LIFE SKETCHES OF A JAYHAWKER 49 



enough to get home himself. So we got to Victoria stranded. 



In passing down the Frazer River, passing where Vancouver now stands, 

 was all a dense forest, and at Westminster there were just a few log cabins. 

 I hardly know how we passed the first day or two in Victoria. As it hap- 

 pened the young man who was with me, Edward Ludlum, his father and the 

 American Counsel were old friends, and, after much persuasion, I prevailed 

 on him to go to Mr. Francis, as that was the Counsel's name, and tell him 

 who he was and I was almost sure he would help us out. Well he got pretty 

 hungry before he would do it, but he finally yielded. We went together to 

 the office and he told Mr. Francis the condition we were in and he went to 

 his desk and wrote an order on some hotel there telling them to give us 

 whatever we wanted until steamer day, which was five or six days away. 

 When the steamer came in, Ned and I happened to be in the Counsel's office, 

 and when the purser came in, before he would do any other business with 

 him, he told him to give us tickets to San Francisco, which he did and we 

 got back to God's country once more and sent back to Mr. Francis the 

 price of our bill at the hotel and our passage to San Francisco. He could 

 do as he pleased about paying the steamship company — that was none of 

 our business; so we paid our way was all we cared for. 



A few months later there was a rush for Aurora, on the eastern side 

 of the Sierras and on the line between California and Nevada. I thought I 

 must have some of that too and went over by stage. There were hundreds 

 of people coming and going, but mostly coming. Every place was crowded 

 and the best we could do was to be allowed to spread our blankets on the 

 floor for a dollar each. We, of course, would have slept out of doors, but 

 there was snow on the ground and a cold freezing night. By the next night, 

 we had our own tent and felt quite independent. There were three or four 

 of us joined together and prospected and took up some ledges that pros- 

 pected pretty well and we had some assays made of the rock, got out Stock 

 Books and divided the stock. I know I sent mine over to San Francisco to 

 be sold and that was the last of it. If any of it was ever sold I never 

 heard it. 



I came across an old acquaintance who was superintendent of a mine 

 that was running and he put me to work at four dollars per day and I 

 worked there until September. It was March when I arrived there. 



I then took a notion to go to Arizona, and as there was a man going as 

 far as San Bernardino with a team, I made arrangements to go with him. 

 When the party was made up there were ten or twelve of us, for as the 

 Owens River Indians were known to be pretty hostile at that time we 

 thought we would go strong enough to be safe. We got along quite smooth- 

 ly, though we had a little variety at Owen's River at the first crossing, 

 where we camped for the night. We had seen smoke signals all the after- 

 noon, first on the mountain and then on the mountain across the valley. We 

 knew the Indians were telegraphing to each other and could tell just how 

 strong our party was. We had a man with us who had been a prisoner for 

 six months before he made his escape and so knew their signs pretty well. 



After supper when we were going to bed, the horses took a stampede 

 and ran into camp, that is, all that were loose, some were picketed. Some- 

 one called out "Boys, your guns!" Some had guns and others revolvers, 

 but we were soon out and scouting for Indians, but, of course, they were 



