After many unlooked for delays, a half-barrel of pork which we had
long sought in vain was got out of the hold; and on the 8th of
September we bid a final farewell to the Leucothea, and transferred
ourselves to the Patuxent, the regular packet for Sacramento. The
Patuxent was a very pretty schooner of about one hundred tons,--had
formerly been engaged in the slave-trade, but now bore at her masthead
a flag showing that she carried the mail for Uncle Sam.
We set sail about four in the afternoon, with a fine breeze that we
hoped would last all night; but it went down with the sun, and we
were obliged to come to anchor before we had gone half across the
bay. Having eaten a frugal supper of boiled ham and biscuit, the ham
costing only forty cents a pound, we began anxiously to look about us
for sleeping accommodations. Picking my way carefully over the bundles
of dead and living lumber that strewed the deck, I at last succeeded
in reaching the spot where I had left my blankets, which I found in
the possession of a most delicate monster, with four legs and two
voices, who had coiled himself in them for the night. Pulling him by
the lesser legs, I presently awakened his forward and backward voices,
which showed at once, by a duet of curses, that they could both utter
foul speeches on occasion.
"Never you mind," I said to myself, "I have not scaped drowning so
long to be afeard now of your four legs;" and then adding a few words
of explanation, I received back my property with many apologies. But
it was a more difficult matter to find six unoccupied feet of plank;
and I was at last obliged to put up with a small chest about three
feet in length; where, half sitting, half lying, I nodded and blinked
till early morning.
Sunday was an extremely dull day; there was but little breeze,--we
began to tire of the stupifying monotony of ham and bread, and to feel
somewhat of the enervating effect of the climate.
I found, however, considerable amusement in studying the peculiarities
of our fellow passengers, nearly all of whom were entire strangers,
and presented a greater variety and novelty than I had yet met with.
There was a fair proportion of old miners, who had been down to San
Francisco to get letters from home, or to have a frolic, and were
now returning to the mines; but a far greater number of newcomers
like ourselves. There were English, Irish, Scotch, French, Germans,
Spaniards, and Chilanos. The captain, who was a Dane, with a nose like
Julius Cæsar's, seemed to have almost entire charge of his little
vessel, and to be in every part of her at once. I never could discover
that he slept at all;--he took his meals holding the tiller under his
arm; and, to save himself the trouble of giving orders, chose often to
haul on the ropes with his own hands.
The individual who sometimes relieved him from charge of the helm was
a laughing, chirruping, little Frenchman, rather gaily dressed, with
a bright red flannel shirt, and a showy scarf round his waist. His
untamed vivacity smacked strongly of the prairie; and, in spite of the
manifest anachronism, I was once or twice on the point of asking him
if he were not the Antoine or Pierre of whom I had read in Astorian
story.
The night was intensely cold, and I fared even worse than before. I
fell asleep several times on my feet; till, towards midnight, some
one gave me a seat on the narrow cabin stairs, where I slept and
shivered in weary alternation. Monday, however, was a glorious, true
California day;--a moderate breeze bore us steadily up the river,
whose banks presented a pleasing panorama. Though it was now near the
end of the dry season, the Sacramento seemed here brimming full; the
trees, and shrubs, and vines crowding so close to the bank that there
was no room for even a footpath between. Ascending into the rigging
I obtained a fine view of the surrounding country. Beyond the narrow
strip of forest that guarded the banks, extended, as far as the eye
could reach, tule marshes,--with here and there an island, like a
gigantic billow, breaking the straight outline of the horizon.
As we advanced, the soil became higher and fit for cultivation. A
narrow clearing running down to the water,--a canoe floating in the
shade of the tree to whose roots it was fastened,--a rude hovel
standing in the midst of a patch of melons or corn, all proclaimed
the adventurous squatter, who, Boonelike, had led the forlorn hope of
civilization.
At length, at a sudden turn in the river, we descried at a distance
the masts of Sacramento mingling with the branches of the primæval
forest. On landing, a scene presented itself of the most novel and
bewildering character. On one side was the lonely river, still
lonely in spite of the numerous ships that lay, side by side, moored
with long ropes to the trees on the bank;--on the other, was the
infant city yet maintaining a precarious struggle for existence with
the surrounding wilderness. The mighty oak that had possessed the
soil alone for centuries, or at least with no other rival than the
wandering Indian, now looked down with wonder upon the audacious
intruder at its feet, and thrust its long, gnarled branches among the
taper, slender spars.
Awnings had been erected over several ships, which were thus converted
into convenient stores and lodgings. The front rank of buildings stood
drawn up in a straight line about two hundred feet from the river;
and the streets, named after the letters of the alphabet, ran back at
right angles from the levee. The canvass walls were ornamented with
painted signs of the same material, which were generally in inverse
proportion to the size of the edifice, so that, in many cases, hardly
anything else was visible. In spite of the sombre presence of half a
dozen wooden buildings, the lighter fabric so far predominated, by the
aid of a thick settlement of miners' tents, as to give the whole place
the unsubstantial, ephemeral appearance of the encampment of a militia
muster, or a gypsy horde.
We took supper in an eating house, a small open tent, with no floor
but the bare ground, and nothing on the table but coffee, bread,
and beefsteak; but the owner said in excuse that he had not yet got
a-going, and should accordingly charge us only a dollar a-piece. We
slept this night on board the Patuxent, and the next morning looked
for a more stylish restaurant, when, in addition to what we had for
supper, they set before us liver, sausages, potatoes, and Indian
pudding, all cooked à la California, that is, fried in pork fat, but
very good, and cheap besides, our bill amounting to only five dollars.
At noon, Capt. Bill and Number Four set out for Mormon Island, to
satisfy themselves by ocular demonstration as to the merits of the
Virginia rocker; while Tertium and myself remained behind to dispose
of some merchandize we had brought out on speculation. We set up our
tent, a tall cone or sugar-loaf, upon the levee, borrowing for that
purpose a wagon-pole that lay, like the Irishman's crowbar, strewed
all over the bank; and erected about it, for greater security, a
frowning fortification of barrels of rice and beans, while we disposed
the lighter articles within.
Our nomade life had now fairly begun; hitherto we had hung, like
puny nurslings, on the dry breasts of a sickly civilization; but
henceforth we were to shift for ourselves. Having kindled a fire and
made some coffee in a bright tin coffee-pot, like a young couple just
setting up housekeeping, I proceeded to the nearest baker's shop, and
having bought a couple of loaves, marched back through the streets,
Franklin-wise, to our camp; when Tertium, who had in the meantime
fried some steaks, arranged the whole very tastily on the top of a
barrel. We had each a new tin plate as bright as a looking-glass, a
pint cup, with an iron spoon, and a big butcher's knife stuck into our
girdle. The supper was excellent--I must except the coffee--and in
fact we had enjoyed nothing so much since leaving Talcahuano.
After supper, as we sat in the door of our tent, with a little bit of
home-feeling already stirring in our hearts, a man passing along the
levee stopped to ask what we had for sale. He had on a monkey jacket,
a pair of heavy cowhide boots drawn over his pantaloons, and coming
well up to his knees, and presented throughout so great a contrast to
his former self, that we were not a little surprised at discovering
his identity with the fine gentleman we had so often seen promenading
the streets of B----.
As we were anxious to dispose of our goods as soon as possible,
without much regard to price, our bargain was soon completed. He paid
us in gold dust, the first that had come into our possession, which,
for want of a more fitting receptacle, we poured into a pewter cup.
When I afterwards emptied it into a vial, a little remained sticking
to the bottom, reminding me of the Forty Thieves, and the gold
measured in a bushel. "Who knows," I said to myself, "but that we may
have, before long, to resort to the same expedient?"
It was now time to go to bed; we carefully examined our
pistols,--stationed a lusty bag of beans as sentinel before the
door, and spreading our blankets in the dust, were soon sleeping as
carelessly as the veteran on the field of battle.
The next morning we sold the remainder of our goods, including a
large portion of our provisions, and were now all ready for a start;
but were obliged to wait until we heard from our companions, as we
were doubtful whether we had better make our first experiment at
Mormon Island, or on the North Fork as we had at first intended.
In the meantime, fearful lest they should let slip the favourable
opportunity, I made haste to write a most pressing letter, urging
them, by all means, to lose no time in securing at least one of those
machines that every day seemed more scientific and more desirable.
Friday, having a few hooks, we amused ourselves with fishing in the
Sacramento. We caught a number of fish about a foot in length, full of
bones as they could hold, but furnishing a very welcome addition to
our scanty bill of fare.
The next day we received a note from Number Four, advising us to join
them at Mormon Island, as they found themselves quite unable to decide
so important a question without our assistance. It was too late,
however, to commence so long a journey, and we very reluctantly waited
till the following week.
Sunday, two other parties from the Leucothea came up the river, Capt.
Fayreweather's, in a flat boat they had built on board the ship, and
the Vermonters in a packet.
The Vermonters pitched their tent among a large number of others
in a thick grove in one corner of the town, and then commenced the
arduous task of transporting thither their provisions; the imperious,
headstrong Charley disputing all the while with his rebellious
satellites, with most amusing pertinacity, as to the amount of labour
performed by each, and the proper method of conducting the simplest
operation.
Monday afternoon they started on a long journey of ninety miles up
on the Yuba; and, at the same time, we set out for Mormon Island,
twenty-five miles from Sacramento, with a mule wagon to transport our
provisions and household stuff, for which we had to pay eight cents
a pound. After passing Sutter's Fort, the road for several miles lay
over an open prairie; the evening was calm, and the solitude and
silence greater even than at sea. A little farther on, the surface
became more undulating; fine old oaks dotted the ground at long
intervals, seeming, like the stars in the sky, set all at an equal
distance in a wide circle, of which we were the centre.
We encamped for the night near the American river,--the sun had long
been set,--we were cold and hungry, but it was too dark to find
materials for a fire, and we were compelled to go supperless to bed.
We spread our tent on the ground, and muffling ourselves in our
blankets, crept in between the folds, in dumb expressive silence,
while our driver, equally unsocial, stretched his length, like a watch
dog, under his wagon. It was a relief to hear the roar of the river
that on one side seemed to furnish a wall of defence, as if it had
weakened the surrounding loneliness by cutting it in halves; it was a
relief even to hear the barking of the coatis as they prowled round
the wagon; but I never recall that night by the American river, and
think of the profoundest desolation that brooded over us, without a
shudder,--a shudder of delight, as children listen to tales of ghosts
and goblins.
We hailed the first dawn of day with intense satisfaction; before the
sun was up our coffee-pot was singing over a crackling blaze, and a
steak sizzling in the frying-pan sent forth a most savoury odour.
There is an immense difference between going to bed darkling and
supperless, and getting up to a hearty breakfast on a bright sunshiny
morning; we were no longer the same persons, and, full of beef and
coffee, felt ready to encounter any difficulty that might present
itself.
We travelled all day through an open forest of oak, passing one or
two houses, or ranches as they were oftener called, and meeting
occasionally an empty wagon returning to Sacramento. We met also a
young fellow dressed in a new calico shirt of the gayest pattern,
with a bright scarf round his waist, galloping carelessly along the
sweeping glades of the forest, and swinging round his head the
long braided lash that forms the end of a Spanish bridle. I looked
after him with envious admiration; for thinks I to myself, there is
a lucky miner who has made his fortune, twenty or thirty thousand
at least, and is now going home to enjoy it. But it was pleasant to
think that in another year we too should be galloping over the same
road, each with just such a horse and painted shirt, and with as well
filled saddle-bags as he. Then how we would exult over any unlucky
pedestrians we might chance to encounter!--with what self-complacent
condescension we would stop to answer their absurd questions! looking
down upon them, all the while, from our twofold elevation, with most
delightful pity,--pitying them, so to speak, as hard as we could, and
then wrapt away from their sight in a cloud of dust.
Solacing ourselves with many such "sugared suppositions," we came at
night to a small roadside inn, called the Willow Spring House, and
built in that place for the sake of the water which is very scarce in
all that region. Several parties were already resting on the little
green slope opposite the house; we joined them, and cooked our supper
at their fire; while, after the fashion of Californians, we gave each
other a brief account of our adventures. Some of our companions we
found had come like ourselves round the Horn, and we were mutually
anxious to learn the names of our respective vessels; some had come
by way of the Isthmus,--and others had travelled across the plains
of Mexico, or over the Rocky Mountains. They came together, at this
secluded spot, for the first and last time, and parted in the morning;
some going down to Sacramento, which they had not yet seen, and others
up into the mountains,--while we continued our march, and in an hour
arrived at Mormon Island, where we found our companions in a state of
great perplexity at our long delay.
With their assistance our goods were soon unloaded at a spot hastily
selected at the side of the street; we counted out eighty dollars on
a stump for our driver,--hung our tent to the overhanging branch of a
small oak to avoid the necessity of a pole, and piled our provisions
round its trunk.
Our next door neighbour, an old man with a loud, good-humoured voice,
and who kept a sort of small eating-house at the farther end of a
monstrous pine that stretched from his door to ours, was cooking
his breakfast at a fire built against the middle of the log. While
our coffee was boiling, he began to sing the praises of some bean
soup he had just concocted; and, on my expressing some doubt of its
excellence, nothing would do but I must taste it. "There," said he,
as I dipped my iron spoon into the shallow tin plate he had provided,
"what do you say to that?" I was forced to acknowledge that it was
very good indeed, and I further flattered the old man's vanity by
asking for the recipe, which he gave me at once, with an infinite deal
of chuckling and gesticulation, flying round all the while among his
pots and kettles with twice his usual dexterity.
Having fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast, we proceeded
all together, Capt. Bill leading the way, to the island, to see the
machine that had gradually climbed so high in our imaginations.
Mormon Island proper is nothing but a large bar on one side of the
river, converted into an island by a narrow canal dug round it for
the purpose of draining that portion of the channel. The name,
however, has extended itself to the village that has grown up on the
neighbouring bank, and which consisted, at that time, of a single
street nearly as broad as it was long,--lined on three sides with a
few scattered tents and log houses, though several stores and hotels
of much greater pretensions have since been added.
Crossing the canal by a bridge made of a single log, and walking a few
rods over a succession of miniature hills thrown up by the miners,
we came to a small hollow where the machine was at work. A sudden
weakness,--shall I confess it?--now came over me, and I paused a
moment to recover my self-possession before venturing to face this
miracle of science. I then slowly advanced till my eyes, rising above
the stony ridge that surrounded it, peered curiously down into the
hollow.
Three times in my life have I met with severe disappointments--once in
my eighth year, hurrying home from school in the confident expectation
of having apple dumplings for dinner, and finding that, through some
dreadful cook's blunder, there was nothing but salt beef, cabbage, and
potatoes--once in my maturer years, in a still more tender point--and
now, to complete the mighty three, I saw--instead of the cunning
invention possessed of mysterious, almost fearful powers, which I had
imagined--only a big, clumsy rocker, mounted on a frame still bigger
and clumsier than itself, and weighing altogether some five or six
hundred pounds. Underneath the riddle or castiron sieve that extended
the whole length of the machine, was a trough about eight inches deep,
and divided by numerous low partitions into narrow cells intended to
contain the quicksilver used in washing. It was this feature that had
suggested the idea of a patent beehive; and in the last or lowest of
these cells we had expected to find the gold in a state of perfect
purity. We now discovered our mistake--these partitions corresponded
simply to the ripple-bars of the common rocker, which indeed the whole
machine resembled much more closely than we had supposed. Five men
were required to attend to its various wants; one to rock--one to pump
into it a constant stream of water--one to feed it--and two to bring
the earth from the hole.
Several of the owners, members of the company of which the scientific
miner was president, were standing by, watching the operation; and one
of them I thought, from his conversation, must be almost as scientific
as the scientific miner himself. They were all pleasant, gentlemanly
fellows, living in a fine large tent on a breezy hill just above the
island, and in such style and comfort as became the owners of a
thousand thousand-dollar machines, like themselves.
But our hopes were doomed to receive another and still more
overwhelming shock. The scientific miner had assured us that we could
make our thousand a week from almost any earth in California--we
didn't quite believe him, to be sure--but now the second scientific
miner, not indeed so scientific as the first, but horribly scientific
for all that, advised us, by all means, not to remain at Mormon
Island, but to prospect a bar he had himself visited, just below
Coloma, and which he thought from its _formation_ likely to prove
unusually rich.
"But," replied Tertium, shrinking from the idea of another long
journey, and still possessed by the chimerical notion suggested by the
scientific miner, "why wouldn't it be as well to remain here? There's
that hill yonder, to the right of the village; I don't see why that
shouldn't pay as well as any other place."
You should have seen the smile of benevolent pity with which this
audacious speech was received by the miner who was only less
scientific than the scientific miner at San Francisco. It was really
delightful to see how easily his science enabled him to solve a
question which we could have decided only by pickaxe and shovel.
"Ah, my dear sir," he replied, his politeness struggling hard with
that noble disdain he could not help feeling, "there is no gold
there--the geological formation shows that it is impossible. If you
look again, you will see that the river here makes a sudden turn to
the right; and besides, gold is never found in such soil as that hill
is composed of."
Here Capt. Bill looked at me as much as to say, "He's one of the
men you read of;" and we all frowned upon Tertium as a sign that he
should hold his peace; while, in accordance with the second scientific
miner's suggestion, we did look again--saw, as he said we would,
that the river did turn to the right, and of course could never, by
any possibility, have flowed in any other direction; whereby our
opinion of science in general, and of the second scientific miner's in
particular, was marvellously confirmed.
Lest I should forget it, I would here simply mention, that not long
after, some ignoramus, not having the fear of science before his eyes,
and digging stupidly into this identical hill, discovered veins of
such richness as turned half the heads in the village.
This hill in fact seemed one of those awkward exceptions designed by
nature expressly for the discomfiture of just such philosophers; as
if, like the rest of her sex, she would not give her suitors too much
encouragement, lest their presumption should make them forget their
modesty. The good lady, if the truth must be told, seemed in this
matter even more capricious than ordinary, and bestowed her favours
with so little discernment that the least deserving were often the
most successful.
I encountered many other scientific miners during my travels, but
never met with one whose science was worth his salt. It did not seem
so much a means as an end, and was continually leading them astray
from the real object of pursuit. They acted often as foolishly as
the man who in travelling would not take the common highway that
led directly to the spot where he wished to go, but chose, because
he could move a little faster, to get into a railroad car that was
going in just the opposite direction. In short, their science was
like that discriminating salve which, being rubbed slightly on one
eye, disclosed all the treasures of the earth, but being applied to
both, resulted in total blindness. Yet to hear them talk of geological
formations, of strata and deposits, with their primitive and
secondary, it would seem as if they were thoroughly acquainted with
the diagnosis of their patient, and could put their finger on the very
spot in nature's loins where she had hutched the all-worshipped ore,
with as much certainty as a modern Esculapius can determine the seat
of a disease.
However, the second scientific miner had said it, and accordingly the
next morning after our arrival, and before the blisters had dried off
my feet, I set out with Number Four for Coloma, twenty-five miles
farther up the river. Our blankets were slung over our shoulders, and
we carried in our pockets a bit of bread and cheese to beguile the way
somewhat of its weariness. We commenced our journey in high spirits,
but had not walked more than two miles before the stiffening which my
limbs so much needed seemed all to have settled in my boots, where
it was not needed at all; and I found, to my indignant surprise and
consternation, that I, who had never, so to speak, been sick in my
life, was thus shamefully betrayed into a downright fit of dysentery.
It was now the middle of September, a season when the heat, if no
longer quite so intense, is even more oppressive than in summer; all
vegetation was burnt up, and the parched, dusty ground quivered in the
dizzy rays.
Loitering slowly under the scattered trees, and quickening our pace in
the unbroken sunshine, we came at noon to a circular sandy plain about
two miles in diameter, without a leaf in its whole extent, and glowing
under the fierce meridian like the focus of a burning-glass.
Collecting our forces for a desperate rally, we hurried in eager
emulation across this little desert, and found on the other side a
ranch, with a spring, shaded by a few solitary oaks, at some distance
from the roadside, and offering a convenient resting-place. We stopped
here several hours, nibbling at our bread and cheese, and scooping
up water from the spring in a cocoanut shell I had brought from Rio
Janeiro; but the sun playing "bo-peep" with us round the tree made it
impossible to sleep, and at length compelled us to resume our journey.
The country became, as we advanced, more and more hilly and thickly
wooded; and after crossing Weaver's Creek, a small stream four miles
from Coloma, the road seemed entirely made up of a succession of long
steep hills. The degree of exhaustion to which I was now reduced,
exceeded anything of which I had supposed the human frame was capable;
at the top of every hill I hurried forward, hoping to hear the roar
of the river, or to catch a glimpse of the tents of Coloma at the
bottom; more than once I threw myself on the ground with the full
determination to proceed no farther till morning, but the urgency of
my companion prevailed, and again I set forward to encounter the next
ascent.
It was long after dark when we at last saw the lights of the village
far below. Slowly winding down the long hill, we passed the scattered
suburbs of tents, with little groups of miners sitting round their
drowsy fires, and in a few minutes reached the store to which we had
been directed, where I sank onto a bench, as it seemed more dead than
alive.
They gave us for supper some wretched tea, of which I drank eagerly
four or five cups--cold stewed beans, and an apple-sauce of dried
peaches, of which I ate more sparingly, but my stomach, with superior
instinct, refused to retain any such villainous combination. We slept
on the dirty open floor of the dining-room, fanned by the night air
sifting through, cold and dust-laden--and lulled by the beating of
that mill that will henceforth, while the world stands, be more
renowned in story than many a royal palace. Among our companions
were two or three dogs continually running in and out, and smelling
round our faces, and a poor woman who had walked that day twenty-five
miles, with an infant in her arms, to meet her husband, and was now
inconsolable at his delay.
In the morning we walked out to see the place. It stands in a narrow
valley, hemmed in by high rugged hills, among which the South Fork
worms its way, sometimes dark and deep, but oftener widening into a
stream so shallow that it can almost be crossed dryshod. There by
its side was the mill that had made all this stir, worth a hundred
thousand dollars, yet working away ignobly, day and night, like any of
the thousand saw-mills that bestride the streams of New England.
After breakfast we borrowed a pick, pan and shovel of our landlord;
and, striking into a footpath over the hills, walked a mile down the
river to the bar so highly recommended by the second scientific miner.
This bar was much larger and higher than Mormon Island, with many
trees scattered over it; but its surface remained unbroken, and the
merry dash of the miner's rocker was nowhere heard. Near the lower end
a natural dam had formed a romantic little pond, with pebbly beaches
running down between the bushes into the water, where we saw the
fish glancing beneath the surface. A more commodious and delightful
spot for a miner's encampment could hardly be devised. The slender
pines were admirably fitted for a log house--the solitude was like
enchantment, and what could be pleasanter than to sit in some shady
nook, and fish all the long, lazy summer's day in those fairy waters?
But imperious necessity compelled us to shut our eyes to all these
features of delight, and to look simply at the amount of gold that
might be expected to reward our labour.
We selected a spot at the upper end of the bar, as most likely to
contain the precious metal, and at once set vigorously to work
throwing out, like two rampant antlions, the paving-stones and
gravel that came tumbling back upon us in the most vexatious manner.
Occasionally Number Four filled a pan half full of earth, and carried
it down to the river to wash out. The first trial gave nothing, the
second a little more, and at length we were so fortunate as to obtain
a panful that yielded the incredible sum of three cents. We rested an
hour at noon to eat our salt beef and biscuit, and again resumed our
labours, but with no better success; we returned to the attack the
next morning, and at another part of the bar; but three cents was the
best it could do for us, and we finally abandoned it in sore disgust.
Oh, that second scientific miner! and, oh, that "promising formation!"
Promising! yes, it was promising, but it lied consumedly.
In the afternoon, we met a number of our fellow-passengers who were
mining in the vicinity. The account they gave of the Coloma diggings
was not such as to induce us to remain any longer in the place,
and we determined to return to Mormon Island, without any further
explorations; the more especially, as we were somewhat tired of paying
nine dollars a day for such board and lodging as I have described.
As Number Four, however, preferred to wait till the next morning, I
set out alone at half-past four, expecting to finish my journey by
moonlight. To avoid the exquisite torture inflicted by my boots, I
cut off the tops of an old pair I picked up in the street--drew them
up over my feet like a napkin by a string passed through the four
corners--and thus, with my boots in my hand, shuffled along with that
awkward waddle peculiar to all the webfooted tribe. No one would have
had the slightest difficulty in following my trail, which, besides
the elephantine footprint, was marked at regular intervals, as by
mile-stones, by the little piles of dust and gravel I had emptied
out of these gouty appendages. This answered very well for several
miles, but by the time I reached Weaver Creek, the soles of my feet
had become so sore that I was obliged to resume my boots. The sun set
soon after, but I still proceeded very comfortably by aid of the moon,
though the deep shadows of the hills and trees sometimes hid the road
completely from view. About nine I came suddenly upon a piece of bog
that ran directly across the road, and which I had no recollection of
seeing on my way up; at the same moment, as ill luck would have it,
the moon dipped very ill-naturedly beneath the horizon, thus depriving
me of her light just when I could worst do without it.
While I was bewildering myself more and more in my vain attempts to
find a passage, a Will-o'-the-wisp-ish sort of light, dancing about
at no great distance, attracted my attention. I was greatly pleased,
on coming up with it, to find it of a more friendly character; a man
was looking after his cattle, and told me, in answer to my inquiries,
that the road here turned at right angles, and that the black shadow I
saw at a little distance was the Green Spring House, where it will be
recollected we had rested on our way to Coloma.
I should have remained at Green Spring all night, but unfortunately
I had left my blankets behind me, and had no desire to make the
acquaintance of the strange bedfellows one was sure to encounter in
a California inn. I stopped accordingly only long enough to obtain
a glass of water; the bar-keeper scowled because I did not ask for
brandy; and having at length, with some difficulty, found the road,
which ran just before the door, I again set forward. I at first
proceeded very slowly, stooping from time to time to make out my
course by the shimmer of the wheel-tracks; but becoming tired of this
species of locomotion, I pushed on more rapidly, and soon lost the
road altogether.
Fearing at length that I might be going in the wrong direction,
I pulled out my pocket-compass and a box of matches; and having
ascertained the position of the north star, determined to steer my
course as at sea, without turning to the right hand or the left. But
after what seemed many weary miles, no signs of life appearing, I
began to think I had passed the island, and was now perhaps half way
down to Sacramento. I knew, however, that the river was on my right;
I supposed it could not be far distant, and that, if I once succeeded
in reaching it, I should have no difficulty in determining my true
position. There never was a greater blunder--for more than an hour I
toiled on, over hill and valley, stopping now and then to catch the
far-off roar of the river, or any other sound that might prate of my
whereabouts. Suddenly I heard a dog bark far down the stream, and
then the lowing of a cow. These cheerful sounds gave me courage. I
pressed on, and soon saw below, the black-and-white water gliding
under the ghostly starlight, along its rocky channel. I scrambled
down, nearly breaking my neck in my eagerness, by tumbling over a
bank some ten feet high; and sitting on a lump of granite I dipped
my cocoanut again and again into the stream, and drained it with as
feverish relish as if I had been scorching beneath the sun of Sahara.
Finding it impossible to make my way along the craggy shore, I again
ascended the high ground, when I waded for a long time through a deep
sea of hemlock. Emerging from this I wandered on, by trees, and rocks,
and hills--nothing civilised, nothing moving but the coati and the
hare that "from my path fled like a shadow." I stopped and hallooed,
though half frightened at the sound of my own voice, but echo was the
only answer. On I went, further and further into the big blackness of
the night, feeling my way, as it were, by continued shouts, as a blind
man pokes his way with a cane. My efforts were at length successful.
"What in the d---- are you making such a hullabaloo for, at this time
o' night?" said a gruff voice coming out of the darkness. I looked
in the direction of the sound, and saw, close at my elbow where I
wondered I had not seen it before, a large wagon covered with white
cotton. Approaching somewhat nearer, I became aware of a head, to
which apparently the voice belonged, projecting tortoise-like from the
end of the wagon. In answer to my inquiries, the head, that in spite
of its first salutation, seemed a very good sort of a head, informed
me pleasantly enough that Mormon Island was only a mile below, and
that I could not fail to hit it. As I turned away, I heard a woman's
voice, sounding smothered out of the cart's belly, say, "poor fellow;"
and I blessed her with all her sisterhood.
About three in the morning, Capt. Bill suddenly awaking, was
dreadfully startled to perceive a tall figure standing at his feet.
He instantly aroused his companion, who, sitting up on end with most
courageous trembling, began fumbling under his head for a pistol,
while he boldly demanded "who's there?" No answer being returned, his
finger already pressed the fatal trigger, and another moment would
have ended my adventures before they had well begun, if I had not
made haste to relieve their fears by the assurance that I was not the
bloody thief and murderer they had been so quick to imagine.
I have been the more particular in describing this little bit of
travel, as it was our first experience of the varieties of California
life, and a fitting introduction to what was to follow. California
at that time was an almost unbroken wilderness, with a few villages
scattered at long intervals on the principal rivers, and a single
house here and there along the roads. The forests were supposed to
be infested by wild beasts and more savage Indians, and on this very
occasion I was startled more than once by hearing the dead branches
by the road side snapping under the tread of some heavy animal, which
I boldly maintained, gainsay it who will, must have been a grizzly
of the first magnitude; though I will allow that no animal more
formidable than a coati was ever seen in that neighbourhood.