by 11 A.M. there
would be a little breeze; by 2 or 3 o'clock, a gale. When the sun set
the wind would subside and there would be a perfect calm again. Every
day would be the same, month after month. What was almost a gale on the
coast would be a gentle breeze up in the mining district, in the
interior. The next day that air would be displaced by another gale from
over the thousand miles of ocean, for it is impossible to imagine any
other country with purer air.

During that time there were various visionary reports of new discoveries
of gold regions, one of a lake that the sands of its banks were rich
with gold. All you had to do, to make your fortune, was to wash it out,
which produced quite a sensation, and parties were organized to go
there, but they never found it. The next year after the purchase of my
brig, there were small steamers constructed to run to Stockton, and they
had already some sailing vessels put on, built there, and the price of
freight had commenced falling, and I thought I had better sell my vessel
while I could get a good price for it. There was a man who came to me
and said he wanted to buy it; that he had been a captain of a boat on
Lake Erie. I stated to him my price for it. He said that was not out of
the way, but he would like to try it one trip before closing the
purchase, and referred me to a mercantile house there as his reference.
They said he had run vessels for them on Lake Erie when they were doing
business in Buffalo. I concluded that was entirely satisfactory; that
that had evidently been his regular business. He said he wanted to
employ all his own hands. I had the vessel, at the time, half loaded
with freight, which I turned over to him. I paid my men and discharged
them, and told them the vessel was about to change owners, and put him
in full possession of it. Of course I had nothing more to do with it
until he returned from the trip to Stockton; then I expected he would
close the purchase as he said that the price was satisfactory to him.
After a few weeks I commenced looking for the return of my brig, but it
did not come. Finally I heard a rumor that the captain had left the
vessel at Stockton, but did not believe it, but thought that some
accident might have happened. I had borrowed a spy-glass to investigate
the bay. I could have recognized my vessel by the red streak around it.
Finally, after it had been gone long enough to make several trips, I
discovered it at anchor in th