uth died at Turin, Italy, March
20, 1894.--ED.] and, although separated from his people by diverging
political theories, his countrymen will forever cherish in him the great
genius who gave liberty to millions of the oppressed peasantry, and who
inscribed indelibly on the pages of the national legislation the
immortal principles of liberty and equality of rights.

(1848) DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA, John S. Hittell

Before the time of the great gold discovery of 1848, the metal had been
found in California, but the mines from which it was taken were poor and
yielded small returns for years of working. The discovery in 1848
influenced the whole world, giving new life to trade and industry
everywhere. The first published report of gold in California appeared in
Hakluyt's account of Sir Francis Drake's visit to the coast in 1579. The
observations of Drake's men are supposed by some to have been made at a
point not far from San Francisco. The Hakluyt statement, however, is
disbelieved by many historians. The Spaniards and Mexicans who later
visited the coast are known to have found gold at many places, and
especially near the Colorado River, but they discovered no mines worth
working. Reports of great mineral wealth in California were repeated up
to the time of the American conquest, but they commanded little
confidence among mining experts.

Although gold was found in what is now San Diego County in 1828,
Alexander Forbes, the historian of California, wrote in 1835 that no
minerals of particular importance had been discovered in Upper
California, nor any ores of metals. About 1838 a gold placer was
discovered in the ca+-on of San Francisquito, forty-five miles northwest
of Los Angeles, and this was the first California mine that produced any
considerable amount of metal. It was worked for ten years and then
abandoned for richer diggings in the Sacramento Valley. The average
yield for the ten years was probably about six thousand dollars. After
the return of the Wilkes exploring expedition of 1842, James D. Dana,
its mineralogist, mentioned places in California at which he had
observed or inferred the existence of gold. But his report led to no
gold-hunting, and had only a scientific interest.

The great discovery of 1848, and its world-wide effects, are described
in the following account by Hittell, which forms a part of Hubert H.
Bancroft's voluminous _History of the Pacific States_.

As Edmund Hammond Ha