128 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



not fit to driak, and which I had no doubt I coald reach without 

 difficulty." 



But all varieties of Frenchmen in America — the fur-hunter, 

 the votary of fun and frolic and the apostle of faith — whatever 

 their primary impulses, each man was inspired to dive further 

 into the west, by a lurking but fixed idea that he was himself the 

 predestinated Columbus of the grand discovery — that portal* 

 through which men should bring the glory and honor of the 

 nations to and from farthest India — that world's highway which 

 lay hid from princes and plebeians till in the fullness of time 

 California opened wide her Golden Gate on golden hinges turning. 



Only tho5e of us who remember when California burst on the 

 world like a sun-burst, or lightning shining from the west unto 

 the east, as El Dorado no longer fabulous, can understand the 

 fever and frenzy which burned in every man who set his foot 

 toward the western unknown; his assurance that he was to be the 

 revelator, not of an ignis fatuus or desert Nile fountain, but of 

 greater marvels than are dreamed of in all the Arabian Nights — 

 a fairvland where urchins play at cherry-pit with diamonds, 

 where country wenches thread rubies instead of rowan berries for 

 necklaces, where the pantiles are pure gold and the paving stones 

 virgin silver. For su:;h merch indise who, though no pilot, would 

 not adventure to the farthest shore washed, by the farthest sea? 



"The blood more stirs to rouse a lion than to start a hare." 

 Accordingly the illusions, that sheening far celestial seemed to be, 

 of the China-seeker, the mi-sionary and the fun-lover, yes, of the 

 fur-dealer, roused them to efforts and crowned them with suc- 

 cesses they could never have made had they seen things as they 

 really were. 



Celestial visions flitting always a little ahead of western wan- 

 derers were an analogue of Sydney Smith's patent Tantalus. 

 This was a bag of oats hung on the pole of his carriage. It 

 rattled before the noses of his horses, but was about a foot beyond 

 their reach. In both cases, also, the stimulating influence was 

 very similar. 



Another French foundation was laid in the far west by politi- 

 cal finesse and feudalism. 



