very well until we reached the present site of Colusa. The town had been laid out seven miles above, and that was our objective point. The bend just above Colusa, afterwards called the Devil's Hackle, gave us a great deal of trouble, and some four miles above town a portion of the machinery broke, so that but one wheel could be used. She discharged her freight at the point above mentioned, and went back to San Francisco, where she laid up until the worms ate her hull up, never having made but the one trip.

About the first of August, 1850, the California, Capt. E. C. Boober, went up the river to a point known now as the California islands, just below Chico landing, where she sunk and became a total wreck. The timbers were used to build a large hotel at Monroeville. Some time in September, the Lucy Long, a flat-bottomed boat that had been used as a ferry-boat at Benicia, made a trip to Colusa under command of James Yates, now a farmer residing four miles above Colusa. She was so long making the trip that they got out of provisions, and, when down about Grimes' landing, a couple of men came to Colusa after a supply. She, of course, did not attempt another trip.

The Martha Jane, a small side-wheel boat, belonging to P. B. Cornwall, now of San Francisco, was placed on the river early in 1851, and advertised extensively as intending to make regular trips between Sacramento and Colusa. She was under charge of Capt. Hart, with a full Nashville crew. She made two or three trips, but receiving no encouragement, quit them for a time. On one of her trips, she struck a snag and sank, a couple of miles below Colusa. This only added to the bad reputation of the river among steamboat men. On this trip Mr. Cornwall was on board, and in coming to town, on foot, he got so badly poisoned with poison oak that he was laid up for several days. On one occasion, Alpheus Bull, of Bull, Baker & Co., the largest merchants in Shasta, came to Colusa a few hours after the Martha Jane had left, with several ox-teams. The rain had been holding off remarkably—in fact, we had no rain to speak of that season--and Mr. Bull was afraid to risk taking his teams to Sacramento. Flaming posters met his view of a steamboat making regular trips to Colusa. He was sorry that he had not gotten in a little earlier, and, on the whole, he concluded that it was best to go on foot to Sacramento, and load the Martha Jane up. Some time during the fifth day, Mr. Bull made his appearance at Colusa. 'Friend Green,” said he, addressing the advertised agent at the Colusa end of the route, "thy steamboat was not at Sacramento. Neither could I find any one in that city who knew anything of her." The perfect good temper maintained, under the circumstances, almost converted the aforesaid agent to the doctrines of the Quaker. The boat had gone on down to San Francisco, without even notifying C. B. Post & Co., the Sacramento agents. During the spring of 1851, the Martha Jane was again put on the trade, under the charge of Capt. James Yates. She made three or four regular trips, got no freight to make it pay, and again hauled off. By this time, Col. Semple, who had never ceased in his efforts to get a steamboat on the regular trade between Sacramento and Colusa, found that he must first go after the up-country merchants for freight. Most of these owned their own teams, and were making a good thing hauling goods, and, instead of wishing to see steamboating a success, looked upon efforts in that direction with a jealous eye.

Finally, about August, 1851, Lewis Johnson, a prominent merchant of Shasta, promised to load a boat for Colusa. The iron steamer Benicia, belonging to the Pacific Mail Company, was secured, and, under charge of Capt. George V. Hight, started out from Sacramento in August, we think, of 1851. When just below Knight's landing, she struck a snag and went down. Johnson was then in for it, and he went back to Sacramento, with Col. Semple, to secure another boat to bring his goods on up to Colusa, Capt. R. J. Walsh, then doing business in Shasta, also expressed a willingness to half load a good boat. Fortunately, the Orient, which had been brought out from Maine by Capt. Butler, Bartlett and others, just arrived in Sacramento in search of something to do. Arrangements were made immediately to put