HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 221 



disease and destitution in that city. No doubt San 

 Francisco is the grand receptacle for all who become 

 diseased in any way at the mines or other places in 

 the interior ; and this may serve to account for the 

 extraordinary statements contained in the Message — 



" During the last nine months, an expense of eighty 

 thousand dollars has been incurred for the support of 

 the sick and destitute, who have been thrown penniless 

 upon our shores, and found friendless and homeless in 

 our streets, and for the burial of those who have died 

 without sufficient means to defray the expenses of 

 interment. If these enormous expenditures are con- 

 tinued, (and it is evident from the rapid growth of the 

 population, that they must seriously increase, unless 

 some new system is adopted,) it will readily be per- 

 ceived that a very large portion of the revenue of the 

 city will be absorbed in defraying the expenses of the 

 hospital department alone. Something therefore must 

 speedily be done -to remedy this great drain upon the 

 public purse." 



As an indication of the vast increase of the com- 

 merce of San Francisco, it is stated that, in six days 

 in the month of May, 1850, there arrived at that port 

 seventy-six vessels, freighted with cargoes to find a 

 market there. Several large steamboats have been 

 put upon the Sacramento and the Bay of San Fran- 

 cisco, and they are reaping extraordinary profits. The 

 trip from San Francisco to Sacramento City was, a few 

 years ago, a work of some days, but it is now per- 

 formed in less than nine hours. 



The reports from the mines continue to be of the 

 most favorable character. Gold has been discovered 

 upon Trinity River, about two hundred miles north of 

 Sacramento City, and the digging has proved to bo 



11 



