About this time the great exodus from the United States, in fact from
all parts of the world, to the California gold diggings, began. Mr.
McWatters arranged his affairs, and migrated, with tens of thousands
more, to the new El Dorado. But he was not happy there. The mad strife
for gold overwhelmed all other things there. Men, in general, lost
whatever of conscience they carried there, and the whole population was
plunged in vices or crimes of one kind or another. Mr. McWatters found
that he was not constituted to engage in such reckless warfare at the
expense of all that was manly and good, and after nine months came to
New York, which has since been his home.