72 EIvDORADO 



CHAPTER VII. 



A SECOND OVERLAND JOURNEY. 



I will now proceed to give a few incidents in con- 

 nection with my overland journey in 1853. Having 

 made a few thousand dollars during the years of '51-2 

 in the mines and on a stock ranch which I had pur- 

 chased on the Consumnes river, 20 miles from Sacra- 

 mento City, I determined to return to the States and 

 purchase a band of American horses, as they were in 

 demand at high figures for transporting goods of all 

 kinds to the mines from Sacramento, Marysville, 

 Stockton and other points. I was also feeling a little 

 homesick about that time, as tlie "settlers and miners" 

 ticket, on which I was a candidate for the Legislature, 

 was defeated by the stealing of the ballot boxes and the 

 1)urning of the city on the night of the election, No- 

 \ ember 2, 1852, by thugs, "shoulder strikers," and fol- 

 lowers of the notorious Judge Terry, who killed Brod- 

 rick and was himself killed at Lathrop a few years 

 ago for threatening and insulting Chief Justice Field. 

 The next day after the nominating convention I was 

 assessed $500 for election expenses, which I cheerfully 

 paid with ten octagonal "slugs" (which were at that 

 time the "coin of the realm") and thought I was get- 

 ting off cheap. 



