FROM THE MINES. (From the Atla California, May 10.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 349, 1 September 1849, Page 3

FROM THE MINES. (From the Atla California, May 10.)

Sacramento City, April 22, 1849.— Friend •' Alta:' I—After1 — After a few momlis' Bojourn in tliem, 1 hare just returned from the " diggings," a " wiser 1 ' if not a " sadder" man. I have *• seen the Elephant," an! am now returning to the regions of civilization with a trustful hope tint greed of gain will never

tempt me again to endure hardships and dangers of which none but a gold-digger can form any idea. I left the Middle Fork about ten days since, having been driven off by the rise of the water which has been some ten feet within the last four week?, and which h 8 completely destroyed all prospects of successful digging for the npxt three months. It is aa entirelyerroneous idea that thti imtrense swell of the river will cease in a few we^kv It is a fiU v rifled by the testimony of that übujui'ous personage the nU'eM; inhabitant, that more »nuw has fallen in the mountain region this year than in any pr«vi us one within recollection. So lorg as this snow continues melting, so long will the river remain up. Nparly all who hays been labouring here for the ppeta c t season are leaving while thousands of new comers, perfectly verdant, are ru hing in to supply their places. How exec sively disappointed will tliere p ople l>e. coming h Q re as most of them do w th their ideas of gold-digging soexaltPd that nothing short of making a fortune in a few weeks will satisfy them. Theie aie now encamped at Cul* loma s»w-mills some three hundred New Yorkers, moit of them bound fur the Middle Foika, with provis'ons, tools, and all the new fangied machines which have been invented and manufactured like I'indar's razor* " to sell," and which are only valuable as curiosities. To a 1 strangers determined to " see the Elephant allow me to giic a word of advice. Fortunes are not to be made in the vain s in a ftw week , excepting m vtry mre ins'ance*. Tl> >se who h vu prospered in th's mines hnve done so by la' our, incessant and severe. Th's is requited, an.l any one who expect* to " <^et gold" wilh'iut i', wi i find out this miatak- to his sorrovr. Many a poor le.low, now lushing with beating heart and hij>h hope to the mines will leave h's bones bleaching in the canons before the summer is closed. I found the community at Culloma in a great state of excitement. Some three week* since a party of Indians entered a camp of white men on the Middle Fork, a few miles below the Spanish Bar, ami after breaking the locks of their rifles, rushed upon and cruel'y murdered them. The names of th a men wire. James Johnson, of lOrtucky ; Thompson, residence unknown ; Benjamin Wood, Miisouri ; Robert Alexander, ditto ; Henry Engl s*i> ditto. A few days afterward, a part of the same party ki led two more nrj<n higher up the liver. One oftlxso men was James Sergeant, formerly a member of Co. F. Co] Stevenson's regimtnt, and tin other a man named Leonard. Upon the r ception of the news of these murders at Culloma, a party was instantly equipped, who started in search of the murderers. After travelling all day without seeing an Indian, about dusk they came upon a ranchena on Weber's Creek, where they killed twenty-rne, and took prisoners some forty Indians ; among the paity were found some of the clothing, and little articles which had belonged to the white men, and on the arrival o r the prisoners at Culloma seven of them were re ognized, by a man who had escaped, as being participators in the murder— ail but ;hcss seven were released, and (h y were retained for tiial. On the afiermon of the 19Ui they were taken out from their place of confinement to be tiied ; but they, probably thinking they wrre to be shot, no sooner reached the open air tha i they r«n. T«e rifles of the niountameen woe instantly levelled upon them with a dealy aim, and six of the st,ven ft II at thd first fire. The other escaped, and he is rail to have been the leader of the party, and a desperate fellow. There will be trouble with the Indians in the mountain* this summer. Af'er what has occurred, revenge will be sought by both parties, and many a solitary whi'e man will be ciutlly murdered by Indians, and many an Ind : an picked <.(T by a mountaineer's nfle. Hereafter treaties cannot be mude, «nd the two races can never live together harmoniously; and f doubt not but a war of extern inn tion will soon be commenced. The country between here and Culloma is beautiful. For miles in extent the ground is clothed with that prettiest of all wild flowers, the Californian poppy ; the air is fragrant, this h. Us green, ami the trees affording ade iciou-. shade. It scuroely seems poaiiblo that thii is the same dried up, b.trnt and baiieu region I travelled through four months ago. Yours, &c, E. G. B.