The Reverend Walter Colton, a Congregational minister, arrived in
California in 1846 just after the Americans had taken possession of
Monterey. He was preaching and serving as alcalde (mayor) of Monterey at
the time gold was discovered. The following paragraphs come from his
book, _Three Years in California_.
_Monday, May 29, 1848_: Our town was startled out of its quiet dreams
today by the announcement that gold had been discovered on the
American Fork. The men wondered and talked, and the women too; but
neither believed....
_Monday, June 12_: A straggler came in today from the American Fork
bringing a piece of yellow ore weighing an ounce.... But doubts still
hovered on the minds of the great mass. They could not conceive that
such a treasure could have lain there so long undiscovered....
_Tuesday, June 20_: My messenger sent to the mines has returned with
specimens of the gold; he dismounted in a sea of upturned faces. As he
drew forth the yellow lumps from his pockets, and passed them around
among the eager crowd, the doubts, which had lingered till now, fled.
All admitted they were gold, except one old man, who still persisted
they were some Yankee invention, got up to reconcile the people to the
change of flag. The excitement produced was intense; and many were
soon busy in their hasty preparations for a departure to the mines.
The family who had kept house for me caught the moving infection.
Husband and wife were both packing up; the blacksmith dropped his
hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his
sickle, the baker his loaf, and the tapster his bottle. All were off
for the mines, some on horses, some on carts, and some on crutches,
and one went in a litter. An American woman, who had recently
established a boarding-house here, pulled up stakes, and was off
before her lodgers had even time to pay their bills. Debtors ran, of
course. I have only a community of women left, and a gang of
prisoners, with here and there a soldier, who will give his captain
the slip at the first chance. I don’t blame the fellow a whit; seven
dollars a month, while others are making two or three hundred a day!
that is too much for human nature to stand.
_Saturday, July 15_: The gold fever has reached every servant in
Monterey; none are to be trusted in their engagement beyond a week,
and as for compulsion, it is like attempting to drive fish into a net
with the ocean before them. Gen. Mason, Lieut. Lanman, and myself,
form a mess; we have a house, and all the table furniture and culinary
apparatus requisite; but our servants have run, one after another,
till we are almost in despair: even Sambo, who we thought would stick
by from laziness, if no other cause, ran last night; and this morning,
for the fortieth time, we had to take to the kitchen and cook our own
breakfast. A general of the United States Army, the commander of a
man-of-war, and the Alcalde of Monterey, in a smoking kitchen,
grinding coffee, toasting a herring, and peeling onions!