourite beverage in the +mines—morning, noon, and night—and at no time is it more refreshing +than in the extreme heat of mid-day.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_127">{127}</a></span></p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_128">{128}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">DIGGER INDIANS—THEIR LOVE OF DRESS—THEIR DOGS—THEIR FOOD—THEIR +INGENUITY—INDIAN FEMALE BEAUTY, OR OTHERWISE—“HUNTING” THE +INDIANS, AND TEACHING THEM MANNERS—COON HOLLOW—COYOTE +DIGGINGS—COYOTES—WEAVER CREEK—THE WEATHER AND THE +CLIMATE—CHINAMEN—A CELESTIAL “MUSS.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Within</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 uncivilisable than the blacks of New South Wales.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_129">{129}</a></span> +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 buttoned 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 neighbours 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 pantaloons +are frequently worn, or rather carried, with the legs tied round the +waist. They seem 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.”</p> + +<p>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 their 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 papooses like those of +the North American Indians, though of infinitely inferior workmanship.</p> + +<p>They are very fond of dogs, and have always at their heels a number of +the most wretchedly thin,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_130">{130}</a></span> mangy, starved-looking curs, of a dirty +brindled colour, 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 look of most humble +resignation, and so conscious of their degradation that they never +presume to hold any communion with their civilised 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.</p> + +<p>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 all 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_131">{131}</a></span> into a paste, very much of the colour 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 manufacture.</p> + +<p>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 shorter than the bows used in +this country, but resemble 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, however, 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 on 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_132">{132}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 admiring +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 no doubt our ideas of female beauty must have +differed very materially.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_133">{133}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>It happened, however, that on this particular day a neighbouring tribe +had come over to the camp of the Middletown Indians for the purpose of +having a <i>fandango</i> 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 himself scarce, they marched back +to Hangtown without having done much to boast of.</p> + +<p>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 present. The miners about Hangtown were mostly all<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_134">{134}</a></span> +Americans, and a large proportion of them were men from the Western +States, who had come by the overland 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.</p> + +<p>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 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 unnecessary, by drawing a vivid picture of +the unburied bones of poor Brown, or Jones, the unfortunate individual +who had been murdered, bleaching the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, +while his death was still unavenged. If<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_135">{135}</a></span> 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 straggling miners in the mountains at any distance from a +settlement. Altogether he spoke very well, considering the sort of crowd +he was addressing; and judging from the enthusiastic applause, and from +the remarks I heard made by the men around me, he could not have spoken +with better effect.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Those who wished to enlist were then told to come round to the other end +of the room, when nearly the whole crowd rushed eagerly forward, and the +required 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_136">{136}</a></span> properly whipped, and were taught +the respect due to white men.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was now time to commence preparatory operations 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 myself alone remained, +uncertain as yet where we should go to.</p> + +<p>We had gone into Hangtown one night for provisions, 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 daylight 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.</p> + +<p>Those who had claims, immediately surrounding that of the lucky man who +had caused all the excite<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_137">{137}</a></span>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 sinking a shaft +about a hundred feet deep; and after drifting all round, they could not +get a cent out of it, while many of the claims adjacent to theirs proved +extremely rich.</p> + +<p>Such diggings as these are called “coyote” diggings, 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 Irishman 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.</p> + +<p>Connected with them is a curious fact in natural history. They are +intensely carnivorous—so are cannibals; but as cannibals object to the +flavour 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 Mexi<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_138">{138}</a></span>can +war, that on going over the field after their battles, they found their +own comrades with the flesh eaten off their bones by the coyotes, 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 <i>Chili +Colorado</i>, had so impregnated their system with pepper as to render +their flesh too savoury a morsel for the natural and unvitiated taste of +the coyotes.</p> + +<p>These coyote diggings require to be very rich to pay, from the great +amount of labour 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, excavations 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 diggings, the result generally of +the carelessness of the men themselves.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_139">{139}</a></span> by candlelight; at the same time, gold mining in any way was to +almost every one a new occupation, and men who had passed their lives +hitherto above ground, took quite as naturally to this subterranean +style of digging as to any other.</p> + +<p>We felt no particular fancy for it, however, especially as we could not +get a claim; and having heard favourable 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 tom, 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 wildflowers +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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_140">{140}</a></span> generally growing in single plants to the +height of six or eight feet. There was no appearance of ruggedness or +disorder; we might have imagined ourselves 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 California.</p> + +<p>After travelling some miles over this sort of country, 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 finding 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.</p> + +<p>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 labour. We had some difficulty at first in bringing water to the +long tom,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_141">{141}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 provisions to +the small store already mentioned, which was supplied with a general +assortment of provisions and clothing.</p> + +<p>There had still been occasional heavy rains, from which our tent was but +poor protection, and we awoke sometimes in the morning, finding small +pools of water in the folds of our blankets, and everything so soaking +wet, inside the tent as well as outside, that it was 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_142">{142}</a></span> however, with an +extra pipe, and relieving our feelings by laying in fiercely with pick +and shovel.</p> + +<p>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° in the shade during 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 suffocating atmosphere makes +the heat more severely felt. 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’s, is still light and exhilarating, +and by no means disinclines one for bodily exertion.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_143">{143}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 resistance to the fierce rays of the sun, which rendered the cabin +during the day so intolerably hot, that we cooked and eat our dinner +under the shade of a tree.</p> + +<p>A whole bevy of Chinamen had recently made their appearance on the +creek. Their camp, consisting 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.</p> + +<p>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 +vigour as American or European miners, but handle their tools like so +many women, as if they were afraid of hurting themselves. The Americans +called it “scratching,” 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_144">{144}</a></span> 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.”</p> + +<p>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 +nor a stone thrown, the two parties suddenly, and without any apparent +cause, fraternised, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_145">{145}</a></span> ball would open, and +hoped to see a general engagement.</p> + +<p>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 <i>sacré cochon</i>, +and going through a long series of still less complimentary epithets, +till finally <i>sacré astrologe</i> caps the climax. This is a regular +smasher; it is supposed to be such a comprehensive term as to exhaust +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 +Chinamen arrived at a solution of their difficulty; at all events, +discretion seemed to form a very large component part of Celestial +valour.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_146">{146}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">THE MISSOURIANS—PIKE COUNTY: THEIR APPEARANCE—HUMANISING EFFECTS +OF CALIFORNIA—DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OUTWARD-BOUND CALIFORNIANS +AND THE SAME MEN ON THEIR RETURN HOME—THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE +MISSOURIANS—A PHRENOLOGER—A JURY OF MINERS—A CIVIL SUIT—WE BUY +A CLAIM—A “BRUSH-HOUSE”—RATS: HOW TO CIRCUMVENT +THEM—RAT-SHOOTING.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> miners on the creek were nearly all Americans, 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 unmistakeable 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 particularly from a county in that +state called Pike County.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_147">{147}</a></span> a “Pike,” or “Pike County,” as they are called, from the natives of +any other western State. Their costume 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-coloured 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. Their hats were felt, of a dirty-brown colour, and +the shape of a short extinguisher. Their shirts had perhaps, in days +gone by, been red, but were now a sort of purple; their pantaloons were +generally of a snuffy-brown colour, 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 suspenders—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—exceedingly tight, short-waisted, long-skirted surtouts of +home-made frieze of a greyish-blue colour.</p> + +<p>As for their persons, they were mostly long,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_148">{148}</a></span> gaunt, narrow-chested, +round-shouldered men, with long, straight, light-coloured, +dried-up-looking hair, small thin sallow faces, with rather scanty beard +and moustache, 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 civilisation than ever they had dreamed of.</p> + +<p>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 +community 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 civilised life; while the Missourians, having come +direct across the plains from their homes in the backwoods, had received +no preparatory education to enable them to show off to advantage in such +company.</p> + +<p>And in this they laboured 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_149">{149}</a></span> 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 <i>en route</i>; 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 incomprehensible, 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.</p> + +<p>It may seem strange, but it is undoubtedly true, that the majority of +men in whom such a change was most desirable became in California more +humanised, and acquired a certain amount of urbanity; in fact, they came +from civilised countries in the rough state, and in California got +licked into shape, and polished.</p> + +<p>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 education. Every fortnight two +crowds of passengers<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_150">{150}</a></span> 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 neighbours. They showed no +accommodating spirit, but grumbled at everything, and were rude and +surly in 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 +regulations 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 behaviour; 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 enlarged idea of their rights +which they had formerly entertained.</p> + +<p>The Missourians, however, although they acquired no new accomplishments +on their journey to California, lost none of those which they originally +possessed. They could use an axe 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_151">{151}</a></span> their long five-foot-barrel-rifle, which was their constant +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.</p> + +<p>Though large-framed men, they were not remarkable 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 diarrhœa being their +favourite complaints.</p> + +<p>We had many pleasant neighbours, 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, without +much education, but with great ability and immense 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 suppose they knew what they were talking about.</p> + +<p>Phrenology was this man’s hobby, and he had all the phrenological +phraseology at his finger-ends. His 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_152">{152}</a></span> 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 character, explaining most minutely the consequences of +the combination of the different bumps, and telling me how I would act +in a variety of supposed contingencies. 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 altogether 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 +laid 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 Democratic 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 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_153">{153}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 neighbourhood 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 +whipped; 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 favourite subject, and illustrated his theory by +feeling several heads, and giving very full descriptions of the +characters of the individuals. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 intended to work. +This they were now anxious to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_154">{154}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 jurymen each from the assembled +crowd.</p> + +<p>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 defendants 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_155">{155}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 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.</p> + +<p>Neither party were particularly well pleased with the verdict—a pretty +good sign that it was an impartial 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 humbug about it.</p> + +<p>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 without 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_156">{156}</a></span> various contingencies +incidental to the peculiar nature of the diggings.</p> + +<p>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. +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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_157">{157}</a></span> pledged each other in cocktails as +fast as the storekeeper could mix them. While the legislature was in +session, however, everything was conducted with the utmost formality, +for Americans of all classes are particularly <i>au fait</i> at the ordinary +routine of public meetings.</p> + +<p>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 or six miles up the creek. It was supposed to be very rich, and we +had to pay a long price for it accordingly, although the men who had +taken it up, and from whom we bought it, had not yet even prospected 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.</p> + +<p>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 labour had not been expended in vain, for it paid +uncommonly well.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_158">{158}</a></span> comfortable kind of abode in +summer, and does not cost an hour’s labour 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 +appearance. 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.</p> + +<p>When I left my cabin, I handed it over to a young 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.</p> + +<p>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 colonisers. 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 humanised 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_159">{159}</a></span>quently in the cities than in the mines; they are probably the hoary +old patriarchs, and not a distinct species.</p> + +<p>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 +precautions just as naturally, and as much as a matter of course, as +when at sea one fixes things in such a manner that they shall not fetch +way with the motion of the ship. As in civilised 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 off his revolver, lays it +under his pillow, or at least under the coat or boots, or whatever he +rests his head on.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_160">{160}</a></span> they please, eating up your flour, and running over you when you are +asleep, without ceremony.</p> + +<p>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 +mosquitos. 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 favourable 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 darkness; but the rats have a fashion of running along the tops of +the logs, and occasionally standing still, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_161">{161}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">HANGTOWN—DIGGING IN THE HOUSES—A GOLDEN VISION—SLAVES IN +CALIFORNIA—NEGROES—CALOMA—FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD—GREENWOOD +VALLEY—“THE ILLUSTRATED NEWS”—MIDDLE FORK OF THE AMERICAN +RIVER—A “BAR”—“SPANISH BAR”—NOMENCLATURE OF THE MINES—A +TABLE-D’HÔTE.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> 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 +tom, 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.</p> + +<p>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 enjoyment 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_162">{162}</a></span> Every +man wanted a sketch of his claim, or his cabin, or some spot with which +he identified himself; and as they all offered to pay very handsomely, I +was satisfied that I could make paper and pencil much more profitable +tools to work with than pick and shovel.</p> + +<p>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, and seeing all the various kinds of diggings, and the +strange specimens of human nature to be found in them.</p> + +<p>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 finding my old brother-miners very +liberal patrons of the fine arts, I remained some time in the +neighbourhood actively engaged with my pencil.</p> + +<p>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 +neighbours, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_163">{163}</a></span> each of these were +three miners, picking and shovelling, 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 shovelled 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.</p> + +<p>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 labours and hardships of +the mines.</p> + +<p>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 afterwards, however, he had precisely the same dream, and was so +convinced that their fortune lay waiting for them under this particular +cabin, that he succeeded at last in persuading his master to believe it +also. He 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 +buying 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_164">{164}</a></span></p> + +<p>There were many slaves in various parts of the mines working with their +masters, and I knew frequent 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 California 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.</p> + +<p>Niggers, in some parts of the mines, were pretty numerous, though by no +means forming so large a proportion of the population as in the Atlantic +States. As miners they were proverbially lucky, but they were also +inveterate gamblers, and did not long remain burdened with their +unwonted riches.</p> + +<p>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 drinks +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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_165">{165}</a></span> special accommodation of coloured 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.</p> + +<p>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 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 question of dignity interfered +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 restaur<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_166">{166}</a></span>ants or roadside houses, and +waiting on any ragamuffin who chose to patronise them, with as much +<i>empressement</i> 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 whatever were their relative positions, men treated each other with +an equal amount of deference.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 the +neighbourhood 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.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_167">{167}</a></span> some +years before, penetrated to California, and there established himself. +The fort which he built for protection against the Indians, and in which +he resided, is situated a few miles from where Sacramento City now +stands.</p> + +<p>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 travelling; they flow so far below the average level of the +country, which, though exceedingly 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.</p> + +<p>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 travelled down this +valley: the bed of the creek which flowed through it, and all the +ravines, had been dug up, and numbers of cabins stood on the hill-sides; +but at this season the creek was completely dry, and consequently no +mining operations<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_168">{168}</a></span> could be carried on. The cabins were all tenantless, +and the place looked more desolate than if its solitude had never been +disturbed by man.</p> + +<p>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 stopping here for the night, I enjoyed a great treat in the +perusal of a number of late newspapers—among others the <i>Illustrated +News</i>, containing accounts of the Great Exhibition. 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 leading 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 <i>New York Herald</i>, and with the southerners the <i>New Orleans +Delta</i>. The <i>Illustrated News</i> was also a great favourite, 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_169">{169}</a></span> sides looked as though they would slip down into the +river. The face of the mountain by which I descended was covered with a +perfect trellice-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 +opposite 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 down hill. 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.</p> + +<p>I reached the river at last, and, crossing over in a canoe, landed on +the “Bar.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The largest camps or villages on the rivers are on the bars, and take +their names from them.</p> + +<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_170">{170}</a></span> 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 pioneer has seldom shown much invention or originality in +his choice of a name; in most cases he has either immortalised 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 settlement; such as Shirt Tail Cañon, Whisky Gulch, +Port Wine Diggins, Humbug Flat, Murderer’s Bar, Flapjack Canon, Yankee +Jim’s, Jackass Gulch, and hundreds of others with equally ridiculous +names.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 canvass edifice, which, from the huge sign all +along the front, assumed to be the “United States” Hotel. It was not far +from<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_171">{171}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 transient +custom of travellers is merely incidental. The average rate of board per +week at these institutions was twelve or fifteen dollars, and the charge +for a single meal was a dollar, or a dollar and a half.</p> + +<p>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 appetites. At last there could not have been less than sixty +or seventy miners assembled in the bar-room, which was a small canvass +enclosure about twenty feet square. On one side was a rough wooden door +communicating with the <i>salle à manger</i>; 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.</p> + +<p>As twelve o’clock struck the door was drawn aside, displaying the +banqueting hall, an apartment somewhat larger than the bar-room, and +containing two long tables well supplied with fresh beef, potatoes,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_172">{172}</a></span> +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 disappointed ones came out again looking rather +foolish, but they “guessed there would be plenty to eat at the second +table.”</p> + +<p>Having had some experience of such places, I had intended being one of +the second detachment myself, 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.</p> + +<p>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, +determined to enjoy the last lingering after-taste of the good things +they had been eating—rather a disgusting process to a spectator at any +time, but particularly aggravating to hungry men waiting for their +dinner.</p> + +<p>When they had all left the dining-room, the door was again closed while +the table was being relaid. In the mean time there had been constant +fresh arrivals, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_173">{173}</a></span> 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 laboured 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 +immediately on entering I caught sight of a good-looking roast of beef +at the far end of one of the tables, 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 occupying 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_174">{174}</a></span> +me a slice of roast beef, I should have had the hungry number threes +down upon me before I had commenced my dinner.</p> + +<p>Good-humour, 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 favourite weapon with my <i>convives</i>, 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.</p> + +<p>After dinner a smart-looking young gentleman 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_175">{175}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">THE GRIZZLY-BEAR HOUSE—ITS CUISINE—AN ILLINOIS WARRIOR AND THE +MEXICAN CAMPAIGN—A BEAR-HUNTER—BEAR STORIES—GRIZZLIES—SOFT +PILLOWS—“RANCHES”—WILD OATS—GRASSHOPPERS, AND GRASSHOPPER +PASTE—ARRIVAL AT NEVADA CITY—SITUATION AND GENERAL APPEARANCE OF +THE CITY—SUPPER AT THE HÔTEL DE PARIS—A THREE-DECKER—RICHARD +III. AND BOMBASTES FURIOSO.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">I made</span> 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 travelled, 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_176">{176}</a></span></p> + +<p>As I approached, I found it was the Grizzly-Bear House. There could be +no mistake about it, for a strip of canvass, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Before dark, four or five other travellers 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.</p> + +<p>A couple of benches and a table occupied the centre 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, judging from our supper, he was not called upon to +go<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_177">{177}</a></span> through any very difficult manœuvres 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 labours +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.</p> + +<p>After supper, every man lighted his pipe, and though all were +sufficiently talkative, the attention of the whole party became very +soon monopolised by two individuals, who were decidedly the lions of the +evening. One of them was a man from Illinois, who 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 himself. 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 achievements, and disputed the correctness of his +statements.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_178">{178}</a></span> Illinois, however, was too many for them; he was not to be +stumped in that way; he had a stock of authentic facts on hand for any +emergency, with which he corroborated all his previous assertions. The +resistance 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 detailed 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.</p> + +<p>He did not have all the talking to himself, however. 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 adventures of Baron Munchausen were +not a circumstance. He was a dry stringy-looking man, with light hair +and keen grey 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 coloured 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_179">{179}</a></span> 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 disposed of, Illinois immediately went on with his story +as if he had never been interrupted.</p> + +<p>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 +implicit faith so much increased one’s interest in his adventures. 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, loading 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_180">{180}</a></span> 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 everything that was said, +had the temerity to laugh incredulously. The hunter flared up in a +moment. “What are you a-laafin’ at?” he said. “D’ye mean to say I lie?”</p> + +<p>“Oh,” said the other, “if you say it was so, I suppose it’s all right; +you ought to know best. But I warn’t laafin’ at you; I was laafin’ at +the bar.”</p> + +<p>“What do you know about bars?” said the hunter, “Did you ever kill a +bar?”</p> + +<p>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 he went smelling round the stump, till he at last +fell mortally wounded, with I don’t know how many balls in his body.</p> + +<p>The grizzlies are the commonest kind of bear found in California, and +are very large animals, weighing sometimes sixteen or eighteen hundred +pounds.</p> + +<p>Hunting them is rather dangerous sport, as they are extremely tenacious +of life, and when wounded invariably 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_181">{181}</a></span> this ranch the night before, and the hunter was going out the +next day to wreak his vengeance upon them. A grizzly is well worth +killing, as he fetches a hundred dollars or more, according to his +weight. The meat is excellent, but it needs to be well spiced, for in +process of cooking it becomes saturated with bear’s grease. In the +mines, however, pomatum is an article unknown, and so no unpleasantly +greasy ideas occur to one while dining off a good piece of grizzly bear.</p> + +<p>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 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.</p> + +<p>People do not lie a-bed in the morning in California; perhaps they would +not anywhere, if they had no better 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_182">{182}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>We crossed the north fork of the American River at Kelly’s Bar, a very +rocky little place, covered with 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 +Illinoistown, consisting of three shanties and a saw-mill. The +pine-trees in the neighbourhood were of an enormous size, and were being +fast converted into lumber, which was in great demand for various mining +operations, 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.</p> + +<p>These little wayside inns, or “ranches,” as they are<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_183">{183}</a></span> 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 mountains, 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 civilisation. 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 undisturbed, to good frame-houses with +two or three rooms, a boarded floor, and windows, and surrounded by +several acres of cleared land under cultivation.</p> + +<p>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 them into a +paste, somewhat of the consistency of potted shrimps; it may be as +palatable also, but I cannot speak from experience on that point. My +companions, as we travelled 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_184">{184}</a></span> more luxurious, inasmuch as we had canvass bunks or +shelves to sleep upon.</p> + +<p>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 +villanous bad dinner it was—nothing but bad salt pork, bad pickled +onions, and bad bread.</p> + +<p>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 committed 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.</p> + +<p>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 traveller +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_185">{185}</a></span> ravenous after the long walk and the salt-pork dinner. I +found a house bearing the sign of “Hôtel 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 has 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 hill-sides. +The bed of the creek, which had once flowed past the town, was now +choked up with heaps of “trailings”—the washed dirt from which the gold +has been extracted—the white colour 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.</p> + +<p>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 canvass booths, and +log-cabins.</p> + +<p>The only peculiarity about the miners was the white mud with which they +were bespattered, especially those working in underground diggings, who +were easily distinguished by the quantity of dry white mud on the tops +of their hats.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_186">{186}</a></span></p> + +<p>The supper at the Hôtel 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 bouilli, followed by filet-de-bœuf, with +cabbage, carrots, turnips, and onions; after that came what the landlord +called a “god-dam rosbif,” with green pease, and the whole wound up with +a salad of raw cabbage, a cup of good coffee, and cognac. I did +impartial justice to every department, and rose from table powerfully +refreshed.</p> + +<p>The company were nearly all French miners, among whom was a young +Frenchman whom I had known in San Francisco, and whom I hardly +recognised in his miner’s costume.</p> + +<p>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 boarding-house in the mines, but it was a +three-decker. All round the large sleeping-apartment were three tiers of +canvass shelves, partitioned into spaces six feet long, on one of which +I laid myself out, choosing the top tier in case of accidents.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_187">{187}</a></span> 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-two, one-two, a thrust, and down +went Dick. I heard him fall, and could hear him afterwards gasping for +breath and scuffling about on the stage in his dying agonies.</p> + +<p>After King Richard was disposed of, the orchestra, which seemed to +consist of two fiddles, favoured 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.</p> + +<p>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 respective shelves. +They had been at the theatre, but I am sure they had not enjoyed it so +much as I did.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_188">{188}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">PINE-TREES—SUGAR-PINES—WOODPECKERS AND ACORNS—QUARTZ +VEINS—COYOTE DIGGINGS—SPECULATIVE MINING—HIRING OUT—AVERAGE +YIELD OF THE MINES—LOAFERS—AN OLD SAILOR ON A SPREE—START FOR +THE YUBA—VEGETABLES—AN OLD FRIEND—“PACKING”—MEXICAN PACKERS AND +PACK-MULES.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 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, and 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_189">{189}</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>There were several quartz veins in the neighbourhood of Nevada, some of +which were very rich, and yielded a large amount of gold; but, generally +speaking, they were so unscientifically and unprofitably worked that +they turned out complete failures.</p> + +<p>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 capital 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 labour had to be gone through +in opening the mine before any returns could be received; and, moreover, +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.</p> + +<p>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 labour of at least two men for a month or six +weeks; and when they<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_190">{190}</a></span> have got down to the bottom, perhaps they may find +nothing to repay them for their perseverance.</p> + +<p>The miners always calculate their own labour at five dollars a-day for +every day they work, that being the usual wages for hired labour; 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.</p> + +<p>They make up heavy bills of losses against themselves in this way, but +still there are plenty of men who prefer devoting themselves to this +speculative style 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.</p> + +<p>But mining of any description is more or less uncertain, 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 performing other necessary labour to get their claim +into working 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_191">{191}</a></span> before he began to wash, and half the days +of the year he may get no gold at all.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 exciting pursuit as +gold-hunting, constantly stimulated by the success of some one of their +neighbours, it was only natural that they should be loth to relinquish +their chance of a prize in the lottery, by hiring themselves out for an +amount of daily wages, which was no more than any one, if he worked +steadily, could make for himself.</p> + +<p>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 inventive energy +to direct their own labour and render it profitable.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_192">{192}</a></span> +the average daily yield of the mines to the actual population was +probably 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.</p> + +<p>Other men, with more energy in their dissipation, and old sailors +especially, would have periodical bursts, more intense but of shorter +duration. After mining 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 systematically. 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,</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="FARO"> +<a href="images/ill_003.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_003.jpg" width="550" height="327" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK, DEL M & N HANHART, LITH. + +FARO"></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK, DEL <span style="margin-left: 2em;">M & N HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +FARO</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_193">{193}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">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 interfering 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 forenoon, 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 man to +spend on an occasion of this sort, even without 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_194">{194}</a></span>cisco; and there were numbers of men of this description who were +fortunate in their diggings, and became possessed of an amount of gold +of which they could not realise 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 themselves 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Foster’s Bar, about thirty miles off, was the nearest 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, +finding ready sale for his game in Nevada.</p> + +<p>The principal kinds of game in the mountains are deer, quail, hares, +rabbits, and squirrels. The quails, 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.</p> + +<p>My hunting companion was at present going after<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_195">{195}</a></span> deer, and, intending to +stop out till he killed one, he carried his blanket and a couple of +days’ provisions.</p> + +<p>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 pease, French beans, cauliflower, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, +pumpkins, squash, and water-melons. 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.</p> + +<p>I was lighting my pipe in the bar-room after dinner, when a man walked +in whom I recognised 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 +favourable 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 diggings about ten miles off, and our +roads being the same, we set out together.</p> + +<p>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 which turned out +valueless. He had owned a share in a company which was working a claim +on the Yuba,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_196">{196}</a></span> but had sold it for a mere trifle before it was +ascertained whether the claim was rich or not, and it was now yielding +150 dollars a-day to the man.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>“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 to +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_197">{197}</a></span>fully clear water. It was +evidently a favourite camping-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, immediately dismounted and began to unpack, working +with such vigour that one might have thought they were doing it for a +wager.</p> + +<p>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 +manner; the cargo being all ranged along the ground in a row, and +presenting a very miscellaneous assortment 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 <i>aparejos</i>, 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 raw-hide ropes and other lashings, +which are all coiled up and stowed away in a heap by themselves.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_198">{198}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 mules all follow him, and are left to their own +devices till morning.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_199">{199}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">START FOR FOSTER’S BAR—A HARD ROAD TO +TRAVEL—PORTRAIT-PAINTING—FLATTERING LIKENESSES—FOSTER’S +BAR—SLEEPING UNDER DIFFICULTIES—CAMPING OUT—CAMP OF A FLAMING +COMPANY—DANGERS OF SKETCHING—TAKEN FOR A HIGHWAYMAN, AND RAISED +TO THE RANK OF COLONEL—A LONG JOURNEY FOR NOTHING—A SOIREE +MUSICALE IN THE FOREST.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">I arrived</span> 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_200">{200}</a></span> +best way I could, and reaching the river, I was disappointed 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 +travelling over them, and these I followed with considerable difficulty +for about half a mile, when they stopped at a place where the blackened +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.</p> + +<p>I got on very well for a short distance, but very soon lost all sign of +a trail. I was determined, however, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_201">{201}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>At last, after a great deal of scrambling and climbing, my shins barked, +my clothes nearly torn off my back, and my eyes half scratched out by +the bushes, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_202">{202}</a></span> +concluded that I had better think of something else till I reached the +spring.</p> + +<p>The rest of the mountain was not very hard travelling, 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 Missourians say, “you may +just bet <i>your</i> life,” I did drink.</p> + +<p>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 travelled 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_203">{203}</a></span> 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 himself 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 improved 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 +altogether.</p> + +<p>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; while gentlemen +miners were anxious to appear in character, in the most ragged style of +California dress.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_204">{204}</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I could only see one place which purported to be a hotel, and to it I +went. It was a large canvass-house, the front part of which was the +bar-room, and behind it the dining-room. Alongside of the former an +addition 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.</p> + +<p>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 necessary, 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 observed, and the company are rather more +apt to devote themselves to the social enjoyment of drinking, +quarrelling, and kicking up a row generally. In this instance the uproar +beat all my previous experience, and sleeping was out of the question. +The bar-room, I found, was also the gambling-room of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_205">{205}</a></span> 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 expected +to see some of them pitched through the canvass 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.</p> + +<p>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 unlimited supply of brandy all +night, which fully accounted 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.</p> + +<p>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 arrangements, having merely to +boil my pot, and then raking down the fire with my foot, lay a steak on +the embers.</p> + +<p>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 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 colour of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_206">{206}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 immediately dispelled, and half an hour +after sunrise one was glad to get into the shade.</p> + +<p>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 “cañon”), 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_207">{207}</a></span> 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 professional +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.</p> + +<p>Within a few feet of us, and above the level of the camp, the river +rushed past in its wooden bed, spinning round, as it went, a large +water-wheel, by means<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_208">{208}</a></span> 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 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.</p> + +<p>When it was time to turn in, I was shown 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 observe me. I +had no object in speaking to him, especially as, had I hailed him from +my ambuscade, he might have been apt to reply with his revolver.</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="A_FLUME_ON_THE_YUBA"> +<a href="images/ill_004.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_004.jpg" width="550" height="332" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. M & N HANHART, IMP^T + +A “FLUME” ON THE YUBA RIVER."></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">M & N HANHART, IMP^T</span></small> +<br> + +A “FLUME” ON THE YUBA RIVER.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_209">{209}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">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 conciliatory 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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_210">{210}</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 travelled, and the trails were +consequently very indistinct, 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.</p> + +<p>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 determined 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.</p> + +<p>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 endeavouring 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_211">{211}</a></span> 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 words; but if you repeat +the question, as if you really wanted to know the state of their health, +they invariably answer “fuss-rate.” Accordingly, having ascertained 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 disposed to prolong the conversation, I very +quickly bade them adieu and moved on, not being at all partial to such +company.</p> + +<p>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 habitation +before dark. At last, in travelling 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_212">{212}</a></span>-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.</p> + +<p>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 apologised for the meagreness 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 return found that the Indians had taken the opportunity to +steal all their flour.</p> + +<p>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, +favoured me with a selection of Nigger melodies.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The next morning I returned to Foster’s Bar, my friends putting me on a +much shorter trail than the roundabout road I had travelled the day +before.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_213">{213}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">START FOR DOWNIEVILLE—SCENERY AND HABITATIONS ON THE +WAY—DOWNIEVILLE—THE HOUSES, +SALOONS—RESTAURANTS—THEATRES—CONCERTS—“THE FORKS”—“CAPE HORN.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">From</span> Foster’s Bar I set out for Downieville.</p> + +<p>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 +Downieville, and, being travelled 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 +converted 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 colour 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.</p> + +<p>The scenery was very beautiful. The pine-trees were not too numerous to +interrupt the view, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_214">{214}</a></span> 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, 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 +travelled 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 refreshing. 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.</p> + +<p>I stopped all night at Oak Valley, a small camp, consisting of three +cabins and a hotel, and in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_215">{215}</a></span> 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 how the race turned out, I left +them to settle it among themselves, and went on my way.</p> + +<p>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 approach before they come in sight. They were returning +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.</p> + +<p>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 travellers; but as his fortunes prospered, he had built +a very comfortable cabin, which, however, retained the name of the old +establishment.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon I arrived at the place where the trail leaves the +summit of the range, and commences<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_216">{216}</a></span> 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 up hill nearly all the way, and the heat was intense, +but not a drop of water was to be found on the road.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I had heard so much of Downieville, that on reaching the foot of the +mountain I was rather disappointed at first to find it apparently so +small a place, but I very soon discovered that there was a great deal +compressed 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The houses were nearly all of wood, many of them<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_217">{217}</a></span> well-finished +two-storey houses, with columns and verandahs 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.</p> + +<p>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 civilised +place. I was accommodated 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 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 <i>salle à manger</i> was underneath me, and as the floor was very thin, +I had the full benefit of all the conversation of those who indulged 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.</p> + +<p>There was no lack of public amusements in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_218">{218}</a></span> town. The same company +which I had heard in Nevada were performing in a very comfortable little +theatre—not a very highly decorated house, but laid out in the orthodox +fashion, with boxes, pit, and gallery—and a company of American +glee-singers, who had been concertising 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.</p> + +<p>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,” 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.</p> + +<p>Downieville is situated at what is called the Forks of the Yuba River, +and the town itself was frequently<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_219">{219}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>If a river was never to have more than two tributaries, 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 principle, so +that there were half-a-dozen north, middle, and south forks.</p> + +<p>The diggings at Downieville were very extensive; for many miles above it +on each fork there were numbers 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 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.</p> + +<p>One spot in particular was enough to try the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_220">{220}</a></span> 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 below, between his outstretched +legs, the most uninviting jagged rocks, strongly suggestive of sudden +death.</p> + +<p>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 provisions on +their backs, but a great many men had fallen over, and been instantly +killed on the rocks below.</p> + +<p>The last victim, at the time I was there, was a<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_221">{221}</a></span> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_222">{222}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">LYNCH LAW—NECESSITY FOR SUCH AN INSTITUTION IN CALIFORNIA—THE +PROTECTION AFFORDED BY IT—ITS EFFICIENCY FOR THE PREVENTION AND +PUNISHMENT OF CRIME—SUMMARY EXECUTIONS—MANNER OF +EXECUTION—MALADMINISTRATION OF LAW IN SAN FRANCISCO—THE VIGILANCE +COMMITTEE—THE REVOLUTION OF MAY 1856—STATISTICS OF MURDERS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">A few</span> weeks before my arrival there, Downieville had been the scene of +great excitement on one of those occasions when the people took on +themselves the administration and execution of justice.</p> + +<p>A Mexican woman one forenoon had, without provocation, 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.</p> + +<p>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 +afternoon. 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_223">{223}</a></span></p> + +<p>For those whose ideas of the proper mode of administering 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 +infallible,—for such persons it may be difficult to realise a state of +things which should render it necessary, or even excusable, that any +number of irresponsible individuals should exercise a power of life and +death over their fellow-men.</p> + +<p>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 theorising upon abstract principles. 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 ceremony, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_224">{224}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>There were in California the élite 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 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 practise their villany. +But, thanks to Lynch law, murders and robberies, numerous as they were, +were by no means of such frequent occurrence as might have been +expected, considering the opportunities and temptations afforded to such +a large proportion of the population, who were only restrained from +violence by a wholesome regard for the safety of their own necks.</p> + +<p>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 probably the only feeling which deters them, and its<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_225">{225}</a></span> influence 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 +committing 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 circumstance with which it is +attended, divests it in a great measure of the feelings of horror which +it is intended to arouse.</p> + +<p>But when Lynch law prevails, it strikes terror to the heart of the +evil-doer. He has no hazy and undefined 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 protection 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 tribunal 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_226">{226}</a></span> 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 +administered with characteristic promptness and decision. 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.</p> + +<p>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 committed. In some +instances the criminal was run up by a number of men, all equally +sharing the hangman’s duty; on other occasions, one man was appointed to +the office of executioner, and a drop was extemporised 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.</p> + +<p>Not an uncommon mode was, to mount the criminal on a horse or mule, +when, after the rope was adjusted, a cut of a whip was administered to +the back of the animal, and the man was left suspended.</p> + +<p>Petty thefts, which were of very rare occurrence, were punished by so +many lashes with a cow-hide,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_227">{227}</a></span> and the culprit was then banished 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.</p> + +<p>Theft or robbery of any considerable amount, however, was a capital +crime; and horse-stealing, to which the Mexicans more particularly +devoted themselves, was invariably a hanging matter.</p> + +<p>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 increased to +an alarming extent; and from the laxity and corruption of those +intrusted with the punishment 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 impunity which they +enjoyed, that society, in the total inefficiency of the system which it +had instituted for its defence and preservation, threatened to become a +helpless prey to the well-organised gang of ruffians who were every day +becoming more insolent in their career.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_228">{228}</a></span> +influential citizens, and which had the cordial approval, and the active +support, of nearly the entire population of the city.</p> + +<p>The first action of the Committee was to take two men out of gaol who +had already been convicted of murder and robbery, but for the execution +of whose sentence the experience of the past afforded no guarantee. +These two men, when taken out of the gaol, 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.</p> + +<p>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 organisation of +villany, in which several men of comparatively respectable position were +implicated. These were the projectors and designers of elaborate schemes +of wholesale robbery, which the more practical members of the profession +executed under their superintendence; 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 programmes of robberies to come off.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_229">{229}</a></span> 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 +distinguished 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 passenger before +allowing him to land.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Committee, after a very short but very active reign, had so far +accomplished their object of suppressing crime, and driving the scum of +the population out of the city, that they resigned their functions in +favour of the constituted authorities; at the same time, however, +intimating that they remained alert, and only inactive so long as the +ordinary course of law was found effectual.</p> + +<p>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 frightful mal-administration of +criminal law to which they were subjected.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_230">{230}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 +aggravated, 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.</p> + +<p>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 housebreakers.</p> + +<p>To explain the necessity of the revolution which took place in San +Francisco in May ’56 would require 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.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Alta California</i> of San Francisco of the 1st of June is a short +article, which gives such a complete idea of the state of affairs that I +take the liberty to transcribe it. It is written when the Vigilance +Committee, having, a day or two before, hanged two men, are still +actively engaged making numerous arrests; and it is remarkable that just +at this time the authorities actually hang a man too.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_231">{231}</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>Alta</i> announces the fact in the following article:—</p> + +<p>“A man was executed yesterday for murder, after a due compliance with +all the forms of law.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 laboured to +save.</p> + +<p>“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 before 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_232">{232}</a></span> 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 murder case, that, +since the settlement of San Francisco 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.</p> + +<p>“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.</p> + +<p>“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 +monied assassin, as well as from the miserable, the poor, and the +friendless? Such a revolution has been made by the people, and it has +been the inauguration of a new and bright era in our history, 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 +murderer from the punishment he justly merits. It has been brought about +by the very evils it is intended<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_233">{233}</a></span> 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 Committee, no need of a +revolution. Let us hope that in future the law will be no longer a +mockery, but become, what it was intended by its founders to be, ‘a +terror to evil-doers.’<span class="lftspc">”</span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 stabbing each other, and +thus diminishing their own numbers, were rather entitled to the thanks +of the respectable portion of the community.</p> + +<p>It is very certain that in San 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 +committed by the large criminally disposed portion of the community, +consisting of lazy Mexican <i>ladrones</i> and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_234">{234}</a></span> 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 +irresistible, in its action.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_235">{235}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">RAPID GROWTH OF CALIFORNIA—AMOUNT OF LABOUR PERFORMED—LUXURY AND +HARDSHIP—A RAGGED MAN—THE FLYING DUTCHMAN—FOPPERY IN RAGS—A +STUDY—THE TOWER OF BABEL—FRENCHMEN—A +“KESKYDEE”—“DUTCHMEN”—CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN—AN EXTENSIVE VIEW.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Without</span> having visited some distant place in the mountains, such as +Downieville, it was impossible to realise 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 improved 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.</p> + +<p>The men who settled the country imparted to it a good deal of their own +nature, which knows no period<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_236">{236}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The amount of labour which had already been performed in the mines was +almost incredible. Every river and creek from one end to the other +presented 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.</p> + +<p>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 +extensive diggings had been found, towns and villages had sprung up.</p> + +<p>Young as California was, it was in one respect older than its parent +country, for life was so fast that already 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 productive +as the original founders had anticipated.</p> + +<p>Labour, however, was not exclusively devoted to<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_237">{237}</a></span> 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 +mountain-tops, to diggings which were otherwise unavailable.</p> + +<p>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 theatre 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.</p> + +<p>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 realised by his costume. He was a complete +caricature of an<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_238">{238}</a></span> old miner, and quite a picture of himself, seen from +any point of view.</p> + +<p>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 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 left 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 +extraordinary things they must have been on the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_239">{239}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>He was a man between thirty and forty, and, notwithstanding his rags, +there was nothing in his appearance 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 doctor, but it was hard to detect +any foreign accent in his pronunciation.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_240">{240}</a></span> be done at all, and for that reason he was now hurrying back +to his claim. But before leaving me he said, “I saw you sketching from +the trail, and I came down to ask a favour of you.”</p> + +<p>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 meantime not to think of combing his hair, which, indeed, +to judge from its appearance, he had not done for some time.</p> + +<p>I found afterwards that he was a well-known character, and went by the +name of the Flying Dutchman.</p> + +<p>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 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 endeavours 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_241">{241}</a></span> then cursing his own stupidity in German, and +blowing 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>There was a considerable number of Frenchmen in the neighbourhood 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.</p> + +<p>In common intercourse of buying and selling, or asking and giving any +requisite information, neither party were ever very much at a loss; a +few words of broken English, a word or two of French, and a large share +of pantomime, carried them through any conference.</p> + +<p>When any one capable of acting as interpreter happened to be present, +the Frenchman, in his impatience, was constantly asking him “Qu’est ce +qu’il<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_242">{242}</a></span> dit?” “Qu’est ce qu’il dit?” This caught the ear of the Americans +more than anything else, and a “Keskydee” came at last to be a synonyme +for a “Parleyvoo.”</p> + +<p>The “Dutchmen” in the mines, under which denomination 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.</p> + +<p>But in making such a comparison between the Germans 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 ship-loads direct from their native country.</p> + +<p>About thirty miles above Downieville is one of the highest mountains in +the mines. The view from the summit, which is composed of several rocky +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 desirous of seeing it; but +the mountain was on the verge of settlement, and there was no camp or +house of accommodation nearer to it than Downieville. However, the +Frenchman in whose house I was staying<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_243">{243}</a></span> 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 opportunity of returning with him.</p> + +<p>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 repack 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_244">{244}</a></span> 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 mountain branched off, and was about eight miles +distant from the summit.</p> + +<p>When I had got about half-way up, I came in sight of a quartz-grinding +establishment, situated on an exceedingly 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The quartz is already broken up into small pieces before being put into +the raster, and a constant supply 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 considered fine enough, and the gold is then +extracted by amalgamation with quicksilver.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_245">{245}</a></span></p> + +<p>A considerable amount of work had been done at 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 comfortable. I lay down before the fire, with the prospect 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 between 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.</p> + +<p>This pleasant state of things lasted two days, during which time I +remained a prisoner in the cabin, as the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_246">{246}</a></span> 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 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.</p> + +<p>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 macadamised +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 climbing 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_247">{247}</a></span> my feet, +and causing a general commotion from top to bottom. On reaching the top +of this place, after suffering a good 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 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 +labour of the ascent, by the vastness and grandeur of the panorama +around me. I looked back for more than a hundred miles over the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_248">{248}</a></span> +mountainous pine-clad region of the “Mines,” where, from the shapes of +some of the mountains, I could distinguish many of the 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 +distinctly seen.</p> + +<p>On the other side, from which I had made the ascent, there was a sheer +precipice of about two hundred feet, at the foot of which, in eternal +shade, lay 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 atmosphere 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.</p> + +<p>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 +communication with the world below. The perfect solitude of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_249">{249}</a></span> 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 miserably 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 accident, and reached the cabin of my quartz-grinding +friend before dark.</p> + +<p>Here I found there had arrived in the mean time 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 muleloads of hay for the use of the unfortunate animals who +were kept in a state of constant revolution in the “rasters.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_250">{250}</a></span>”</p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">TRAVELLING DOWN THE RIVER—MINING OPERATIONS—THE FLORIDA HOUSE—A +HURDY-GURDY PLAYER—“DEAD-BROKE”—WANDERING HABITS OF THE +MINERS—COIN—EXPRESS COMPANIES—SLATE-RANGE—A CAMP—A “PINE-LOG +CROSSING.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">I returned</span> 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 accessible diggings.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When trains of pack-mules met at this place, they had the greatest +difficulty in passing. The “down<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_251">{251}</a></span> 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, 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 travellers. 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.</p> + +<p>The trail, after passing this spot, kept more among the rocks on the +river-side; and though it was rough travelling, the difficulties of the +way were beguiled by the numbers of miners’ camps through which one +passed, and in observing the different varieties of mining 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 economising labour. The bed +of the river<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_252">{252}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 communicative. He gave me an interesting account of<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_253">{253}</a></span> his California +experiences, and also of his farming operations 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 distinguished characters. I could fancy I saw +the whole 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.</p> + +<p>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 instrument. 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_254">{254}</a></span> 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, however, of my friend, for he had no more +with which to replace them.</p> + +<p>Hurdy-gurdy player or not, he was a very entertaining agreeable fellow. +I only hope all the fraternity 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.</p> + +<p>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, travelling 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_255">{255}</a></span>ped,” “dead-broke”—<i>Anglicé</i>, +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 admitted 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 welcome to everything.</p> + +<p>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 place. There was no such thing as being out of employment, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_256">{256}</a></span> exhausted their funds in travelling 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 themselves 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.</p> + +<p>Coin was very scarce, what there was being nearly all absorbed by the +gamblers, who required it for convenience in carrying on their business. +Ordinary payments were made in gold dust, every store being provided +with a pair of gold scales, in which the miner weighed out sufficient +dust from his buckskin purse to pay for his purchases.</p> + +<p>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 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_257">{257}</a></span> small parcels of value. On the discovery of gold in +California, the Express houses of New York immediately established +agencies in San Francisco, and at once became 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.</p> + +<p>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 business 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.</p> + +<p>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 Government +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 dollar +pieces were not from the United States Mint, but were coined and issued +by private firms in San Francisco.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_258">{258}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 disappeared.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_259">{259}</a></span> over the lonely mountain-trails, with even less +protection than would have been thought necessary in many parts of the +Old World.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +overshadowed 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 purpose of chairs. Scattered about, as was usual in all miners’ +camps, were quantities of empty tins of preserved 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_260">{260}</a></span> provisions, 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 from its original purpose, butter +being perhaps stowed away in a tin labelled “fresh lobsters,” tea in a +powder canister, and salt in a sardine-box.</p> + +<p>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 perpetual 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.</p> + +<p>This part of the river was very rich, the gold being found in the soft +slate rock between the layers and in the crevices.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_261">{261}</a></span> 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, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_262">{262}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">MISSISSIPPI BAR—A CHINESE CAMP—CHINESE MINERS: THEIR MECHANICAL +CONTRIVANCES—THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA—THE RAINY SEASON—A FLOOD +IN THE RIVER—NEVADA CITY—SNOW-STORM—STARVED OUT—“THROWN-UP” +DIRT.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">While</span> at this camp, I went down the river two or three miles to see a +place called Mississippi 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.</p> + +<p>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 without the necessity +of the more expensive operation of lifting up the whole river bodily in +a “flume.”</p> + +<p>The Chinamen’s dam was two or three hundred<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_263">{263}</a></span> 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 concentrating the force of a large number of men upon +one point.</p> + +<p>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 California. A Chinaman could be hired for two, or at most +three dollars a-day by any one who thought their labour 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 completely under control by +some mysterious celestial influence, quite independent of the laws of +the country.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In fact, the Chinese formed a distinct class, which enriched itself at +the expense of the country, abstracting a large portion of its latent +wealth without contributing, in a degree commensurate with their<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_264">{264}</a></span> +numbers, to the prosperity of the community of which they formed a part.</p> + +<p>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 +neighbours; 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 public wealth which he engrosses, and +becomes a public nuisance.</p> + +<p>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 consumptive, were considered by a very large party in +California to be merely destructive as far as that country was +interested.</p> + +<p>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 prevailed; the country +was open to all the world, and the Chinese enjoyed equal rights with the +most favoured nation. In some parts of the mines, however, the miners +had their own ideas on the subject,</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="CHINESE_CAMP"> +<a href="images/ill_005.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_005.jpg" width="550" height="325" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. M & N HANHART, LITH. + +CHINESE CAMP IN THE MINES"></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. <span style="margin-left: 2em;"> M & N HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +CHINESE CAMP IN THE MINES</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_265">{265}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">and would not allow the Chinamen to come among them; but generally they +were not interfered with, for they contented themselves with working +such poor diggings as it was not thought worth while to take from them.</p> + +<p>This claim on the Yuba was the greatest undertaking I ever saw attempted +by them.</p> + +<p>They expended a vast deal of unnecessary labour in their method of +working, and their individual labour, 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 were about a hundred and fifty Chinamen humbugging +round it all the season, and still had not worked one half the ground.</p> + +<p>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 labour, and, moreover, +very ineffective.</p> + +<p>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, hingeing on each other, with cross-pieces +in the middle for buckets, having about six square inches of surface. +The hinges fitted exactly 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_266">{266}</a></span> 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 labour 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 Chinamen could throw in a day with +a dozen of these gimcrack 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 pots and dishes, +from which they helped themselves with their chopsticks. In the centre +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.</p> + +<p>I received several invitations to dinner, but declined 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_267">{267}</a></span> 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 heavens. The store was like other stores in +the mines, inasmuch 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The very day, however, on which I was to start, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_268">{268}</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>The house I was staying in was the only one in the neighbourhood, and +was a sort of half store, half boarding-house. Several miners lived in +it, and there were, besides, two or three storm-stayed travellers 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, however, 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 sweeping 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 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_269">{269}</a></span> moment for clearing out should arrive, while axes also +were kept in readiness, to smash through the back of the house, which +rested on <i>terra firma</i>. It was an exceedingly dark night, very cold, +and raining 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.</p> + +<p>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 +drift-wood. On landing on the other side, we struck straight up the face +of the mountain, and soon gained the high land, where we found a few +inches of snow fast disappearing before the still powerful rays of the +sun.</p> + +<p>We arrived at Nevada after a day and a half of very muddy travelling, +but the weather was bright<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_270">{270}</a></span> and clear, and seemed to be a renewal of the +dry season. 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 +hurdy-gurdy player, while carrying flour down to their camps on the +river; and in some places people<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_271">{271}</a></span> saved themselves from starvation by +eating dogs and mules.</p> + +<p>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 harbour 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 were 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, playing cards, and gambling.</p> + +<p>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 having 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_272">{272}</a></span> already in the pocket of the owner. In +whatever place a man threw up a pile of dirt, he might leave it 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_273">{273}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">START FOR SAN FRANCISCO—A JOURNEY—FLOOD—MARYSVILLE—THE PLAINS +UNDER WATER—“DROWNED OUT” SQUATTERS—SACRAMENTO—SAILING IN THE +STREETS—DEAD RATS—SAN FRANCISCO—CHANGES SINCE THE YEAR +BEFORE—FINE WEATHER—THE CLIMATE.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">I had</span> occasion to return to San Francisco at this time, and the journey +was about the most unpleasant I ever performed. The roads had been +getting worse all the time, and were quite impassable for stages or +waggons. 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.</p> + +<p>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 were hidden +under three or four feet of snow. We occasionally, however, got the +benefit of a narrow path, trodden down<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_274">{274}</a></span> by other travellers; 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 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 crossing the rolling country between the mountains +and the plains, where the water did not run off so quickly.</p> + +<p>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 considerable +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_275">{275}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 which was, that in the morning we were stiff and +sore all over. However, after walking a short distance, we got rid of +this sensation—receiving a fresh ducking from the rain, which continued +to fall as heavily as ever.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_276">{276}</a></span> sorry to reach <i>terra firma</i> +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.</p> + +<p>From this point to Marysville the country was still more flooded. We +passed several teams, which, in a vain endeavour to get up to the +mountains with supplies, were hopelessly stuck in the mud at the bottom +of the hollows, with only the rim of the wheels appearing above water.</p> + +<p>Marysville is a city of some importance: being situated at the head of +navigation, it is the depôt and 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 cheering. The first idea<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_277">{277}</a></span> which occurred to me on beholding it was +that of rheumatism, and the second fever and ague; but I was glad to +find myself here, nevertheless, if only to experience once more the +sensation of having on dry clothes.</p> + +<p>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 starvation on insulated spots, from which +there was no escape.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It would have been difficult to keep to the channel of the river, had it +not been for the trees appearing on each side, and the numbers of +squatters’ shanties 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.</p> + +<p>On the tops of the cabins and sheds, on piles of firewood, or up in the +trees, were fowls calmly waiting 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 squat<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_278">{278}</a></span>ters 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 alongside 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 possible. They looked intensely miserable, though they would not +own it, for they gave us a very feigned and uncheery hurrah as we +steamed past.</p> + +<p>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, Californians are proof against all such +reverses,—they are like India-rubber, the more severely they are cast +down, the higher they rise afterwards.</p> + +<p>It was hardly possible to conceive what an amount 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_279">{279}</a></span> before the waters could subside, as +the snow which had fallen in the mountains had yet to find its way down, +and would serve to keep up the flood.</p> + +<p>Sacramento City was in as wretched a plight as a city can well be in.</p> + +<p>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; watermen plied for hire in the streets instead of +cabs, and independent gentlemen poled themselves about on rafts, or on +extemporised 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 harnessed 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 grounding 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_280">{280}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It seemed to cause very little interruption to the usual order of things +in hotels, theatres, 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 mean time 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 +endeavouring to compute how many millions of rats would be drowned.</p> + +<p>On arriving in San Francisco the change was very great—it was like +entering a totally different country. In place of cold and rain and +snow, flooded towns, and no dry land, or snowed-up towns in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_281">{281}</a></span> +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 time the +greater part of it had been burned down and rebuilt. The appearance of +most of the principal 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 +side-walks, 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.</p> + +<p>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 certainly 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_282">{282}</a></span> 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 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, especially as the wind +not unfrequently brings a damp fog along with it.</p> + +<p>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 everything +within the range of vision is as clearly and distinctly seen as if one +were looking upon a flat surface, and could equally examine each +separate part of it, so satisfactory and so minute in detail is the view +of the most distant objects.</p> + +<p>Considering the very frequent use of pistols in San Francisco, it is a +most providential circumstance that<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_283">{283}</a></span> the climate is in a high degree +favourable 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_284">{284}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">THE NORTHERN AND THE SOUTHERN MINES—SPRING—THE MINES +INEXHAUSTIBLE—PRODUCE OF GOLD—JACKSONVILLE—A PET +BEAR—MOQUELUMNE HILL—THE POPULATION—THE HOUSES—INDIANS: THEIR +ULTIMATE FATE—A BULL-AND-BEAR FIGHT—TRAPPING BEARS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> long tract of mountainous country lying north and south, which +comprises the mining districts, is divided into the northern and +southern mines—the former having communication with San Francisco +through Sacramento and Marysville, while the latter are more accessible +by way of Stockton, a city situated at the head of navigation of the San +Joaquin, which joins the Sacramento about fifty miles above San +Francisco.</p> + +<p>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 <i>en route</i>.</p> + +<p>It was about the end of March when I started. The winter was quite over; +all that remained of it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_285">{285}</a></span> 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 sunshine with many-coloured 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 +constant, and where the diggings could consequently be worked at any +time of the year, they had expanded themselves over the whole face of +the country; and in travelling through the depths of the forests, just +as the solitude seemed to be perfect, one got a glimpse in the distance, +through the dark columns 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 realise 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 becoming 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 labour of constantly +increasing num<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_286">{286}</a></span>bers 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.</p> + +<p>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, however, 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 betake +themselves to mining, the rest finding equally profitable occupation in +the various branches of mechanical 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 civilised life, which he obtains at a +reasonable rate, instead of being reduced to a half-savage state, and +having to pay fabulous prices for every article of consumption.</p> + +<p>The first large camp on my way south from Hangtown was Moquelumne Hill, +about sixty miles distant, and as there were no very interesting +localities in the intermediate country, I travelled direct to that<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_287">{287}</a></span> +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 as 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.</p> + +<p>As I walked up the town I nearly stumbled over a young grizzly bear, +about the size of two Newfoundland 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 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 property, worth a good deal more than the same +weight of bear’s meat in California, even at two dollars a-pound.</p> + +<p>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 +ascending again to the upper world by a long winding road, I reached the +town of Moquelumne Hill, which<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_288">{288}</a></span> is situated on the very brink of the +high land overhanging the river.</p> + +<p>It lies in a sort of semicircular amphitheatre 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 accordingly covered with windlasses and heaps +of dirt. The heights at each end of the amphitheatre 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.</p> + +<p>The population was a mixture of equal proportions of French, Mexicans, +and Americans, with a few stray Chinamen, Chilians, and suchlike.</p> + +<p>The town itself, with the exception of two or three wooden stores and +gambling saloons, was all of canvass. Many of the houses were merely +skeletons clothed in dirty rags of canvass, and it was not difficult to +tell what part of the population they belonged to, even had there not +been crowds of lazy Mexicans vegetating about the doors.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_289">{289}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>But perhaps their appreciation of monte, and their desire to copy the +costume of white men, are signs of a greater capability of civilisation +than they generally get credit for. Still their presence is not +compatible with that of a civilised 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 +cannot be turned to account, they must move off, and make way for their +betters.</p> + +<p>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 possible 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_290">{290}</a></span> road-side as I travelled over the mountains. They were to this +effect:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="c"> + +“<span class="smcap">War! War!! War!!!</span><br> +<br> +The celebrated Bull-killing Bear,<br> +GENERAL SCOTT,<br> +will fight a Bull on Sunday the 15th inst., at 2 <small>P.M.</small>,<br> +at Moquelumne Hill.<br> +</p> + +<p>“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 ‘<i>not sawed off to +prevent accidents</i>.’ The Bull will be quite free in the arena, and +not hampered in any way whatever.”</p></div> + +<p>The proprietors then went on to state that they had nothing to do with +the humbugging which characterised the last fight, and begged +confidently to assure the public that this would be the most splendid +exhibition ever seen in the country.</p> + +<p>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 +towards the arena, among a crowd of miners and others of all nations, to +witness the performances of the redoubted General Scott.</p> + +<p>The amphitheatre 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 centre +was forty feet in diameter, and enclosed by a very strong five-barred +fence. From the top of this<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_291">{291}</a></span> rose tiers of seats, occupying the space +between the arena and the outside enclosure.</p> + +<p>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 colour—performed a variety of appropriate airs.</p> + +<p>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 objects were the shirts of the miners, +red, white, and blue being the fashionable colours, among which appeared +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 mountain +beyond mountain fading away in the distance, and on the green turf of +the arena lay the great centre of attraction, the hero of the day, +General Scott.</p> + +<p>He was, however, not yet exposed to public gaze, but was confined in his +cage, a heavy wooden box<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_292">{292}</a></span> lined with iron, with open iron-bars on one +side, which for the present was boarded over. From the centre 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.</p> + +<p>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 betting was all in his favour. Some of +my neighbours gave it as their opinion, that there was “nary bull in +Calaforny as could whip that bar.”</p> + +<p>At last, after a final tattoo had been beaten on a gong to make the +stragglers hurry up the hill, preparations were made for beginning the +fight.</p> + +<p>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 +connected with the face of it, it was dragged out of the ring, when, as +his chain only allowed him to come<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_293">{293}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The General, in the mean time, 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.</p> + +<p>The bull was a very beautiful animal, of a dark purple colour 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_294">{294}</a></span> him and his pen, smashing +through them with as 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 furiously 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.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, the bear, lying on his back, held the bull’s nose +firmly between his teeth, and embraced him round the neck with his +fore-paws, while the bull made the most of his opportunities in stamping +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 +promiscuous scuffle ensued, which resulted in the bear throwing his +antagonist to the ground with his fore-paws.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_295">{295}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 +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, disengaging himself, retired to the other side of the +ring, while the bear again crouched down in his hole.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_296">{296}</a></span> 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 combat; 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 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.</p> + +<p>In the next round both parties fought more savagely than ever, and the +advantage was rather in favour of the bear: the bull seemed to be quite +used up, and to have lost all chance of victory.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 me, who was a connoisseur +in bear-fights, and passionately fond of</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="BULL-FIGHT"> +<a href="images/ill_006.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_006.jpg" width="550" height="333" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK, DELD. M. & H. HANHART, LITH. + +BULL & BEAR FIGHT."></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK, DELD. <span style="margin-left: 2em;"> M. & H. HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +BULL & BEAR FIGHT.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_297">{297}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">the amusement, informed me that this was “the finest fight ever fit in +the country.”</p> + +<p>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 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, wheeling 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The reader can form his own opinion as to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_298">{298}</a></span> character of an +exhibition such as I have endeavoured 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.</p> + +<p>In these bull-and-bear fights the bull sometimes 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.</p> + +<p>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 +humour. 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 thinking 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_299">{299}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>He did not seem to be much the worse of the battle, having but one +wound, and that appeared to be only skin deep.</p> + +<p>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 labour and constant watching.</p> + +<p>A spot is chosen in some remote part of the mountains, 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, constructed of pine +logs, and fastened after the manner 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 suspended +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 accommodation, 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 remain in the neighbourhood, and keep a +sharp look-out.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_300">{300}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 persuaded 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_301">{301}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">WANT OF WATER—CANALS—ENGINEERING DIFFICULTIES—VOLCANO +DIGGINGS—BOILING DIRT—NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN MINES—DIFFERENCE IN +SCENERY, GOLD, AND INHABITANTS—VISIT TO A CAVE—WHIST AND +CHESS—MEXICAN HORSE-THIEVES—CROSSING THE MOQUELUMNE—CHILIAN +MINERS—AN INDIAN CAVALCADE.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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 introduced, 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 elevation 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_302">{302}</a></span> of +country through which the canal would pass, that the speculation was +considered sure to be successful; and a company 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.</p> + +<p>This was only one of many such undertakings in California, some of which +were even on a larger scale. 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 aqueducts, 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 costing +about seven dollars a-day.</p> + +<p>I remained a few days at Moquelumne Hill in a holey old canvass hotel, +which freely admitted both wind and water; but in this respect it was +not much worse than its neighbours. A French physician resided 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 an<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_303">{303}</a></span>nouncement, +in letters as large as the space admitted of—</p> + +<p class="c"> +“<span class="smcap">Pharmacien de Paris.<br> +Drugs and Medicines.<br> +Botica.<br> +Doctor—Dentiste.<br> +Cold Cream.<br> +Destruction to Rats.<br> +Mort aux Souris.</span>”<br> +</p> + +<p>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 unfrequented part of the country where the trails were very +indistinct.</p> + +<p>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 surface, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_304">{304}</a></span> to +boiling it in large boilers, which was found to dissolve it very +quickly.</p> + +<p>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-coloured +layers round a beautifully-crystallised cavity in the centre, the whole +being enveloped in a rough outside crust an inch in thickness. The +colours are more various and the veins closer together 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.</p> + +<p>This place lay north of Moquelumne Hill, and might be called the most +southern point of the northern mines.</p> + +<p>Between the scenery of the northern mines and that 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_305">{305}</a></span> ravines. An acre of +level land is hardly to be found. The difference, however, exists in +this, that in the north the mountains themselves, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As might be expected from this circular formation, the rivers in the +south do not follow such a sharp zigzag 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_306">{306}</a></span></p> + +<p>Besides this great change in the appearance of the country, one could +not fail to observe also, in travelling south, the equally marked +difference in the inhabitants. In the north, one saw occasionally some +straggling Frenchmen and other European foreigners, here and there a +party of Chinamen, and a few Mexicans 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.</p> + +<p>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 population. +The Americans, however, were of course greatly the majority, but even +among them one remarked the comparatively small number of Missourians +and such men, who are so conspicuous in the north.</p> + +<p>There was still another difference in a very important 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 of the north afford very +rich diggings, while<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_307">{307}</a></span> in the south they are comparatively poor, and the +richest deposits are found in the flats and other surface-diggings on +the highlands.</p> + +<p>In the north there were no such canvass towns as Moquelumne Hill. +Log-cabins and frame-houses were the rule, and canvass the exception; +while in the southern mines the reverse was the case, excepting in some +of the larger towns.</p> + +<p>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 inhabiting 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 +settlements in Oregon.</p> + +<p>In the neighbourhood of Volcano there is a curious cave, which I went to +visit with two or three miners.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_308">{308}</a></span> The entrance to it is among some large +rocks on the bank of the creek, and is a hole in the ground just 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 accomplished 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 immense 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 stalactites, 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 petrified waterfall.</p> + +<p>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 progression 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.</p> + +<p>At the hotel I stayed at here I found very agreeable company; most of +the party were Texans, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_309">{309}</a></span> 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 favourite games being poker, +eucre, and all-fours, or “seven up,” as 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 civilised country.</p> + +<p>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 +Moquelumne Hill on my way south.</p> + +<p>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 travelled, 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 seve<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_310">{310}</a></span>ral miles above the bridge where I had crossed it +before.</p> + +<p>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 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.</p> + +<p>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 crossing 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_311">{311}</a></span> to keep perfectly +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.</p> + +<p>After climbing the steep mountain-side and walking 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 characterising the southern mines.</p> + +<p>I went on the next morning to San Andres by a road which winded 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 labour; 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 labour rendered tenfold +more effective.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_312">{312}</a></span></p> + +<p>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, another had the remains of a shirt and one +boot, while another was fully equipped in an old hat and a waistcoat: +but the most conspicuous and generally worn articles of costume were the +coloured cotton handkerchiefs with which they bandaged up their heads. +As they passed they looked down upon me with an air of patronising +condescension, saluting me with the usual “wally wally,” in just such a +tone that I could imagine them saying to themselves at the same time, +“Poor devil! he’s only a white man.”</p> + +<p>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 neighbouring tribe. They were evidently anticipating a +pleasant time, for I never before saw Indians exhibiting such boisterous +good-humour.</p> + +<p>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 fortunately 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_313">{313}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">SAN ANDRES—A RAGGED CAMP—MEXICANS—GAMBLING-ROOMS—MUSIC—A +CHURCH—THROWING THE LASSO—LYNCH LAW—AN EXECUTION—ANGEL’S +CAMP—CHINESE—A BALL—THE “LANCERS”—THE HIGHLAND FLING.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> one can imagine the booths and penny theatres 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.</p> + +<p>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’hôte.</p> + +<p>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 Mexi<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_314">{314}</a></span>can +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.</p> + +<p>The sleeping apartments in the hotel itself were all full, and I had to +take a cot in a tent on the other 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 Frenchman, 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.</p> + +<p>There was one canvass 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 decorated with as much display as circumstances +admitted, being draped with the commonest kind of coloured 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 +favourite brands.</p> + +<p>I went in on Sunday morning while service was<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_315">{315}</a></span> 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, naturally kept in the background near the +door, excepting two great hulking fellows who came swaggering in, and +jostled their way through the crowd of Mexicans, making it evident, from +their demeanour, that 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 standing 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, afterwards 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_316">{316}</a></span> in among the herd, and swinging the +<i>reatu</i> 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 endeavours to escape, the +bull then gallops round in a circle, of which the centre 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 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 animal +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.</p> + +<p>The lasso is about twenty yards long, made of strips of raw hide +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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_317">{317}</a></span> saddles are well adapted for this sort of work, and the +Mexicans are unquestionably splendid horsemen, though they ride too long +for English ideas, the knee being hardly bent at all.</p> + +<p>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 unfortunately 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 ceremonies of an execution by Judge Lynch; +and though 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.</p> + +<p>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 convicted, and was sentenced to be hung. On +being<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_318">{318}</a></span> 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, “<span class="lftspc">’</span>stá 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.</p> + +<p>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 forgiveness for the numerous acts of villany to which he had +already confessed, and politely took leave of the world with “Adios, +caballeros.” He was then run up to a butcher’s derrick by the Vigilance +Committee, all the members having hold of the rope, and thus sharing the +responsibility of the act.</p> + +<p>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 canvass towns as these two places, where there was such a +population of worthless Mexican <i>canaille</i>, who were too lazy to work +for an honest livelihood.</p> + +<p>I went on in a few days to Angel’s Camp, a village<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_319">{319}</a></span> some miles farther +south, composed of well-built wooden houses, and altogether a more +respectable and civilised-looking place than San Andres. The inhabitants +were nearly all Americans, which no doubt accounted for the +circumstance.</p> + +<p>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 barbarian 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 gave me +some of their cigaritas, the tobacco of which is aromatic, and very +pleasant to smoke, though wrapped up in too much paper.</p> + +<p>The Chinese invariably treated in the same hospitable manner any one who +visited their camps, and seemed rather pleased than otherwise at the +interest and curiosity excited by their domestic arrangements.</p> + +<p>In the evening, a ball took place at the hotel I<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_320">{320}</a></span> 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 indebted 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 +command; 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.</p> + +<p>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, 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 customers stood around, cheering them</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="A_BALL_IN_THE_MINES"> +<a href="images/ill_007.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_007.jpg" width="550" height="323" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. M & N HANHART, LITH. + +A BALL IN THE MINES."></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. <span style="margin-left: 2em;"> M & N HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +A BALL IN THE MINES.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_321">{321}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">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, +besides, gave plenty of exercise to the light fantastic toes of the +dancers; for here men danced, as they did everything else, with all +their might; and to go through the “Lancers” in such company was a very +severe gymnastic exercise. The absence of ladies was a difficulty which +was very easily overcome, by a simple arrangement 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 +canvass, 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.</p> + +<p>A <i>pas seul</i> 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 coating of flour which he had acquired in his +present<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_322">{322}</a></span> 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 drank with all the men +who then sought the honour of “treating” him, he would never have lived +to tread another measure.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_323">{323}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">CARSON’S HILL—RICH QUARTZ MINE—MEXICAN MODE OF WORKING IT—THE +QUARTZ VEIN OF CALIFORNIA—GOLD DEPOSITS—THE STANISLAUS +RIVER—FERRIES AND BRIDGES—SONORA—THE HOUSES AND +INHABITANTS—HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS—A KNOWING CHINAMAN—THE +POLICE—GENTLEMEN’S FASHIONS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">From</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +“<span class="lftspc">’</span>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_324">{324}</a></span> 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 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 mean time the lawyers were the only +parties who were making anything out of it.</p> + +<p>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 +experienced 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 me<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_325">{325}</a></span>n’s +shoulders, who had to make the ascent by climbing a succession of these +poles. The quartz was then conveyed on pack-mules down to the river by a +circuitous trail, which had been cut on the steep side of the mountain, +and was there ground in the primitive Mexican style in “rasters.” The +whole operation seemed to be conducted at a most unnecessary expenditure +of labour; but the mine was rich, and, even worked in this way, it +yielded largely to the owners.</p> + +<p>Numerous small wooden crosses were placed throughout the mine, in niches +cut in the rock for their reception, 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 wildflowers which grew around +in the greatest profusion. In fact, it was a gigantic cruciform nosegay, +the various colours of which were arranged with a great deal of taste.</p> + +<p>This mine is on the great quartz vein which traverses the whole State of +California. It has a direction north-east and south-west, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_326">{326}</a></span> and there, running up a hill-side like a colossal +stonewall, and then disappearing for many miles, till, true to its +course, it again shows itself crowning the summit of some conical-shaped +mountain, and appearing in the distant view like so many short white +strokes, all forming parts of the same straight line.</p> + +<p>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 neighbourhood of quartz veins, but not +invariably so, for different local causes must have operated to assist +the gold in travelling from its original starting-point.</p> + +<p>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 high-lands 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 mountains +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.</p> + +<p>I crossed the Stanislaus—a large river, which does not at any part of +its course afford very rich diggings—by a ferry which was the property +of two or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_327">{327}</a></span> 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 opposing force of the +cable, she travelled rapidly across the river, very much on the same +principle on which a ship holds her course with the wind a-beam.</p> + +<p>Ferries or bridges, on much-travelled 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 +consequence, a line of travel had commenced. But very frequently more +easy routes were found than the one 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 +travelling custom by improving the roads which led to their respective +ferries.</p> + +<p>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 waggon-road, more than a mile in length, from the river to +the summit of the mountain.</p> + +<p>After ascending by this road and travelling five or<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_328">{328}</a></span> six miles over a +rolling country covered with magnificent 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 canvass, and one or two +were solid buildings of sun-dried bricks. The lower end of the town was +very peculiar in appearance as compared with the prevailing style of +California 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 +staircases outside the houses, the corridors round each storey, 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 latter were all front, and gave the idea of a much better house than +the small rickety clapboard or canvass concern which was concealed +behind it. But these façades were useful as well as ornamental, and were +intended to support the large signs, which conveyed an immense deal of +useful information. Some small stores, in fact, seemed bursting with +intelligence, and were broken out all over with short spasmodic +sentences in English, French, Spanish, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_329">{329}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Sonora is situated in the centre of an extremely rich mining country, +more densely populated than any other part of the mines. In the +neighbourhood are a number of large villages, one of which, Columbia, +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 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 vigour, they +spent most of their time in the passive enjoy<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_330">{330}</a></span>ment of their cigaritas, +or in playing monte, and were consequently very soon run over and driven +off the field by the rush of more industrious and resolute men.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I got very comfortable quarters in one of the French hotels, of which +there were several in the town, besides a number of good American +houses, German restaurants, where lager-bier was drunk by the gallon; +Mexican fondas, which had an exceedingly greasy look about them; and +also a Chinese house, where everything 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,” he said, +very indignantly, “only hired woman—China woman; hired<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_331">{331}</a></span> 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 disappeared—probably went to show herself +in other diggings.</p> + +<p>One could live here in a way which seemed perfectly 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 +civilisation, was seeing a drunken man, who was kicking up a row in the +street, deliberately 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 infringement +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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_332">{332}</a></span> intercourse with his fellow-men. There +was nothing to distinguish him 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.</p> + +<p>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 colours 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 prevailing 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 appear 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;<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_333">{333}</a></span> 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 unpleasing addition to the +crowd, of which the Mexicans themselves formed a conspicuous part in +their variegated blankets and broad-brimmed hats. There were men in +<i>bonnets rouges</i> and <i>bonnets bleus</i>, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_334">{334}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">A BULL-FIGHT—RIDING THE BULL—KILLING WITH THE SWORD—A +MAGICIAN—NECROMANCY IN THE MINES—TABLE MOUNTAIN—SHAW’S FLATS.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">A company</span> of Mexican bull-fighters were at this time performing in +Sonora every Sunday afternoon. The amphitheatre was a large well-built +place, erected for the purpose on a small hill behind 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.</p> + +<p>I took the first opportunity of witnessing the spectacle, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_335">{335}</a></span> satin jackets and knee-breeches, slashed and embroidered with bright +colours. 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 of the door by which the +bull was to enter. The door was then opened, and the bull rushed in, the +horseman 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 gracefully 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 skipping 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 catching hold +of his tail before he could turn round.</p> + +<p>After this exhibition one of the horsemen endeavoured 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 struggled +against each other, the horse pushing against the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_336">{336}</a></span> 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 footmen were fluttering their flags +in his face and diverting his fury, while the horseman got another lance +and returned to the charge.</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards the footmen laid aside their 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_337">{337}</a></span> +applause, the Mexican part of the audience screaming with delight.</p> + +<p>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 the horns of a wild bull at every +step they executed. During the latter part of the performance, being +without their red flags, 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 manœuvre round him, they sprang over it +in among the spectators.</p> + +<p>The next thing in the programme 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_338">{338}</a></span> bull in such a way as to secure his seat, when the animal +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 violently in +every way, as he vainly endeavours 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 shaking their flags in his face, and putting more squibs on his +neck. It seemed to be the grand climax; 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_339">{339}</a></span> 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, without 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.</p> + +<p>A long straight sword was then handed to the <i>matador</i>, 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 +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.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_340">{340}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 practise 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 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 practising his profession in +such a place as the mines, where complete privacy was so hard to be +obtained that he was obliged to practise the most secret parts of his +mysterious science<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_341">{341}</a></span> in all sorts of ragged canvass 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 substitute 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.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>As he intended very soon to resume his practice, he 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_342">{342}</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 surrounding 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. No one at +that time had thought of working this</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="SHAWS_FLATS"> +<a href="images/ill_008.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_008.jpg" width="550" height="333" alt="J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. M & N HANHART, LITH. + +SHAW’S FLATS."></a> +<br> +<span class="caption"><small>J. D. BORTHWICK DELT. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">M & N HANHART, LITH.</span></small> +<br> + +SHAW’S FLATS.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page_343">{343}</a></span></p> + +<p class="nind">place, but it has since been discovered to be immensely rich.</p> + +<p>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 +miners’ tents and shanties.</p> + +<p>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 composed 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_344">{344}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">FIRE IN SONORA—RAPID PROGRESS OF THE FIRE, AND TOTAL DESTRUCTION +OF THE TOWN—THE BURNED-OUT INHABITANTS—DEATHS BY FIRE—REBUILDING +OF THE TOWN.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">While</span> I was in Sonora, the entire town, with the greater part of the +property it contained, was utterly annihilated by fire.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I ran down stairs to lend a hand to clear the house, and in the bar-room +I found the landlady, <i>en deshabille</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_345">{345}</a></span>ing fiercely, sacréing 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 carrying out whatever was nearest. +The other inmates 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 “Ouisqui.”</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_346">{346}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 +hill-side was lighted up as brightly as a well-lighted room, and the +surrounding landscape was distinctly seen by the blaze of the burning +town, the hills standing brightly out from the deep black of the +horizon, while overhead the glare of the fire was reflected by the smoky +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>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 waiting its fate, for water there was +none, and no resistance 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.</p> + +<p>There was an occasional flash and loud explosion,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_347">{347}</a></span> 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 numbers 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 whirlwind of +flame, in which coats, shirts, and blankets were carried up fifty or +sixty feet in the air, and became dissolved into a thousand sparkling +atoms.</p> + +<p>Among the crowds of people on the hill-side there was little of the +distress and excitement one might have expected to see on such an +occasion. The houses and stores had been gutted as far as practicable 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.</p> + +<p>The greater part of the people, it is true, were individuals 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 property 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_348">{348}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 smouldering 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.</p> + +<p>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 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 endeavouring 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.</p> + +<p>The owners of the houses, however, were “on hand,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_349">{349}</a></span>” 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 disregarded.</p> + +<p>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, found themselves so heartily denounced that they +thought it advisable to sneak off as fast as possible.</p> + +<p>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 building 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, immediately made arrangements for occupying this room, which, +from its isolated position, seemed safe enough; and into this place he +succeeded in moving the greater<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_350">{350}</a></span> 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, dealing +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 cocktails +for the thirsty throats of the million.</p> + +<p>No time was lost by the rest of the population. The hot and smoky ground +was alive with men clearing away rubbish; others were in the woods +cutting down trees and getting out posts and brushwood, or procuring +canvass and other supplies from the neighbouring camps.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon the Phœnix 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 cross pieces connected +them; and before one could look round, 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 canvass or a brush house, built +themselves a sort of pen of boxes and casks of merchandise.</p> + +<p>The fire originated in a French hotel, and among<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_351">{351}</a></span> 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 +expressive 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 unfortunate 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 find +some hard bread, so we did not fare very badly; and at night we lay down +on the bare hill-side, and shared that vast apartment with two or three +thousand fellow-lodgers. Happy was the man who had saved his +blankets,—mine had gone as a small con<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_352">{352}</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>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 canvass 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_353">{353}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">THE FOURTH OF JULY—THE PROCESSION—THE CELEBRATION—THE ORATION—A +BULL-FIGHT—A LADY BULL-FIGHTER—NATURAL BRIDGES.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> 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 celebration for all the surrounding country.</p> + +<p>Early in the forenoon an immense concourse of people had assembled to +take part in the proceedings, and were employing themselves in the mean +time in drinking success to the American Eagle, in the numerous 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 continual discharge of +revolvers, and a vast expenditure of powder in squibs and crackers, +together with an unlimited consumption of brandy. But this was only the +overflowing of individual enthusiasm; the regu<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_354">{354}</a></span>lar programme was a +procession, a prayer, and an oration.</p> + +<p>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 +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 horsemen, 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.</p> + +<p>Another mob of miners brought up the rear, drawing after them a long-tom +on a pair of wheels. In the tom was a lot of “dirt,” which one man +stirred up with his shovel, as if he were washing, while a number of +others alongside were hard at work throwing in imaginary shovelfuls of +dirt.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_355">{355}</a></span></p> + +<p>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, particularly of his <i>cuisine</i>; and the party of +miners at work around the long-tom 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 hands, or stout hands and willing hearts—it amounts +to much the same thing.</p> + +<p>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-tom, they +were immensely cheered by the crowds who had already taken their seats, +the band in the mean time playing “Hail Columbia” most lustily.</p> + +<p>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 bunkum +about the Pilgrim Fathers, and Plymouth Rock, the “Blarney-stone of +America,” as the Americans call it. George the Third and his<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_356">{356}</a></span> +“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.</p> + +<p>The speech was full of American and local phraseology, 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 neighbour, an old +Yankee, informed me that, in his opinion, “them Pilgrim Fathers were no +better than their neighbours; 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.”</p> + +<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_357">{357}</a></span></p> + +<p>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 <i>éclat</i>.</p> + +<p>It was announced in the bills that the celebrated lady bull-fighter, the +Señorita Ramona Perez, would despatch a bull with the sword. This +celebrated señorita, however, turned out to be only the chief <i>matador</i>, +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 received him with shouts of laughter—mixed with hisses and curses, +however, for there were some who had been true believers in the +señorita; but the infidels were the majority, and, thinking it a good +joke, enjoyed it accordingly. The señorita 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 gracefully +into the back of his neck, and, hardly condescending to wait to see +whether she had killed or not, she dropped both sword and flag, and ran<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_358">{358}</a></span> +out of the arena, curtseying, and kissing her hand to the spectators, +after the manner of a ballet-dancer leaving the stage.</p> + +<p>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 señorita herself who was +risking her precious life by such a very ladylike performance.</p> + +<p>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 travelled 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 much more beautiful natural curiosities than +I had imagined them to be.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_359">{359}</a></span> 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 perpendicular, presenting an entrance like a +church door, about twelve feet high, surrounded by huge stony +fungus-like excrescences, of a dark purple-and-green colour. 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 reflection 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 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,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_360">{360}</a></span> 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-turning 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-colour, 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, and which would have passed for a pulpit, overhung as +it was by a projection of a similar nature, spreading out from the wall +several feet above it.</p> + +<p>The sides of the arches forming the roof did not quite meet at the top, +but looked like the crests of two immense foaming waves, between which +were seen the extremities of numbers of pendants of a like flowery form.</p> + +<p>There was nothing rough or uncertain about the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_361">{361}</a></span> 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, and which was +so low as not to admit of a man crawling in.</p> + +<p>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 overhanging projections, +bulging out like immense mushrooms, of which the prevailing hue was a +delicate pink, with occasional patches of bright green.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 enthusiastic in his admiration of this beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_362">{362}</a></span> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_363">{363}</a></span>”</p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">FRENCH MINERS—THEIR MÉNAGE—THEIR CAPACITY AS MINERS—FRENCHMEN AS +COLONISTS—SOCIAL EQUALITY IN THE MINES—THE REASON OF IT—AND THE +RESULT.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> + +<p>The whole establishment had a finished and civilised air about it, and +was got up with a regard to appearances which was quite unusual.</p> + +<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_364">{364}</a></span> than was +suggested by the generality of the rude abodes of the miners. It is very +certain that, without really expending more time or labour, 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 of toil was +mitigated by more than a usual share of ease and comfort.</p> + +<p>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 +cannot be expected to appreciate so much as others, or to be so apt at +introducing, all the little luxuries of a more civilised existence of +which he has no knowledge.</p> + +<p>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 existence 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_365">{365}</a></span> as sober as a judge for two +or three weeks. His useful qualities, however, consist in the +extraordinary 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 purpose of another, and is never at a loss for a substitute.</p> + +<p>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 enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment than +other miners, who never entirely laid aside the earnest and careworn +look of the restless gold-hunter.</p> + +<p>This enviable faculty, which the Frenchmen appeared to possess in such a +high degree, of bringing somewhat of the comforts of civilised life +along with them, was no doubt a great advantage; but whether it operated +favourably or otherwise towards their<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_366">{366}</a></span> general success as miners, is not +so certain. One would naturally suppose that the more thoroughly a man +rested from mental or bodily labour, 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.</p> + +<p>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 +inseparably mixed up together—there are thoroughgoing Americans who, +only a year or two ago, were her Majesty’s most faithful subjects, and +who still in 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 +operations, 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 neighbours.</p> + +<p>Even as miners, they for the most part congre<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_367">{367}</a></span>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 mountains, and building lofty +viaducts supported on scaffolding which, from its height, looked like a +spider’s web; while the only pursuits they engaged in, except mining, +were the keeping of restaurants, estaminets, cafés 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.</p> + +<p>Comparing the men of different nations, the pursuits 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 entirely by +Frenchmen—if all the 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In many respects they were a most valuable addition to the population of +the country, especially<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_368">{368}</a></span> in the cities, but as colonisers 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 labour 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.</p> + +<p>One scarcely ever met a Frenchman travelling 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 anywhere, or to change their destination +according to circumstances.</p> + +<p>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 Frenchmen, in their choice of a location, seemed to +be, to be near where a number of their countrymen were already settled.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_369">{369}</a></span></p> + +<p>But though they were so fond of each other’s company, they did not seem +to possess that cohesiveness and mutual confidence necessary for the +successful prosecution of a joint undertaking. Many kinds of diggings +could only be worked to advantage by companies of fifteen or twenty men, +but Frenchmen were never seen attempting such a combination. +Occasionally 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 labour +from their inability to keep united in one plan of operations.</p> + +<p>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 organise and +combine to carry out a common object. They are trained to it from their +youth in their innumerable, and to a foreigner unintelligible, +caucus-meetings, committees, conventions, and so forth, by means of +which they bring about the election of every 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 importance, 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 recognising them as such by implicit obedience.</p> + +<p>Certain it is that, though the companies of Ameri<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_370">{370}</a></span>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-labourers who had no +right to interfere as to the way in which the work should be conducted.</p> + +<p>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 prosecution 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.</p> + +<p>Individuals could not work alone to any advantage. All mining operations +were carried on by parties of men, varying in number according to the +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 realise the idea of perfect social equality.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_371">{371}</a></span></p> + +<p>There are occasions on which, among small communities, 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.</p> + +<p>The cause of such a state of things was one which would tend to produce +the same result elsewhere. It consisted in this, that each man enjoyed +the capability of making as much money as his neighbour; for hard +labour, 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 labour was +considered as dignified and as honourable a pursuit as any other.</p> + +<p>In fact, so paramount was this idea, that in some men it created an +impression that not to labour 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 not by any means the +place it now is, and finding all the hotels full, I was compelled to +take refuge in an<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_372">{372}</a></span> 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 studying the keeper of the house, as a novel and interesting +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?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s my business,” replied the man.</p> + +<p>“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.”</p> + +<p>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 neighbours; 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 indivi<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_373">{373}</a></span>duals from widely +different stations are, when thrown 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 humbug, under which men usually disguise themselves +from the rest of the world, was thrown aside as a useless inconvenience. +They took no trouble to conceal 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 favourable as those formed upon further +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Society—so to call it—certainly wanted that superfine polish which +gives only a cold reflection of what is offered to it. There was no +pinchbeck or Brummagem 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.</p> + +<p>It would be hard to say what particular class of men was the most +numerous in the mines, because few retained any distinguishing +characteristic to denote their former position.</p> + +<p>The backwoodsman and the small farmer from the<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_374">{374}</a></span> Western States, who +formed a very large proportion of the people, could be easily recognised +by many peculiarities. The educated man, who had lived and moved among +gentlemen, was also to be detected under any disguise; but the great +mass of the people were men who, in their appearance and manners, +afforded little clue to their antecedents.</p> + +<p>From the mode of life and the style of dress, men became very much +assimilated in outward appearance, 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Among such a motley crowd one could select his own associates, but the +best-informed, the most entertaining, and those in many respects the +most desirable, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_375">{375}</a></span></p> + +<h2><a id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">THE STOCKTON STAGE—THE PLAINS—SAN FRANCISCO—ITS +PROGRESS—IMPROVEMENT IN STYLE OF LIVING—FEMALE +INFLUENCE—EXTRAVAGANCE—FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CALIFORNIA—EFFECTIVE +POPULATION—AMERICANS AS COLONISTS—ENGLISH IN CALIFORNIA—MODERN +DISCOVERIES OF GOLD—THEIR CONSEQUENCES.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> 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.</p> + +<p>Here I took the stage for Stockton—a large open waggon, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_376">{376}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +waggon to pass between the miners’ excavations.</p> + +<p>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, and whose +occupant combined farming with tavern-keeping. This was all very +pleasant travelling, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_377">{377}</a></span> 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 Stockton we were of a uniform colour 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.</p> + +<p>The Stockton steamboats, though not so large as those which run to +Sacramento, were not inferior in speed. We steamed down the San Joaquin +at about twenty miles an hour, and reached San Francisco at ten o’clock +at night.</p> + +<p>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 either 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.</p> + +<p>It had increased immensely in extent, and its growth had been in all +directions. The barren sandhills 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 length,<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_378">{378}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>The large fleet of ships which for a long time, while seamen’s wages +were exorbitantly high, lay idly in the harbour, was now dispersed, and +all the shipping actually engaged in discharging cargo found +accommodation alongside of the numerous piers which had been built out +for nearly a mile into the bay. All manner of trades and manufactures +were flourishing as in a place a hundred years old. Omnibuses plied upon +the principal thoroughfares, and numbers of small steamboats ran to the +watering-places which had sprung up on the opposite shore.</p> + +<p>The style of life had improved with the growth of the city, and with the +increased facilities of procuring servants and house-room. The ordinary +conventionalities of life were observed, and public opinion exercised +its wonted control over men’s conduct; for the female part of creation +was so numerously represented, that births and marriages occupied a +space in the daily papers larger than they require in many more populous +places.</p> + +<p>Female influence was particularly observable in the great attention men +paid to their outward appearance. There was but little of the +independent taste and<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_379">{379}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Public amusements were of a high order. Biscaccianti and Catherine Hayes +were giving concerts, Madame Anne Bishop was singing in English opera, +and the performances at the various theatres were sustained by the most +favourite actors from the Atlantic States.</p> + +<p>Extravagant expenditure is a marked feature in San Francisco life. The +same style of ostentation, however, which is practised in older +countries, is unattainable in California, and in such a country would +entirely fail in its effect. Extravagance, accord<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_380">{380}</a></span>ingly, was indulged +more for the purpose of procuring 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.</p> + +<p>As yet, the influence of California upon this country is not so much +felt by direct communication 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 +latter, 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<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_381">{381}</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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 +civilisation, 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 profession.</p> + +<p>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 degree +of excellence was exhibited as is known in any part of the world.</p> + +<p>Certainly no new country ever so rapidly advanced<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_382">{382}</a></span> 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 favourable to immediate prosperity and progress. Other new +countries have been peopled by gradual accessions to an already formed +centre, from which the rest of the mass received character and +consistency; but in the case of California the process was much more +abrupt. Thousands of men, hitherto unknown to each other, and without +mutual relationship, 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 organised and maintained, and that the country +was so soon entitled to rank as one of the most important States of the +Union.</p> + +<p>The consequences to the rest of the world of the gold of California it +is not easy to determine, and it<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_383">{383}</a></span> is not for me to enter upon the great +question as to the 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 commerce +and manufactures by this sudden production of gold acting simultaneously +with the equally expanding 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.</p> + +<p>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 civilisation, +is discovered, as we were evidently and notoriously becoming so urgently +in want of it, we cannot but recognise the ruling hand<span class="pagenum"><a id="page_384">{384}</a></span> 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 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 wondrous +episodes in the history of mankind.</p> + +<p class="fint">THE END.<br><br><small> +PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.</small></p> + +<hr> + +<h2><a id="WORKS_PUBLISHED"></a>WORKS PUBLISHED</h2> +<div class="bks"> + +<p>BY</p> + +<p>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS,</p> + +<p>EDINBURGH AND LONDON.</p> + +<p>THE HISTORY OF EUROPE,</p> + +<p>FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IN 1789 TO THE BATTLE OF +WATERLOO.</p> + +<p>By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.</p> + +<p>Library Edition (the Eighth), Fourteen Volumes Demy Octavo, with +Portraits, £10, 10s. 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But +the judicious and the scholarly will admire the severe abstinence that +imparts a Doric severity to this manly and most creditable historical +performance, which must confer no small distinction on its author’s +name.”—<i>Press.</i></p> + +<p><i>By the same Author.</i></p> + +<p> +I. GREECE UNDER THE ROMANS, B.C. 146 TO A.D. 717. Octavo, 16s.<br> +II. MEDIÆVAL GREECE, 1204-1461. Octavo, 12s.<br> +</p> + +<p>MISS STRICKLAND’S LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND.</p> + +<p>EMBELLISHED WITH PORTRAITS AND HISTORICAL VIGNETTES.</p> + +<p>Volumes 1 to 6 are published, price 10s. 6d. each.</p> + +<p>“In no part of the voluminous and charming writings of Miss Strickland +does she more forcibly recommend herself to the reader of history than +in the interesting volume before us. Embracing a period in the annals of +Scotland remarkable for the deeds of violence that were perpetrated in +it, and presenting a picture of life and morality strongly contrasting +with the results of modern civilisation, she has had a noble field +within which to exercise her extraordinary talents for research, and has +produced an historical narrative, unsurpassed, in point of interest and +intrinsic merit, by any of those which have earned for her the high +literary reputation she so deservedly enjoys.”—<i>Morning Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>THE POEMS OF FELICIA HEMANS.</p> + +<p>Complete in One Volume Large Octavo, with Portrait engraved by <span class="smcap">Finden</span>, +21s.</p> + +<p>Another Edition in Six Volumes Foolscap Octavo, 24s.</p> + +<p>Another Edition, with Life, by her Sister, Seven Volumes, 35s.</p> + +<p>“Of no modern writer can it be affirmed, with less hesitation, that she +has become an English Classic, nor, until human nature becomes very +different from what it now is, can we imagine the least probability that +the music of her lays will cease to soothe the ear, or the beauty of her +sentiment to charm the gentle heart.”—<i>Blackwood’s Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>Twenty-second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, price 7s. 6d.</p> + +<p>THE COURSE OF TIME.</p> + +<p>A POEM IN TEN BOOKS.</p> + +<p>By Robert Pollok, A.M.</p> + +<p>“Of deep and hallowed impress, full of noble thoughts and graphic +conceptions—the production of a mind alive to the great relations of +being, and the sublime simplicity of our religion.”—<i>Blackwood’s +Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>LAYS OF THE SCOTTISH CAVALIERS, AND OTHER POEMS.</p> + +<p>By W. Edmondstoune Aytoun,</p> + +<p>Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>Tenth Edition, Foolscap Octavo, 7s. 6d.</p> + +<p>“Finer ballads than these, we are bold to say, are not to be found in +the language.”—<i>Times.</i></p> + +<p>“Professor Aytoun’s ‘Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers’—a volume of verse +which shows that Scotland has yet a poet. Full of the true fire, it now +stirs and swells like a trumpet note—now sinks in cadences sad and wild +as the wail of a Highland dirge.”—<i>Quarterly Review.</i></p> + +<p>Elegantly printed in Small Octavo, price 5s.</p> + +<p>FIRMILIAN; <small>OR</small>, THE STUDENT OF BADAJOZ.</p> + +<p><i>A SPASMODIC TRAGEDY.</i></p> + +<p>By T. Percy Jones.</p> + +<p>“Humour of a kind most rare at all times, and especially in the present +day, runs through every page, and passages of true poetry and delicious +versification prevent the continual play of sarcasm from becoming +tedious.”—<i>Literary Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“But we must leave our readers to unravel this mystery for themselves. +Enough has been said and sung to make them acquainted with the claims of +‘Firmilian,’ to be deemed ‘the finest poem of the age.’<span class="lftspc">”</span>—<i>Dublin +University Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>BOTHWELL: A POEM</p> + +<p>By W. Edmondstoune Aytoun, D.C.L.,</p> + +<p>Author of “Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers,” &c.</p> + +<p>Second Edition.</p> + +<p>In Crown Octavo, price 12s.</p> + +<p>“A work which, for genius, originality of conception, and poetic +brilliancy of execution has no rival in modern times. It not only +sustains, but will enhance the deservedly high reputation of the author. +The notes are peculiarly interesting, as containing a judicial collation +and summary of the evidences which have induced the Sheriff of Orkney to +record a verdict of acquittal in favour of Mary Stuart, and of +reprobation of her self-interested accusers.”—<span class="smcap">Miss Strickland’s</span> <i>Lives +of the Queens of Scotland</i>, Vol. VI.</p> + +<p>BON GAULTIER’S BOOK OF BALLADS.</p> + +<p>Illustrated by <span class="smcap">Doyle</span>, <span class="smcap">Leech</span>, and <span class="smcap">Crowquill</span>.</p> + +<p>New Edition, square 12mo, price 8s. 6d.</p> + +<p>An ILLUSTRATED EDITION of</p> + +<p>THE COURSE OF TIME.</p> + +<p><i>A POEM.</i></p> + +<p>By Robert Pollok, A.M.</p> + +<p>The Designs by <span class="smcap">Birket Foster</span>, <span class="smcap">John Tenniel</span>, and <span class="smcap">John R. Clayton</span>.</p> + +<p>Engraved by <span class="smcap">Edmund Evans</span>, <span class="smcap">Dalziel</span> Brothers, <span class="smcap">Green</span>, &c.</p> + +<p>In square 8vo, elegantly bound in cloth, price 21s.; or in morocco, +price 32s.</p> + +<p>“This sumptuously-printed book, with its vellum-like paper, its +exquisite wood-engravings, rivalling in light and shadow, in softness of +aerial perspective, in translucence of water, and in truth of foliage, +the most highly-finished steel plates of the annuals and books of beauty +of by-past years, is an unique and worthy issue of the great poem of +Pollok, a bard who has now safely assumed a pedestal in the temple of +poetic fame.”—<i>Morning Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>Second Edition.</p> + +<p>In small 8vo, with a Frontispiece, price 5s.</p> + +<p>JESSIE CAMERON: A HIGHLAND STORY.</p> + +<p>By the Lady Rachel Butler.</p> + +<p>“Those who read ‘Jessie Cameron’ will desire at once that Lady Butler +should continue to write Highland stories. It is a sweet and tender +tale, and proves, on the part of the writer, a knowledge of humble life +and character which can scarcely exist without a heartfelt sympathy with +the joys and sorrows of the poor. This sympathy is abundantly manifested +in the romance of Jessie Cameron’s loves and griefs and heroism—the +heroism, the grief, the love, all equally touching, refined, +unaffected.... No one can take up this very agreeable volume without +becoming interested, and following its graceful drama to the +end.”—<i>Athenæum.</i></p> + +<p>THE SKETCHER.</p> + +<p>By the Rev. John Eagles, M.A. Oxon.</p> + +<p>ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.</p> + +<p>Handsomely printed in 8vo, 10s. 6d.</p> + +<p>“This volume, called by the appropriate name of ‘The Sketcher,’ is one +that ought to be found in the studio of every English +landscape-painter.... More instructive and suggestive readings for young +artists, especially landscape-painters, can scarcely be found.”—<i>The +Globe.</i></p> + +<p>ESSAYS; HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS.</p> + +<p>By Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., D.C.L.</p> + +<p>Three Volumes Demy Octavo, 45s.</p> + +<p>“They stamp him as one of the most learned, able, and accomplished +writers of the age.... His Essays are a splendid supplement to his +History, and the two combined exhibit his intellect in all its breadth +and beauty.”—<i>Dublin University Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>Foolscap Octavo, 5s.</p> + +<p>LECTURES ON THE POETICAL LITERATURE</p> + +<p>OF THE PAST HALF-CENTURY.</p> + +<p>By D. M. Moir (Δ).</p> + +<p>“A delightful volume.”—<i>Morning Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“Exquisite in its taste and generous in its criticisms.”—<i>Hugh Miller.</i></p> + +<p>POETICAL WORKS OF D. M. MOIR (Δ).</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">With Portrait, and Memoir by</span> THOMAS AIRD.</p> + +<p>Two Volumes Foolscap Octavo, 14s.</p> + +<p>“These are volumes to be placed on the favourite shelf, in the familiar +nook that holds the books we love, which we take up with pleasure and +lay down with regret”—<i>Edinburgh Courant.</i></p> + +<p>POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS AIRD.</p> + +<p>A New Edition, complete in One Volume, Small Octavo.</p> + +<p>Price 6s.</p> + +<p>Second Edition, Crown Octavo, 10s. 6d.</p> + +<p>THE POEMS AND BALLADS OF SCHILLER.</p> + +<p>Translated by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Bart.</p> + +<p>“The translations are executed with consummate ability. The technical +difficulties attending a task so great and intricate have been mastered +or eluded with a power and patience quite extraordinary; and the public +is put in possession of perhaps the best translation of a foreign poet +which exists in our language. Indeed, we know of none so complete and +faithful.”—<i>Morning Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>LADY LEE’S WIDOWHOOD.</p> + +<p>By Lieut.-Col. E. B. Hamley,</p> + +<p>Captain, R.A.</p> + +<p>A New Edition, complete in One Volume, price 6s.</p> + +<p>ZAIDEE: A ROMANCE.</p> + +<p>By Mrs. Oliphant.</p> + +<p>In Three Volumes, Post Octavo, price £1, 11s. 6d.</p> + +<p>KATIE STEWART: A TRUE STORY.</p> + +<p>Second Edition, in Foolscap Octavo, with Frontispiece and Vignette, 6s.</p> + +<p>“A singularly characteristic Scottish story, most agreeable to read and +pleasant to recollect. The charm lies in the faithful and life-like +pictures it presents of Scottish character and customs, and manners, and +modes of life.”—<i>Tait’s Magazine.</i></p> + +<p>Second Edition, Post Octavo, price 10s. 6d.</p> + +<p>THE QUIET HEART.</p> + +<p>By the Author of “Katie Stewart.”</p> + +<p>“We cannot omit our emphatic tribute to ‘The Quiet Heart,’ a story +which, with its deep clear insight, its gentle but strengthening +sympathies, and its pictures so delicately drawn, has captivated +numerous readers, and will confer on many a memory a good and pleasant +influence.”—<i>Excelsior.</i></p> + +<p>THE MOTHER’S LEGACIE TO HER UNBORNE CHILDE.</p> + +<p>By Elizabeth Joceline.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Edited by the Very Rev.</span> PRINCIPAL LEE.</p> + +<p>32mo, 4s. 6d.</p> + +<p>“This beautiful and touching legacie.”—<i>Athenæum.</i></p> + +<p>“A delightful monument of the piety and high feeling of a truly noble +mother.”—<i>Morning Advertiser.</i></p> + +<h2><a id="FARM_ACCOUNTS"></a>FARM ACCOUNTS.</h2> + +<p>In royal 8vo, bound in cloth, price 2s. 6d.,</p> + +<p>A PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF FARM BOOK-KEEPING;</p> + +<p>BEING THAT RECOMMENDED IN “THE BOOK OF THE FARM”</p> + +<p>BY HENRY STEPHENS, F.R.S.E.;</p> + +<p>ALSO,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>SEVEN FOLIO ACCOUNT-BOOKS, constructed in accordance with the +system, Printed and Ruled throughout, and bound in separate +volumes; the whole being specially adapted for keeping, by an easy +and accurate method, an account of all the Transactions of the +Farm.</p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">THE</span> ACCOUNT-BOOKS CONSIST OF—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>I. CASH-BOOK</b>—Ruled with double money-columns for <i>Dr.</i> and <i>Cr.</i>, +showing the Cash received for produce sold off the Farm, the money +paid on account of the Farm; and all general Cash and Banking +transactions. Price 2s. 6d.</p> + +<p><b>II. LEDGER</b>—Ruled with single money columns, <i>Dr.</i> and <i>Cr.</i> on +separate pages, containing Accounts with every Person or Company +having transactions with the Farm. Price 5s.</p> + +<p><b>III. FARM ACCOUNT</b>—Contains the Cash received for all the Produce +sold off the Farm, and the Cash paid for all the commodities +required for the Farm, and these alone. Thus the Balance between +the <i>Dr.</i> and <i>Cr.</i> sides of the Farm Account, at the end of the +Agricultural Year, shows whether the farm has returned or consumed +the largest amount of Cash. Price 2s. 6d.</p> + +<p><b>IV. CORN ACCOUNT</b>—Comprises all accounts and statements connected +with—1. Wheat; 2. Barley; 3. Oats; 4. Straw; 5. Potatoes; 6. +Turnips, Mangold-Wurzel, Carrots and Parsnips. These accounts show +all the particulars connected with the different species of +produce—the time when grain is thrashed—the parties to whom it +has been sold—the uses which have been made of it on the Farm—the +Balance of Grain on hand at any time in the Corn-barn and +Granary—the weight of the Grain, and the prices obtained for it. +Price 3s. 6d.</p> + +<p><b>V. LIVE-STOCK ACCOUNT</b>—Consists of Accounts relating to—1. Cattle; +2. Sheep; 3. Pigs; 4. Horses; showing the particulars of every +species of Live-Stock, the disposal of them, the cash paid and the +prices obtained for them, and the numbers on hand at different +periods. Price 3s.</p> + +<p><b>VI. LABOUR: ACCOUNT-BOOK</b>—Contains, 1. Labour Journal; 2. Labour +Account,—the former for showing the Labourers’ names, the days of +the week on which they have been employed, and a register of the +number of work-days in each week; the latter forming a summary of +the amount of all the manual labour executed on the Farm in the +course of a year, including the Harvest Expenses. Price 3s.</p> + +<p><b>VII. FIELD-WORKERS’ ACCOUNT.</b>—This is a simple form of keeping the +Daily Labour-Account, enabling the total number of Days in which +work has been done for half a year to be summed up and calculated +at the rate of wages per day, when the gross amount of the half +year’s earnings is brought out distinctly. Price 2s. 6d.</p></div> + +<p><i>The Account-Books are sold separately, and the price of the complete +Set, in Eight Volumes, is 24s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p>ALSO,</p> + +<p>A LABOUR ACCOUNT OF THE ESTATE.</p> + +<p>This form of Labour Account is specially constructed for the use of +Country Gentlemen, whether residing at home or abroad, who require +returns to be made to them of the species of work which daily engages +the time of their labourers in whatever capacity, and whether male or +female; that is, besides Labourers and Field-Workers, the form is as +well adapted to Gardeners, Foresters, Hedgers, Roadmakers, Quarriers, +Miners, Gamekeepers, and Dairymaids. Price 2s. 6d.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;"> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“We have no hesitation in saying, that of the many systems of +keeping farm-accounts which are in vogue, there is not one which +will bear comparison with that just issued by Messrs Blackwood, +according to the recommendations of Mr Stephens in his invaluable +‘Book of the Farm.’ The great characteristic of this system is its +simplicity. When once the details are mastered, which it will take +very little trouble to accomplish, it will be prized as the +clearest method to show the profit and loss of business, and to +prove how the soundest and surest calculations can be arrived at. +We earnestly recommend a trial of the entire series of Books—they +must be used as a whole to be thoroughly profitable—for we are +convinced the verdict of our agricultural friends who make such a +trial will speedily accord with our own—that they owe a deep debt +of gratitude both to Mr Stephens and Messrs Blackwood for providing +a method so complete and satisfactory to their hands.”—<i>Bell’s +Messenger.</i></p> + +<p>“From experience we can strongly recommend this system to all +actual and commencing agriculturists, combining, as it does, all +the elements of utility with simplicity.”—<i>The Field.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr Stephens is so thoroughly conversant with all that is essential +to be set down in the Farmer’s Account-Book, that it is something +to find him induced to prepare a set of books for the +agriculturist. These we find reduced by him to what must be +regarded as the simplest and most essential element of a sound +double entry system.... The ease and obvious accuracy of these +books abundantly recommend them.”—<i>Notts Guardian.</i></p></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">WORKS</span> OF PROFESSOR WILSON.</p> + +<p>EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW,</p> + +<p>Professor Ferrier.</p> + +<p>Publishing Quarterly, in Crown Octavo, price 6s. each Volume.</p> + +<p>The Volumes published contain—</p> + +<p>NOCTES AMBROSIANÆ.</p> + +<p>Complete in Four Volumes, with <span class="smcap">Glossary</span> and <span class="smcap">Index</span>, price 24s.</p> + +<p>ESSAYS, CRITICAL AND IMAGINATIVE.</p> + +<p>CONTRIBUTED TO BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.</p> + +<p>Vols. 5, 6, and 7.</p> + +<p>Future Volumes will contain—</p> + +<p> +RECREATIONS OF CHRISTOPHER NORTH.<br> +POEMS.<br> +TALES.<br> +LECTURES ON MORAL PHILOSOPHY.<br> +</p> + +<p>In Octavo, price 14s., with Illustrations by the Author.</p> + +<p>THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA.</p> + +<p>By J. D. Borthwick.</p> + +<p>WORKS OF SAMUEL WARREN, D.C.L.</p> + +<p>A Cheap Edition, in 5 Vols., price 24s. bound in cloth, viz.:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;"><span class="smcap">Vol. I. Diary of a Late Physician</span>, 5s. 6d.</span><br> +<span class="smcap">Vols. II. & III. Ten Thousand a-Year</span>, 2 vols., 9s.<br> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Vol. IV. Now and Then</span>, &c., 4s. 6d.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;"><span class="smcap">Vol. V. Miscellanies</span>, 5s.</span><br> +</p> + +<p>WORKS OF THE REV. THOMAS M‘CRIE, D.D.,</p> + +<p>EDITED BY HIS SON,</p> + +<p>Professor M‘Crie.</p> + +<p>A New Edition, in Four Volumes, crown 8vo, price 6s. each.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Vol. I. Life of John Knox.</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">II. Life of Andrew Melville.</span></span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><span class="smcap">III. History of the Reformations in Italy and in Spain.</span></span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">IV. Review of Sir W. Scott’s “Tales of my Landlord,” Sermons, &c.</span></span><br> +</p> + +<p>Octavo, with Map and other Illustrations, Fourth Edition, 14s.</p> + +<p>RUSSIAN SHORES OF THE BLACK SEA IN THE AUTUMN OF 1852.</p> + +<p>WITH A VOYAGE DOWN THE VOLGA AND A TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRY OF THE DON +COSSACKS.</p> + +<p>By Laurence Oliphant, Esq.</p> + +<p>Author of a “Journey to Nepaul,” &c.</p> + +<p>“The latest and best account of the actual state of +Russia.”—<i>Standard.</i></p> + +<p>“The book bears ex facie indisputable marks of the shrewdness, +quick-sightedness, candour, and veracity of the author. It is the +production of a gentleman, in the true English sense of the +word.”—<i>Daily News.</i></p> + +<p>In Octavo, Illustrated with Engravings, price 12s. 6d.,</p> + +<p>MINNESOTA AND THE FAR WEST.</p> + +<p>By Laurence Oliphant, Esq.,</p> + +<p>Late Civil Secretary and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs in +Canada; Author of “The Russian Shores of the Black Sea,” &c.</p> + +<p>ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.</p> + +<p>Second Edition, Foolscap Octavo, price 4s.</p> + +<p>LIFE IN THE FAR WEST.</p> + +<p>By G. F. Ruxton, Esq.</p> + +<p>“One of the most daring and resolute of travellers.... A volume fuller +of excitement is seldom submitted to the public.”—<i>Athenæum.</i></p> + +<p>Two Volumes Octavo, with Maps, &c., price £1, 10s.</p> + +<p>NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH SYRIA AND PALESTINE.</p> + +<p>By Lieut. Van De Velde.</p> + +<p>“He has contributed much to the knowledge of the country, and the +unction with which he speaks of the holy places which he has visited, +will commend the book to the notice of all religious readers. His +illustrations of Scripture are numerous and admirable.”—<i>Daily News.</i></p> + +<p>Second Edition, in Crown Octavo, price 10s. 6d.</p> + +<p>INSTITUTES OF METAPHYSIC: THE THEORY OF KNOWING AND BEING.</p> + +<p>By James F. Ferrier, A.B., Oxon.</p> + +<p>Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, St Andrews.</p> + +<p>“It is a pleasure to meet with a man who, in these days of half-beliefs +and feeble assertions, will venture to speak thus strongly. It is a +still greater pleasure to meet with a man of profound thought and +astonishing subtlety, who is able to express the most abstruse meanings +in the most simple language, and to scatter the light spray of wit and +pleasantry over those abysses of thought which lead down to the terrible +Domdaniel roots of the ocean. We find it difficult to mention any other +English work on metaphysics, with even half its power of thought, which +can be compared with it in point of style. ‘The Institutes of +Metaphysic’ is indeed the most suggestive work on the subject that has +been published for many a long year, and it is the most +readable.”—<i>Daily News.</i></p> + +<p>BURNETT TREATISE</p> + +<p>(SECOND PRIZE.)</p> + +<p>In One Vol. Octavo, price 10s. 6d.</p> + +<p>THEISM: THE WITNESS OF REASON AND NATURE TO AN ALL-WISE AND BENEFICENT +CREATOR.</p> + +<p>By the Rev. J. Tulloch, D.D.</p> + +<p>Principal and Primarius Professor of Theology, St Mary’s College, St +Andrews.</p> + +<p>ON THE ORIGIN AND CONNECTION OF THE GOSPELS OF MATTHEW, MARK, AND LUKE;</p> + +<p>WITH SYNOPSIS OF PARALLEL PASSAGES AND CRITICAL NOTES.</p> + +<p>By James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill, F.R.S.</p> + +<p>Author of the “Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul.” Medium Octavo, price +16s.</p> + +<p>“Displays much learning, is conceived in a reverential spirit, and +executed with great skill.... No public school or college ought to be +without it.”—<i>Standard.</i></p> + +<p>In Octavo, price 14s.</p> + +<p>HISTORY OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT REFUGEES.</p> + +<p>By Prof. Charles Weiss of the Lycee Buonaparte.</p> + +<p>“We have risen from the perusal of Mr Weiss’s book with feelings of +extreme gratification. The period embraced by this work includes the +most heart-stirring times of the eventful History of Protestantism, and +is of surpassing interest.”—<i>Britannia.</i></p> + +<p>DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO HER MAJESTY.</p> + +<p><i>NOW COMPLETED</i>,</p> + +<p>In Two large Volumes Royal Octavo, embellished with 1353 Engravings,</p> + +<p>THE BOOK OF THE GARDEN.</p> + +<p>By Charles M‘Intosh,</p> + +<p>Late Curator of the Royal Gardens of His Majesty the King of the +Belgians, and latterly of those of His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, at +Dalkeith Palace.</p> + +<p><i>Each Volume may be, had separately, viz.</i>:—</p> + +<p>I.—ARCHITECTURAL AND ORNAMENTAL. Pp. 776, embellished with 1073 +Engravings, price £2., 10s.</p> + +<p>II.—PRACTICAL GARDENING. Pp. 876, embellished with 280 Engravings, +price £1, 17s. 6d.</p> + +<p>“We must congratulate both editor and publishers on the completion of +this work, which is every way worthy of the character of all concerned +in its publication. The scientific knowledge and great experience of the +editor in all that pertains to horticulture, not only as regards +cultivation, but as a landscape-gardener and garden architect, has +enabled him to produce a work which brings all that is known of the +various subjects treated of down to the present time; while the manner +in which the work is illustrated merits our highest approval.”—<i>The +Florist.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr M‘Intosh’s splendid and valuable ‘Book of the Garden’ is at length +complete by the issue of the second volume. It is impossible in a notice +to do justice to this work. There is no other within our knowledge at +all to compare with it in comprehensiveness and ability; and it will be +an indispensable possession for the practical gardener, whether amateur +or professional.”—<i>The London Guardian.</i></p> + +<p>In Two Volumes Royal Octavo, price £3, handsomely bound in cloth, with +upwards of 600 Illustrations.</p> + +<p>THE BOOK OF THE FARM.</p> + +<p>DETAILING THE LABOURS OF THE</p> + +<p>FARMER, FARM-STEWARD, PLOUGHMAN, SHEPHERD, HEDGER, CATTLE-MAN, +FIELD-WORKER, AND DAIRY-MAID, AND FORMING A SAFE MONITOR FOR STUDENTS IN +PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE.</p> + +<p>By Henry Stephens, F.R.S.E.</p> + +<p>Corresponding Member of the Société Imperiale et Centrale d’Agriculture +of France, and of the Royal Agricultural Society of Galicia.</p> + +<p><i>THE EIGHTH THOUSAND.</i></p> + +<p>“The best practical book I have ever met with.”—<i>Professor Johnston.</i></p> + +<p>“We assure agricultural students that they will derive both pleasure and +profit from a diligent perusal of this clear directory to rural labour. +The experienced farmer will perhaps think that Mr Stephens dwells upon +some matters too simple or too trite to need explanation; but we regard +this as a fault leaning to virtue’s side in an instructional book. The +young are often ashamed to ask for an explanation of simple things, and +are too often discouraged by an indolent or supercilious teacher if they +do. But Mr. Stephens entirely escapes this error, for he indicates every +step the young farmer should take, and, one by one, explains their +several hearings.... We have thoroughly examined these volumes; but to +give a full notice of their varied and valuable contents would occupy a +larger space than we can conveniently devote to their discussion; we +therefore, in general terms, commend them to the careful study of every +young man who wishes to become a good practical farmer.”—<i>Times.</i></p> + +<p>“A work, the excellence of which is too well known to need any remarks +of ours.”—<i>Farmers’ Magazine.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="trans"><p><a id="transcrib"></a></p> + +<p>Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:</p> +<p class="nind">style of the architure=> style of the architecture {pg 90}</p> + +<p class="nind">covered with magnicent=> covered with magnificent {pg 328}</p> + +</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/inside-back.jpg" width="337" height="550" alt=""> +<br> +<img src="images/back.jpg" width="327" height="550" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76244 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76244-h/images/back.jpg b/76244-h/images/back.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a700dca --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/back.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/cover.jpg b/76244-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..23e8010 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_001.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ccc1d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_001.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_002.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..754d780 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_002.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_003.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e2bd7f --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_003.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_004.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7d4478 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_004.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_005.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d0ca78 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_005.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_006.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..daa89c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_006.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_007.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b022b13 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_007.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/ill_008.jpg b/76244-h/images/ill_008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6685b23 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/ill_008.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/inside-back.jpg b/76244-h/images/inside-back.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..77ef9c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/inside-back.jpg diff --git a/76244-h/images/inside-front.jpg b/76244-h/images/inside-front.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae80eca --- /dev/null +++ b/76244-h/images/inside-front.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this book outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..778e964 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +book #76244 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76244) |
