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BANCROFT
LIBRARY
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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
ft
ELDORADO,
OR,
ADVENTURES IN THE PATH OF EMPIRE:
COMPRISING
A VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA, VIA PANAMA; LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO
AND ? r ONTEREY ; PICTURES OF THE GOLD REGION, AND
2XPERIENCES OF MEXICAN TRAVEL.
B Y
BAYARD TAYLOR,
UT JOR OF " VIEWS A-FOOT," ** RHYMES OF TRAVEL," ETC.
EIGHTEENTH EDITION.
NEW YOEK:
P. PUTNAM, 115 NASSAU-STREET,
1859.
Entered according to Act o( Congress, in the year 1850, by
BAYARD TAYLOR,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
BANCROFT
LIBRARY
TO
EDWARD F. BEALE, LIEUT., U. S. N.
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
WITH
THE AUTHOR'S ESTEEM .AND AFFECTION,
PREFACE,
THIS work requires but few words in the way of introduction.
Though the author's purpose in visiting California was not to write
a book, the circumstances of his journey seemed to impose it upon
him as a duty, and all his observations were made with this end in
view. The condition of California, during the latter half of the
year 1849, was as transitory as it was marvellous ; the records
which were then made can never be made again. Seeing so much
that was worthy of being described so many curious and shifting
phases of society such examples of growth and progress, most
wonderful in their first stage in a word, the entire construction
of a new and sovereign State, and the establishment of a great
commercial metropolis on the Pacific coast the author suffered
no opportunity to pass, which might qualify him to preserve their
fleeting images. As he was troubled by no dreams of gold, and
took no part in exciting schemes of trade, he has hoped to give
an impartial coloring to the picture. His impressions of Califor
nia are those of one who went to see and write, aijd- who sought
yili PREFACE.
to do both faithfully. Whatever may be the faults of his work,
he trusts this endeavor will be recognized.
A portion, only, of the pages which follow, were included in the
original letters which appeared in the columns of the New-York
Tribune. Many personal incidents, and pictures of society as it
then existed in California, noted down at the time, have been
added, and a new form given to the materials obtained. The
account of the author's journey across Mexico, is now published
for the first time
If, when a new order of things has been established and what
has occurred is looked upon as a phenomenon of the Past, some
of these pages should be preserved as a record and remembrance
thereof, the object of this work will be fully accomplished.
CONTESTS
PMI
CHAPTER I.
From New York to Chagres The Shores of Florida Night in Havana Harbor-
New Orleans Chagres from the Sea 1
CHAPTER II.
Crossing the Isthmus Quarrel with a Native The Village of Oatun Songs on
the River A Priest's Household An Affectionate Boatman Riding Through
the Forests We Reach Panama 11
CHAPTER III.
Scenes in Panama Emigrants Arriving Ruined Churches 88
CHAPTER IV.
The Pacific Coast of Mexico Meal-time on the Steamer A Midnight Call at
AcapulcoThe Mexican Coast The Old Presidio of San Bias Touching at
Mazatlan 31
CHAPTER V.
The Coast of California A Treacherous Coast Harbor of San Diego Narratives
of Emigration Gen. Villamil and his Colony The Last Day of the Voyage
The Anchor Drops 43
CHAPTER VI.
First Impressions of San Francisco Appearance of the Town The New-Comer'i
Bewilderment Indifferent Shopkeepers Street Gold People in Town 64
1*
CONTENTS.
PAG a
CHAPTER VII.
To the San Joaquin, on Muleback Scenery of the Inland Ranches on the Road
Colonel Fremont A Sonorian Comrade Crossing the Coast Range The Mos-
quitos and the Ferry ............................................ 63
CHAPTER VIII.
Camp-Life and a Ride to the Diggings Stockton Rocky Mountain Men Fiery
Travel the Mule's Heart Arrival at the Diggings ..................... 76
CHAPTER IX.
The Diggings on Mokelumne River Gold in the River-Bed The Sonorians
The Process of Dry- Washing Storks of the Gold-DiggersCost of our Visit.. . 84
CHAPTER X.
A Gallop to Stockton, with some Words on Law and Society Appropriating a
Horse The Californian Horse A Flogging Scene in Stockton Law and Order
Moral Effect of Gold ............................................ 94
CHAPTER XI.
A Night-Adventure in the Mountains An Unceremonious Supper The Trail
Lost Second View of San Francisco Col. Fremont's Mine ............... 104
CHAPTER XII.
San Francisco by Day and Night The Streets after Breakfast A Bull-Chase
The Afternoon The Inside of a Gaming-Hell
CHAPTER XIII.
Incidents of a Walk to Monterey Fisher's Ranche Agriculture in California
A Mountain Panorama Belated on the Road The Gila Emigrants Monterey
at La "t ...................................................... 15.1
CHAPTER XIV.
Lifo in Monterey The Fleas Outwitted The Growth of Monterey Domestic
Life and Society Quiet of the Town Population National Feeling in Cali
fornia . ,
CONTENTS.
FAQI
CHAPTER XV.
The State Organization of California Steps toward Organization The Con
vention Meets The Question of Suffrage Trouble about the Boundary The
Great Seal of the State Distinguished Californians Uo
CHAPTER XVI.
The Closing Scenes of the Convention A Bali-Room Picture Signing the Con-
stitution Gen. Riley and the Members Moral of the Convention 158
CHAPTER XVII.
Shore and Forest Swimming a Ravine Dinner by the Sea-ShoreGeology and
Indian Tradition The Sea-Lions on Point Lobos 169
CHAPTER XVIII.
Old California Its Missions and its Lands Rise of the Missions Their Downfall
Extent of the Mission Property The Law for Granting Lands Uncertain
Boundary of Grants Disposition of the Gold Land 179
CHAPTER XIX.
Return to San Francisco Journey in an Ambulance Night and Morning in tho
Mountains Fording the Pajaro River A Sirocco in San Jose Night-Camp
under the Oaks. . 193
CHAPTER XX.
San Francisco Again Post Office Experiences More Statistics of Growth An
Ague Case Structure of the Post Office Sounds on the Portico Increase of
Pay Needed 263
CHAPTER XXI.
Sacramento River and City The Straits of Carquinez New-York-of-the-Pacifio
View of Sacramento City Its Life and Business Cattle of Experience-
Sights at the Horse Market
CONTENTS.
PAQH
CHAPTER XXII.
Travelling on the Plains Night, Rain and a Ranche The Nevada at Sunset Prairie
and Wood Craft Among the Hills A Knot of Politicians 227
CHAPTER XXIII.
Journey to the Volcano The Forest Trail Camping in a Storm The Volcanic Com
munityAppearance of the Extinct Craters The Top of Polo's Peak Keturn to
theMokelumne 239
CHAPTER XXIV.
Election Scenes and Mining Characters Voting on the Mokelumne Incidents of
Digging An Englishman in Eaptures " Buckshot" Quicksilver My own Gold
Digging 25T
CHAPTER XXV.
The Rainy Season The Ferry Deception of the Diggers Dry Creek and Amador's
Creek A Ranche and its Inhabitants A Female Specimen A Vision Relin
quished 260
CHAPTER XXVI.
Night in Sacramento City Perils of a Stroll The City Music Ethiopian Melodies
Californian Theatre Playing the Eavesdropper Squatters' Quarrels Fate of my
Mare 272
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Overland Emigration of 1849 Its Character The Cholera on the Plains Salt
Lake City The Great Basin The Nevada Descent of the Mountains Apathy in
Peril The Close 280
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Italy of the West Steam on the Sacramento The Sunsets of California A
Company of Washmen A Voracious Donkey Attempt at Squatter Life 292
CHAPTER XXIX.
San Francisco four months Later Character of Business Life and Society Un
fathomable Mud Streets and Men ... am
CONTENTS.
PAGI
CHAPTER XXX.
Society in California The Transformation of the Emigran t The Norsemen Re-
vived The Energies of Society California Democracy 810
CHAPTER XXXI.
Leaving San Francisco A German Crew and Chilian Schooner "Weathering a South-
Easter The Fire on Shore We put back in Distress The Burnt District Stem
ming a Flood Tide The Steamer Paso del Mar Down the Coast 815
CHAPTER XXXII.
Mazatlan A Chinese Boniface The Streets by Night and Day The Atmosphere of
the Gulf Preparations to leave Solemn Warnings . 826
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Travel in the Tierra Caliente Tropical Winter A Lazy Mule Night at a Ranche
A " Caminador" Evening at a Posada Breakfast in El Rosario A Jolly Hostess
Ride to La Bayona The Palm and the Pine Indian Bobbers Chat with the Na
tivesEl Chucho The Ferry of Rio Santiago A Night of Horror 833
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Ascent to the Table-Land My Friend and Caminador A Bargain The People
Tepic Sacred Mysteries at San Lionel The Massacre of the Innocents A Val
ley Picture Crossing the Barranca 850
CHAPTER XXXY.
The Robber Region Meeting a Conducta Tequila below Suspicions The Robbers
at Last Plundered and Bound My Liberation A Gibbet Scene The Kind Padre
of Guadalajara 862
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Three Days in Guadalajara My Hosts An Unlucky Scotchman Financiering
The Cabal Notoriety Movable Fortresses The Alameda Tropic Beauty by
Moonlight An Affectionate Farewell 878
CHAPTER XXXVII.
En the Diligence to Guanajuato Pleasant Travel The Cholera San Juan de los
Lagos The Valley of Leon An Enchanted City The Eve of a Robber's Death.. 388
XIV CONTENTS.
PAGH
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
The Dividing Kidge and Descent to the Valley of Mexico The Bajio An Escort A
Gay Padre Zurutuza's Hacienda The Pass of Capulalpan Mexico 398
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Scenes in the Mexican Capital Interior of the Cathedral Street Characters Smok
ing in the Theatre Aztec Antiquities 899
CHAPTER XL.
Mexican Politics and Political Men The Halls of Congress Presentation of the
American Minister Herrera, his Government and Ministers 407
CHAPTER XLI.
Chapultepec and the Battle Fields The Panorama of the Valley 414
CHAPTER XLII.
Tho Base of Popocatapetl Another View of the Valley The Pine Woods of Eio
Frio Malinche Popocatapetl and the Pyramid of Cholula Puebla at Night 422
CHAPTER XLIII.
Glimpses of Purgatory and Paradise The Plains of Perote The Eim of the Table-
Land Magnificent View Paradise Orizaba Mountain The Delights of Jalapa-
The Field of Cerro Gordo The Continent Crossed 480
CHAPTER XLIV.
Vra Cruz and San Juan d'Ulloa Homeward ... . . 441
ELDORADO.
CHAPTER I.
FROM NEW YORK TO CHAGRES.
ON the 28th of June, 1849, I sailed from New York, in the
U. S. Mail steamship Falcon, bound for Chagres. About eight
months had elapsed since the tidings of an Eldorado in the West
reached the Atlantic shore. The first eager rush of adven
turers was over, yet there was no cessation to the marvellous
reports, and thousands were only waiting a few further repetitions,
to join the hordes of emigration. The departure of a steamer
was still something of an incident. The piers and shipping were
crowded with spectators, and as the Falcon moved from her
moorings, many a cheer and shout of farewell followed her. The
glow and excitement of adventure seemed to animate even those
who remained behind, and as for our passengers, there was scarcely
one who did not feel himself more or less a hero. The deck rang
with songs, laughter and gaily-spoken anticipations of roving life
and untold treasure, till we began to feel the heavy swell rolling
inward from Sandy Hook.
Rough weather set in with the night, and for a day or two
we were all in the same state of torpid misery. Sea-sickness
next to Death, the greatest leveler could not, however, smooth
down the striking contrasts of character exhibited among the pas-
1
ELDORADO.
sengers Nothing less than a marvel like that of California
could have brought into juxtaposition so many opposite types of
human nature. We had an officer of the Navy, blunt, warm
hearted and jovial ; a captain in the merchant service, intelligent
and sturdily-tempered ; Down-Easters, with sharp-set faces men
of the genuine stamp, who would be sure to fall on their feet
wherever they might be thrown ; quiet and sedate Spaniards ;
hilarious Germans ; and some others whose precise character was
more difficult to determine. Nothing was talked of but the land
to which we were bound, nothing read but Fremont's Expedition,
Emory's Report, or some work of Rocky Mountain travel.
After doubling Cape Hatteras, on the second day out, our mo
notonous life was varied by the discovery of a distant wreck
Captain Hartstein instantly turned the Falcon's head towards her,
and after an hour's run we came up with her. The sea for some
distance around was strewed with barrels, fragments of bulwarks,
stanchions and broken spars. She was a schooner of a hundred
tons, lying on her beam ends and water-logged. Her mainmast
was gone, the foremast broken at the yard and the bowsprit
snapped off and lying across her bows. The mass of spars and
rigging drifted by her side, surging drearily on the heavy sea
Not a soul was aboard, and we made many conjectures as to their
fate.
We lay to off Charleston the fourth night, waiting for the mails,
which came on board in the morning with a few forlorn-looking
passengers, sick and weary with twenty-four hours' tossing on the
swells. In the afternoon we saw Tybee Lighthouse, through tho
veil of a misty shower The sun set among the jagged piles of a
broken thunder-cloud, and ribbon-like streaks of lightning darted
all round the horizon. Our voyage now began to have a real in-
THE SHORES OF FLORIDA. J
terest. With the next sunrise, we saw the Lighthouse of St.
Augustine and ran down the shores of Florida, inside the Gulf
Stream, and close to the edges of the banks of coral. The pas
sengers clustered on the bow, sitting with their feet hanging over
the guards, and talking of Ponce de Leon, De Soto, and the early
Spanish adventurers. It was unanimously voted that the present
days were as wonderful as those, and each individual emigrant en
titled to equal credit for daring and enterprise. I found it delighful
to sit all day leaning over the rails, watching the play of flying-fish
the floating of purple nautili on the water, or looking off to the
level line of the shore. Behind a beach of white sand, half a mile
in breadth and bordered by dense thickets, rise the interminable
forests of live oak, mangrove and cypress. The monotony of this
long extent of coast is only broken by an occasional lagoon, where
the deep green of the woods comes down upon the lighter green
of the coral shoals, or by the huts of wreckers and their trim,
duck-like crafts, lying in the offings. The temperature was deli
cious, with a light, cloudy sky, and a breeze as soft and balmy as
that of our northern May. The afternoons commenced with a
heavy thunder-shower, after which the wind came fresh from the
land, bringing us a rank vegetable odor from the cypress swamps
On the morning of July 5th, I took a station on the wheel-
house, to look out for Cuba. We had left Florida in the night,
and the waves of the Gulf were around us. The sun, wheeling
near the zenith, burned fiercely on the water. I glowed at my
post, but not with his beam. I had reached the flaming boun
dary of the Tropics, and felt that the veil was lifting from an
unknown world. The far rim of the horizon seemed as if it would
never break into an uneven line. At last, towards noon, Capt.
Hartstein handed me the ship's glass. T swept the southern dis-
4 ELDORADO.
tance, and discerned a single blue, conical peak rising from the
^ater the well-known Pan of Matanzas. As we drew nearer,
the Iron Mountains a rugged chain in the interior rose, then the
green hills along the coast, and finally the white beach and bluffs,
the coral reefs and breakers. The shores were buried in vege
tation. The fields of young sugar-cane ran along the slopes ;
palms waved from the hill-tops, and the country houses of plant
ers lay deep in the valleys, nestling in orange groves. I drank in
the land-wind a combination of all tropical perfumes in one full
breath of cool air with an enjoyment verging on intoxication,
while, point beyond point, we followed the enchanting coast.
We ran under the battlements of the Moro at six o'clock, and
turning abruptly round the bluff of dark rock on which it is built,
the magnificent harbor opened inland before us. To the right lay
the city, with its terraced houses of all light and brilliant colors,
its spacious public buildings, spires, and the quaint, half-oriental
pile of its cathedral, in whose chancel repose the ashes of Christo
pher Columbus. The immense fortress of the Moro crowned the
height on our left, the feathery heads of palm-trees peering above
its massive, cream-colored walls. A part of the garrison were going
through their evening exercises on the beach. Numberless boats
skimmed about on the water, and a flat ferry-steamer, painted
green and yellow, was on its way to the suburb of Kegoles.
Around the land-locked harbor, two miles in width, rose green
hills, dotted with the country palaces of the nobility. Over all
this charming view glowed the bright hues of a southern sunset.
On account of the cholera at New York, we were ordered up
to the Quarantine ground and anchored beside the hulk of an old
frigate, filled with yellow-fever patients. The Health Officers
received the mail and ship's papers at the end of a long pole, and
NIGHT IN HAVANA HARBOR. 5
dipped them in a bucket of vinegar. The boats which brought
us water and vegetables were attended by Cuban soldiers, in white
uniform, who guarded against all contact with us. Half-naked
slaves, with the broad, coarse features of the natives of Congo,
worked at the pump, but even they suffered the rope-end or plank
which had touched our vessel, to drop in the water before they
handled it. After sunset, the yellow-fever dead were buried and
the bell of a cemetery on shore tolled mournfully at intervals.
The steamer Isabel, and other American ships, were anchored
beside us, and a lively conversation between the crews broke the
stillness of the tropical moonlight resting on the water. Now
and then they struck into songs, one taking up a new strain aa
the other ceased in the style of the Venetian gondoliers, but
with a different effect. " Tasso's echoes" are another thing from
"the floating scow of old Virginny." The lights of the city
gleamed at a distance, and over them the flaming beacon of the
Moro. Tall palms were dimly seen on the nearer hills, and the
damp night-air came heavy with the scent of cane-fields, orange
groves and flowers.
A voyage across the Gulf is the perfection of sea-traveling.
After a detention of eighteen hours at Havana, we ran under the
frowning walls of the Moro, out on its sheet of brilliant blue wa
ter, specked with white-caps that leaped to a fresh north-easter.
The waves are brighter, the sky softer and purer, the sunsets
more mellow than on the Atlantic, and the heat, though ranging
from 88 to 95 in the shade, is tempered by a steady and de
licious breeze.
Before catching sight of land, our approach to the Mississippi
was betrayed by the water. Changing to a deep, then a muddy
green, which, even fifteen or twenty miles from shore, rolls its
6 ELDORADO.
stratum of fresh water over the bed of denser brine, it needed no
soundings to tell of land ahead. The light on the South Pass
was on our starboard at dusk. The arm of the river we entered
seemed so wide in the uncertain light, that, considering it as one
of five, my imagination expanded in contemplating the size of the
single flood, bearing in its turbid waves the snows of mountain*
that look on Oregon, the ice of lakes in Northern Minesota and
the crystal springs that for a thousand miles gush from the west
ern slope of the Alleghanies. When morning came, my excited
fancies seemed completely at fault. I could scarcely recognize
the Father of "Waters in the tortuous current of brown soap-suds,
a mile in width, flowing between forests of willow and cypress on
one side and swamps that stretched to the horizon on the other.
Everything exhibited the rank growth and speedy decay of tropi
cal vegetation The river was filled with floating logs, which
were drifted all along the shore. The trees, especially the
cypress, were shrouded in gray moss, that hung in long streamers
from the branches, and at intervals the fallen thatch of some de
serted cabin was pushed from its place by shrubbery and wild
vines.
Near the city, the shores present a rich and cultivated aspect
The land is perfectly flat, but the forest recedes, and broad fields
of sugar cane and maize in ear come down to the narrow levee
which protects them from the flood. The houses of the planters,
low, balconied and cool, are buried among orange trees, acacias,
and the pink blossoms of the crape myrtle. The slave-huts ad
joining, in parallel rows, have sometimes small gardens attached,
but are rarely shaded by trees.
I found New Orleans remarkably dull and healthy. Tne city
was enjoying an interregnum between the departure of the cholera
NEW ORLEANS. 7
and the arrival of the yellow fever. The crevasse, by which half
the city had lately been submerged, was closed, but the effects
of the inundation were still perceptible in frequent pools of stand
ing water, and its scenes daily renewed by incessant showers.
The rain came down, " not from one lone cloud," but as if a
thousand cisterns had been stove in at once. In half an hour after
a shower commenced, the streets were navigable, the hack-horse**
splashing their slow way through the flood, carrying home a few
drenched unfortunates.
The Falcon was detained four days, which severely tested the
temper of my impatient shipmates. I employed the occasional
gleams of clear weather in rambling over the old French and
Spanish quarters, ridmg on the Lafayette Railroad or driving out
the Shell Road to the cemetery, where the dead are buried above
ground. The French part of the city is unique and interesting.
All the innovation is confined to the American Municipalities,
which resemble the business parts of our Northern cities. The
curious one-storied dwellings, with jalousies and tiled roofs, of the
last century, have not been disturbed in the region below Canal
street. The low houses, where the oleander and crape myrtle
still look over the walls, were once inhabited by the luxurious
French planters, but now display such signs as " Magazin des
Modes," " Au bon marche," or " Perrot, Coiffeur." Some of
the more pretending mansions show the porte cocker e, and heavy
barred windows of the hotels of Paris, and the common taverns,
with their smoky aspect and the blue blouses that fill them, are
exact counterparts of some I have seen in the Rue St. Antoine.
The body of the Cathedral, standing at the head of the Place d'
A.rmes, was torn down, and workmen were employed in building
a prison in its stead ; but the front, with its venerable tower and
8 ELDORADO.
refreshing appearance of antiquity, will remain, hiding behind its
changeless face far different passions and darker spectacles than
in the Past.
The hour of departure at length arrived. The levee opposite
our anchorage, in Lafayette City, was thronged with a noisy mul
titude, congregated to witness the embarcation of a hundred and
fifty additional passengers. Our deck became populous with tall,
gaunt Mississipians and Arkansans, Missouri squatters who had
pulled up their stakes yet another time, and an ominous number
of professed gamblers. All were going to seek their fortunes in
California, but very few had any definite idea of the country or
the voyage to be made before reaching it. There were among
them some new varieties of the American long, loosely-jointed
men, with large hands and feet and limbs which would still be
awkward, whatever the fashion of their clothes. Their faces were
lengthened, deeply sallow, overhung by straggling locks of straight
black hair, and wore an expression of settled melancholy. The
corners of their mouths curved downwards, the upper lip drawn
slightly over the under one, giving to the lower part of the face
that cast of destructiveness peculiar to the Indian. These men
chewed tobacco at a ruinous rate, and spent their time either in
dozing at full length on the deck or going into the fore-cabin for
' drinks.' Each one of them carried arms enough for a small
company and breathed defiance to all foreigners.
We had a voyage of seven days, devoid of incident, to the
Isthmus. During the fourth night we passed between Cuba and
Yucatan. Then, after crossing the mouth of the Gulf of Hon
duras, where we met the south-eastern trades, and runnino- the
gauntlet of a cluster of coral keys, for the navigation of which no