THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE EMIGRANTS TO CALIFORNIA. [From the " Boston Traveller," February 9.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 451, 10 August 1850, Page 3

THE DIFFICULT IES OF THE EMIGRANTS TO CALIFORNIA. [From the " Boston Traveller," February 9.]

A long conveisation with an intelligent young man of Boston, who went to California in the ship Leonore, and was absent just a year and four days, has given us a much stronger impression of the sufferings, misery, and death of many who have entib irked in this dazzling but hizardous enterpiise of gold-hunting, than we before had. According to oui informant, this is by no means a highly colomed report. The Alia California of December 31, j.'ives only two or three dea'hs in ban Fmncisco in the previous month, wheieas our informant was told by the superintendent of burials of that town Unit from sixty to seventy died weekly, and that fioni bis to eight were daily biiiied at the expense of the city, they having no friends to care for them while sick, or to bury them when dead. Indeed, it is thought that tho announcement of the decease of many of tin m will never reach their friends, who will thus leinain for ever in ignorance of their fate. Our informant, a Ehort tune beloie his dep k rture, followed with a (e\v others, the waggon containing the body of a gold seeker to the graveyard of Sun Fiancisco, now fastfil ing with many who left behind happy homes and hosts ot friends in too late regrei ted New Euglaud. He found upon his arrival U eic, several open graves, con'ainmg two, thieu, and four coffins, no "rave being clos d iintii it hail received at least two coflinp. Some ot the giaves were marked with the names of those nho slept beneath, victims to this great mania of the ivnettentb century. But, melancholy a= is this record of the dead, it is a brighter picture than that of the 6uff eungs cf many who are at piesent crow ed ii>lo SanFfjncisco, Oom the mines, cnfccbltd, without money friend*, or home. They wander about the town, gaunt misery stamped upon then faces, and often su-Uiu life hy digging flams and mutcies up->n the sea-thoie, and by flahing, finding a l.tdge at night perhaps in the tent of a ftieud; if not, in the open stieet. Thelatefue, by decreasing the numbsi of buildings at the moment that the population was rapidly increasing has added greatly to the suffering of this class of persona. With V.us increase of misery, comes ab>o ciime. At the gseat fire many had their pockets picked ; others were lobbed of their goods, and several arrests aftciwards took plure of persons charged with these crimes, and they were committed to the prison ship to await trial. Such was the state of San Fiancisco at the commencement of the new year. It thus seems that the chief stories of distress and Buffering come from the town?, and not from the, mine*, fiom whence it was peneiully auti ipatedlliat our most gloomy accounts Rould be received. From the mines, however, our repoitsare more favorable, and justify the hope that all will continue well there throughout the winter. It will be remembered that ftJr. Pailcer H. Piercp, of Cambridge, sued the Captain (Green) ot the ship Leonore, tor leaving him behind. Wo undeistand he recoveied 2 Ot) doll.us, inclu'iuig costs. The case was managed for Mr. Pierce by Aniiis Meirill, well known as one of the counsel for tic defence in the Tirrell tiial I'tre. Tl c same counsel bus alro been engaged to de fend t'.e validity of oever.il titles to hn I based upon grants fiom MiX'co, and has in most cd^eo been successful. A wharf has been finished in San Fiancisco, of eight hundred feet in length, at the end of winch they obtain nine feet of water. It is shortly to be earned out MX bundle,! ftct fuither. As to the mines, our informant's statements are substantially in accordance with thepub'iahed accounts. He sayy, however, that there is a visible inciease of crime chiefl/ am >n ; roimin; Mexicans and Chihnos, of whom quite a number have had their ears ciopped in consequence, and persons without thess latherin* dispensable appendages to the heauty of the lorin divine, weie getting" to be quite nameroue. The most formidable robber gang that have lic^n brought to punishment in the mines, was RedDavii, an Irishman and hia two companions, also Irish, who were handed some months since, tli3 former for robbing a washerwoman of 125 dollars, and neaily choking to death her son, who happened to be near at the time. Before his death Ixed Davis, who was a member of Stevenson's legimcnt, made a confession to his counsel, of a long catalogue of crimes committed from his boyhood up. Hisciiminal career began, he said, when u boy upon one of the Mississippi steamboat?, where he used to pick the pockets and plunder tlie baggage of tlie passengers, and fiom this he went on adding crime to oiime, uulil his wicked course was suddenly brought to a close, by his being hung from the bough ot a tree in one ol th°, valleys ot California.