Part 3 (2/2)

During the seven months of summer the north-ind blew there so hard every afternoon that it was not a safe place for vessels, and the property would never have any value for that purpose, and I do not think it has ever been used since for that

In the winter enerally the rainy season, the wind blows from the south for five months, and the other seven months it blows from the north-west over six thousand nated with any decayed vegetable matter, and is as pure as air can be In San Francisco the sun would rise in a clear sky everyand there would be a perfect calm; by 11 AM there would be a little breeze; by 2 or 3 o'clock, a gale When the sun set the ould subside and there would be a perfect calain Every day would be the saale on the coast would be a gentle breeze up in thedistrict, in the interior The next day that air would be displaced by another gale from over the thousand ine any other country with purer air

During that time there were various visionary reports of new discoveries of gold regions, one of a lake that the sands of its banks were rich with gold All you had to do, to make your fortune, was to wash it out, which produced quite a sensation, and parties were organized to go there, but they never found it The next year after the purchase of , there were small steamers constructed to run to Stockton, and they had already soht had coht I had better sell ood price for it There was a man who came to me and said he wanted to buy it; that he had been a captain of a boat on Lake Erie I stated to him my price for it He said that was not out of the way, but he would like to try it one trip before closing the purchase, and referred me to a mercantile house there as his reference

They said he had run vessels for the business in Buffalo I concluded that was entirely satisfactory; that that had evidently been his regular business He said he wanted to employ all his own hands I had the vessel, at the tiht, which I turned over to hied thee owners, and put hi more to do with it until he returned from the trip to Stockton; then I expected he would close the purchase as he said that the price was satisfactory to hi for the return of , but it did not come Finally I heard a rumor that the captain had left the vessel at Stockton, but did not believe it, but thought that solass to investigate the bay I could have recognized my vessel by the red streak around it

Finally, after it had been gone long enough to make several trips, I discovered it at anchor in the bay I went and supplied myself with money, in case it should prove true that the captain had left the vessel, to pay his ot ashore, because the vessel was liable for their wages, whoever ht have employed them; so I hired a boat to row me out to it I met a man on the deck that seemed to be in command I inquired of him where the captain was He said he had run away I spoke to him in a sharp tone of voice and said, how do you know that? He said, because I saw hi over the plain Then he asked me, are you the owner? I said, yes Then I said, you have all got your pay before he went; I did not eot some

As you seem to be in command, I suppose you have kept an account of how it stands He said, ”Come down in the cabin and I will show it to you”

I said, ”It was hard on ht money, but it was also hard for thes, and I would see what I could do for them” He presented the statement of what each man had received and as due them I was surprised at his correctness I said: It seeht and I would pay them, which I did, and took their receipt I was afraid if they went ashore and found the vessel was liable for their wages they ot possession ofthe port he had let the steamer _Senator_ run into the bows of the vessel, and it cost20 per day, payable in gold The events which I had anticipated of the decline of that kind of property had come, and, after it was repaired, I put it up at auction and sold it, so that rascal cost me several thousand dollars Such was life in California in the days of the Forty-niners

Having soions, and make a visit to reater changes had taken place than would have occurred in any other country in many years The population of California increased one hundred thousand the first year after the discovery of the gold, which had accounted for the great changes which had taken place since my previous trip I went up on the steamer _Senator_ to Sacra started for Coloers, drawn by ot in conversation with the driver I asked him what pay he received? He said, only 450 per es before? He said, yes, out of Boston I said, at ages? He said, 14 adifference between that and 450 He said, yes, but that this was his last trip He took a party of three up only a feeeks ago, and he brought them down yesterday, and they had between 3,000 and 4,000 apiece, and he was not going to waste his ti to the mines the next day It was quite probable that the party referred to had made an unusual lucky strike, for I hadI had had in old ar loaf, that orth 4,500, found by a couple of green Irishmen They inquired of so

Thethere in that sand bank behind you The Irish In a short tiold, where no experienced old in the cellar of the brewery in San Francisco I think nated with gold

But the point is to find it in sufficient quantities to pay to dig it

As an illustration, if you knew that in a certain piece of ground there was 5,000 worth of gold, and it cost you 10,000 to wash all the ground to get it, of course that land would have no gold value I found at Coloone to the middle fork of the Aot directions how to get there and started on foot Toward night Iman who had just caet work in the , and that he had better go with et from 10 to 16 per day to work for other parties, or to join two others and work a claiht, we ca, and took a fresh start That day we found the middle fork of the American river and my friends The river was sunk way down in the earth It seemed almost a mile down to the water where they were to work It was quite a largeplace The excitement there every day hen the ”du aro down in the deep waters to hunt for pearls, and had been bought by a party of five, each putting in 800,into the deep water of the gold rivers (As I have shown before, the torrents and force of the currents had prevented any gold fro there) Every day at such an hour, it was announced that the ”du in the river The other miners quit their work to see it, and the proprietors of the ”dummy” always treated the crowd in the ood for any store bills Its always treating the crowd had made it popular, and nobody would trade with the storekeeper ould not trust it, so it was death to the prosperity of the storekeeper, whether he trusted it or not They never got any gold while there through ”duo further down the river to try another place, theit, which broke him These stores were tents, to supply immediate wants of the miners I never heard of ”dummy” afterward I have no doubt he operated on all the store tents until he carief like all evil-doers

The productiveness of the gold rivers had not diminished any that I could perceive I talked to a man who had been off a little ways to prospect in another place I asked hi there I said, was there no gold? He said; yes, there was some, but of no value He said ato waste their time on that My visit over, I returned to San Francisco

My friend R's breas not co money from a Jew at twenty per cent a month It was no use for ht be, if completed, and I had no doubt there was a fortune in it, but neither he nor I had the capital to do it

I had so et broke, and the only way I saw of getting out with the down to Relago, Central Alish steaht I would go for sixty days and then return and coe my affairs in a more conservative way, and what I could control Well I closed e on the steao There was considerable exciteua route The above place would be the terminus on the Pacific coast, and, consequently, a place of i six of ht be a chance to get some there in advance of any rise on the alliances and take a fresh start The night before I sailed Mr Brady (Colonel Stevenson's son-in-law) cao I told hie, 200 He said the colonel understood that He put his hand in his vest pocket and pulled out a roll of bills He said, here is the 200, which he toldThere was once a lady, the wife of one of the officers of his regi to meet her husband, but he was up in the country The colonel asked o down to the stea-house to stay until her husband arrived, which I did I told hi expected to ive it to her, as if I loaned it to her, and when her husband paid me I could return it to him I mention these little incidents to show that whatever faults he enerous of friends

Colonels Stevenson, Freemont and Captain Sutter will stand pre-eminent in the future history of the State as its most prominent founders

I sailed out of the port of San Francisco on the stea to return to California within sixty days In a few days, out at sea, we began to hear unfavorable ruineer had left the day before our sailing; that he did not consider it safe to go in it; that it could not carry coal enough to take it to Acapulco, the next coaling place And ere infor froht up by a speculator and sent up to San Francisco as an experiment, to see if it would pay The officers andabout the port One day ere startled in ine We soon found the cause The captain was about to try his sails so as to save coal (which verified the reports about being short of coal) We ain when the wind subsided, by the currents of the ocean; so that project was abandoned, and after some days we put into the port of San Blas, in Mexico, for fuel There was no coal there, so we laid in all the e could to try and reach Acapulco (here we could not buy any thing with our 5 gold pieces, but they were ready to sell for silver) The cholera had been there, they said, but had left The priests had had a procession, and, with their incense boxes, had h the streets and driven it out We took in all the e could get and started toport for all the steamers on that coast

It was Sunday PM We could raise fuel enough to make only four knots an hour It was an iron stea what there was of the ork of the vessel, for if we could not make the port before dark ere lost The officers were not acquainted with the coast We had not fuel enough to keep steaht, and ould be on the broad Pacific ocean, six thousandany other vessel, without any control of our steamer, subject to be driven in any direction I heard thethe vessel and saving what lives they could, although ere in sight of land The captain said the under-toas so great that none could be saved in that way

It is twice as great on the Pacific as the Atlantic There were no feold with him; if his wife and children only had that he would be content to meet his fate, under the circumstances, but it was hard to leave theold, or they would not have been returning

You can iine hat anxiety atched every indication of the coast to see if there was any chance of us nearing the port Finally, toward night,a high projection of land on the coast, and that was predicted that it was the entrance to the port If we could reach that point before dark, we ers went to work to break up any thing for the fires that would make steam The captain made no objections, but told them to burn all ork on the vessel to save their lives At dark we reached the point we had in view, and it was fortunate for us that it was the entrance to the port As the vessel turned to enter, you could see, co over the waters of the ocean, a tropical stor Twenty minutes later it would have reached us, and ould have been lost As soon as we got safely in port (and it was very dark), I can hear now, in iination, the sound of the anchor as it was let down in the water, which assured our entire safety It thundered and lightninged, and blowing a high gale, which was er, and feeling the supre e had escaped Blessed to us was the high mountains which surrounded the port

The entrance to it is narrow, but when you get inside it is one of the safest harbors in the world, being perfectly land-locked The next day opened on a happy lot of passengers I felt as if I was co to be there several days, as they proposed to take in a full supply of coal This place had been once quite a city, but o had been partly destroyed by an earthquake It was said that the water went out of the bay most to the tops of the mountains, and then reacted to its usual level in the harbor; that there was a French shi+p carried up to the sides of the mountains, and when the water reacted, carried back in safety in the harbor Hundreds of buildings were destroyed, the ruins of which are now visible where the city once extended

I was introduced to General Alvarado He was the most prominent man in Mexico, on the Pacific coast, at that time, and afterward became very prominent in the public affairs of his country On our return to the vessel that evening there was quite an exciteers was a party of three who had been quite successful in Sacra it out through the city They had picked up by chance an old acquaintance froed to an aristocratic family there, and by his habits of dissipation was a mortification to them So when the California exciteold regions It would either reforet rid of hiood in California, and he had spent his money and wanted to return Theseto return East in sixty days, and if he would keep straight, and drive one of their wagons for them, they would take him home with them When they went ashore the first day they left hio ashore the next They had their private store of wines and brandy He had found it and tried it and got full, and treated all the sailors and everybody on board that would drink with him, and was the most popular man on board with the sailors He repented the next day and begged their forgiveness, and they took him home with them Like a bad penny, he returned as he was before Distance did not reforo ot opposite to what, according to the charts, was that port It was necessary for the before they could undertake to enter it, as they had never been there before, and there were no pilots, and they decided not to let the steao down, and they concluded that they would sail slowly around in a circle, so as to be opposite to the port in the y, and we could not see the land But they had such confidence in the correctness of their chart that they determined to enter it Instead of the port, we caainst the rocks al dashed to pieces against theine the instant he did, ould have been wrecked The captain was now coed In a short tio to Panae there; that the few other passengers for that port had signed it I thought I had better sign to go anywhere than to take any more chances in that stea opposite the port that , ere twentycarried us that distance while ere sailing around in a circle, which they had not ciphered on, and thus ca vessel The captain gave orders for the steamer to follow it, and, e overtook it, we found it was bound for Relago There was a ot him to come on our steao ashore, and got ht up on deck They did not enter the port, but caers, it seeo to Panama, and it was to land thee put in the so to Panaers said I was very foolish to risk my life in that sea in so small a boat Before I scarcely knew it the boat had pushed off without me, and, consequently, the whole current and course of ed Upon such little incidents often do the events of human life depend It may have been fortunate for ua at the ti expedition under the command of Captain Walker, ent fro sides with the revolutionary et an Aovernment, which I did not approve of, for I considered it a dishonorableot mixed up with them They were conquered and all sentenced to death, and shot It is barely possible I ht since I

SCENES ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN

The course of the steaht of land The stor but a short tienerally very mild all the distance, three thousand five hundred miles from Panama to San Francisco North of San Francisco the storms are soers on the return trip were in the best of spirits; they were returning home; all of them had been more or less successful in California, and I can recall to my mind many pleasant times we had on board the steamshi+p

The porpoise are very numerous on the Pacific ocean; there were often, for days, schools of the thereat nu like thewheel