LONG WHARF—CLIPPER SHIPS—CHINESE EMIGRANTS—THE MAY FIRE—AN EXCITING SCENE—IRON HOUSES—VALLEJO—THE COYOTE—WILD GEESE.May, 1851.TheCentral Wharf of San Francisco, which is nearly a mile in length, is for some distance occupied on either side by Jew slopsellers; and, as these indefatigable gentlemen insist all over the world upon exposing their wares outside their shops, the first glance down Central Wharf impresses you with the idea that the inhabitants of the district have hung their clothes out to dry after a shower of rain. Scattered among the Jew shops are markets for vegetables and poultry, fishmongers, candy-sellers, (the Long Wharfers are very fond of sugar-plums), gambling-houses of the worst repute, and drinking-shops innumerable. Being narrow and crowded, and full of loaded drays, drunken sailors, empty packing-cases, run-away horses, rotten cabbages, excited steam-boat runners, stinking fish,Chinese porters, gaping strangers, and large holes in the planks, through which you may perceive the water, it is best to be careful in walking down Long Wharf, and to turn neither to the right nor to the left.This busy street terminates at the city front; and from thence the wharf, which extends for half a mile into the sea, is flanked on either side by ships discharging their cargoes with great order and rapidity.Here may be seen a fleet of those clippers to which the Californian trade gave rise. The “Queen of the Clippersâ€� is one of the finest and largest of these ships, and is a beautiful model; she is extremely sharp at either end, and, “bows on,â€� she has the appearance of a wedge. Her accommodations are as perfect as those of a first-class ocean steamer, and are as handsomely decorated; and, as it is worthy of remark that great attention has been paid to the comfort of the crew, the sooner some of our shipowners copy that part of her construction the better. Nor should they overlook any longer that the Americans have long economised in ship labour very materially by the use of patent blocks, patent trusses, and more particularly in patent steering-gear.It gives cause for reflection to observe how on board these mammoth clippers, one man, comfortablyprotected from the weather by a wheel-house, can steer the ship with ease in any weather, and to recall recollections of big English ships beating up against the monsoon, with three and even four men at the helm, tugging to get it up, or pulley-hauling to get it down, exposed on the deck in heavy sou’-westers and painted canvass frocks, while their faces are cut to pieces by the salt spray that the wind sends drifting along the deck. Yet comparatively few of our merchant vessel owners have availed themselves of these improvements. Scotland, as far as we are concerned, has most distinguished herself in the production of clippers, and the small class, similar to the “Marco Poloâ€� and “Stornawayâ€� stand first as specimens of mercantile naval architecture.The building of clippers, if not originated by, was encouraged by the discovery of gold in California, for the valuable market that was so shortly afterwards opened to the United States afforded a field for the employment of ships that could perform a journey round the Horn in a space of time that would enable them to land a cargo, not only clean and in good order, but with a certain degree of regularity as regarded time. The ships that have sailed from English ports for San Francisco have been selected from a particularly inferior class of tubs, principallyfrom the erroneous supposition that anything was good enough for the diggings. Then observe the mistake! The expensive dashing clipper leaves New York, and, after a three months’ passage, lands her cargo clean and dry in San Francisco (where the sale of packages depends very much on their outward as well as internal appearance); the English ship, which false economy has picked from about the worst in dock, after a passage of from eight to ten months, arrives in San Francisco, withhercargo. The market has not only gone by for the articles she brings, but these, from long confinement, and her unseaworthy qualities, are landed in such an unprepossessing state as to be almost unsaleable. Nor is this all—the clipper ship having discharged, sails for China, and takes home the first teas at a high rate of freight, discharges at London, and returns again to New York, full; having accomplished a rapid voyage round the world, and, in all probability, cleared a large portion of her first cost in her first voyage. But our English clunbungy can find no cargo to take home from San Francisco, there being no export; she knows better than to present herself in China as a candidate for teas, there is little chance of her getting guano, so she either goes home empty at a great expense, or, as is more often the case, is knocked down by auction forless than her value, and is converted into a floating store-ship.[8]It was said, I remember, when these clippers first attracted attention, and before Australia had been found to be auriferous, that we had no field for the employment of such vessels, and that our own “A 1 for thirteen-yearâ€� ships were better adapted for our trade; that they were stronger and morelasting. Where we enjoy a monopoly of ship-transport, as for many years in some places we have done, the argument of “let well aloneâ€� is excellently prudent.That our vessels are strong no one will deny who ever saw a teak-built ship with her heavy beams and prodigious wooden knees; that they arelastingfollows as a matter of course, but this very qualification is at this moment our drawback to improvement. We are something like a man who has determined not to get a suit of clothes adapted for the dog-days until he has worn out his old winter garments, and has been unfortunate enough to have had these made of that imperishable article known as corduroy.It is plain enough that we shall have comparatively few clipper ships until our enormous mercantile navy is worn out; and all we have now to regret is the stubbornness of that heart of oakwhose durability we have been wont to laud in speech and song. In the meantime, unless Aberdeen and other ports work cheerily, the Californian clippers will bid for the carriage of the teas, and take the bread literally from between our teeth; and, what is still more galling, the Yankee clippers will take our Australian trade, if they have not already done so. We have a bold competitor on the waters now, and I regret to see that almost at the moment that the projected Panama and Sydney steam-line is withdrawn for want ofgovernment support, measures are being taken by the American government to connect San Francisco and China, and thus complete the first steam communication round the world; whilst the “Sovereign of the Seasâ€� and “Golden Ageâ€� are conveying our emigrants from Liverpool to Australia. On the other hand, the spirit of speculation in building clipper ships in America has been so far overdone as to cause many of them to be too hastily “run up,â€� and a few of these have arrived in San Francisco, and in London, much strained and with damaged cargoes.* * * *The Chinese have emigrated to California in great numbers. Those in San Francisco are mostly engaged in mercantile pursuits, and supply their countrymenat the mines with necessaries. There has been great outcry in the gold regions here respecting the rapidly-increasing numbers of the Chinese miners, and it was proposed forcibly to stop their immigration; it was argued, rather dog-in-the-mangerly, that they collected vast quantities of gold from the soil that of right belonged to the Americans only, and that they carried their gold-dust to their own country to spend. The last objection had some justice in it, for undoubtedly it is contrary to the spirit of a young colony to encourage the immigration of a class of people who bring their own rice with them, and impoverish the auriferous soil without leaving a “piceâ€� behind them for the permanent improvement of the country.I believe there are few men who have been thrown much among the Chinese who believe that many honest ones can be found among them; old Whampoa of Singapore, who gives champagne dinners in a most orthodox manner, may be one; but I confess, for my part, that from the Emperor down to the fellow in the blue shirt who begs in Piccadilly, and looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, I don’t believe in them. They are a people whose natural propensities lead them to cheat, and whose natural cunning aids this object most materially.A short time ago it was discovered that a clique existed in San Francisco composed of a few of the wealthiest Chinese, and that these self-constituted mandarins exercised so much influence over the Chinese population of the country as to subject them to fines and bastinado, and they even went to the length of shipping some of them back to their own country; this, however, having been brought to light by the police, was temporarily checked, as these punishments were applied only for the purpose of extortion.The Chinese themselves are so used to this kind of despotic rule that they made no effort to resist it even when it was assumed by those not in authority; but they behaved better under the infliction of fines than they would otherwise have done, and indeed I am puzzled to know what such a race would become, with their natural cunning, under a freer government than that they enjoy.* * * *On the 3rd of May, at eleven in the evening, the fire-bell again startled us; but on this occasion the first glance at the lurid glare and heavy mass of smoke that rolled towards the bay evidenced that the fire had already a firm grip on the city. The wind was unusually high, and the flames spread in a broad sheet over the town. All efforts to arrest them wereuseless; houses were blown up and torn down in attempts to cut off communication; but the engines were driven back step by step, while some of the brave firemen fell victims to their determined opposition. As the wind increased to a gale, the fire became beyond control; the brick buildings in Montgomery Street crumbled before it; and before it was arrested, over one thousand houses, many of which were filled with merchandise, were left in ashes. Many lives were lost, and the amount of property destroyed was estimated at two millions and a half sterling.No conception can be formed of the grandeur of the scene; for at one time the burning district was covered by one vast sheet of flame that extended half a mile in length. But when the excitement of such a night as this has passed by, one scarcely can recall the scene. The memory is confused in the recollection of the shouts of the excited populace—the crash of falling timbers—the yells of the burnt and injured—the clank of the fire-brakes—the hoarse orders delivered through speaking-trumpets—maddened horses released from burning livery-stables plunging through the streets—helpless patients being carried from some hospital, and dying on the spot, as the swaying crowd, forced back by the flames, tramples all before it—explosions of houses blown up by gunpowder—showers of burning splinters that fall around on every side—the thunder of brick buildings as they fall into a heap of ruin—and the blinding glare of ignited spirits. Amidst heat that scorches, let you go where you will—smoke that strikes the eyes as if they had been pricked by needles—water that, thrown off the heated walls, falls on you in a shower of scalding steam—you throw your coat away and help to work the engine-brakes, as calls are made for more men.At daylight you plod home, half-blind, half-drowned, half-scorched, half-stunned, and quite bewildered; and from that time you never care to recall one half of the horrors you have witnessed on the night of the conflagration of the 3rd of May.The Dramatic Museum was “burnt outâ€� on this occasion; and about the same time the ship I had awaited arrived. I had expected to receive an iron house in her, but as this tenement (which I had taken great pains to have constructed in England) was landed in the shape of several bundles of bent and rusty iron plates, and irrecognisable rotten planks, I deserted the property, and allowed the owners of the wharf to throw it overboard, which they eventually did after six months’ reflection.Iron houses under most circumstances are a failure, and I write from experience in the matter. I havesat in churches made of iron, and have been glad to get out of them for that reason. I have thrown down my billiard-cue in disgust in iron club-houses, have paid my bill incontinently and left iron hotels, and have lived in misery in an iron shooting-box of my own, which was supposed to bevery complete.I could live comfortably at all times in my little log hut at the “farmâ€� but never could I endure myself inside my iron house. When the sun shone it was too hot; as night advanced it cooled too suddenly, and at daylight I shivered. When it was too warm the hot iron, with its anti-corrosive paint, emitted a sickening smell; and when the rain came down on the roof it sounded like a shower of small shot.[9]I lined it with wood throughout, that is to say, I built awooden houseinside my iron one, and then it was only bearable. But it would have been cheaper, it seemed to me, to have built the wooden house first, and then have put the iron on if it was wanted, which it was not.In this age, when so many of our countrymen are emigrating, it becomes almost the duty of a traveller to recount any experience that may tend to the benefit of those who go after him; and therefore I trust thatin remarks similar to the foregoing, which may or may not affect a peculiar branch of trade, I may be exonerated from any other intention than that of benefiting others by my experience. I have seen so many metal and wooden houses thrown away (I have seen in one heap of rubbish the value of ten thousand pounds), that I would recommend to the emigrant of moderate means not to purchase either the one or the other. If new gold fields are discovered, as most probably they will be, and reports are rife of house room commanding enormous prices there, never for all that let him take his shell out, snail-like, on his back; let him take the money that would buy the house—the cash will be the scarcest article there, and will find him house-room and a profit too. Perhaps nowhere has my argument been better proved than in California. Large numbers of iron houses were shipped to that country when first reports arrived of the scarcity of building materials. Had they been capable of resisting fire they would perhaps have been less generally condemned, but of those that were erected, not only did the thin corrugated houses first expand and then collapse, and tumble down with astonishing rapidity before the flames, but in the fire I have just recorded the American iron house of Taeffe and M’Cahill, of which the plates were nearlyan inch in thickness, and the castings of apparently unnecessary weight, collapsed like a preserved-meat can, and destroyed six persons, who, believing it to be fire-proof, remained inside. And, in connection with this subject, it is worthy of mention that when these houses arrived in California there was no one to be found who could put them together; not but that the method is very simple, but simple things, as we all know, present great difficulties at times in their solution.A friend of mine employed a man for a long time at four pounds a day, merely to superintend the erection of an iron hotel; it was completed at last, and, although it had a somewhat lopsided appearance it looked pretty well under the influence of light-green paint; but the fire came and it “caved in,â€� as the Americans say.This discussion on iron buildings would have found no place here, had not these cheerless tenements been connected with a speculation into which I was at this time induced to enter: nor would the speculation have been alluded to, particularly as it turned out a failure, were it not again inseparably connected with a peculiar feature of the country.It appeared that the state was looking about at this time for a site on which to erect a capital, where,free from the busy hum of men, the representatives of the people might meet and do their country’s work. Upon the condition that General Vallejo would expend a large amount in the erection of public buildings, a part of this gentleman’s property was selected by the then Governor as the “seat of government,â€� and upon that, a few scrubby-looking hills that bordered on the bay, were surveyed and staked off, and there was your town of “Vallejo.â€�About this time a store-ship, laden with iron houses, belonging to a friend of mine, sunk at her moorings during a heavy gale. When raised she was so full of mud, clay, and small crabs that there was no possibility of rendering her cargo fit for sale at San Francisco. The bright idea occurred to me of landing these muddy materials at Vallejo, and, after allowing the tide to clean them, to convert them to some use in assisting to erect this capital that was to be “made to order.â€� Landing my cargo on Vallejo beach at low water mark, Canute-like, I ordered the tide to complete the very dirty work I had set before it, which it did, and, to finish the story here, in the course of six months I erected a very handsome hotel out of the materials. I felt rather pleased when it was finished, and painted, and handsomely furnished, to think what a butterfly I had turned out of thevery dirty grub I had found in the hold of the old hulk. But the moral of the story lies in the fact that at this juncture the government altered their minds relative to the site of the capital, and selected Benicia in preference.The city “made to orderâ€� was then pulled down and sold for old materials, to the great delight, as may be imagined, of myself and the other speculators who had worked so assiduously to raise it, and who had received no compensation. It is quite like the story of the Enchanted City, that was up one day and down the next; but somehow I don’t find so much pleasure in recalling the history of Vallejo as I did as a boy in reading the fairy tale.The hills of Vallejo are destitute of game, but abound in coyotes, who lead a predatory life, not altogether, I suspect, free from care or anxiety, as, excepting in the calving season, they are dependent for food on the chance carcase of some poor mired bull or over-driven mule; and, as these casualties are not of very frequent occurrence, I feel satisfied that hunger and the coyote know each other. And indeed he has, in a great measure, himself alone to blame that his stomach is always either too empty or too full; for this fellow, when he gets a meal, raises such a hue and cry in the dead of night aseffectually warns all savoury animals to avoid his presence.In the calving season the coyotes are in clover, and the little veals fall an easy prey to a pack of these nocturnal robbers. In winter, when the wild geese cover the hills, I doubt if the coyote gains much permanent benefit, judging from the fact that I have seldom found feathers. The geese encamp in vast armies, and at times perhaps outlying picquets and sentries asleep on their post get cut off by the enemy; but the wild goose, fool as he may be, has just so much keen relish for a good joke as to allow the coyote to reach a point where expectation has resolved itself into certainty, and then the goose decamps, harassed undoubtedly, but whole in body. The coyote has more of the dog than the fox in his composition, and is a bungling poacher at any time; one feature alone of his character proves this, inasmuch that, when suddenly disturbed, he runs but a few yards, then stops, turns round and looks at you. A Norfolk poaching lurcher knows better than that,hewould never turn his face to you for fear you shouldidentify him, at least so Barnes tells me, and he ought to know; but the most satisfactory proof that the coyote is a weak forager exists in the conclusive fact that you seldom shoot one that has anything in his stomach.As, therefore, there was no employment for my rifle at Benicia, I was thrown on my resources for amusement. Fortune again favoured me; fortune, by the way, always has favoured me when I have been in pursuit of amusement, but she snubs me amazingly whenever my designs are in the least degree mercenary, which leads me to infer that that divinity is of rather a jovial disposition than otherwise.In one day’s search I secured two horses, one gig, three well-formed Australian kangaroo dogs, and three blood-hound whelps, just arrived from Hobart Town; these being shipped in a small schooner, in company with my iron shooting box, I started for San Luis, and called on Ramsey, who had probably forgotten me. I urged him at once to come and be a Vallejo-ite; he demurred at first, but, alas, we are all mortal; pointing with one hand to his buckskins and hunting saddle, rotting from disuse, with the other I directed his attention to my greyhounds, then I uttered one word, “coyotes,â€� and Ramsey struck his flag in passive submission to his destiny—and followed me.CHAPTER XI.COYOTE HUNTING—MY DOMINIONS ARE INVADED—THOMAS KILLS A BEAR—A TRIAL OF STRENGTH—ROWE’S “LOTâ€�—CHOCTAW ELK—A BUTCHERY—ROUGH LIFE—FERTILITY OF THE SOIL.June, 1851.Ourfirst duty, on arriving at Vallejo, was to erect a temporary shanty, and before we had been long there the materials for about fifty houses were scattered over the ground by various speculators. Ramsey laid the foundation of a small village on his own account, and built a dwelling-house, a livery stable, and another grog-shop, in which his champagne and tin pannikins were soon rattling away, as of old, to the sound of the fiddle.As soon as I had erected the iron house, to which I have already alluded in terms of bitterness, we tried the projected coyote hunt. I had two horses; one was an old grey “Texian Ranger,â€� who had seen so much hard service that, when once adrift, he was neither to be caught with chaff or the best of oats, but had to be lassoed and dragged home bymain force; once assured, by means of spurs, and bottles of water broken on his head when he reared, and sticks broken on his side when he buck-jumped, that he was “bound to go,â€� as they say here, “the Old Soldierâ€� (for so I named him) proved an animal of great speed and endurance, and afterwards performed his eighty miles in a day with me without flinching. The other was a handsome bay that I had bought from a retiring watchmaker, and he retained the name his last master had bestowed in honour of his shop, “Main Spring.â€�My Australian Kangaroo dogs were a cross between the bull-dog or bull-mastiff and the greyhound; like the generality of cross-bred greyhounds, they differed only from the thoroughbreds in increased size, muscle, and breadth of chest; they ran of course from sight, but were not devoid of nose.Of the three I had procured but two proved of any value, Tiger and Bevis, and these I coupled for an experimental hunt. I trust I may be excused from the charge of egotism in thus mentioning these animals in detail; they were my companions up to the very day I left the country; and being associated with the adventures I am sketching they will appear in my narrative from time to time. With all his faults I owe a debt of gratitude to the “Old Soldier.â€�Stealing quietly away to the surrounding hills, with Ramsey on the “Old Soldier,â€� we soon found a coyote, and I slipped the dogs; he made a straight run, but there was no chance for him, and in less than five hundred yards he was caught and worried without a fight, and I whipped the dogs off. I was disappointed; I had hoped that the coyote would not only run well, but would make some kind of stand at the finish; but we found him invariably devoid of any pluck. Some that we afterwards saw would make an excellent start and then turn round and attempt to fraternise with the dogs, and these, after a time, began to recognise something of the nature of the cur in this conduct, and, after rolling the coyote over, would turn back without injuring him.[10]So that our coursing was deferred until we reached the hare country, where the dogs showed to better advantage, and generally killed, the hare of the country being rather a fool than otherwise.It became necessary now for me to return to Russian River, and, as Ramsey and a Mr. Bottomly were anxious to accompany me, we made up a four-in-hand out of a pair of Ramsey’s horses and mine, and, throwing our blankets into the old waggon thatconstituted our drag, we put Tiger and Bevis inside to save their feet, and started.We arrived without accident at the river, and I found that now the rains were over, settlers were flocking in from all sides. The river was still very high owing to the melting snow at its source; and when the waggon floated for a minute or two as we crossed the centre of the ford, and then filled to my companions’ knees, they evidently viewed with great interest this, to them, novel feature in “tooling a four in hand.â€�The sun was intensely hot, and when we had reached the opposite bank of the river, we pulled up in the shade to dine, the provisions having been secured against all injury in crossing the river. Ramsey insisted on drinking an immense quantity of the river, which, however, he qualified with brandy; and after having in consequence expended a large amount of second-hand poetry on the surrounding scenery, nothing would please him but he must alter the tails of his two Canadian switch tail ponies, to make them match with those of Mainspring and the Old Soldier, which were banged. I remonstrated with him on the folly of spoiling two valuable animals, whose chief beauty consisted in their manes and tails, but he would do it; and having cut onetail about a foot shorter than the other with a blunt table knife, he left them pretty objects. Imagine my disgust when the fellow remarked, after gravely contemplating them, “Sh’no consequence, s’hey don’t b’long to me.â€� I got into trouble about them afterwards, as will be seen.In the cool of the evening we arrived at the farm, where I found everybody well, and glad to see me back. As I had foreseen, settlers were beginning even to invademydominions, and not only was the romance of the place destroyed, but the game was retiring very rapidly, and it required a long day’s walk to find venison. This of itself would have determined me to leave the valley, but other causes hastened my decision—firstly,the onions were a failure; they had come up, but the ground squirrels had proved so numerous as to destroy all vestige of the young plants; secondly, I had on one occasion disclosed at March’s not only that I wasnota naturalised American, but that I had no intention of bringing myself into contempt by deserting my own country from interested motives, as too many I regret to say have done. This had become known among the crowd of settlers that were now hunting for pre-emption claims; they also knew, as of course there were a few Philadelphia lawyers among them, that asan alien I had no right to the valley. Some of them called upon me to tell me so, but these left however quicker than they came. Under all the circumstances, and particularly as I never could have resided among such a set as were now “locatingâ€� themselves about the place, I made a virtue of necessity, and gave the farm as it stood (excepting the cattle and my books and shooting materials) to one of the backwoodsmen I had known there for some time.During this last visit to the old place, however, we enjoyed ourselves; the green peas had arrived at perfection, and the young fawns were excellent substitutes for lamb. Tiger and Bevis afforded us some coursing, and Ramsey found out for the first time in his life what it was to stand knee deep in a running stream and wash a flannel shirt without soap.Whilst we were absent one night on an excursion, Thomas, who remained at home, distinguished himself by shooting a valuable milch cow, that had been brought up by one of the new settlers, and which, having strayed near the house, he mistook in the dark for a wild bull or a bear. When we returned in the morning, Thomas, in great trepidation, had just completed burying the carcase near the house, and we were still laughing over the matter, when a tall settler appeared amongst us and inquired if we hadseen “e’er a cow,â€� to which Thomas, knowing that the settler had followed his cow’s trail, fortunately replied in the affirmative, and suggested a distant hill as a celebrated rendezvous for strayed cows in general, on account of the fine quality of its spring water; thither the settler wended his way, after satisfying himself with a few rapid and suspicious glances that we had venison hanging about instead of beef, and that no symptom of cow was stamped about the place. As he turned once more to call three wiry-looking, gamboge-coloured curs, that he had brought with him, and which had been sniffing about, I observed with horror that the brutes were on the cow’s grave, scratching away bravely—“Seize them, Tiger! At them, Prince! Bevis!â€� and these disturbers of the dead flew for their lives, and as I called the dogs off, evidenced no disposition to return, although my brave defenders immediately had a battle royal over the dainty morsel which had thus been brought to light.I have already alluded to Barnes’s physical strength; in Norfolk he was always an expert axeman, even with the stupid broad-headed Flemish axe, that we still adhere to in England, but his six months’ training at the farm with the American axe had so improved on his former strike and natural powers ofendurance, that he was induced one night to boast of his prowess whilst in company with some backwoodsmen at March’s shanty. It had already been proved that no one of the party was a match for him, as I had given him permission to fell for March’s saw-mill in his leisure hours, (at which work I may mention he often made his thirty shillings a day,) March therefore undertook to bring a man called Alexander, to take “the shine out of Barnes,â€� and during our stay this man arrived. He was a Hercules in muscle though spare, and when, a tree having been selected, the men “stripped for workâ€� asBell’s Lifewould say, there was little to choose between them in appearance, though I thought I saw an advantage on Barnes’s side in point of loins. To me it is delightful to witness a fair trial of skill and dexterity between two picked athletæ, where, as in this instance, the pleasure is unalloyed by any brutal exhibition of inflicted punishment. Our party and that of the Americans were equally excited, but no bets were made, and there was no boastful confidence in the issue on either side. I have mentioned elsewhere that the red-wood tree retains in its growth sometimes so perfect a perpendicular that it may be cut round its centre, and yet remains erect on a calm day, supported but by a few inches of the heart. Atree having therefore been selected of about eight feet diameter, as nearly as I can recollect, the men were placed on either side, and a few straight lines for their guidance having been chalked on the bark, they commenced work, the man on whose side the tree fell, to be declared the winner, as he of course would have cut the deepest. For the first part of the day the champions worked manfully stroke for stroke, and the issue seemed to the last doubtful, but at length the strokes became weaker and slower, and then Barnes seemed to have kept something back for the finish, for after a few vigorous drives, the huge tree fell over on his side, and came thundering to the ground. It was a touch and go victory; and caused no ill feeling; but Barnes on returning home was very unwell from over exertion, and during the night he wandered in his head; the next day, however, he was quite well; but the “shineâ€� was taken out of him although he won.I bade farewell to the little valley before its charms had so palled upon me by use as to render me indifferent to its possession, but its great charm of seclusion that first bound me to it was lost, and in my eyes it was as much “cut upâ€� by the presence of fresh settlers, as is your country villa, sir, when a rushing railway, marking out its track directly throughyour favourite clump of weeping willows, sends its hot cinders on to the very lawn in front of you; but you were compensated for your villa being smoke-begrimed, and sold it, moreover, on good terms to Styles, who likes living near a railway, and being hourly reminded that his country is making “giant strides,â€� whilst I, equally a victim to the march of improvement, walked out without any other reflection than that I had gone to a great deal of trouble for the sole benefit of an utter stranger.We arrived at Vallejo without accident. The appearance of the tailless Canadian horses brought forward their indignant owner, who demanded of me, as conductor of the expedition, an exorbitant sum, which I of course refused to pay, upon which he went to law; and about the time that the hotel was completed, an execution was put on it by the sheriff for the amount claimed for two horses’ tails that I never touched.We had very little sport at Vallejo; a few wild-fowl hung about the marshes, but were very hard to secure; snipe and curlew also were tolerably plentiful; but the sun was hot, and the yellow treeless hills dazzled the eyes too much for shooting. Our guns therefore were shelved for the present; but I found another source of amusement by fortunately makingthe acquaintance of a young Englishman of the name of Rowe.Rowe was a surveying engineer of good ability, and had, previous to leaving England, scarified that country to a considerable extent in the shape of tunnels and cuttings on railways. His present business in Vallejo consisted in surveying and laying out the plan of that city, which having completed, he was now transferring to a gorgeous map, on which the Botanical Gardens, Orphan Asylums, andSchools for the Indigent Blindwere already traced and lettered.Rowe possessed about a dozen small Californian and Indian horses, and as these brutes were not only now wild, but were of that peculiar breed that can neither be tamed or fattened, I could not at first conceive what object Rowe had in keeping them, especially as they were all small, gaunt, and painfully ugly. I perceived that almost daily my new acquaintance, dressed in Californian spurs and leggings, would mount the horse that he generally kept by him (with the saddle always on), and proceed in search of the others which he had turned out to graze on the hills the night previous.In the evening he would return as usual, driving his ill-looking pack before him, and these, after beingenclosed for a short time, would be again turned out. On my suggesting that his animals seemed to cause him more trouble than they were worth, he at once elucidated the mystery.It appeared that he had received these scarecrows from time to time in payment of bad debts, contracted for surveys of the surrounding farms; they cost nothing to keep, as they lived on the wild oats, and the reason he turned them out and brought them home each day, was for the pleasure of hunting and catching them with the lasso when he could. I soon joined him in this diversion, and the sport was most exciting. His band, as soon as they saw us coming, would have an appearance similar to this:—They would stand in a crowd together, looking at usout of the corners of their eyes; then as we approached they would go over the hills and gulches, whilst we rode after them, shouting and heading them back whenever we could.After two or three hours of this exercise, they would allow themselves to be driven without much trouble into Rowe’s corral. I believe they liked the sport; whether or no, they got it every day, and as it was all they had to do, they were better off than most of their race. In fact, the Old Soldier did the same work with me on his back, and liked it so much that I could not hold him at last when once he got sight of these scarecrows. He tried to catch them one day when in the gig, because they suddenly appeared in sight, and if it had not been for a deep gulch that brought us all up with a smash, I believe he would have “corralledâ€� them on his own account.Rowe had an Indian pony of great power and endurance; it was named “Chocktaw,â€� after the American Indian tribe, to which of right it belonged. He had a head like a wedge of wood, and although tolerably quiet under a severe Spanish bit, he had the habit of never taking his eyes off you. He was always suspicious, if you walked round him, and would follow you with his wild colt’s eye.Chocktaw combined the sure-footedness of the mule,with the speed of the horse, and the capability of the donkey of living and doing well upon comparatively nothing, which was so far fortunate for him as he was occasionally locked up and forgotten for a day or two, during which periods of trial he generally munched shavings, and upon being remembered and released became more suspicious than ever.Chocktaw and the Old Soldier became fast friends, so much so, that the latter kicked other horses on Chocktaw’s account, and took him under his protection generally, even to the length of eating Chocktaw’s oats (which he got on Sundays), for fear, no doubt, they should disagree with his Indian stomach; whether this made him more suspicious or not, I don’t know, but Chocktaw never took his eyes off his friend for all their affection.The unhappy Chocktaw is typical of a class of men who live continually in the torment of half-confirmed suspicions—innocents, who, stopping half-way in their study of the world, are ever doubting and fearing, yet never learning, force the lesson on them as you will;—“Chocktawsâ€� to whom “Old Soldiersâ€� are necessary—these latter cheating them, yet preventing others from doing so; finding brains for them; kicking other horses for them, but eatingtheir oats as recompense. Unhappy then the Chocktaw whowriggles, as it were, in the half-consciousness of being outwitted, and torments himself with vain suspicions. Far more to be envied he who can clap his persecuting protector on the back, and own him to be “necessary but expensive;â€� his mind is at ease from that time forth; he can pay his bully as he does his income-tax, and get more for his money.News was brought in one day that a band of elk had been seen near the place, and upon this the whole population turned out. Independently of the fact that I feared being shot by some of the party, among whom were several boys, armed with rifles, I knew that the Elk does were heavy at this season, and I had no mind to assist in a butchery. The drove was headed about nightfall in marshy ground, and abouteighteen doeswere killed.I was sorry to have lost the chance of hitting the slot of these beasts, for the bucks might easily have been secured with care, whereas, approached as they were, whilst drinking in marshy and treacherous ground, the bucks being on the outskirts made for the hills, whilst the poor frightened does became quagmired, and fell an easy prey.About this time I received a visit from Sir Henry Huntly, and we started on an exploring expedition, but losing our way, found ourselves at length nearNapa. Pulling up temporarily at a small house at the side of the creek to enquire the road, we found it occupied by half-a-dozen fine-looking fellows, who were sitting over their supper. The invitation to join them was too heartily offered to refuse, and Sir Henry and myself being armed each with a cast-iron knife and tin platter, attacked the provisions as men do who lose their way, and fall happily and unexpectedly on a savoury stew of antelope. We were glad enough also to be so kindly invited to pass the night there, for a day passed in the hot sun is very fatiguing, and once down, a man has to be kicked up again, particularly after a surfeit of antelope stew. So we lit our pipes, and then, as a matter of course, we allowed gradually to leak out who and what we were. Our entertainers consisted of four Americans and two Englishmen. These latter were army-men, who had thrown up their commissions in Canada to seek a rough and adventurous life in exchange for the dull routine of barracks. So far as roughness went, they had it in perfection, and they stood it well; but theroughestroughness palls, and an adventurous life, with its fevers and privations, and hard toil in the blistering sun, soon loses its charms, and then comes the yearning for home, and it is best then to have somethingto fall back upon.There are few after all to whom either roughness or adventurous life comes aptly, although the proud man scorns toownhe feels the privation he has sought as it were; but few of those who have sacrificed position, comforts, and friends elsewhere, for the pursuit of freedom and adventure, with wealth of course appearing in the distance, have realised their dreams, or have done otherwise in the long run than own their folly, and mourn it secretly. Some men are born for a wild and careless life—a happy liveliness of disposition, knowledge of the world, physical health, recklessness of personal safety, indifference to social position and home comfort, all fit them for it; their creed is to do as no one else does, (and they dononethe worse for this); these men are few in number, and they can live when others starve. Observe the man in a hunting-field, who strikes out his own line of country, and that a new one to him; each fence may conceal a marl-pit, but he faces bravely all obstacles, and comes in right at last. Rash fool! says Jones as he opens a gate. Stupid ass! echoes Brown as he creeps through a gap! But no! Brown and Jones would be both fools and asses if they tried to do it, but to this man such work comes naturally.As a rule the fate of the minnows who will pursue an unbeaten track is certain enough. It is generallyagreat mistakewhen men throw up on their own account a certain means of livelihood, to seek adventure and fortune in new gold countries. It is generally agreat mistakewhen fathers with spendthrift sons, stupid sons, or lazy sons, say, “John, you are doing no good for yourself, here are five hundred pounds, go and try your luck in the diggings.â€� It was agreat mistakewhen a party of gentlemen left England in 1849 for California in a yacht of their own, and having arrived at the diggings got disgusted, and returned very much out at elbows, with most melancholy reports respecting the goldfields. And these are great mistakes, for this reason, that patience under disappointment, and a disposition that can ever look sanguinely into the future, are as requisite for “rough life,â€� as stronghands, witting hearts andsound health.Our entertainers occupied themselves in market-gardening, which is a peaceful and unexciting profession; and as the whole party were animated with a strong love of adventure, and were anxious for something more soul-stirring than weeding and watering beds of cabbages, soon after I last saw them they disbanded and dispersed, nor have I heard of them since.Vegetables attain an unusual size in California, owing to the rich qualities of the maiden soil; butI have observed an insipidity in everything that has thus rapidly matured, and size is attained at the expense of loss of flavour. Onions and tomatas as large as cheese plates are common. Melons have attained the weight of fifty pounds. Wheat and oats grow to the height of eight and ten feet, and are very prolific in the ear; potatoes reach dimensions unheard of elsewhere, and the diameter of a cabbage is sometimes so large that the cabbage has to be seen to be believed in.A brutal murder had been committed at Napa previous to our arrival; the murderer had been sentenced to death, and without any ostensible reason, a free pardon for this felon was granted by the governor of the state. During our stay here some of the most determined of the citizens of Napa frustrated this act of ill-timed mercy, and the murderer was found hung in his cell. No further notice was taken of the matter; but this act cannot be justified under any circumstances, for as the people elected the governor, and armed him with the right, had he so chosen, of setting free every convicted felon in the state, their election was a farce if his decision was not binding in the pardon he dispensed to the Napa murderer.CHAPTER XII.
LONG WHARF—CLIPPER SHIPS—CHINESE EMIGRANTS—THE MAY FIRE—AN EXCITING SCENE—IRON HOUSES—VALLEJO—THE COYOTE—WILD GEESE.
LONG WHARF—CLIPPER SHIPS—CHINESE EMIGRANTS—THE MAY FIRE—AN EXCITING SCENE—IRON HOUSES—VALLEJO—THE COYOTE—WILD GEESE.
May, 1851.
TheCentral Wharf of San Francisco, which is nearly a mile in length, is for some distance occupied on either side by Jew slopsellers; and, as these indefatigable gentlemen insist all over the world upon exposing their wares outside their shops, the first glance down Central Wharf impresses you with the idea that the inhabitants of the district have hung their clothes out to dry after a shower of rain. Scattered among the Jew shops are markets for vegetables and poultry, fishmongers, candy-sellers, (the Long Wharfers are very fond of sugar-plums), gambling-houses of the worst repute, and drinking-shops innumerable. Being narrow and crowded, and full of loaded drays, drunken sailors, empty packing-cases, run-away horses, rotten cabbages, excited steam-boat runners, stinking fish,Chinese porters, gaping strangers, and large holes in the planks, through which you may perceive the water, it is best to be careful in walking down Long Wharf, and to turn neither to the right nor to the left.
This busy street terminates at the city front; and from thence the wharf, which extends for half a mile into the sea, is flanked on either side by ships discharging their cargoes with great order and rapidity.
Here may be seen a fleet of those clippers to which the Californian trade gave rise. The “Queen of the Clippers� is one of the finest and largest of these ships, and is a beautiful model; she is extremely sharp at either end, and, “bows on,� she has the appearance of a wedge. Her accommodations are as perfect as those of a first-class ocean steamer, and are as handsomely decorated; and, as it is worthy of remark that great attention has been paid to the comfort of the crew, the sooner some of our shipowners copy that part of her construction the better. Nor should they overlook any longer that the Americans have long economised in ship labour very materially by the use of patent blocks, patent trusses, and more particularly in patent steering-gear.
It gives cause for reflection to observe how on board these mammoth clippers, one man, comfortablyprotected from the weather by a wheel-house, can steer the ship with ease in any weather, and to recall recollections of big English ships beating up against the monsoon, with three and even four men at the helm, tugging to get it up, or pulley-hauling to get it down, exposed on the deck in heavy sou’-westers and painted canvass frocks, while their faces are cut to pieces by the salt spray that the wind sends drifting along the deck. Yet comparatively few of our merchant vessel owners have availed themselves of these improvements. Scotland, as far as we are concerned, has most distinguished herself in the production of clippers, and the small class, similar to the “Marco Polo� and “Stornaway� stand first as specimens of mercantile naval architecture.
The building of clippers, if not originated by, was encouraged by the discovery of gold in California, for the valuable market that was so shortly afterwards opened to the United States afforded a field for the employment of ships that could perform a journey round the Horn in a space of time that would enable them to land a cargo, not only clean and in good order, but with a certain degree of regularity as regarded time. The ships that have sailed from English ports for San Francisco have been selected from a particularly inferior class of tubs, principallyfrom the erroneous supposition that anything was good enough for the diggings. Then observe the mistake! The expensive dashing clipper leaves New York, and, after a three months’ passage, lands her cargo clean and dry in San Francisco (where the sale of packages depends very much on their outward as well as internal appearance); the English ship, which false economy has picked from about the worst in dock, after a passage of from eight to ten months, arrives in San Francisco, withhercargo. The market has not only gone by for the articles she brings, but these, from long confinement, and her unseaworthy qualities, are landed in such an unprepossessing state as to be almost unsaleable. Nor is this all—the clipper ship having discharged, sails for China, and takes home the first teas at a high rate of freight, discharges at London, and returns again to New York, full; having accomplished a rapid voyage round the world, and, in all probability, cleared a large portion of her first cost in her first voyage. But our English clunbungy can find no cargo to take home from San Francisco, there being no export; she knows better than to present herself in China as a candidate for teas, there is little chance of her getting guano, so she either goes home empty at a great expense, or, as is more often the case, is knocked down by auction forless than her value, and is converted into a floating store-ship.[8]
It was said, I remember, when these clippers first attracted attention, and before Australia had been found to be auriferous, that we had no field for the employment of such vessels, and that our own “A 1 for thirteen-year� ships were better adapted for our trade; that they were stronger and morelasting. Where we enjoy a monopoly of ship-transport, as for many years in some places we have done, the argument of “let well alone� is excellently prudent.
That our vessels are strong no one will deny who ever saw a teak-built ship with her heavy beams and prodigious wooden knees; that they arelastingfollows as a matter of course, but this very qualification is at this moment our drawback to improvement. We are something like a man who has determined not to get a suit of clothes adapted for the dog-days until he has worn out his old winter garments, and has been unfortunate enough to have had these made of that imperishable article known as corduroy.
It is plain enough that we shall have comparatively few clipper ships until our enormous mercantile navy is worn out; and all we have now to regret is the stubbornness of that heart of oakwhose durability we have been wont to laud in speech and song. In the meantime, unless Aberdeen and other ports work cheerily, the Californian clippers will bid for the carriage of the teas, and take the bread literally from between our teeth; and, what is still more galling, the Yankee clippers will take our Australian trade, if they have not already done so. We have a bold competitor on the waters now, and I regret to see that almost at the moment that the projected Panama and Sydney steam-line is withdrawn for want ofgovernment support, measures are being taken by the American government to connect San Francisco and China, and thus complete the first steam communication round the world; whilst the “Sovereign of the Seas� and “Golden Age� are conveying our emigrants from Liverpool to Australia. On the other hand, the spirit of speculation in building clipper ships in America has been so far overdone as to cause many of them to be too hastily “run up,� and a few of these have arrived in San Francisco, and in London, much strained and with damaged cargoes.
* * * *
The Chinese have emigrated to California in great numbers. Those in San Francisco are mostly engaged in mercantile pursuits, and supply their countrymenat the mines with necessaries. There has been great outcry in the gold regions here respecting the rapidly-increasing numbers of the Chinese miners, and it was proposed forcibly to stop their immigration; it was argued, rather dog-in-the-mangerly, that they collected vast quantities of gold from the soil that of right belonged to the Americans only, and that they carried their gold-dust to their own country to spend. The last objection had some justice in it, for undoubtedly it is contrary to the spirit of a young colony to encourage the immigration of a class of people who bring their own rice with them, and impoverish the auriferous soil without leaving a “pice� behind them for the permanent improvement of the country.
I believe there are few men who have been thrown much among the Chinese who believe that many honest ones can be found among them; old Whampoa of Singapore, who gives champagne dinners in a most orthodox manner, may be one; but I confess, for my part, that from the Emperor down to the fellow in the blue shirt who begs in Piccadilly, and looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, I don’t believe in them. They are a people whose natural propensities lead them to cheat, and whose natural cunning aids this object most materially.
A short time ago it was discovered that a clique existed in San Francisco composed of a few of the wealthiest Chinese, and that these self-constituted mandarins exercised so much influence over the Chinese population of the country as to subject them to fines and bastinado, and they even went to the length of shipping some of them back to their own country; this, however, having been brought to light by the police, was temporarily checked, as these punishments were applied only for the purpose of extortion.
The Chinese themselves are so used to this kind of despotic rule that they made no effort to resist it even when it was assumed by those not in authority; but they behaved better under the infliction of fines than they would otherwise have done, and indeed I am puzzled to know what such a race would become, with their natural cunning, under a freer government than that they enjoy.
* * * *
On the 3rd of May, at eleven in the evening, the fire-bell again startled us; but on this occasion the first glance at the lurid glare and heavy mass of smoke that rolled towards the bay evidenced that the fire had already a firm grip on the city. The wind was unusually high, and the flames spread in a broad sheet over the town. All efforts to arrest them wereuseless; houses were blown up and torn down in attempts to cut off communication; but the engines were driven back step by step, while some of the brave firemen fell victims to their determined opposition. As the wind increased to a gale, the fire became beyond control; the brick buildings in Montgomery Street crumbled before it; and before it was arrested, over one thousand houses, many of which were filled with merchandise, were left in ashes. Many lives were lost, and the amount of property destroyed was estimated at two millions and a half sterling.
No conception can be formed of the grandeur of the scene; for at one time the burning district was covered by one vast sheet of flame that extended half a mile in length. But when the excitement of such a night as this has passed by, one scarcely can recall the scene. The memory is confused in the recollection of the shouts of the excited populace—the crash of falling timbers—the yells of the burnt and injured—the clank of the fire-brakes—the hoarse orders delivered through speaking-trumpets—maddened horses released from burning livery-stables plunging through the streets—helpless patients being carried from some hospital, and dying on the spot, as the swaying crowd, forced back by the flames, tramples all before it—explosions of houses blown up by gunpowder—showers of burning splinters that fall around on every side—the thunder of brick buildings as they fall into a heap of ruin—and the blinding glare of ignited spirits. Amidst heat that scorches, let you go where you will—smoke that strikes the eyes as if they had been pricked by needles—water that, thrown off the heated walls, falls on you in a shower of scalding steam—you throw your coat away and help to work the engine-brakes, as calls are made for more men.
At daylight you plod home, half-blind, half-drowned, half-scorched, half-stunned, and quite bewildered; and from that time you never care to recall one half of the horrors you have witnessed on the night of the conflagration of the 3rd of May.
The Dramatic Museum was “burnt out� on this occasion; and about the same time the ship I had awaited arrived. I had expected to receive an iron house in her, but as this tenement (which I had taken great pains to have constructed in England) was landed in the shape of several bundles of bent and rusty iron plates, and irrecognisable rotten planks, I deserted the property, and allowed the owners of the wharf to throw it overboard, which they eventually did after six months’ reflection.
Iron houses under most circumstances are a failure, and I write from experience in the matter. I havesat in churches made of iron, and have been glad to get out of them for that reason. I have thrown down my billiard-cue in disgust in iron club-houses, have paid my bill incontinently and left iron hotels, and have lived in misery in an iron shooting-box of my own, which was supposed to bevery complete.
I could live comfortably at all times in my little log hut at the “farm� but never could I endure myself inside my iron house. When the sun shone it was too hot; as night advanced it cooled too suddenly, and at daylight I shivered. When it was too warm the hot iron, with its anti-corrosive paint, emitted a sickening smell; and when the rain came down on the roof it sounded like a shower of small shot.[9]I lined it with wood throughout, that is to say, I built awooden houseinside my iron one, and then it was only bearable. But it would have been cheaper, it seemed to me, to have built the wooden house first, and then have put the iron on if it was wanted, which it was not.
In this age, when so many of our countrymen are emigrating, it becomes almost the duty of a traveller to recount any experience that may tend to the benefit of those who go after him; and therefore I trust thatin remarks similar to the foregoing, which may or may not affect a peculiar branch of trade, I may be exonerated from any other intention than that of benefiting others by my experience. I have seen so many metal and wooden houses thrown away (I have seen in one heap of rubbish the value of ten thousand pounds), that I would recommend to the emigrant of moderate means not to purchase either the one or the other. If new gold fields are discovered, as most probably they will be, and reports are rife of house room commanding enormous prices there, never for all that let him take his shell out, snail-like, on his back; let him take the money that would buy the house—the cash will be the scarcest article there, and will find him house-room and a profit too. Perhaps nowhere has my argument been better proved than in California. Large numbers of iron houses were shipped to that country when first reports arrived of the scarcity of building materials. Had they been capable of resisting fire they would perhaps have been less generally condemned, but of those that were erected, not only did the thin corrugated houses first expand and then collapse, and tumble down with astonishing rapidity before the flames, but in the fire I have just recorded the American iron house of Taeffe and M’Cahill, of which the plates were nearlyan inch in thickness, and the castings of apparently unnecessary weight, collapsed like a preserved-meat can, and destroyed six persons, who, believing it to be fire-proof, remained inside. And, in connection with this subject, it is worthy of mention that when these houses arrived in California there was no one to be found who could put them together; not but that the method is very simple, but simple things, as we all know, present great difficulties at times in their solution.
A friend of mine employed a man for a long time at four pounds a day, merely to superintend the erection of an iron hotel; it was completed at last, and, although it had a somewhat lopsided appearance it looked pretty well under the influence of light-green paint; but the fire came and it “caved in,� as the Americans say.
This discussion on iron buildings would have found no place here, had not these cheerless tenements been connected with a speculation into which I was at this time induced to enter: nor would the speculation have been alluded to, particularly as it turned out a failure, were it not again inseparably connected with a peculiar feature of the country.
It appeared that the state was looking about at this time for a site on which to erect a capital, where,free from the busy hum of men, the representatives of the people might meet and do their country’s work. Upon the condition that General Vallejo would expend a large amount in the erection of public buildings, a part of this gentleman’s property was selected by the then Governor as the “seat of government,� and upon that, a few scrubby-looking hills that bordered on the bay, were surveyed and staked off, and there was your town of “Vallejo.�
About this time a store-ship, laden with iron houses, belonging to a friend of mine, sunk at her moorings during a heavy gale. When raised she was so full of mud, clay, and small crabs that there was no possibility of rendering her cargo fit for sale at San Francisco. The bright idea occurred to me of landing these muddy materials at Vallejo, and, after allowing the tide to clean them, to convert them to some use in assisting to erect this capital that was to be “made to order.� Landing my cargo on Vallejo beach at low water mark, Canute-like, I ordered the tide to complete the very dirty work I had set before it, which it did, and, to finish the story here, in the course of six months I erected a very handsome hotel out of the materials. I felt rather pleased when it was finished, and painted, and handsomely furnished, to think what a butterfly I had turned out of thevery dirty grub I had found in the hold of the old hulk. But the moral of the story lies in the fact that at this juncture the government altered their minds relative to the site of the capital, and selected Benicia in preference.
The city “made to order� was then pulled down and sold for old materials, to the great delight, as may be imagined, of myself and the other speculators who had worked so assiduously to raise it, and who had received no compensation. It is quite like the story of the Enchanted City, that was up one day and down the next; but somehow I don’t find so much pleasure in recalling the history of Vallejo as I did as a boy in reading the fairy tale.
The hills of Vallejo are destitute of game, but abound in coyotes, who lead a predatory life, not altogether, I suspect, free from care or anxiety, as, excepting in the calving season, they are dependent for food on the chance carcase of some poor mired bull or over-driven mule; and, as these casualties are not of very frequent occurrence, I feel satisfied that hunger and the coyote know each other. And indeed he has, in a great measure, himself alone to blame that his stomach is always either too empty or too full; for this fellow, when he gets a meal, raises such a hue and cry in the dead of night aseffectually warns all savoury animals to avoid his presence.
In the calving season the coyotes are in clover, and the little veals fall an easy prey to a pack of these nocturnal robbers. In winter, when the wild geese cover the hills, I doubt if the coyote gains much permanent benefit, judging from the fact that I have seldom found feathers. The geese encamp in vast armies, and at times perhaps outlying picquets and sentries asleep on their post get cut off by the enemy; but the wild goose, fool as he may be, has just so much keen relish for a good joke as to allow the coyote to reach a point where expectation has resolved itself into certainty, and then the goose decamps, harassed undoubtedly, but whole in body. The coyote has more of the dog than the fox in his composition, and is a bungling poacher at any time; one feature alone of his character proves this, inasmuch that, when suddenly disturbed, he runs but a few yards, then stops, turns round and looks at you. A Norfolk poaching lurcher knows better than that,hewould never turn his face to you for fear you shouldidentify him, at least so Barnes tells me, and he ought to know; but the most satisfactory proof that the coyote is a weak forager exists in the conclusive fact that you seldom shoot one that has anything in his stomach.
As, therefore, there was no employment for my rifle at Benicia, I was thrown on my resources for amusement. Fortune again favoured me; fortune, by the way, always has favoured me when I have been in pursuit of amusement, but she snubs me amazingly whenever my designs are in the least degree mercenary, which leads me to infer that that divinity is of rather a jovial disposition than otherwise.
In one day’s search I secured two horses, one gig, three well-formed Australian kangaroo dogs, and three blood-hound whelps, just arrived from Hobart Town; these being shipped in a small schooner, in company with my iron shooting box, I started for San Luis, and called on Ramsey, who had probably forgotten me. I urged him at once to come and be a Vallejo-ite; he demurred at first, but, alas, we are all mortal; pointing with one hand to his buckskins and hunting saddle, rotting from disuse, with the other I directed his attention to my greyhounds, then I uttered one word, “coyotes,â€� and Ramsey struck his flag in passive submission to his destiny—and followed me.
COYOTE HUNTING—MY DOMINIONS ARE INVADED—THOMAS KILLS A BEAR—A TRIAL OF STRENGTH—ROWE’S “LOTâ€�—CHOCTAW ELK—A BUTCHERY—ROUGH LIFE—FERTILITY OF THE SOIL.
COYOTE HUNTING—MY DOMINIONS ARE INVADED—THOMAS KILLS A BEAR—A TRIAL OF STRENGTH—ROWE’S “LOTâ€�—CHOCTAW ELK—A BUTCHERY—ROUGH LIFE—FERTILITY OF THE SOIL.
June, 1851.
Ourfirst duty, on arriving at Vallejo, was to erect a temporary shanty, and before we had been long there the materials for about fifty houses were scattered over the ground by various speculators. Ramsey laid the foundation of a small village on his own account, and built a dwelling-house, a livery stable, and another grog-shop, in which his champagne and tin pannikins were soon rattling away, as of old, to the sound of the fiddle.
As soon as I had erected the iron house, to which I have already alluded in terms of bitterness, we tried the projected coyote hunt. I had two horses; one was an old grey “Texian Ranger,� who had seen so much hard service that, when once adrift, he was neither to be caught with chaff or the best of oats, but had to be lassoed and dragged home bymain force; once assured, by means of spurs, and bottles of water broken on his head when he reared, and sticks broken on his side when he buck-jumped, that he was “bound to go,� as they say here, “the Old Soldier� (for so I named him) proved an animal of great speed and endurance, and afterwards performed his eighty miles in a day with me without flinching. The other was a handsome bay that I had bought from a retiring watchmaker, and he retained the name his last master had bestowed in honour of his shop, “Main Spring.�
My Australian Kangaroo dogs were a cross between the bull-dog or bull-mastiff and the greyhound; like the generality of cross-bred greyhounds, they differed only from the thoroughbreds in increased size, muscle, and breadth of chest; they ran of course from sight, but were not devoid of nose.
Of the three I had procured but two proved of any value, Tiger and Bevis, and these I coupled for an experimental hunt. I trust I may be excused from the charge of egotism in thus mentioning these animals in detail; they were my companions up to the very day I left the country; and being associated with the adventures I am sketching they will appear in my narrative from time to time. With all his faults I owe a debt of gratitude to the “Old Soldier.�
Stealing quietly away to the surrounding hills, with Ramsey on the “Old Soldier,� we soon found a coyote, and I slipped the dogs; he made a straight run, but there was no chance for him, and in less than five hundred yards he was caught and worried without a fight, and I whipped the dogs off. I was disappointed; I had hoped that the coyote would not only run well, but would make some kind of stand at the finish; but we found him invariably devoid of any pluck. Some that we afterwards saw would make an excellent start and then turn round and attempt to fraternise with the dogs, and these, after a time, began to recognise something of the nature of the cur in this conduct, and, after rolling the coyote over, would turn back without injuring him.[10]So that our coursing was deferred until we reached the hare country, where the dogs showed to better advantage, and generally killed, the hare of the country being rather a fool than otherwise.
It became necessary now for me to return to Russian River, and, as Ramsey and a Mr. Bottomly were anxious to accompany me, we made up a four-in-hand out of a pair of Ramsey’s horses and mine, and, throwing our blankets into the old waggon thatconstituted our drag, we put Tiger and Bevis inside to save their feet, and started.
We arrived without accident at the river, and I found that now the rains were over, settlers were flocking in from all sides. The river was still very high owing to the melting snow at its source; and when the waggon floated for a minute or two as we crossed the centre of the ford, and then filled to my companions’ knees, they evidently viewed with great interest this, to them, novel feature in “tooling a four in hand.�
The sun was intensely hot, and when we had reached the opposite bank of the river, we pulled up in the shade to dine, the provisions having been secured against all injury in crossing the river. Ramsey insisted on drinking an immense quantity of the river, which, however, he qualified with brandy; and after having in consequence expended a large amount of second-hand poetry on the surrounding scenery, nothing would please him but he must alter the tails of his two Canadian switch tail ponies, to make them match with those of Mainspring and the Old Soldier, which were banged. I remonstrated with him on the folly of spoiling two valuable animals, whose chief beauty consisted in their manes and tails, but he would do it; and having cut onetail about a foot shorter than the other with a blunt table knife, he left them pretty objects. Imagine my disgust when the fellow remarked, after gravely contemplating them, “Sh’no consequence, s’hey don’t b’long to me.� I got into trouble about them afterwards, as will be seen.
In the cool of the evening we arrived at the farm, where I found everybody well, and glad to see me back. As I had foreseen, settlers were beginning even to invademydominions, and not only was the romance of the place destroyed, but the game was retiring very rapidly, and it required a long day’s walk to find venison. This of itself would have determined me to leave the valley, but other causes hastened my decision—firstly,the onions were a failure; they had come up, but the ground squirrels had proved so numerous as to destroy all vestige of the young plants; secondly, I had on one occasion disclosed at March’s not only that I wasnota naturalised American, but that I had no intention of bringing myself into contempt by deserting my own country from interested motives, as too many I regret to say have done. This had become known among the crowd of settlers that were now hunting for pre-emption claims; they also knew, as of course there were a few Philadelphia lawyers among them, that asan alien I had no right to the valley. Some of them called upon me to tell me so, but these left however quicker than they came. Under all the circumstances, and particularly as I never could have resided among such a set as were now “locatingâ€� themselves about the place, I made a virtue of necessity, and gave the farm as it stood (excepting the cattle and my books and shooting materials) to one of the backwoodsmen I had known there for some time.
During this last visit to the old place, however, we enjoyed ourselves; the green peas had arrived at perfection, and the young fawns were excellent substitutes for lamb. Tiger and Bevis afforded us some coursing, and Ramsey found out for the first time in his life what it was to stand knee deep in a running stream and wash a flannel shirt without soap.
Whilst we were absent one night on an excursion, Thomas, who remained at home, distinguished himself by shooting a valuable milch cow, that had been brought up by one of the new settlers, and which, having strayed near the house, he mistook in the dark for a wild bull or a bear. When we returned in the morning, Thomas, in great trepidation, had just completed burying the carcase near the house, and we were still laughing over the matter, when a tall settler appeared amongst us and inquired if we hadseen “e’er a cow,â€� to which Thomas, knowing that the settler had followed his cow’s trail, fortunately replied in the affirmative, and suggested a distant hill as a celebrated rendezvous for strayed cows in general, on account of the fine quality of its spring water; thither the settler wended his way, after satisfying himself with a few rapid and suspicious glances that we had venison hanging about instead of beef, and that no symptom of cow was stamped about the place. As he turned once more to call three wiry-looking, gamboge-coloured curs, that he had brought with him, and which had been sniffing about, I observed with horror that the brutes were on the cow’s grave, scratching away bravely—“Seize them, Tiger! At them, Prince! Bevis!â€� and these disturbers of the dead flew for their lives, and as I called the dogs off, evidenced no disposition to return, although my brave defenders immediately had a battle royal over the dainty morsel which had thus been brought to light.
I have already alluded to Barnes’s physical strength; in Norfolk he was always an expert axeman, even with the stupid broad-headed Flemish axe, that we still adhere to in England, but his six months’ training at the farm with the American axe had so improved on his former strike and natural powers ofendurance, that he was induced one night to boast of his prowess whilst in company with some backwoodsmen at March’s shanty. It had already been proved that no one of the party was a match for him, as I had given him permission to fell for March’s saw-mill in his leisure hours, (at which work I may mention he often made his thirty shillings a day,) March therefore undertook to bring a man called Alexander, to take “the shine out of Barnes,� and during our stay this man arrived. He was a Hercules in muscle though spare, and when, a tree having been selected, the men “stripped for work� asBell’s Lifewould say, there was little to choose between them in appearance, though I thought I saw an advantage on Barnes’s side in point of loins. To me it is delightful to witness a fair trial of skill and dexterity between two picked athletæ, where, as in this instance, the pleasure is unalloyed by any brutal exhibition of inflicted punishment. Our party and that of the Americans were equally excited, but no bets were made, and there was no boastful confidence in the issue on either side. I have mentioned elsewhere that the red-wood tree retains in its growth sometimes so perfect a perpendicular that it may be cut round its centre, and yet remains erect on a calm day, supported but by a few inches of the heart. Atree having therefore been selected of about eight feet diameter, as nearly as I can recollect, the men were placed on either side, and a few straight lines for their guidance having been chalked on the bark, they commenced work, the man on whose side the tree fell, to be declared the winner, as he of course would have cut the deepest. For the first part of the day the champions worked manfully stroke for stroke, and the issue seemed to the last doubtful, but at length the strokes became weaker and slower, and then Barnes seemed to have kept something back for the finish, for after a few vigorous drives, the huge tree fell over on his side, and came thundering to the ground. It was a touch and go victory; and caused no ill feeling; but Barnes on returning home was very unwell from over exertion, and during the night he wandered in his head; the next day, however, he was quite well; but the “shine� was taken out of him although he won.
I bade farewell to the little valley before its charms had so palled upon me by use as to render me indifferent to its possession, but its great charm of seclusion that first bound me to it was lost, and in my eyes it was as much “cut up� by the presence of fresh settlers, as is your country villa, sir, when a rushing railway, marking out its track directly throughyour favourite clump of weeping willows, sends its hot cinders on to the very lawn in front of you; but you were compensated for your villa being smoke-begrimed, and sold it, moreover, on good terms to Styles, who likes living near a railway, and being hourly reminded that his country is making “giant strides,� whilst I, equally a victim to the march of improvement, walked out without any other reflection than that I had gone to a great deal of trouble for the sole benefit of an utter stranger.
We arrived at Vallejo without accident. The appearance of the tailless Canadian horses brought forward their indignant owner, who demanded of me, as conductor of the expedition, an exorbitant sum, which I of course refused to pay, upon which he went to law; and about the time that the hotel was completed, an execution was put on it by the sheriff for the amount claimed for two horses’ tails that I never touched.
We had very little sport at Vallejo; a few wild-fowl hung about the marshes, but were very hard to secure; snipe and curlew also were tolerably plentiful; but the sun was hot, and the yellow treeless hills dazzled the eyes too much for shooting. Our guns therefore were shelved for the present; but I found another source of amusement by fortunately makingthe acquaintance of a young Englishman of the name of Rowe.
Rowe was a surveying engineer of good ability, and had, previous to leaving England, scarified that country to a considerable extent in the shape of tunnels and cuttings on railways. His present business in Vallejo consisted in surveying and laying out the plan of that city, which having completed, he was now transferring to a gorgeous map, on which the Botanical Gardens, Orphan Asylums, andSchools for the Indigent Blindwere already traced and lettered.
Rowe possessed about a dozen small Californian and Indian horses, and as these brutes were not only now wild, but were of that peculiar breed that can neither be tamed or fattened, I could not at first conceive what object Rowe had in keeping them, especially as they were all small, gaunt, and painfully ugly. I perceived that almost daily my new acquaintance, dressed in Californian spurs and leggings, would mount the horse that he generally kept by him (with the saddle always on), and proceed in search of the others which he had turned out to graze on the hills the night previous.
In the evening he would return as usual, driving his ill-looking pack before him, and these, after beingenclosed for a short time, would be again turned out. On my suggesting that his animals seemed to cause him more trouble than they were worth, he at once elucidated the mystery.
It appeared that he had received these scarecrows from time to time in payment of bad debts, contracted for surveys of the surrounding farms; they cost nothing to keep, as they lived on the wild oats, and the reason he turned them out and brought them home each day, was for the pleasure of hunting and catching them with the lasso when he could. I soon joined him in this diversion, and the sport was most exciting. His band, as soon as they saw us coming, would have an appearance similar to this:—
They would stand in a crowd together, looking at usout of the corners of their eyes; then as we approached they would go over the hills and gulches, whilst we rode after them, shouting and heading them back whenever we could.
After two or three hours of this exercise, they would allow themselves to be driven without much trouble into Rowe’s corral. I believe they liked the sport; whether or no, they got it every day, and as it was all they had to do, they were better off than most of their race. In fact, the Old Soldier did the same work with me on his back, and liked it so much that I could not hold him at last when once he got sight of these scarecrows. He tried to catch them one day when in the gig, because they suddenly appeared in sight, and if it had not been for a deep gulch that brought us all up with a smash, I believe he would have “corralled� them on his own account.
Rowe had an Indian pony of great power and endurance; it was named “Chocktaw,� after the American Indian tribe, to which of right it belonged. He had a head like a wedge of wood, and although tolerably quiet under a severe Spanish bit, he had the habit of never taking his eyes off you. He was always suspicious, if you walked round him, and would follow you with his wild colt’s eye.
Chocktaw combined the sure-footedness of the mule,with the speed of the horse, and the capability of the donkey of living and doing well upon comparatively nothing, which was so far fortunate for him as he was occasionally locked up and forgotten for a day or two, during which periods of trial he generally munched shavings, and upon being remembered and released became more suspicious than ever.
Chocktaw and the Old Soldier became fast friends, so much so, that the latter kicked other horses on Chocktaw’s account, and took him under his protection generally, even to the length of eating Chocktaw’s oats (which he got on Sundays), for fear, no doubt, they should disagree with his Indian stomach; whether this made him more suspicious or not, I don’t know, but Chocktaw never took his eyes off his friend for all their affection.
The unhappy Chocktaw is typical of a class of men who live continually in the torment of half-confirmed suspicions—innocents, who, stopping half-way in their study of the world, are ever doubting and fearing, yet never learning, force the lesson on them as you will;—“Chocktawsâ€� to whom “Old Soldiersâ€� are necessary—these latter cheating them, yet preventing others from doing so; finding brains for them; kicking other horses for them, but eatingtheir oats as recompense. Unhappy then the Chocktaw whowriggles, as it were, in the half-consciousness of being outwitted, and torments himself with vain suspicions. Far more to be envied he who can clap his persecuting protector on the back, and own him to be “necessary but expensive;â€� his mind is at ease from that time forth; he can pay his bully as he does his income-tax, and get more for his money.
News was brought in one day that a band of elk had been seen near the place, and upon this the whole population turned out. Independently of the fact that I feared being shot by some of the party, among whom were several boys, armed with rifles, I knew that the Elk does were heavy at this season, and I had no mind to assist in a butchery. The drove was headed about nightfall in marshy ground, and abouteighteen doeswere killed.
I was sorry to have lost the chance of hitting the slot of these beasts, for the bucks might easily have been secured with care, whereas, approached as they were, whilst drinking in marshy and treacherous ground, the bucks being on the outskirts made for the hills, whilst the poor frightened does became quagmired, and fell an easy prey.
About this time I received a visit from Sir Henry Huntly, and we started on an exploring expedition, but losing our way, found ourselves at length nearNapa. Pulling up temporarily at a small house at the side of the creek to enquire the road, we found it occupied by half-a-dozen fine-looking fellows, who were sitting over their supper. The invitation to join them was too heartily offered to refuse, and Sir Henry and myself being armed each with a cast-iron knife and tin platter, attacked the provisions as men do who lose their way, and fall happily and unexpectedly on a savoury stew of antelope. We were glad enough also to be so kindly invited to pass the night there, for a day passed in the hot sun is very fatiguing, and once down, a man has to be kicked up again, particularly after a surfeit of antelope stew. So we lit our pipes, and then, as a matter of course, we allowed gradually to leak out who and what we were. Our entertainers consisted of four Americans and two Englishmen. These latter were army-men, who had thrown up their commissions in Canada to seek a rough and adventurous life in exchange for the dull routine of barracks. So far as roughness went, they had it in perfection, and they stood it well; but theroughestroughness palls, and an adventurous life, with its fevers and privations, and hard toil in the blistering sun, soon loses its charms, and then comes the yearning for home, and it is best then to have somethingto fall back upon.
There are few after all to whom either roughness or adventurous life comes aptly, although the proud man scorns toownhe feels the privation he has sought as it were; but few of those who have sacrificed position, comforts, and friends elsewhere, for the pursuit of freedom and adventure, with wealth of course appearing in the distance, have realised their dreams, or have done otherwise in the long run than own their folly, and mourn it secretly. Some men are born for a wild and careless life—a happy liveliness of disposition, knowledge of the world, physical health, recklessness of personal safety, indifference to social position and home comfort, all fit them for it; their creed is to do as no one else does, (and they dononethe worse for this); these men are few in number, and they can live when others starve. Observe the man in a hunting-field, who strikes out his own line of country, and that a new one to him; each fence may conceal a marl-pit, but he faces bravely all obstacles, and comes in right at last. Rash fool! says Jones as he opens a gate. Stupid ass! echoes Brown as he creeps through a gap! But no! Brown and Jones would be both fools and asses if they tried to do it, but to this man such work comes naturally.
As a rule the fate of the minnows who will pursue an unbeaten track is certain enough. It is generallyagreat mistakewhen men throw up on their own account a certain means of livelihood, to seek adventure and fortune in new gold countries. It is generally agreat mistakewhen fathers with spendthrift sons, stupid sons, or lazy sons, say, “John, you are doing no good for yourself, here are five hundred pounds, go and try your luck in the diggings.� It was agreat mistakewhen a party of gentlemen left England in 1849 for California in a yacht of their own, and having arrived at the diggings got disgusted, and returned very much out at elbows, with most melancholy reports respecting the goldfields. And these are great mistakes, for this reason, that patience under disappointment, and a disposition that can ever look sanguinely into the future, are as requisite for “rough life,� as stronghands, witting hearts andsound health.
Our entertainers occupied themselves in market-gardening, which is a peaceful and unexciting profession; and as the whole party were animated with a strong love of adventure, and were anxious for something more soul-stirring than weeding and watering beds of cabbages, soon after I last saw them they disbanded and dispersed, nor have I heard of them since.
Vegetables attain an unusual size in California, owing to the rich qualities of the maiden soil; butI have observed an insipidity in everything that has thus rapidly matured, and size is attained at the expense of loss of flavour. Onions and tomatas as large as cheese plates are common. Melons have attained the weight of fifty pounds. Wheat and oats grow to the height of eight and ten feet, and are very prolific in the ear; potatoes reach dimensions unheard of elsewhere, and the diameter of a cabbage is sometimes so large that the cabbage has to be seen to be believed in.
A brutal murder had been committed at Napa previous to our arrival; the murderer had been sentenced to death, and without any ostensible reason, a free pardon for this felon was granted by the governor of the state. During our stay here some of the most determined of the citizens of Napa frustrated this act of ill-timed mercy, and the murderer was found hung in his cell. No further notice was taken of the matter; but this act cannot be justified under any circumstances, for as the people elected the governor, and armed him with the right, had he so chosen, of setting free every convicted felon in the state, their election was a farce if his decision was not binding in the pardon he dispensed to the Napa murderer.