CALIFORNIA.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 306, 25 September 1860, Page 4

CALIFORNIA.

(Prom the Sydney Mornnig Herald.) By the Eliza and Ella, American ship, we have news from San Francisco,to 26th June. The Daily Alta California, of 25th June, states that the city of San Francisco numbers at present probably ninety thousand inhabitants, and of these a voting population of some fourteen thousand. There are thirteen thousand children in the city, three thousand of whom are free pupils in the public schools. In the way of educational institutions, charitable and benevolent associations, hotels, churches, firedepartment, places of amusement, San Franoisco is scarcely a whit behind any city of her sizo on the continent. There are now published in it twenty-four newspapers and periodicals, eleven of which are issued daily. The Municipal Government is under the control of a board of supervisors, consisting of a president and twelve members, corresponding to the number of districts in the city. The police department of the town, although not numerically large, appears to be sufficient for the protection of the city, than which there is none more orderly in the union. General health prevails all over the State. Steamship 3 now leave this port trimonthly for Panama, connecting with vessels bound to New York and New Orleans. Steamers also depart at regular intervals for northern,and southern coast ports, Oregon, and Puget Sound. Sailing-vessels, laden with the products of every clime, arrive constantly from all quarters of the globe, and to-day San Francisco ranks as the third commercial city in the United States. There is shipped hence on an average 1,700,000 dollars semi-monthly. The town is rapidly augmenting in population and wealth, and throughout the city a greater number of improvements are observable than at any previous period for several years. The Evening Bulletin, of June 27, reports the escape of several State Prison convicts. It says:—Last Tuesday, the schooner Pike County, belonging to the lessee of the State Prison, was sent to Petaluma Creek after a load of wood, to be used in the burning of bricks at the prison. The wood had been taken in during the night, and the following day the schooner was on its way back to the State Prison. There were on board Captain Clark, a guard, and fourteen convicts. "While the vessel was between Benicia and the islands called the Sisters, the guard being asleep, ten of the convicts seized him and placed him in the hold together with four of the oonvicts who had refused to join them. They fastened the hatches over them and then went aft and knocked down Captain Clark, who fell insensible. Then they sailed for the nearest land on the eastern side and made cheir escape. The four convicts and the guard who had been placed in the hold succeeded in opening the hatch, and as soon as possible sailed for the prison. Captain Clark, who has been engaged in the State Prison for the last four years, was conveyed to his quarters*, he was very much injured, and still lies insensible. None of the prisoners have as yet been re-captured. The San Francisco Herald, of 26th June, states that orders have at length been issued by the War Department for the prevention of further interruptions on the Salt Lake overland route. The troops stationed in Utah will here: after be actively employed along the whole line from Salt Lake to the California frontier, and permanent posts be established at the most available points in the disturbed districts. Mint Statistics.—-During the week ending 53rd June, 22,731 ounces of gold bullion, worth about 435,000 dollars, including refined gold, to the value of 278,000 dollars, and 2909 ouncß3 of silver bullion, were deposited in the Mint; and 150,000 dollars were coined in double eagles. Valuable Discovery of Copper.—A party left San Andres on Monday last prepared to prospect and test a vein of copper, which had recently been found near the Stanislaus River, toward the southern end of South Spring Valley, They were out two days, returning on Tuesday night, with a number of specimens of the ore. It looks rich, and the mineralogist of the party, who tested its properties, reports that those specimens taken from the bottom of a nine-feet hole which the party 6unk, contain forty-five per cent, of copper. The .main vein was not reached, and whatever specimens may be exhibited were taken from boulders of ore which have been detached. An assay made of specimens of the ore brought to this place shews the presence of gold in considerable quantities.— '■ Daily Alta. The Washoe Mines.—Rich and extensive silver mines are being worked near Carson Valley, in what is termed the Washoe country. Operations have, however, lately been retarded; owing to Indian disturbances in the vicinity. Hostilities have been temporarily suppressed by; the prompt action of volunteer forces assisted; by a few Federal regular troops, who have, driven the savages into their native fastnesses. The great tunnel at Virginia City, which is to be nine hundred feet in length, is steadily progressing. Three relays of workmen, each of whom work eight hours steadily night and day, are employed. It will take two or three monts to complete this tunnel. Autiferous discoveries { have recently been made at Silver City and Gold Hill, and, although as yet but barely prospected, promise favorably. As has been a thousand times remarked, the bane of the country is what in common parlance is termed, the 1 *' swapping of coats," or engaging in speculating in claims without regard to their value, or j caring whether or not they shall ever be worked for the purpose of discovering their intrinsic worth. Many of the professional dealers in imaginary silver claims have left the country, | and some who have no "coats to swap" still ! remain.— "Evening Bulletin. Outrages by the Indians.—Writing on the 28th of May, from Guaymas, the correspondent of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin says:— :, ■.■<■■■'■■■ ■ ■ ' ■ Returning from the interior I find everything here in an uproar. In the river ,"Yaqui the flame of revolution has burst out again—if, indeed, it was ever really extinguished—fiercer than before; and the Indians masters of the open country, where they have destroyed the crops and committed other outrages, having cut off a convoy from Torin, ai;e investing the strongholds of Los Meganos, Vicara, and.Bacun. The rancho of Guayma,s is barricaded and inl--trenched like a French boulevard on the morning of an .emeute, and. affairs look decidedly uncomfortable. Access to the interior is entirely, cut off by the Pass of Bacatete, at no time during the past year very secure; and all travel <. Is diverted to the routes by Hermosillo and j San Marcial. The rancberos are flocking into ' town for satety, as are many of the settlers on the river, mostly foreigners, who, deceived by the specious indulto, had been induced to invest

their capital and labor* in-plantations op the Yaqui; and now, just as the grain ia; matured, and their hopes are reaching fruition,' are doomed to see the fruits of their toil devastated before their eyes. No foreigner has aB yet received personal injury from the Yaquis. In the interior rumors of revolution ate rife. Mutterings arid grumblings are heard in every direotion;\and I have little doubt, that were a leader to present himself equal to the task, many of the Sonorians would launch themselves into the vortex of civil war, unmindful of the utterly exhausted and impoverished condition of the State, and that a dangerous insurrection against the existing authorities would speedily be organised. . The Apache campaign still languishes for want of funds, and the Government even prates of pease with that murdering crew. Their ravages in that part of Sierra, which I have just visited have been truly frightful. Murders are of daily, almost hourly occurrence, and if robberies are not more frequent it is simply because there is nothing left to rob. Things have reached such a pass: in Sonora, that out of the principal towns no man: dare go, to the spring for water, without carrying arms for his protection.' The weakness, of the Government —though clothed with, despotic authority—the corruption of some of the ofiiciala and the cowardice and imbecility of others, have brought her to that point-that it would appear impossible that she could continue to exist as a State, for two^. years longer, to any one not acquainted with the cat-like vitality possessed by these sham republics. Murdered and plundered by one another* and a prey to the common foe—the Apache—they don't seem to care a bit; like the Billingsgate eela, they have got used to skinning. . I have travelled Sonora for thousands of miles, and in every direction—l have associated intimately with all classes from the Governor down to the meanest peon —and I may say, without the imputation of vanity, that my opportunities of acquiring information and judging of the present and prospective state of the country are probably fully equal to those of any other one individual within its limits; and so prostrated and paralyzed do I find every department of industry—so disorganised the body politic—so ignorant, prejudiced, utterly and hopelessly demoralised the great mass of the people, that I can see no salvation for Sonora save in foreign rule. So impoverished are the citizens, and so great and universal the want of confidence manifested in the good intentions of those who guide the helm of State, that I do not believe they have the power, even if they possessed the will, to regenerate themselves. Every day witnesses the abandonment of some once prosperous ranch ; the inhabitants concentrate themselves more and more in the villages, where their sole dependence ior support is the mining interest—a ; support becoming yearly more precarious, from the wretched system of mining pursued and the total neglect of the wise provisions of that noble monument of legislation, the Ordenanza de Mineria. I spw a case in point the other day in the Mina de los Bronses of San Javier, whose Mexican owners projected its destruction when it was purchased by a gentleman of this city, who sunk a shaft to work it properly. When I passed through, three weeks ago,; they had nine different workings, yielding ore in great quantities, giving to my assay over 4000 dollars per ton. The onward march of the Apache resembles that of Cortes at the:seige of Tenochtitlan: he leyels and depopulates as he goes, and leaves nothing but ruin and decay behind him. Iv their recent incursions, they carried off stock as far south as Los Cedros, in the immediate vicinity of Conception de Alamos. :