"A FEW DAYS IN THE DIGGINS." (From Punch)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 414, 21 July 1849, Page 3

"A FEW DAYS IN THE DIGGINS." (From Punch )

I Landed at St. Francisco, after a 'tarnal tossin of five months. This is coming through the small eend of the Horn, I reckon, and there ought to be pretty considerable some on the other side, to make up for leavin' my dry goods store and family fixms in Broadway. *1 raded with a Down-Easter, who is makin' tracks for the settlements, with 30,000 dollars in his carpet bag, for a spade, pick, scoop, and washin' trough — givin' 800 Jollars for the plunder, and glad to get it, as Increase Niles Flint, of Salem, Mass., went 750, and he is a 'tarnal old boss at a deal. Swopped my traps and blankets, a quartercask of pickled pork, and a demi-john of peach brandy, which I had lain' in, for six pounds ginooine gold. - Pretty considerable ' smart tradin. ■Toted my tools to Hiram K. Doughboy^ boarding shanty, and settled with Him for blankets and board' at 80 dollars per diem. Gatawampus prices bete, that's a fact ; but everybody's got more*' dust than he knows what to do witb. Off to the diggins with a party ; mighty small potatoes most of 'em ; all sorts and colours, and everlastin ragged — Bay-statesmen, Back-woodsmen, Buckeyes from Ohio, Hosses from Kentuck, Cape Cod Whalers, St. Francisco Indians, Leperos from Santa Cruz, Texan Volunteers, Philadelphia Quakers, a Latterday Saint, six Irish Sympathisers, twelve Yankees,' as many Britishers, a squad of Deserters, a Blackfoot Guide, a Methodist Parson, and a Mormon Elder. A 'tarnal nigger tried to join us, but got cow-hided. Struck diggiusj and sot to serious washin' : parson began to a«k a blessin', but seem' Silas T. Forks, of Orangeburgh, N. Ca., helpin' himself, parson cut it short off, and we went to work, like niggers at cane hoin', agreein' to dig it in company, and share profits. Cotched the Quaker sunnin' himself, and takin' kink out of his back with a Havannah. Convened a meetin', cow-hided Quaker, and" at it again. Gold lyin' about like earth-nuts, and riddlin' -through the vY- t ter like hail-storm in a sL'eff y- cobbler. ' " '

Sounded the conch for grub, and found nobody got anything, but that 'cute old coon, Zerubbabel *W. Peabody, of Staten Island, who had brought a bag of biscuit and some meat fixens. The varmint wouldn't sell a notion under an ounce of dust, and sacked the whole bilin'. To work again ; totted up at sundown, and found we'd averaged 28 dollars per man. Got back to shanty ; but before that darned Hiram K. Doughboy would let me inside the door, forced to pay down 30 dollars for day's board and lodgin'. So wound up 2 dollars worse than in the mornin'. Calcilated to camp out in future, cut Hiranr, and work on my own hook, havin' realised that Socialism ain't no go in gold diggin'. Asked Hiram why he didn't go out with his bowie knife and washing pail. Hiram sniggered, and said he warn't greedy, and preferred helpin' folks in the shanty. Hiram usen't to be such a concarned fool. ***** Started alone — having swopped the gold I got from Down-Easter yesterday for one blanket, half-quarter cask of pork, and half demi-john of brandy Must convene that I've lost 50 per cent, by bargains ; but a cargo of new diggers have just come iv fiom Panama, great demand for such fixins, and forced to give what the old flint of a Down-Easter chose to ask. He's made considerable some by his trade, that's a fact, and I doubt if he could have done better at the diggins. Made a great day — havin' sacked 40 dols. at least. Got sorter lost, and found, when I tracked back to the tree where I'd cached my plunder, that those 'tarnal Ingines had absquatulated with blanket, pork and brandy. Luckily I've got my tools. Spent the night under a cotton tree ; mighty sharp set in the mornin', having eat nothiu' since yesterday at 12. Struck the trail of Zerubbabel W. Peabody, and traded with him for some bread and pork doin's, for which the everlasting old skinflint made me come down cruel, cleanin 1 me out of all I'd raised" yesterday. Zerubbabel says he ain't diggin', but goin about with a provision and liquor store. It's araazin' how long-headed men like Zerubbabel can be such darned idiots. ***** I've got out of the track of the settlement, and into a prime diggin' — all to myself — where the lumps of gold run as big as pigeons' eggs, afrd He as thick as-%ailstones in Broadway, after a come-down in the fall. But I'm darned weak for want of grub, and so rheumatic with campai' out that it's quite a caution. ***** Two days without seeiu' food — gold gets more abundant than ever. ***** Extract from the San Francisco Star. "Yesterday some Indians from the up diggings came- to the settlement with a man whom they had found lying insensible further up the St. Sacramento than any of our diggers have yet penetrated. He had a bag by his side, which contained £18,000 in dust and lumps of the precious metals ; but the Indians exacted most of it for bringing him back to the settlement. He was fearfully emaciated ; and in another twelve hours the adventurous treasure-seeker must have perished of hun-