iting, and again complained of the headache. I then
consented to put it off until Monday morning at 10 o'clock. We both
pledged our honor to meet there at that time and consummate it. I was
there on Monday morning at the time designated. Mr. G. came in at 11
o'clock and said he had changed his mind and would not take the houses.
I said all right, but his word of pledge of honor would have no value
with me hereafter.

I would have made $18,000 profit, but I was selling them for a good deal
less than they would have brought if they had been there. Lumber was
selling as high as from three to four hundred dollars per thousand feet
in San Francisco at that time. But I was making certain of a good profit
and running no risk of what might happen in the future.

I had another offer of a number of lots on Stockton street, the next
street above the plaza in the heart of the city, for six of the smaller
ones, which, if I had consummated, would have made my fortune. "There is
a tide in the affairs of men, which, if taken at the flood tide, leads
on to fortune, or, if not seized, are forever lost." (Shakespeare.)

The ideas of the people there at that time was, that a railroad across
the continent, connecting California with the East, was entirely
impracticable. That there were one thousand miles of desert to cross,
where there was no water, and the Sierra Nevada mountains presented an
impassable barrier, and they thought how could it ever be an
agricultural country, when there was no rain for more than seven months
in the year. The idea of irrigation was not thought of then. How
different every thing has turned out since, I have nothing to do with. I
must be true to my subject, the days of the Forty-niners.

As it would be, at least, three months before the ship could come in
with my houses, and my health had improved, I was anxious to get up to
the mines. I was informed that there was a party from Albany at the
Dutch bar, on the south fork of the American river, about eight miles
from Coloma, where gold was first discovered, with whom I was
acquainted. I found a sloop about to sail for Sacramento (there were no
steamers then) the starting point to the northern mine. I took passage
on board with all the passengers the boat could accommodate. I noticed
on the passage up that the mosquitoes were very large, with penetrating
bills. It was as much as we could do to protect our faces.

The only important event on the passage was tha