OVERLAND TRAVEL.

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too hastily organized, with little knowledge of members and requirements, the best men being most eager to escape the yoke.

The overland route was the first to suggest itself, in accordance with American pioneer usage, but this could not be attempted during winter. The sea was always open, and presented, moreover, a presumably swifter course, with less with less preparations for outfit. The way round Cape Horn was well understood by the coast-dwellers, who formed the pioneers in this movement, familiar as they were with the trading vessels and whalers following that circuit, along the path opened by Magellan, and linked to the explorations of Cortés and Cabrillo. There were also the short-cuts across Panamá, Nicaragua, and Mexico, now becoming familiar to the people of the United States through the agitation for easy access to the newly acquired possessions on the Pacific. For all these vessels offered themselves; and in November 1848 the movement began with the departure of several vessels. In December it had attained the dimensions of a rush. From New York, Boston, Salem, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, between the 14th of December, 1848, and the 18th of January, 1849, departed 61 sailing vessels, averaging 50 passengers each, to say nothing of those sent from Charleston, New Orleans, and other ports. Sixty ships were announced to sail from New York in the month of February 1849, 70 from Philadelphia and Boston, and 11 from New Bedford. The hegira continued throughout the year, and during the winter of 1849 and the spring of 1850

nine out of ten of such loans were lost, less through actual dishonesty than through the extravagant habits among miners, who improvidently reckoned on a future rich find for such demands. Few of the companies held together, even till Cal. was reached; none that I have ever heard of accomplished any. thing, as an original body, in the mines or towns. If they did not quarrel on the way and separate at any cost, as was generally the case, they found on reaching Cal. that a company had no place there. Every miner was for himself, and so it was with mechanics and laborers, who, if willing to work for wages, received such dazzling offers as to upset all previous calculations and intents. See Ashley's Journey, MS., 223, etc.

250 vessels sailed for California from the eastern ports of the United States alone, 45 of which arrived at San Francisco in one day."7

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,21 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 trans. port 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.

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22

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." 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.

25 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.

24 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.

27 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.2

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.

28 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.

30 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 quifates 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. In Aug. Larkin entered into partnership with Job F. Dye, who about the middle of Sept. sailed with the schooner Mary down the Mexican coast, taking with him placer gold.