"it is a
glorious country. I have made two hundred thousand dollars." This was
more than I could stand. I had already given him a long shake of
the hand but I could not resist the impulse to shake his hand again,
thinking all the time of my financial condition. So I seized his hand
again and shook it vigorously, assuring him that I was delighted to
hear of his good luck. We talked over the matter, and in my enthusiasm
I shook his hand a third time, expressing my satisfaction at his good
fortune. We passed a long time together, he dilating all the while
upon the fine country it was in which to make money. At length I
pulled out the note and presented it to him. I shall never forget the
sudden change, from wreaths of smiles to an elongation of physiognomy,
expressive of mingled surprise and disgust, which came over his
features on seeing that note. He took it in his hands and examined it
carefully; he turned it over and looked at its back, and then at its
face again, and then, as it were, at both sides at once. At last he
said in a sharp tone, "That's my signature," and began to calculate
the interest; that ascertained, he paid me the full amount due. If I
remember rightly he paid me $440 in Spanish doubloons, but some of
it may have been in gold dust. If it had not been for this lucky
incident, I should have been penniless before night.

The good fortune which the Colonel then enjoyed has not always
attended him since. The greater part of his property he lost
some years afterwards, but he has always retained, and now in his
seventy-eighth year[1] still retains, great energy and vigor of
mind, and a manly independence of character, which have made him
warm friends. In all the changes of my life his name is pleasantly
associated with the payment of the note, and the timely assistance
which he thus gave me. His career as commander of the well-known
regiment of New York volunteers which arrived in California in March,
1847, and subsequently in the State, are matters of public history.

As soon as I found myself in funds I hired a room as an office at the
corner of Montgomery and Clay streets for one month for $300, payable
in advance. It was a small room, about fifteen feet by twenty. I then
put out my shingle as attorney and counsellor-at-law, and waited for
clients; but none came. One day a fellow-passenger requested me to
draw a deed, for which I charged him an ounce. He thought that too
much, so I compromised and took