THE GOLD REGION.—ITS LOCALITY, NATURE, AND EXTENT.—FOREIGNERS IN THE
MINES.—THE INDIANS’ DISCOVERY OF GOLD.—AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF
CALIFORNIA.—SERVICES OF UNITED STATES OFFICERS.—FIRST DECISIVE
MOVEMENT FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT.—INTELLIGENCE OF
THE DEATH OF GEN. KEARNY.
THURSDAY, APRIL 26. The gold region, which contains deposits of
sufficient richness to reward the labor of working them, is strongly
defined by nature. It lies along the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada—a
mountain range running nearly parallel with the coast—and extends on
these hills about five hundred miles north and south, by thirty or forty
east and west. From the slopes of the Sierra, a large number of streams
issue, which cut their channels through these hills, and roll with
greater or less volume to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The
Sacramento rises in the north, and flowing south two hundred and fifty
miles, empties itself into the Suisun, or upper bay of San Francisco.
The San Joaquin rises in the south, and flowing north two hundred miles,
discharges itself into the same bay. The source of the San Joaquin is a
narrow lake lying still further south, and extending in that direction
about eighty miles.
The streams which break into these rivers from the Sierra Nevada, are
from ten to thirty miles distant from each other. They commence with
Feather river on the north, and end with the river Reys on the south.
They all have numerous tributaries; are rapid and wild on the mountain
slopes, and become more tranquil and tame as they debouch upon the
plain. Still their serpentine waters, flashing up among the trees which
shadow their channels give a picturesque feature to the landscape, and
relieve it of that monotony which would otherwise fatigue the eye. But
very few of these rivers have sufficient depth and regularity to render
them navigable. Their sudden bends, falls, and shallows would puzzle
even an Indian canoe, and strand any boat of sufficient draft to warrant
the agency of steam.
The alluvial deposits of gold are confined mainly to the banks and bars
of these mountain streams, and the channels of the gorges, which
intersect them, and through which the streams are forced when swollen by
the winter rains. In the hills and table-lands, which occupy the
intervals between these currents and gorges, no alluvial deposits have
been found. Here and there a few detached pieces have been discovered,
forming an exception to some general law by which the uplands have been
deprived of their surface treasures. The conclusion at which I have
arrived, after days and weeks of patient research, and a thousand
inquiries made of others, is, that the alluvial deposits of gold in
California are mainly confined to the banks and bars of her streams, and
the ravines which intersect them. The only material exception to this
general law is found in those intervening deposits, from which the
streams have been diverted by some local cause, or some convulsion of
nature. Aside from these, no surface gold to any extent has been found
on the table-lands or plains. Even the banks of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin, stretching a distance of five hundred miles through their
valleys, have not yielded an ounce. The mountain streams, long before
they discharge themselves into these rivers, deposit their precious
treasures. They contribute their waters, but not their gold. Like
cunning misers they have stowed this away, and no enchantments can make
them whisper of its whereabouts. If you would find it, you must hunt for
it as for hid treasures.
MONDAY, MAY 14. Much has been said of the amounts of gold taken from the
mines by Sonoranians, Chilians, and Peruvians, and carried out of the
country. As a general fact, this apprehension and alarm is without any
sound basis. Not one pound of gold in ten, gathered by these foreigners,
is shipped off to their credit: it is spent in the country for
provisions, clothing, and in the hazards of the gaming-table. It falls
into the hands of those who command the avenues of commerce, and
ultimately reaches our own mints. I have been in a camp of five hundred
Sonoranians, who had not gold enough to buy a month’s provisions—all had
gone, through their improvident habits, to the capacious pockets of the
Americans. To drive them out of California, or interdict their
operations, is to abstract that amount of labor from the mines, and
curtail proportionably the proceeds. If gold, slumbering in the river
banks and mountains of California, be more valuable to us than when
stamped into eagles and incorporated into our national currency, then
drive out the Sonoranians: but if you would have it _here_ and not
_there_, let those diggers alone. When gold shall begin to fail, or
require capital and machinery, you will want these hardy men to quarry
the rocks and feed your stampers; and when you shall plunge into the
Cinnebar mountains, you will want them to sink your shafts and kindle
fires under your great quicksilver retorts. They will become the hewers
of wood and drawers of water to American capital and enterprise. But if
you want to perform this drudgery yourself, drive out the Sonoranians,
and upset that cherished system of political economy founded in a spirit
of wisdom and national justice.
TUESDAY, MAY 22. I was in possession of a fact which left no doubt of
the existence of gold in the Stanislaus more than a year prior to its
discovery on the American Fork. A wild Indian had straggled into
Monterey with a specimen, which he had hammered into a clasp for his
bow. It fell into the hands of my secretary, W. R. Garner, who
communicated the secret to me. The Indian described the locality in
which it was found with so much accuracy that Mr. G., on his recent
excursion to the mines, readily identified the spot. It is now known as
“Carson’s diggings.” No one who has been there can ever forget its wild
majestic scenery, or confound its soaring cliffs or sunless chasms with
the images projected from other objects. It was the full intention of
Mr. G. to trail this Indian at the first opportunity, and he was
prevented from doing it only by the imperative duties of the office. His
keeping the discovery a secret, proceeded less from any sinister motive
than an eccentricity of character. He had another mineral secret which
has not yet transpired—the existence of a tin mine, near San Louis
Obispo. The extent is not known, but certainly the specimen shown me was
very rich. Mr. Garner is now dead: it was his melancholy fate to fall
with five others by the wild Indians on the river Reys. To that party I
should have been attached had I remained in California another month.
How narrow those escapes which run their mystic thread between two
worlds! On the grave of my friend, gratitude for important services, and
a remembrance of many sterling virtues, might well erect a memorial.
THURSDAY, MAY 24. The capabilities of the soil of California for
agricultural purposes involve a question of profound interest, and one
which is not easily answered. There are no experimental facts of
sufficient scope to warrant a general conclusion. Where the soil itself
leaves no doubt of its richness, its productive forces may be baffled by
local circumstances or atmospheric phenomena. Some of the largest crops
that have ever rewarded the toil of the husbandman, have been gathered
in California; and yet those very localities, owing to a slender fall of
the winter rains, have next season disappointed the hopes of the
cultivator. The farmer can never be certain of an abundant harvest till
he is able to supply this deficiency of rain by a process of irrigation.
This can be done, in some places, by the diversion of streams, and must
be accomplished in others through artesian wells. It will be some years
before either will be brought into effective force in the agricultural
districts.
The lands on which cultivation has been attempted occupy a narrow space
between the coast ranges and the sea; it seldom exceeds in width thirty
miles, and is often reduced to ten by the obtrusion of some mountain
spur. East of this range no plough has ever travelled; no furrow has
ever been turned in the long valley of the San Joaquin; and if the other
sections of this valley correspond to those over which I passed, there
can be very little encouragement for the introduction of husbandry. The
soil is light and gravelly; the grass meagre and sparse; even the wild
horses and elk seek its margin, as if afraid to trust themselves to the
Sahara of its bosom. Still, in some of its bays, the evidences of
fertility exist, but as a district it will never add much to the
agricultural wealth of California.
The valley of the Sacramento has many localities of great fertility; but
few of them, as yet, have been subjected to the plough and harrow; their
adaptation to agriculture is inferred from their vigorous vegetation.
The same evidences of productive force cover several tracts north of San
Francisco, on the Russian river, and in the vicinity of Sonoma. But the
most fertile lands in California, as yet developed, lie around the
missions of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, through the long narrow valleys
of San José and San Juan, along the margin of the Salinas, through the
dells of San Louis Obispo, and in the vicinity of los Angeles. These,
and other insular spots, may be made perfect gardens; but take
California as a whole, she is not the country which agriculturists would
select. Her whole mining region is barren; nature rested there with what
she put _beneath_ the soil. You can hardly travel through it in
midsummer without loading your mule down with provender to keep him
alive. The productive forces of such a state as New York, Ohio, or
Pennsylvania, sweep immeasurably beyond the utmost capabilities of
California. It is the _golden_ coronet that gives this land her
pre-eminence, and puts into her hand a magic wand, that will shake for
ages the exchanges of the civilized world.
TUESDAY, JUNE 12. At the return of Gen. Kearny, the command of the
military posts of the country, the suppression of popular disturbancies,
the protection of property from the incursion of the Indians, and the
collection of the custom-house revenues have devolved on Gen. Mason. To
these complicated duties he has surrendered his energies with an
unwearied fidelity and force. No one great interest confided to his
indomitable activity has languished. He has derived indispensable aid
from the intelligent services of Col. Stevenson, Maj. Folsom, Capt.
Halleck, and Lieut. Sherman, of the army, and Lieut. Lanman, of the
navy. These officers, and others that might be named, without any
increased compensation, and subjected to heavy expenses, have cheerfully
discharged the onerous duties devolved upon them by the condition of the
country.
The regiment of volunteers under Col. Stevenson arrived too late for any
active participation in the war. The insurrection had been suppressed,
and the country was in the peaceful occupation of the Americans. Still
they were with great propriety retained in the service, and their
presence at different points tended to discourage any attempts at
revolutionary movements. They were, many of them, youth who had not been
reared under the most auspicious circumstances, and the adventures of a
camp life were but little calculated to supply the defects of education.
They gave the colonel and his officers some trouble, and the communities
where they were stationed some solicitude. But they are now in a
condition, where every one is thrown upon his own resources, where every
thing good in a man may be developed. They have been sowing their wild
oats, and will now go to planting corn.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16. The primary movements in California for the
organization of a civil government had no connection with any
instructions from Washington. The first great meeting on the subject was
held in Monterey in January, 1849. At this meeting I was called upon to
draft a preamble and resolutions, setting forth the condition of the
country, the necessity of a civil organization, and providing for the
election of proper delegates to a convention, to be held at San José on
the 27th of February, in which all the districts of the Territory were
to be represented, and where a suitable constitution was to be framed.
These resolutions were sent to all the principal towns, and adopted. But
upon more mature reflection, it was deemed expedient, in order to
prevent any collision with the possible action of Congress, to postpone
the assembling of the convention to the first of May, that the
proceedings of that body might be known. This is the true history of
those primary and decisive measures which have resulted in that noble
constitution which now throws its sacred ægis over California. The
friends of the last and present administration, instead of contending
for the honor of an active participation in the origin and progress of
this instrument, deftly box back and forth the responsibility of its
provisions. But their political timidity is without any just grounds;
for neither afforded any countenance or aid till the rubicon had been
passed: so that all this shuttlecock business between the last and
present administration, is a superfluous exhibition of dexterity and
skill. Much good may it do the players, only let not California suffer
too much while the sport is going on.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20. The causes which exclude slavery from California lie
within a nut-shell. All here are diggers, and free white diggers wont
dig with slaves. They know they must dig themselves: they have come out
here for that purpose, and they wont degrade their calling by
associating it with slave-labor: self-preservation is the first law of
nature. They have nothing to do with slavery in the abstract, or as it
exists in other communities; not one in ten cares a button for its
abolition, nor the Wilmot proviso either: all they look at is their own
position; they must themselves swing the pick, and they wont swing it by
the side of negro slaves. That is their feeling, their determination,
and the upshot of the whole business. An army of half a million, backed
by the resources of the United States, could not shake their purpose. Of
all men with whom I have ever met, the most firm, resolute, and
indomitable, are the emigrants into California. They feel that they have
got into a new world, where they have a right to shape and settle things
in their own way. No mandate, unless it comes like a thunder-bolt
straight out of heaven, is regarded. They may offer to come into the
Union, but they consider it an act of condescension, like that of Queen
Victoria in her nuptials with Prince Albert. They walk over hills
treasured with the precious ores; they dwell by streams paved with gold;
while every mountain around soars into the heaven, circled with a diadem
richer than that which threw its halo on the seven hills of Rome. All
these belong to them; they walk in their midst; they feel their presence
and power, and partake of their grandeur. Think you that such men will
consent to swing the pick by the side of slaves? Never! while the stream
owns its source, or the mountain its base. You may call it pride, or
what you will, but _there_ it is—deep as the foundations of our nature,
and unchangeable as the laws of its divine Author.
TUESDAY, JUNE 26. The intelligence of the death of Gen. Kearny has been
received here with many expressions of affectionate remembrance. During
his brief sojourn in California, his considerate disposition, his
amiable deportment and generous policy, had endeared him to the
citizens. They saw in him nothing of the ruthless invader, but an
intelligent, humane general, largely endowed with a spirit of
forbearance and fraternal regard. The conflict which arrested his
progress at Pasquel, and the disaster in which so many of his brave men
sunk overpowered, were contemplated, by the more considerate of the
inhabitants, rather with a sentiment of regret than an air of triumph.
They seemed to regard these events as a waste of life—as a reckless
resistance on their part, which, if successful for a time, could only
have the effect to continue, for a brief period, the sway of leaders in
whose prudence and patriotism they had no confidence. They took leave of
him with regret, and have received the tidings of his death with
sympathy and sorrow. It is not for me to write his eulogy; it is graven
on the hearts of all who knew him. His star set without a cloud; but its
light lingers still: when all the watch-fires of the tented field have
gone out, a faithful ray will still light the shrine which affection and
bereavement have reared to his worth.
“Still o’er the past warm memory wakes,
And fondly broods with miser-care;
Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.”