54 HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 



all the merchants in the place. Bradley showed us a 

 lump weighing a quarter of an ounce, which he had 

 bought of one of the men, and for which he gave him 

 three dollars and a half. I have no doubt in my own 

 mind about its being genuine gold. Several parties, 

 we hear, are already made up to visit the diggings ; 

 and, according to the newspaper here, a number of 

 people have actually started off with shovels, mattocks, 

 and pans, to dig the gold themselves. It is not likely, 

 however, that this will be allowed, for Captain Fulsom 

 has already written to Colonel Mason about taking 

 possession of the mine on behalf of the government, 

 it being, as he says, on public land. 



" May Vlih. This place is now in a perfect furor of 

 excitement ; all the work-people have struck. Walking 

 through the town to-day, I observed that laborers 

 were employed only upon about half-a-dozen of the 

 fifty new buildings which were in the course of being 

 run up. The majority of the mechanics at this place 

 are making preparations for moving off to the mines, 

 and several hundred people of all classes lawyers, 

 store-keepers, merchants, &c., are bitten with the 

 fever ; in fact, there is a regular gold mania springing 

 up. I counted no less than eighteen houses which were 

 closed, the owners having left." 



The mania continued to increase, and within a few 

 months all the principal towns were nearly emptied 

 of their population. Gold was the universal object, 

 and splendid and rapid fortune the universal hope. 

 No occupation seemed to offer such a prospect as that 

 of digging gold, and, accordingly, those who were not 

 able to bear the fatigues of such work, or were at the 

 head of any sort of business in the different towns, had 

 to pay enormous prices for the labor of subordinates 



