250 vessels sailed for California from the eastern ports of the United States alone, 45 of which arrived at San Francisco in one day.17 In order to supply this demand, shipping was diverted from every other branch of service, greatly to the disarrangement of trade, the whaling business especially being neglected for the new catch.18 Old condemned hulks were once more drawn from their retirement, anything, in fact, that could float,19 and fitted with temporary decks to contain tiers of open berths, with tables and luggage-stands in the centre.20 The provisions were equally bad, leading in many cases to intense suffering and loss by scurvy," thirst, and starvation; but unscrupulous speculators cared for nothing save to reap the ready harvest; and to secure passengers they hesitated at no falsehood. Although aware that the prospect of obtaining transportation from Panamá and other Pacific ports was very doubtful, they gave freely the assurance of ample connections, and induced thousands to proceed to these half 17 Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, cxx. 362-5; Larkin's Docs, MS., vi. 195; Polynesian, Apr. 14, 1849; Stillman's Golden Fleece, 19-27. Two of the Nov. departures arrived at S. F. in April 1849; in June came 11, in July 40, in August 43, in Sept. 66, after which the number fell off, giving a total of 233 from American ports for nine months; 316 arrived from other ports, or 549 in all. Placer Times, ii. no. 62; N. Y. Herald, Apr. 13, 1850; Barstow's Stat., MS., 1; Barnes' Or. and Cal., MS., 20; Dean's Stat., MS., 1; Moore's Pio. Exp., MS., 1; Winans' Stat., MS., 1-3; Neall's Stat., MS.; Wheaton's Stat., MS., 2-3; Doolittle's Stat., MS., 21; Bolton vs U. S., 88; Fay's Stat., MS., 1; Picture Pion. Times, MS., 145–7. The journals above quoted, notably Alta Cal. and Record-Union; also West Coast Signal, Apr. 15, 1874; Santa Cruz Times, Feb. 19, 1870; Humboldt Times, Mar. 7, 1874; Antioch Ledger, Dec. 24, 1870, together with allusions to voyage. The length of passage averaged about four months. Later it was made more than once by the Flying Cloud from New York in 89 days. See Alta Cal., July 12, 1865; S. F. Directory, 1852, 10, etc. 18 By the withdrawal of 71 ships. Alta Cal., June 6, 1850. 19 Barnes, in his Or. and Cal., MS., mentions an old Mexican war transport steamer, which in the winter of 1849-50 used to ply between New Orleans and Chagres, and which was so rotten and leaky that she wriggled and twisted like a willow basket. 20 Borthwick's MS., 3-5. One vessel of only 44 tons left Nantucket; another passed through the lakes, Hunt's Mag., xxi. 585; a third was an exslaver. Bluxome's MS., 1. 21 Ryan, Pers. Adven., ii. 273-5, relates that the Brooklyn set out with an insufficient supply, and although offered $500, the captain refused to touch at any of the South American ports for additions. At Rio de Janeiro several received welcome from Dom Pedro. Alta Cal., Mar. 29, 1876. THE PASSAGE BY WATER. 123 way stations, only to leave them there stranded. A brief period of futile waiting sufficed to exhaust the slender means of many, cutting off even retreat, and hundreds were swept away by the deadly climate.22 Expostulations met with sneers or maltreatment, for redress was hopeless. The victims were ready enough to enter the trap, and hastened away by the cheapest route, regardless of money or other means to proceed farther, trusting blindly, wildly, to chance. The cost of passage served to restrict the proportion of the vagabond element; so that the majority of the emigrants belonged to the respectable class, with a sprinkle of educated and professional men, and members of influential families, although embracing many characterless persons who fell before temptation, or entered the pool of schemers and political vultures. 23 The distance and the prospective toil and danger again held back the older and less robust, singling out the young and hardy, so that in many respects the flower of the population departed. The intention of most being to return, few women were exposed to the hardships of these early voyages. The coast-dwellers predominated, influenced, as may be supposed, by the water voyage, for the interior and western people preferred to await the opening of the overland route, for which they could so much better provide themselves.24 Although the Americans maintained the ascendancy in numbers, owing to readier access to the field 22 See protest in Panamá Star, Feb. 24, 1849. 23 White, Pion. Times, MS., 190-5, estimates the idle loungers at less than ten per cent, and 'gentlemen' and politicians at the same proportion. The N. Y. Tribune, Jan. 26, 1849, assumes that the cost of outfit kept back the rowdies. The Annals of S. F., 665, etc., is undoubtedly wrong in ascribing low character, morals, and standing to a large proportion, although it is natural that men left without the elevating influence of a sufficiently large number of women should have yielded at times to a somewhat reckless life. Willey, in his Per. Mem., MS., 25, thus speaks of the New Orleans emigration of 1848: 'It was only the class most loose of foot who could leave on so short a notice. It was largely such as frequented the gambling-saloons under the St Charles, and could leave one day as well as another.' See also Crosby's Events, MS., 2-3; Van Allen, Stat., MS., 31; Larkin's Doc., MS., vi. 185, 198, 251. New Yorkers predominated 'twice told probably.' Ryckman's MS., 20; Nantucket alone lost about 400 men. Placer Times, Dec. 1, 1849. by different routes, and to which they were entitled by right of possession, the stream of migration from foreign countries was great, a current coming to New York and adjoining ports to join the flow from there. The governments of Europe became alarmed, actuated as they were by jealousy of the growing republic, with its prospective increase of wealth, to the confounding of finance, perhaps to culminate in a world's crisis. 25 Before the middle of January 1849 no less than five different Californian trading and mining companies were registered at London, with an aggregate capital of £1,275,000; and scarcely was there a European port which had not at this time some vessel fitting out for California.26 Among Asiatic nations, the most severely affected by this western malady were the Chinese. With so much of the gambling element in their disposition, so much of ambition, they turned over the tidings in their minds with feverish impatience, whilst their neighbors, the Japanese, heard of the gold discovery with stolid indifference.27 Yet farther east by way of west, to that paradise of gamblers, Manila, went 25 Russia, France, and Holland seriously considered the monetary question, and the latter went so far as to bring in force an obsolete law, which enabled her to sell, at the highest price, all the gold in the bank of Amsterdam, so that she might lay in a stock of silver. 26 Du Havre et de Bordeaux, de plusieurs ports espagnols, hollandais, allemands, et de presque tous les principaux ports de la Grande-Bretagne, on announce des départs pour San Francisco. Un bâtiment à vapeur doit même partir de Londres et doubler le cap Horn. Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 1, 1849; Polynesian, May 12, 1849. Says the London Times: "There are at this moment two great waves of population following toward the setting sun over this globe. The one is that mighty tide of human beings which, this year, beyond all former parallel, is flowing from Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, and some other parts of Europe, in one compact and unbroken stream, to the United States. The other, which may almost be described as urged on by the former, is that which that furious impulse auri sacra fames is attracting from comfortable homes to an almost desert shore.' Several hundred Mormons left Swansea in Feb. 1849 for Cal. Placer Times, Oct. 13, 1849. Concerning the French migration, see S. F. Picayune, Nov. 27, 1850; Cal. Courier, Nov. 28, Dec. 3, 1850. Many banished army officers came. Hungarian exiles in Iowa proposed to come in 1850. S. D. Arch., 367; Polynesian, vii. 131. "An English steamer arrived from Canton direct as early as Oct. 1849. On Feb. 1, 1849, there were 54 Chinamen in Cal., and by Jan. 1, 1850, the number had swollen to 791, and was rapidly rising, till it passed 4,000 by the end of 1850. Alta Cal., May 10, 1852; Williams' Stat., 12. In Brooks' App. Stat., 115, the number for 1849-50 is reduced to 770 by their consul. the news, and for a time even the government lotteries were forgotten.28 And the gold offered by shipmasters to the merchants of the Asiatic coast raised still higher the fever in the veins of both natives and English. 29 Not less affected were the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands. Those of the French colony who were free made immediate departure, and were quickly followed by the military, leaving the governor alone to represent the government. On reaching Australia the news was eagerly circulated and embellished by ship-masters. The streets of the chief cities were placarded, "Gold! Gold! in California!" and soon it became difficult to secure berths on departing vessels.30 And so in Peru and Chile, where the California revelation was unfolded as early as September 1848 by Colonel Mason's messenger, on his way to Washington, bringing a large influx in advance of the dominant United States emigration. Such were the world currents evoked by the ripple at Coloma. 31 Zamacois, Hist. Mex., x. 1141. Says Coleman, The Round Trip, 28, who happened to be at Manila in the spring of 1848 when the Rhone arrived from S. F., 'She brought the news of the gold discoveries, and fired the colony with the same intense desire that inflamed the Spaniards of the 16th century.' 29 Leese was about to sail for Manila in March, and from there take in a cargo of rice for Canton. Sherman's Mem., i. 65. 3 Barry's Ups and Downs, 92-3, and Larkin's Docs, MS., vii. 80. 'Eight vessels have left that hot-bed of roguery-Sidney,' Placer Times, June 2, 1849, and with them came a mass of delectable 'Sidney coves.' The press sought naturally to counteract the excitement and make the most of some local gold finds. See Melbourne Herald, Feb. 6, 7, 10, 1849. 31 Vessels sent to Valparaiso for flour brought back large numbers to Cal. Findla's Stat., MS., 7; King's Rept, in U. S. Gov. Docs, 31st cong. 1st sess., H. Ex. Doc. 59, 26. The arrival of the Lambayecana of Colombia with gold-dust caused no small excitement in Payta, and the news of the discovery soon spread; on the 15th of January, 1849, when the California arrived at Panamá, she had some 75 Peruvians on board. Willey's Per. Mem., MS., 60. 'It is reported here that California is all gold,' writes Atherton from Valparaiso, Sept. 10th, to Larkin. 'Probably a little glitter has blinded them. The gold-dust received per brig J. R. S. sold for 22 reales per castellano of 21 quiIntes fine, this having exceeded the standard about 14 quilates, netted 23 reales per castellano, being nearly $17.50 per ounce.' Larkin's Docs, MS., vi. 173. În Aug. Larkin entered into partnership with Job F. Dye, who about the middle of Sept. sailed with the schooner Mary down the Mexican coast, tak. ing with him placer gold. CHAPTER VIII. THE VOYAGE BY OCEAN 1848-1849. MODERN ARGONAUTS-PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MAIL LINE FROM NEW YORK VIA PANAMÁ TO OREGON-SAILING OF THE FIRST STEAMERS-SAN FRANCISCO MADE THE TERMINUSTHE PANAMÁ TRANSIT-THE FIRST RUSH OF GOLD-SEEKERS-DISAPPOINTMENTS AT PANAMÁ-SUFFERINGS ON THE VOYAGE-ARRIVALS OF NOTABLE MEN BY THE FIRST STEAMSHIP. SINCE the voyage of the Argonauts there had been no such search for a golden fleece as this which now commanded the attention of the world. And as the adventures of Jason's crew were the first of the kind of which we have any record, so the present impetuous move was destined to be the last. Our planet has become reduced to a oneness, every part being daily known to the inhabitants of every other part. There is no longer a far-away earth's end where lies Colchis close-girded by the all-infolding ocean. The course of our latter-day gold-fleece seekers was much longer than Jason's antipodal voyage; indeed, it was the longest possible to be performed on this planet, leading as it did through a wide range of lands and climes, from snow-clad shores into tropic latitudes, and onward through antarctic dreariness into spring and summer lands. In the adventures of the new Argonauts the Symplegades reappeared in the gloomy clefts of Magellan Strait; many a Tiphys relaxes the helm, and many dragons' teeth are sown. Even the ills and dangers that beset Ulysses' travels, in sensual circean appetites, lotus-eating indulgence, ( 126 ) |