Some parties came with various kinds of machinery that was to make a
certain fortune for them, and was taken up into the interior at great
expense. I never knew of one that was successful. About all the
companies that were formed in the States to go around Cape Horn for
mining purposes generally dissolved after arriving in California, but
what they brought with them for supplies, sold for so high a price that
it generally sold for more than the cost of their passage, and they had
money coming to them. Some companies bought the ships as they came in
and hired the captain. I recollect one, called the _Mechanics' Own_.
Every person joining their company in the States had to be voted in and
pay $1,000. They put on airs and talked quite aristocratic of their
captain as their boy.

Three persons started the first bank in San Francisco, called the
Miners' Bank, on the northwestern corner of the plaza. Mr. Haight, who
was from Rochester, N.Y., and the sutler of Colonel Stevenson's
regiment, was one of them. It was said that at first they bought gold as
low as $8 per ounce, when it was worth more than $18 at the mint East.
The owners of the bank made $100,000 each in three or four years.

Before the discovery of gold the then small places on the Pacific Coast
obtained their supplies from small trading vessels that sailed along the
coast and stopped at their towns occasionally. After the discovery of
gold, at first goods went up four or five times their previous value,
and when one of these vessels was seen entering the port, parties would
put out in small boats to get aboard of them before they came to anchor
(they on board knowing nothing about the discovery of the gold), would
bargain with them for some of their goods, and finally offer them so
much for all their cargo. It being beyond their expectations the offer
was generally accepted, and thus some big speculations were made.

A lieutenant of Stevenson's regiment, who had been down in Monterey and
had not heard of the gold discovery, on his first day in San Francisco,
informed me that he did not know what to make of things. Most of his old
acquaintances wanted to know if he did not want to borrow some money;
they had some that he could have as well as not.

The steamers came in once a month with letters and papers. Then long
lines were formed to the post-office. Sometimes it took half a day to
get there. The New York papers at first sold for $1 each. Then they got
down