w resolution, and he decided to try his fortune again, and he became
successful and returned to the States with a competency.

[Illustration: THE DESPONDENT MINER.]

The early pioneers had some conflict with the Indians in the interior of
the country. Five Oregon men were massacred by them when engaged in
digging gold, but a terrible retribution was visited upon those Indians
concerned in it by the enraged Forty-niners. The Indians, at first, had
nothing but bows and arrows, and, of course, could not compete with
rifles. Several other small engagements were rumored, but they soon
gave up all contests with the whites, for they saw it was useless. There
was an acorn that was quite plenty in California, being longer than
ours, but not of a bitter taste. The squaws made flour of them. The
Digger Indians were the next tribe east of them; they were probably the
lowest grade. They would set fire to the prairie grass to burn the
grasshoppers, and pick them up and eat them. They deemed them a luxury.
The Oregon tribes were a higher grade, a warlike race, and superior in
every respect. The highest grade of them, in the United States now, are
the Choctaws and Chicksaws that formerly occupied the northern parts of
the State of Mississippi. When a young man, I spent three weeks in their
nation, travelling alone, and was treated with great hospitality by
them. They are quite intelligent, and they have laws and customs as
civilized nations. We generally look upon all of them as alike, but such
is not the case--there is as great a difference between different
tribes as much as between different white nations. The California
Indians were not naturally warlike, and when the early pioneers expected
any trouble from them, they would appoint a committee to go and see
them, and they generally settled their difficulty without any conflicts.

JESUIT MISSION STATIONS.

There were about sixteen Jesuit missionary stations in the country
before the discovery of gold, and were there for the purpose of
converting the Indians to the Catholic church, and when converted,
generally made them work to sustain their missionary establishments.

I had returned to my office on the North Beach after my only trip to
Stockton on my brig. My friend R. was progressing with his brewery. He
had received a favorable letter from Lieutenant S. about our Touwalma
city, and informing me that S. had a diamond ring that cost $800 in Rio
Janeiro, at a broker's office,