of its value. Much doubt of its being gold still rested among all who saw the "stuff;" and Sutter seems to have regarded Marshall as insane when he insisted that it was gold.

In February following, specimens of the new discovery were carried to San Francisco. Here an old Georgian gold-miner-Isaac Humphrey-saw it, and at sight pronounced it gold, and at once prepared to start for the new gold-fields. His persuasions failed to induce any of his friends to accompany him: they laughed at the idea, so he was compelled to start alone; and, on the 7th of March, 1848, reached the place of discovery. The news had now spread among the workmen and others in the vicinity of the discovery of "some curious yellow stuff." Humphrey, on March 8, commenced prospecting, and soon confirmed his belief of the nature of the discovery. Soon the workmen abandoned the. sawing of the lumber and erecting of the mill, and plunged into the new labor, now paying from five to fifty dollars per day to the hand. Through the spring and summer of 1848, the news of the discovery reached San Francisco and every hamlet in California and Oregon, and the excitement became intense; and from every direction the pilgrims wended their way to the new Mecca-the gold-fields. The scattering population of the valleys caught up the excitement: wild stories of fabulous discoveries had reached them: fields of standing grain were left to fall to the ground; cattle, farms, wives, and children, all abandoned. The news continued to spread. Quantities of the precious metal were in the hands of miners, reporting that all could make from ten to one hundred dollars a day; in some

cases, many thousands. This was too much. Who could endure it? A dollar and a dollar and a-half per day were the wages of laborers and mechanics at San Francisco. It was only one hundred and twenty miles up the river to Sacramento, and from there a few miles to the mines. All hands-the schoolmaster, butcher, baker, lawyer, doctor, and merchant-started up the Sacramento river. The whole village was on the march: only the few women and children remained. The two newspaper offices closed: even the devil was amongst them, as some of them fully realized before they got through. Oregon's sturdy settlers made their long pilgrimage from the north, over snow-capped mountains and lonely deserts. Up from the lower portion of the State came the native Californian mounted on his faithful steed, the half-breed, and the Indian. Now from Mexico came the miner, vaquero, and desperado. Up from Chili and Peru came the speculator, gambler, and courtesan. Over the Rocky mountains came the long lines of the emigrant trains, working their tedious march over almost precipitous mountains of eternal snows and arid deserts of alkali and quicksands, leaving behind them the new-made grave, and the bleaching bones of their famished and overburdened brutes, to tell the sad story of their weary journey, and to mark the path of the future traveller over the sandy deserts of the Humboldt.

The few vessels that could find sailors to take them from the coast spread the news wherever they touched. The inhabitants of the lonely and unfrequented islands of the seas heard the glad tidings of the land of gold.

Official announcement was made of the rich dis

coveries in the halls of Congress; and, as the news spread through the American republic, the people seemed spell-bound and charmed-maddened to embrace the element of social power. The peculiar mental and physical temperament of the American, his activity, and excitability, well fitted him to become the subject of what now assumed the form of a painful disease. No class was exempt from the ravages of the new mania; so, from Maine to the Mississippi, occupations were abandoned; the judge, lawyer, doctor, merchant, banker, mechanic, farmer, mariner, and laborer bade adieu to startled friends, hurriedly kissed weeping wife and child, bade them farewell, and across the plains, over the Isthmus, around the Horn, joined the hurrying throng, bound for California.

From England, Germany, France, Russia, and Spain, came the gold-seeker. Australia and Van Dieman's Land let loose their penal colonists. The islands of the sea sent forth their strange-looking inhabitants of various hues, complexions, and tongues. The Turk and the Greek joined in the throng. From across the deep sea came a strange people, the seal of whose national exclusiveness had never been broken until touched by the magic shock of gold in the sands and hills of the new world. They were a peculiar people. The similarity of physical organization, the long, coarse, black hair braided in a solitary cue behind, with shaven crown, almond eye, yellow face, and mechanical, measured step, told of a race whose primeval order had never been disturbed by any other branch of the human family. Their strange and inharmonious voice and unknown tongue seemed to startle the most stoical of all

the races of men, whilst their singular costume gave them more the appearance of beings of another sphere than the inhabitants of earth. In silent, sullen mood with all mankind, and without knowing the sound of a voice of any of the many nationalities with whom they were to associate, or being able to convey either by word or gesture a single thought, want, or idea to any save their own race, they, with their kettles, rice, heathen gods, and chop-sticks, joined in the ever-lengthening procession of strange-looking beings, and set their face towards the reputed land of gold.

CHAPTER X.

Population of California in 1849-Rush to the mines-Gold yield of 1848-Population and scenes of San Francisco in 1849-Ships for California-Overland emigration-Across the IsthmusArrival of first steamer-Commerce in 1849-Occupations of the people-Gray-shirt brigade-Ships at a discount-Up the Sacramento tiver-Early disappointments-Gambling-Gold product -Gold excitements-Honesty of the "forty-niners"-Lynch law-Prices in the mines-Cultivation of the soil-Cattle-Eggs -Fruit-All "going home in the spring"-Indians in the mines -Yankee speculators-Suffering and disappointments in the mines -Miners going home.

THE year 1849 is a period ever memorable in the history of California; and there are few portions of the civilized globe which cannot find among its inhabitants those who can date from that year the departure of dear friends bound for California whose faces they have never again beheld.

The excitement of the gold discovery in 1848 had, up to January 1, 1849, more than doubled the population of California. At this period the total population was estimated at twenty-six thousand-thirteen thousand natives, eight thousand Americans, and five thousand of all other nations. During the year 1848, ten million dollars in gold had been extracted from the mines, principally from the Yuba, Feather, and American rivers, and the gulches thereabout; the rocker, shovel, prospecting-pan, and crevice-knife, being the only machinery employed.

In San Francisco and throughout the country the excitement was intense; but, up to the spring of 1849, it was confined to the small population on the coast, most of whom had been in California for many years.