THE GOLD WASHERS
Johnny did not return at all that night, but showed up next morning at
the diggings, looking blear-eyed and sleepy. He told us he had slept
with a friend, and replied rather curtly that he was a "little behind
the game." I believe myself that he was cleaned out; but that was none
of our business. Every night we divided the dust into five parts. Don
Gaspar and Vasquez got two of these. The remainder we again divided into
four. I took charge of Talbot's share. We carried the dust always with
us; for the camp was no longer safe from thieves.
In order to effect this division we had to have some sort of scales. I
went up to the single store to see what I could do. The storekeeper was
a drawling, slow, down-east Yankee, perpetually chewing a long sliver or
straw, talking exclusively through his nose, keen for a bargain,
grasping of the last cent in a trade, and yet singularly interesting and
agreeable. His sense of dry humour had a good deal to do with this. He
had no gold scales to lend or to hire, but he had some to sell. The
price was fifteen dollars for an ordinary pair of balances worth not
over a dollar and a half.
"And you'll find that cheap, if the miners keep coming in as fast as
they do," said he. "In two weeks they'll be worth fifty."
We bought them, and obtained from them great satisfaction. Vasquez used
to weigh his gold at night, and again in the morning, in hopes, I
suppose, that it had bred overnight.
Certainly the storekeeper's statement as to the influx of miners was
justified. They came every day, in droves. We began to feel quite like
old-timers, and looked with infinite scorn on these greenhorns. They
were worse than we had been; for I have seen them trying to work in the
moonlight! The diggings were actually getting crowded.
It was no longer feasible to dig wherever we pleased to do so. We held
many miners' meetings, adopting regulations. A claim was to be fifteen
feet square; work must begin on it within ten days; and so forth. Each
of the five members of our party staked out two claims each, on which we
worked in turn. All the old-timers respected these regulations, but some
of the newcomers seemed inclined to dispute them; so that many meetings
and much wrangling ensued. The truth of the matter was that none of us
had the slightest permanent interest in the place. We intended merely to
make our piles and to decamp. Each was for himself. Therefore there was
no solidarity. We regulated only when we were actually forced to it; so
that with what we called "private affairs" we declined to interfere. A
man could commit any crime in the decalogue if so it pleased him. His
victims must protect themselves. Such things as horse stealing, grand
larceny, claim jumping, and mining regulations we dealt with; but other
things were not our affair. We were too busy, and too slightly
interested in what little public welfare a temporary mining camp might
have. Even when, in a few cases, turbulence resulted in shooting, we
rarely punished; although, strangely enough, our innate Anglo-Saxon
feeling for the formality of government always resulted in a Sunday
"inquest." We deliberated solemnly. The verdict was almost invariably
"justifiable self-defence," which was probably near enough, for most of
these killings were the result of quarrels. Murders for the purpose of
robbery, later so frequent, were as yet almost unknown. Twice, however,
and in both instances the prisoner was one of the gamblers, we
pronounced judgment. One of these men was banished, and the other
hanged. All in all a very fair semblance of order was kept; but I cannot
help now but feel that our early shirking of responsibility--which was
typical of all California--made necessary later great upheavals of
popular justice.
About this time, also, the first of the overland wagon trains began to
come through. Hangman's Gulch was not on the direct route; but some
enterprising individual had found our trail fairly practicable for
wagons and ten miles shorter than the regular road. After that many
followed, and soon we had a well-cleared road. They showed plainly the
hardships of a long journey, for the majority of them were thin, sick
looking and discouraged. Few of them stopped at the diggings, although
most had come west in hopes of gold, but pushed on down to the pastures
of the Sacramento. They were about worn out and needed to recuperate
before beginning anything new. Some were out of provisions and
practically starved. The Yankee storekeeper sold food at terrible rates.
I remember that quinine--a drug much in demand--cost a dollar a grain!
We used to look up from our diggings at the procession of these
sad-faced, lean men walking by their emaciated cattle, and the women
peering from the wagons, and be very thankful that we had decided
against the much-touted overland route.
One day, however, an outfit went through of quite a different character.
We were apprised of its approach by a hunter named Bagsby. He loped down
the trail to the river level very much in a hurry.
"Boys!" he shouted, "quit work! Come see what's coming down the trail!"
with which he charged back again up the hill.
His great excitement impressed us, for Bagsby, like most of the old-time
Rocky Mountain men, was not ordinarily what one would call an emotional
individual. Therefore we dropped our tools and surged up the hill as
fast as we could go. I think we suspected Indians.
A train of three wagons drawn by strong oxen was lurching slowly down
the road. It differed little from others of its kind, save that the
cattle were in better shape and the men walking alongside, of the tall,
competent backwoodsman type, seemed well and hearty. But perhaps a
hundred yards ahead of the leading wagon came a horse--the only horse in
the outfit--and on it, riding side-saddle, was a girl. She was a very
pretty, red-cheeked girl, and she must have stopped within a half mile
or so of the camp in order to get herself up for this impressive
entrance. Her dress was of blue calico with a white yoke and heavy
flounces or panniers; around her neck was a black velvet ribbon; on her
head was a big leghorn hat with red roses. She rode through the town,
her head high, like a princess; and we all cheered her like mad. Not
once did she look at us; but I could see her bosom heaving with
excitement beneath her calico, and her nostrils wide. She was a
remarkably pretty girl; and this was certainly the moment of her
triumph.
We fell into sanity as respects our hours of work and the way we went at
it. Often we took as much as an hour and a half off at noon; or quit
work early in the day. Then it was pleasant to sit with other miners
under the trees or in the shade by the stream swapping yarns, doing our
mending or washing, and generally getting acquainted. As each man's
product was his own, no one cared how much or how little the others
worked. Simply when he quit, his share ceased. This does not mean that
we shirked our work, however; we merely grew to be a little sensible.
Some of our discussions were amusing, and several of them most
illuminating. Thus, one day, John Semple summed up a long talk in which
the conversation had swung wildly among the ideas of what each would do
when he had dug "enough" gold. That had led us to consider what amount
we thought would be "enough" for each of us. John settled it.
"Enough," said he, "is always a little more than a man has."
The political situation was fruitful of much idle discussion also.
California had not been formally placed on any footing whatever by the
United States Congress. Whatever any community did in the way of
legislation or regulation was extra-legal and subject to ratification. I
have heard grave discussions as to whether even murder could be
considered a crime, since in this no-man's land there was no real law
forbidding it!
A good many Chinese drifted in about this time, and established a camp
of their own a short distance downstream. We took some pride in them as
curiosities, with their queer, thatchlike hats, their loose blue
clothing, their pigtails wound tight around their heads, and their queer
yellow faces. They were an unobtrusive people, scratching away
patiently, though spasmodically, on the surface of the ground. We
sometimes strolled down to see them. They were very hospitable, and
pleased at the interest they excited.
We made from fourteen to seventeen ounces of gold dust a day for some
weeks, working our two cradles something like eight hours a day. With
gold at the then current rate of fourteen dollars an ounce this was a
good return, and we were quite happy. Besides, we were always hoping for
a big strike. One day, as I was in the very act of turning my shovelful
of dirt into the cradle, my eye caught a dull gleam. I instantly
deflected the motion to dump the dirt on the stones alongside, fished
about, and dug out a nugget that weighed three and three-quarter ounces.
This was by far the largest single nugget found in these diggings--for
most of the gold here came in flakes--and it attracted much attention.
It belonged to me, individually, because I had not yet dumped it into
the cradle.
About this time we had to come to some sort of a decision, for our
provisions were about exhausted. We had no desire to replenish our stock
from that of the local storekeeper. We were doing pretty well in the
diggings, but we had also fairly healthy appetites, and I am convinced
that at the prices that man charged we should have no more than kept
even. Williams, the storekeeper, was levying double profits, one from
us, and one from the overland immigrants. Don Gaspar proposed we send
out Vasquez with all the horses to restock at Sutter's Fort. We were a
trifle doubtful as to whether Vasquez would ever come back, but Don
Gaspar seemed to have confidence in his man. Finally, though a little
doubtfully, we came to the plan. Don Gaspar sent out also to McClellan
for safekeeping his accumulations of gold dust; but we did not go quite
that far. In view of probable high prices we entrusted him with eighteen
ounces for the purchase of goods.
While he was away we came to another decision. It had been for some
weeks preparing. The diggings were becoming overcrowded. Almost every
foot of the bar was occupied, and more men were coming in every day. No
longer could the newcomer be sure of his colour the afternoon of his
arrival; but was forced to prospect here and there up and down the river
until he found a patch of the pay dirt. Most trusted simply to luck, but
some had systems on which they worked. I have seen divining rods used.
The believers in chance seemed to do as well as any one else.
But, also, our own yield was decreasing. The last week we had gained
only nineteen ounces all told. This might be merely a lean bit of
misfortune, or it might mean that we had taken the best from our ten
claims. Since the human mind is prone to changes, we inclined to the
latter theory. We were getting restless. No miner ever came to
California who did not believe firmly that he would have done much
better had he come out one voyage earlier; and no miner ever found
diggings so rich that he had not a sneaking suspicion that he could do
even better "a little farther on."
Our restlessness was further increased by the fact that we were now
seeing a good deal of Sam Bagsby, the hunter. He and Yank had found much
in common, and forgathered of evenings before our campfire.
Bagsby was a man of over fifty, tall and straight as a youngster, with a
short white beard, a gray eye, and hard, tanned flesh. He was a typical
Rocky Mountain man, wearing even in the hottest weather his fur cap with
the tail hanging behind, his deerskin moccasins, and his fringed
buckskin hunting shirt. Mining possessed no interest for him whatever.
He was by profession a trapper, and he had crossed the plains a
half-dozen times.
"No mining for me!" he stated emphatically. "I paddled around after the
stuff for a while, till my hands swelled up like p'ison, and my back
creaked like a frozen pine tree in the wind. Then I quit, and I stayed
quit. I'm a hunter; and I'm makin' a good livin', because I ain't very
particular on how I live."
He and Yank smoked interminable pipes, and swapped yarns. Johnny and I
liked nothing better than to keep quiet and listen to them. Bagsby had
come out with Captain Sutter; and told of that doughty soldier's early
skirmishes with the Indians. His tales of the mountains, the plains, and
the game and Indians were so much romance to us; and we both wished
heartily that fate could have allowed us a chance at such adventures.
"But why don't you fellows branch out?" Bagsby always ended. "What do
you want to stick here for like a lot of groundhogs? There's rivers back
in the hills a heap better than this one, and nobody thar. You'd have
the place plumb to yoreselves. Git in where the mountains is really
mountainous."
Then he would detail at length and slowly his account of the great
mountains, deep canons, the shadows of forests, ridges high up above the
world, and gorges far within the bowels of the earth through which
dashed white torrents. We gathered and pieced together ideas of great
ice and snow mountains, and sun-warmed bars below them, and bears and
deer, and a high clear air breathing through a vast, beautiful and
solitary wilderness. The picture itself was enough to set bounding the
pulses of any young man, with a drop of adventure in his veins. But also
Bagsby was convinced that there we should find richer diggings than any
yet discovered.
"It stands to reason," he argued, "that the farther up you git, the more
gold there is. All this loose stuff yere is just what washed down from
the main supply. If you boys reely wants rich diggings, then you want to
push up into the Porcupine River country."
But with this glowing and vivid impression we gathered another: that of
a trackless wilderness, fearful abysses down which to find a way,
labyrinthine defiles, great forests. None of us knew how to cope with
these things. Yank, the best woodsman of us all, had had no experience
in mountains. None of us knew anything of Indian warfare. None of us had
the least idea that we could find Porcupine River, even if we were to be
given accurate directions on how to get there.
Nevertheless the idea with us had been growing. Some of the bolder
spirits among our acquaintances used to talk it over with us at odd
times--McNally, Buck Barry, and his partner, Missouri Jones. We did not
discuss it as a plan, hardly as a possibility, merely as a pleasant
theme. We found, and advanced any amount of objections--the uncertainty
of finding any gold at all, the expense of such a journey, the danger
from Indians, the fact that we could find other proved diggings much
nearer, and a half hundred others. The moment one of us had advanced one
of these objections he was at once himself the most eager to demolish
it. Thus we gradually worked ourselves toward enthusiasm.
"If Sam Bagsby would join us, it might be worth trying," we came to at
last.
But Sam Bagsby scouted any such idea.
"I ain't that kind of a tom-fool," said he. "If I want to paddle my
hands blue I'd do it yere. I couldn't make more'n a living anyway. I
tell you I ain't got no use for yore pra'rie dog grubbing!"
Then McNally had an inspiration.
"Will you go, Sam, if we pay you for going?" he asked.
"Sure," replied the trapper at once. "I'm a labouring man, I'll go
anywhar I'm paid to go."
It came out that Bagsby's ideas of proper compensation were his
supplies, fifteen dollars a week in gold, and a drink of whiskey twice a
day! In all this gold country he was the only man I met who genuinely
despised money. I really think we were hurried to our decision by this
unexpected reasonableness on his part. At any rate we decided definitely
to go.