Before the occupation of the country by the Americans, its population
was considered to amount to from thirty to forty thousand inhabitants
natives of the Spanish race, Indians and foreigners included; but
since that time its growth appears to be magic, and particularly since
the discovery of the gold mines; every corner of the world seems to
contribute its share of inhabitants; every tongue almost is spoken in
the streets of San Francisco. But this new population does not spread
through the country to benefit it; it crowds only to the mines or the
port of San Francisco. It consists chiefly of speculators and diggers,
and some mechanics; of farmers we do not hear as yet. The town has led
the van in growth; there is nothing similar on records; one may say
without exaggeration that it has been inaugurated in one moment by
some superhuman power, or sprung like one of those ambulating towns
do spring the day before a fair. In fact, it looks very much like one
of those cities only built for a day. Its houses built of planks and
cotton sheetings cannot last but a day; however, whatever they lack
in quality they make up in quantity. Four months ago the town hardly
counted fifty houses, and now it must have upwards of five hundred, and
these are daily increasing; even a theatre is spoken of as being built.
From eight to ten thousand inhabitants may be afloat in the streets of
San Francisco, and hundreds arrive daily; many live in shanties, many
in tents, and many the best way they can. The magic power of gold marks
every spot here; vessels from different parts of the world press into
the harbor, and make already a large floating city in front of the
_terra firma_; goods of all descriptions are scattered on the shore in
open streets that are too narrow for men, animals and carts that pass
up and down. The freaks of fortune are equally as remarkable in this
place as everything else connected with it; some men who two years ago
had not a cent in their pocket, count by thousands now; property that
a year ago could have been bought for five or six thousand dollars,
now pays a rent of thirty thousand dollars per annum; mechanics who
formerly were glad to get a job at two dollars a day, now get from six
to twelve; in fact, mechanics, and particularly carpenters, are the
most independent aristocracy of the place. Strange as it may appear,
yet in the midst of abundance of every kind, women are very scarce;
the domestic circle does not exist here as yet; domestic pleasures are
wanting, and house-hold duties are unfulfilled.
We touch here upon a subject which, if we allowed ourself to speak
feelingly as a bachelor, we might be even eloquent, but in the position
we find ourself as a writer, we are bound to speak philosophically
only, viz: look upon the question before us with that cold eye of
indifference or reserve which becomes an impartial judgment. We will,
therefore, say nothing of ourself--we will speak of the situation
of others; we will try to advocate the cause of poor and forlorn
bachelors, and persuade some respectable heads of families that have
daughters to settle in life, to come to California and build up the
society, which, without woman, is like an edifice built on sand.
Woman, to society, is like a cement to the building of stone; the
society here has no such a cement; its elements float to and fro on
the excited, turbulent, hurried life of California immigrants, or
rather gold hunters, of all colors and shapes, without any affinity;
such an aggregate or mass of human bodies have no souls; they are but
a grand automaton, whose springs Mamon alone makes vibrate. Such is
the society of San Francisco. But bring woman here, and at once the
process of cristalization, if we may be permitted the expression, will
set in in the society, by the natural affinities of the human heart.
There are here many worthy men who have had the good luck to make a
respectable competency, who would like to be married and settled in
life, as honest and sensible men should do; but for want of the fair
ones, they think only of getting away from here as soon as possible.
Now, the country by this state of society, loses much in many respects,
beside losing many valuable inhabitants; and those who stay behind
intend to do the same when their turn comes. This would not be so if
some pleasant families from the States, rich in nothing else but in
intelligent, home educated daughters, they could well provide for all
their members here with much more ease, as yet, than in any portion
of the Union. These families must be easy in their circumstances, so
that they may be able to buy farming lands where they could settle, and
by the natural growth of landed property they would, in a few years,
find themselves wealthy. This country is particularly fitted for that
class of people who once knew what affluence was, and who by a sudden
turn of the wheel of fortune, found their means reduced to mediocrity.
Life in California, although it must have its inconveniences belonging
to a thinly inhabited country, yet it cannot be compared to anything
like life in new settlements in the Western States or Oregon. If
people only were willing to take it easy, they would, ninety-nine out
of a hundred, even like it. The population here is much more ready to
take at once, or very soon, a more agreeable and polished form than
could be expected in any other new country. There is something in
the climate--we of course except San Francisco and the Valley of the
Sacramento, which predisposes one to contentment. The sunny skies for
so long a portion of the year have an exiliarating influence upon the
mind, and so much so that we have known cases of Americans who were in
the habit of carrying care-worn visages in their own country, acquire
here smiling and contented countenances, smoothed by placidity. Indeed,
we would recommend, as a medicine, to all vinegar-faced, care-corroded
gentry, that are well to do in the world, to come and settle in the
rich valleys of California, where good health and azure skies can be
enjoyed; where winter does not touch you with its freezing hand.
The people of the country, of the Spanish race, possess a good deal of
natural simplicity, but without that boorishness and grossness which
characterizes the lower order of some of the European nations; they are
ignorant for want of opportunities of learning, but nature has not
refused them capacities for acquiring knowledge;--they are obliging in
their disposition and hospitable; the latter virtue, however, already
begins to undergo some changes since the arrival of so many foreigners;
yet among themselves, or those upon whom they look favorably, they
preserve their good old custom. Their women are healthy, robust, good
looking and hard working as a general rule; kindness is a universal
feature among them; and if one had to choose between them and ordinary
women of some civilized portions of the world, we do not hesitate to
say that the Californian women would receive the preference, although
in point of information they are deficient.
Their men are somewhat disposed to idleness, but this may be owing
partly to the facility with which they were in the habit of getting
a living, and which now will have to undergo some modification. As a
nation, they are lively, and cannot be said to be vicious; in fine,
they have sufficient good qualities to make up for their deficiencies.
Such as these good people are, they do not offer much temptation
to foreigners who have seen higher forms of civilization to become
commingled with them, but they have some good elements among them, and
if respectable families from the States and Europe would come out here,
the different races would soon be mixed up, and make before many years
one of the most pleasant societies. By such an immigration the country
would gain vastly; because then so many young men that have come here
would form here their family ties, and would bind their interests with
the interests and welfare of the country. But, as it is, California
unavoidably must receive a check in its progress, as it will be only
inhabited by passers-by, so to speak, who will have no permanent
interest in the country.
The greatest privations that a bachelor is in this country exposed to,
consist in not being able to furnish himself with clean linen when he
desires, as domestic service is so difficult to be kept up here for
want of working women. To induce some of the few women that are here
to condescend to wash their linen for them, they have to court them
besides paying six dollars a dozen.
We know an instance of an inveterate bachelor who married a spinster
because she refused to wash his clothes for him, but he was determined
she should do it at any price, as he was a great lover of cleanliness;
in this dilema he resolved to pay her all he was worth, rather than
forego his habit of cleanliness. He is in the habit of saying, “he
who goes without a clean shirt on, keeps his conscience open to
suspicion”--too severe a judgment upon us the inhabitants of this town.
When this uneven slope of the hill on which the town is situated shall
be built up with fine and solid houses, what now looks dreary and
desolate will then look very picturesque and smiling; so will it be
with the society here; when elements that are now daily accumulating
get through their fermentation and become settled, they also will
present a smooth and transparent surface to the moral eye of the
beholder, but as yet, one needs a little philosophy to bear him through
the present that he may lean on the future.
In the moral aspect of the town, save some occurrences, there has
been a good deal to wonder at--that in such a medley of races and
tongues nothing very serious has happened to jeopardize its existence
or to injure its prosperity, under existing circumstances, is very
remarkable; its order and quiet has been only once disturbed for a few
days by a set of men, chiefly from New York, who called themselves,
very significantly, the “Hounds.” For a while they went parading the
streets publicly, by day light, and breaking glass-ware in grog shops
by night; when they commenced to commit outrages upon property, took
the lives of some foreigners and violated the honor of some women, the
citizens rose like one man, armed themselves and arrested them nearly
all and put them in duress on board a man-of-war, to wait for their
trial, after which they were _disposed of according to their merits_.
Since that time order and quiet have prevailed, and more active
measures have been taken to prevent another necessity to chase after
any other pack of “hounds.”
The state of society in California has not yet arrived to that point
of organized life where its most important movements can be stated, or
represented in numbers for the especial satisfaction of the political
economist. We will not therefore attempt anything of the kind, but we
may however state in numbers a few facts in regard to the shipping in
this port.
From the first of January, 1849, to the 30th of September of the same
year, 509 vessels arrived in the harbor.
The sum total of passengers in the same space of time, 18,972.
In the month of August, ending on the 29th, the number of women arrived
by sea 87, among whom 6 were married--42 American.
On the 30th of August there were 61,585 tons of shipping in the harbor
of San Francisco, exclusive of river craft, which amounts to about 60
vessels plying up the rivers Sacramento and San Joaquin.
In one day, on the 29th of August, there arrived in San Francisco by
merchant vessels, 654 male and 27 female passengers.
On the 24th of September 11,000 tons of shipping came into the harbor.
On the 30th of September there were 94,344 tons of shipping in the
harbor.
The directions for entering the port of San Francisco that have been
heretofore followed, being found incorrect, we give room to the
correction of them, with which Capt. E. A. KING politely furnished us,
together with regulations of the port: