THE CALIFORNIAN GOLD FINDERS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 408, 30 June 1849, Page 3

THE CALIFORNIAN GOLD FINDERS.

The accounts continue to increase in interj esf. Tlie New York Herald introduces a \ highly interesting letter from a correspondent at Monterey, California, with the following mysterious paragraph : — " We have also received a private and confidential letter, which contains intelligence so astounding concerning the gold regions that we forhear to give it to the public at this time lest they should not credit it, and might only laugh at us for our pains, and accuse us of attempting to hoax and deceive the public." The Herald then goes on to declare that there were strong reasons for believing that Governor Mason and all his officers, men, mules, and waggons, were engaged digging on the banks of- the Sacramento river. Col. Stephenson had also disbanded his regiment, and gone on the like errand. This officer is said to have collected upwards of one million of dollars worth of gold dust. Captain Matey, son of the United States Secretary of War, was engaged in the same pursuit. The correspondent's letter, Which is dated Monterey, November 16, is highly interesting ; we therefore give it entire ;—; — "We can now call ourselves citizens of the United States. We have now only to go by law, as we formerly went by custom, that is, when Congress gives us a Government and a code. The old foreign residents of California, having done very well ten or twenty years without law, care but very little whether Congress pays" early or hue attention

to the subject. Those who have emigrated ' from the Atlantic States within the last three or four years deem the subject an important one -; I only call it difficult. The carrying out a code of laws, under existing circumstances, is far from being an easy task. The general government may appoint governors, secretaries, and other public functionaries; and judges, marshals, collectors, may accept offices with salaries of 3,000 dols. or 4,XM30 dois. per annum ; but how they are to obtain their petty officers, at half these sums, remains to be seen. The pay of a member of Congress will be accepted here by those alone who do not know enough to better themselves. Mechanics can now get ten dols, to sixteen dols. per day; labourers on the wharfs or elsewhere, five dols. to ten dols. ; clerks and storekeepers, 1,000 dols. to 3,000 dols. per annum, some engage to keep store during their pleasure at eight dols. per day, or one pound or one pound and and a half of gold per month ; cooks and stewards, sixty dols. to one hundred dols. per month. In fact, labour of all description commands exhorbitant prices. My previous information to you I merely forwarded to your office, to open the way to the future belief of your many readers. I had not much expectation of being believed. The idea of mountains of quicksilver only wanting the ingenuity of man to make them pour forth as a stream — of rivers, whose bottoms and banks *re of gold, is rather too much to play upon the credulity of New Yorkers or Yankees. I suppose my story passed as an enlarged edition of the Arabian Nights, improved and adapted to California. " Whether you or your readers took the tale for fiction or truth, I know not. Your last paper that has reached us is of April. Thi3 I know, the Sandwich Islands, Oregon, and Lower Cali'ornia, are fast parting with their inhabitants, all bound for this ccast, and thence to the great { placer ' of Sacramento valley, where the digging and washing of one man that does not produce 100 troy ounces of gold, twenty-three carats, from the size of a half spangle to one pound in one month, set the digger to ' prospecting,' that is, looking for better grounds. Your ' Paisano ' can point out many a man who has, for twenty days in succession, bagged up five to ten ounces of gold a day. Our placer, or gold region, now extends over 300 or 400 miles of country, embracing all the creeks and branches on the East side of the San Joaquin. In my travels I have, when resting under a tree and grazing my horse, seen pieces of pure gold taken from the crevices of the rocks or slate, where we were stopping. On one occasion, nooning or refreshing on the side of a stream entirely unknown to diggers or 'prospectors, 1 or rather, if known not attended to, one of ray companions iv rolling in the sand, said, ' Give me a tin pan, why should we not be cooking in gold sands?' He took a pan, filled it with sand, washed it out, and produced in five minutes two or three dollars' worth of gold, merely saying, as he threw both pan and gold on the sand, ' I thought so.' Perhaps it is fair that your readers should learn, however plentifully the Sacramento valley may afford gold, the obtaining of it has its disadvantages. Frcm the Ist of July to the Ist of October, more or less, one half of the people will have fever and ague, or intermittent fever. In the winter it is too cold to work iv the water. Some work in the sand by washing from the surface in a wooden 'bowl or tin pan ; some gouge it from the rocks or slate ; the more lazy ones roll about and pick up the large pieces, leaving the small gold for the next emigration. The extent of the gold region on the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers extends a distance of 800 miles in length by 100 in width. It embraces not only gold, but quantities of quicksilver in almost geneial abundance. It is estimated that a small population actively engaged in mining operations in that region could export 100,000,000 dols. in gold every year, and that an increased population might increase that amount to 300,000,000 dols. annually. You may believe me when I say that for some time to come California will export yearly, nearly or quite 500,000 ounces of gold twenty-two to twenty-four carats fine; some pieces of that will weigh sixteen pounds, very many one pound. Many men who began last June to dig gold with a capital of 50 dols. can now show 5000 to 15,000 dols., I saw a man to day making purchases of dry goods, &c, for his family, lay on the counter a bag made of raw hide, well sewed up, containing 100 ounces. I observed, " that is a good way to pack gold dust," He very innocently repl ed, ' All the bags I brought down are that way, I like the size. 1 Five such bags in New York would bring nearly 10.000 dols. This man left his family last August. Three months' digging and washing, producing four or five bags of 100 ounces each, is better than being mate of a vessel at forty dollars per month, as the man formerly was. His companion, a Mexican, who camp-

Ed and worked with him, only had two or three cowhide bags of gold. In this tough, but true golden tale, you must not imagine that all men are equally successful. There are some who have done better ; even 4000 dollars in a months and others who refused to join a company of gold washers who had a cheap made machine, and receive one ounce per day that returned to the settlement with not a v«st pocket full of gold. Some Jeft -with only sufficient to purchase a horse and a saddle, and pay the physician six ounces of ffold for one ounce of quinine, calomel and jalap in proportion. An ounce of gold for advke given, six ounces a visit, brings the fever and ague to be rather an expensive companion. A ' well' man has his proportionate heavy expenses also, to reduce bis piles or bags of gold, Dry beef in the settlements at four cents per lb., at the Placer, one dollar to two dollars per lb. ; salt beef and pork, fifty dollars to one hundred dollars per barrel ; flour, thirty dollars to seventy-five dollars per barrel ; coffee, sugar, and rice, fifty cents to one dollar per lb. As washing is fifty cents to one dollar a garment, many prefer throwing away their used up clothes to paying the washerwoman ; that is, if they intend returning to the settlements soon, where they can purchase more. As to shaving, I have never seen a man at the Placer who had time to perform that operation. Thfy do not work on Sundays, only brush up the tent, blow out the emery, or find black sand from the week's work. Horses that can travel only one day, and from that to a week, are from 100 dols. to 300 dols. Freight charge by launch ownners for three days' run, five dollars per barrel. Waggoners charge fifty dollars to one hundred dollars per load, twenty to fifty miles on a good road. Corn, barley, peas and beans ten dollars a bushel. Common pistols any price ; powder and lead very dear. I know a physician who, in San Francisco, purchased a common made gold washer at twenty dollars or thirty dollars made of seventy or eighty feet of^boards. At a great expense he boated it up to the first landing on the Sacramento, and there met a waggoner bound to one of the diggings with an empty waggon, distant about fifty miles. The waggoner would not take up the machine under 100 dols-. The doctor had to consent and bided his time. ■ June passed over rich in gold ; all on that cteek did wonders, when the waggoner fell sick, called on his friend the doctor whose tent was in sight ; the doctor came, but would not administer the first dose under the sum of one hundred dollars, which was agreed 10, under a proviso that the following doses should be furnished more moderate. When a man's time is worth 100 dollars a-day to use a spade and tin pan, neither doctors nor waggoners can think much of a pound of gold, anil you may suppose merchants, traders and ped.ars are not to make their fortunes in these golden times. In San Francisco, there is more merchandise sold now in a month than before in a year. Vessels after vessels arrive, land their cargoes, dispose of them and bag up the dust and lay up the vessel, as the crew ace soon among the missing. The cleanest clear out is when the captain follows the crew. There are many vessels in San Francisco that cannot wei o h anchor, even with the assistance of three or four neighbouring vessels. Supercargoes must land cargo on arriving, or have no crew to do it for them. Some vessels continue to go to sea with small crews at 50 dollars per month for green hands. Old hands are too wise for them, and prefer digging an ounce or two aday, and drinking hock and champagne at halt an ounce a bottle, and eating bad sea bread at one dollar per pound. I have seen a captain of a vessel, who by his old contract in the port whence he sailed, was getting 60 dollars per month, paying his cook 75 dollars, and offering 100 dollars per mouth for a steward ; his former crew even to his mates, having gone a ' prospecting.' Uncle Sam's ships suffer a little the same way, although they offer from 200 dols. to 300 dols. for the apprehension of a deserter. The Ohio, however laid in the port of Monterey about a month, and lost only twenty or thirty men. Colonel Stevenson's regiment is disbanded, ninety nine out of a hundred of whom have also gone ' prospecting,' including the Colonel, who arrived in Monterey last month from bis last post, and was met by his men at the edge of the town to escort and cheer him into the town. The captains, &c, have brought up country carts and oxen, turned drivers, and gone to the placer. Our worthy Governor, Colonel of Ist Dragoons, &c. having plenty of carts, waggons, horses and mules, with a few regulars left, has also gone, but under better advantages, for the second or third time to see the placer and the country, and have justice done to his countrymen or himself. Commodore Jones, lately arrived in Monterey, supposed it to be the capital, head quarters, &c, but found not even the Governor lef.. Where bead quarters are may be uncertain whether in Monterey, Sutter's Fort, or in four mule waggon travelling over the gold re.

gion. Now, whether head quarters are freighted with munitions of war, &c, or whether the cargo consists of blankets shirts, &c, to clothe the suffering Indians, for the paltry consideration of gold, no one cares or knows. But the principle should be, that if privates can or will be off making fheir thousands, those who are better able, should not go goldless." A letter from Commodore Jones states, that many of the petty officers and men had deserted and gone in of the gold. He adds the Indians were selling gold at 50 cents the ounce. Many vessels were deserted by captain, cook, and seamen. The ship Isaac Walton offered discharged soldiers 50 dols. per month to go to Callao, which were refused. She was supplied by Government sailors. All the naval vessels on the coast were short of hands. Nearly the whole of the 3rd artillery bad deserted. Provisions were scarce and high ; board, four dollars a-day ; washing, six dollars a dozen. Merchant's clerks get ' from 2000 to 3000 dollars a year. From all the States of the Union, vessels crowded with passengers were sailing daily. Even vessels of the very woist description were eagerly bought at very high prices. Amongst the emigrants from New York we notice the name of Frederick Jerome, late seaman of the New World packet ship.

[From a Morning Paper.] One fine morning last September we called the attention of our readers to the strange results which might be expected from the sudden admission of thousands of the hungriest, most inquisitive, and most indomitable adventurers in the world to the unfathomable stores of a vast unexplored region. By adopting Cobbett's interpretation of prophecies we might take credit for having predicted no inconsiderable portion of the wonders which we now announce, but we are free to confess that although we did compare the Americans in California to a British Association in Japan, we were not altogether prepared for such a report of their transactions as we yesterday presented to the public. Our advertising columns will have sufficiently shown that the rage for gold hunting has not been limited to the New World, but we have reason to suppose that very indefinite conceptions are entertained respecting the circumstances and condition of the country so strangely introduced to popularity and renown. At this moment the golden treasures seem practically to belong-to the finder. Any immigrant from any quarter, possessed of a pickaxe and a shovel, is apparently at liberty to pocket all the gold which his diggings may prcduce. The territory is, however, the rocognised property of the United States, and although certain political and legislative difficulties have hitherto impeded the formal settlement of the province, yet the time must be at hand when the mines of California will be no more common property than the mines of Almaden. Nothing but an extraordinary combination of circumstances could have permitted the scramble to have continued so long. California is one of the few regions of the now known world which may be presumed to have never at any period of time been subjected to any cognizable government. It was never, like Central America, the seat of any barbaric civilisation, nor was it ever brought under any thing more than the nominal rule of Spain and her colonists. The few Indians on its I prairies, and the few settlers on its coasts roamed and vegetated without any more appreciable supervision of a superior power than exists in New Guinea. When it was made over by Mexico to the States no Mexican had any more knowledge of its character or contents than of those of Assam or Labuan. As long as its treasures were still hidden this state of things might have continued without any serious evil, but under the circumstances lately disc'osed, it becomes a matter of the greatest importance, and, as it will be seen, o( almost equal difficulty, to organise some efficient government in the province, and some protection for life and property. The Californian settlement was conquered in the late war by a wing of an irregular corps, whose operations Were obscured by the comparatively interesting campaigns of General Scott and Santa Anna. A military detachment was subsequently left at San Francisco as a symbol of occupation, and this it r/as presumed would suffice until the settlement of the slavery question, and some others, should permit Congress to agree upon a system of organisation for the province. But, after a brief show of resistance to the torrent, those authorities have now joined the invaders in common quest of plunder. Governor Mason, with all his officers, was, as the latest intelligence informs us, deep in the diggings. Colonel Stepbenson had disbanded his regiment, and was camping out on the Sacramento. Captain Marcy, son of the Secretary of War, had " set to serious washing in the great Placer." There was no officer, and scarcely an inhabitant, at any part of the coast. Where " heid-quarters" might be was altogether un-

known ; but the most plausible conjecture seemed to point to a certain " four mule waggon travelling over the gold region." Nor did any amendment in this respect seem very likfly. The commander-in-chief of the Pacific squadron had reported, and not unreasonably, that he bad no hope of " maintainiig in California any naval or military establishment for some years to come"-—i.e. ,• as we may presume, until the sure operations of time and trade had brought " diggings" and wages to a level again. The fact is that the ties of discipline and patriotism snap asunder in a moment when an American is brought in presence of a substance of so superior affinity as gold. The mines act like that great mountain of loadstone in the " Arabian Nights," which whenever a ship came within a certain distance attracted all the nails from its sides with a tremendous noise, and left the unfortunate vessel to founder in fragments. Soldiers, sailors, officers, secretaries, and servants are drawn off to the " diggings" as soon as ever they touch the land. By our last advices, a " governor and judges," bound for the new province, had already arrived at Chagres, but, as the same correspondence sensibly inquires '• What wages must be given to make a man <,serve bis country when he can earn 100 dollars a day on bis own hook?" There seems to be no doubt about the Reality of the reports, though we are,-to be sues, informed in the same despatches that the ma* ~ nufacture of artificial gold for exportation to California, was carried on to a great extent in New York and Coonecticut. Still this considerate provision can hardly have taken much effect as yet, and the yield must be mostly genuine. The modes of exploration in this land of wealth vary according to the tastes of the operatives. Plodding old stagers grub on steadily in the sand, and wash their scrapings in a tin pan. The more lazy ones *' roll about and pick up the big bits, leaving the sma'le'f pieces for the next immigration." Some fine dashing fellows on blood horses career over the rocks with bowie knives at full speed, and " gouge" out the gold from the crevices with a twist which practice has made familiar. The " dust" when collected is packed in bags of cow hide, carried to the port, and put on board vessels for exportation. At this point of the process, however, there is a serious hitch. The vessels are all without crews, and the gold therefore remains in port by boat loads ; nor i,s it likely to move off urtil a whole ship's company are found surfeited with the fruit of the diggings. As to the climate, disease rather than mortality, is said to prevail, and most people compound for an intermittent fever thiough five months of the year. Law there is none, nor government, nor police; but our brethien across the Atlantic have a knack of extemporising these requisites, and the passions in California are pretty well concentrated. Besides, where it is easier to dig than to rob, even Jonathan Wild would have given over thieving. We are anticipated in any speculations upon the '* European results" of this great dis- , covery, by some reflections which will be found above, conceived, as the author thinks, in a spirit of " sobriety, religion, and quietude." It will be time enough to calculate the market value of gold when the £100,000,000 sterling arrives annually at Liverpool in the galleons of the Republic. There are some old scores to be cleared off first, and a tolerable per centage to be deducted afterwards ; but what is of greater consequence to us, it is plain that whether the gold falls or not produce of all kinds has already risen. The activity consequent on the enterprise has sensibly raised the value of agricultural and manufacturing products. Bread stuffs and calicos alike command higher prices than before, and though the mania will probably end in the ruin of many aud-the disappointment of more, it can hardly be without its beneficial effects on the colonisation of the New World, and the commerce of the Old.

The Hartford Times says, that very large quantities of spelter solder have been sent to California on speculation. It is dropped in when hot, by which means small scales are formed, resembling almost exactly the gold dust or scales of Feather River. It is one of the vilest cheats of the day. We are informed that six barrels of this staff were sent out in one ship from New York, and also that some more had been sent from Hartford. The game is to sell this base metal to the gold hunters as they arrive in California. — New Haven Journal.