Bay, weather-bound, the pilot refusing to put out to sea, the vessel set sail again, and within fifty days-instead of fourteen, the usual length of the voyage in fair weather-landed my enterprising friend safe and sound in the Sandwich Islands. Such is the meagre outline of this five months' journey through a generally monotonous country, affording no great scope for observation, a journey of which any account must be deficient in interest, in proportion as it passes over the details of each day's progress, the expedients, occupations, privations, sufferings, hopes, apprehensions, and immediate impressions, which are the attractive materials of any narrative of such an excursion. It was by the practical knowledge which my friend thus acquired of the modes of grappling with the dangers and difficulties of a desert-journey, combined with the experience he had obtained of the Indian character and customs during a previous winter spent in the depths of a Canadian forest, that he was prepared to undertake with much greater confidence an almost equally arduous journey, to deal with Indian tribes known and expected to be hostile, and largely to contribute to the success of the expedition which forms the subject of this work. NOTE II. A WORD OF TRUTH ABOUT CALIFORNIA. In the remarkable spectacle which California exhibited to the world after the discovery of the mines, there were many painful and mournful scenes, not a few that were disgraceful, and in which all nations were represented. The press has made known a long series of facts referring to that period which now belongs to history, the circulation of which has produced an unfavourable impression on public opinion, which it is to be feared will still continue for some time. Yet there was nothing very extraordinary in what occurred, especially if we bear in mind the position in which the country was, when its mineral wealth first attracted the atten tion of the world. Was it, in fact, to be expected that a society, formed of elements of all sorts, frequently the most gross, hastily gathered together, and derived from the scum of different nations, could avoid exposing itself in the beginning to severe and justly merited censure? Was it likely that a new society, even admitting that it contained a nucleus of respectability, should spring up, and, as it were, extemporize itself in a new country of immense extent, totally unprovided with laws or governmental forms of any kind, without being subject, and on a great scale, to those evils from which the most ancient and best constituted societies are not exempt? To expect this would be to expect a miracle, and a very startling miracle too. In proportion as were the trials through which California has passed, severe, and associated with lamentable acts, the greater must be our surprise at the rapidity with which she has reached her present position of a well-ordered and civilized society. The moral aspect of this fine country at the present moment is in all respects consolatory and even edifying; it would suffice to show, if other proofs were wanting, how the human mind, in an atmosphere of freedom, gradually masters its grosser instincts, and by a kind of natural process, ranges itself under the banner of order and morality. In a free country, no matter how vigorously bad passions may be at work, the good will be sure in the end to triumph over the bad. San Francisco gave evidence of this in 1856, when, revolting against a corrupt municipality, the respectable portion of the citizens took the power into their own hands, in order to vindicate morality and enforce obedience to the laws. It was a noble and magnificent movement, from which more than one profitable lesson has been derived. It interested us, as proving the truth of that grand principle which struck us the first instant we set foot on American soil, namely, that liberty moralizes a man, and prosperity makes him good. Nothing is more calculated to illustrate the truth of this than what has been passing in California for the last eleven years. Every one is aware that, together with persons of respectability of every class, rich and poor, whom the lust for gold attracted to this country, were to be found people belonging to the worst 2 L VOL. II. classes of other countries; men without fixed occupation, undisciplined, turbulent spendthrifts, men who had lost their position by misconduct, disgraced nobles, incorrigible debauchees, socialists reduced to their last shift, scamps in great number, adventurers of all kinds; thousands of individuals, in a word, whom their respective countries were glad to get rid of, and occasionally helped to go. California threw open her arms, without distinction of persons, to the disorderly as well as the orderly, to the bad as well as the good, to the poor as well as the rich; no one was excluded from the banquet. Indisputably, the confusion at first was enormous, a real chaos; but how superb and startling was the change that followed, when every, man, seeing before him the chance of sharing the products of a generous soil, felt at once that a door was opened through which, by industry and submission to the law, he could reascend to the position he had lost! There was a general emulation for what was good. They who had forfeited their rank in society, aspired to recover it, and to place themselves on a level with those of their respectable fellow-citizens who had always preserved theirs. In this active, bustling beehive there were certainly some drones, people without feeling or purpose, who remained behind the others, leading the most pitiful and often shameful existence in the world; but these were few in number. How many, on the other hand, who, in the worst of plights one day, were able, by industry and good conduct, to become the prosperous and honoured men of the next! . In passing through California, the traveller is not more struck by the fertility of the country, the mildness of the climate, and attractions of every kind, than he is by meeting at almost every step some honest miner, who complacently relates to him his first attempts in the diggings, his struggles, and the success which finally rewarded his exertions, and compensated him for his sufferings. Nor is it only among the gold-seekers that fortune smiles on the industrious man; agriculture in this country is in respect to wealth the rival of the mines. I met with several men belonging to the garde mobile, whose brains had been turned by the revolution of February, and their passions over-excited by depraved doctrines, who, no longer consumed by the fever of politics, are, in their occupation as market-gardeners, obtaining something even more than competence, and becoming, in proportion as their prosperity increases, respectable and peaceable citizens. If we but too frequently hear of wretches firing their revolvers in the open street on the slightest provocation, we are not on this account to suppose that California is a cut-throat place. We for more than six months passed through it in every direction, day and night, without meeting with anything of an unpleasant nature. Life is in no greater danger there than in Europe, when one does not herd with drunkards, or plunge into the thick of politics. Truth compels us to say that we did once or twice witness most brutal occurrences in the middle of the streets; but if it be remembered that every man has the right of carrying loaded arms about him, the wonder will be that murder is not a thousand times more frequent than it is. Let every workman in our manufacturing towns carry arms, and we should soon see that there would be acts of violence and bloodshed quite equal to anything we find in California. In a word, the morality of the country has been as surprising and rapid in its progress as its industrial prosperity. The great disproportion between the sexes, to which a large part of the excesses that have occurred are to be attributed, is every day growing less, and with the most salutary effect. Civilization is advancing with visible steps. The city of San Francisco, to cite only one more instance, and to confine myself to what is most striking and remarkable, is at this day a marvel of order and good government. It has ceased to be an asylum for scoundrels running away from the vengeance of the law. The population is a respectable one, daily increasing with incredible rapidity.* The city extends over an area of 2000 acres, and it contains nearly 400 streets. There are twenty-eight public schools, independently of a great number of private schools. There are ńfty * In January, 1848, the white population in the whole of California did not reach 8000 souls; in January, 1860, it rose to the remarkable number 600,000; and when we write, San Francisco, which in 1847 had only 459 inhabitants, now contains 100,000!! benevolent societies, for giving aid of different kinds wherever it is required. More than forty literary, scientific, artistic, philosophic, and religious societies, keep up and diffuse a taste for the subjects with which they are respectively connected. In this city of fairyland, there are published thirty-six newspapers or reviews. The different denominations have thirty-eight churches and chapels. There is also an association of fire-men, admirably organized, and which surpasses in efficiency anything of the kind we ever saw in Europe. A great deal that is evil has been said, and is still thought, about California. It is the duty of those who have examined this country with an impartial and unprejudiced eye, to raise their voice against the unjust misrepresentations by which it is now unjustly assailed. As for ourselves, we are convinced that too much cannot be said in its favour, and that they who are discontented with it after having seen it, must give up all hope of finding on this earth a spot that will suit them. NOTE III. THE LARGEST TREES IN THE WORLD. California has beyond all comparison the thickest, highest, and most magnificent trees to be found on the face of the earth. These giants, really marvels of vegetable life, belong to the family of cypress and to the genus Sequoia of Endlicher (Wellingtonia of Lindley, Washingtonia of the Americans). We will here speak of the remarkable species we are considering by the name of Sequoia gigantea, as we did on a former occasion,* without meaning to approve or disapprove the preference of those who with Lindley term it Wellingtonia gigantea. The Sequoia gigantea attains to a size so colossal, I might almost say, so formidable, that up to a very recent time the accounts that travellers give of it have excited nothing but incredulity. noyed by the doubt we felt ourselves respecting this tree, especially * Écho du Pacifique' of May 5, 1856. |
