CHAPTER X.

SAN FRANCISCO.

1848-1850.

SITE AND SURROUNDINGS-RIVALS-EFFECT OF THE MINES-SHIPPING-INFLUX OF POPULATION-PHYSICAL AND COMMERCIAL ASPECTS-BUSINESS FIRMS-PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS - NATIONAL LOCALITIES— HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS-PRICES CURRENT-PROPERTY VALUESAUCTION SALES-WHARVES AND STREETS-EARLY ERRORS-HISTORIC FIRES-ENGINES AND COMPANIES-IMMIGRATION AND SPECULATIONPOLITICS-THE HOUNDS--CITY GOVERNMENT.

MANY cities owe their origin to accident; some to design. In the latter category may be placed most of those that sprang up upon this western earth's end, and notably San Francisco. When the Englishman Richardson moved over from Sauzalito to Yerba Buena Cove in the summer of 1835, and cleared a place in the chaparral for his trading-tent; when the American Jacob P. Leese came up from Los Angeles, and in connection with his friends of Monterey, William Hinckley and Nathan Spear, erected a substantial frame building and established a commercial house there in the summer of 1836-it would appear that these representatives of the two foremost nations of the world, after mature deliberation, had set out to lay the foundation of a west-coast metropolis. The opening of the Hudson's Bay Company branch establishment in 1841 added importance to the hamlet. Although founded on the soil and under the colors of Anáhuac, it never was a Mexican settlement, for the United States element ever predominated, until the

spirit of '76 took formal possession under symbol of the American flag, wafted hither over subdued domains.

The inducements for selecting the site lay in its proximity to the outlet of the leading harbor1 upon the coast, a harbor to which so many huge rivers and rich valleys were tributary, and to which so many land routes must necessarily converge. A position so commanding led to the establishment here of a presidio immediately after the occupation of the country, under whose wings sprang up a flourishing mission establishment. The harbor commended itself early to passing vessels, and although finding Sauzalito on the northern shore the best station for water and wood, they were obliged to come under cognizance of the military authorities at the fort, and to seek the more substantial supplies at the mission, both establishments presenting, moreover, to trading vessels, in their not inconsiderable population, and as the abutting points for the settlements southward, an all-important attraction. These primary advantages outweighed greatly such drawbacks as poor landing-places, lack of water sources and farming land in the vicinity, and the growing inconvenience of communication with the main settlements now rising in the interior. The opportune strategy of Alcalde Bartlett in setting aside the name of Yerba Buena, which threatened to overshadow its prospects, and restoring that of Saint Francis, proved of value in checking the aspirations of Francisca, later called Benicia. And our seraphic father of Assisi remembered the honor, by directing to its shore the vast fleet of vessels which in 1849 began to empty here their myriads of passengers and cargoes of merchandise. This turned the scale, and with such start, and the possession of capital and fame, the town distanced every rival, Benicia with all her superior natural advantages falling far behind.

1Opinions upon its merits have been expressed by many prominent explorers. Gen. Smith strongly disparaged the site from a military and commercial point of view, while becoming enthusiastic over the advantages of Benicia.

Nevertheless, doubters became numerous with every periodic depression in business; and when the gold excitement carried off most of the population, the stanchest quailed, and the rival city at the straits, so much nearer to the mines, seemed to exult in prospective triumph. But the golden storm proved menacing only in aspect. During the autumn the. inhabitants came flocking back again, in numbers daily increased by new arrivals, and rich in funds wherewith to give vitality to the town. Building operations were actively resumed, nothwithstanding the cost of labor,* and real estate, which lately could not have found buyers at any price, now rose with a bound to many times its former value. The opening of the first wharf for sea-going vessels, the Broadway, may be regarded as the beginning of a revival, marked also by the resurrection of the defunct press,' and the establishment of a school, and of regular protestant worship, propitiatory measures well needed in face of

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2 As early in 1848, when several firms discontinued their advertisements in the Californian. Others thought it expedient, as we have seen, to seek a prop for the prevailing land and other speculations, by bringing the resources of the country and the importance of the town before the people of the eastern states. This was done by the pen of Fourgeaud in the Cal. Star, Mar. 18, 1848, and following numbers.

The absorbing municipal election of Oct. 3d showed only 158 votes. Annals S. F., 206. See chapter i. in this vol. on condition in Jan., and chapter iv. on exodus.

Tenfold higher than in the spring. Effects stood in proportion. Eggs $12 a dozen; Hawaiian onions and potatoes $1.50 a lb.; shovels $10 each, etc. The arrival of supplies lowered prices till flour sold at from $12 to $15 a barrel in Dec. Star and Cal., Dec. 1848; Buffum's Six Months, 23.

5 For spring prices, see preceding volume, v. 652-4. A strong influence was felt by the arrival in Sept. of the brig Belfast from New York, whose cargo served to lower the price of merchandise, but whose inauguration of the Broadway wharf as a direct discharging point inspired hope among the townsfolk. Real estate rose 50 per cent near the harbor; a lot vainly offered for $5,000 one day, sold readily the next for $10,000.' S. F. Directory, 1852, 9. By Nov. the prices had advanced tenfold upon those ruling in the spring, and rents rose from $10 and $20 to $20 and $100 per month. To returning lot-holders this proved another mine, but others complained of the rise as a drawback to settlement. Gillespie, in Larkin's Doc., MS., vi. 52, 66; Earll's Stat., MS., 10.

6 For earlier progress of wharves, see preceding vol., v. 655, 679.

The Californian had maintained a spasmodic existence for a time till bought by the Cal. Star, which on Nov. 18th reappeared under the combined title, Star and Californian, after five months' suspension. In Jan. 1849 it appears as the Alta California, weekly.

Rev. T. D. Hunt, invited from Honolulu, was chosen chaplain to the

INFLUX OF VESSELS.

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the increased relapse into political obliquity and dissipation, to be expected from a population exuberant with sudden affluence after long privation."

Yet this period was but a dull hibernation of expectant recuperation for renewed toil,10 as compared with the following seasons. The awakening came at the close of February with the arrival of the first steamship, the California, bearing the new military chief, General Persifer F. Smith, and the first instalment of gold-seekers from the United States. Then vessel followed vessel, at first singly, but erelong the horizon beyond the Golden Gate was white with approaching sails; and soon the anchorage before Yerba Buena Cove, hitherto a glassy expanse ruffled only by the tide and breeze, and by some rare visitor, was thickly studded with dark hulks, presenting a forest of masts, and bearing the symbol and stamp of different countries, the American predominating. By the middle of November upward of six hundred vessels had entered the harbor, and in the following year came still more." The larger proportion were left to swing at anchor in the bay, almost without guard at one time more than 500 could be counted-for the crews, possessed no less than the passengers by the gold fever, rushed away at once, carrying off the ship boats, and caring little for the pay due them, and still less for the dilemma of the consignees or captain. The helpless commander frequently joined in the flight. So high was the cost of labor, and so glutted the market at times with certain goods, that in some instances it did not pay to

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citizens, with $2,500 a year. Services at school-house on Portsmouth square. Annals S. F., 207.

"There were now general as well as local elections, particulars of which are given elsewhere.

As spring approached, attention centred on preparations, with impatient waiting for opportunities to start for the mines. Hence the statement may not be wrong that most of the people of the city at that time had a cadav. erous appearance,.. drowsy listlessness seemed to characterize the masses of the community.' First Steamship Pioneers, 366.

....a

As will be shown in the chapter on commerce.

12 Taylor instances a case where the sailors coolly rowed off under the fire of the government vessels. El Dorado, i. 54. Merchants had to take care of many abandoned vessels. Fay's Facts, MS., 1-2.

unload the cargo. Many vessels were left to rot, or to be beached for conversion into stores and lodginghouses. 13 The disappointments and hardships of the mines brought many penitents back in the autumn, so as to permit the engagement of crews.

Of 40,000 and more persons arriving in the bay, the greater proportion had to stop at San Francisco to arrange for proceeding inland, while a certain number of traders, artisans, and others concluded to remain in the city, whose population thus rose from 2,000 in February to 6,000 in August, after which the figure began to swell under the return current of wintering or satiated miners, until it reached about 20,000.1

To the inflowing gold-seekers the aspect of the famed El Dorado city could not have been very inspiring, with its straggling medley of low dingy adobes of a by-gone day, and frail wooden shanties born in an

13 By cutting holes for doors and windows and adding a roof. Merrill, Stat., MS., 2-4, instances the well-known Niantic and Gen. Harrison. Larkin, in Doc. Hist. Cal., vii. 288, locates the former at N. w. corner Sansome and Clay, and the latter (owned by E. Mickle & Co.) at N. w. corner Battery and Clay. He further places the Apollo storeship, at N. w. corner Sacramento and Battery, and the Georgean between Jackson and Washington, west of Battery st. Many sunk at their moorings. As late as Jan. 1857 old hulks still obstructed the harbor, while still others had been overtaken by the bayward march of the city front, and formed basements or cellars to tenements built on their decks. Even now, remains of vessels are found under the filled foundations of houses. Energetic proceedings of the harbor-master finally cleared the channel. This work began already in 1850. Chas Hare made a regular business of taking the vessels to pieces; and soon the observant Chinese saw the profits to be made, and applied their patient energy to the work. Among the sepulchred vessels I may mention the Cadmus, which carried Lafayette to America in 1824; the Plover, which sailed the Arctic in search of Franklin; the Regulus, Alceste, Thames, Neptune, Golconda, Mersey, Caroline Augusta, Dianthe, Genetta de Goito, Candace, Copiapo, Talca, Bay State, and others.

14It is placed at 3,000 in March, 5,000 in July, and from 12,000 to 15,000 in Oct., the latter by Taylor, Eldorado, 205, and a writer in Home Miss., xxiii. 208. Some even assume 30,000 at the end of 1849. In the spring the current set in for the mines, leaving a small population for the summer. The first directory, of Sept. 1850, contained 2,500 names, and the votes cast in Oct. reached 3,440. Sac. Transcript, Oct. 14, 1850. Hittell, S. F., 147-8, assumes not over 8,000 in Nov. 1849, on the strength of the vote then cast of 2,056, while allowing about 25,000 in another place for Dec. The Annals S. F., 219, 226, 244, insists upon at least 20,000, probably nearer 25,000. There are other estimates in Mayne's B. Col. 157. The figures differ in Crosby's Events, MS., 12; Williams' Stat., MS., 3; Green's Life, MS., 19; Burnett's Recol. MS., ii. 36; Bartlett's Stat., MS., 3.