nd career of this wonderful
city. No dreams of Arabian romance ever surpassed the inconceivable
wonders that were matters of every-day occurrence there during the first
years of the gold-fever; and many of the results attributed to Aladdin's
wonderful lamp were almost literally accomplished--in some cases
actually surpassed--in and around the cities of California.

Before the discovery of gold, San Francisco was a mere hamlet. It
consisted of a few rude cottages, built of sun-dried bricks, which were
tenanted by native Californians; there were also a few merchants who
trafficked in hides and horns. Cruisers and whalers occasionally put
into the harbour to obtain fresh supplies of water, but beyond these and
the vessels engaged in the hide-trade few ships ever visited the port,
and the name of San Francisco was almost unknown.

But the instant the rumour got abroad that gold had been discovered
there, the eyes of the world were turned towards it. In a few months
men and ships began to pour into the capacious harbour; a city of tents
overspread the sand-hills on which the hamlet stood; thousands upon
thousands of gold-hunters rushed to the mines; the golden treasures of
the land were laid bare, and immense fortunes were made, literally in
the course of a few weeks. In many cases these were squandered or
gambled away almost as soon as made; but hundreds of men retired from
the gold-fields after a few months' labour, and returned home possessed
of ample fortunes. Thousands, too, failed--some from physical inability
to stand the fatiguing labour of the mines, and some from what they
termed "want of luck," though want of perseverance was, in nine cases
out of ten, the real cause; while many hundreds perished from exposure
and from the diseases that were prevalent in the country.

Well would it have been for these last had they remembered God's word,
"Make not haste to be rich;" but the thirst for gold, and the prospect
of the sudden acquisition of enormous wealth, had blinded them to the
fact that their frames were not equal to the rough life at the mines.

The excitement was at its height when the _Roving Bess_ anchored off the
shores of this land of gold.

The sun was just setting as the anchor dropped, and the crippled ship
swung round towards the shore, for the tide had just begun to rise.

"Faix, it's a quare town," said Larry O'Neil to Ned, who was gazing in
wrapt, astonishment and admiration ever the stern.