The writer was practising his profession in the city of Albany, his
native place, in 1848, when reports came of the discovery of gold in
California. In a short time samples of scales of the metal of the river
diggings were on exhibition, sent to friends in the city in letters.
Many of Colonel Stevenson's regiment had been recruited in that city.
Soon these rumors were exaggerated. It was said that barrels of gold
were dug by individuals named. Soon the excitement extended all over the
country, and the only barrier to wealth, it seemed, was the difficulty
of getting to the Eldorado. Why the discovery of gold there should have
produced so much excitement cannot be fathomed. It seemed an era in
human affairs, like the Crusades and other events of great importance
that occur. Your correspondent became one of its votaries, and organized
a company to go to the gold rivers and secure a fortune for all
interested in it, and it seemed all that was required was to get there
and return in a short time and ride in your carriage and astonish your
friends with your riches. Suffice it to say, this company was fully
organized (with its by-laws and system of government drawn up by the
writer), and sailed from the port of New York on the ship _Tarrolinter_
on the 13th of January, 1849, to go around Cape Horn, arriving in San
Francisco on the following July. From that time I became absorbed in all
the news from the gold regions, and losing confidence somewhat in the
certainty of a fortune from my interest in the company, and reading of
the high price of lumber, the scarcity of houses, and the extraordinary
high wages of mechanics there, conceived the project of shipping the
materials for some houses there, having all the work put on them here
that could be done, thus saving the difference in wages, and to have
them arrive there before the rainy season set in, and thus realize the
imaginary fortune that I had expected from my interest in the company.
In the following spring I had twelve houses constructed. The main point
upon which my speculation seemed to rest was to get them to San
Francisco before the rainy season commenced. I went to New York to
secure freight for them in the fastest vessel. Fortunately for me, as I
conceived at the time, I found the day before I arrived in New York, the
_Prince de Joinville,_ a Havre packet ship, had been put up to sail for
the port of San Francisco, and as yet had engaged no freight. I made a
bargain with them at once to take my houses at sixty cents per square
foot, and had the contract signed, half to be delivered at the side of
the ship by such a date and the other half at a subsequent date. I
delivered the first half of the houses on the time agreed, sending them
down the Hudson river by a barge on a tow. I sent the second half on a
barge to get there on the day they were due, apprehending no trouble, I
going down myself a few days in advance. They commenced complaining at
the ship that they would not have room for the balance of my houses on
board, although I had their written contract to take them at sixty cents
per foot.
There was great California excitement about this time, and other parties
had come to the conclusion that the _Prince de Joinville_ was probably
the fastest ship taking freight for San Francisco. I saw them accept of
offers at $1.50 per foot, when their contract with me was for less than
half that price, which would make a difference of several thousand
dollars in their favor. So, if the balance of my houses did not arrive
within the time stated in the contract, they would not be taken on that
vessel, and my speculation ruined. The time was up the next day at
twelve o'clock. I was down on the Battery the next morning early
watching for the tow, with the barge with my houses. The ship was at the
dock in the East river. About ten o'clock, A.M., I had the good fortune
to see the barge rounding the Battery. I cried out to the captain to cut
loose from the tow, employ the first steam tug and I would pay the bill,
which he did, getting on the side of the vessel by eleven o'clock, thus
saving my contract by one hour. But they did not commence taking them on
board, so the captain of the barge put a demurrage of $20 per day for
detention. In the meantime, I had bought my ticket to sail by the
steamer _Georgia_ to the Isthmus to go on the 1st of July which was but
a few days off. They, seeing that I had them on my contract, came to me
and said that my houses should go on their ship according to contract,
if they had to throw other freight out, and that they would sign a
regular bill of lading for all the material deliverable to me upon the
arrival of the _Prince de Joinville_ at the port of San Francisco, and
take my carpenters' specifications for the description of them, which
seemed all right to me.
The following is an article from the _Albany Evening Atlas_ of June 23,
1849:
"CALIFORNIA HOUSES.
"Our estimable fellow citizen Dr. Knower, who is to start
for California by the Crescent City _via_ Panama, is about
to ship to that place twelve houses, complete and ready to
put up on arrival at San Francisco. The venture is a costly
one, the freight on the material approaching the cost of as
many frame buildings in this quarter, and the projector, we
think, has managed the speculation with great foresight and
judgment. The best timber has been selected, and the best
work men employed, and a plan of architecture pursued,
which is supposed to offer the greatest advantages with the
most economical expenditures of material. Four of these
buildings are 18 feet front and 25 feet deep. A partition
running lengthways divides the buildings into two rooms, and
the stairs leads to a second platform, which is large enough
for bedrooms, or for storing materials and tools of miners.
Two others are 18 feet front and 18 feet deep, with a small
extension in the rear of 8 feet. Two are 16 feet in front
and 22 feet deep, with the entrance on the gable front; and
the four others are 18 feet front by 14 deep. The sides of
the building will be composed of a double framework of
boards planed, grooved and tongued, fitting air tight on
each side of the timber, the interval between them being
either filled with the moss of the country or left vacant,
the confined column of the air being found sufficient to
keep off the excess of cold or heat. The roofs of all the
buildings shed from the front, except two of which are of
gable shape. The roofs are to be made of solid,
close-fitting planks, covered with fine ticking and coated
with the patent indestructible fire-proof paint, and
applications which our citizens have just begun to use here,
and which they have, found entirely successful.
"The houses can be easily transported to the placers or may
be put up on the sea-board. We should suppose that the
numerous land-owners who are speculating on the prospects of
future cities would be glad to give the land necessary for
the location of this village.
"The houses go by the _Prince de Joinville_, a first-class
vessel, which leaves New York soon."
I sailed on the steamer which left New York at 5 P.M., July 1, 1849.
Friends were there to see me off, but there were no persons on the boat
that I had ever seen before--I was wondering who would be my first
acquaintance.
Being very tired, I retired soon to my berth, and woke up the next
morning on the broad ocean. Two days of sea sickness and I was all right
again. There were about one thousand passengers from all parts of our
country. I tried to fathom the motives and standing of different ones.
Colonel B. from Kentucky, an aristocratic-looking man, with his slave
for a body servant, who could not have been bought for less than $1,500
in Kentucky, where slavery existed at that time. Why a man in his
circumstances should be going to California to seek gold I could not
fathom. One day a party of us were seated around the table talking
matters over. It was proposed that each should reveal to the others what
he expected to do and his motives for the expedition. We each related
our expectations and the motives that had inspired us. My aristocratic
friend was one of the party. My curiosity was at its height to know his
views. He said: "Well, gentlemen, you have all been candid in your
statements, and I shall be the same; I am going to California to deal
Faro, the great American gambling game, and I don't care who knows it."
Later on in my narrative, I shall have occasion to refer to Colonel B.
again under other circumstances. The fourth day out being the fourth of
July, was duly celebrated on the steamer in true American style. Our
course was to the east of Cuba. We passed in sight of the green hills of
San Domingo to our left, and in sight of Jamaica to our right, crossing
the Caribbean sea, whose grand, gorgeous sunsets I shall never forget. I
could not buy a ticket in New York for the steamer from Panama to San
Francisco, but was informed at the office in New York that sixty tickets
were for sale in Panama by Zackery, Nelson & Co., the American Consul,
who were agents for the steamer on the Pacific side. I naturally
supposed that those who offered their money first for those tickets
could buy them. The price was $300 for the first cabin, and $150 for
the second, from Panama to San Francisco; but a fraction of the
passengers had a ticket for the Pacific side.
The objective point was to get to Panama to secure a ticket, so I made
an arrangement with four others; three were to take charge of the
baggage of the five, and take it leisurely, and Lieutenant M., of South
Carolina, and myself were selected to run an express across the Isthmus
and get there ahead of the other passengers and secure tickets for the
five, and try and be the first to land at Chagres. We came to anchor in
the bay. The captain announced that no passengers would be permitted to
go ashore until the government officials had inspected the vessel. A
boat came from shore with the officials. After a short stay the
officials went down the side of the steamer to their boat to return to
the shore. There was a guard to keep all but the proper persons from
getting into the boat. I had a small carpet bag in my hand, passed the
guard, slipped a $5 gold piece in his hands, and took my seat in the
boat, and, of course, passed as one of the officials, and was the first
passenger to land from the steamer. The first point to be made was to
secure a boat for passage up the Chagres river. I was recommended to
Colonel P., who was the head man in that business there. He was a
colonel in the Granadian army. I found him a full-blooded African, but
an active business man in his way. I got his price for a boat and two of
his best men, and then offered double the price if they would row night
and day, and an extra present to the men if they made good time, for
every thing seemed to depend on securing those tickets on the Pacific
side. By the time I had all my arrangements made, Lieutenant M. made his
appearance. He said he was the second passenger that landed from the
steamer. Then behold us in what they called a dug-out, a boat somewhat
similar to a canoe, with a little canopy over the center that you could
crawl under to lay down with the two naked natives, with the exception
of a cloth around their loins, neither understanding each other's
language, to whom we could only communicate by signs. At 4 P.M.,
starting for Gorgona, fifty-five miles up the river, where we were to
land and take mules for Panama. Eight miles was the first stopping
place. We felt elated that we had got so good a start of all the other
passengers. The denseness of the vegetation first attracted our
attention on the banks of the river. The trees, the vines, the
shrubbery, the vines clinging to the trees, hanging in all fantastic
shapes, it seemed to be impenetrable, an ocean of green, unlike any
thing we had ever seen before.
Early in the evening we arrived at the first stopping place, eight miles
on our way up the river, where we both made ourselves at home, excited
at the strangeness of the scene, surrounded by the thatched huts of the
natives, who were having a dance on the square in the village. After we
had been there an hour, we thought our men had their rest, and it was
time to go on according to our contract, to be rowed night and day.
In the meantime it seems the natives had taken some offense at
Lieutenant M.'s familiarity, and they appeared with handles of long
knives projecting back of their necks in a threatening manner. We
likewise learned that that was the home of one of our men, and that he
proposed to stay there all night in violation of the contract. So we had
a consultation to decide what to do to get away. It was pitch dark; we
laid our plan. Lieutenant M. beckoned one of the men away from the dance
as if he wanted to give him something, and drew his pistol on him and
marched him down to the boat, while I, with a pistol, kept him there
while he went for the other man.
After a while he came with him and we got them both in the boat and
started. About this time there was a storm came up with the rain, and
thunder and lightning, as the elements can only perform in that way in
the tropics, surrounded by impenetrable darkness, and to us an unknown
river, with its serpents and alligators, with our two naked savages,
that we only got in the boat by force, and, of course, could not feel
very friendly toward us. Expecting to be fired on from the shore, if
they could see us through the darkness, we took our departure from our
first landing place on the Chagres river, surrounded by romance enough
to satisfy the most romantic imagination in that line. Our men kept
steadily to work. After a while the clouds broke away, the moon showed
itself, and we made good progress that night. We had no trouble with our
men after that. The colonel at Chagres had evidently given us his best
man. They found that we were masters of the situation and it was for
their interest to submit. We treated them kindly after that, and all
went well, for we passed every boat we came to. I shall never forget the
look of despair at two Frenchmen, evidently gentlemen, as we went by
them, and they informed us the length of time they had been coming up
the river, and that they could do nothing with their men. That afternoon
we came in sight of a thatched hut on the banks, evidently a ranch. We
thought it for our interest to rest. We saw a man whom we took for the
proprietor, entirely naked, rubbing his back against a post. On landing
and approaching him he excused himself for a short time, and returned
dressed, walking with the air of a lord of a manor, which dress
consisted of a coarse bagging shirt, coming down to his knees. We
arrived the next day at 11 A.M., at Gorgona, and took our dinner at the
hotel kept by the Alcalde of the place, and bargained with him for a
guide and three mules to continue our journey to Panama. As soon as our
guides and mules were ready, about 1 P.M., we started for Panama. We
soon got enough of our mules by being thrown a number of times over
their heads. They did not understand our language. "Get up and go
along," was Greek to them, but when the guide said "mula vamous" they
knew what it meant. On reaching the place where we were to stay all
night, we arose in the morning refreshed, but concluded to leave our
mules and make the rest of the way a-foot, as we considered them a
nuisance, and as we had no baggage but my little satchel previously
referred to, in which I had bills of lading of my houses, they being
consigned to me, the specifications of my carpenter's schedule, my
letters and a gold chronometer watch, worth $250, belonging to H., a
broker in New York, a friend, and a bottle of the best brandy, which he
presented to me to keep off the fever in crossing the Isthmus. This bag
I handed to the guide boy, about seventeen years of age, taking out the
brandy bottle. The watch I was to sell, for he had two nephews who had
gone to California, and if they were in need, to supply their wants. I
did not meet them; sold the watch for $500 to Mr. Haight, one of the
owners of the Miners' Bank in San Francisco, and remitted the money to
my friend, so I shall not refer to the watch again.
We were walking on at a free pace, our guide boy following behind.
Looking back after awhile we could not see him. We stopped and waited
some time, but he did not come, so we thought we would go on and he
would follow. The result was we lost our way and craved for a sight of
the Pacific ocean with all the ardor that Gilboa could have done, the
first Spanish discoverer of it, and on the same route, after our
wanderings all day, almost without hope, until four in the afternoon, we
came to a stream of water; oppressed with the heat of the tropics and
fatigued I threw myself in the water. Lieutenant M. exclaimed: "Do not
give up in that way." "I am not giving up," I replied; "only refreshing
myself." In a short time he did the same thing. As we lay there we
thought we heard voices. In looking back who should we see but one of
our countrymen, the most gladdening sight to us. We felt saved at once.
We asked him if he had any provision. He said he thought not. Then he
said one of his companions might have a little piece of ham left and
some crackers. He said there were three of them, and they would soon be
there, and when they came one of them had some bacon and a few crackers,
which he gave to us. The eating of it soon refreshed us. As I had some
of the brandy left in the bottle, I extended it to them, which they were
very glad to receive. Explanations ensued. We, by chance, had struck the
Crusos road, and were but ten miles from Panama. They had come from
Philadelphia in a brig, and had started across from Crusos, the head of
boating on the Chagres river, and had been from two to three weeks
getting so far across the Isthmus, and were perfectly astonished at the
rapidity with which we had come. So we joined them and arrived in Panama
that evening. Lieutenant M. and myself were the first of the one
thousand passengers of the _Georgia_ to enter the city. The office of
the agents of the Pacific steamers was closed. I went, the first thing
in the morning, to purchase the five tickets for our party. Alas for
human expectation! I was informed it would be several weeks before the
steamer would sail. She had not yet returned from the first trip to San
Francisco. They said there were but sixty tickets for sale, and they
would not be offered until a few days before the departure of the
steamer. Of course, all we could do was to abide our chances of getting
them. The city was walled around and dyked like those of the Middle
Ages. Toward the bay the wall was one hundred feet high by twenty broad.
The city had been on the decline for most a hundred years. We could see
the ruins of what it once had been. At one time Spain owned all South
America, Mexico, California, Louisiana and Florida. Panama was the only
port of entry on the Pacific coast, and controlled its commerce. As you
enter the gates of the walled city there is a chapel just inside, where
the lights are always burning on its altars. The first thing on entering
all good Catholics enter, kneel and make their devotions, seeking the
protection of the patron saint of the city. The head alcalder of the
city was a Castilian Spaniard, a venerable-looking gentleman, white as
any Northern man, evidently of Scandinavian descent, who ages back
conquered Spain and divided the land up among themselves and became its
nobility, from whom the present rulers of Spain are descendants. It is
said that when conquered, the original inhabitants of Spain, to a great
extent, fled to their vessels, put to sea, and found the island of
Ireland, from which the present inhabitants are descendants. The second
alcalder was a negro as black as I have ever seen.
In the city of Panama in its days of prosperity, when under Spain, the
higher classes must have lived in great luxuries, the negroes their
slaves. The natives the peons were in a condition similar to slavery,
they could not leave the land as long as they owed any thing. But the
despotism of old Spain became so great that when they struck for
freedom, all classes united. They gave freedom to the negroes and the
peons, and even the priests of the Catholic church had been so
tyrannized over by the mother church in Spain that they joined the
revolutionists and all classes are represented in the government. I
called at a watchmaker's to have a crystal put in my watch. Two brothers
had furnished rooms like a parlor. I could not speak Spanish, nor they
English. I could speak a little French. I found they could speak it
fluently. I asked them where they learned it. They said, "At the Jesuit
college at Granada." Then one, of them, when he learned that I was from
the United States, went to the piano and played Hail Columbia as a
compliment to my country, which would trouble most of us to do the same
for their country.
There are now great trees growing up in the ruins of what was once its
great cathedral. The freebooter Morgan is said to have plundered one of
its altars of a million of gold and silver, and massacred many of its
inhabitants, perpetrating on them the atrocities that their ancestors
had upon the original natives. It is said that when Pizarro captured
Peru and took the Inca, their king, prisoner, he issued a decree that if
his subjects would fill a room with gold, he would release him, which
they did. Instead of doing it, he sentenced him to be burned at the
stake, and only commuted it to hanging on condition that he confessed
the Christian religion. Madam Roland, when she was about to be
guillotined in the French revolution, exclaimed, "O Liberty, what
crimes have been committed in thy name." O Christianity, what terrible
atrocities have been perpetrated in thy name!
Panama is a healthy city to those acclimated, facing a beautiful bay,
unlike Chagres, on this side of the Isthmus of Darien, which is the most
unhealthy spot on this continent. Excuse this diversion, I must get back
to my subject, the days of the forty-niners.
I stopped at the American Hotel. I was somewhat in a dilapidated
condition from the experiences of my trip from Chagres. The waiter in my
room at the hotel took the best of care of me. I soon found he was no
ordinary waiter. He had resigned a position in Washington of $2,000 a
year to go to the gold Eldorado. He had been in Panama several months,
and had been taken down with the fever twice, which had exhausted his
funds and was working at the hotel for his board, but never thought of
turning back. He was bound for California. He was quite enfeebled from
the effects of the fever. He got hold of my sympathies and secured my
friendship. (More of him anon.) I had been here four or five days
without seeing our guide, the boy with my satchel, containing my
valuables, particularly the bills of lading of my houses. I was in a
quandary and anxiety about it, not knowing what to do, when one day as I
was going to dinner, something pulled my coat from behind, and looking
around, what should I see to my great joy and satisfaction but the
native boy with my satchel, contents there all safe. It was an instance
of honesty that would do honor to any nation. I gave some honest
Catholic priest credit for it. The boy had evidently been instructed
what to do.
The great objective point now was, how to get to San Francisco. There
was no hope for a sailing vessel from this place, for we saw one return
for water that had been chartered by a party that had been out three
weeks, and scarcely got out of sight of the city. There is very little
chance for a sailing vessel from there until they get west several
hundred miles, and strike the trade winds. The chances were better with
the sailing vessel to start from New York and go around Cape Horn. So
the only hope seemed to be the steamer with its sixty tickets and with
from one thousand to fifteen hundred passengers waiting to buy them, all
seeking to bring some influence to bear to secure one. I saw in the
office of the steamer agent a young man, the book-keeper, whom I took a
fancy to, and sought his acquaintance. I found he was from Hudson, N.Y.,
and I, from Albany, both from the banks of the Hudson river. It ripened
into a warm friendship. I explained my situation to him, and my desire,
if it was possible, to get off on the steamer, but did not venture to
ask his influence to try and get me a ticket. At this time the cholera
and Panama fever was raging in full force. The acclimatednacclimated
Americans were dying in every direction. I was conversing at 8 A.M. with
a healthy looking man, one of our passengers, from New York. At 5 P.M.,
the same day, I inquired for him and was informed that he was dead and
buried. He had been attacked with the cholera. It was a law of the city
that they must be buried within one hour after death from a contagious
disease. I was finally myself taken down with the Panama fever, lay
unconscious and unnoticed in my room at the hotel for a long time, and
then came to and found myself burning with the raging fever, had a
doctor sent for, and after a time recovered so I could venture out. In
the meantime, the steamer _Panama_ had arrived, and its day of sailing
for San Francisco announced. Zackary, Nelson & Co. had issued an order
that the sixty tickets would be put up to be drawn for. Those having the
winning numbers could have the privilege of purchasing them; that they
must register their names on such a day. Probably one thousand names
and but sixty tickets. The chances were small, but the only hope. On
that day, I went early to register, as I was still very weak from the
effects of the fever, and at my best in the morning. As I entered, there
was a great number there registering. When my turn came, and I was about
to put down my name, I looked behind the desk and saw my friend, the
book-keeper. He shook his head for me not to. I knew that meant
something favorable. I backed out. I returned at once to the hotel. In
the evening, about 8 o'clock, my friend came to my room with a second
cabin ticket. The joys of Paradise centered into my possession of that
ticket. I asked him how did he obtain it? He said he was about to resign
his position, and was going up on the same steamer to California. The
night before the drawing he asked Mr. Nelson if his services had been
satisfactory to him. He said they had. He then said if he should ask
him a favor on leaving him if he would grant it? He replied certainly.
He then said that he wanted one of those sixty tickets for a particular
friend. Mr. Nelson said, "If I had known what you was going to ask for,
I could not have granted it; but since I have pledged my word, I shall
give you the ticket."
The next day passengers would be received on the steamer, which was
anchored out in the bay, some distance from shore. It was announced that
no sick persons could go on the steamer. As I was quite enfeebled from
my sickness, and was at my best in the morning, I thought I would make
an early start, so as to be sure and be aboard, as they were all to be
on board the vessel to sail early the next morning. I started out for a
boat to take me out to it with the highest elasticity of feelings, not
so much from the prospect of financial success as the idea that if I
could get North again my physical health would be restored, and the
steamer was going North. It seemed at times that I would have given
$1,000 for one good breath of Northern air. As I was going along, some
distance ahead of me, sitting at the doors of a doggery, with his head
almost between his knees, the picture of despair, was my Washington
friend, who waited on my room at the hotel when I first arrived, did me
many favors, and got hold of my sympathies. I said to myself, poor
fellow, I can do nothing for you. I must not let him see me, so I dodged
and passed him. When I got some distance by him my conscience smote me.
I will go back and speak to him; so I did. I had advised him a few days
previous to go and see some officers of the boat and offer to go up as
waiter without pay. I asked him if he had done so, and what luck? He
said there was no hope. They told him they had been offered $300 for the
privilege of going up as waiter. I then told him I had a ticket. I was
going then for a boat to go on board. That his case was desperate, and
that desperate cases required desperate remedies; that he had been down
twice with the fever, and the next time he would probably die; that he
had no friends there nor money; if he would do as I told him I would
stand by him and he must have nerve. He said to me: "How can a man have
nerve without a dollar in his pocket?" which exclamation has occurred to
me many times since. I asked him to hire a boat to get him out to the
vessel, and what it would cost. He said $2. I gave him the money and
told him to get his baggage. He said he had none. I told him to come
about 11 o'clock and go to work among the hands as if he was one of
them; that all were new hands and officers, and they would not know the
difference. He said that the captain had said if any person was caught
on board without a ticket they would be put on shore at the first
uninhabited island. I told him I would attend to that in his case. I
went on board and got my berth and baggage all in. About 11 o'clock I
saw my friend coming over the water making for the vessel. There was
considerable confusion on board at the time, passengers constantly
arriving, and he was not noticed, and he went to work among the hands as
if he had been regularly employed. In a short time the officers were
arranging the men in line to pass the baggage, and said to him: "You
stand here and help pass it," of course, taking him for one of the men
of the boat. In the evening he came and spoke to me. I said all right so
far. But in the morning, he said, they are going to examine every
person, then they will put me ashore. I said, keep a stiff upper lip. If
you get in trouble, come to me.
The next morning the gun fired, the anchor was raised, and we sailed
down to Bogota, an island similar to Staten Island in the New York
Harbor. The health officers came out. Then my friend trembled and
thought the day of judgment had come to him, but the health officers
were on board but a short time. No examination of those on board took
place. The signal gun for departure was fired. We passed out of the
harbor. The bow of our vessel was pointed north, and we felt extremely
happy. I said to him, "This vessel is bound for San Francisco, and you
are aboard, and will get there as soon as I will." A few days after that
the mate was arranging the employment of the men, and when he came to my
friend's turn he said to him, "Who employed you? You are not an
able-bodied seaman." He made no reply. They could see he was a man of
intelligence, and his pale look showed he had been sick. It may have
moved the sympathies of the officer, who said to him, "This vessel is
crowded with people; it wont do for us to be short of water, and I will
put the water in your charge, and you must not let any passenger, or
even the steward, have any except according to the regulations, and if
you attend to that properly no other services will be required of you."
That took him off of the anxious seat and put him on the solid. In all
his adversities he never thought of turning back. That commanded my
esteem. His attentions to me, when sick, aroused my sympathies for him,
which good action on his part saved him. Of one thousand passengers
desirous of getting on that steamer, and there was room but for sixty on
the day of its departure; his chance looked the most hopeless, being
penniless, but he was one of the fortunate ones, while those who had
plenty of money were left. It illustrated the old maxim, "Where there is
a will there is a way."
Nothing of interest occurred until we got to the port of Acupulco, the
largest place on the west coast of Mexico. We were about to enter the
harbor when a government boat with officials came out and ordered us to
stop. If we proceeded any further there would be "matter trouble" in
broken English. There were Americans on shore who had crossed over from
Vera Cruz for the purpose of taking this steamer. It would be a month
before there would be another one, and then there would be no certainty
of their getting aboard of that. The captain held a consultation of the
passengers, who all decided to have them come on board. They were our
countrymen and we would share our berths with them, although the vessel
was then crowded, and some of the passengers volunteered to row ashore
with the small boats to bring them aboard, which they did. When they
approached the shore there was a company of soldiers waded in the water
with pointed guns, forbidding them to approach any nearer. The Americans
who were on the bank informed them that the soldiers would fire, and
warning them not to approach any nearer, while bewailing their fate that
they had to be left, so they returned. Then the captain received notice
to leave in half an hour or the guns of the fort would open fire on us.
It was a bright moonlight night. The fort was on a high knoll just above
us, and could have blown us out of the water. So we thought discretion
was the better part of valor, and we had to leave. The laws of nations
were on their side. We were from an infected port, Panama, where cholera
prevailed.
On board the steamer were some men of prominence. W.F. McCondery, from
Boston, a retired East India sea captain, a man of wealth, who had been
out of business for three years and craved for a more exciting life; who
started the largest commission-house in San Francisco, and had consigned
to him about all the shipments from Boston, and likewise the _Prince de
Joinville_ with my houses; Mr. G., from Liverpool, an Englishman, who
had about all the consignments from that city; Rothschild's nephew, who
had represented that house as a banker in Valparaiso, Chili, was going
to establish a branch of those great bankers' house in San Francisco;
Judge Terry, from Louisiana, who had the reputation at that time of
being a dead shot with a pistol, who afterward challenged United States
Senator Broderick to fight a duel, from political influences, and killed
him, and some years afterward was assassinated himself from a
disagreement with parties about a lawsuit. We came opposite Mazland at
the mouth of the Gulf of California, and took on board some passengers
and freight.
The next incident in our voyage was when we came in sight of San Diego,
California, and saw the American flag floating from the flag staff.
There was an instantaneous shout went up from every American on board.
We were once more to be under its protection in our own country.
Love of country, mystic fire from heaven,
To light our race up to stateliest heights 'tis given.
We were entering the Golden Gate. It was but four miles to the harbor
where we cast anchor, opposite the city of San Francisco, which was the
goal of our hopes for so long a time, and which was about to be
realized; which was also the objective point from almost every part of
the world where adventurers are seeking to get. We had come three
thousand, five hundred miles since we left Panama. We engaged a row-boat
to take us ashore. My friend attended to getting my baggage out of the
boat, and went with me to the shore. He had signed no papers, and
entered into no bonds not to desert the vessel at San Francisco, as the
other sailors had. He was free to do as he pleased.
I had the chills and fever all the way up, from the effects of the
Panama fever. My first idea was to get in good quarters, whatever
expense, to regain my health. I was informed that there was a good hotel
kept by a widow woman on Montgomery street, where we landed. Some of the
other passengers were going to stop there. I inquired the terms. They
said $5 per day. I thought I would try it for a while. My sleeping-room
was a mattress laid on the floor, with muslin partitions to separate us
from the next room. The table was very indifferent, no vegetables, which
I required, which we lacked on the ship coming up. Being in poor health,
I needed them. After being there a few days one of our passengers asked
me if I knew what the charges were. I said yes, $5 per day. He said it
was more; I had better ask again, which I did. I was informed it was $5
for the room and extra for the meals. I paid my bill and looked out for
other quarters. I had brought in my baggage an Indian rubber mattress
and pillow which was folded up in a small space and could be blown up
with your breath and filled with air, made a soft bed, a pair of new
Mackinaw blankets and other things to provide for any contingency, and
took my meals at a restaurant, which were numerous, including the
Chinese which we often patronized, and found myself satisfactorily
quartered. It may not be inappropriate to make some general remarks
about the history of California.
Although my subject is strictly on the days of forty-niners, which
consisted of about two years from the discovery of the gold, when it was
supposed that the future prosperity of the country depended exclusively
on the mining interest. How different it has turned out since has
nothing to do with my subject. I want to try to paint to the mind of the
reader the condition of California at that time, and the views of the
pioneers in those days. I am doing it in the form of a personal
narrative, as it enables me more distinctly to recall to my mind the
events of those days in which I was a participant. Such fluctuations of
fortune as then occurred, the world never saw before in the same space
of time, and probably never will again, where common labor was $16 per
day. There were some very interesting and truthful articles published in
the _Century_ magazine two years ago from the pen of the pioneers, but
there has been no book published as a standard work for the present and
future, and the participants in it are passing away, for it is
forty-five years since they occurred. California is three times larger
in territory than the State of New York. Its population before the
discovery of gold, including Indians and all, was but a few thousand.
Cattle could be bought for $1 per head, and all the land they ranged
upon thrown in the bargain for nothing. They were killed for their
hides, and the meat thrown away, as there was no one to eat it.