CALIFORNIA.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 460, 11 September 1850, Page 3

CALIFORNIA.

[Tlig following lines, which we copy from the Pa* cific News of May 27, although they cannot lay claim to high poetical merit, yet are deserving of attention as the apparently sincere expression of the feelings of one who had not only heard and observed but had realized for himself what California »'s and what it gives, and who thus states the results of his painful experience. Ed. N. Z.I There is a land of gold along The wild Pacific shore, .To which unnumbered thousands throng, To share its glittering store. From many a clinic beyond the sea— From many a country far, Thither they flock incessantly, Lured by the golden star. From Britain's coast and vine-clad France, And some from "far Cathay," From both Americas advance Their ships upon the way . From north and south, and east and west, Around Cape Horn, and where Old Ocean on his sapphire breast, Doth isles like emeralds wear. How many come to shore alive, How many die before— How many mid the mines survive Their labor for the ore : How many fortune there will find, How many find a grave. Is known but to His single mind, Who can destroy or save, •Tia sad to think that many a bark, Well rigged, and tall, and strong— That when both sea and sky were dark, Danced to the tempest's song, And lightly, on her billowy way, Impressed a whitened pathMay may never reach the long sought bay ; Wrecked by the Storm-King's wrath. 'Tis sad to think that many a crew, Whose breasts to hope were given, When first they hailed the Ocean blue Beneath 'a smiling Heaven, May, in some storm's fierce strength and gloom, Be whelmed beneath the wave, And only have, for shroud and tomb, ( Sea weed and coral cave. Alas ! how many a loring eye, By loved ones left at home, Will fill with tears, when winds are high, And lash the waves to foam, And look, how oft ! and look in vain, Where madden'd billows roar, For one that ne'er will come again Back to his native shore. Alas 1 how many a loving heart, Which aclied with agony When its beloved did depart, On earth ne'er eased shall be. Tho' sick through hoped deferred it live. Despair will come at last ; Then death the sole relief can give By which its pangs are past. Oh ! he hath made a sad mistake, Who deems that happiness Possession of mere gold can make, Tho' millions we possess ; For there's sa adtiess of the heart, A sickness off the soul, Which earthly wealth and human art Can cure not, nor control. Oh ! far more precions is the love Of one pure, gentle breast, Whose aspirations are above Pride, and self-interest, Than all the riches ever won From earth's vexed mines, in vain For which, men toil beneath the sun And mind and body strain And California ! tho' thy gold, Much as it is, were more ; And tho' a gem, of price untold, Each rock upon thy shore ; Their weeded values could not pay j For lsso of ft iends and home : Treasures, by many cast away, Who heie for dross have come. San Fiancisco, March 28.