HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 163 



most eminent merchants and bankers of New York, 

 who was for many years engaged extensively in the 

 India trade, which shows that the profit or gain on 

 ten thousand ounces of gold, thus remitted, would 

 be §33,434 44 



And that the loss on the same quantity, 



sent direct to China, would be . 15,600 00 



Total difference in profit and loss in favor 



of the remittance to New York, . §50,034 44 



" It will thus be perceived that nature has so 

 arranged the winds and currents of the Pacific, and 

 disposed of her vast treasures in the hills and moun- 

 tains of California, as to give to the harbor of San 

 Francisco the control of the commerce of that ocean, 

 as far as it may be connected with the west coast of 

 America. 



** Important as the commerce of the Pacific un- 

 doubtedly is, and will be, to California, it cannot now, 

 nor will it ever compare in magnitude and value to 

 the domestic trade between her and the older States 

 of the Union. 



" Two years ago, California did not probably con- 

 tain more than fifteen thousand people. That portion 

 of it which has since been so wonderfully peopled by 

 American citizens was, comparatively, without inhabi- 

 tants, without resources, and not supplied with the 

 common comforts of shelter afforded by a forest 

 country. 



"Notwithstanding the great distances immigrants 

 have been compelled to travel to reach the territory, 

 more than one hundred thousand have overcome all 

 difficulties and spread themselves over its hills and 

 plains. They have been supplied from distances as 



