CHAPTER 1. 



ELDORADO— THE JOURNEY. 



The present generation, and especially the sons and 

 daughters of the Golden West, take a commendable 

 interest in reading the accounts of the circumstances 

 and conditions attending the early history and the ex- 

 periences of pioneer life in California, after the dis- 

 covery of gold in 1848. The admission of the State into 

 the Union Sept. 9, 1850, one week after the arrival of 

 the writer, was a memorable day, and will be duly cele- 

 brated by all who participated in the stirring scenes of 

 those early times. It is estimated that40,ooo immigrants 

 arrived here overland and by way of the Isthmus of 

 I'anama in 1849, ^"d 36,000 in 1850. As to the kind 

 of men, (but very few women came those years), who 

 composed the greater part of the immigrants and re- 

 mained to develop the resources of the Golden State, 

 a late writer says : "To this land of golden promise 

 in the early times came the bravest and best men of 

 the older states. The pioneers were the adventurous 

 and daring spirits of the old home, who, ill-content 

 to Slav and vegetate amid the familiar scenes of their 

 birth, took heart of hope, and through weeks and 

 months of peril and fatigue toiled across the waterless 

 and savage -peopled wastes to the land afar. They lit 



