APPENDIX.

[From the Republic.]

Messrs. Editors: Some time last Spring, I published in the “Commercial Journal,” of Pittsburgh, some views on the subject of the California gold region, which have been confirmed by observations on the spot, published in the “Alta California,” and by accounts still more recent from that country.

In order to understand the views referred to, it is necessary, in the first place, to give a sketch of the geological features of the country. A valley of six hundred miles in length, and from fifty to a hundred in width, is formed by the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy range on the east, and by the coast range on the west. This valley is watered by two rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joachim; one rising due north, the other due south, and running towards each other; after uniting their waters they enter the bay of San Francisco, which partly bounds the western side of the valley. These rivers may be said to wash the base of the Sierra Nevada, their waters being supplied, almost exclusively, by streams which take their rise in that range of mountains. In this manner they form a continued line although coming from opposite directions, receiving the drainings and detritus brought down by the innumerable torrents which cut the sides of the Sierra. The alluvial and diluvial deposites are, therefore, almost exclusively on the eastern side; and this accounts, also, for the overflow of the river on that side. On looking at the map of Colonel Fremont, I was struck with the extraordinary number of these ravines. They look like so many streaks on the map, or, rather, lines drawn by artificial agency; but that agency is the sudden melting of the snows, and heavy rains of that climate. One cause of this great quantity of water discharged by the short mountain torrents, is the want ofsufficient elevation of the mountain, in that latitude, to retain the snows until they can melt gradually, as is the case of the Andes of Peru and Chili; and yet sufficiently elevated to receive a great depth of snow. This, when melted by the rains, rushes down with great force, carrying detritus along with it, and cutting through all the incumbent strata, until it reaches the level of the rivers, although still above the trap, or granite, which forms the nucleus of the mountain.

As this detritus is carried down, it becomes more and more disintegrated, until its further progress is arrested by the course of the rivers before mentioned, and is at last deposited in fine sand and gravel. The metallic threads are found, probably, not less than one-third of the way up the mountain; and if a shaft were sunk at the base of the mountain, it would have to go a depth before reaching the vein, corresponding with its present elevation above the original level. The metal, therefore, will only be found in these alluvial deposites, not beyond twenty or thirty feet in depth, formed in the course of time by the descending torrents. The nearer the river, and the farther from the seam, the finer will be the particles of gold; and the higher up the coarser, and less separated from the quartz in which it is detained. The most expensive part of mining, reducing the quartz to sand by stamping, the amalgation with quicksilver, and the separation of these by distillation, is thus saved, and the gold obtained with comparatively little expense. The stamping, or breaking up of the quartz, is performed by the natural agency of the water, and by the rocks falling upon each other in the course of their descent. Until these deposites shall be partially exhausted, although a much more precarious pursuit than regular mining, the latter will not be generally resorted to. There is no doubt, also, that others, with more perfect machines for washing and amalgamation, will follow those pioneers, and wash the same earth and sand over again, to as great profit as at the first operation. When I examined the lead mines of Missouri, I found that those who came after the regular smelters, took their scoria and leavings, and extracted, by means of the ash furnace, about twenty-five per cent., in addition to the fifty already obtained, but without the expense and uncertainty of mining, which rendered it a sort of gambling pursuit.

Having giving this brief description, I will now proceed to what may be called theory—that is,facts derived from induction. Let us suppose a series of horizontal strata, one above another, but of unequal depth, incumbent on the original unstratified mass, which forms the nucleus of the globe. According to geologists, this was the natural position. Now, in consequence of some powerful volcanic agency, the lower mass is thrown up from below, and becomes the nucleus of a mountain, and that which was before the lowest, now appears at the top, while the various strata which lay flat upon it are tilted up on its sides. These being cut through, in the manner described,there is exposed to view in these cuts, the various strata and their contents, in the same manner as if a shaft had been sunk through them in their horizontal position. If there be any metallic seams to the right or left of these cuts, they will be seen like threads, and running lengthwise with the range of mountains. The metals contained in the now vacant spaces of these ravines, have been carried away and deposited below. The masses, thus broken and separated, have been still further reduced in the manner before stated, greatly diminishing the labor of mining. The deposits of detritus intermixed with gold may be the work of thousands of years; but the quantity may be estimated by the number and width of the natural cuttings through the gold seams now disconnected. It is certain that the amount of gold at the bottom cannot exceed the amount carried down from these original deposites. Without assuming that the amount of gold deposited in the Sierra Nevada is actually greater than in the same range further south, its peculiar geological and geographical character, may be a reason why gold may befoundin California in greater abundance than in any other part of the world. It is found along this whole range from Sonora to Chili, although in greater or less abundance; and there is no doubt that a variety of other metals will be met with, perhaps as valuable, when the passion for gold washing shall have somewhat abated. It is remarkable that gold has been found almost invariably on the western or Pacific side of the great range, while silver, copper, and lead are discovered on the eastern side, and at a much greater elevation. It is probable that, instead of gold; silver and copper exist on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, towards the great Basin. What a field for the mineralogist!

But, by what process, or operation of nature, came these seams, or veins of gold or other metals, to be thus deposited? Was it by the agency of fire, or by water and alluvion? I think it probable that both may have been at work, being the two greatest solvents in nature, and, at the same time, the greatest chrystalizers. Perhaps metallicoresmay be the work of alluvion, and the production of puremetallicsubstances—that of heat. With respect to gold, I think the latter theory is the more reasonable, as it is always found in a pure state, while the quartz (or pure silex) in which it is contained may be alluvial, and one pf the earliest deposites from the decomposition of the ancient unstratified mass. But where shall we seek for the original supply of the precious metal? How is it formed, or whence has it been extracted by the agency of heat? It is not enough to say that, like other metals, it is found diffused throughout all nature, for an appreciable quantity of gold has been extracted from violets. In my opinion, it exists on the original unstratified mass, in imperceptible proportions; but those proportions varying a different places, other metals being more or less abundant. The greater proportion of our soils, according to Sir HumphreyDavy, is formed by the decomposition of the original granite; and this accounts for diffusion of gold in minute particles, which may be taken up by plants, and enter into the composition of organized bodies. If then, the unstratified rock is the original seat of the metal, but in particles infinitely minute, it may have been separated by a very high degree of heat, by which it would be sublimated or volatilized, and thus carried upwards by chemicoelectric force, by a process resembling distillation. In this way, it would penetrate the quartz rock, or be condensed in the spaces of the laminated strata, such as the talc, schist, or mica slate. Such is the theory of Trimmer, Buchland, and other modern mineralogists. Lyall says—“granite, syenite, and those porphyries, which have a granite form structure, in short all plutonic rocks (rocks having undergone the action of heat) are frequently observed to contain metals, at or near their junction with stratified formations. On the other hand, the veins which traverse stratified rocks are, as a genera] law, more metalliferous near such junctions, than in other portions. Hence it has been inferred that these metals may have been spread in agaseous form, through the fused mass, and that the contact of another rock, of a different state of temperature or sometimes the existence of rents in other rocks in the vicinity, may have caused the sublimation of the metals.”

One thing is certain, as may be at once seen by those who have examined the larger masses of gold brought from California, that the finer particles of gold have been run together, by a second operation of heat, sufficient only to fuse them and separate them from the quartz. The first was distillation, the second smelting, or rather simple fusion. It is possible that these great operations of nature have been repeated at different intervals, and different seams of quartz and gold, may be found in ascending the ravines; the lower, more completely scattered (but in finer particles) through the quartz, and the higher having afterwards undergone simple fusion.

I think it premature to offer any conjecture as to the amount of gold which may be expected from California; but I cannot but think that it will be sufficient to produce a perceptible effect on its commercial value. According to Mr.Prescott, the sudden influx of gold from Mexico and Peru reduced its value, as compared to commodities, about two-thirds in the course of twenty years. A new stimulus has been given to the pursuit of gold mining throughout the world, in consequence of the discoveries of our enterprising countrymen in California. The extraordinary increase of gold in the Bank of England may be an indication that its value is decreasing as compared to silver, and therefore less desirable for hoarding. It it certain that it is a less perfect standard of value than silver, the latter being also a scarce metal, compared to other metals, but a better representative than gold, of the labor and capital expended in its production, while gold has beenrepeatedly thrown into circulation in sudden and unlooked-for quantities, I would instance the amount of gold found in Calcutta on its capture by Clive—an amount, although imperfectly known, admitted to have been immense. We may expect that the gold mines of Siberia, of Brazil, of Mexico and Southern America, of the eastern and even western parts of Europe, Hungary, Transylvania, Silesia, of Spain, and even of Norway and Sweden, as well as of the Appalachian, in our southern States, will awaken new efforts of combined skill, labor, and capital.

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE.

THE EARLY DISCOVERIES OF THE SPANIARDS IN NEW MEXICO.

Messrs. Editors: One of the most difficult things I ever undertook has been to trace the different journeys of discovery of the Spaniards, in the country to which they gave the name of New Mexico; and it would have been impossible to have accomplished this undertaking, but for the assistance of that extraordinary and invaluable collection of maps and books on the subject of America, made with great expense and labor, by Mr. Force, of Washington. Of these difficulties no one can form a just idea who has not made the attempt. It may be proper to state, that the whole country, from the mountains east of the Rio Grande to the Pacific—from about 32° south to 37° north—in consequence of these discoveries, and on account of its great cities, and its numerous and civilized population, was called New Mexico in reference to old Mexico, as New Spain was named in reference to Old Spain. My principal source of information is the work of Gomara, and Hackluyt’s collection of voyages; but I was obliged to consult many other works.

In some of the oldest maps, the Colorado of California is called theRio Grande del Norte, and is represented as taking its rise in a great lake to the north east; while theRio Grande of the Gulf, or, as it was called, the North Sea, does not appear. It will be readily seen that this was sufficient to account for much of the confusion and mistakes of the early writers, and of the fruitless attempts to trace the early journeys of discovery.

The first journey was that of Marco de Nicia, a friar, accompanied by a small party. He set out from Pitatlan, on the Gulf of California, in latitude 24°, in the year 1539, about twelve years after the conquest. I shall not enter into details. After some days’ travel to the north, through populous countries, he came to Vacupa, where he first heard of populous countries to the north, of the province of Cibola, and of the seven great cities. After reaching, as he supposed, latitude 26°, he found Indians who had no knowledge of christians. He was then about fifty leagues from the Gulf of California. He was informed by these indians of a great plain, about thirty days’further travel to the north, inhabited by people living in large towns, built of stone and lime, who wore cotton garments, and possessing abundance of gold and turquoises, sometimes calledemeralds, from the affinity to that precious stone.

Advancing still further, he sent a negro and some indians to see and report to him on their return, while he followed them slowly. Some of these indians returned, and informed him that they had reached Cibola, but had been badly treated, and the negro killed. Nicia, on his return, wrote his account which is, in many respects, exaggerated and fabulous; it gave rise, however, to an expedition under Vasques de Coronado, in 1540. Coronado was greatly disappointed, and freely gives the lie to the accounts of Nicia. He went as far as the cities of Cibola, which he described as consisting of five small towns, of five hundred houses each, well-built of stone, He heard of populous provinces to the north, and of cities on a great salt lake, to the northwest, where there was an abundance of gold. The lake was probably the Pacific Ocean. It is remarkable that nearly all the tribes on the Atlantic slope had a vague notion of the Pacific, and supposed it to be at a short distance from them. He returned with the intention of making another expedition, but which he never accomplished. The towns which he saw, were, no doubt, near the Gila, and south of that river, while the great province of Cibola lay to the north between that river and the Colorado. The unfavorable report of Coronado, and the failure of Cortez in his northern explorations, had the effect, no doubt, of discouraging further discoveries in this direction.

No further attempts were made to explore the country for nearly forty years. In the mean time, the Spanish settlements had advanced from Guadelahara to New Biscay, and the valley of St. Bartholomew, or Chiwawa. In the year 1583, a well prepared exploring expedition was set on foot, under the command of Antonio de Espejo. It proceeded north to the Conchas and Pasaguetas, numerous tribes, who had no previous knowledge of the christians. Their course was along the Conchas.

They followed the river to the Tobosos and Jumanos, where they found large towns, with flat roofs, built of stone and lime, and regularly laid out in streets. They now reached theRio Grande of the Gulf of Mexico—here is a point of departure about which there can be no mistake. They proceeded about twelve days up the river, and came to another great nation. The inhabitants wore mantles of cotton with blue stripes, of handsome fabric. I have no doubt this was the presentPaso del Norte. After leaving this, they travelled fifteen days up the river, through a country not admitting of population, and this is its present character, until they came to what may be called the valley of Santa Fe. They found towns with houses four and five stories high, warmed by stoves, and ladders to ascend from one story tothe other. They proceeded thence to Tiguasi, where they found sixteen towns. Here they learned that the eastern part of Cibola bordered on this province, the western border of which had been visited by Coronado. They speak of eleven other towns containing forty thousand inhabitants. Whether they meant families (vicinos) orsouls, I am unable to say. They proceeded up the Rio Grande to Cia, or Zia, the largest town they had seen, containing twenty thousand inhabitants and eight market-houses. The houses were plastered and handsomely painted, and the people civilized. At this place, hearing of a great province to the northwest, they took that direction. They heard of seven large towns, but did not go to see them. Fifteen leagues further, still going west, they came to a great town called Acoma, situated on a high rock, accessible only by a way cut in the rock. The inhabitants were supplied with water by cisterns. Twenty-four leagues further, they came to the province of Zuni, called by the Spaniards Cibola, where the inhabitants had information of the visit of Coronado. They were informed that, at the distance of eighty leagues, there was a great lake, many large towns, and plenty of gold—probably California. The main party now returned towards the Rio Grande, while Espejo and nine companions went further west. After travelling twenty-eight leagues, they found a great province, containing fifty thousand inhabitants, called Zaguato. They heard much of the cities of the Great Salt Lake, the Pacific and their wealth, gold, &c. Espejo made an excursion of forty five leagues to the northwest, where it was said there were silver mines, and which he found very rich. This was near two rivers ofreasonablesize, probably the Colorado and the Jaguisita. I am satisfied that the country thus explored lay between the Gila and the Colorado.

On the return of Espejo, the main party determined to return to New Biscay, or Chiwawa, but he resolved to ascend higher up the river. The only mention of degrees of latitude is on one occasion, when they speak of having reached the 37th degree; but this was probably mere guess-work.

Espejo now ascended the river sixty leagues to Quires; thence, going east, he came to Hubites, containing twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and he heard of the Tamas, containing forty thousand. Whether these were towns or provinces is not stated. All the places visited had gold, and turquoises, and manufactured fine cotton cloths. The myriads of buffalo, or crooked backed oxen, which covered the whole face of the country were mistaken for domestic herds; no country on the globe was ever so abundantly supplied with the means of subsistence through this animal, as were the aborigines of the interior of North America. So that particular districts might be most thickly populated, while vast unoccupied regions lay around them, swarming with the buffalo, or rather the bison, which is the true name of that animal. Their skins were elegantly dressed by them; and, for thefiner kinds, the mountain sheep, or goat, or chamois, as the Spaniards called it, furnished an abundant supply. Espejo resolved to return by a different course, and was conducted by the Indians down theRio de las Vacas, which he followed 120 leagues, meeting with no inhabitants, but vast numbers ofcattle. But without seeing any habitations, the herdsmen appearing to live among their herds. The use of fire-arms has no doubt rendered them more shy, and at one time they literally blackened the face of the western prairies. Their range was limited both to the south and north. He then struck across to the Rio Grande, and came to the Conchas, by which he returned to New Biscay. The Rio de las Vacas is evidently the Rio Puerco, or Pecos. Here closes the expedition. Having the point of departure fixed, and at the same time the point of termination equally ascertained, I think the whole mystery of these expeditions has been cleared up.

The question will naturally present itself, what has become of the millions of civilized people who occupied New Mexico? I will ask, what has become of the millions of Yucatan, of Chiapas, and of Old Mexico? The reduction to slavery, their wars, and other causes, are not sufficient to account for the disappearance of the great nations of the west, or of the Atlantic slope. In looking for a cause, I have found one fully adequate, in that horrid plague and scourge, the small-pox. Let any one read the accounts of McKenzie, Carver, and Catlin, and I think he will seek no further for it. To the indian it is peculiarly fatal, not only from his want of skill in treating it, but from his physical organization; his skin is so remarkably thick that the pustules cannot break through it, and the disease is almost always fatal. When among the Arikaras, I was informed by them that they were but the remnant of seventeen towns lower down the river, and I traced their former abode for seven miles. The Arikaras and Mandans have since disappeared from the earth. After the greater part had been carried off by the small-pox, the survivors abandoned these towns and fled, covering their trails as they went, as if pursued by an enemy; but that mortal foe still followed them to annihilation. I have not been able to find any account of the nations of New Mexico from the year 1583 until 1698; and it is perhaps during that interval, that the rapid destruction of the American tribes and nations took place, while there was no one to record the desolation of the provinces of Cibola, or the country of the Buffaloe, which is the meaning of the word. The ruins, of cities on the Gila, and between it and the Colorado, remain to prove the fact that they once existed. Yet, there are some remnants of their former civilization in the Nabahoes, and the Pumas one on the Gila, the other on the heads of the Colorado, who still live in well-built houses, and manufacture their beautiful blankets. The suggestion I have made might be extended to the old world, and its ruined cities of Asia and Africa.

The only recent account of the country between the Gila and the Colorado which I have been able to meet with, is in Pattie’s Narrative, a hunter of Kentucky, who trapped on the Gila and Colorado twenty-five years ago, whose journal is done into readable English by the geographer, Flint. Pattie saw many of these ruins; saw much fine land heavily timbered; and by the friendship of the Nabahoes, was directed through a pass at the head of the Colorado which carried him to the Platt of the Missouri. This is, possibly, the pass sought for by Colonel Fremont. Pattie went through it in May; if it was bad then, what must it have been in the depth of winter! I am of opinion, that between 32° and 37° there is sufficient land to make two States, without going east of the Rio Grande del Norte. Yet, it was but partially seen by Pattie. It appears to be a mountainous country, well watered, and no doubt abounding in minerals, and having many rich valleys adapted to cultivation. The Colorado is a fine river, navigable eight hundred or a thousand miles with steamboats, unless there be obstructions that we do not know of. In extent, it is equal to Pennsylvania or Virginia. It will not be long before it will be thoroughly explored by our countrymen. Pattie says that it contains numerous bands of the most savage and ferocious Indians, armed with bows and arrows pointed with flint, who have had no intercourse or knowledge of the whites. He says that the country in some respects reminded him of parts of Kentucky, his native State.

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE.

DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS BY SMALL-POX.

I could bring together numerous separate accounts of the fatal ravages of this disease among the Indians in different portions of the continent. Bernal Dias,incidentallymentions, that it carried off amillionshortly after the conquest, but how many more we are not told. The disease, no doubt, appeared at different intervals. A sermon by a New England divine, (in the collection of Mr. Force) of 1621, mentions that not more than one in twenty of the natives then remained, the rest having been carried off by the small-pox. In a Jesuit account which I found in the same collection, it appears that it broke out among the Indians in Chiwawa in 1617, and carried off whole tribes of Indians. There was no escape from it, for as long as two remained together the contagion might be there; it was, therefore, more fatal than an atmospheric epidemic, which might be checked by change of place or season. The Indian fled from his village or town, and never returned to it; he never dared to approach it afterwards, believing it to be haunted by evil spirits. In many places, this superstitious dread prevails to this day.

McKenzie gives the following account of the destruction of the Knistenewand Chippowyen tribes in 1780: “This was the small pox which spread its destructive and desolating power, as the fire consumes the dry grass of the field. The fatal infection spread round with a baneful rapidity which no flight could escape, and with a fatal effect that nothing could resist. It destroyed with its pestilential breath whole families and tribes; and the horrid scene presented to those who had the melancholy and afflicting opportunity of beholding it, a combination of the dead, the dying, and such, as to avoid the horrid fate their friends around them, prepared to disappoint the plague of its prey, by terminating their own existence.

“The habits and lives of those devoted people, which provided not to-day for the wants of to-morrow, must have heightened the pains of such an affliction, by leaving them not only without remedy; but even without alleviation. Nought was left to those but to submit in agony and despair.”

“To aggravate the picture, if aggravation were possible, may be added, the putrid carcasses which the wolves, with a furious voracity, dragged from the huts, or which were mangled within them by the dogs, whose hunger was satisfied with the disfigured remains of their masters. Nor was it uncommon for the father of a family whom the infection had not reached, to call them around him, to represent the cruel sufferings and horrid fate of their relations, from the influence of some evil spirit who was preparing to exterpate their race, and to invite them to baffle death with all its horrors, by their own poignards. At the same time, if their hearts failed them in this necessary act, he was himself ready to perform the deed of mercy with his own hand, as the last act of his affection; and instantly follow them to the common place of rest and repose from human evil.

“It was never satisfactorily ascertained by what means this malignant disorder was introduced, but it was generally supposed to be from Missouri by a war party.”

Transcriber’s Notes:This might be the Spice Islands.Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.Typographical errors were silently corrected.Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book.

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