And then, in dreaming,The clouds, we thought, would open, and show richesReady to drop upon us; that when we waked,We cried to dream again.
And then, in dreaming,The clouds, we thought, would open, and show richesReady to drop upon us; that when we waked,We cried to dream again.
And then, in dreaming,The clouds, we thought, would open, and show richesReady to drop upon us; that when we waked,We cried to dream again.
The mines were now all before us where to choose; but there was no visible Providence for our guide; and among so many conflicting reports, it was difficult to arrive at any fixed conclusion. The southern mines abounded more in lumps and rich deposits, but the gold was distributed more equally in the northern, and the labourer was accordingly more certain of his reward. In each of these grand divisions there was an endless variety of creeks and rivers, every one of which had its advocates, who set forth its advantages to the best of theirability, till the new comer, weary of weighing these opposing probabilities, often rested his decision upon the most trifling coincidence. Twenty dollars a day was said to be the average earned by the miners, but each man's hope told him a far more flattering tale.
Under these circumstances it may seem unaccountable that we should have waited nearly two weeks at San Francisco for our provisions to be unloaded, when, if our calculations were well grounded, we lost so much by the delay. The hope that every day would be the last, and the difficulty of unlearning all at once, that system of pennywise economy in which we had been educated, are the only explanation of this anything but a masterly inactivity.
In the mean time, through the agency of Captain Bill, whose good luck was signally manifest on this occasion, we made the acquaintance of a Mr. Primrose, said by some to be the most scientific miner in California. To a digger of any experience, the word scientific would have indicated nothing but the most besotted ignorance; but, to our Old-World notions, it sounded grand and imposing.
This scientific miner had a machine,—a scientific machine,—a machine such as is used in the gold mines of Virginia, and must of course be equally well adapted to this new territory. The machines had not yet arrived; but the scientific miner assured us that the vessel in which they had been shipped had sailed months before, and was now expected every day. In the meantime he would be happy to show us a drawing, from which we could form a tolerable idea of the mode of operation. We accordingly examined the drawing with great attention; we turned it upside down,—we looked at it straightforward and obliquely,—we looked at it with both eyes, and squinted at it after the most approved fashion with only one,—and finally came to the conclusion that it resembled nothing so much as a patent beehive, and of course must be a very scientific machine indeed.
"But will it work?" we asked the scientific miner.
The scientific miner, who was by the way a tall and rather comely personage, in a white neck-cloth, something between a clergyman and a broker, made no immediate reply, but taking from a table several hemispherical cakes of gold, looking like so many cakes of beeswax, and thereby confirming our notion of the patent beehive, placed them in our hands with a bland smile, and asked if that would do.
"Certainly," we replied, "that would do very well, if we could do it often enough."
"What do you say to once a week?" inquired the scientific miner.
Captain Bill looked at me, and I looked at Captain Bill, with a smile, half of satisfaction, half of incredulity, but made no answer.
The scientific miner noticed this telegraphic communication, and went on with mathematical gravity and precision.
"This gold," said he, "was washed out in a single week by one of these machines now in operation at Mormon Island; and that, too, from earth that had already been through the common rocker. With one of these machines you can make a thousand dollars a week from almost any earth in California, and ten thousand under favourable circumstances."
Having paused a moment, as if to enable us to digest these assertions, the scientific miner went on in a pleasant and confidential manner that was very encouraging.
"You know how it is," said he; "most that come to this country are ignorant mechanics and labourers, that are not fit to be trusted with such things; but with such energy and intelligence as you possess, you cannot help being successful."
At this, we both looked as intelligent as we possibly could; and Captain Bill, gazing respectfully, almost fearfully, at the drawing, asked the scientific miner how many men were required to work the machine; to which he replied that four could work it when everything was handy, but five or even sixmight sometimes be necessary. The price was one thousand dollars, on which a short credit would be allowed; but as only three hundred machines were expected in the first vessel, it would be necessary to decide without any great delay. Most of these were already engaged, but he thought he could manage to reserve one for us.
As soon as we got into the open air our enthusiasm, which we had prudently restrained in presence of the scientific miner, at once burst forth.
"Keep cool, boys, keep cool," cried Captain Bill, slapping his thigh, as his manner was, his broad, good-humoured face shining like a pewter platter, "steady your helm and haul in your jib-sheets."
"Look here, Bill!" I began, with a look intended to repress all such unseasonable mirth, "I'll tell you what we'll do. A thousand dollars is a good deal, I know, to give for a machine; but what of that? we can pay for it in a week, and all we make after that will be clear profit."
"Si," said Captain Bill.
"Well, then, if we find it work, you know, we'll just send down and order three more, one for each of us; and then, all we'll have to do will be to oversee the workmen, and attend to the amalgamating process."
"Si,—si,—si," said Captain Bill, once to each of the three rockers, but slowly, and at long intervals, as the magnificence of the idea gradually insinuated itself into his mind, like a boa-constrictor gorging a buffalo; and he already saw himself sitting lordly on a stone, engaged in the agreeable occupation of reckoning his gains, and keeping a sharp lookout on the poor fellows that were toiling for him at their miserable pittance of eight dollars a day, simply because they hadn't a scientific machine too; "but I say; this is one of the machines you read of, isn't it."
"Taking the very lowest calculation," I continued, striving to quench his fervour by my cool, business-like manner, "that'ill be a thousand dollars apiece a week; or we may as well make it twelve hundred while we are about it, so as to cover all expenses; and, at that rate, I think I could be content to stay in the mines a year."
"Yes, yes," cried the Captain, now at last driven to the use of his own vernacular, "so could I."
"But," said I, with inexorable coolness, "we must be cautious—very cautious. It won't do to be in too much of a hurry. We'll wait and see the machine at Mormon Island, and then we shall know what we know."
"Mr. Primrose seems a very clever sort of a man," returned Bill, "but, after all, it's the lumps that does the business."
Number Four had already been to see the scientific miner, but neither he nor Tertium were aware of the extent of their good fortune; and now Captain Bill taking them, as was his wont, mysteriously aside, undertook to enlighten them. He led them along softly, step by step, touching briefly on the machine, the chief merit of which was that we knew so little about it,—descanting at some length on the honesty and uprightness of the scientific miner, of which we knew still less,—coming down with ever-increasing emphasis on the lumps,—and finally, seeing them now prepared to receive it, winding up with a grand flourish on the twelve hundred a week.
The others listened attentively, but Tertium, who was always a horrible fellow for doubting, was still incredulous.
"Take him to see the lumps," I suggested, somewhat indignantly, for I must confess I felt hurt at his want of scientific ardour, "for, as you say, it is the lumps that does the business."
And indeed there was no getting over the lumps,—they were most weighty arguments, stubborn facts, addressing themselves to sight and touch with a silent eloquence no words could equal. Tertium saw them, and hesitated; he lifted them, and was convinced. Still, we determined toproceed with the utmost caution; and, for my part, I believe I derived almost as much satisfaction from the contemplation of my own superior wisdom, as from gloating over the fifty thousand that only waited my arrival to fall into my hands. We were careful to say nothing of our discovery to our less fortunate companions, for fear they should go at once and buy up every one of the thousand machines, leaving us, when too late, to lament our foolish procrastination.
After many unlooked for delays, a half-barrel of pork which we had long sought in vain was got out of the hold; and on the 8th of September we bid a final farewell to the Leucothea, and transferred ourselves to the Patuxent, the regular packet for Sacramento. The Patuxent was a very pretty schooner of about one hundred tons,—had formerly been engaged in the slave-trade, but now bore at her masthead a flag showing that she carried the mail for Uncle Sam.
We set sail about four in the afternoon, with a fine breeze that we hoped would last all night; but it went down with the sun, and we were obliged to come to anchor before we had gone half across the bay. Having eaten a frugal supper of boiled ham and biscuit, the ham costing only forty cents a pound, we began anxiously to look about us for sleeping accommodations. Picking my way carefully over the bundles of dead and living lumber that strewed the deck, I at last succeeded in reaching the spot where I had left my blankets, which I found in the possession of a most delicate monster, with four legs and two voices, who had coiled himself in them for the night. Pulling him by the lesser legs, I presently awakened his forward and backward voices, which showed at once, by a duet of curses, that they could both utter foul speeches on occasion.
"Never you mind," I said to myself, "I have not scaped drowning so long to be afeard now of your four legs;" and then adding a few words of explanation, I received back myproperty with many apologies. But it was a more difficult matter to find six unoccupied feet of plank; and I was at last obliged to put up with a small chest about three feet in length; where, half sitting, half lying, I nodded and blinked till early morning.
Sunday was an extremely dull day; there was but little breeze,—we began to tire of the stupifying monotony of ham and bread, and to feel somewhat of the enervating effect of the climate.
I found, however, considerable amusement in studying the peculiarities of our fellow passengers, nearly all of whom were entire strangers, and presented a greater variety and novelty than I had yet met with. There was a fair proportion of old miners, who had been down to San Francisco to get letters from home, or to have a frolic, and were now returning to the mines; but a far greater number of newcomers like ourselves. There were English, Irish, Scotch, French, Germans, Spaniards, and Chilanos. The captain, who was a Dane, with a nose like Julius Cæsar's, seemed to have almost entire charge of his little vessel, and to be in every part of her at once. I never could discover that he slept at all;—he took his meals holding the tiller under his arm; and, to save himself the trouble of giving orders, chose often to haul on the ropes with his own hands.
The individual who sometimes relieved him from charge of the helm was a laughing, chirruping, little Frenchman, rather gaily dressed, with a bright red flannel shirt, and a showy scarf round his waist. His untamed vivacity smacked strongly of the prairie; and, in spite of the manifest anachronism, I was once or twice on the point of asking him if he were not the Antoine or Pierre of whom I had read in Astorian story.
The night was intensely cold, and I fared even worse than before. I fell asleep several times on my feet; till, towards midnight, some one gave me a seat on the narrow cabin stairs, where I slept and shivered in weary alternation. Monday,however, was a glorious, true California day;—a moderate breeze bore us steadily up the river, whose banks presented a pleasing panorama. Though it was now near the end of the dry season, the Sacramento seemed here brimming full; the trees, and shrubs, and vines crowding so close to the bank that there was no room for even a footpath between. Ascending into the rigging I obtained a fine view of the surrounding country. Beyond the narrow strip of forest that guarded the banks, extended, as far as the eye could reach, tule marshes,—with here and there an island, like a gigantic billow, breaking the straight outline of the horizon.
As we advanced, the soil became higher and fit for cultivation. A narrow clearing running down to the water,—a canoe floating in the shade of the tree to whose roots it was fastened,—a rude hovel standing in the midst of a patch of melons or corn, all proclaimed the adventurous squatter, who, Boonelike, had led the forlorn hope of civilization.
At length, at a sudden turn in the river, we descried at a distance the masts of Sacramento mingling with the branches of the primæval forest. On landing, a scene presented itself of the most novel and bewildering character. On one side was the lonely river, still lonely in spite of the numerous ships that lay, side by side, moored with long ropes to the trees on the bank;—on the other, was the infant city yet maintaining a precarious struggle for existence with the surrounding wilderness. The mighty oak that had possessed the soil alone for centuries, or at least with no other rival than the wandering Indian, now looked down with wonder upon the audacious intruder at its feet, and thrust its long, gnarled branches among the taper, slender spars.
Awnings had been erected over several ships, which were thus converted into convenient stores and lodgings. The front rank of buildings stood drawn up in a straight line about two hundred feet from the river; and the streets, named after the letters of the alphabet, ran back at right angles from thelevee. The canvass walls were ornamented with painted signs of the same material, which were generally in inverse proportion to the size of the edifice, so that, in many cases, hardly anything else was visible. In spite of the sombre presence of half a dozen wooden buildings, the lighter fabric so far predominated, by the aid of a thick settlement of miners' tents, as to give the whole place the unsubstantial, ephemeral appearance of the encampment of a militia muster, or a gypsy horde.
We took supper in an eating house, a small open tent, with no floor but the bare ground, and nothing on the table but coffee, bread, and beefsteak; but the owner said in excuse that he had not yet got a-going, and should accordingly charge us only a dollar a-piece. We slept this night on board the Patuxent, and the next morning looked for a more stylish restaurant, when, in addition to what we had for supper, they set before us liver, sausages, potatoes, and Indian pudding, all cooked à la California, that is, fried in pork fat, but very good, and cheap besides, our bill amounting to only five dollars.
At noon, Capt. Bill and Number Four set out for Mormon Island, to satisfy themselves by ocular demonstration as to the merits of the Virginia rocker; while Tertium and myself remained behind to dispose of some merchandize we had brought out on speculation. We set up our tent, a tall cone or sugar-loaf, upon the levee, borrowing for that purpose a wagon-pole that lay, like the Irishman's crowbar, strewed all over the bank; and erected about it, for greater security, a frowning fortification of barrels of rice and beans, while we disposed the lighter articles within.
Our nomade life had now fairly begun; hitherto we had hung, like puny nurslings, on the dry breasts of a sickly civilization; but henceforth we were to shift for ourselves. Having kindled a fire and made some coffee in a bright tin coffee-pot, like a young couple just setting up housekeeping, I proceeded to the nearest baker's shop, and having bought acouple of loaves, marched back through the streets, Franklin-wise, to our camp; when Tertium, who had in the meantime fried some steaks, arranged the whole very tastily on the top of a barrel. We had each a new tin plate as bright as a looking-glass, a pint cup, with an iron spoon, and a big butcher's knife stuck into our girdle. The supper was excellent—I must except the coffee—and in fact we had enjoyed nothing so much since leaving Talcahuano.
After supper, as we sat in the door of our tent, with a little bit of home-feeling already stirring in our hearts, a man passing along the levee stopped to ask what we had for sale. He had on a monkey jacket, a pair of heavy cowhide boots drawn over his pantaloons, and coming well up to his knees, and presented throughout so great a contrast to his former self, that we were not a little surprised at discovering his identity with the fine gentleman we had so often seen promenading the streets of B——.
As we were anxious to dispose of our goods as soon as possible, without much regard to price, our bargain was soon completed. He paid us in gold dust, the first that had come into our possession, which, for want of a more fitting receptacle, we poured into a pewter cup. When I afterwards emptied it into a vial, a little remained sticking to the bottom, reminding me of the Forty Thieves, and the gold measured in a bushel. "Who knows," I said to myself, "but that we may have, before long, to resort to the same expedient?"
It was now time to go to bed; we carefully examined our pistols,—stationed a lusty bag of beans as sentinel before the door, and spreading our blankets in the dust, were soon sleeping as carelessly as the veteran on the field of battle.
The next morning we sold the remainder of our goods, including a large portion of our provisions, and were now all ready for a start; but were obliged to wait until we heard from our companions, as we were doubtful whether we had better make our first experiment at Mormon Island, or onthe North Fork as we had at first intended. In the meantime, fearful lest they should let slip the favourable opportunity, I made haste to write a most pressing letter, urging them, by all means, to lose no time in securing at least one of those machines that every day seemed more scientific and more desirable.
Friday, having a few hooks, we amused ourselves with fishing in the Sacramento. We caught a number of fish about a foot in length, full of bones as they could hold, but furnishing a very welcome addition to our scanty bill of fare.
The next day we received a note from Number Four, advising us to join them at Mormon Island, as they found themselves quite unable to decide so important a question without our assistance. It was too late, however, to commence so long a journey, and we very reluctantly waited till the following week.
Sunday, two other parties from the Leucothea came up the river, Capt. Fayreweather's, in a flat boat they had built on board the ship, and the Vermonters in a packet.
The Vermonters pitched their tent among a large number of others in a thick grove in one corner of the town, and then commenced the arduous task of transporting thither their provisions; the imperious, headstrong Charley disputing all the while with his rebellious satellites, with most amusing pertinacity, as to the amount of labour performed by each, and the proper method of conducting the simplest operation.
Monday afternoon they started on a long journey of ninety miles up on the Yuba; and, at the same time, we set out for Mormon Island, twenty-five miles from Sacramento, with a mule wagon to transport our provisions and household stuff, for which we had to pay eight cents a pound. After passing Sutter's Fort, the road for several miles lay over an open prairie; the evening was calm, and the solitude and silence greater even than at sea. A little farther on, thesurface became more undulating; fine old oaks dotted the ground at long intervals, seeming, like the stars in the sky, set all at an equal distance in a wide circle, of which we were the centre.
We encamped for the night near the American river,—the sun had long been set,—we were cold and hungry, but it was too dark to find materials for a fire, and we were compelled to go supperless to bed. We spread our tent on the ground, and muffling ourselves in our blankets, crept in between the folds, in dumb expressive silence, while our driver, equally unsocial, stretched his length, like a watch dog, under his wagon. It was a relief to hear the roar of the river that on one side seemed to furnish a wall of defence, as if it had weakened the surrounding loneliness by cutting it in halves; it was a relief even to hear the barking of the coatis as they prowled round the wagon; but I never recall that night by the American river, and think of the profoundest desolation that brooded over us, without a shudder,—a shudder of delight, as children listen to tales of ghosts and goblins.
We hailed the first dawn of day with intense satisfaction; before the sun was up our coffee-pot was singing over a crackling blaze, and a steak sizzling in the frying-pan sent forth a most savoury odour. There is an immense difference between going to bed darkling and supperless, and getting up to a hearty breakfast on a bright sunshiny morning; we were no longer the same persons, and, full of beef and coffee, felt ready to encounter any difficulty that might present itself.
We travelled all day through an open forest of oak, passing one or two houses, or ranches as they were oftener called, and meeting occasionally an empty wagon returning to Sacramento. We met also a young fellow dressed in a new calico shirt of the gayest pattern, with a bright scarf round his waist, galloping carelessly along the sweepingglades of the forest, and swinging round his head the long braided lash that forms the end of a Spanish bridle. I looked after him with envious admiration; for thinks I to myself, there is a lucky miner who has made his fortune, twenty or thirty thousand at least, and is now going home to enjoy it. But it was pleasant to think that in another year we too should be galloping over the same road, each with just such a horse and painted shirt, and with as well filled saddle-bags as he. Then how we would exult over any unlucky pedestrians we might chance to encounter!—with what self-complacent condescension we would stop to answer their absurd questions! looking down upon them, all the while, from our twofold elevation, with most delightful pity,—pitying them, so to speak, as hard as we could, and then wrapt away from their sight in a cloud of dust.
Solacing ourselves with many such "sugared suppositions," we came at night to a small roadside inn, called the Willow Spring House, and built in that place for the sake of the water which is very scarce in all that region. Several parties were already resting on the little green slope opposite the house; we joined them, and cooked our supper at their fire; while, after the fashion of Californians, we gave each other a brief account of our adventures. Some of our companions we found had come like ourselves round the Horn, and we were mutually anxious to learn the names of our respective vessels; some had come by way of the Isthmus,—and others had travelled across the plains of Mexico, or over the Rocky Mountains. They came together, at this secluded spot, for the first and last time, and parted in the morning; some going down to Sacramento, which they had not yet seen, and others up into the mountains,—while we continued our march, and in an hour arrived at Mormon Island, where we found our companions in a state of great perplexity at our long delay.
With their assistance our goods were soon unloaded at aspot hastily selected at the side of the street; we counted out eighty dollars on a stump for our driver,—hung our tent to the overhanging branch of a small oak to avoid the necessity of a pole, and piled our provisions round its trunk.
Our next door neighbour, an old man with a loud, good-humoured voice, and who kept a sort of small eating-house at the farther end of a monstrous pine that stretched from his door to ours, was cooking his breakfast at a fire built against the middle of the log. While our coffee was boiling, he began to sing the praises of some bean soup he had just concocted; and, on my expressing some doubt of its excellence, nothing would do but I must taste it. "There," said he, as I dipped my iron spoon into the shallow tin plate he had provided, "what do you say to that?" I was forced to acknowledge that it was very good indeed, and I further flattered the old man's vanity by asking for the recipe, which he gave me at once, with an infinite deal of chuckling and gesticulation, flying round all the while among his pots and kettles with twice his usual dexterity.
Having fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast, we proceeded all together, Capt. Bill leading the way, to the island, to see the machine that had gradually climbed so high in our imaginations. Mormon Island proper is nothing but a large bar on one side of the river, converted into an island by a narrow canal dug round it for the purpose of draining that portion of the channel. The name, however, has extended itself to the village that has grown up on the neighbouring bank, and which consisted, at that time, of a single street nearly as broad as it was long,—lined on three sides with a few scattered tents and log houses, though several stores and hotels of much greater pretensions have since been added.
Crossing the canal by a bridge made of a single log, and walking a few rods over a succession of miniature hills thrown up by the miners, we came to a small hollow where the machine was at work. A sudden weakness,—shall I confess it?—nowcame over me, and I paused a moment to recover my self-possession before venturing to face this miracle of science. I then slowly advanced till my eyes, rising above the stony ridge that surrounded it, peered curiously down into the hollow.
Three times in my life have I met with severe disappointments—once in my eighth year, hurrying home from school in the confident expectation of having apple dumplings for dinner, and finding that, through some dreadful cook's blunder, there was nothing but salt beef, cabbage, and potatoes—once in my maturer years, in a still more tender point—and now, to complete the mighty three, I saw—instead of the cunning invention possessed of mysterious, almost fearful powers, which I had imagined—only a big, clumsy rocker, mounted on a frame still bigger and clumsier than itself, and weighing altogether some five or six hundred pounds. Underneath the riddle or castiron sieve that extended the whole length of the machine, was a trough about eight inches deep, and divided by numerous low partitions into narrow cells intended to contain the quicksilver used in washing. It was this feature that had suggested the idea of a patent beehive; and in the last or lowest of these cells we had expected to find the gold in a state of perfect purity. We now discovered our mistake—these partitions corresponded simply to the ripple-bars of the common rocker, which indeed the whole machine resembled much more closely than we had supposed. Five men were required to attend to its various wants; one to rock—one to pump into it a constant stream of water—one to feed it—and two to bring the earth from the hole.
Several of the owners, members of the company of which the scientific miner was president, were standing by, watching the operation; and one of them I thought, from his conversation, must be almost as scientific as the scientific miner himself. They were all pleasant, gentlemanly fellows, living in a fine large tent on a breezy hill just above the island, and insuch style and comfort as became the owners of a thousand thousand-dollar machines, like themselves.
But our hopes were doomed to receive another and still more overwhelming shock. The scientific miner had assured us that we could make our thousand a week from almost any earth in California—we didn't quite believe him, to be sure—but now the second scientific miner, not indeed so scientific as the first, but horribly scientific for all that, advised us, by all means, not to remain at Mormon Island, but to prospect a bar he had himself visited, just below Coloma, and which he thought from itsformationlikely to prove unusually rich.
"But," replied Tertium, shrinking from the idea of another long journey, and still possessed by the chimerical notion suggested by the scientific miner, "why wouldn't it be as well to remain here? There's that hill yonder, to the right of the village; I don't see why that shouldn't pay as well as any other place."
You should have seen the smile of benevolent pity with which this audacious speech was received by the miner who was only less scientific than the scientific miner at San Francisco. It was really delightful to see how easily his science enabled him to solve a question which we could have decided only by pickaxe and shovel.
"Ah, my dear sir," he replied, his politeness struggling hard with that noble disdain he could not help feeling, "there is no gold there—the geological formation shows that it is impossible. If you look again, you will see that the river here makes a sudden turn to the right; and besides, gold is never found in such soil as that hill is composed of."
Here Capt. Bill looked at me as much as to say, "He's one of the men you read of;" and we all frowned upon Tertium as a sign that he should hold his peace; while, in accordance with the second scientific miner's suggestion, we did look again—saw, as he said we would, that the river did turn to the right, and of course could never, by any possibility, haveflowed in any other direction; whereby our opinion of science in general, and of the second scientific miner's in particular, was marvellously confirmed.
Lest I should forget it, I would here simply mention, that not long after, some ignoramus, not having the fear of science before his eyes, and digging stupidly into this identical hill, discovered veins of such richness as turned half the heads in the village.
This hill in fact seemed one of those awkward exceptions designed by nature expressly for the discomfiture of just such philosophers; as if, like the rest of her sex, she would not give her suitors too much encouragement, lest their presumption should make them forget their modesty. The good lady, if the truth must be told, seemed in this matter even more capricious than ordinary, and bestowed her favours with so little discernment that the least deserving were often the most successful.
I encountered many other scientific miners during my travels, but never met with one whose science was worth his salt. It did not seem so much a means as an end, and was continually leading them astray from the real object of pursuit. They acted often as foolishly as the man who in travelling would not take the common highway that led directly to the spot where he wished to go, but chose, because he could move a little faster, to get into a railroad car that was going in just the opposite direction. In short, their science was like that discriminating salve which, being rubbed slightly on one eye, disclosed all the treasures of the earth, but being applied to both, resulted in total blindness. Yet to hear them talk of geological formations, of strata and deposits, with their primitive and secondary, it would seem as if they were thoroughly acquainted with the diagnosis of their patient, and could put their finger on the very spot in nature's loins where she had hutched the all-worshipped ore, with as much certainty as a modern Esculapius can determine the seat of a disease.
However, the second scientific miner had said it, and accordingly the next morning after our arrival, and before the blisters had dried off my feet, I set out with Number Four for Coloma, twenty-five miles farther up the river. Our blankets were slung over our shoulders, and we carried in our pockets a bit of bread and cheese to beguile the way somewhat of its weariness. We commenced our journey in high spirits, but had not walked more than two miles before the stiffening which my limbs so much needed seemed all to have settled in my boots, where it was not needed at all; and I found, to my indignant surprise and consternation, that I, who had never, so to speak, been sick in my life, was thus shamefully betrayed into a downright fit of dysentery.
It was now the middle of September, a season when the heat, if no longer quite so intense, is even more oppressive than in summer; all vegetation was burnt up, and the parched, dusty ground quivered in the dizzy rays.
Loitering slowly under the scattered trees, and quickening our pace in the unbroken sunshine, we came at noon to a circular sandy plain about two miles in diameter, without a leaf in its whole extent, and glowing under the fierce meridian like the focus of a burning-glass.
Collecting our forces for a desperate rally, we hurried in eager emulation across this little desert, and found on the other side a ranch, with a spring, shaded by a few solitary oaks, at some distance from the roadside, and offering a convenient resting-place. We stopped here several hours, nibbling at our bread and cheese, and scooping up water from the spring in a cocoanut shell I had brought from Rio Janeiro; but the sun playing "bo-peep" with us round the tree made it impossible to sleep, and at length compelled us to resume our journey. The country became, as we advanced, more and more hilly and thickly wooded; and after crossing Weaver's Creek, a small stream four miles from Coloma, the road seemed entirely made up of a succession of long steephills. The degree of exhaustion to which I was now reduced, exceeded anything of which I had supposed the human frame was capable; at the top of every hill I hurried forward, hoping to hear the roar of the river, or to catch a glimpse of the tents of Coloma at the bottom; more than once I threw myself on the ground with the full determination to proceed no farther till morning, but the urgency of my companion prevailed, and again I set forward to encounter the next ascent.
It was long after dark when we at last saw the lights of the village far below. Slowly winding down the long hill, we passed the scattered suburbs of tents, with little groups of miners sitting round their drowsy fires, and in a few minutes reached the store to which we had been directed, where I sank onto a bench, as it seemed more dead than alive.
They gave us for supper some wretched tea, of which I drank eagerly four or five cups—cold stewed beans, and an apple-sauce of dried peaches, of which I ate more sparingly, but my stomach, with superior instinct, refused to retain any such villainous combination. We slept on the dirty open floor of the dining-room, fanned by the night air sifting through, cold and dust-laden—and lulled by the beating of that mill that will henceforth, while the world stands, be more renowned in story than many a royal palace. Among our companions were two or three dogs continually running in and out, and smelling round our faces, and a poor woman who had walked that day twenty-five miles, with an infant in her arms, to meet her husband, and was now inconsolable at his delay.
In the morning we walked out to see the place. It stands in a narrow valley, hemmed in by high rugged hills, among which the South Fork worms its way, sometimes dark and deep, but oftener widening into a stream so shallow that it can almost be crossed dryshod. There by its side was themill that had made all this stir, worth a hundred thousand dollars, yet working away ignobly, day and night, like any of the thousand saw-mills that bestride the streams of New England.
After breakfast we borrowed a pick, pan and shovel of our landlord; and, striking into a footpath over the hills, walked a mile down the river to the bar so highly recommended by the second scientific miner.
This bar was much larger and higher than Mormon Island, with many trees scattered over it; but its surface remained unbroken, and the merry dash of the miner's rocker was nowhere heard. Near the lower end a natural dam had formed a romantic little pond, with pebbly beaches running down between the bushes into the water, where we saw the fish glancing beneath the surface. A more commodious and delightful spot for a miner's encampment could hardly be devised. The slender pines were admirably fitted for a log house—the solitude was like enchantment, and what could be pleasanter than to sit in some shady nook, and fish all the long, lazy summer's day in those fairy waters?
But imperious necessity compelled us to shut our eyes to all these features of delight, and to look simply at the amount of gold that might be expected to reward our labour.
We selected a spot at the upper end of the bar, as most likely to contain the precious metal, and at once set vigorously to work throwing out, like two rampant antlions, the paving-stones and gravel that came tumbling back upon us in the most vexatious manner. Occasionally Number Four filled a pan half full of earth, and carried it down to the river to wash out. The first trial gave nothing, the second a little more, and at length we were so fortunate as to obtain a panful that yielded the incredible sum of three cents. We rested an hour at noon to eat our salt beef and biscuit, and again resumed our labours, but with no better success; we returned to the attack the next morning, and at another part of thebar; but three cents was the best it could do for us, and we finally abandoned it in sore disgust.
Oh, that second scientific miner! and, oh, that "promising formation!" Promising! yes, it was promising, but it lied consumedly.
In the afternoon, we met a number of our fellow-passengers who were mining in the vicinity. The account they gave of the Coloma diggings was not such as to induce us to remain any longer in the place, and we determined to return to Mormon Island, without any further explorations; the more especially, as we were somewhat tired of paying nine dollars a day for such board and lodging as I have described. As Number Four, however, preferred to wait till the next morning, I set out alone at half-past four, expecting to finish my journey by moonlight. To avoid the exquisite torture inflicted by my boots, I cut off the tops of an old pair I picked up in the street—drew them up over my feet like a napkin by a string passed through the four corners—and thus, with my boots in my hand, shuffled along with that awkward waddle peculiar to all the webfooted tribe. No one would have had the slightest difficulty in following my trail, which, besides the elephantine footprint, was marked at regular intervals, as by mile-stones, by the little piles of dust and gravel I had emptied out of these gouty appendages. This answered very well for several miles, but by the time I reached Weaver Creek, the soles of my feet had become so sore that I was obliged to resume my boots. The sun set soon after, but I still proceeded very comfortably by aid of the moon, though the deep shadows of the hills and trees sometimes hid the road completely from view. About nine I came suddenly upon a piece of bog that ran directly across the road, and which I had no recollection of seeing on my way up; at the same moment, as ill luck would have it, the moon dipped very ill-naturedly beneath the horizon, thus depriving me of her light just when I could worst do without it.
While I was bewildering myself more and more in my vain attempts to find a passage, a Will-o'-the-wisp-ish sort of light, dancing about at no great distance, attracted my attention. I was greatly pleased, on coming up with it, to find it of a more friendly character; a man was looking after his cattle, and told me, in answer to my inquiries, that the road here turned at right angles, and that the black shadow I saw at a little distance was the Green Spring House, where it will be recollected we had rested on our way to Coloma.
I should have remained at Green Spring all night, but unfortunately I had left my blankets behind me, and had no desire to make the acquaintance of the strange bedfellows one was sure to encounter in a California inn. I stopped accordingly only long enough to obtain a glass of water; the bar-keeper scowled because I did not ask for brandy; and having at length, with some difficulty, found the road, which ran just before the door, I again set forward. I at first proceeded very slowly, stooping from time to time to make out my course by the shimmer of the wheel-tracks; but becoming tired of this species of locomotion, I pushed on more rapidly, and soon lost the road altogether.
Fearing at length that I might be going in the wrong direction, I pulled out my pocket-compass and a box of matches; and having ascertained the position of the north star, determined to steer my course as at sea, without turning to the right hand or the left. But after what seemed many weary miles, no signs of life appearing, I began to think I had passed the island, and was now perhaps half way down to Sacramento. I knew, however, that the river was on my right; I supposed it could not be far distant, and that, if I once succeeded in reaching it, I should have no difficulty in determining my true position. There never was a greater blunder—for more than an hour I toiled on, over hill and valley, stopping now and then to catch the far-off roar of the river, or any other sound that might prate of my whereabouts.Suddenly I heard a dog bark far down the stream, and then the lowing of a cow. These cheerful sounds gave me courage. I pressed on, and soon saw below, the black-and-white water gliding under the ghostly starlight, along its rocky channel. I scrambled down, nearly breaking my neck in my eagerness, by tumbling over a bank some ten feet high; and sitting on a lump of granite I dipped my cocoanut again and again into the stream, and drained it with as feverish relish as if I had been scorching beneath the sun of Sahara.
Finding it impossible to make my way along the craggy shore, I again ascended the high ground, when I waded for a long time through a deep sea of hemlock. Emerging from this I wandered on, by trees, and rocks, and hills—nothing civilised, nothing moving but the coati and the hare that "from my path fled like a shadow." I stopped and hallooed, though half frightened at the sound of my own voice, but echo was the only answer. On I went, further and further into the big blackness of the night, feeling my way, as it were, by continued shouts, as a blind man pokes his way with a cane. My efforts were at length successful.
"What in the d—— are you making such a hullabaloo for, at this time o' night?" said a gruff voice coming out of the darkness. I looked in the direction of the sound, and saw, close at my elbow where I wondered I had not seen it before, a large wagon covered with white cotton. Approaching somewhat nearer, I became aware of a head, to which apparently the voice belonged, projecting tortoise-like from the end of the wagon. In answer to my inquiries, the head, that in spite of its first salutation, seemed a very good sort of a head, informed me pleasantly enough that Mormon Island was only a mile below, and that I could not fail to hit it. As I turned away, I heard a woman's voice, sounding smothered out of the cart's belly, say, "poor fellow;" and I blessed her with all her sisterhood.
About three in the morning, Capt. Bill suddenly awaking,was dreadfully startled to perceive a tall figure standing at his feet. He instantly aroused his companion, who, sitting up on end with most courageous trembling, began fumbling under his head for a pistol, while he boldly demanded "who's there?" No answer being returned, his finger already pressed the fatal trigger, and another moment would have ended my adventures before they had well begun, if I had not made haste to relieve their fears by the assurance that I was not the bloody thief and murderer they had been so quick to imagine.
I have been the more particular in describing this little bit of travel, as it was our first experience of the varieties of California life, and a fitting introduction to what was to follow. California at that time was an almost unbroken wilderness, with a few villages scattered at long intervals on the principal rivers, and a single house here and there along the roads. The forests were supposed to be infested by wild beasts and more savage Indians, and on this very occasion I was startled more than once by hearing the dead branches by the road side snapping under the tread of some heavy animal, which I boldly maintained, gainsay it who will, must have been a grizzly of the first magnitude; though I will allow that no animal more formidable than a coati was ever seen in that neighbourhood.
The next day was our first Sunday in the mines. It had not come any too soon. Through the long sultry hours I lay stretched on my blankets, watching the coquettish play of the leaves drawn on the camera obscura of our canvass walls, and dreaming, oh! how dreamily! of all we had left behind. At noon, Number Four made his appearance, not at all fatigued by his journey; and, as it was probable that we should now remain some time at Mormon Island, we determined to remove to a pleasanter locality. We selected for this purpose the hill on which the second scientific miner and his party had pitched their tent, and by Monday night were snugly settled in our new quarters.
Having, as before, hung our tent on the north side of an evergreen oak, we strewed the floor with pine twigs, and a species of coarse hummocky grass that grew in great abundance on the rocky hill sides. Our narrow bedsteads, hastily constructed of rough poles, resting on low crotches driven into the ground, were made to fit into the circumference of the tent, so that I could only sleep on my right side, and Tertium could only sleep on his left, and there was no turning over except by changing beds. A barrel of biscuit, a half barrel of sugar, together with sundry bags of beans, and rice, and pork, filled all the centre of the tent, leaving only room enough to get in and out.
The hill, on which we had thus encamped, and where we remained several months, rose directly from the river, andwas agreeably shaded by white and evergreen oaks, not standing close together or in clumps, but at almost as regular intervals as the trees in an orchard, which at a short distance they closely resembled. In front, looking down the river, and towards the sunsetting, was the sleepy little village, with its scattering suburbs of tents, peeping out among the hills, and now and then, a heavy baggage-wagon, attended by a party of impatient miners, slowly creeping down the Sacramento road beyond—the river more to the right winding round the rocky island, swarming with men like a great ant-hill—and, far beyond all, and forming a fitting back-ground to the picture, a hill of surpassing beauty, rising in successive terraces, as sharp and regular as if formed by art, to a height of several hundred feet.
Five or six parties were encamped in our neighbourhood, and on the summit of the hill, a hundred yards behind us, was a large tent, occupied as a store by the same enterprising individual to whom we had sold our tinware at Sacramento.
Tuesday, the Captain and Number Four were employed by the second scientific miner in working his machine, for which they received the usual wages, eight dollars a day, and also acquired some knowledge of its operation. At the same time, as Tertium and I did not wish to be idle, and had not yet obtained a rocker, we set to work on the river bank with pans, modestly limiting our expectations to an ounce a piece.
Panning is to the beginner a very curious and mysterious operation. An old miner had initiated my brother in the process, and he now gave me the result of his experience. "You must do so, and so, and so," said he, suiting the action to the word. I accordingly did as I was told, shaking and whirling, and dipping with all my might, though with a strange mixture of faith and unbelief as to the result.
There was nothing in the appearance of the earth to distinguish it from what I had seen a thousand times at home. It was simply a mass of sand, and stones, and gravel, such asis often found on our sea-shores, and in the beds or along the banks of our more rapid rivers. Yet this was the earth I had come twenty thousand miles to seek, and in that earth, unnoticed among the baser substances, but worth more than all of them, there lurked, so I was told, and so I partly believed, divers grains of gold.
While I thus wondered, I had gradually thrown out the lighter sand and gravel, but a portion of black sand still remained; and now, as with gentle violence I sank the edge of the pan beneath the surface, the inrushing water brought to view a few brighter grains contrasted, and in appearance multiplied by this intimate mingling with their sooty brethren. Good! I said, there must be at least two dollars; but when the black sand was all floated out by the dipping process just mentioned, I found, to my great mortification, that there was not more than twenty-five cents.
That part of the bank which we had selected had already been once dug over, and most of its riches abstracted; but as the first miners had done their work in a careless and slovenly manner, contenting themselves, as I had thought to do, not indeed with the biggest lumps, but with the richest portions, they had left numerous little patches scattered among and under the rocks that afforded very good pickings to their successors. Our labour was not, however, in this instance very profitable; we made only three dollars, and were glad the next day to change our employment.
Number Four set out on an expedition of inquiry among the miners on the North Fork,—Tertium took his place at the Virginia rocker—and I was engaged to assist as a journeyman carpenter in putting up a small iron house belonging to a Mr. Mowbray, who had lately arrived in the diggings in such style as to produce an immense sensation.
He was a young man of good family and rather genteel figure—rich and well educated—understood thoroughly the art of spending money, but had probably never earned adollar in his life. Tired at length of this barren inactivity, and seized with a dreamy ambition to do something in the world, he had pitched upon California as a suitable field for his first essay. His plan of operations was equally bold and ingenious; he determined to conquer nature, and transport the comforts of civilization into her rude and rugged fastnesses. He had no objection to the romance and excitement of a miner's life, but he would have none of its accompanying hardships.
Naturalists have described a species of spider that, in order to gratify its amphibious propensity, makes a diving bell of bubble, and dwells in this palace of light secure beneath the waters. So Mowbray plunging into an unaccustomed element, still carried about him his bubble of old associations. In spite of the seeming greatness of the change, his atmosphere was still the same; his nature had undergone no transformation, and he walked now over the hills of California as formerly along the pavements of Broadway. Others might sleep on the ground, and live on pork and flapjacks, but he would sleep softly and fare luxuriantly—they might toil for an ounce a day, he sought no lesser game than thousands.
And if the most lavish expenditure of money had been all that was wanting, his success would have been placed beyond all doubt. During the three months of preparation previous to his departure, he had forgotten nothing, however trifling, necessary to his undertaking.
You would have thought him a second Robinson Crusoe about to embark voluntarily for his desert island. First and foremost came a chest of tools, though I grievously fear that our dainty crusader could hardly have told a chisel from a handsaw. But then, fortunately, he had a scientific dictionary in two fat volumes, from which he could easily obtain the necessary information. Next there was a horse-power, a heavy mass of iron-wheels, so called, I suppose, because nobody but a horse could move it—india-rubber pontoons, lookingmarvellously like the skin of a huge black snake—a large tent of the same material to use in prospecting—together with a whole army of picks and shovels, to look at which you would suppose our hero had as many arms as Briareus.
He had, too, a most knowing belly, and one that evidently abhorred a vacuum as much as Dame Nature herself. According to the strictest calculation, and assuming as a standard the most primitive of all measures, the capacity of the respectable functionary mentioned in the first line of this paragraph, there was of sugar, three hundred and fifty—of Stewart's syrup, ditto—of cheese, sixty—of flour, eight hundred—of tea and coffee, a thousand—of spices, pickles, preserves, &c., six hundred—of pork, two hundred—and of beans, horresco referens, not one.
These various luxuries, together with the house already mentioned, and more than all, two mahogany bedsteads with mattrass and pillow, excited the unqualified admiration of less fortunate or less sagacious adventurers.
Certain sturdy miners indeed, who could carry all they owned upon their backs, shrugged their shoulders at all this, and even laughed outright at the mahogany bedsteads; but they were poor creatures who could never by any possibility be made to appreciate an enterprise conducted with such liberality and magnificence.
To supply his own want of practical knowledge, and thus make assurance doubly sure, Mowbray had brought with him a companion of a very different temper, and who seemed by his habits and education fitted to make as useful an ally as the simple-hearted Friday; that most delectable of blacks till Uncle Tom came to divide our sympathies. The idea was a good one, but his selection was unfortunate. Our Friday was a genuine cockney, who had never been out of the sound of Bow-bells, or out of sight of St. Paul's. He had lived, to be sure, several years in the United States, and professed to entertain the highest admiration of our institutions, but hadnot really gained a new idea. Indeed, he was not a man of ideas, but of education, or, to speak more accurately, of instruction, and had no more to do with the formation of his own mind than an india-rubber shoe has with that of the mould that shapes it. He was obsequious to a fault, and even slavish in his dependence, so that, as Capt. Bill observed, one wanted to kick him for his humility. He had neither the versatility of a Yankee, or of a cat in his composition—he could "make the thing, but not the machine that makes it,"—and every sudden emergency took him entirely by surprise. In the hands of a master he would undoubtedly have made an efficient instrument, but in the hands of Mowbray he was worse than useless.
It was to assist this character in erecting his house, that I was now employed by Mowbray, who was himself suffering from dysentery, and therefore unable to attend to it in person. The frame, which was only ten feet by twelve, had been prepared under Friday's supervision; yet the work had been done in such a bungling manner, that we were three whole days in putting it together and fitting in the iron sheets that formed the walls. When all was done, however, a very comfortable house was the result, presenting in its air of snugness and security, a marked contrast to the loose open tents by which it was surrounded. Mowbray at once took possession, and assumed, by tacit consent of the pork-and-flapjack democracy about him, some such state and dignity as usually attaches to the great house of a country village.
Number Four returned on Friday; he had seen a number of our old shipmates, who were mining on the North Fork, but though they were generally doing better than with us, the advantage was too slight to counterbalance the evils of a removal, and we accordingly made up our minds to remain where we were.
The next Tuesday, which was the second of October, the long-looked for machine for which we had finally bargainedwith the scientific miner, made its appearance in an oblong box somewhat bigger than a coffin. The omen was unfortunate, but in our infatuation we disregarded every warning and rushed blindly on our fate. We found the difficulty of putting the parts together greatly increased by the carelessness of the construction and the improper nature of the materials; and our vexation at this delay received a fresh accession every time we compared the exorbitant price of the machine with its actual value. Besides, we had insensibly come to regard the unwieldy monster with doubt, if not with absolute aversion. I can not explain now any more than I could then the sort of somnambulic process by which we had arrived at this state of unbelief, but in some way the conviction had been forcing itself upon us that neither the Virginia rocker, nor California itself, were all we had so fondly imagined. We had not yielded even so much as this without a struggle; machines of a very similar construction were already at work on the island and their owners were by no means getting rich, but then, as the second scientific miner said, they were not exactly the same, and on this apparently unimportant distinction depended the very secret of success. There was one, however, exactly the same, but it had not been thoroughly tried. Old miners smiled significantly at us as they passed, and sneered at the company's expectations. But it was only envy. Thus we disputed every inch of ground, still hoping against hope, when our best friend would have been a wise despair.
The whole week was consumed in various operations. After putting together the machine, and the heavy frame on which it rested, we erected a stout scaffold ten feet high to support the pump and the man who worked it, and who was thus raised to a very doubtful dignity above his fellows. Spouts were also required to convey the water from the pump to the rocker, and to make these we cut up the coffin already mentioned, into long strips three or four inches wide. In allthis it is but fair to mention that we derived great advantage from the chest of tools possessed by our friend Mowbray.
In the meantime we had bought for fifty dollars a claim on the island, abandoning one that we already held, and which afterwards proved by far the more valuable; and the first of the week, everything being in readiness, Tertium mounted the scaffold—Number Four took his station at the handle of the rocker—I assumed the responsible office of feeder—and our two hired men, Capt. Bill being sick with dysentery, were appointed hod carriers; the said hod being a large half-barrel slung between two poles, and weighing, when full of earth, about as much as three barrels of flour.
And now began the hardest labour I ever encountered—such labour as that must be, when man is yoked, as it were, together with a lifeless piece of mechanism, and compelled to keep time to its undeviating regularity. Having once started there was no cessation—the rocker must rock—the pumper must pump—and the digger must dig, as if life depended upon their exertions,—the only rest was by change of labour. As one hand left the handle of the machine, another slid into its place—the one at the pump could not vacate his high office until his successor had already mounted the scaffold, and the diggers must keep ahead of us all.
"More dirt, more dirt," cries the feeder, and the next moment two slender figures are seen rounding the corner of the hole, and tottering, staggering, half running, half walking under their awkward burden. Their poor legs, fit only for counter-jumping, seem fairly to bend and buckle like a whalebone, as they slip and stumble over the uneven path, and their faces, like our own, shrivel under the fire that streams from the burning sun above, and burning stones below.
We rested three hours at noon, and finished our day's work of ten hours about seven. And now for the gold!—a hundred hods of earth had passed through the machine, and out of that quantity it should have digested at least a hundreddollars. We should not wonder if there were two hundred, but should feel satisfied, as it was the first day, with only one. We gathered round, we three, and put our heads together over the trough, now drawn part way out of its place, while our hired men peeped respectfully over our shoulders.
Tipping the rocker first to one side, and then gently reversing the position, the pure liquid quicksilver ran rapidly across the bottom, while the amalgam lingered behind. Number Four scraped it up with his fingers, and having squeezed and moulded it in his hand, disclosed to our view a lump about as big as a bullet, and worth three or four dollars.
On further examination we found that several pounds of quicksilver had escaped from the rocker; and as this was worth quite as much as the gold we had obtained, our first day's labour left us just one ounce in debt. None but an Irishman could get rich in this way, so we betook ourselves at once for consolation to the second scientific miner, who somewhat reassured us by saying that it was no more than was to be expected; that it required thirty or forty dollars to saturate the quicksilver, which it seemed would do nothing until it had gorged itself to repletion, and that the next day we should do better. He also sent one of his company, a young gentleman who, either because he had very long legs, or a good deal of whisker, and that sort of nobility, was called Count Eggenheim, to discover the secret of our losing so much quicksilver. The Count directed us to set the rocker steeper, and rock more rapidly, seventy beats to a minute: and these various alterations effected such an improvement that we made the next day twenty dollars. But I will not weary the reader with a more continued detail; at the end of five days, after paying for our hole and hired labour, we had left just fifty cents apiece; and though Capt. Bill still retained something of his early predilection for our patentbee-hive, the rest of the party were so opposed to giving it any further trial, that the whole scheme was then and there abandoned.
Subsequent observation convinced us that we were right in our decision, and that the Virginia rocker, so far from being what it had been represented, was in no respect superior to the common cradle, while its great size and weight were very serious objections. With the cradle the miner was perfectly independent—he moved from one spot to another at pleasure, and washed only the richer portions. The Virginia rocker, on the other hand, was comparatively a fixture, and to move it even a short distance so arduous an operation that it was avoided as long as possible.
It will be recollected that the first scientific miner, among other arguments in favour of this machine, had stated that the hemispherical cakes which he exhibited had been obtained from earth that had already been through the common cradle. We now learned in what sense these words were to be understood; a miner who had been at work on the island all the time the company had their machine in operation, assured us that several small rockers were in use at the same time, and that their contents had been twice a day passed through the Virginia rocker for the purpose of separating the black sand and gold by amalgamation. So in the famous partnership between the dwarf and the giant, the giant carried off all the glory from his humble companion—so in a nest, the big glutton starves his weaker brethren, and so always the rich absorbs the profit for which the poor man sweats.
But it was a comfort to know that, after all, the scientific miner had told nothing but the truth, though his distance from the scene of operations and his scientific method of viewing matters had kept him in ignorance of some important particulars. The company of which he was chief proved their own faith in the machines by subsequently setting up ten of them on the island in a single body; water wasbrought on in a flood by means of a trough several hundred feet long, and a waterwheel erected at an expense of three or four thousand dollars, to rock the machines, though the same labour could have been performed far better and cheaper by hand. Their whole object seemed to be to wash as much earth as possible, or rather to force it through the rocker. They worked in this distracted manner only a short time when the rainy season set in, their waterwheel was washed away—the company was dispersed, their state and magnificence forgotten, and all their thousand machines might have been bought for a song.
Mowbray had watched the progress of their experiment with intense solicitude, either because he was a silent partner in the concern, or because he intended, if they were successful, to make his fortune in the same way.
About this time he bought a pair of mules and a large wagon, and filling it with stores set out on a prospecting expedition through the northern mines, accompanied by his trusty body-servant Friday. It was usual in the mines, when one went a prospecting, for him to sling his blanket on his back, and, with his pick in one hand and his shovel in the other, creep slowly up and down the rivers, sleeping at night on a rock, and solacing his labour with a slice of salt pork and a bit of biscuit. If his journey were long, and he were able to afford the expense, he would sometimes aspire to the dignity of a mule to transport his tools and provisions, and perhaps himself; but it was reserved for Mowbray to introduce so magnificent an innovation. He returned in a few weeks with an account of a rich bar he had visited on the Yuba, where claims had been offered him at a price so monstrous that they must needs be of extraordinary value. Nothing, however, could be done till spring, and in the meantime he thought he should find the south of California or the Sandwich Islands a much more agreeable residence than the mines. He accordingly sold his house, his mules, his provisions,and everything else for which he could find a purchaser, and turned his back on the mines, I believe for ever. Overwhelming as was the contrast between the beginning and the end of his adventures, he would yet have been, if he had succeeded, even more remarkable, and almost the only one of his class. The respectable Busby's sarcastic depreciation of educated men found but too many striking instances in California. Of all with whom I became acquainted, I remember only one or two who were finally successful in mining; they either never made anything, or were sure to throw it away on some monstrous project that would never have occurred to any one else.
To return from this digression, which has led us several weeks in advance of our story. Our party was not the only one that had stumbled over the Virginia rocker. It had found its way into all parts of the mines; Capt. Fayreweather, at Coloma, though already provided with the most ingenious invention of his wary Nantucketer, had wasted time and money on this more pretentious novelty; and in our own neighbourhood several parties had discarded it, as we had done, after a longer or shorter trial.
A small company of Bostonians, who had pitched their tent just in front of our door, and afterwards assisted in working our machine, were among the most unfortunate. They, too, had been so happy as to make the acquaintance of the scientific miner; and it so happened, oddly enough, that their energy and intelligence had also excited his admiration. They had bought the machine, and in their anxiety to secure so invaluable a treasure, had actually paid for it in advance; and furthermore, sent one of their number on to Mormon Island to select a favourable spot for its operation. He remained at the island several weeks, boarding at an expense of three dollars a day, and when his companions arrived, led them triumphantly to the claim he had so vigilantly maintained. But as, unfortunately, he had not thoughtit necessary to make any comparative trial of its value, contenting himself with washing a few pansful a day in order to hold possession, the claim turned out to be good for nothing; while twenty others that had been subsequently appropriated were paying very handsome dividends. They continued, however, to work their machine for more than a month, but finally abandoned it, as we had done, though, as might have been expected, with yet greater reluctance.
A little incident that occurred while we were yet at work on the island, will admirably illustrate the strange vicissitudes of California adventure.
Three men who left home after we did, but had been in the mines long enough to make their piles, and were now returning, stopped a moment on their way to visit the island. While they stood observing our operations with complacent curiosity, a second party approached, among whom they recognised several of their acquaintance who had left home in the same ship with themselves, but had been delayed, they knew not how long, on the isthmus. They had, in fact, just arrived, and were now anxiously inquiring where they could find the best diggings. Their more fortunate associates, with a disinterested benevolence that did them infinite credit, gave them all the information in their power, and even described minutely the very spot where they themselves had taken out their thousands, whereby the others could not help being greatly comforted and encouraged.
As they turned away, "Ah," sighed Number Four, who, like myself, had dabbled a little in Spanish, "Ah, lo que es el mundo!" while Tertium hummed,