History of California, Volume VI, Part 9

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816

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It is not to be denied that this mixture of national- ities, with a tinge of inherited antipathy, and variety

1 Charles V. Gillespie, who reached S. F. from Hong-Kong in the brig Eagle, Feb. 2, 1848, brought three Chinese, two men and a woman. The men sub- sequently went to the mines. These, he says, were the first Chinamen in Cal., with the exception of a very few who had come over as cooks or stewards of vessels. Gillespie's Fig. Com., MS., 1.

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AT THE MINES.

of character, embracing some few aimless adventurers and deserters as well as respectable settlers, could not fail to bring to the surface some undesirable features. Yet the crimes that mar this period are strikingly few in comparison with the record of the following years, when California was overrun by the dregs of the world's society. Indeed, during this first year theft was extremely rare, although temptations abounded, and property lay almost unguarded.2 Murder and violence were almost unknown, and even disputes seldom arose. Circumstances naturally required the miners to take justice into their own hands; yet with all the severity and haste characterizing such admin- istration, I find only two instances of action by a popular tribunal in the mining region. In one case a Frenchman, a notorious horse-thief, was caught in the act of practising his profession at the Dry Diggings; in the other, a Spaniard was found with a stolen bag of gold-dust in his possession, on the middle branch of the American River.3 Both of these men were tried, convicted, and promptly hanged by the miners.

It has been the fashion to ascribe most infringe- ments of order to the Latin race, mainly because the recorders nearly all belonged to the other side, and because Anglo-Saxon culprits met with greater leni- ency, while the least infraction by the obnoxious Spanish-speaking southerner was met by exemplary

2 Degroot, Six Months in '49, in Overland Monthly, xiv. 321. 'Honest miners left their sacks of gold-dust exposed in their tents, without fear of loss. Towards the close of the year a few robberies and murders were committed.' Burnett's Recollections, MS., ii. 142-3. Gov. Mason writing to L. W. Has- tings from New Helvetia Oct. 24, 1848, says: 'Although some murders have been committed and horses stolen in the placer, I do not find that things are worse here, if indeed they are so bad, as they were in our own mineral re- gions some years ago, when I was stationed near them.' U. S. Gov. Docs, 31st cong. Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 17. On the other hand, I find complaints of cutrages committed by disbanded volunteers at Monterey. Cal. Star and Californian, Dec. 9, 1848; of robbery and horse-thieving around the bay missions, by a gang from the Tulare Valley, said to be composed chiefly of deserters, Dr Marsh's residence on the Pulpunes rancho being plundered. Cal. Star, Feb. 26, June 3, 1848.

3 Hancock's Thirteen Years' Residence on the Northwest Coast, MS., 119-20; Carson's Early Recoll., 26. Early instances of popular punishment of crime at San José and elsewhere are mentioned in Popular Tribunals, i. 67-9, etc., this series.

QUALITY OF DIGGINGS.

punishment at the hands of the overbearing and domi- nant northerner. Even during these early days, some of the latter rendered themselves conspicuous by encroachments on the rights of the former, such as unwarrantable seizure of desirable claims.4 While the strict and prompt treatment of crime tended to main- tain order in the mining regions, the outskirts, or rather the southern routes to the placers, became to- ward the end of the season haunted by a few robbers.5

Another source of danger remained in the hostil- ity of the savages, who, already imbittered by the encroachinents and spoliation suffered in the coast valleys, and from serf-hunting expeditions, naturally objected to an influx that threatened to drive them out of this their last retreat in the country. This attitude, indeed, served to check the expansion of the mining field for a time. In the south it was mainly due to Mexican aggression, and in the north to incon- siderate action on the part of immigrants and Orego- nian parties, whose prejudices had been roused by conflicts on the plains and in the Columbia region.6

Mining operations so far embraced surface picking, shallow digging along the rivers and the tributary ravines, attended by washing of metal-bearing soil, and dry diggings, involving either laborious convey- ance, or 'packing,' of 'pay-dirt' to the distant water, or the bringing of water, or the use of a special cleaning process. This feature rendered the dry diggings more precarious than river claims, with their extensive veins

4 A. Janssens declares, in Vida y Avent., MS., that he and several friends were threatened in life and property; yet in their case all was amicably arranged, after many contests.

5 Men whose lack of success in the gold-fields prompted to an indulgence of hitherto restrained propensities. There are always travellers, however, who love to tell thrilling tales. Janssens relates that, on turning homeward in Dec., his small party was recommended to avoid the main road to and from Stockton, and speaks of the two headless bodies they found in a hut of branches.

6 As related in the Merced People, June 8, 1872, on the authority of Read- ing. Brooks, Four Months, states that his party was attacked on Bear River, had one killed and two wounded, and was subsequently robbed of 70 pounds of gold by bandits.

AT THE MINES.

of fine and coarse gold, yielding a comparatively steady return, with hopes centred rather in rich finds and 'pockets.'

The principal dry diggings were situated in the country since comprised in Placer and El Dorado counties, particularly about the spots where Auburn and Placerville, their respective capitals, subsequently rose. Smaller camps, generally named after their discoverers, were thickly scattered throughout the gold region. They were among the first discovered after the rush set in from the towns, and were worked by a great number of miners during June, July, and part of August. After this they were deserted, partly because the small streams resorted to for wash- ing dried up, but more because a stampede for the southern mines began at that time.7 A few prudent and patient diggers remained, to collect pay-dirt in readiness for the next season; and according to all accounts they did wisely.

It was a wide-spread belief among the miners, few of whom had any knowledge of geology or mineral- ogy, that the gold in the streams and gulches had been washed down from some place where it lay in solid beds, perhaps in mountains. Upon this source their dreams and hopes centred, regardless of the prospect that such a discovery might cause the mineral to lose its value. They were sure that the wonderful region would be found some day, and the only fear of each was that another might be the lucky discoverer. Many a prospecting party set out to search for this El Dorado of El Dorados; and to their restless wanderings may be greatly attributed the extraordinarily rapid extension of the gold-fields. No matter how rich a new placer, these henceforth

. 7 Kelsey and party discovered the first dry diggings, which were named Kelsey's diggings. Next were the old dry diggings, out of which so many thousands were taken. Among the discoverers were Isbel, and Daniel and Jno. Murphy, who were connected with Capt. Weber's trading establish- ments, Murray and Fallon of San Jose, and Mckensey and Aram of Monterey. Carson's Early Recollections, 5. See also, concerning the dry diggings, Oakland Transcript, Apr. 13, 1873, and Oakland Alameda Co. Gazette, Apr. 19, 1873.

MINING METHODS.

fated rovers remained there not a moment after the news came of richer diggings elsewhere. In their wake rushed others; and thus it often happened that men abandoned claims yielding from $50 to $200 a day, and hurried off to fresh fields which proved far less valuable or utterly worthless. Then they would return to their old claims, but only to find them fallen into other hands, thus being compelled by inexorable necessity to continue the chase. They had come to gather gold now, and bushels of it, not next year or by the thimbleful. At $200 a day it would take ten days to secure $2,000, a hundred days to get $20,000, a thousand days to make $200,000, when a million was wanted within a month. And so in the midst of this wild pursuit of their ignis fatuus, multi- tudes of brave and foolish men fell by the way, some dropping into imbecility or the grave, while others, less fortunate, were not permitted to rest till old age and decrepitude came upon them.

Although in 1848 the average yield of gold for each man engaged was far greater than in any sub- sequent year, yet the implements and methods of mining then in use were primitive, slow of operation, and wasteful. The tools were the knife, the pan, and the rocker, or cradle. The knife was only used in ' crevicing,' that is, in picking the gold out of cracks in the rocks, or occasionally in dry diggings rich in coarse gold.8 Yet the returns were large because

8 The pan was made of stiff tin or sheet-iron, with a flat bottom from 10 to 14 inches across, and sides from 4 to 6 inches high, rising outward at a varying angle. It was used mainly for prospecting, and as an adjunct to the rocker, but in the absence of the latter, claims were sometimes systematically worked with it. In 'panning,' as in all methods of placer-mining, the gold was separated from earth and stones chiefly by relying on the superior spe- cific gravity of the metal. The pan was partly filled with dirt, lowered into the water, and there shaken with a sideway and rotary motion, which caused the dissolving soil and clay, and the light sand, to float away until nothing was left but the gold which had settled at the bottom. Gravel and stones were raked out with the hand. Except in extremely rich ground, such a process was slow, and it was therefore seldom resorted to, save for the purpose of as- certaining whether it would pay to bring the rocker to the spot. The cradle resembled in size and shape a child's cradle, with similar rockers, and was rocked by means of a perpendicular handle. The cradle-box consisted of a wooden trongh, about 20 in. wide and 40 long, with sides 4 in. high. The

AT THE MINES.

there were fewer to share the spoils, and because they had the choice of the most easily worked placers; and although they did not materially diminish the quantity of gold, they picked up much of what was in sight.

lower end was left open. On the upper end sat the hopper, or riddle, a box 20 in. square, with wooden sides 4 in. high, and a bottom of sheet iron or zinc pierced with holes { in. in diameter. Under the hopper was an apron of wood or canvas which sloped down from the lower end of the hopper to the upper end of the cradle-box. Later an additional apron was added by many, above the original one, sloping from the upper to the lower end. A strip of wood an inch square, called a riffle-bar, was nailed across the bottom of the cradle-box, about its middle, and another at its lower end. Under the whole were nailed the rockers, and near the middle of the side rose an upright handle for imparting motion. The rocker was placed in the spot to which the pay-dirt, and especially a constant supply of water, could most conven- iently be brought. The hopper being nearly filled with auriferous earth, the operator, seated by its side, rocked the cradle with one hand, and with the other poured water on the dirt, using a half-gallon dipper, until nothing was left in the hopper but clean stones too large to pass through the sieve. These being thrown out, the operation was repeated. The dissolved dirt fell through the holes upon the apron, and was carried to the upper end of the cradle-box, whence it ran down toward the open end. Much of the finer gold remained upon the canvas-covered apron; the rest, with the heavier particles of gravel, was caught behind the riffle-bars, while the water, thin mud, and lighter substances were carried out of the machine. This descrip- tion of the rocker I have taken from Hittell's Mining in the Pacific States of North America, S. F., 1861, and from the Miners' Own Book, S. F., 1858. The former is a well arranged hand-book of mining, and exhausts the subject. The latter work treats only of the various methods of mining, which are lucidly described, and illustrated by many excellent cuts, including one of the rocker. Earlier miners and Indians used sieves of intertwisted willows for washing dirt. Sonorans occasionally availed themselves of cloth for a sieve, the water dissolving the dirt and leaving the gold sticking to it. Sev- eral times during the day the miner 'cleaned up' by taking the retained dirt into his pan and panning it out. The quantity of dirt that could be washed with a rocker depended upon the nature of the diggings and the number of men employed. If the diggings were shallow, that is to say, if the gold lay near the surface, two men-one to rock and one to fill the hopper-could wash out from 250 to 300 pans in a day, the pan representing about half a cubic foot of dirt. But if several feet of barren dirt had to be stripped off before the pay-dirt was reached, more time and men were required. Again, if tough clay was encountered in the pay-dirt, it took an hour or more to dissolve a hopperful of it. Dry-washing consisted in tossing the dirt into the air while the wind was blowing, and thus gradually winnowing out the gold. This method was mostly confined to the Mexicans, and could be used to advantage only in rich diggings devoid of water, where the gold was coarse. The Mexican generally obtained his pay-dirt by 'coyoting;' that is, by sinking a square hole to the bed-rock, and then burrowing from the bottom along the ledge. For burrowing he used a small crowbar, pointed at both ends, and with a big horn spoon he scraped up the loosened pay-dirt. This, pounded into dust, he shook with great dexterity from a batea, or wooden bowl, upor an extended hide, repeating the process until the wind had left little of the original mass except the gold. In this manner the otherwise indolent Mexicans often made small fortunes during the dry summer months, when the rest of the miners were squandering their gains in the towns.

ABSENCE OF MINING REGULATIONS.

Moreover, they were fettered by no local regulations, or delays in obtaining possession of claims, but could hasten from placer to placer, skimming the cream from each. In February Governor Mason had abolished the old Mexican system of 'denouncing' mines,9 with- out establishing any other mining regulations.10 In this way some ten millions 11 were gathered by a pop- ulation of 8,000 or 10,000, averaging an ounce a day, or $1,000 and more to the man for the season, and this notwithstanding the miners were not fairly at work until July, and most of them went down to the coast in October. Some, however, made $100 a day for weeks at a time, while $500 or $700 a day was not unusual.12

9 Mason's order to this effect is dated at Monterey, Feb. 12, 1848. 'From and after this date the Mexican laws and customs now prevailing in Califor- nia relative to the denouncement of mines are hereby abolished. The legality of the denouncements which have taken place, and the possession obtained under them since the occupation of the country by the United States forces, are questions which will be disposed of by the American government after a definitive treaty of peace shall have been established between the two repub- lics.' U. S. Gov. Docs, 31st cong. Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 17, 477; San Diego Arch., MS., 325; San Jose Arch,, MS., ii. 69; Arch. Cal., Unbound Docs, MS., 318; S. F. Californian, Feb. 23, 1848. This order caused dissatisfaction in several quarters, chiefly because many, after expense and trouble in looking for veins, had denounced them after Feb. 12th, but before the decree was known to them. Mason to J. S. Moerenhout, consul of France at Monterey, June 5, 1848, in U. S. Gov. Docs, as above, 56; Mason to alcalde of San José, March 9, 1848, in S. José Arch., MS., 42; People of Monterey to Mason, March 9, 1848, in Arch. Cal., Unbound Docs, MS., 408-11.

10 The desirability of regulations is spoken of by Mason in a letter to J. R. Snyder as early as May 23, 1848, as the latter is about to visit the gold region; and he is requested to obtain information and submit a plan. U. S. Gov. Docs, ubi sup. 554-6. In his letter to the U. S. adjt-gen. of Aug. 17, 1848, Mason writes: 'It was a matter of serious reflection to me how I could secure to the government certain rents or fees for the privilege of obtaining this gold; but upon considering the large extent of country, the character of the people en- gaged, and the small scattered force at my command, I resolved not to inter- fere, but to permit all to work freely, unless broils and crimes should call for interference.'

11 This is the figure accepted in Hittell's Mining, 39, although the same author, in Hist. S. F., 155, writes: 'The monthly gold yield of 1848 averaged perhaps $300,000.' The officially recorded export for 1848 was $2,000,- 000, but this forms only a proportion of the real export. Velasco, Son., 289- 90, for instance, gives the official import into Sonora alone at over half a million, and assumes much more unrecorded. See also Annals S. F., 208. Quart. Reriem, lxxxvii. 422, wildly calculates the yield for 1848 at $45,000,000.

12 John Sullivan, an Irish teamster, took out $26,000 from the diggings named after him on the Stanislaus. One Hudson obtained some $20,000 in six weeks from a canon between Coloma and the American middle fork; while a boy named Davenport found in the same place 77 ounces of pure gold one day, and 90 ounces the next. At the Dry Diggings one Wilson took $2,000

AT THE MINES.

In a country where trade had been chiefly conducted by barter with hides and other produce, coin was nat-

from under his own door-step. Three Frenchmen discovered gold in remov- ing a stump which obstructed the road from Dry Diggings to Coloma, and within a week secured $5,000. On the Yuba middle fork one man picked up in 20 days nearly 30 pounds, from a piece of ground less than four feet square. Amador relates that he saw diggings which yielded $S to every spadeful of earth; and he himself, with a companion and 20 native laborers, took out from 7 to 9 pounds of gold a day. Robert Birnie, an employé of Consul Forbes, saw miners at Dry Diggings making from 50 to 100 ounces daily. Buffum's Six Months, 126-9; Cal. Star, Nov. 18, Dec. 2, 1848; Amador, Me- morias, MS., 177-80; Birnie's Biog., in Pioneer Soc. Arch., MS., 93-4. A correspondent of the Californian writes from the Dry Diggings in the middle of August that 'at the lower mines the success of the day is counted in dollars, at the upper mines, near the mill, in ounces, and here in pounds!' 'The earth,' he continues, 'is taken out of the ravines which make out of the mountain, and is carried in wagons and packed on horses from one to three miles to the water, where it is washed; $400 has been an average for a cart-load. In one instance five loads of earth which had been dug out sold for 47 oz. ($752), and yielded after washing $16,000. Instances have occurred here where men have carried the earth on their backs, and collected from $S00 to $1,500 in a day.' 'The fountain-head yet remains undiscovered,' continues the writer, who is of opinion that when proper machinery is introduced and the hills are cut down, 'huge pieces must be found.' At this time tidings had just arrived of new placers on the Stanislaus, and 200 miners were accordingly preparing to leave ground worth $400 a load, in the hope of finding something better in the sonth. This letter is dated from the Dry Diggings, Aug. 15, 1848, and is signed J. B. Similar stories are told by other correspondents; for instance, 'Cosmopolite,' in the Californian of July 15th, and 'Sonoma,' in that of Aug. 14th. Coronel states that on the Stanislaus in three days he took out 45, 38, and 59 ounces. At the same placer Valdés of Santa Bárbara found under a rock more gold-dust than he could carry in a towel, and the man to whom he sold this claim took out within 8 days 52 pounds of gold. Close by a So- noran filled a large batea with dust from the hollow of a rock, and weut about offering it for silver coin. Cosas de Cal., MS., 146-51.

And yet the middle fork of the American surpassed the other streams in richness, the yield of Spanish Bar alone being placed at over a million dollars. These tributaries also boasted of nuggets as big as any so far discovered. Larkin writes: 'I have had in my hands several pieces of gold about 23 carats fine, weighing from one to two pounds, and have it from good authority that pieces have been found weighing 16 pounds. Indeed, I have heard of one specimen that weighed 25 pounds.' Colton heard of a twenty-pound piece, and a writer in San Joaquin Co. Hist., 21, relates that the Stockton company obtained from the Stanislaus a lump 'of pure gold weighing 802 ounces avoir- dupois,' of kidney shape, which was brought as a specimen. Mason reports that 'a party of four men employed at the lower mines averaged $100 a day.' On Weber Creek he found two ounces to be a fair day's yield. 'A small gut- ter, not more than 100 yards long by four feet wide and two or three feet deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two men, William Daly and Perry McCoon, had a short time before obtained $17,000 worth of gold. Cap- tain Weber informed me that he knew that these two men had employed four white men and about 100 Indians, and that at the end of one week's work they paid off their party and had $10,000 worth of this gold. Another small ravine was shown me, from which had been taken upwards of $12,000 worth of gold. Hundreds of similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet un- touched. I could not have credited these reports had I not seen in the abun- dance of the precious metal evidence of their truth. Mr Neligh, an agent of Com. Stockton, had been at work about three weeks in the neighborhood, and

PLETHORA OF GOLD.

urally scarce. This no less than the sudden abundance of gold tended to depress the value of the metal, so much so that the miners often sold their dust for four dol- lars an ounce, and seldom obtained at first more than eight or ten dollars. 13 The Indians were foremost in

showed me in bags and bottles over $2,000 worth of gold; and Mr Lyman, a gentleman of education and worthy of every credit, said he had been engaged with four others, with a machine on the American fork, just below Sutter's mill; that they worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of $50 a day; but hearing that others were doing better at Weber's place, they had removed there, and were then on the point of resuming operations. I might tell of hundreds of similar instances,' he concludes. John Sinclair, at the junction of the north and middle branches of the American River, displayed 14 pounds of gold as the result of one week's work, with fifty Indians using closely woven willow baskets. He had secured $16,000 in five weeks. Lar- kin writes in a similar strain from the American forks. Referring to a party of eight miners, he says: 'I suppose they made each $50 per day; their own calculation was two pounds of gold a day, four ounces to a man, $64. I saw two brothers that worked together, and only worked by washing the dirt in a tin pan, weigh the gold they obtained in one day. The result was $7 to one and $82 to the other.' Buffum relates his own experiences on the middle branch of the American. Scratching round the base of a great bowlder, and removing the gravel and clay, he and his companions came to black sand, mingled with which was gold strewn all over the surface of the rock, and of which four of them gathered that day 26 ounces. 'The next day, our machine being ready,' he continues, 'we looked for a place to work it, and soon found a little beach which extended back some five or six yards before it reached the rocks. The upper soil was a light black sand, on the surface of which we could see the particles of gold shining, and could in fact gather them up with our fingers. ' In digging below this we struck a red stony gravel that ap- peared perfectly alive with gold, shining and pure. We threw off the top earth and commenced our washings with the gravel, which proved so rich that, excited by curiosity, we weighed the gold extracted from the first wash- ing of 50 panfuls of earth, and found $75, or nearly five ounces of gold to be the result.' The whole day's work amounted to 25 ounces. A little lower on the river he struck the stony bottom of 'pocket, which appeared to be of pure gold, but upon probing it, I found it to be only a thin covering which by its own weight and the pressure above it had spread and attached itself to the rock. Crossing the river I continued my search, and after digging some time struck upon a hard, reddish clay a few feet from the surface. After two hours' work I succeeded in finding a pocket out of which I extracted three lumps of pure gold, and one small piece mixed with oxydized quartz' -- 29} ounces for the day; not much short of $500. There are a class of stories, such as those related by H. L. Simpson and the Rev. Colton, of a wilder and more romantic nature, apparently as easy to tell as those by writers of proved veracity, and which, whether true or false, I will not trouble my readers with. For additional information on yield, see more particularly Larkin's letters to the U. S. secty of state, dated S. F., June 1, Monterey, June 28, July 1, July 20, and Nov. 16, 1848, in Larkin's Official Corresp., MS., 131-41; Mason to to the adjt-gen., Aug. 17, 1848; U. S. Gov. Docs, 31st cong. Ist sess., H. Ex. Doc. 17, 528-36; Sherman's Memoirs, i. 46-54; Soule's Annals of S. F., 210; Carson's Early Recollections, passim; Hittell's Mining, 21; McChristian, in Pioneer Sketches, 9; Burnett's Recollections, i. 374-5; and a number of miscel- laneous documents in Foster's Gold Regions. Also Simpson's Three Weeks in the Goll Mines; Colton's Three Years in Cal.

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History of California, Volume VI, Part 9

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe Publication date: 1885-1890 Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers Number of Pages: 816

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Publication date: 1885-1890
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : The History Company, publishers
Number of Pages: 816