318 
CALIFORNIA • 
sheep, and 16,000 horses, and harvesting annually about 75,000 
bushels of grain. Their decadence began when they were secu- 
larized by the act of the Mexican Congress, and that decline has 
not been arrested to this day. In the solitary places near where 
the fathers wrought there are now flourishing towns and cities, 
and the picturesque ruins of these old missions are among the 
treasures of the land. 
The new era in the history of California began on July 7, 1846, 
when the American flag was hoisted at Monterey by Commo- 
dore Sloat. The discovery of gold followed on January 19, 
1848, a month before the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was 
signed and five months before Americans had acquired their 
title to California. Henceforth there were to be a new people, 
new laws, and new institutions. A few months after the discov- 
ery of gold 20,000 ])ioneers started on the long overland journey 
from the banks of the Missouri to California. Five thousand fell 
by the way through disease and hardships or were slaughtered by 
Indians. Scarcely less than 20,000 went by water, either around 
cape Horn or by way of the isthmus of Panama. In a few 
months 100,000 Argonauts were in California. Twenty-five 
years after that date $1,000,000,000 of gold had been taken out 
of the mines of the state. A stream of gold was poured into the 
Federal Treasury during the civil war, and there was another 
blessed outflow into the treasury of the sanitary commission for 
the relief of friend and foe alike, of the Gray as well as of the Blue. 
For the first twenty years in the history of California the only 
mode of transportation after leaving the navigable rivers and 
the coast, aside from walking, was by stagecoach, wagon, pack- 
mules, and broncho horses. In Sacramento and Marysville, the 
two principal steamboat landings, it was a daily occurrence to 
have depart at break of da}’’ fifty or more stagecoaches and 
wagons loaded with passengers bound for the different mining 
towns and camps in the foothills and mountains. The I'eturn 
stages were so scheduled that they arrived back late in the after- 
noon or evening, and, with fresh exchange of horses, would be 
ready to leave again the following morning. 
The earl}’’ stage-driver in California was perhaps the most 
unique and was certainly one of the most important j^ersonages 
in the community. His social standing and influence were rated 
in about the following ratio: For a two-horse stage-driver to 
those of the sheriff ; a four-horse stage-driver to a member of the 
legislature; a six-horse stage-driver to a mayor or governor 
