Scene, San Francisco, the capital of California. Time, the autumn of
1849; several weeks anterior to the chase recounted.
A singular city the San Francisco of 1849; very different from that it
is to-day, and equally unlike what it was twelve months before the
aforesaid date, when the obscure village of Yerba Buena yielded up its
name, along with its site, entering on what may be termed a second
genesis.
The little _pueblita_, port of the Mission Dolores, built of sun-dried
bricks--its petty commerce in hides and tallow represented by two or
three small craft annually arriving and departing--wakes up one morning
to behold whole fleets of ships sailing in through the "Golden Gate,"
and dropping anchor in front of its shingly strand. They come from all
parts of the Pacific, from all the other oceans, from the ends of the
earth, carrying every kind of flag known to the nations. The whalesman,
late harpooning "fish" in the Arctic ocean, with him who has been
chasing "cachalot" in the Pacific or Indian; the merchantman standing
towards Australia, China, or Japan the traders among the South Sea
Islands; the coasters of Mexico, Chili, Peru; men-o'-war of every flag
and fashion, frigates, corvettes, and double-deckers; even Chinese junks
and Malayan prahus are seen setting into San Francisco Bay, and bringing
to beside the wharfless beach of Yerba Buena.
What has caused this grand spreading of canvas, and commingling of queer
craft? What is still causing it; for still they come! The answer lies
in a little word of four letters; the same that from the beginning of
man's activity on earth has moved him to many things--too oft to deeds
of evil--_gold_. Some eighteen months before the Swiss emigrant Sutter,
scouring out his mill-race on a tributary of the Sacramento River,
observes shining particles among the mud. Taking them up, and holding
them in the hollow of his hand, he feels that they are heavy, and sees
them to be of golden sheen. And gold they prove, when submitted to the
test of the alembic.
The son of Helvetia discovered the precious metal in grains, and
nuggets, interspersed with the drift of a fluvial deposit. They were
not the first found in California, but the first coming under the eyes
of European settlers--men imbued with the energy to collect, and carry
them to the far-off outside world.
Less than two years have elapsed since the digging of Sutter's
mill-race. Meantime, the specks that scintillated in its ooze have been
transported over the ocean, and exhibited in great cities--in the
windows of brokers, and bullion merchants. The sight has proved
sufficient to thickly people the banks of the Sacramento--hitherto
sparsely settled--and cover San Francisco Bay with ships from every
quarter of the globe.
Not only is the harbour of Yerba Buena crowded with strange craft, but
its streets with queer characters--adventurers of every race and clime--
among whom may be heard an exchange of tongues, the like never listened
to since the abortive attempt at building the tower of Babel.
The Mexican mud-walled dwellings soon disappear--swallowed up and lost
amidst the modern surrounding of canvas tents, and weather-board houses,
that rise as by magic around them. A like change takes place in their
occupancy. No longer the tranquil interiors--the _tertulia_, with
guests sipping aniseed, curacoa, and Canario--munching sweet cakes and
_confituras_. Instead, the houses inside now ring with boisterous
revelry, with a perfume of mint and Monongahela; and although the guitar
still tinkles, it is almost inaudible amid the louder strains of
clarionet, fiddle, and French horn.
What a change in the traffic of the streets! No more silent, at certain
hours deserted for the _siesta_, at others trodden by sandalled monks
and shovel-hatted priests--both bold of gaze, when passing the dark-eyed
damsels in high shell-combs and black silk mantillas; bolder still,
saluting the brown-skinned daughters of the aboriginal wrapped in their
blue-grey _rebozos_. No more trodden by garrison soldiers in uniforms
of French cut and colour; by officers glittering in gold lace; by
townsmen in cloaks of broadcloth; by country gentlemen (haciendados) on
horseback; and herdsmen, or small farmers (rancheros) in their splendid
Californian costume.
True, some of these are still seen, but not as of yore, swaggering and
conspicuous. Amid the concourse of new-comers they move timidly,
jostled by rough men in red flannel shirts, buckskin and blanket coats,
with pistols in their belts, and knives hanging handy along their hips.
By others equally formidable, in Guernsey frocks, or wearing the
dreadnought jacket of the sailor; not a few scarce clothed at all,
shrouding their nakedness in such rags as remain after a long journey
overland, or a longer voyage by sea.
In all probability, since its beginning, the world never witnessed so
motley an assemblage of men, tramping through the streets of a seaport
town, as those seen in Yerba Buena, rebaptised San Francisco, in the
year of our Lord 1849.
And perhaps never a more varied display of bunting in one bay. In all
certainty, harbour never held so large a fleet of ships with so few men
to man them. At least one-half are crewless, and a goodly portion of
the remainder almost so. Many have but their captains and mates, with,
it may be, the carpenter and cook. The forecastle fellows are ashore,
and but few of them intend returning aboard. They are either gone off
to the gold-diggings, or are going. There has been a general
_debandade_ among the Jack-tars--leaving many a merry deck in forlorn
and silent solitude.
In this respect there is a striking contrast between the streets of the
town and the ships lying before it. In the former, an eager throng,
pushing, jostling, surging noisily along, with all the impatience of men
half-mad; in the latter, tranquillity, inaction, the torpor of lazy
life, as if the vessels--many of them splendid craft--were laid up for
good, and never again going to sea. And many never did--their hulks to
this day, like the skeletons of stranded whales, are seen lying along
that beach which was once Yerba Buena!