392 COMMERCE POPULATION. 



apparatus the yield on the spot was found to be over fifty per cent. 

 Mr. Charles M. Wetherill of Philadelphia, an accomplished chemist, 

 found the percentage of mercury to be 60, in 123 grains which were 

 submitted to him; and 45 in another parcel containing 61| grains. 

 Cinnabar ore has been found in about twenty other places within a 

 few miles of this valuable location. 



It is asserted that there are extensive veins of silver, iron and 

 copper in California; but there is no information sufficiently accurate 

 to justify a statement of their existence or value. 



The commerce of California has of course flourished in proportion 

 to her population and wealth. The aggregate of duties paid on 

 foreign merchandize at San Francisco from the 12th of November 

 1849 to the 31st of May 1850, was $755,974. At the date of the 

 information there were in the harbor 623 sailing vessels, 12 steam- 

 ers; and 140 sail vessels and 8 steamers at Sacramento City, Stock- 

 ton and other places up the rivers. Of this total of 783 vessels, 

 120 were foreign and 663 American. The amount of tonnage at 

 San Francisco, was 1,020,476, and 100,000 in towns and cities on 

 the Sacramento and San Joaquin; but of this large sum 800,000 

 tons at least were unemployed. 



The singular history of the unprecedented rise in the value of 

 merchandize or the necessaries of life in California after the dis- 

 covery of gold, is a chapter full of surprising and fantastical inci- 

 dents, but our narrowing space denies us the tempting privilege of 

 recounting it in this volume. 



In all these calculations and estimates we must occasionally 

 approach the dangerous domain of speculation, and in this category 

 must we also place most of our information respecting the population 

 and towns of California. Population is of course constantly aug- 

 menting under these great temptations for the rapid accumulation of 

 fortune ; yet with society in such a transition state, the true ratios 

 or numbers of actual increase cannot be accurately obtained. 



According to Baron Humboldt the population of Upper Cali- 

 fornia consisted in 1802, of 7,945 males and 7,617 females, or, 

 15,562 individuals attached to the eighteen missions. All other 

 classes whether whites, mestizos, or mixed castes, either in the 

 Presidios or in the service of the Monks, were estimated at 1,300. 

 This calculation would make the whole population, at that time, 

 exclusive of wild Indians, 16,862. In 1831, the number of missions 

 had increased to twenty-one, and their Indian neophytes were 18,- 

 683 ; all other classes in the garrisons and among the free settlers 



