OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD FIELD.

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 307, 9 May 1849, Page 3

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD FIELD.

Quartermaster'! Office, San Francisco, California* September 18, 1848. SiR,-»-In compliance with an intimation in my monthly report of June 30, 1 proceed to gite you a hasty account of California as it is seen under the influence of the gold excitement now prevailing throughout the country. I shall precede my remarks upon the mines by a few observations upon the situation of the country prior to their diicovery. Up to the time the American flag was railed in California by Commodore Sloat, in Juiy, 1845, the country may be said to have slumbered on from i's first lettlement without enterprise or activity on the part of its inhabitants. Constitutionally indolent in their habits the climate wai admi ably adipted to develnpe and perpetuate the worst forms ot slothfulness and improvidence among the occupants of the soil. The people were too much the vctims of these vice 3 to become even shepherds in the true sense of the word ; and they lived without either milk, butter, or cheese, although surrounded by thousands of milch cows ; and scarcely an attempt was made to call out the agricultural virtues of the soil. A little wheat and corn, and a few beans, pumpkins, and melons, satisfied the moderate wants of those who had never known the comforti to be derived from industry, and the grand staple of subsistence with all classes wai the flush of their cattle. Ths lisllessness and apathy of this kind of life clung to the whole native population, and when the Unied Sta'es flag whs raised here, the country could boast of no improvements, either public or private, except what the moderate wants of a warm latitude tendered imperatively necessary. There were many Americans and foreigners in the country prior to the change of fligs, but m> regular emigration, had taken place i and the unsettled cundi-

tion of politics, and constant revolutions prevented anything like the systematic enterprise which might otherwise have been expected from citizens of AngloAmerican origin. The herds of cattle which covered the ranchos were slaughtered for their hide 9 and tallow, to be exchanged for merchandise as before, and the people continued to cherish their indolence as much as in former days; but the change of flags brought a corresponding revolution in the various occupations of life. After the first call for volunteers was answered, and foreigners residing in the country were at leisure to enter upon the improvement of their property, all became activity. Confidence was inspired by the introduction of American authority, and all believed that they were virtually upon the United StatC3 soil. Crowds came thronging in from the mountain, the forests, and the ocean, of rough exterior, but of indubitable Anglo- American origin, to seek their fortunes in a new country, under their own flag. Things were assuming a better aspect, and both agri* cultural and mechanical improvements were* going forward rapidly under new auspices. Farmers were introducing the agiiculture and horticulture of their own country upon Californian soil, and mechanical labour knew no respite from its toils. The interminable clatter of the hammer and the saw was heard in every quarter, and frequently the mechanic, in his ea-ge-neis to succeed, did not recollect to divide the Sun<>ay frqm ihe neck. Many lit le villages sprung up as if by tnawie in various parts of the country, and all promised fair for an indefinite continuance of every kind of empl ivment. But a change came over the face of .iffairs. In the latter part of February, 1848, a mechanic, named James Marshall, vrui employed building a n<twmill lor John A. Sutter, Esq., on the south branch of a river known in California at the American Fork, some fifty miles from New Helvetia or Slitter's Fort. On Fremont's map this river is called Rio de los Americanos. It ii the stream by which Captain Fremont descended iuto the valley of the Sacramento River, by a perilous march in the winter and spring of 1848. While em. ployed in cutting a mill-race or canal for this improvement, Mr, Marshull discovered the pieces of gold as they glistened in the sunlight at the bottom of the sluices. Pucej of considerable size were taken fron the water, and in a few days gold to the amount of one hundred and fifty do'lara was removed in this manner. The labourers on the works, moitly Mormons, soon became sat'sfied of its precious nature, and the news spread rapidly about the country. Ex« animations wrie prosecuted at other points along the stream, and almost everywhere with success. Reports of a most marvellous nature toon reached the coast touching these mines. Their apparent extravagance created incredulity, and the public attention was not fully called to the subject until gold dust or grain gold wai brought into the maiket in considerable quantities for sale. Doubt soon becime belief, and a change almost magical in its nature, pervaded the whole population. Lawyers, doctors, clergymen, farmers, mechanics, merchants, sailors, and soldiers, left their legitimate occupations to embark on a business where fortunes were to be made in n few weeks. Villages and di tricts, where all had been bustle, industry, and improvement, were soon left without male population. Mcc >anics, merchants, and magistrates wete alike off to the mines, and till birds of useful occupation, except gold-digging, were here apparently at an end. In roost c.ise» the crops were remarkably good ; but they are generally lo^t for wunt of labourers to secure them. In some parts of the country hundreds of acres of fine wheat will rot in the fields from the impossibility of getting labourers. Vessels are lsft swinging idly at their anchors, while both captains and crews die at the mines, and the most essential private and public improvements are arrested in their progress. The wages of clerks h ive advanced at least two hundred per cent., and those of common labourers at least four or five hundred. At the time the excitement broke out I was repairing the U. S. Birque Anita- The workmen were receiving three dollari por day, and lived on board the vessel. They struck for hiuher wages, and one man finally left and forfeited* all his former earning rather than continue to work a few d»ys more at S'x dollars per day. Conmon sailors demanded 100 dol. lars per month for work in schooners in the bay. freight from this port to .c. c u r ter's is from two dollars t> four dollars pft barrel. The distance is little moie than one hundred miles. Common four-ox waggons are hired at fifty dollars per day. In one case I have known a negro cook to be emplo)ed Ht 35 dollais per day for bis professional services among ths pot* nnl kettles in the gold region. This was the condition of things about three months since, and under its influence this village was almost absolutely deserted. It had besn one of the most bustling little places I ever saw, and in a few days it became deserted. Two or three merchants and a few soldiers constituted the male population. Recently, however, there has been a reaction, which brings many back from the mines, and an active emigration is flow, ing back from abroad. Sickness has broken out among the miners, and many have returned prostrated with fevers, while others have come to avoid being so. There ii now a large number of labourers here, but many of them refuse to work on any terms, while those who labour do §o at exorbitant prices. The orJinary compensation for white labourers is from six dollars to ten dollars per day. lam now paying these prices for men I am forced to employ for repairing the Govern ment lighter, and for discharging the ship Huntress, now iv this port. At the same time every thing is high iv proportion. Butter sells by the barrel at 1 dollar per pound, and hams at the same price; flour 25 dollars per barrel, and pilot bread forty cents per pound. For the last three pair of boots I have had, I have paid, respectively, 18 dollars, Ii dollars, and 12 dollars per pair. Other things are at correiponding prices in this place, but at the mines everything u much higher. Flour and pork vary in the mines from 40 dollars to 200 dollars per barrel. Common shoe worth in Boston about 75 cents per pair, sell at 8 dollars, or even \2 dollars per pair. There is a kind o recklessness about these prices which would be sough after in vain in any other part of the world. I saw a box of seidliiz powders worth 20 cents in San Francisco, sold in the mines for 24 dollars in grain gold ; and was credibly informed that brandy had been sold at 48 dollars per bottle. From the very imper/ect price current, you can infer the cost of other articles in California. With the pr c s in the mines, bowrver,the cost of almost everything in Citlilornia has increased from one to several hundred per cent. Rents have advanced in some eectioni of the country to an incredible extent. Storehouses of the most fragile and insecure character rent for more th-iti the best warehouse! of similar dimensions iv Bostor or New York. I whs in the mines about the first of July ; at that time ihe weather there was insufferably hot. I think it by far the most oppressive climate I ever was in. It ii much more uncomfortable than the climate of Brazil at the warmest season of the year, and everything was literally parched up after a drought which hda then continued for near three months, and wmch had five months more to run to the rainy teason. The s>ea breezes which extended up the valley of the Sacramento, never puss the Sisna Nevada, and seldom even penetrate the lateral valleys and ravines ol thobe

mountains, and there was not a breath of air moving among the mines. The sun was blazing down with more than tropical fervour, while hit rays were reflected in ten thousand directions from the sides of the hills, until the atmosphere glowed and glimmered like the air in a furnace. I then foresaw, (what has tince happened), that there would he much sickness among the miners These people had deserted their regular occupation ; and a complete change of life, and an unnatural climate, could not fail to act unfavourably upon health. Their diet was bad, their labours were severe, and they were exposed, completely without shelter, in the d.y-time to a burning tun, and at night to the chilly atirosphere of the mountains. Many of them worked with their fret in the water, and inflamed their blood in a feverish climate, by a free use of ardent spirits. The natural result followed. Many are now sick with bilious and intermittent fevers, dysenteries, camp fevers, &c. Most of the streams upon which gold is found are mountain torrents, flowing through rocky and precipitous channels, and a yellowish red soil. There, is apparently much iron in the earth; and where most of the gold is obtuined, the bed and banks of the rivers are composed of coarse gravel intermingled with land and a yellowish earth. So far as I observed, or can ascertain from others, the gold ii always found in the stratum of " drift" or " diluvium," unless it has been displaced by mountain torrents, or through other comparatively modern agencies. The fine gold is found in the lower portions of the streams, and is extracted from the earth by means of washin? in common tin pans, and vessels of every kind that can be substituted for them. The finest portions of the earth are removed by washing and a kind of gyratory motion of the pan : the gravel is taken out with the hand, and the god is left in the vessels, with a kind of black ferruginous sand, not unlike that used in wr'ting. Tbe residue (gold and sand) is then left upon a board or cloth to dry, when the sand is blown off with a common bellows or the mouth, while the greater specific gravity of tbe gold causes it to remain behind. Mush of the finest of the gold is thus blown off with the sand and last. Va<t numbers of the machine! resembling nursery cradles are used in this business. The rocking. of tbe cradle answers to the gyratory motion ot the pan, the water, mud, and fine sand escaping from the foot of the machine over a seriei of small crois bars on its bottom, which are sufficient impediments to stop the more coarse particles of gold. Over the head of the cradle i* a coarse sieve, upon which the auriferous earth is placed, and the machine being in motion, water is poured upon the sieve, and the gold sand, and fine earthy matter, is thus taken into the body of the machine, while the gravel is rejected. All these methods are more or less imperfect, and the process by amalgamation with quicksilver has not been adopted up to this date. It is supposed that at least one-half the gold contained in a given quantity of earth is loit by the imperfect measures taken for cleaning it. As the workmen ascend tbe streams into the mountains, the gold becomes coarser and more massive. On the lower portions of the streams it is found in thin flat particles, resembling small goldeu fish scales. Higher in the mountains it is found varying in size from the finest particles to pieces of five or six ounces in weight, and of all conceivable forms. Many of the largest pieces con'ains small portions of quartz and other granite rock imbedded in them. The coarse gold is dug out of the cievices among the rocks, in the dry beds of mountiiiu torrents, with pickaxes, unall iron bars, spades, butchers knives, sticks, &c. In many places the streams flow over strata of coarse slate or shtle standiog vertically, and between the different layers the q >ld is deposited by the water. Ai no one has yet found the gold in its native matrix, a question often suggests itself as to its origin. I believ<> the coarse gold is found near the spot where it originally lay in its native bed, aud much of the fine gold hai been swept down from the mountains by torrents of water. Almost all the locks in Upper California are imperfectly organised, being soft and friable, anil incapable of resisting the action of the weather. Ir, the process of time the mountains have gradually crumbled away into fine dust, and the gold has been liberated. The coarse gold, from its massiveness and great specific gravity was not removed from the moun* tain aides, whereas the fine gold was s-vept on to the plains below. Tbe extent of these golden deposit! it is impossible to conjecture. Gold has been found one hundred and foity miles above Sutter's Fort. It is dug in great quantities at almost all points along Feather, Juba, aud Bear rivers, and upon the American Fork and all its tributaries, upon the Cosumnes and the Stanislaus rivers, and upon both sides ot the Stm Joaquim river. It hai been found at Bodega, on the sea coast, and at various points in the chain of mountains winch separates the waters flowing into the San Joaquim from those which enter the Pacific, as far as Ciudad de loi Angelos. It has also been found in considerable quanties in the earth of the plains near the mission of Santa Clara. It is thus known to exist throughout a region of country of more than six hundred uoilei in extent, and probably extends into Oregon. There are subjects upon which one cannot write the truth without exciting incredulity, and (it is with great diffidence that I shall attempt to speak of the richness of the mines. I went to them in the most sceptical frame of mind, and came away a believer. From all that I can learn as to similar deposits of cold elsewhere, I believe these to be the richest placer mines in the world. lam satisfied from personal observations, that actire working men can get fiom 25 dollars to 40 dollars per day, estimating the gold at 16 dollars per ounce, troy. Many instances are known of persons having obtained from 800 dollars to 1000 dollars in a day for each man. lam meeting persons daily in this place who have been absent less than 3 months and lu.ve returned with from 2,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars in gold dust. While among the mines 1 collected a large number of facts, from which the following are taken at random as a specimen : — On the most southern tributary of American Fork, 16 miles fiom the main stream, I saw where Messrs. Neilly and Crowley got, with six men, in six days, ten and a half p.iunda of gold, avoirdupois weight. In the bottom of a dry ravine of the same stream, Messrs. Daly and M'Coomi removed, with* a party of Inriiani aud white men, 17,000 dollars in two days, and within two hundred yards of the mam stream. From another dry ravine, within a few rods of tbe last mentioned, it is said that 30,000 dollars were collected in tlnee days. Mr. C. S. Ly man, a cletgyman, unaccustomed to labour, informed me that he got 50 dollars for about 5 hours' labour each day. Mr. Vaca, a New Mexican, who resides about 30 miles from Sutter's, told me, he with four other men, got seventeen pounds of gold, avoirdupois weight, in seven days. I saw the gold. Major Cooper, late of Missuiri, with two men and one boy, got 1000 dollars in two days. Mr. Sinclair had been employed digging god about five xeeks, with a party of Indians, numbering about firty, sometimes more and. sometimes leis. He gave hts Indians meat, sugar, coffte, Hour, and lice, and tin-y ate three ttmes pi r day. They were mostly wild Indiuns, and worked altogether with pans In five weeks, after paying all bis Indians and the current expenses of the jarty, he bad 17,000 dollirs, or upwards of ninety pounds, troy weight, of gold dust. ( The gold was shown. Mr, Noinsand one companion took from « diy raviue,

not far from those already mentioned, 3000 dollars in two dayst and the dirt was racked on horses more than 200 yaids to the water. Mr. A-iron Angland got from his own labour, in 2 ') consecutive days utter his arrival at the mines, 2200 dollars. But I might go on slating facts like these until I should tire ycur patieuce. You will be anxious to know where this is to end. I Fee no prospectof exhausting the mine«. The gold is found extending over an immense tract and country, and it is so universally diffused in the earth of the gold regions, that it may be said to constitute a portion of the soil. It is most abundant in thn valleys and the beds of' streams, because the earth bai been removed by water, and tl.egold remains ; but it is found on the topi and sides of mountains hundreds of feet above ihe water. When in the mining country, I endeavoured to obtain what information the miners and others could afford at to the value of the mines, and the number" of people employed in them. The lowest estimate I heard made of the woikmen was three thousand, including both whites and Indians; but this number was augmented by daily accessions from all parts of California, from Oregon and Sonora, and from the Sandwich Islands. There has been such a drain from the Islands that there is scarcely a mechanic left at Honolulu. The .same is likely to be the case in Oreeon, as every vessel comes in from there crowded, and we hear of a larje overland, emigration Among the people engaged in the mine*, however, there eve many runaway sa lorg, deserters from the nrmy, trappeis and mountrtii eer, who are naturally idle, dissipated and diisolute ; in short, taken in the aggregate, the miners are the wor»t kind ol labouring population. I have asked for estimates of the average grains of all the miners at work in the gold regions, inclu 'injj both the whites and Indians, and have never heaid them stated at le i than six dollars per day for each person. I believe, faking these minimum estimates as oVa, I am fully justified in concluding that during the year commencing July 1, 1848, there will be 5,500 000 dollars removed from the mines, leekoning the ounce troy at 16 dollar*. Thi* sum is considerably greater, according to M'Culloch's Commerc al Dictionary, than the toal amount of gold taken from all the mines in the United States for the fifteen yeais ending in 1838, and itisneailv three times [as great as the entire gild coinage of the United States Mint and all its branches for the same year. From the last information I have been able to col« leer, I believe thatsomethng over 50 i.GOO dollars, at 16 dollars per ounce troy, will have left California in the three months ending September 30th— and of this amount at least four- fifths will find its way to foreign markets, and consequently foreign mints. The same will be the case for some 3 cars to come, unless immediate measures betaken by Government, to establish, a branch mint in California, and in the meantime United States coin is almost totally unknown from Cape Horn to Puget's Sound. In this country the greatest inconvenience prevail? for want of coin, while enormous amounts of uncoined gold are lying dormant in the hands of the people — if they sell it, a heavy sacrifice is incurred — and if they keep it no improvements can be made, and they are destitute of the means of support. The interests of Ihe United States as well as those of California, call loudly for the immediate relief from Congress. It is impossible to foretel what will be the u'timate result of this sudden development of wealth. It is sufficiently obvious, however, that the country will bo piemalurely filled by a restless, excitable, adventurous and reckless population, and that extended agricultural or meohanicxl improvements are at an end for pome years to come. Gambling and all sorts of thoughtless prjfnsion begin to prevail. The present excitement will attract vast numbers of the idle, vicious, and dissolute. Refugees from justice fiom the United States, as well as from other countries, will flock to California, among the better disposed population, and will find shelter among the almost inaccessible fastnesses of. the mountains where such mines of wealth are now opened. These regions are of vast extent, and are remote from the regular settlements, and fiom the operation of the laws. In the solitary recesses of the Sierra Nevadi are s Itfle clusteis of men with nothing but the trees foe their covering, and no protectiou bjt their own vigiI lance and sDcpngtli. Many r.f these people ars known [ to possess very lar^e amounts of gold (sometimes as much as 20,000 dollars) wrapped in their blankets, where there is no eye to see and no acjent to pursue th 1 ? guilty. Is it strange, when tlis temptation is so great that the robber and assassin ehould be abroad among the mountains? Many robberies and some murdeis are known already t-j have occurred ; but little attention is excited by these events, where all are in the eager pursuit of wealth. No one can conjecture the extent of these outrages, for living witnesses sre not at hand, and "deal men tell no tales." The strong and firm hand of government mut-t be promptly extended to save 'he country from moit revolting acts of violence. It becomes a matter of vitnl importance, therefore, that the most efficient measures should be taken for the establishment and preservation of good government in California. The Governor of the territory should be a man of the highest possible character for talent, firmness, and integrity, and no salary hitherto allowed for similar services in other United State* teiritories will be an adequute compensation here. Any good labourer can r«ali/' tif<y per cent, more for h.s set vices than the highest Government olhcer now receives, taking the time together, for a year. It will be impossible to organize a good government under suitab'e men, unless the salaries of every clas3 of government sgents ara proportioned to the unavoidable expenses to be incurred m the country. I know of no section of the United States territories which more imperatively requires string garrisons for the preservation of order. Without them I think the whole c untry will sink into anarchy and the worst possible confusion. .But to p'eserve efficient garrisons in California, the pay of the troops must be raised much above the present miserab'e pittance allowed by law, and very severe enactments mus>t be passed for the punishment of deserters and nil aiders and abaters in desertion. American tioops have never been exp sed to such incentives to de-er ion; and it is no detraction liom their high character to say that udditidnal pay and emoluments for faithful sen ice, and more severe punishments for deseition are imperatively necessary, if troops are to be kept in this country. Soldiers are m etingpeisons every day, of characters and hah ts in no way tupenor to their own, who have lealized more from three or four weeks' labor m the mines, (butt ia paid to them for five of the best years of their livrs devo'ed to the seivice of their country. With dazzling pecuniary prospects before them, y iid all the feeling of tlu'ir associates to support them, the morals of the troops will materially deteriorute, until the militsry establishment will be broken up by desertion. But if the mines of California ara to be made a somce ot revenue to the Government* mea*ures like those above indicated become more and more impoi timt, as efficiency and fidelity among tha troups will then be md speni-atlc to ihe public interests I am, Su, ie<pectfully, your must obedienf servant, J. L. FULSOM, Capta n and Abbuiuut Quartermaster-Mnjtir-Genera' T. S. Jrsup, Ci'uu'ermabtu-CieLeial U, ?, Army.