returned for a season from the mines. Dr. T. M. Leavenworth was called to the chair, and Mr. J. D. Hoppe appointed secre

tary. The meeting unanimously decided and resolved that sixteen dollars an ounce was a fair price for gold dust, and that it ought to be taken in all business transactions at that rate. Α committee was also appointed to urge upon Congress the immediate establishment of a branch mint at San Francisco.

This month a square-rigged vessel (the brig Belfast, from New York,) first discharged a cargo at Broadway wharf. The price of goods consequently fell twenty-five per cent., while real estate rose from fifty to one hundred per cent. A vacant lot at the corner of Montgomery and Washington streets was offered the day previous to the opening of the wharf for five thousand dollars, but there were no buyers. The next day the same lot sold readily at ten thousand dollars. This shows how property was beginning to be affected by the improvement of the town.

OCTOBER 3d.-At a second election, Dr. T. M. Leavenworth was again chosen first alcalde. B. R. Buckelew and Barton Mowrey were also elected town councillors. One hundred and fifty-eight votes were polled.

OCTOBER 9th.-First meeting of the town council since May last. At an adjourned meeting held on the 11th, it was resolved that the limits of the town for the administration of justice should be as follows, viz.: "That the line shall commence at the mouth of Creek Guadalupe, where it empties into the Bay of San Francisco, following the course of said stream to its head waters; from thence a due west line to the Pacific Ocean; thence northwards along the coast to the inlet to the harbor of the bay; thence eastwardly, through the middle of the said inlet into the Bay of San Francisco, and embracing the entire anchorage ground from the inlet to the mouth of the Creek Guadalupe."

NOVEMBER 1st.-No regular church had hitherto been established; but nearly every Sunday, for a long period back, occasional religious services had been performed by clergymen of various denominations; or, in their absence, by some serious minded layman. This day, the Rev. T. D. Hunt, who had been invited from Honolulu, was chosen Protestant chaplain to the citizens, and an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars appropriated to him, to be defrayed out of the subscriptions of various town's people. Divine worship on Sundays to take place in the Public Institute, (school-house,) Portsmouth Square.

NOVEMBER 18th.-The "Californian," having been bought up by the proprietors of the "California Star," a new paper, similar in appearance to both these, and virtually a continuation of the latter, which had stopped five months before, was issued this day under the title, "The Star and Californian.”

DECEMBER. The markets, as might be expected, were very high about this time, though prices fluctuated considerably. On the 1st of this month, flour was twenty-seven dollars a barrel, beef twenty, pork sixty; butter was ninety cents a pound, and cheese seventy. Two weeks later, flour sold at from twelve to fifteen dollars a barrel, while other articles had fallen in proportion. Brandy was in demand at eight dollars a gallon, and gold dust dull of sale at ten dollars and a half an ounce.

DECEMBER 12th.-The public school, after having been closed for many months during the gold-mania, re-opened. Rates of tuition were announced to be eight dollars a term.

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DECEMBER 21st and 23d.-Great public meetings were held, (Dr. Townsend in the chair,) regarding the propriety, and growing necessity of immediately organizing a provisional government. For some time back, much public agitation had existed on this subject. The frequent murders and other daring outrages committed of late in different parts of the country, especially at the mines, while there was no proper legal protection for the lives and property of the citizens, had forced the people to conclude that Congress had been trifling with them in delaying the long proposed constitution-that there was no more time to wait-and therefore that instant steps should be taken to establish a form of government for themselves. At these meetings resolutions were passed to the above effect, and five delegates appointed to be chosen at a subsequent public meeting, to represent the town and district at a general convention to be held at San José, in March next, for the purpose of framing a form of constitution. A meeting to the same effect had been held at San José on the 11th instant, which had fixed the assembling of the convention so early as the 2d of January following, and similar meetings were beginning to be called all over the country.

DECEMBER 27th.-The following gentlemen were elected as town council, or ayuntamiento, for 1849, viz.: Stephen C. Harris, Wm. D. M. Howard, George C. Hubbard, Robert A. Parker, Thomas J. Roach, John Sirrine, and John Townsend-the last of whom was chosen president. The number of votes polled was three hundred and forty-seven.

DECEMBER 28th, 29th and 30th.-Various meetings were held of the old town council, which ended in its resolving that the election of the 27th instant was invalid, owing to the votes of a small number of unqualified parties having been received; and a new election was ordered for the 15th proximo.

The duties collected at the custom-house, during 1848, were as follows:-First quarter, $11,931; second quarter, $8,835; third quarter, $74,827; fourth quarter, $100,480. The value of imported goods during the year was about one million of dollars. Coin was also imported to about the same amount. Gold dust to the value of two millions of dollars was exported in the last six months of 1848. A few years later as great a quantity was exported by every semi-monthly mail.

CHAPTER VI.

1848-1849.

General Effects of the Gold Discoveries.

WHILE San Francisco, like so many other parts of the country, was forsaken in the manner described in the foregoing chapter, the neighborhood of the American River was overflowing with people, all busily engaged in gold hunting. The miners by the middle of May were estimated to be about two thousand. In another month they had increased probably to three; and, two months later, their number was supposed to be about six thousand. From that period the arrival of persons at the different auriferous districts, which were known to extend over a large space of territory, was constant; but no sufficient materials existed to form a correct opinion of their total number. The vast majority of all the laboring classes in the country had certainly deserted their former pursuits, and had become miners, while a great many others-merchants and their clerks, shopkeepers and their assistants, lawyers, surgeons, officials in every department of the State, of the districts and in the towns, runaway seamen and soldiers, and a great variety of nondescript adventurers-likewise began the search for gold. The miners were by no means exclusively American. They consisted of every kindred and clan. There were already tame Indians, Mexicans from Sonora, Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands, settlers from Oregon, mixed with the usual dash of Spanish, British, German and French adventurers that had for a long time existed in California. Later months were to bring other Mexicans, Chinese, Peruvians, and Chilians, and all these before the great impending immigration of Americans and Europeans.

At first the general gains of the miners, though great, were little compared to what shortly afterwards were collected. But any positive statement on this matter is naturally subject to error, since none could personally know more than what was taking place around the scene of his own operations, or where he was immediately travelling. If, however, we compare different accounts, and endeavor to form from them something like a fair average, we might find that from ten to fifteen dollars worth of gold dust was about the usual proceeds of an ordinary day's hard work. But while that might have been the average, people listened more to the individual instances of extraordinary success. Well authenticated accounts described many known persons as averaging from one to two hundred dollars a day for a long period. Numerous others were said to be earning even from five to eight hundred dollars a day. A piece of four pounds in weight was early found. If, indeed, in many cases, a man with a pick and pan did not easily gather some thirty or forty dollars worth of dust in a single day, he just moved off to some other place which he supposed might be richer. When the miners knew a little better about the business and the mode of turning their labor to the most profitable account, the returns were correspondingly increased. At what were called the "dry diggings" particularly, the yield of gold was enormous. of pure metal was found of thirteen pounds weight. mon instrument at first made use of was a simple butcher's knife; and as every thing was valuable in proportion to the demand and supply, butchers' knives suddenly went up to twenty and thirty dollars apiece. But afterwards the pick and shovel were employed. The auriferous earth, dug out of ravines and holes in the sides of the mountains, was packed on horses, and carried one, two, or three miles, to the nearest water, to be washed. An average price of this washing dirt was, at one period, so much as four hundred dollars a cart load. In one instance, five loads of such earth sold for seven hundred and fifty-two dollars, which yielded, after washing, sixteen thousand dollars. Cases occurred where men carried the earth in sacks on their backs to the watering places, and collected eight to fifteen hundred dollars in a day, as the proceeds of their labor. Indi

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