CHAPTER IV.

PROXIMATE EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

MARCH-AUGUST, 1848.

THE PEOPLE SCEPTICAL AT FIRST-ATTITUDE OF THE PRESS-THE COUNTRY CONVERTED BY A SIGHT OF THE METAL-THE EPIDEMIC AT SAN FRANCISCO-AT SAN JOSÉ, MONTEREY, AND DOWN THE COAST-THE EXODUS -DESERTION OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS-ABANDONMENT OF BUSINESS, OF FARMS, AND OF ALL KINDS OF POSITIONS AND PROPERTY.

As when some carcass, hidden in sequestered nook, draws from every near and distant point myriads of discordant vultures, so drew these little flakes of gold the voracious sons of men. The strongest human appetite was aroused-the sum of appetites-this yellow dirt embodying the means for gratifying love, hate, lust, and domination. This little scratch upon the earth to make a backwoods mill-race touched the cerebral nerve that quickened humanity, and sent a thrill throughout the system. It tingled in the ear and at the finger-ends; it buzzed about the brain and tickled in the stomach; it warmed the blood and swelled the heart; new fires were kindled on the hearth-stones, new castles builded in the air. If Satan from Diablo's peak had sounded the knell of time; if a heavenly angel from the Sierra's height had heralded the millennial day; if the blessed Christ himself had risen from that ditch and proclaimed to all mankind amnesty-their greedy hearts had never half so thrilled.

The effect of the gold discovery could not be long confined to the narrow limits of Sutter's domain. The

information scattered by the Swiss and his dependents had been further disseminated in different directions by others. Nevertheless, while a few like Humphrey, the Georgia miner, responded at once to the influence, as a rule little was thought of it at first, particularly by those at a distance. The nature and extent of the deposits being unknown, the significance or importance of the discovery could not be appreciated. It was not uncommon at any time to hear of gold or other metals being found here, there, or anywhere, in America, Europe, or Asia, and nothing come of it. To emigrants, among other attractions, gold had been mentioned as one of the possible or probable resources of California; but to plodding agriculturists or mechanics the idea of searching the wilderness for gold would have been deemed visionary, or the fact of little moment that some one somewhere had found gold. When so intelligent a man as Semple at Benicia was told of it he said, "I would give more for a good coal mine than for all the gold mines in the universe." At Sonoma, Vallejo passed the matter by with a piece of pleasantry.

The first small flakes of gold that Captain Folsom examined at San Francisco he pronounced mica; he did not believe a man who came down some time after with twenty ounces when he claimed to have gathered it in eight days. Some time in April Folsom wrote to Mason at Monterey, making casual mention of the existing rumor of gold on the Sacramento. In May Bradley, a friend of Folsom's, went to Monterey, and was asked by Mason if he knew anything of this gold discovery on the American River. "I have heard of

1The people here did not believe it,' says Findla, 'they thought it was a hoax. They had found in various places about S. F., notably on Pacific Street, specimens of different minerals, gold and silver among them, but in very small quantities; and so they were not inclined to believe in the discovery at Sutter's mill.' Gillespie testifies to the same. He did not at all credit the story. Three samples in quills and vials were displayed before the infection took in the town. Gillespie's Vig. Com., MS., 4; Findla's Stat., MS., 4-6; Willey's Thirty Years, 19-20.

it," replied Bradley. "A few fools have hurried to the place, but you may be sure there is nothing in it." On Wednesday, the 15th of March, the Californian, one of the two weekly newspapers then published at San Francisco, contained a brief paragraph to the effect that gold had been discovered in considerable quantities at Sutter's saw-mill. The editor hazarded the remark that California was probably rich in minerals. On the following Saturday the other weekly paper, the California Star, mentioned, without editorial comment, that gold had been found forty miles above Sutter's Fort.

The items, if noticed at all, certainly created no excitement. Little if any more was thought of gold probabilities than those of silver, or quicksilver, or coal, and not half as much as of agriculture and fruitgrowing. This was in March.

3

In April a somewhat altered tone is noticed in according greater consideration to the gold discoveries.*

2 This, the first printed notice of the discovery, ran as follows: Gold mine found. In the newly made raceway of the saw-mill recently erected by Captain Sutter on the American fork, gold has been found in considerable quan tities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. California no doubt is rich in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in every part of the country.'

3 The editor of the Star, writing the 25th of March, says: 'A good move it would be for all property holders in the place, who have no very settled purpose of improving the town, and distant ideas of rare chances at specula tion, to employ upon their unoccupied lands some few of our liquor-house idlers, and in the process of ploughing, harrowing, hoeing, and planting it is not idle to believe some hidden treasure would be brought out. Some silver mines are wanted in this vicinity, could they be had without experiencing the ill effects following in the train of their discovery. Monterey, our capital, rests on a bed of quicksilver, so say the cute and knowing. We say if we can discover ourselves upon a bed of silver we, for our single self, shall straightway throw up the pen and cry aloud with Hood: 'A pickaxe or a spade.' On the same date he says: 'So great is the quantity of gold taken from the mine recently found at New Helvetia that it has become an article of traffic in that vicinity.'

4 Fourgeaud, in a serial article on 'The Prospects of California,' writes in the Star the 1st of April: We saw, a few days ago, a beautiful specimen of gold from the mine newly discovered on the American fork. From all accounts the mine is immensely rich, and already we learn that gold from it, collected at random and without any trouble, has become an article of trade at the upper settlements. This precious metal abounds in this country. We have heard of several other newly discovered mines of gold, but as these reports are not yet authenticated, we shall pass over them. However, it is well known that there is a placero of gold a few miles from the Ciudad de los An

THE MIGRATION QUIETLY SETS IN.

55

Yet the knowing ones are backward about committing themselves; and when overcome by curiosity to see the mines, they pretend business elsewhere rather than admit their destination. Thus E. C. Kemble, editor of the Star, announces on the 15th his intention to "ruralize among the rustics of the country for a few weeks." Hastening to the mines he makes his observations, returns, and in jerky diction flippantly remarks: “Great country, fine climate; visit this great valley, we would advise all who have not yet done so. See it now. Full-flowing streams, mighty timber, large crops, luxuriant clover, fragrant flowers, gold and silver." This is all Mr Kemble says of his journey in his issue of the 6th of May, the first number after his return. Whether he walked as one blind and void of intelligence, or saw more than his interests seemingly permitted him to tell, does not appear.

There were men, however, more observant and outspoken than the astute editor, some of whom left town singly, or in small parties of seldom more than two or three. They said little, as if fearing ridicule, but crossed quietly to Sauzalito, and thence took the direction of Sonoma and Sutter's Fort. The mystery of the movement in itself proved an incentive, to which accumulating reports and specimens gave intensity, till it reached a climax with the arrival of several wellladen diggers, bringing bottles, tin cans, and buckskin bags filled with the precious metal, which their owners

geles, and another on the San Joaquin.' In another column of the same issue we read that at the American River diggings the gold 'is found at a depth of three feet below the surface, and in a strata of soft sand-rock. Explorations made southward to the distance of twelve miles, and to the north five miles, report the continuance of this strata and the mineral equally abundant. The vein is from twelve to eighteen feet in thickness. Most advantageously to this new mine, a stream of water flows in its immediate neighborhood, and the washing will be attended with comparative ease.' These, and the two items already alluded to in the Star of the 18th and 25th of March, are the only notices in this paper of the diggings prior to the 22d of April, when it states: 'We have been informed, from unquestionable authority, that another still more extensive and valuable gold mine has been discovered towards the head of the American fork, in the Sacramento Valley. We have seen several specimens taken from it, to the amount of eight or ten ounces of pure virgin gold.' The Californian said even less on the subject during the same period.

treated with a familiarity hitherto unknown in these parts to such worshipful wealth. Among the comers was Samuel Brannan, the Mormon leader, who, holding up a bottle of dust in one hand, and swinging his hat with the other, passed along the street shouting, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"5

This took place in the early part of May. The conversion of San Francisco was complete. Those who had hitherto denied a lurking faith now unblushingly proclaimed it; and others, who had refused to believe even in specimens exhibited before their eyes, hesitated no longer in accepting any reports, however exaggerated, and in speeding them onward duly magnified. Many were thrown into a fever of excitement,' and all yielded more or less to the subtle influence of

5 'He took his hat off and swung it, shouting aloud in the streets.' Bigler's Diary, MS., 79. Evans in the Oregon Bulletin makes the date 'about the 12th of May.' See also Findla's Stat., MS., 4-6; Ross' Stat., MS., 12; N. Helv. Diary, passim. Gillespie, Vig. Com., MS., 4, refers to three samples seen by him, the third 'was a whole quinine-bottle full, which set all the people wild.'

By the 10th of June the sapient sceptic, Kemble, turned completely around in expressing his opinion, denying that he had ever discouraged, not to say denounced, the employment in which over two thirds of the white population of this country are engaged.' But it was too late to save either his reputation or his journal. There were not wanting others still to denounce in vain and loudly all mines and miners. 'I doubt, sir,' one exclaims, in the Californian, if ever the sun shone upon such a farce as is now being enacted in California, though I fear it may prove a tragedy before the curtain drops. I consider it your duty, Mr Editor, as a conservator of the public morals and welfare, to raise your voice against the thing. It is to be hoped that General Mason will despatch the volunteers to the scene of action, and send these unfortunate people to their homes, and prevent others from going thither.' This man quickly enough belied a wisdom which led him unwittingly to perform the part of heavy simpleton in the drama. Dunbar, Romance of the Age, 102, with his usual accuracy, places this communication in the Alta California, May 24, 1848-impossible, from the fact that on that day no paper was issued in California, and the Alta never saw the light until the following January.

Carson, Rec., 4, who for a long time had rejected all reports, was finally convinced by a returning digger, who opened his well-filled bag before him. 'I looked on for a moment;' he writes, 'a frenzy seized my soul; unbidden my legs performed some entirely new movements of polka steps-I took several houses were too small for me to stay in; I was soon in the street in search of necessary outfits; piles of gold rose up before me at every step; castles of marble, dazzling the eye with their rich appliances; thousands of slaves bowing to my beck and call; myriads of fair virgins contending with each other for my love-were among the fancies of my fevered imagination. The Rothschilds, Girards, and Astors appeared to me but poor people; in short, I had a very violent attack of the gold fever.' For further particulars, see Larkin's Doc., MS., iv. passim.