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The discovery of gold in California, in 1848, with its other mineral resources,including the Alamada quicksilver mine atSan José, which is an article of firstnecessity in working gold or

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Title: The Adventures of a Forty-ninerAuthor: Daniel Knower

Release Date: June 4, 2004 [eBook

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Language: English

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FORTY-NINER***

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Proofreading Team

THE ADVENTURES

OF A

FORTY-NINER.

AN HISTORIC

DESCRIPTION OF

CALIFORNIA, WITH EVENTS AND IDEAS OF SAN FRANCISCO AND ITS PEOPLE IN THOSE EARLY

DAYS.

PIONEERS OF CALIFORNIA.

THE MAN IN HIS TENT.

THE CLIPPER SHIPS.

A BULL FIGHT.

HOME SICKNESS.

JESUIT MISSION STATIONS.

SCENES ON THE PACIFIC OCEAN PERORATION.

DEATH OF A FORMER SCHOHARIAN.

APPENDIX.

The discovery of gold in California, in

1848, with its other mineral resources,including the Alamada quicksilver mine atSan José, which is an article of firstnecessity in working gold or silver ore;and the great silver mines of Nevada, in

1860, the Comstock lode, in which, in tenyears, from five to eight hundred millions

of gold and silver were taken out, a largeramount than was ever taken from onelocality before, the Alamada quicksilvermine being the second most productive ofany in the world, the one in Spain beingthe largest, said to be owned by theRothschilds Its effect upon the general

prosperity and development of our countryhas been immense, almost incalculable.Before these discoveries the amount ofgold in the United States was estimated atabout seventy millions, now it is conceded

to be seven hundred millions TheNorthern Pacific coast was then almostunpopulated California a territory threetimes as large as New York and Oregonand the State of Washington, all now beingcultivated and containing large andpopulous cities, and railroads connectingthem with the East Why that countryshould have remained uninhabited foruntold ages, where universal stillnessmust have prevailed as far as humanactivity is concerned, is one of theunfathomable mysteries of nature It isonly one hundred and twenty-five years

since the Bay of San Francisco was firstdiscovered, one of the grandest harbors inthe world, being land-locked, extendingthirty miles, where all the vessels of theworld could anchor in safety The earlypioneers of those two years immediatelyafter the gold was discovered (of which I

am writing) are passing away As Ossiansays, "People are like the waves of theocean, like the leafs of woody marvin thatpass away in the rustling blast, and otherleaves lift up their green heads." There isprobably not five per cent of thepopulation of California to-day, of thosedays, scenes and events of which I havetried to portray Another generation havetaken their places who can know but little

of those times except by tradition I, beingone of the pioneers, felt it a duty, or an

inspiration seemed to come over me as anobligation I owed to myself andcompatriots of those times, to do what Icould to perpetuate the memory of them tosome extent in the history of our country asfar as I had the ability to do it.

THE AUTHOR

THE CALIFORNIA PIONEER SOCIETY.

The California Pioneer Society wasorganized in August, 1850 Thephotograph of their building appears onthe cover of this book, W.D.M Howardwas their first president Among theirearly presidents, and prominent in thedays of Forty-niners, were SamuelBranan, Thomas Larkins, Wm D.Farewell, and James Lick—who liberallyendowed it

It was organized for the purpose ofperpetuating the memory of the events ofthose days and for the benefit and mutualprotection of its members No person waseligible for membership except he hadarrived in California before the 1st ofJanuary, 1850, and the descendants ofForty-niners when arriving at the age oftwenty-one are eligible At the opening ofthe World's Fair in San Francisco inJanuary last, in the ceremonies in themarching of the procession through thestreets of the city, they were received withthe greatest enthusiasm and cheers, whichwas a marked manifestation of theveneration in which they are held by thepeople of California.

THE ADVENTURES

OF A FORTY-NINER.

The writer was practising his profession

in the city of Albany, his native place, in

1848, when reports came of the discovery

of gold in California In a short timesamples of scales of the metal of the riverdiggings were on exhibition, sent tofriends in the city in letters Many ofColonel Stevenson's regiment had beenrecruited in that city Soon these rumorswere exaggerated It was said that barrels

of gold were dug by individuals named.Soon the excitement extended all over thecountry, and the only barrier to wealth, it

seemed, was the difficulty of getting to theEldorado Why the discovery of gold thereshould have produced so much excitementcannot be fathomed It seemed an era inhuman affairs, like the Crusades and otherevents of great importance that occur.Your correspondent became one of itsvotaries, and organized a company to go

to the gold rivers and secure a fortune forall interested in it, and it seemed all thatwas required was to get there and return

in a short time and ride in your carriageand astonish your friends with your riches.Suffice it to say, this company was fullyorganized (with its by-laws and system ofgovernment drawn up by the writer), andsailed from the port of New York on the

shi p Tarrolinter on the 13th of January,

1849, to go around Cape Horn, arriving in

San Francisco on the following July Fromthat time I became absorbed in all thenews from the gold regions, and losingconfidence somewhat in the certainty of afortune from my interest in the company,and reading of the high price of lumber,the scarcity of houses, and theextraordinary high wages of mechanicsthere, conceived the project of shippingthe materials for some houses there,having all the work put on them here thatcould be done, thus saving the difference

in wages, and to have them arrive therebefore the rainy season set in, and thusrealize the imaginary fortune that I hadexpected from my interest in the company

In the following spring I had twelvehouses constructed The main point uponwhich my speculation seemed to rest was

to get them to San Francisco before therainy season commenced I went to NewYork to secure freight for them in thefastest vessel Fortunately for me, as Iconceived at the time, I found the day

before I arrived in New York, the Prince

de Joinville, a Havre packet ship, had

been put up to sail for the port of SanFrancisco, and as yet had engaged nofreight I made a bargain with them at once

to take my houses at sixty cents per squarefoot, and had the contract signed, half to

be delivered at the side of the ship by such

a date and the other half at a subsequentdate I delivered the first half of thehouses on the time agreed, sending themdown the Hudson river by a barge on atow I sent the second half on a barge toget there on the day they were due,

apprehending no trouble, I going downmyself a few days in advance Theycommenced complaining at the ship thatthey would not have room for the balance

of my houses on board, although I hadtheir written contract to take them at sixtycents per foot

There was great California excitementabout this time, and other parties had

come to the conclusion that the Prince de Joinville was probably the fastest ship

taking freight for San Francisco I sawthem accept of offers at $1.50 per foot,when their contract with me was for lessthan half that price, which would make adifference of several thousand dollars intheir favor So, if the balance of myhouses did not arrive within the time

stated in the contract, they would not betaken on that vessel, and my speculationruined The time was up the next day attwelve o'clock I was down on the Batterythe next morning early watching for thetow, with the barge with my houses Theship was at the dock in the East river.About ten o'clock, A.M., I had the goodfortune to see the barge rounding theBattery I cried out to the captain to cutloose from the tow, employ the first steamtug and I would pay the bill, which he did,getting on the side of the vessel by eleveno'clock, thus saving my contract by onehour But they did not commence takingthem on board, so the captain of the bargeput a demurrage of $20 per day fordetention In the meantime, I had bought

my ticket to sail by the steamer Georgia to

the Isthmus to go on the 1st of July whichwas but a few days off They, seeing that Ihad them on my contract, came to me andsaid that my houses should go on their shipaccording to contract, if they had to throwother freight out, and that they would sign

a regular bill of lading for all the materialdeliverable to me upon the arrival of the

Prince de Joinville at the port of San

Francisco, and take my carpenters'specifications for the description of them,which seemed all right to me

The following is an article from the

Albany Evening Atlas of June 23, 1849:

"CALIFORNIA HOUSES

"Our estimable fellow citizen Dr.Knower, who is to start for California by

the Crescent City via Panama, is about to

ship to that place twelve houses, completeand ready to put up on arrival at SanFrancisco The venture is a costly one, thefreight on the material approaching thecost of as many frame buildings in thisquarter, and the projector, we think, hasmanaged the speculation with greatforesight and judgment The best timberhas been selected, and the best work menemployed, and a plan of architecturepursued, which is supposed to offer thegreatest advantages with the mosteconomical expenditures of material Four

of these buildings are 18 feet front and 25feet deep A partition running lengthwaysdivides the buildings into two rooms, andthe stairs leads to a second platform,which is large enough for bedrooms, or

for storing materials and tools of miners.Two others are 18 feet front and 18 feetdeep, with a small extension in the rear of

8 feet Two are 16 feet in front and 22 feetdeep, with the entrance on the gable front;and the four others are 18 feet front by 14deep The sides of the building will becomposed of a double framework ofboards planed, grooved and tongued,fitting air tight on each side of the timber,the interval between them being eitherfilled with the moss of the country or leftvacant, the confined column of the airbeing found sufficient to keep off theexcess of cold or heat The roofs of all thebuildings shed from the front, except two

of which are of gable shape The roofs are

to be made of solid, close-fitting planks,covered with fine ticking and coated with

the patent indestructible fire-proof paint,and applications which our citizens havejust begun to use here, and which theyhave, found entirely successful.

"The houses can be easily transported tothe placers or may be put up on the sea-board We should suppose that thenumerous land-owners who arespeculating on the prospects of futurecities would be glad to give the landnecessary for the location of this village

"The houses go by the Prince de Joinville,

a first-class vessel, which leaves NewYork soon."

I sailed on the steamer which left NewYork at 5 P.M., July 1, 1849 Friendswere there to see me off, but there were

no persons on the boat that I had ever seenbefore—I was wondering who would be

my first acquaintance

Being very tired, I retired soon to myberth, and woke up the next morning on thebroad ocean Two days of sea sicknessand I was all right again There wereabout one thousand passengers from allparts of our country I tried to fathom themotives and standing of different ones.Colonel B from Kentucky, an aristocratic-looking man, with his slave for a bodyservant, who could not have been boughtfor less than $1,500 in Kentucky, whereslavery existed at that time Why a man inhis circumstances should be going toCalifornia to seek gold I could not fathom.One day a party of us were seated around

the table talking matters over It wasproposed that each should reveal to theothers what he expected to do and hismotives for the expedition We eachrelated our expectations and the motivesthat had inspired us My aristocratic friendwas one of the party My curiosity was atits height to know his views He said:

"Well, gentlemen, you have all beencandid in your statements, and I shall bethe same; I am going to California to dealFaro, the great American gambling game,and I don't care who knows it."

Later on in my narrative, I shall haveoccasion to refer to Colonel B againunder other circumstances The fourth dayout being the fourth of July, was dulycelebrated on the steamer in true

American style Our course was to theeast of Cuba We passed in sight of thegreen hills of San Domingo to our left, and

in sight of Jamaica to our right, crossingthe Caribbean sea, whose grand, gorgeoussunsets I shall never forget I could notbuy a ticket in New York for the steamerfrom Panama to San Francisco, but wasinformed at the office in New York thatsixty tickets were for sale in Panama byZackery, Nelson & Co., the AmericanConsul, who were agents for the steamer

on the Pacific side I naturally supposedthat those who offered their money firstfor those tickets could buy them The pricewas $300 for the first cabin, and $150 forthe second, from Panama to SanFrancisco; but a fraction of the passengershad a ticket for the Pacific side

The objective point was to get to Panama

to secure a ticket, so I made anarrangement with four others; three were

to take charge of the baggage of the five,and take it leisurely, and Lieutenant M., ofSouth Carolina, and myself were selected

to run an express across the Isthmus andget there ahead of the other passengers andsecure tickets for the five, and try and bethe first to land at Chagres We came toanchor in the bay The captain announcedthat no passengers would be permitted to

go ashore until the government officialshad inspected the vessel A boat camefrom shore with the officials After a shortstay the officials went down the side ofthe steamer to their boat to return to theshore There was a guard to keep all butthe proper persons from getting into the

boat I had a small carpet bag in my hand,passed the guard, slipped a $5 gold piece

in his hands, and took my seat in the boat,and, of course, passed as one of theofficials, and was the first passenger toland from the steamer The first point to bemade was to secure a boat for passage upthe Chagres river I was recommended toColonel P., who was the head man in thatbusiness there He was a colonel in theGranadian army I found him a full-blooded African, but an active businessman in his way I got his price for a boatand two of his best men, and then offereddouble the price if they would row nightand day, and an extra present to the men ifthey made good time, for every thingseemed to depend on securing thosetickets on the Pacific side By the time I

had all my arrangements made, Lieutenant

M made his appearance He said he wasthe second passenger that landed from thesteamer Then behold us in what theycalled a dug-out, a boat somewhat similar

to a canoe, with a little canopy over thecenter that you could crawl under to laydown with the two naked natives, with theexception of a cloth around their loins,neither understanding each other'slanguage, to whom we could onlycommunicate by signs At 4 P.M., startingfor Gorgona, fifty-five miles up the river,where we were to land and take mules forPanama Eight miles was the first stoppingplace We felt elated that we had got sogood a start of all the other passengers.The denseness of the vegetation firstattracted our attention on the banks of the

river The trees, the vines, the shrubbery,the vines clinging to the trees, hanging inall fantastic shapes, it seemed to beimpenetrable, an ocean of green, unlikeany thing we had ever seen before.

Early in the evening we arrived at the firststopping place, eight miles on our way upthe river, where we both made ourselves

at home, excited at the strangeness of thescene, surrounded by the thatched huts ofthe natives, who were having a dance onthe square in the village After we hadbeen there an hour, we thought our menhad their rest, and it was time to go onaccording to our contract, to be rowednight and day

In the meantime it seems the natives hadtaken some offense at Lieutenant M.'s

familiarity, and they appeared withhandles of long knives projecting back oftheir necks in a threatening manner Welikewise learned that that was the home ofone of our men, and that he proposed tostay there all night in violation of thecontract So we had a consultation todecide what to do to get away It waspitch dark; we laid our plan Lieutenant

M beckoned one of the men away fromthe dance as if he wanted to give himsomething, and drew his pistol on him andmarched him down to the boat, while I,with a pistol, kept him there while he wentfor the other man

After a while he came with him and wegot them both in the boat and started.About this time there was a storm came up

with the rain, and thunder and lightning, asthe elements can only perform in that way

in the tropics, surrounded by impenetrabledarkness, and to us an unknown river, withits serpents and alligators, with our twonaked savages, that we only got in the boat

by force, and, of course, could not feelvery friendly toward us Expecting to befired on from the shore, if they could see

us through the darkness, we took ourdeparture from our first landing place onthe Chagres river, surrounded by romanceenough to satisfy the most romanticimagination in that line Our men keptsteadily to work After a while the cloudsbroke away, the moon showed itself, and

we made good progress that night We had

no trouble with our men after that Thecolonel at Chagres had evidently given us

his best man They found that we weremasters of the situation and it was for theirinterest to submit We treated them kindlyafter that, and all went well, for wepassed every boat we came to I shallnever forget the look of despair at twoFrenchmen, evidently gentlemen, as wewent by them, and they informed us thelength of time they had been coming up theriver, and that they could do nothing withtheir men That afternoon we came in sight

of a thatched hut on the banks, evidently aranch We thought it for our interest torest We saw a man whom we took for theproprietor, entirely naked, rubbing hisback against a post On landing andapproaching him he excused himself for ashort time, and returned dressed, walkingwith the air of a lord of a manor, which

dress consisted of a coarse bagging shirt,coming down to his knees We arrived thenext day at 11 A.M., at Gorgona, and tookour dinner at the hotel kept by the Alcalde

of the place, and bargained with him for aguide and three mules to continue ourjourney to Panama As soon as our guidesand mules were ready, about 1 P.M., westarted for Panama We soon got enough ofour mules by being thrown a number oftimes over their heads They did notunderstand our language "Get up and goalong," was Greek to them, but when theguide said "mula vamous" they knew what

it meant On reaching the place where wewere to stay all night, we arose in themorning refreshed, but concluded to leaveour mules and make the rest of the way a-foot, as we considered them a nuisance,

and as we had no baggage but my littlesatchel previously referred to, in which Ihad bills of lading of my houses, theybeing consigned to me, the specifications

of my carpenter's schedule, my letters and

a gold chronometer watch, worth $250,belonging to H., a broker in New York, afriend, and a bottle of the best brandy,which he presented to me to keep off thefever in crossing the Isthmus This bag Ihanded to the guide boy, about seventeenyears of age, taking out the brandy bottle.The watch I was to sell, for he had twonephews who had gone to California, and

if they were in need, to supply their wants

I did not meet them; sold the watch for

$500 to Mr Haight, one of the owners ofthe Miners' Bank in San Francisco, andremitted the money to my friend, so I shall