his profession in the city of Albany, his
native place, in 1848, when reports came of the discovery of gold in
California. In a short time samples of scales of the metal of the river
diggings were on exhibition, sent to friends in the city in letters.
Many of Colonel Stevenson's regiment had been recruited in that city.
Soon these rumors were exaggerated. It was said that barrels of gold
were dug by individuals named. Soon the excitement extended all over the
country, and the only barrier to wealth, it seemed, was the difficulty
of getting to the Eldorado. Why the discovery of gold there should have
produced so much excitement cannot be fathomed. It seemed an era in
human affairs, like the Crusades and other events of great importance
that occur. Your correspondent became one of its votaries, and organized
a company to go to the gold rivers and secure a fortune for all
interested in it, and it seemed all that was required was to get there
and return in a short time and ride in your carriage and astonish your
friends with your riches. Suffice it to say, this company was fully
organized (with its by-laws and system of government drawn up by the
writer), and sailed from the port of New York on the ship _Tarrolinter_
on the 13th of January, 1849, to go around Cape Horn, arriving in San
Francisco on the following July. From that time I became absorbed in all
the news from the gold regions, and losing confidence somewhat in the
certainty of a fortune from my interest in the company, and reading of
the high price of lumber, the scarcity of houses, and the extraordinary
high wages of mechanics there, conceived the project of shipping the
materials for some houses there, having all the work put on them here
that could be done, thus saving the difference in wages, and to have
them arrive there before the rainy season set in, and thus realize the
imaginary fortune that I had expected from my interest in the company.
In the following spring I had twelve houses constructed. The main point
upon which my speculation seemed to rest was to get them to San
Francisco before the rainy season commenced. I went to New York to
secure freight for them in the fastest vessel. Fortunately for me, as I
conceived at the time, I found the day before I arrived in New York, the
_Prince de Joinville,_ a Havre packet ship, had been put up to sail for
the port of San Francisco, and as yet had engaged no freight. I made a
bargain with them at once to take m