File:Notes of a voyage to California via Cape Horn, together with scenes in El Dorado, in the years of 1849-'50. With an appendix containing reminiscences together with the articles of association and roll (14583075118).jpg

Identifier: notesofvoyagetoc01upha (find matches)
Title: Notes of a voyage to California via Cape Horn, together with scenes in El Dorado, in the years of 1849-'50. With an appendix containing reminiscences ... together with the articles of association and roll of members of "The associated pioneers of the territorial days of California."
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Upham, Samuel C. (Samuel Curtis), 1819-1885
Subjects: Associated Pioneers of the Territorial Days of California Voyages to the Pacific coast Ethnic groups Law Business
Publisher: Philadelphia, The author
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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On the third day I reached a crevice in a rock, some four feet below the surface of the ground, and in two hours succeeded in extracting therefrom forty-five dollars’ worth of gold in nuggets of the value of from one to five dollars. I did not report my good-luck to my companions, but toiled on, early and late, day after day, until I had extracted nearly four hundred dollars’ worth of the precious metal from the claim. I then abandoned it, and reported progress to my fellow-diggers, all of whom had been less fortunate than myself. Some had not averaged one dollar per day; others had been more successful, yet none had met with the success they anticipated. Those who had expected to realize a fortune in a few days or weeks were sadly disappointed. I left San Francisco with the intention of remaining in the mines during the fall and winter, but I had not dug three weeks before I found my health and strength failing. On the 10th of October, I had an attack of rheumatism which doubled me up like a rainbow and put a veto on any further attempts at
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MINING SCENE, 1849.
gold-digging. My companions advised me to return to Stockton or San Francisco and recruit my health, but I declined doing so until I had become so crippled by disease that I could scarcely hobble out of my tent.
On the morning of the 12th, I sold my provisions and mining implements by auction at ruinous rates, and packing my wardrobe, consisting of an extra flannel shirt, a pair of linsey-woolsey pants, a six-shooter and a bowie-knife, I engaged passage in a trader’s cart, and, bidding my companions adieu, started for Stockton, where I arrived the following evening.
On my arrival in Stockton, I was advised by my friend Leland to place myself under the charge of a physician for a few weeks, or until I had fully recovered my health. Accordingly, I visited the City Hospital, a large canvas tent, resembling very much a circus pavilion, and inquired the price of board with medical attendance.

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