PREFACE. 
I UNDERTAKE to write the resources of a state, which, 
though young in years, small in population, and remote 
from the chief centres of civilization, is yet known to the 
furthest corners of the earth, and, during the last twelve 
years, has had an influence upon the course of human life, 
and the prosperity and trade of nations, more powerful than 
that exerted during the same period by kingdoms whose 
subjects are numbered by millions, whose history dates 
back through thousands of years, and whose present stock 
of wealth began to accumulate before our continent was 
discovered, or our language was formed. I write of a land 
of wonders. I write of California, which has astonished 
the world by the great migration that suddenly built up 
the first large Caucasian community on the shores of the 
North Pacific ; by her vast yield of gold, amounting within 
thirteen years to $700,000,000, which has sensibly affected 
the markets of labor and money in all the leading nations 
of Christendom ; by the rapid development and great extent 
of her commerce ; by the greatness of her chief port, which 
at one time had more large ships at her anchorage than 
were ever seen together in the harbor of either Liverpool, 
New York, or London; by the swift settlement of her remote 
districts ; by the prompt organization of her government; 
