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THE 
 
 SUNSET LAND; 
 
 THE GREAT PACIFIC SLOPE. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOHN TODD, D. D. 
 
 1 J » J > 
 
 » -»•>..>. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 LEE AND SHEPARD 
 
 18/0. 
 
fS( 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G9, by 
 
 JOHN TODD, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 ElECTROTYPED AT THE 
 
 BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDIiT, 
 
 No. 19 Spring Lane. 
 
To JAMES LAIDLEY, Esq., 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 My dbae Sir: 
 
 When you met me on the steamboat, 
 on the Sacramento River, an entire stranger, as I 
 supposed, and when you claimed acquaintance from 
 having been — long, long ago — a member of my 
 Sabbath School, I had no thought that you were 
 to be the representative of the kind friends I was 
 to finrl in California. But yours was -a true speci- 
 men of their kindnesses ; and I have no way of 
 letting you and them know how deeply I remember 
 all tliey did to render my visit one of the most 
 delightful periods of my life, then, and in memory, 
 except thus to make my grateful acknowledg- 
 ments. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 PiTTSFiELD, September, 1869. 
 
 iVil8i7'i5 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 The Climate, Soil, and Natural Productions, 
 
 which 3iake california what it is. . . .9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Mines, Mining, and their Effects on the World. 38 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Thb Big Trees and Yo-Semite Valley. . . .76 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Natural Productions op California, including a 
 
 Visit to the Geysers 121 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Mormons and Mormonism 161 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Highway of Nations, or the Continental Rail- 
 roads 213 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Future of the Pacific Slope, and the Chi- 
 nese Question. 263 
 
 Appendix. 315 
 
THE SUNSET LAND 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE CLIMATE, SOIL, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS 
 WHICH MAKE CALIFORNIA WHAT IT IS. 
 
 California is a study. On visiting it, the 
 stranger is, at first, utterly bewildered, finding 
 everything so entirely difierent from anything 
 he expected or ever saw before. He seems 
 to have alighted on some new planet; the 
 points of compass seem to have swung wrong, 
 and the winds, the trees, the shrubbery, the 
 hills, and valleys, all conspire to confound 
 and mock him, and to enjoy his confusion. 
 
 It is on account of what I deem the great 
 
 FUTURE before California, and the vast prob- 
 es) 
 
'IPiil V 
 
 ^Bl^ :^\mSi!lT LAND. 
 
 lems there to be solved, thai I desire to have 
 my reader understand what Nature has done 
 to make this State so peculiar, and to give 
 her a position of so much importance. How 
 different in all respects from our New Eng- 
 land ! Here the winds hurry, and scurry, 
 and change, often many times a day; there 
 they unchangingly blow in one direction for 
 six months, and then the opposite for six 
 months. Here the earth rests in winter ; 
 there they have no winter, and her rest is in 
 the summer. Here we have storm, and heat, 
 and cold ; there they have no storms or rain 
 in summer, and only rain in winter. Here our 
 trees shed their leaves ; there they wear their 
 varnished covering the year round, while some 
 of them, like the bronzed madrona, shed their 
 bark annually, and keep on their bright, green, 
 waxen leaves. Here the woodpecker goes to 
 the old tree and knocks and wakes up the 
 worm, and then pecks in and gets him ; there 
 
CLIMATE. 11 
 
 the woodpecker bores a thousand holes in the 
 great pine tree, into each of which he thrusts 
 an acorn, into which the miller deposits her 
 egg, and which the woodpecker calls and 
 takes, after it has become a good-sized worm. 
 The blue jay is arrayed in a strange dress, 
 and chatters in notes equally strange. The 
 lark sings in sweeter notes, but they are all 
 new. Here the owl lives in the hollow tree ; 
 there he burrows in the ground with the 
 strange gray, ground-squirrel, or in the hole of 
 the rattlesnake, or in that of the prairie dog. 
 Here the elder is a bush ; there I have seen 
 it a tree whose trunk is a foot in diameter. 
 Here the lemon-verbena is a flower-pot plant ; 
 there it is a bush nine feet high. Here the 
 mustard-seed yields a small plant ; there it is a 
 tree, often seventeen feet high. Here we have 
 a few gi*ape-vines in a grapery ; there you 
 will find five thousand acres in a single vine- 
 yard. Here you will see a single oleander 
 
12 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 beautifying a single parlor ; there you will 
 fnid a hundred clumps in full blossom in a 
 single yard, amid what looks like showers of 
 roses. Here Ave make the Ethiopian calla 
 bloom in the conservatory ; there it blossoms 
 in every graveyard, and at the head of almost 
 every grave. Here we have the thick green 
 turf on our soil ; there they have no turf, and 
 not a dandelion, daughter of the turf, grows 
 in all California. Here the sun paints the 
 grass green ; there he turns it brown. Here 
 you see the farmer carefully housing his hay, 
 and little patch of wheat ; there he cuts no 
 hay except to supply the cities, and reaps 
 and threshes his wheat in the fields, and throws 
 the bajrs down to lie all summer, sure that 
 neither rain nor dew will hurt it. Here you 
 have scores of trees out of which you make 
 3^our tools ; there you have no tree out of 
 which you can make a wagon-hub or spoke, 
 a plough, a harrow, an axe-helve, or a hoe- 
 
CLIMATE. 13 
 
 liandle. Here everything is small ; there the 
 trees and all the vegetable world are so large, 
 that you are tempted to doubt your own eyes. 
 Now, what makes the climate — the creator of 
 all these strange things — so peculiar? Be pa- 
 tient a few minutes, and I will try to tell you. 
 
 California is a little over eight hundred 
 miles long and over two hundred wide — a 
 territory out of which you could carve Mas- 
 sachusetts twenty times. Full two thirds of 
 all this is mountain. For our purpose at the 
 present time, we mdy say the State lies north 
 and south. 
 
 As you go from the valley of the Missis- 
 sippi west, you rise till you cross the Rocky 
 Mountains, over eight thousand feet above the 
 ocean, at the point of crossing. This is the 
 back-bone of the continent. You then come 
 to a desert of some four hundred miles. 
 Then you meet the Wahsatch Range of moun- 
 tains, parallel with the Rocky Mountains ; 
 
14 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 then anotlier vast desert, much larger than the 
 first, and then the Nevada Mountams — the 
 eastern boundary of California. This is the 
 Sierra Nevada, running the whole length of 
 the State, nowhere less than four thousand 
 feet high, up to fifteen thousand feet, with a 
 hundred peaks, each of which is over thirteen 
 thousand feet. For two hundred miles along 
 its northern part, there is no spot where it 
 could be passed under eleven thousand feet 
 altitude. The width of this range is eighty or 
 one hundred miles, — running nearly in a 
 straight line, — and the whole ridge is covered 
 with snow over eight months in the year. 
 
 On the west side of the State, holding the 
 old Pacific in its place, is the Coast Range 
 of mountains, still parallel with the Sierra 
 Nevada; or, rather, several ranges of these 
 mountains, parallel with one another, as well 
 as the Nevadas. This Coast Range, or ocean- 
 barrier, is from say twelve hundred to ten 
 
CLIMAXE. 15 
 
 thousand feet high, and about forty miles 
 wide. Between these two great ranges of 
 mountains lies a great valley, made by two 
 rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, — 
 the first running south and the other north, 
 — meeting and emptying in a bay in about 
 the middle of the State, and forming a great 
 valley, — though usually called two, — about 
 five hundred miles long and fifty miles wide. 
 This great basin was evidently once a vast 
 inland sea, which, by some convulsion of na- 
 ture, broke through the Coast Eange of moun- 
 tains, in the centre of the State, by wearing 
 a channel into the ocean about a mile and a 
 third wide. This outbreak is the "Golden 
 Gate." Out of this great valley there were 
 little bays and coves between the spurs of 
 the Coast Range. These are now beautiful 
 little valleys, about fifty in number, and from 
 five to a hundred miles long. Among the 
 most beautiful of these — and upon more beau- 
 
16 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 tiful the sun never shone — are the Napa, the 
 Sanoma, the Russian, and the SaMa Chini 
 valleys. As you stand on the mountahis, and 
 look down into these valleys, they look like 
 lakes turned into land. Now, leave the land 
 a moment, and look at the ocean. 
 
 Near the equator, in the Pacific as well as the 
 Atlantic, starts a stream or a river in the ocean. 
 It runs along up the coast of China till it reaches 
 Behr^g's Straits. Into those straits it rushes, 
 meets^ and melts the icebergs, so that there 
 are no icebergs in the Pacific. In doing this, 
 it gets immensely chilled, and turns down 
 towards our coast. It strikes the Aleutian 
 Islands, and a part is deflected and makes 
 towards the Sandwich Islands, carrying cool 
 waters to make temperate what would other- 
 wise be uninhabitable. A part of this now 
 cold river comes down along the coast of 
 Oregon and California, the cold w^ater, of 
 course, down on the bottom, wherever the 
 water is blue. 
 
CLIMATE. 17 
 
 As the waters come near the shores, they 
 become shallow and green, and the cold wa- 
 ters are forced up to the surface ; these chill 
 the vapors hanging in the air, condense them, 
 and in the night create a heavy fog, which 
 hangs along the whole coast of California. 
 Now, why does not this sea-fog roll over all 
 the land, and cover it? I reply, it never 
 rises over one thousand feet high, and as the 
 Coast Range of mountains is higher than 'his, 
 they shut it out. But at the Golden Gate, 
 where it has a chance, it does pour in every 
 day, and envelop the city of San Francisco 
 from about four o'clock in the afternoon till 
 about nine in the morning. There is another 
 reason why the fog does not cover the land. 
 The great vallisy, of which I have spoken, is 
 the great laboratory of the State. There the 
 sun pours down his strength, and the heated, 
 rarefied air rises up, and drinks up all the 
 vapor which the ocean can send inward, long 
 2 
 
18 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 before it can become a cloud. Owing to the 
 position and the rotation of the earth, the 
 winds from the Pacific blow from the west, 
 one half of the year, towards the east, and the 
 other way the other half. This would be easy 
 to explain, were it not the explanation would 
 be too long. The heat of the Sacramento and 
 San Joaquin valley, often 110^ to 120*^, would 
 be intolerable, were it not for these unseen 
 mists that flow over them from the ocean. 
 These meet the cool streams of air which every 
 night pour over the snowy Nevadas, and they 
 drop down, not in rains or dews, but in cool- 
 ness ; so that the nights, through the State, 
 are always cool, requiring the same amount 
 of bed-clothing in summer and in winter. Man 
 and beast are refreshed by the cool night. 
 
 The atmosphere is so dry during the day, 
 that the moisture which would otherwise be 
 perspiration on the body, is at once dried up, 
 and both man and beast can endure more and 
 
CLIMATE. 19 
 
 do more work tluiu iii any other climate I 
 ever knew. 
 
 I saw a team which had been driven over 
 lofty mountains, a distance of twelve miles, 
 three times, or thirty-six miles, in a single 
 day, and not apparently especially fatigued ; 
 and I saw a man (Foss, near. the Geysers) 
 who drove a stage one hundred and sixty 
 miles in a single day — with relays of horses 
 of course — this summer. The horses have 
 a speed and an endurance that amazes a stran- 
 ger. You would think these rich, deep-soiled, 
 fertile valleys would abound in fevers. Noth- 
 ing of the kind. I doubt whether on the face 
 of the globe there is a healthier region. 
 
 On inquiry as to the healthiness of a par- 
 ticular village, they said it was so healthy 
 that when they had finished laying out their 
 new cemetery, they had to kill a man to put 
 into it ! 
 
 In the summer these valleys are so turned 
 
20 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 up to the suu, that everything matures and 
 ripens quickly and early. They were gather- 
 ing in their crops in the middle of May. But 
 the gentle winds that climb over the Coast 
 Range of mountains go over the valley, and 
 fan the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevadas. From 
 May to November there is no rain or dew in 
 California. The w^heat, the barley, and every- 
 thing has ripened. The grass has dried up, 
 all seeded, and still making rich pasture for 
 the cattle, — and there is no part of the year 
 when the flocks fatten so fast as when they 
 eat what we should call the dried-up grass 
 in the fields, good for nothing here, but full 
 of seed and nourishment there, — and the 
 ground on the surface parches, and cracks, 
 and wrinkles, and rests till the fall rains. 
 The beautiful green of field and meadow, of 
 landscape, hill, and dale, which makes New 
 England so lovely, is all gone. You must 
 w^ait till next winter, when ive are covered 
 
FOOT-HILLS. 21 
 
 with snow, to see their creation all fresh and 
 green. February is their month of beauty 
 and of glory, as June is ours. 
 
 I have spoken of the great ranges of moun- 
 tains. At the base of these, are smaller moun- 
 tains, called foot-hills, in all shapes and of all 
 sizes, mingled and joined together by spurs, 
 very much as the bars of pig-iron are in the 
 furnace. As you stand on one of these, you 
 see gulches scooped out on all sides, and the 
 spurs running in every direction. It is easy 
 to see that from these gulches came the soil 
 which has been washed down and made the 
 valleys, which everywhere push up among the 
 foot-hills and spurs. You cannot climb a 
 mountain by a railroad, as you would one of 
 our mountains, by gradually going up its side ; 
 for you would find that you would have to 
 go round one spur and gulch, and far in 
 round another, only to meet, perhaps, a dozen 
 more, jutting out or drawing in, in all dircc- 
 
22 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 tions. In one instance I noticed the Central 
 Pacific Railroad went six miles to get round 
 a gulch, in order to gain one mile. 
 
 As there are no clouds, so, of course, there 
 is no 'thunder in California, — at least none 
 above ground. In the midst of this great 
 valley, or land lake, the Bay of San Francisco 
 sets up directly east as it passes through the 
 Golden Gate, and then, turning south round 
 the peninsula, at the end of which the city 
 is built, making a harbor of sixty-five miles 
 in extent, and deep enough to receive all the 
 ships of the world. 
 
 It was a long study before I could make 
 up my mind Svhat caused the narrow gorge 
 from the bay to the ocean to be called the 
 " Golden Gate." It had nothing to do with 
 the gold of the land, for the name was given 
 before the discovery of gold. The theory I 
 adopt is this. As you approach the coast 
 from the ocean, the entrance seems to open 
 
GOLDEN GATE. 23 
 
 like a gate, and as you look in through the 
 fog, you see the yellow sun-light resting upon 
 this fog, bright and golden, just about the 
 narrowest part of the channel. Here the fort 
 stands, and hence the name " Golden Gate.'* 
 It often looks like a pillar of fire hanging 
 over the gate. 
 
 I have said that the summer is so long 
 and dry, that the wheat — the finest the world 
 ever saw — is left in sacks, in th'e fields, for 
 weeks. As a fact, it becomes like kiln-dried 
 wheat, and the only difficulty with it is, it is 
 too dry to grind. The English millers carry 
 it to England, and mix it with their damp 
 wheat, and it grinds admirably. In Califor- 
 nia, they dampen it, either by passing it 
 through a kind of screw, like the perpetual 
 screw of a propeller, letting in a little stream 
 of water as the wheat enters the screw, or 
 they let a small stream into the hopper when 
 grinding. If you ask how big the stream 
 
24 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 should be, the answer is, that must be decided 
 by the judgment of the miller. But as every 
 pound of water he uses adds just so much 
 w^eight to the flour, it is to be hoped his judg- 
 ment and conscience will both be good. 
 
 As to the natural scenery of California, it 
 is so peculiar that art injures it. If you want 
 to see it in its beauty, look at it before man 
 touches it. In no spot in the State can you 
 stand without seeing mountains, near or re- 
 mote ; and very few where you cannot see the 
 long, western, snow-capped ridge of the Sierra 
 Nevadas. 
 
 Now, let us once more take our stand on 
 the Nevadas, and look around. At the east, 
 lie the great alkali deserts, — once the bot- 
 tom of a great, inland, salt sea, but, at some 
 remote period, heaved up by volcanoes with 
 this range of mountains. As you look north 
 or south, you see the ridge and the jagged 
 peaks along which a hundred volcanoes once 
 
NATURAL DIVISIONS. 25 
 
 blazed. Here are twenty thousand square 
 miles most plainly of volcanic origin. These 
 mountiiins bear up great forests, without which 
 the railroad could never have been built. East 
 of this ridge lies Silver Belt, beginning far 
 up, perhaps in Alaska, and running down into 
 Mexico and South America. It is as much 
 a^ three hundred miles wide, certainly, at 
 times. Now let the eye turn west. You see 
 a narrow strip under the brow of the Sierra, 
 of not much account. Then comes a strip, or 
 belt, twenty miles wide, of most magnificent 
 pine forests. Here, in this belt, stand the 
 sugar pines, often full three hundred feet high, 
 and the Sequoia gigantea, or " Big trees," still 
 loftier. No finer pine timber than that which 
 grows on this belt need be desired. Then 
 comes a belt, about forty miles wide, begin- 
 ning far north of Oregon, even in British Co- 
 lumbia, which may be denominated the aurif- 
 erous or Golden belt. It has gold under the 
 
26 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 soil, and the most wonderful fruit-bearing 
 power above the soil. Here the fig yields 
 her three crops a year ; here the pomegranate 
 and the almond, the nectarine, the peach, the 
 cherry, the apple, the pear, and, above all, 
 the grape, have their home, and grow with a 
 rapidity, and bear with a profusion, that is 
 almost beyond belief. I do not believe a 
 more wonderful belt, of the same extent, can 
 be found on the face of the globe. I shall, 
 of necessity, have to touch upon this topic 
 again, when I come to speak of mining. 
 
 As you pass through these belts, you see 
 the mountains and hills dotted and spotted 
 with pines, with cattle-paths on their sides, 
 just far enough apart to let these natural en- 
 gineers crop every handful of wild oats ; or 
 if you look into the valley, the bright, green, 
 live oak stand just near enough to look like 
 a park of a very tasteful gentleman. On these 
 hills grows that i^eculiar bush, the manzanita 
 
COAST RANGE. 27 
 
 (or little apple), whose fruit the Indians have 
 for generations gathered, to give a kind of 
 zest to their poor acorns. The winds that 
 come over the mountains, leaving the fogs 
 behind them, fon and cheer all. 
 
 Then come the great valley of the Sacra- 
 mento (you are moving westward, remember), 
 and the little valleys, and the Coast Kange 
 of mountains. Pass over them, and you find 
 the Ocean kissing their base, save now and 
 then a little clipping out of the mountain, to 
 create a little valley. On that western side 
 of the mountain, amid the fogs, gTOws that 
 remarkable tree, the " redwood," often yielding 
 boards six feet wide. It is a species of cedar, 
 and is more used in building houses than all 
 other woods put together. Still south is the 
 other half, or Lower California, Los Angeles, 
 — the Land of the Angels, — where are the 
 fertility, the beauty, the fruits of the tropics ; 
 where enterprise will find a thousand sources 
 
28 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of wealth ; where wealth may sleep in the lap 
 of beauty — a vast region hardly yet taken 
 into account, but which is to be inferior to 
 no part of the State. 
 
 Still beyond, are quite a number of islands, 
 some covered with birds, from which millions 
 of eggs have been brought to the city ; others 
 inhabited by the sea-lion, a species of seal, 
 weighing, when grown, from two thousand to 
 five thousand pounds. On the rocks near the 
 shore we saw perhaps a hundred of these 
 awkward, tawny creatures, one of which they 
 have named after a member of Congress — 
 v)liy, I did not ask ; but I noticed that he was 
 very pugnacious, very arbitrary, very noisy, 
 and that he made a great splashing when he 
 dove. On some of the islands are thousands 
 of sheep kept, yielding the choicest wool. 
 One man has a flock of two hundred thousand. 
 There is one great fact, not hitherto noticed, 
 and which is yet to have a great influence on 
 
IRRIGATION. 29 
 
 California ; and that is, the want, the necessi- 
 ty, and the use of water. During the long, 
 dry summer, without water, the gardens, the 
 flowers, and all vegetation die. With water, 
 you have a fertility, a beauty, and an abun- 
 dance, hardly to be conceived. Hence a ranche, 
 with a stream of water running through it, is 
 of great value. Hence the windmills every- 
 where, near almost every house, drawing up 
 water for the family, for the cattle, and for 
 the garden. It should be noted, however, 
 that all vegetables and trees have a long tap- 
 root, which pierces the soil deep to find mois- 
 ture ; and also, that it is the top of the soil 
 that is so dry. But, after all, irrigation must 
 and will come into use more and more. 
 
 Now, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 
 tains God has provided for all this. There 
 are over two hundred lakes and ponds, natu- 
 ral reservoirs, where the waters are stored 
 up, — enough to turn a vast territory into a 
 
30 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 garden fair as Eden. These waters have hith- 
 erto been used almost solely in mining, but 
 in time they will be led, in little channels, far 
 and wide, and be a source of wealth far great- 
 er than what the mines yield. The power of 
 water as a fertilizer is beyond anything that 
 we, in this land of clouds and showers, have 
 ever witnessed. For thousands of 3^ears this 
 power has made Egypt the garden of the 
 world. . I shall have occasion to refer to this 
 again, w^hcn I come to speak of Salt Lake 
 City. But in these reservoirs there sleeps a 
 power which will one day drive mills and fac- 
 tories, and then spread over the soil, and 
 create plenty and beauty of which this gener- 
 ation little dream. 
 
 In looking at the sceuer}^ of California, we 
 must not forget, the canons. When a gorge 
 is so deep and so steep that you cannot climb 
 up the mountain on either side, it is called a 
 " canon." If you can climb up on one side, 
 
CANONS. 31 
 
 and not tbo other, the impassable side is 
 called a bluff. If you can climb up both 
 sides, it is called a gorge. Sometimes the 
 English word " valley " has superseded that of 
 canon. Thus the wonderful Yo-Semite canon 
 bears the name of valley. 
 
 Before the railroad was opened, the course 
 of the emigrants was over the arid deserts for 
 months ; and then, when over the Nevada 
 heights, through some one or more of these 
 canons. Death's Valley, whose bottom is noth- 
 ing but soft alkali mingled with sulphur, — 
 whose bottom is also one hundred and fifty 
 feet below the level of the sea, — whose length 
 is from forty to one hundred miles, — is one 
 of these canons. It received its name from 
 the fact that no living thing is to be found 
 in it ; and also because, a few years since, a 
 pai-ty of emigrants got in it, and from which 
 not a man or a beast ever came out. Their 
 wagons and kettles were found strung along 
 
32 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 on the sides of the canon, as were also then' 
 bones, where they fell, m their vain endeavors 
 to get out. 
 
 The highest pass through which the emi- 
 grant went is ten thousand seven hundred 
 and sixty-five feet above the ocean ; and there 
 are several small lakes, also, not less than 
 seven thousand feet above the ocean. Such 
 is Lake Mono, fourteen miles long and nine 
 miles wide, slumbering among the tokens of 
 volcanoes, and inhabited only by myriads of 
 the most noisome flies. 
 
 Lake Tahoe, fifteen miles from the railroad, 
 is already becoming a favorite resort of the 
 Calif omians in the summer. It is twenty- 
 three miles long, fifteen wide, six thousand 
 two hundred and eighteen feet above the sea, 
 walled in by mountains from one to four thou- 
 sand feet, and in places, the lake is sixteen 
 hundred feet deep. Its waters arc pure as 
 crystal, and it- is a place of unsurpassed 
 beauty. 
 
DONNER LAKE. 33 
 
 As the traveller emerges from the tunnel 
 on the SieiTa Nevada, looking from the cars, 
 in their ascent eastward, on the left hand, he 
 will see a charming little lake, fifteen hundred 
 feet or more below him, calm, blue, and beau- 
 tiful. It is about five miles long, and one 
 mile wide. It is " Donner Lake." And who 
 has not heard of Donner Lake ? A little over 
 twenty years since, an emigrant train of fifty 
 men and " thirty Tvomen and children encamped 
 on the borders of this lake, late in the sea- 
 son, under the leadership of a Captain Donner. 
 A heavy snow, of twenty feet in depth, shut 
 them in the canon, and prevented their ad- 
 vance or retreat. Their cattle died, and they 
 ate them to the very last string of their skins. 
 Then famine came upon them, and hunger and 
 starvation stared them in the face, — nay, 
 pressed upon them wdth maddening power. 
 They could hardly wait for one another to die 
 before they consumed the body. They would 
 3 
 
34 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 kindle their night-fires in their several little 
 huts, crouch around them, creep towards each 
 other, and glare into each other's eyes with a 
 maddened glare, like that of starving wild 
 beasts. From hut to hut exchanges of limbs 
 and parts of the human body were carefully 
 made, payment to be made when the next 
 one died. One man boiled and consumed a 
 girl, nine years old, in a single night. One girl 
 made a soup of her lover's head. A woman 
 is still living who ate her own husband. A 
 young Spaniard confessed that he "ate baby 
 raw, stewed some of Jake, and roasted his 
 head." I have seen one who was in that hor- 
 rible party. 
 
 In the mean time, as we are told, there lived 
 in the Napa Valley, not far from San Fran- 
 cisco, an old hunter by. the name of Blount. 
 He dreamed that there was such a party suf- 
 fering and dying in the mountains. So deeply 
 was he impressed with the dream, that in the 
 
TiiK hunter's dheam. 35 
 
 morning he went twenty-three miles to see 
 
 another old hunter. In descril)ing his dream, 
 
 • 
 
 he- drew a picture of the canon so plain that 
 the hunter recognized it as the canon of Don- 
 ner*s Lake. Immediately they set out, organ- 
 ized a party, waded through the deep snows, 
 found the Donner party, and ultimately, thirty 
 out of the eighty were rescued, though many 
 of them frost-bitten and crippled for life. But 
 the most awful part of the tragedy was, that 
 during these dreadful weeks, they became so 
 besotted, that when found, — filthy beyond 
 description, with parts of their undevoured 
 friends around them, — they were so mad- 
 dened, like wild beasts that have once tasted 
 human flesh, that they had to be literally torn 
 away from this food, and most reluctantly ate 
 the food which their deliverers brought. One 
 Gorman, still living, was found, after being 
 supplied, cooking human flesh, all smeared 
 with its blood. It was thought that this 
 
36 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ghoul had actually committed murder, in order 
 to have one more feast ! 
 
 Among the foot-hills of the Nevadas, t 
 found a Minister laboring among the scattered 
 sheep, who was eleven months in getting over 
 from Illinois. He and his wife, and a little 
 child four years old, having lost their cattle, 
 and all the rest of the party leaving them, 
 actually walked five hundred miles before they 
 came to a human habitation. They are all 
 now living. 
 
 I have attempted, thus far, to help you to 
 look over the landscape, and see California 
 as God made it. I have thought that this 
 introduction was necessary in order to show 
 you, in filling up the picture, where and how 
 everything has its place. In the vast and 
 lofty mountains, in their round, beautiful foot- 
 hills, in the bewitching valleys, that sleep in 
 beauty through the country, in the peculiarity 
 of climates, in the gorgeous drapery of trees 
 
BEAUTY AND WEALTH. 37 
 
 and flowers, in the sleeping gold and silver 
 yet unfound, in the fertility of soil and the 
 great wealth yet to come from it, in its rela- 
 tions to the Orient, — not yet touched upon, 
 — I see a future for this part of our land, 
 great in results, wide in their reach, fearful 
 for good or for evil to the human family, but 
 all, all under the orderings of a God infi- 
 nite in wisdom. 
 
38 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MINES, MINING, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE 
 WORLD. 
 
 Before the Mexican war, California was an 
 unknown land — terra incognita. The vari- 
 ous tribes of filthy Indians occupied, but neither 
 improved nor enjoyed, her beautiful valleys : 
 the wild horse and cattle, the elk, the deer, 
 and the bear, roamed unmolested. The moun- 
 tain-quail called to his mate, and the valley- 
 quail heard no gun : the mourning dove cooed 
 in his loneliness, and the rattlesnake basked in 
 the sun, without fear. The forests stood as 
 if listening to coming footsteps, and beauty 
 and plenty seemed to be waiting for the tread 
 of destiny. The indolent Mexican had his 
 rancho, of almost unlimited extent, his cattle, 
 
SPANISH MISSIONS. 39 
 
 which he killed only for their skins, and a 
 few beans for his soup. 
 
 The Missions established by the monks had 
 partially tamed a part of the savages. These 
 missions were strong in cattle, in the labor 
 of the Indians, and in the rude abundance of 
 a very rude state of society. But a stronger 
 race w^as on its way, whose indomitable en- 
 ergy was to sweep off imbecility, and drive 
 out everything that could not compete with 
 it. I After Mexico became independent of 
 Spain, she plundered these missions, took their 
 property, and destroyed them forever ; and, 
 for evil or for good, Mexico alone is answer- 
 able for the wreck of all the Catholic Mis- 
 sions in California. 
 
 While the Spaniards held possession of the 
 country, wanderers on the ocean, weary of 
 wandering, fur traders, trappers, and adven- 
 turers, gradually came in ; and though the 
 Mexicans made repeated attempts to drive 
 
40 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 and keep them out, they might as well have 
 attempted to drive away bees from the honey 
 which they could not cover up. 
 
 Captain Sutter had a large Spanish grant, 
 on the Sacramento Kiver, and there he plant- 
 ed himself, built a fort, and called it New 
 Helvetia. The fruit was ripening, and was 
 ready to fall into the hands of those who 
 were ready to catch it. In 1845, Congress 
 declared (Mexico owing Jonathan some mil- 
 lions of dollars, which she could neither pay 
 nor repudiate) Texas to be annexed to our 
 country. The war which followed clinched 
 the nail, and the American flag was planted 
 in California. But not until terrible battles 
 had been fought, and vast wisdom and cour- 
 age had been shown by John C. Fremont and 
 Commodore Stockton, did the land have rest. 
 
 No novel could be more thrilling than the 
 history of the fearful struggles to decide the 
 question who should own California? In 1845, 
 
EARLY POPULATION. 41 
 
 it was estimated that the population of Cali- 
 fornia was eight thousand whites, perhaps ten 
 thousand domesticated Indians, and from one to 
 three hundred thousand wild Indians. In 1847, 
 the emigrating wagons over the mountains had 
 poured in a great stream, while confidence in 
 the safety which the American flag gave, had 
 drawn in people from all nations till the popu- 
 lation had increased to twelve or fifteen thou- 
 sand in the whole State. But now an event was 
 to take place which, beyond all others unpar- 
 alleled, was suddenly to change the face of a 
 country, electrify the world, and jerk forward 
 the progress of civilization, at the rate of a 
 century in a few years. 
 
 In the winter of 1847-8, Sutter was build- 
 ing a saw-mill on the south branch of the 
 American River, a branch of the Sacramento. 
 Mr. James W. Marshall, the contractor to 
 build the mill, one day let water into the tail- 
 race, in order to deepen the channel. The 
 
42 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 water carried sand and mud, which it soon 
 deposited. On looking down, Marshall discov- 
 ered something bright among the sand. At 
 once, on feeling of its weight, he was con- 
 vinced that it was gold. Eager with excite- 
 ment, he hastened to tell Sutter. On seeing 
 his excitement, and hearing his story, Sutter 
 thought he had gone mad, and kept his eye 
 on his loaded rifle. Marshall tossed an ounce 
 of gold on the table, and they were equally 
 excited : they hastened to the spot, vowing 
 secrecy. But as they continued to search 
 under an excitement they could not conceal, 
 a Mormon soldier watched them, and soon 
 jjossessed the secret. He told his compan- 
 ions, who had been with him in the Mexican 
 war ; and now the cat was fairly out of the 
 bag. Warm rumors flew in every direction, 
 — exaggerated, of course. Gold — gold was 
 to be had for the picking up, on " the Rio de 
 los Americanos." The population rushed in 
 
EXCITEMENT OF GOLD. 43 
 
 u swarm. In a few days, more than twelve 
 hundred people were at the saw-mill, digging 
 with shovels, spades, knives, sticks, wooden 
 bowls, and everything else. Infants were 
 turned out of cradles, that the cradles might 
 be used for washing gold. The husband left 
 his wife ; American, Spaniard, *and all rushed, 
 helter-skelter, to the diggings. Towns were 
 depopulated, ships left sailorless, — everything 
 thrown away — all feeling sure, if they could 
 only reach the diggings, they would return 
 milUonnaires. In the mean time, other streams 
 and gulches were found to contain gold. It 
 seemed as if the whole Nevadas might be only 
 a thin crust over mountains of gold. A few 
 ships got away, and letters and gold dust 
 w ent with them : the excitement widened its 
 circle. On rushed the nearest people, the 
 Mexicans ; then all the nooks and comers of 
 California poured out their population. Ore- 
 iX'^m on the north, the Sandwich Islands on 
 
44 THE SUXbET LAND. 
 
 the west, Peru and Chili on the south, poured 
 in their easrer diofo^ers. Then China felt the 
 
 o Co 
 
 thrill, and her people flocked over. Austra- 
 lia sent her convicts and rascals ; and adven- 
 turers from all parts of the earth, having noth- 
 ing to lose, flew to California. The Mexican 
 war had just iTeen closed, and thousands of 
 young men from the soldiery went to the 
 land of gold. The East caught the fever, and 
 emigrant wagons uncounted, hastened over the 
 deserts, leaving the bones of men and of ani- 
 mals to bleach along their path. 
 
 On — on to the land of gold I Ho ! for 
 California ! Ships went tossing round Cape 
 Horn full of young men. England, Germany, 
 France, and Italy sent multitudes. At once 
 the East was aroused, and sent fifty thousand a 
 year, for &vc successive years, and invested 
 ninety-two millions of dollars before any return 
 was made. In a time incredibly short, there 
 were at least a quarter of a million of the 
 
EXCITEMENT OF GOLD. 45 
 
 wildest, bravest, most daring, and most intelli- 
 gent young men digging gold. There was no 
 female society, there were no homes to soften or 
 restrain, no laws, and no magistrates. From 
 the lakes of the north to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 from the lumber-mills of Maine to the settler 
 on the Indian territories, the whole land was 
 moved. 
 
 It was a far-off land, where there were 
 neither houses, nor clothing, nor food. As a 
 rare luxury, a saloon, composed of cloth only, 
 could now and then hang out tlie sign "pota- 
 toes this day ; " and it was crowded. Apples 
 sold at five dollars apiece in gold. Every- 
 body had "a flush of gold. Fortunes were 
 made in a day, and lost in gambling at night. 
 It was mean not to spend all as it came. 
 Every man was loaded with gold, revolvers, 
 and bowie-knives. Nothing was valued ; noth- 
 ing was sacred. It will be readily seen how 
 it Avas that this mining population could be so 
 
46 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 easily excited by rumors of new and rich dig- 
 gings. Tell them that at such diggings every 
 man can obtain, at the lowest mark, five hun- 
 dred dollars a day, and all would rush thither. 
 
 At one time, gold was discovered up near 
 Oregon, in the black sand on the sea-shore. 
 Letters came saying that every pound of sand 
 would yield from three to ten dollars. One 
 gentleman, who had been sent to view it, 
 wrote that their claim would yield them forty- 
 three millions each ! In two days eight ves- 
 sels were advertised from San Francisco to 
 the Gold Blufis. But the excitement died at 
 once when thousands had been disappointed. 
 
 At one time, led by false reports, a great 
 current set down to Peru — to find nothing. 
 At another time, the report declared that won- 
 derful deposits were found on Kern River, 
 and at once five thousand were g*i the spot, 
 and five thousand more were ready to folfew. 
 It lasted a few weeks — but long enough to 
 ruin hundreds. 
 
FRASER RIVER EXCITEMENT. 47 
 
 Who has not hcjird of the Frascr River ex- 
 citement? This river was more than a thou- 
 sands miles away, up in British Columbia. 
 No matter. The miners were spoiling for ex- 
 citement. In March, the account of the mines 
 was published ; by the 20th of April, five 
 hundred were on their way, two thousand in 
 May, nine thousand five hundred in June ; 
 and in three months from the first notice, 
 eighteen thousand had arrived, by the aid of 
 nine steamers and twenty sailing vessels. Ev- 
 ery sixth voter in the State had gone. Real 
 estate fell from twenty-five to seventy-five per 
 cent. Lots that had been sold for fifteen hun- 
 dred dollars, could be bought for one hun- 
 dred. After one steamer had been wi'ccked, 
 and millions of money lost, the miners, too 
 late, found nothing worth staying for, and so, 
 in the course of the season, nearly all found 
 their way back to ** God's land," as they called 
 it.* In 1860, the mania for silver mines began. 
 
48 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 On one mine, — tlie Washoe, — buying rights 
 with no titles, sending out men who knew 
 nothing about the business, jumping to conclu- 
 sions by seeing a small sample of ore, hearing 
 great stories of the richness of the mine, led 
 the population to be almost crazy. Thirty 
 millions of dollars were sunk * and lost in this 
 one excitement. Thousands of families were 
 reduced to poverty ; but as a few were made 
 rich, and the city which furnished the supplies 
 was, on the whole, a gainer,' I do not see why 
 the same experiment may not be repeated 
 again and again. 
 
 In mining, the first requisite and essential, 
 after finding evidences of gold, is water — 
 water to wash out the soil and sand, leaving 
 the gold behind. When they first began, 
 they carried the earth on their backs, or on 
 pack-horses, two or three miles to the nearest 
 water. \ • 
 
 You are a miner, we will suppose, of the 
 
GOLD-WASHING. 49 
 
 poorest and eimplest working power. In that 
 case, you have a pan in which you shovel 
 the earth, and then wash it till the soil is out, 
 and the gold left on the bottom. But the 
 gold, for the most part, is very fine. It is 
 mere dust. Then you put quicksilver in the 
 bottom of your pan ; that attracts the gold, 
 and forms what is called an amalgam. If you 
 have got beyond the simple pan, you have the 
 rocker, — a larger vessel, round on the bot- 
 tom, and long, like a hollow log split length- 
 wise ; this you put under running water, and 
 while one shovels in the earth, you rock and 
 wash it. Or, you make a trough, with little 
 slats nailed across the bottom inside. Here, 
 above the slats, you put your quicksilver, and 
 let in a stream of -running water, while you 
 shovel in the earth. All the day long you do 
 this, and at night gather out your amalgam. 
 Now, the gold is scattered through all the 
 gulches of the foot-hills, and the necessity of 
 4 
 
50 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 running water has created Water Companies, 
 who bring it along on the sides of the moun- 
 tains in ditches, and across ravines in troughs 
 held up on trestle-work. Sometimes this wa- 
 ter is brought one hundred and forty miles, 
 and the right to use it is sold to the miner 
 by the square inch. A more productive way 
 is what is called the hydraulic method. This 
 is now the most expensive, and for the placer 
 mining the most profitable. 
 
 Suppose you are to get the gold out of a 
 hill or flat where the soil is sixteen or twenty 
 feet deep before you come to the bed-rock, 
 which underlies all the hills. You bring water 
 from any distance, however great, and let it 
 fall, say fifty feet, through a hose six inches 
 in diameter. This hose must be encased in 
 iron rings, — rings, so that you can bend it, — 
 and very near each other, to prevent its burst- 
 ing. Or, better still, in i3lace of the hose, 
 you have iron pipes, through which the water 
 
HYDRAULIC MINING. 51 
 
 rushes, and which is safer than the hose, 
 which is apt to "buck," as they call it; i. e., 
 twitch and jerk as would a live buck, if held 
 by the hind leg. Let in a stream through 
 your pipe, as big as your wrist, upon the 
 bank, and it washes it down with amazing rapid- 
 ity. Being dissolved, it flows through the long 
 trough, where the quicksilver lies in wait to 
 coui-t and embrace, and retain it. The more 
 soil you can thoroughly dissolve, the more 
 gold you get. After all, with your utmost 
 skill, you lose at least thirty-three per cent, 
 of all the gold you move in the soil. 
 
 At some remote period, when all the rock 
 under the soil was melting, the gold seems 
 to have been melted and mingled with the 
 quartz. Some of this quartz is very hard, 
 some very soft. From this soft, or "rotten 
 quartz," as they call it, this detached gold 
 comes sometimes in nuggets worth from twen- 
 ty dollars to fifteen hundred, but more gen- 
 
52 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 erally in very fine particles. It is the fine 
 dust that escapes in the water running through 
 the trough, and is lost. I have seen nuggets 
 worth from fifty to one hundred dollars each. 
 These pieces of gold are found in the sands 
 and beds of ancient rivers, and are as plainly 
 washed and rounded by the action of running 
 water for ages, as were the five smooth stones 
 which David took out of the brook for his 
 sling. 
 
 Follow up one of these beds of an ancient 
 river, and very likely you will find a moun- 
 tain heaved up and thrown directly upon it. 
 Then, up and over that mountain, very likely, 
 you will find the river-bed running at right 
 an<?les with its old channel. 
 
 Although it seems as if every gulch and ra- 
 vine had been explored, yet doubtless a mul- 
 titude of unknown deposits, remain yet to be 
 found. As thirty-three per cent, of all the 
 washings is lost, the Chinese, indefatigable 
 
QUARTZ-MINING. 53 
 
 gleaners, come after all other miners have 
 left, and make it a profitable business to gath- 
 er what remains. 
 
 Nothing can be more dreary than a territo- 
 ry where the soil has been washed out as low 
 as the water will run off. Ten thousand rocks 
 of all shapes, and forms, and sizes are left; 
 acres and acres, and even miles, of the skel- 
 etons of beauty, with the flesh all gone, and 
 nothing but hideousness remaining. I have 
 heard it asserted, that the placer mines are 
 about exhausted, and that, hereafter, nothing 
 but the rich companies, who have great mills to 
 crush the quartz rock, can gain a living. I do 
 not believe this is true. While capital and skill 
 can gain much faster in quartz-mining, I have 
 no doubt that it will take generations, if not 
 a thousand years, before the gold is so washed 
 out of the soil of California, that mining will 
 not be a paying business. In the quartz 
 mines, a very huge water-wheel, made to turn 
 
54 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 by the smallest amount of water possible, 
 pumps the water from the mine as fast as it 
 accumulates ; the ore is then dug or blasted out, 
 broken into pieces about as large as the fist, 
 then put • into an iron mortar, and stamped 
 with iron pestles, till it is so red^iced to pow- 
 der, that water will wash it out in the trough, 
 where the quicksilver lies in wait to catch the 
 gold. This amalgam, quicksilver and gold, is 
 next put into a covered retort of iron, with a 
 a pipe allowing the fumes of the quicksilver 
 to escape, which pipe is cooled by passing 
 through cold water, till the quicksilver fumes 
 are condensed, and it drops down, the pure 
 metal it was, leaving the gold in the retort. 
 In this process, about twenty-five per cent, of 
 the quicksilver is lost. There are about four 
 hundred and fifty quartz mills already in ojDer- 
 ation in the State, and the number is con- 
 stantly increasing. In the placer mines the 
 poorest man may go to work, only paying for 
 
QUARTZ-MINING. 55 
 
 tlio use of water. In the quartz-mining, vast 
 capital can and must be employed. When the 
 little claims on mining land have been staked 
 out, the spirit of speculation comes in to buy 
 and sell these claims. I have seen many 
 houses bought for the sake of the soil that 
 mi^rht be due: out under them. The useless 
 house is left standing on sticks. 
 
 Aa I have mentioned quicksilver, this will 
 be the proper place to lead you to its source. 
 Leaving San Francisco, and going south in the 
 Santa Clara valley, nearly seventy miles, you 
 come to the Almaden mines, the largest quick- 
 silver mines in the world. It is a wild, weird- 
 looking place. Up, up the round hills, three 
 miles from the gorge, are the mines, nine hun- 
 dred and forty feet perpendicular height. 
 
 The history of this mine is curious. In 
 1845, a Mexican officer met a tribe of Indians, 
 with their faces painted with vermilion, which 
 they had obtained from the cinnabar or quick- 
 
56 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 silver ore. By bribery he induced the Indians 
 to show him the pkice. Tlie mines are on a 
 spur of the Coast Kange of mountains. The In- 
 dians had dug fifty or sixty feet into the moun- 
 tain, when first discovered by Captain Castel- 
 lero, with their hard- wood sticks. Probably 
 they had known the mines for many genera- 
 tions. A quantity of skeletons were found in a 
 passage, where life had undoubtedly been lost 
 by the caving in of the earth. Up the moun- 
 tain, and near the mouth of the mines, are 
 the cabins of the miners — all Mexicans. For 
 a time after the discovery, it was supposed 
 the ore contained gold, or at least silver; but 
 k gentleman who procured a retort, and ap- 
 plied fire at the bottom, soon found, by the 
 pernicious eflfects of the fumes on his system, 
 that he had caught a tiger. 
 
 A company was organized, but up to 1850 
 they had expended three hundred and eighty- 
 seven thousand eight hundred dollars over all 
 
QUICKSILVER MINES. 57 
 
 receipts. It was then that a blacksmith, named 
 Baker, introduced a new process of separating 
 the metal from the hard stone in which it is 
 imbedded. 
 
 Suppose you want to get the quicksilver out 
 of your ore. You will build a brick building, 
 two hundred feet long, the rooms of which are 
 divided by thick walls, each room eighteen feet 
 high, and fifteen wide, and thirteen in number. 
 In the first room you pile in your ore, fifty lit- 
 tle car loads, of three hundred pounds each, or 
 seven and a half tons. Outside of the ore you 
 have your furnace, with holes, many in number, 
 through which the flames are drawn, so as to 
 heat every pound of ore. The fumes, which 
 are quicksilver, rise to the top of the room. 
 There they find an opening of about a foot, 
 the whole length of the partition. They then 
 drop down into the second room, to find an 
 opening at the bottom of the next wall. 
 Through this they rush, alternately, going 
 
58 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 over one wall and under the next, through 
 all the thirteen compartments. By this time 
 the fumes are cool, and drop on the bottom 
 of the* room, out of which, on the floor, a little 
 inclined to one side, the metal rolls, through 
 holes, into a trough, which conveys them into 
 a great iron kettle, holding probably a ton. 
 Out ot* this it is dipped into strong iron 
 flasks, containing seventy-six and a half pounds 
 each, and the flasks weighing thirty-six pounds 
 each. Each flask must have an iron cap or 
 stopper strongly screwed on ; and the flask 
 must not be full, else, on exposure to the 
 sun and heat, the quicksilver will ooze through 
 the iron. This is now ready for market, and 
 you send it all over the world. Much of 
 it goes to China, and comes out again in 
 vermilion paint. While you have this fur- 
 nace and set of chambers cooling ofi", which 
 it has taken you ninety hours, without ceasing, 
 to burn, you must have a second set of cham- 
 
QUICKSILVER MINES. 59 
 
 bers in the process of burning. The chim- 
 neys must be two hundred feet high. After 
 all, the fumes will be so penetrating and per- 
 vading, that your men often sicken, and must 
 stop, and new men take their places. With 
 four hundred men at three dollars each a day, 
 to mine and run the ore down to the valley 
 on a little railway, and to burn and bottle, 
 you make two and a half million pounds of 
 quicksilver, at forty cents a pound, wholesale. 
 This gives you an income of one million dol- 
 lars annually. The ore contains from four- 
 teen to forty per cent, of metal. Your month- 
 ly payments are forty thousand dollars. As 
 the ore bed is two miles wade, you have no 
 fear of exhaustion. In the dark chambers of 
 the mine, running in all directions like the 
 streets- of the city, you want sixty pounds of 
 candles daily for your workmen; i. e., for 
 twenty-four hours, for so you keep the work 
 going, and it is always night there. A pair 
 
60 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of trousers, a felt hat or cap, and leathern 
 sandals tied about the ankles, constitute the 
 clothing of your miners. Each man makes 
 about thirty trips a day down into the deep, 
 deep chambers of the mines, bringing up about 
 two hundred pounds of ore on his shoulders, 
 held there by a strap over the forehead, whilst 
 his hands grasp the ladders that he must climb 
 or descend, in order to get his ore to the little 
 cars that go singing off down to the smelting- 
 rooms. From this greatest of quicksilver mines 
 comes the metal that enables the miners to 
 gather the silver and gold all through Califor- 
 nia and Nevada. There are several other quick- 
 silver mines in California, the united produce 
 of which was, previous to the last year, six 
 hundred thousand flasks of seventy-six and a 
 half pounds each, and in the aggregate worth 
 over eighteen million dollars at wholesale. 
 
 The silver mining is of more recent date 
 in these parts than the gold. The silver belt 
 
SILVER BELT. 61 
 
 lies on the east side of the Nevadas, commen- 
 cing, probably up in Alaska, and running south, 
 down through Mexico, and into South Amer- 
 ica. This belt is about three hundred miles 
 wide, and may be two thousand, and even 
 more, in length. It is quarried, broken,' and 
 crushed very much as the gold quartz. Like 
 all that is money, it is very uncertain. You 
 may have a claim to-day, that is rich and 
 promises well, and you could sell it for a 
 hundred thousand dollars ; but to-morrow the 
 rock may stop, or you lose the lode. You 
 may find it again after you have excavated 
 your mine one hundred or three hundred 
 feet, and you may never find it. In seeking 
 for it you may expend all you have in the 
 world, and never find it, and you are a poor 
 man. You rush to find another claim, but 
 you may try twenty and not find silver. So 
 you buy claims, and probably not one in hun- 
 dreds is of any possible worth. Indeed, those 
 
82 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 who understand the thing — and there is scarce- 
 ly a man in California who does not understand 
 it by bitter experience, first or last — say that 
 it is like a lottery where there is one prize to 
 about ^VG thousand blanks. 
 
 As to the amount of precious metals that 
 have been dug out of the soil of California 
 during the twenty years, it is difficult to form 
 an estimate on which you can rely. As near 
 as I can judge, I should put the gold at one 
 thousand millions of dollars. This, if all 
 brought together, would weigh just about 
 two hundred tons. The silver mining is now 
 in its infancy, but the yield is enormous. 
 You go into the express office on the arrival 
 of the daily steamer, and you are amazed at 
 the enormous amount of huge silver bars that 
 have just come in, — sometimes three tons of 
 these in a single day ! These are almost all 
 sent off in the bars to China, and other parts 
 of the world. 
 
SILVER-MINING. 63 
 
 The amount yet to be obtained will be, I 
 have no doubt, prodigious ; and yet I would 
 advise every one to let mines alone, unless 
 he is thoroughly acquainted with the business, 
 unless he is on the ground, and also, unless he 
 can stay and watch it, with a great capital to 
 invest, and has a faith that makes him willing 
 to run great risks. The first opening of the 
 silver mines, and the haste with which the 
 Californians plunged into the excitement, cost 
 them thirty millions before they had learned 
 the business. Of course, disappointment, and 
 poverty, and suffering, wide and deep, were 
 in the path of such a sinking of property. 
 The effects of mining are most sad on the 
 miners. In their commencement they had to 
 associate with the greatest number of vaga- 
 bonds, hardened villains, and consummate ras- 
 cals, that Avere ever assembled together. They 
 had to associate with such, away in a new 
 land, away from all the restraints of home and 
 
64 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of civilized life, — where thej had no induce- 
 ments to save their money, — where comforts 
 and luxuries were rare, and all combined to 
 make them esteem money as of no consequence 
 beyond the present hour, and hence they reck- 
 lessly threw it away in gambling and drinking. 
 They were mean in each other's eyes unless 
 they spent all. Hence they, ^ a. class, are 
 poor, and I fear always will be poor. 
 
 In the period of the greatest excitement, it 
 seemed foolish to value money, when you had 
 to pay three dollars apiece for eggs ; for poor 
 sugar, adulterated tea and coffee, four dollars a 
 cup ; for laudanum a dollar a drop, and forty 
 dollars for enough to put you to sleep ; ten 
 dollars for a single pill, and from thirty up 
 to one hundred dollars, if swallowed by the 
 advice of a physician. Even toothache was 
 expensive, when the luxury of having it taken 
 out cost you fifty dollars at least. Shovels 
 were fifteen dollars each, and a common tin 
 
RESULTS OF MINING. 65 
 
 pan eight dollars. No man would help another 
 for ten minutes under five dollars, and a day's 
 work was valued at thirty dollars. Is it any 
 wonder that the poor miner made little effort 
 to gave anything? They can have no homes, 
 because, as they exhaust one mine, they must 
 move off to another. 
 
 In Nevada the County town and place of 
 holding the Courts may be here to-day, and 
 next year this town may be deserted, and the 
 County town be a hundred miles off. The 
 County officers and lawyers all follow. It is 
 not strange, then, that the miner has little in- 
 ducement to lay aside any part of his earnings. 
 
 One of the greatest blessings that could be 
 conferred on the miners, would be to have a 
 kind of missionary, in whom they could con- 
 fide, reside, among them, and induce them to 
 put their money in a Savings Bank. 
 
 It is a curious indication of the state of 
 society, to look over the names which the 
 5 
 
66 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 miners give to their towns and mining camps, 
 some of which have been abandoned, and some 
 still occupied. I select a few specimens of 
 the names actually given to mining towns, viz. : 
 Yankee Jim, Red Dog, Loafer Hill, Gouge 
 Eye, Garotta, Last Chance," Ragtown, Git- 
 up-and-git, Puppytown, Nary Red, Paint- 
 pot Hill, You Bet. 
 
 If I be asked. Has not all the gold cost, in 
 time, labor, and tools, all that it amounts to, 
 dollar for dollar? I reply. Not unlikely; but 
 suppose it has ; the time and the toil of these 
 tens of thousands have been turned into per- 
 manent property. It is all in existence ; the 
 world is just so much richer for the mines. 
 I might say here, that^ though the miners are 
 usually, or too often, awfully profane, yet I 
 received nothing but most respectful and kind 
 treatment in my intercourse with them. 
 
 Nor is it to be disguised, that the natural 
 result of an unnatural state of society, the 
 
KESULTS OF MINING. 67 
 
 ft 
 
 unnatural creation of property, Is to make a 
 people nervous, active, excited, wanting and 
 determining to make money fast, ready to spec- 
 ulate, to run risks, and expect to fall and 
 rise, and rise and fall. If they don't specu- 
 late in mines, they are tempted to do so in 
 stocks, in real estate, and in anything that gives 
 them an opportunity. At the same time, it 
 naturally creates a generation of men whose 
 activity is a marvel, whose impulses are all 
 generous and noble, who share their last dol- 
 lar with distress, and who, rightly directed, 
 will give way to nothing short of the noblest 
 emotions of the human heart. 
 
 Now, then, let us look at the opening of 
 these great, golden deposits, in the light ol* 
 an overruling Providence. 
 
 The quicksilver mines were discovered and 
 worked just m season to be ready for the 
 opening of the gold mines. Without this, the 
 gathering of gold and silver had been vastly 
 
68 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 retarded, and the percentage secured very 
 small. 
 
 Then came the news of the discovery of 
 gold, and what had been called the Golden 
 Gate was now really the entrance to untold 
 treasures. The news rocked the continent. 
 The rush for the mines was without a paral- 
 lel. In self-defence, to protect their own lives, 
 they formed a provisional government; and 
 before the infant had time to pass through 
 childhood or youth, it stood up a full-grown 
 man, and knocked at the door of Congress for 
 admission. It had not had time to be a ter- 
 ritory. California came, the daughter of the 
 sunset, with her garments bright and heavy 
 with gold, and asked to be admitted into the 
 sisterhood of States ; and who could refuse 
 her? The first result, then, was to create a 
 new, strong, noble State, and to stretch the 
 dominion of the Republic from the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific Ocean. 
 
RESULTS OF THE MINES. 69 
 
 A second result was, that the productions 
 of these mines did very much to steady the 
 nation, and carry it forward during a war, un- 
 precedented in the annals of the human race, 
 look at it from any point you choose. While 
 Government had to fly to paper money, stretch 
 its credit to the utmost limits, and pawn 
 the property of posterity, to enable it to move 
 on to victory and triumph, and while I know 
 how much we owed to the mowing, the reap- 
 ing, and the sewing machine, and to our fac- 
 tories with their machinery, — equal to the 
 labor of a million of men, — to carry us 
 through the war, and without which we could 
 never have succeeded, still, there was the great 
 fact before the minds of all, that there was an 
 enormous amount of gold in the land, above 
 ground and beneath the ground ; and these 
 mines were a Confidence-bank, that did much, 
 as it seems to me, to hold the nation quiet j 
 when the very foundation-stones of the Gov- 
 
70 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 eriiment seemed to be torn up by the awful 
 convulsions of war. 
 
 Again, at this very hour, when the confi- 
 dence of the whole world is every day be- 
 coming stronger, that we shall pay every far- 
 thing of our national debt, we must feel, that 
 this confidence rests very much on the fact, 
 that we have so much gold in our vaults, and 
 can dig it and coin it almost without limits. 
 Steadily the old ship moves on, amid squalls 
 and storms, because she has so much gold for 
 ballast. Every man in the United States is 
 the richer for the confidence, now strong and 
 universal, that w^e shall never repudiate our 
 debt — an event which, were it to take place, 
 w^ould fill the world with misery ; and all this 
 security rests very much on the mines of Cal- 
 ifornia. 
 
 Again, that Eailroad that has climbed and 
 laid the Rocky Mountains under its feet, that 
 spans the continent, that brings China and 
 
RAILROADS AND MINES. 71 
 
 Asia to be door neighbors, of whose influence 
 I am yet to speak, could never have been 
 built, would never have been built, had it not 
 been for these mines. The people had not 
 been there, the energy and mind had not been 
 there, nor had the means with which to 
 achieve that stupendous work. That is not to 
 be a pleasure path for the summer tourist, nor 
 a highway for enterprise and commerce, mere- 
 ly, but a pioneer for inaugurating a system 
 of influences whose greatness we cannot yet 
 begin to comprehend. 
 
 The discovery of gold, and the amount ob- 
 tained, have given a stimulus to commerce, to 
 agriculture, to every department of life. They 
 have created impulses that have advanced civili- 
 zation, and shaken up nations, and poured one 
 country into another, till we hardly know what 
 will be next. The arts have advanced, archi- 
 tecture has made new discoveries in applying 
 its skill, manufactures have been called upon 
 
72 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 to supply more people, and with better gar- 
 ments ; and if a few have played the fool by 
 sudden riches, the great mass of the people 
 have been greatly benefited. If it be said that 
 the silver and the gold have made us extravagant 
 Sudvain, — and it undoubtedly is true, — yet 
 things will come right of themselves in a little 
 time, and when silver dishes in our houses 
 become as common as pewter were in the days 
 of our fathers, we probably shall be no more 
 vain of them than were our fathers and moth- 
 ers of their pewter. It is already vulgar to 
 consider these things as marks of gentility or 
 wealth. Since this outpouring of the silver 
 and the gold from the mines, we are every way 
 improved; we have better clothing, better 
 houses, better carriages, better school-houses 
 and churches, and schools and colleges, bet- 
 ter books and libraries, better ships and steam- 
 boats, better goods manufactured, and every- 
 thing better. Not only so, but where one used 
 
NEW ordp:r of things. 73 
 
 to have these good things, ten have them now. ^ 
 The whole plane of human comforts and enjoy- 
 ments has been raised up many degrees. The 
 last twenty years have seen the world moved 
 ahead in Christian civilization farther than in 
 any centmy before. Whether all this is for the 
 good or for the injur}^ of this and coming gen- 
 erations, we can't help it. The world is shoved 
 ahead a full century ; but I am not to sit down 
 and mourn over the departure of old ways and 
 things, so long as I feel confident that all this 
 is under the Divine direction, and that the 
 wires are all held in his hand, and will vibrate 
 to God's glory. There will be no going back 
 to old prices, and for the simple reason, there 
 is so much more gold and silver in the world. 
 You cannot bury it in the mines again ; and thus 
 money will be plenty and everything else dear. 
 There is not a child in the land, nor a woman 
 with her increasing wardrobe, who is not far 
 better dressed to-day than at any former 
 
74 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 period. We^may talk of the good old times, 
 but all times are good, if we use our mercies 
 feeling our accountability to God, and to our 
 brethren, the human family. 
 
 Can we not see now that the discovery of 
 gold on the Pacific slope evinces a strong 
 evidence of an overruling Providence? There 
 the precious metals were created and laid 
 away in the dark, till the human family had 
 migrated westward from their starting-point 
 in Mesopotamia, till they had a new conti- 
 nent in their hands, till human civilization 
 had advanced, till there was not a circulating 
 medium to move its property and supply its 
 wants, till the world was ready to leap up 
 for a new race in human improvement ; then 
 the gold on which the savage foot had trodden 
 for ages, which his taste valued less than the 
 fish-bone ornaments which he strung around his 
 neck, flashed out of its daj-k hiding-place ; and 
 this continent has a new and an awful power 
 
GOOD RESULTS TO SOCIETY. 75 
 
 for good or for evil, a power with which it 
 may roll down woes on unborn generations, 
 or by which it may bless all the families of 
 the earth, and bring glory to God on earth, 
 and deepen and multiply the anthems of 
 heaven to all eternity. 
 
76 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BIG TREES AND YO-SEMITE VALLEY. 
 
 There is a natural tendency to disbelieve 
 the traveller who comes back and reports 
 things which he has seen, that are very unlike 
 our own experience. We think he must have 
 been in a kind of mental fog, in which every- 
 thing looked large ; or he must have been 
 credulous and easily imposed upon ; or that 
 he comes home wishing to be a hero, and is 
 therefore tempted to exaggerate. It is also an 
 acknowledgment of our own ignorance and 
 want of enlargement, to own that another has 
 seen what we never saw, and can tell us of 
 things which we cannot deny, but which we 
 can doubt. 
 
 I am about to speak of things, which, ac- 
 
BIG TREES. 77 
 
 cording to what we have seen and known, 
 cannot be true ; and all we can do, in such cases, 
 is to shake the head gravely, look wise, and 
 feel that we know it all. Now, I shall not, 
 probably, state a fact which has not been stated 
 before, and which will not be tested hereafter 
 by many of my readers ; and yet I shall not 
 be surprised if what I say shall be doubted. 
 But we have no time for moralizing. Who has 
 not heard of "the Big Trees" of California? 
 In 1830 we heard of trees in that land whose 
 height was nearly three hundred feet. The^e, 
 however, were the common sugar pines of the 
 region ; they were not tJte big trees since dis- 
 covered, and which no visitor of California 
 should fail to see. Though the name of " I. 
 M. Wooster, 1850," is carved on one of these 
 trees, it was not till 1852 that a hunter, by 
 the name of Dowd, having wounded a bear, 
 which he followed till he came to a group of 
 these huge trees, made them known. Forget- 
 
78 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ting his bear, he gazed in astonishment, and 
 finally returned to the camp, where men were 
 constructing water-works. His tale was re- 
 ceived with shouts of laughter and derision. 
 A few days afterwards, having, as he said, 
 wounded a huge grizzly bear, he induced the 
 whole company to go and help him get the 
 beast. Thus he led* them over hill and gorge, 
 till they stood among "the big trees," and 
 were convinced, that if Dowd had deceived 
 them in regard to the bear, he had not in re- 
 gard to the trees. If, then, " Wooster," who- 
 ever he may be, first saw them, Dowd was 
 the first to make them known to the world. 
 " The big tree " is evidently a species of 
 cedar, though it has cones like a pine. It also 
 seems to have leaves like the cedar. Its wood 
 is hard and brittle ; the heart is red and fine- 
 grained, like our red cedar. These trees have 
 drawn pilgrims from every part of the world, 
 and their fame is all over the globe. Noble- 
 
CALAVERAS GROVE. 79 
 
 men and titled ladies have gazed at them with 
 wonder. 
 
 There are several groves of them, such as 
 the Calaveras, the Mariposa, the South Grove, 
 the Frezno Grove, and probably many not yet 
 discovered. 
 
 About eight miles south of the Calaveras is 
 a grove five miles long, and containing a great 
 number. I have. heard seven different groves 
 mentioned by name. In one grove over six 
 hundred of these trees have been counted. I 
 visited two different groves, in each finding 
 the same huge, century-looldng minarets, 
 towering up in unconscious grandeur, and im- 
 pressing upon the beholder the feeling that 
 they must be the relics of some former world. 
 
 Among all tlie groves (and only two or 
 three can yet be visited without great discom- 
 fort) , the Calaveras grove is the most beautiful. 
 It is about two hundred miles east of San 
 Francisco, and the last fifteen miles is a ride 
 
80 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 over mountains, amid scenery exceedingly beau- 
 
 • 
 tiful. On. reaching the spot, you find a charm- 
 ing valley four thousand three hundred and sev- 
 enty feet above the level of the sea, and three 
 hundred and seventy feet higher than our Grey- 
 lock, the highest mountain in Massachusetts. 
 You rise over two thousand feet in the last 
 fifteen miles. The grove is a spot of unri- 
 valled beauty, containing a grand old forest of 
 sugar pines, scattered among which, on an 
 area of fifty acres, you find one hundred and 
 three of these Sequoia gigantea of the Taxodium 
 family. But now you are disappointed; the 
 trees do not look as you expected ; they are 
 not as large ; their bark is unlike what you 
 imagined; they look as if somebody had 
 stripped oflf their clothing^ and left them in 
 their night dress. You wonder what the mat- 
 ter is, and you soon discover that the whole 
 forest is gigantic. The sugar pines shoot up 
 nearly or quite three hundred feet, with trunks 
 
CALAVERAS TREES. 81 
 
 in proportion. You see a yellow pine cut 
 down near by, out of which, the last win- 
 ter, they wrought thirty-five thousand feet 
 of boards, clear stuflT, and stopped when the 
 tree got down to only four feet in diameter. 
 Thus you find you have no means of compar- 
 ing. It is like comparing a man six feet six 
 with men six feet five and four. You must 
 walk among them, and around them, and take 
 out your marked tape-line and measure them 
 again and again, before you can begin to get 
 the right impression. It was a matter of 
 amazement to us that they could grow so 
 much in a sinofle nisfht. But the heio-ht of 
 enjoyment is to lie down on your back in the 
 twilight of evening or under the full moon, and 
 look up, say, ten feet at a look, till the eye 
 has travelled all the way up to the top — over 
 three hundred feet. We forget, too, when 
 looking at a tree thirty feet in diameter, and 
 wonder why it is not larger, that a pine tree 
 6 
 
82 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 with us, which is five feet in diameter, is a 
 monster. I never saw but one of that size at 
 the North. Let us noAV walk into the grove : 
 the fii'st impression you receive, is, that 
 these giants must be very old ; how old you 
 cannot possibly say. By counting the con- 
 centric circles in the tree, some will count 
 thirteen hundred, and some near three thou- 
 sand — making the tree as many years old. 
 For my own part, though I have heard it 
 claimed that they are four thousand years 
 old, yet I should not be willing to certify 
 for more than half that age. You are struck 
 unpleasantly that the names of men, such 
 as modern generals and colonels, should be 
 screwed to trees that have been living and 
 bearinof the storms of earth centuries before 
 these men were ever heard of. Why should 
 such names as " Phil Sheridan " be attached to 
 a tree that perhaps saw light , before the star 
 arose over Bethlehem, or Titus besieged Jeru- 
 
aiLAVERAS TllEES. 83 
 
 salem? But there they are, and you may speak 
 to ** George Washington," "Abraham Lmcohi," 
 "Daniel Webster,'^ " W. H. Seward," and even 
 " Andrew Johnson," and a host of other names ; 
 or, if you want to address whole States, there 
 is the "Granite State," "Vermont," "Old Do- 
 minion," " Old Kentucky," and, not least, the 
 "Old Bay State," and many others. 
 
 Now for measurements : some of these 
 trees, probably a quarter in all the groves, 
 are over twenty-five feet in diameter, scores 
 that are thirty feet, and I know of at least 
 half a dozen that are thirty-two or thirty- 
 three feet in diameter. You see that husre 
 log lying near the hotel, whose stump, close 
 by, has a house built over it; that tree was 
 perfectly sound, thirty-two feet in diameter. 
 Five men worked twenty-five days with 
 pump-augers before they could cut it down. 
 The stump is cut five feet from the ground, 
 and a cotillon party of thirty-two have 
 
84 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 danced four sets . of cotillons on it at once, 
 not counting musicians and spectators, who 
 were also on it. Twenty feet in length of 
 this log, which you can mount only by wood 
 steps, twenty-eight in number, and long ones 
 too, would make forty-nine thousand feet 
 of boards, worth, at our prices, over two 
 thousand dollars. But to get an idea of the 
 diameter of one of these trees, take a cord 
 and measure oif thii'ty-two feet, and see who 
 has a parlor as large as the diameter of that 
 tree. " Abraham Lincoln " is three hundred 
 and twenty feet high. The " Mother of the 
 Forest," three hundred and Wenty-seven feet 
 high, has had the bark stripped for one hun- 
 dred and sixteen feet. The bark, in places, 
 was two feet thick. I have before me a 
 piece of it, two feet long and a little over one 
 wide, or deep. The diameter of this tree 
 at the base was thirty feet. Thus one tree, 
 it has been computed, would have made 
 
CALAVERAS BIG TREES. 85 
 
 five hundred and thirty-seven thousand feet of 
 one-inch lumber. This, as hiijiber is selling . 
 with us, would amount to the modest sum of 
 twenty-four thousand, one hundred and sixty- 
 five dollars. 
 
 Near by is the " Father of the Forest," pros- \^ 
 trated for generations, half buried in the soil, 
 yet a mighty wreck. His circumference was 
 one hundred and twelve feet at the base, his 
 diameter thirty-seven and one third feet. The 
 first limb was two hundred feet from the 
 ground. This is now a knot-hole,, through 
 which I easily crept, and after 'me my friend, 
 — far more of a man than I am, though I am 
 not sure that he is aware that it was my hand 
 that placed the ladder at the hole, without 
 which neither he nor I could have reached it. 
 This tree was broken by the fall three hundred 
 feet from its roots, and was eighteen feet in 
 diameter at the breach. It is estimated that 
 this tree could not have been less than four 
 
8Q THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 hundred and fifty feet high ! Truly he de- 
 serves the name of the " Father of the Forest." 
 Around this fallen monarch stand many other 
 graceful trees of his species, as if they were 
 his children, as they probably are, watching 
 over the great sleeper. I should love to de- 
 scribe to you the "husband" and "wife," 
 each twenty feet in diameter, most gracefully 
 leaning towards each other, as if, in their age, 
 they felt the need of mutual sympathy and 
 support. 
 
 Then there is the "Pride of the Forest," 
 and the "Three Graces," and the "Two Senti- 
 nels," under whose dome you want to linger. 
 The largest tree yet found in all these groves, 
 is a noble old hero, — charred, bark and limbs 
 gone, yet its upturned base measuring thirty- 
 three feet without the bark. In its vigor, 
 with its heavy bark all on, it must have meas- 
 ured forty feet in diameter, and one hundred 
 and twenty in circumference, and at least four 
 
NEW BIG TREES. 87 
 
 hundred feet high. I have before me a pic- 
 ture of the ** Grizzly Giant," at least thirty 
 feet in diameter. Straggling hunters report 
 groves where the trees are even of still larger 
 dimensions. I would add that among these 
 gi-oves are a multitude of young trees, not 
 more than ^ve hundred or a thousand years 
 old, and which promise, if nothing happens, 
 some fifteen hundred years hence, to become 
 very respectable trees. Many now standing 
 have been sadly injured by the fires which 
 the Indians, in former years, built against them. 
 It makes one feel almost indignant at a stu- 
 pidity which could see nothing in these trees 
 but a good back-log for their fires. Nothing 
 in the future is so much to be dreaded, in 
 regard to them, as forest fires. These trees 
 are the only living things that connect us back 
 to ages that are gone. Perhaps before Rome 
 was ever named, and long, certainly, before 
 men dreamed of this continent, these minarets 
 
88 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of the solitudes, unchecked in their growth 
 by cloudy days or deep frosts, were lifting 
 up their young heads, to be ready and waiting 
 for eyes that could appreciate them, when the 
 men of the nineteenth century should gather 
 around them. 
 
 ** These giant trees, in silent 'majesty, 
 Like pillars stand 'neath heaven's mighty dome. 
 'T would seem that, perched upon their topmost brancli, 
 "With outstretched finger man might touch the stars ; 
 Yet, could he gain tliat height, the boundless sky 
 Were still as far beyond his utmost reach, 
 As from the. burrowing toilers in a mine. 
 Their age unknown, into what depths of time 
 Might Fancy wander sportively, and deem 
 Some monarch-father of this grove set forth 
 His tiny shoot, when the primeval flood 
 Receded from the old and changed earth? 
 Perhaps coeval with Assyrian kings, 
 His branches in dominion spread; from age 
 To age his sapling heirs with empires grew. 
 When Time those patriarchs' leafy tresses strewed 
 Upon the earth, when Art and Science slept, 
 And ruthless hordes drove back Improvement's stream, 
 Their sturdy head-tops throve, and in their turn 
 Rose when Columbus gave to Spain a world. 
 How many races, savage and refined, 
 Hav.e dwelt beneath their shelter? Who shall say 
 
BIG TREES. 89 
 
 (If hands irreverent molest them not) 
 But they may shadow mighty cities, reared 
 E'en at their roots, in centuries to come, 
 Till with the everlasting hills they bow, 
 When tinje shall be no longer." 
 
 Groves of Mariposa and Calaveras, fare- 
 well I We never before saw ages of time 
 stamped upon a tree ; never conceived in what 
 forms greatness that awes, and grandeur that 
 humbles, could be thus embodied ; never before 
 stood before living age so marvellous that one 
 wanted to take off the hat, and look solemnly 
 around, to see if the mighty Hand, that has so 
 long upheld these wonders, is not now visibly 
 upon them ! 
 
 About the middle of the State of California, 
 stands her loftiest mountain. Mount Whitney, 
 fifteen thousand feet above the ocean, and 
 within seven hundred feet as high as Mont 
 Blanc, in Switzerland. Near this central region, 
 also, are some of the most remarkable depres- 
 sions, gorges, canons, or valleys ever found. 
 
90 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 About one hundred and fifty miles easterly 
 from San Francisco, and about thirty miles 
 from the summit of the snow-covered Nevada 
 Mountains, four thousand and sixty feet above 
 the sea, is the " Yo-Semite Valley," unlike 
 anything else you ever saw, and so peculiar, 
 that probably no attempts to make it under- 
 stood, without seeing it, can be successful. 
 You will see at once that the bottom of the 
 valley is five hundred feet higher than our 
 Greylock. Other valleys you expect to enter 
 and pass through. To get into this you must 
 climb down three thousand feet, and when you 
 have seen it, climb up out of it again. We 
 will suppose you have come from the Big 
 Trees, have crossed the most curious ferries 
 of the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Elvers, passed 
 through the Chinese Camp, ascended and de- 
 scended mountains, till you have come to 
 Harding's ranch, where you must take the 
 saddle. You will mount a lean, hard-going. 
 
YO-SEMITE VALLEY. 91 
 
 but most sure-footed animal, and if you can 
 fortunately have Hutch ings — one of Nature's 
 noblemen — for guide, you enter the forests, 
 ascend vast mountains, go down long ridges, 
 gaze at m3T:iads of the most glorious pines 
 the eye ever saw, pass over snow-drifts on 
 the mountain for perhaps a couple of miles, 
 and which you are ready to take your oath 
 are at least four miles, — the trail sometimes 
 plain and sometimes lost, — baiting your poor 
 horse at a little green spot on the top of the 
 mountain, taking a lunch out of Hutchings' 
 capacious saddle-bags, which he took care to 
 provide at Harding's, — laughing as the Old 
 Bachelor from New York takes out his little 
 flask of brandy, insinuating that it is very su- 
 perior, and Hutchings, wearying the poor flask, 
 declaring that if ever he " did allow himself to 
 touch a drop, that was just the very time." 
 So we move on, seldom out of a walk,' till, 
 at the end of the twenty-five weary miles' ride, 
 
92 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 we look down from the brow of the hill three 
 thousand feet hito a valley. You pause and 
 hold your breath. You are looking down a 
 canon, whose opening at your right hand is 
 only wide enough for a fierce, foaming, roaring 
 river to rush out. You are looking east. 
 The valley looks like the opening made by the 
 parting of the mountains, and you almost ex- 
 pect to see them snap together again. Far 
 up between the rock- walls on either side, 
 hangs a thin mist, as if the falling waters had 
 hung the thinnest possible veil over the valley. 
 This, then, is the "Yo-Semite Valley." 
 
 You begin to descend the bridle-path, so 
 steep that it must be zigzag, and so fearful that 
 you must get off and walk most of the way, 
 — the path now crossing a mountain torrent, 
 and now on the very brink of a precipice, 
 where should you go over, — and I think a 
 foot out of the way would often do it, — you 
 will go fifteen hundred or two thousand feet 
 
rO-SEMITE VALLEY. 93 
 
 before stopping. Add to this — if your expe- 
 rience is like mine — you have, in going down, 
 to pass a great number of the hideous, naked, 
 horrible Mono Indians, frightening the ycry 
 horses you are leading. 
 
 In two and a half miles you have come down 
 three thousand feet, over rocks, and ledges, 
 and water, and where you wanted the poor 
 horses' legs insured. You are now in the 
 valley, — eight miles long, and from half to a 
 mile wide. Through it runs a river seventy 
 feet wide, pure and clear, and about twelve 
 feet deep. It is the "Merced," daughter of 
 the snows, and falling about fifty feet during 
 its course in the valley. 
 
 Now, how can I give you any idea of what 
 we see? You wdll just forget our valley, 
 come back to the place where you now sit, 
 and turn your face to the East. Now, draw 
 a line at 3^our rig^t hand, a quarter of a mile 
 ofi", from east to west, eight miles long. Now, 
 
94 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 a quarter of a mile at your left, draw another 
 line, of the same length. Now, go a mile 
 north and south of these two lines, and draw 
 tw<^ more lines. You have now three spaces, 
 one, the centre, half a mile wide, and the 
 outer spaces a mile wide each, and all, eight 
 miles long. Now, turn all this into rock, solid 
 rock. Next, lift up these two outside spaces 
 perpendicular, a mile high, and also a rock, 
 at the east end, equally high. You have now 
 a basin, eight miles long and about half a mile 
 wide, and a mile deep. Now, raise all the 
 country outside of these walls as high as they 
 are. Now, let this great, solid rocky basin 
 lie for ages, and slowly form. At the head 
 of the basin, on the mountains around, snows 
 annually fall and melt. The waters wind and 
 wear a channel till they find the head of our 
 basin, and then hurl themselves down mto it. 
 On the sides of this great*basin other rivers 
 are formed, and also push away the barriers 
 
YO-8EMITE VALLEY. 95 
 
 and leap over. Then the rains and the frosts 
 work with the water, and wear away the rocks 
 on all sides of our basin, till the hardest parts 
 arc left perpendicular, or are rounded off into 
 domes, or left standing up in pinnacles, like 
 those of a cathedral. 
 
 In the course of time, this debris of the 
 rocks washes down, leaving a pile at their 
 base some four hundred feet high, and making 
 a soil at the bottom of the basin. The basin 
 is gradually filled up, the river is raised up, 
 trees are sown and grow up ; and so, in 1869, 
 we find it the walled, beautiful valley, whose 
 sides are all rock, averaging not less than three 
 thousand five hundred feet high, — three quar- 
 ters of a mile, — while some of the domes 
 and pinnacles are much higher than this. 
 
 And now comes the trial. There is no 
 way by which you can make yourself realize 
 the wonders on your right hand and on your 
 left. You are told that if tliese rocks should 
 
96 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 fall, they would reach across and cover the 
 valley; but you cannot realize it. You are 
 told that if they should fall at the same mo- 
 ment and meet in the middle, there Avould be 
 an arch over your head half a mile high ; but 
 you cannot realize it. There is nothing but 
 air and the dome of heaven with which to 
 make comparison or measurement. If you look 
 at the trees, on an average two hundred feet 
 high, they look like mere shrubs. You have 
 no measure by which you can tell a thousand 
 feet from four thousand. This is the only 
 disappointment you feel, and this you feel 
 bitterly. 
 
 We are now in the valley, just having de- 
 scended the mountain, and we are looking to- 
 wards the East. The river is on our right, the 
 waters meeting us. We find eight or ten high 
 summits on the sides, prominent, dissimilar, and 
 peculiar. We find, also, five or six rivers, or 
 streams, pouring ^own in difierent places, be- 
 
YO-SEMITE VALLEY. 97 
 
 sides smaller streams that come down like rib- 
 bons. It is the first of June, when the snows 
 are melting, the streams the fullest, and the 
 fiills the largest and the grandest of any part 
 of the year. 
 
 As you now move east, the first thing that 
 strikes is Lung-oo-too-koo-ya — " Tall and slen- 
 der Fall," or "Kibbon Fall," which pours, and 
 creeps, and rushes over the face of rocks to 
 which it seems to cling, three thousand three 
 hundred feet. You look at the ribbon* on the 
 rock, and then the brook you cross, and are 
 amazed at the quantity of water that came 
 down as that ribbon. As you go along up the 
 valley, you see a mighty buttress rising up 
 on your left. You are close to it, and yet you 
 do not reach it. That is " Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah," 
 "Great Chief of the Valley," — English, "The 
 Captain," — three thousand three hundred feet 
 high ; top nearly flat and bare. You stand at 
 its foot and look up, and the last fifteen hun- 
 7 
 
98 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 dred or two thousand feet are perpendicular, 
 and you feel that the great mass is falling on 
 you. You gaze upon it, — so great, so high, 
 so bare, so solid and hard, that you feel it 
 might be the corner-stone of a world. Nearly 
 opposite, on the other side of the river, and 
 on the south side, you see the " Po-ho-no " Falls, 
 " Spirit of the Evil Wind," — English, " Bridal 
 Veil," — a sheet of water most exquisitely beau- 
 tiful, falling nine hundred and forty feet, thun- 
 dering stnd foaming, waving and shooting out 
 great showers of snowy rockets, as it falls into 
 a great caldron, surrounded by huge bowlders. 
 Well may it be called the "Bridal Veil," from 
 its waving, feathery, gauze-like veil, as if try- 
 ing to conceal the face and form of beauty. 
 The stream is forty feet wide, and out of the 
 mighty spray that rises upon the bowlders on 
 which it is dashed, the sun constantly weaves 
 and hangs rainbows over the abyss. The 
 river that ends in Po-ho-no Falls, rises from 
 
BRIDAL VEIL. 99 
 
 a lake about thirteen miles off, and as the 
 winds there draw around the great rock that 
 rises out of the lake, thus making it rough, and 
 having caused several Indians to lose their lives 
 there, and as an Indian woman, in gathering 
 herbs on the banks of the river, fell in, and 
 was carried over these falls, and never seen 
 again, so the Indians have a superstitious dread 
 of them. " The Spirit of the Evil Wind " re- 
 sides there ; and they will never pitch their 
 camp, nor could they be induced to sleep, 
 within sound of its waters. To point the -finger 
 at these falls is certain death — as they believe. 
 They hear the voices of those w^ho have been 
 drowned there, whenever they hear the sound 
 of these Falls. 
 
 A little to the west of Po-ho-no, are* the 
 rock^ called Wah-wah-le-na, the " Three Graces " 
 — huge masses shooting up far into the sky; 
 and still farther on, the "Cathedral Spires," 
 that look not much larger than men, albeit 
 
100 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 they stand up naked hundreds of feet. Then 
 come the Great Cathedral Kocks, — ^'Poo-re- 
 nah," "large acorn cache;" i. e., "hiding-place 
 for acorns," — looking like the ruined spires 
 of some vast edifice. 
 
 Farther east still, and you come to Pom- 
 pom-pa-sus, " Mountains playing Leap-frog," — 
 English, the "Three Brothers," — three re- 
 markable summits, which canuot be described, 
 but which will never be forgotten, if once seen. 
 Directly opposite are the " Three Sisters," 
 graceful in beauty. 
 
 You are now in the centre of the valley. 
 Still looking east, on your left are the Yo- 
 Semite Falls, or rather three falls, — the first 
 sixteen hundred and fifty feet perpendicular, 
 the* second four hundred and thirty, and the 
 third six hundred and ^fty feet. " Yo-Semite " 
 is the Indian name, now given to these Falls, 
 and to the Valley. " Yo-Semite " means Grizzly 
 Bear. 
 
Directly opposite these falls is "Sentinel 
 Rock,'' three thousand two hundred and sev- 
 enty feet high ; Indian, Loya. It is said that 
 a lady (I wish I knew her name) once actually 
 climbed to the top of Sentinel Rock, on a 
 Fourth of July, and there, alone, took her 
 lunch ! Just at the foot of that wonderful 
 rock is " Hutchings' Hotel," where you stay, 
 and where you hear, day and night, the roar 
 of the mighty waterfall. You get up at night 
 to gaze upon it. You never weary of it. I 
 am told that in the winter, the spray from 
 these falls freezes, and piles up and freezes 
 again, till there is a hollow pillar hundreds of 
 feet high. Into that pillar the waters pour, 
 and bound up like silver balls., 
 
 In the Spring, there is a moment when the 
 roar of the cataract ceases, and the few people 
 rush to the door to see what the silence means. 
 Shortly as it appears, the floods have under- 
 mined the pillar, and are preparing to wrench it 
 
102^ 
 
 THE sunset: LAND. 
 
 from its foothold. It is giant struggling with 
 giant. The wrestling is not long ; for sud- 
 denly the ice gives way, and is tossed up high 
 in the air, in ten thousand fragments, to glisten 
 for a moment high up in space, when it falls 
 and is gone, and the cataract again takes up 
 its loud song for another j^ear. This white 
 river thus pouring down, the first leap nine 
 times the height of Niagara, seems to the eye 
 to be about two feet wide at the top ; but Mr. 
 Hutchings, who has been on the mountain 
 over which it leaps, assures me that it is at 
 least forty feet wide at the top. At the time 
 I visited it, the river made by it in the valley 
 was, at the bridge, forty feet wide and seven 
 deep ; but the waters were abundant at that 
 time. 
 
 Let us pass on towards the head of the 
 valley. Up near the head, the valley forks 
 into two short canons, into which the two 
 branches of the Merced pour, uniting just be- 
 
VERNAL FALLS. 103 
 
 low the great bluff which seems to .be pusliing 
 down the valley between them, but finds it- 
 self arrested and chained down. We will take 
 the right canon, following up the great branch 
 of the river. 
 
 We leave our horses and ascend the side 
 of the very steep mountain, afraid every mo- 
 ment lest' the foot slip, and we are pitched 
 into the boiling, leaping river below. We 
 come into the spray, — the Pi-iwy-ach Falls 
 (meaning •" Cataract of Diamonds," — English 
 " Yernal Falls ") , and are soon drenched to the 
 skin. Around us are little rainbows, hovering 
 and playing around our footsteps, about six 
 or eight feet in diameter. 
 
 We are now at the foot of the Falls, and 
 are about two thousand feet higher than the 
 lower end of the valley. These glorious Falls, 
 the largest of all as respects quantity of water, 
 are three hundred and fifty feet high. Now 
 for the top of them. On the perpendicular 
 
104 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 side of the rock, they have built a ladder, the 
 sides of which' are so near each other that 
 only one foot can stand on a round between 
 the timbers. The ladder seems to hang in 
 the air, and you wonder if your nerves will 
 hold out while you ascend. But you climb 
 the slats and mount ; the wall being on your 
 right 'side, and space, and the falls; and death 
 on your left. If you are wise, you will shut 
 up the left eye, and keep the right eye tixcd 
 on the wall. When you get to the top, 
 you breathe easier, and can now go to the 
 very brink of the precipice, and where your 
 feet touch the water, can lean on a parapet 
 of rocks, which seems to have been thrown 
 there on purpose. You can look straight down 
 the falls, three hundred and fifty feet, and 
 see the very mysteries of their power, as 
 the waters plunge into the caldron below. 
 
 You may congratulate yourself on your grent 
 courage, but don't be too self-complacent ; for 
 
NEVADA FALLS. 105 
 
 on returning to your hotel, a refined and deli- 
 cate lady casuaHy informs you that she once 
 went up those ladders alone, except her baby, 
 Avhich she tucked under her arm ^ 
 
 AVe now go up the river half a mile farther, 
 and we come to the Yo-wi-ye, or Nevada Falls, 
 seven hundred feet ; and when the waters 
 are full, as I saw them, I unhesitatingly pro- 
 nounce it the most beautiful water-view I 
 ever beheld. It unites strength, power, and 
 majesty with every outline of beauty. It 
 seemed to quiver in its own song, as it tossed 
 its myriads of diamonds high in the air, 
 shooting out masses of jewels, as the rocket 
 sends out its brilliant creations in the night. 
 I feel sure that its equal for marvellous beauty 
 cannot be found on the face of the globe. 
 
 In the left canon is another fall, Tu-lool- 
 we-ach, six hundred feet, having features and 
 beauties, which, anywhere else, would be a 
 wonder. 
 
106 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 There are several more lofty " Summits " not 
 yet noticed, among which is tlie " Cap of Lib- 
 erty," two thousand feet above the upper falls. 
 " Mount Starr King," and above all, the 
 "North" and " South " Domes. The "North 
 Dome," To-coy-8e (Sh'^de to Indian Baby Bas- 
 ket) , three thousand seven hundred and twenty- 
 five feet high. Before it stands Washington's 
 Pillar, looking strong, calm, and lofty. The 
 North Dome is round, smooth, bare, and very 
 beautiful. I believe the foot of man has been 
 on its top. The South Dome is a marvel ; it 
 was once a round dome, most plainly in the 
 shape of an egg, the big end uppermost. It 
 is four thousand five hundred and eighty feet 
 — nearly a mile — high. By some convulsion 
 ^ of nature, this solid rock was cleft in two, 
 one half left standing up almost perpendicu- 
 lar, the other half dashed down in the canon 
 below, now covered, and buried, and lost 
 out of sight, but undoubtedly damming up the 
 
MIRROR LAKE. 107 
 
 river, tind making the little lake which avc now 
 find, the pure waters of which are Nature's 
 mirror, in which these wonderful mountains are 
 reflected, and reflected with a precision and a 
 beauty which we cannot conceive excelled. It 
 is called " Mirror Lake," and greatly admired. 
 The Indian name of this half dome is " Tis- 
 sa-ach " — Goddess of the Valley. 
 
 Now take your stand for a moment in front 
 of this Goddess of the Valley. It is early in 
 the morning, and a thin haze covers the val- 
 ley, and slowly creeps up the mountain sides ; 
 the clifts upon our left are all in deep shadow, 
 the outline of their summits cutting darkly 
 and strongly against the brilliant light of the 
 unclouded sky. Great streams of sunlight 
 come pouring through the openings in the 
 clifts, illuminating long, radiating belts of 
 mists which extend clear across the valley, 
 and are lost among the confusion of rock 
 and foliage forming the debris on the opposite 
 
108 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 side. Directly in front of us, and about 
 three miles distant, is Mount Tis-sa-ach, the 
 highest mountain in the valley, as well as the 
 boldest and most beautiful in outline. Its 
 base is shrouded in the hazy mystery which 
 envelops everything in the valley. Numerous 
 little white clouds, becoming detached from 
 the misty curtain, are sailing up the mountam 
 side, dodging about among the projecting 
 spurs, intruding their beautiful forms slowly 
 into the dark caverns, puffed out. again in a 
 hurry by the eddying winds which hold pos- 
 session of these gloomy recesses, and then 
 resume their upward flight, each following 
 the other with the precision and regularity of 
 a fleet of white-winged yachts rounding a 
 stake-boat, and each eaten up by the sun 
 with astonishing rapidity, as they sail slowly 
 past the angle of shadow cast across the lower 
 half of the mountain. High above all this, 
 in the clear, bright sunshine, towers the lofty 
 
SOUTH DOME. 109 
 
 summit, every projection and indentation, 
 weather and water stain, fern, vine, and lichen, 
 so clearly defined that one can almost seem 
 to touch its surface by merely extending the 
 arm." * 
 
 On the crown of this dome the foot of 
 man has never been placed. Great efforts 
 have been made to reach its summit, but hith- 
 erto abortive. And here is the place to intro- 
 duce an Indian legend, connecting Tis-sa-ach 
 with the great Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah. I think you 
 will pronounce it too beautiful to be omitted. 
 
 A long, long time ago, the children of the 
 setting sun dwelt in the Yo-Semite Valley : 
 they had peace and plenty, and the glorious 
 Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah, their chief, dwelt upon the 
 great rock that now bears his name. One 
 glance of his eye saw all that his people below 
 were doing. Swifter on foot than the elk, 
 he herded the wild deer as easily as if they 
 
 Tirrel. 
 
110 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 were sheep, and gave his people meat. He 
 roused the grizzly bear from his cavern in the 
 mountains, and sent his young men to hunt 
 him. From that lofty rock so near heaven, 
 the Great Spirit could easily hear his prayer, 
 and send rain upon the valley. The smoke 
 of his pipe curled up in the sunshine that 
 gladdened his tribe. When he laughed, the 
 river below rippled and smiled in sympathy. 
 AVhen he sighed, the pines caught up the sigh, 
 and repeated it from tree to tree. When he 
 spoke, the cataract hushed his voice, and lis- 
 tened. When he whooped over the bear that 
 he had slain, all the mountains echoed the 
 shout from summit to summit, till it was lost 
 in the distance. His form was straight like 
 the arrow, and elastic as the manzanita bow. 
 His eye flashed like the lightning, and his foot 
 outstripped the wind. 
 
 But once, when hunting, his eye moistened 
 at the vision of a beautiful maiden sitting 
 
INDIAN LEGEND. Ill 
 
 alone on the very summit of the South Dome. 
 Unlike the dark maidens of his tribe, her gold- 
 en hair rolled over her dazzling form, as waters 
 of gold would linger over silver rocks. Her 
 brow was like the moon hanging in a soft mist, 
 and her eyes gleamed like the far-off blue 
 mountains bathed in sunset. Her little foot 
 shone white and bright as the silver waters 
 of the Yo-Semite Falls. She had small white 
 wings on her shoulders, and her voice was 
 like the silvery tones of the night-bird on the 
 hill-side. She softly pronounced the name of 
 " Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah," and was gone out of 
 sight. Flashing was the eye, swift the foot, 
 as Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah sprang from crag to crag, 
 leaping over gorges and across streams ; but 
 he only felt the down of her wings filling his 
 eyes, and he saw her no more. Every day 
 did the young chief wander up and down the 
 mountains, leaving sweet acorns on her dome. 
 Once more his ear caught her footstep, light 
 
112 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 as the falling snow-flake. Once more he 
 caught a glimpse of her form, and saw a silver 
 beam fall from her eye. But he had no power 
 to speak to her, and her voice was drowned 
 in the river of silence. She was sittins^ on 
 her dome. In his love for the maiden he for- 
 got his people ; the valley became parched ; 
 the beautiful flowers laid down their heads 
 and died ; the winds lost their strength, and 
 could no longer fan the valley ; the waters 
 dried up, and the beaver came on the dry land 
 to die. Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah saw nothing of 
 this ; he kept his eyes on the maiden of the 
 rock, and saw nothing else. Early one morn- 
 ing, as she stood on her dome and saw the 
 valley neglected and perishing, her soft eyes 
 wept ; then kneeling down, she prayed the 
 Great Spirit to pity the valley, and bring 
 again the green grass, the green trees, and 
 sweet fruits, and the yellow flowers, and espe- 
 cially the beautiful white mariposa. In a mo- 
 
INDIAN LEGEND. 113 
 
 ment, the great dome on which she was kneel- 
 ing was cleft asunder, and fell down, down, 
 deep into the valley. At the same time the 
 melting snows of the Nevada Mountains sent 
 the River of Mercy (the Merced) down the 
 cliffs and through the valley, while the fallen 
 rock stopped the waters just enough to make 
 the Mirror Lake. All was altered ; the waters 
 now murmured ; the fish leaped up in their 
 joy ; the birds hastened back with song ; the 
 flowers sent out their sweets, and hung them 
 on the wings of the wind ; the sap bounded 
 up to give the tree new life, and busy life was 
 everywhere at work. But in that awful con- 
 vulsion which rent the mountain, the maiden 
 disappeared forever. But the half dome bears 
 her name, " Tis-sa-ach," forever, and the little 
 lake catches and mirrors her dome forever. 
 The morning and the setting sun place their 
 rosy mantle on that dome every day, and as 
 she flew away, the downy feathers from her 
 8 
 
114 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 wings fell on the margin of the lake ; and 
 there you may see them still, — in the form 
 of a thousand little white violets. 
 
 When Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah found that she had 
 gone forever, he forsook his lofty home, and 
 having carved his head and form on the side 
 of his rock, a thousand feet above the valley, 
 that the people of his beautiful valley might 
 never forget him, he went in search of his 
 lost one. On reaching the other side of the 
 valley, loath to leave it, he sat down, looking 
 far away towards the setting sun, where he 
 thought' she had gone ; and there his grief 
 was so great that he turned into stone, and 
 there every visitor of the valley may see him 
 still, looking off for the loved and the lost ! 
 So the legend. 
 
 If any one doubts this story, I can only 
 say, I have seen the split dome, and the lake 
 with white violets, the white mariposa, and 
 face of Tu-toch-ah-nu-lah on the rock that 
 
YO-SEMITE BEAUTY. 115 
 
 bears his name, and his form turned into stone, 
 sitting on the summit of the opposite moun- 
 tain ! 
 
 In grandeur, sublimity, and beauty, the Yo- 
 Semite Valley stands alone. At the upper end 
 there have been shakings and rendings, rocks 
 thrown down on either side, sometimes as 
 large as a great church, as if demons had 
 been breaking up and hurling the mountains 
 at each other. The river dashes and bounds 
 among these fragments, as if frightened and 
 infuriated ; and then half an hour's ride 
 brings you to the oaks, and pines, and lawns, 
 smooth as a garden, wild as nature, not show- 7 
 ing the mark of axe, or anything to alter this 
 park from what it was when the eye of man 
 first looked into it. 
 
 Everything to eat or use must be brought 
 over and down these mountains on pack-horses ; 
 and so difficult is the carriage, that ^ve different 
 cooking stoves had to be procured before a 
 
116 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 sound one, divided in parts, could be brought 
 here. And here live the educated and refined 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hutchings, the latter a true 
 lady, from Worcester County, Massachusetts. 
 Here they have lived for five years ; never 
 at home in California till they found this spot, 
 where they have been ever since, she with- 
 out going out, contented and happy. They 
 have a well-selected library of about six hun- 
 dred volumes, and for intelligence, need not 
 blush before any guest. 
 
 The only spot that I have ever seen which 
 could in any wise be compared to it, is the 
 Lauterbrunnen Valley, in Switzerland. They 
 are both of about the same length and breadth ; 
 they both have walls on each side ; thc}^ 
 both have waterfalls ; they both have great 
 beauty. But here the comparison ends. The 
 Lauterbrunnen has one waterfall, — the Staub- 
 bach, or "Dust Brook," with a leap of nine 
 hundred and twenty-five feet. The Yo-Semite 
 
YO-SEMITE AND LAUTERBRUNEN. 117 
 
 has half a dozen, two of which are higher 
 than this, with many times the volume of 
 water. The Staubbach empties itself in the 
 air, and is turned into mist, and is lost to 
 sight long before it reaches the ground. The 
 Pohono, and the Yo-Semite, and the three upper 
 falls come thundering down, their column un- 
 diminished, their force augmented every foot 
 they fall. And in the Yo-Semite there are 
 other falls, much greater in volume, if less in 
 height, than even these. 
 
 In the Lauterbrunnen the sides are cliffs, 
 twelve hundred or fifteen hundred feet high, it 
 may be. In the Yo-Semite they rise three, 
 four, and four thousand five hundred and eighty 
 feet above the level of the valley. The eye 
 wearies by looking up, and the mind staggers 
 in trying to take in the vastness of the crea- 
 tions before it. 
 
 Whether you stand still in any part of the 
 valley, or whether you stand amid the spray 
 of the Yo-Semite or the Pohono, or beating 
 
118 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 your way up over rocks and hill, and up the 
 ladders, to gaze upon the Nevada Falls, flowmg 
 like the mane of the white horse in the Apoca- 
 lypse, you feel sure that you are in a strange 
 region. 
 
 As to the how, or by what convulsions of na- 
 ture, this marvellous valley Avas created, I have 
 found no theory that begins to be satisfactory, 
 and I shall not venture to give my own, aware 
 that it is, and can be, nothing but a theory. 
 
 Who should visit the valley? I answer, Ev- 
 ery one who possibly can. No one will ever 
 regret it ; but in order to do it, I would recom- 
 mend that you take time enough ; that you 
 carry all the health and vigor you can, for both 
 will be severely tried. I would recommend a 
 pretty heavy purse, and, if jperfectly conven- 
 ient, I would recommend that you be not 
 much over sixty-eight years old. But what- 
 ever your fatigue or age, you will, most assur- 
 edly, long to go again. 
 
 The United States have ceded this valley 
 
PONO INDIANS. 119 
 
 to the State of California, on condition that 
 it be forever kept as a natural park. I am 
 glad of it, and yet I have no doubt the time 
 is near when Art will be sent' in there to im- 
 prove Nature. As it now is, it is all Nature. 
 There, encamped under the trees, with no 
 other covering, I saw the wild children of the 
 forest, the Pono Indians ; their arms, bows and 
 arrows with fliut heads ; their food, acorns 
 pounded in a rock hollowed out ages ago for 
 the same purpose ; their kettles and furniture, 
 only willow baskets ; their method of cook- 
 ing, heating stones, and throwing them, when 
 heated, into the water till it boils ; their orna- 
 ments, faces tattooed and painted ; their life, 
 aimless and brutal ; and their enjoyments, noth- 
 ing above those of the beasts. 
 
 The great impression which you receive on 
 visiting this valley, is that man is small and 
 God is great. We see here the foot-prints of ^ 
 his presence, and the finger-marks of his 
 power; but when He was here,, wonderful in 
 
120 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 working, how He chiselled out this wonder- 
 ful spot ! When the first rush of waters was 
 heard, as they leaped down into this deep 
 basin; when the first sun peeped over the 
 rim, and hung the first rainbow over the boil- 
 ing waters ; when the first human eye saw it, 
 and the first human step trod it, — we do not 
 know. But we know that particle by particle 
 these solid rocks will crumble ofi" and fall, 
 till that valley shall be even with its rim, 
 should the world continue long enough. But 
 we know also, that when myriads of eyes 
 have gazed upon these marvels, and when the 
 highest peaks of earth's mountains have be- 
 come a level plain, our God will remain 
 the same, unaltered, with a wisdom to devise 
 new creations, and a power to execute new 
 plans, surrounded by a family so advancing in 
 knowledge, that they can admire his works, 
 and so grown in what is good, that t|iey can 
 adore and worship and praise Him in notes 
 higher and purer than any that are earthly. 
 
AGRICULTURE AND MINING. 121 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF CALIFORNIA, INCLUD- 
 ING A VISIT TO THE GEYSERS. 
 
 Were two islands to be thrown up from the 
 bottom of the ocean, one fertile, abounding in 
 grains, cattle', sheep, green fields, and food in 
 abundance, for man and for beast, — the other, 
 a hundred miles or more from it, barren, tree- 
 less, herbless, and without soil, but abound- 
 ing in mines of silver and gold, very rich and 
 inexhaustible — in a few years the cultivated 
 island would be rich, and the other poor ; 
 the one would have a sober, staid, healthy 
 popuhition; the other, most likely, one that 
 was uneasy, excited, generous, and prodigal, 
 gambling and unscrupulous ; and that be- 
 cause we must, to be prospered, follow the 
 
122 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 great leadings and laws of divine Providence 
 in every thing; and He has made the soil to 
 be the source of material prosperity. 
 
 Everything in this world that has life, 
 whether it be animal or vegetable, must draw 
 that life from the earth. The gentle one, who 
 can hardly bear the sight of the silk-worm, is 
 proud to wear the silk which that worm has 
 manufactured out of the mulberry leaf. The 
 city dandy, who is shocked at seeing a heap 
 of compost, feels proud to cat the mushroom 
 that grows in it. It is very plain that man, 
 and the horse, the cow, the sheep, the insect, 
 nay, the king himself, is " served by the field." 
 It is probable that there is not a fish in the 
 waters, nor a living thing on the globe, that 
 lives not by the soil, directly or indirectly. 
 
 In the cold heights of the Alps, and in the 
 colder regions of the Arctic seas, — those great 
 repositories of the ice-glaciers, — these tor- 
 rents and glaciers are all the time travelling 
 
ICEBERGS. 123 
 
 slowly down towards the sea. They grind 
 the mountains through which they pass, and 
 bring down rocks, and stones, and earth in 
 powder, and in unmeasured quantities, and 
 shoot off into the sea, nnlest^ they are dis- 
 solved before they reach the sea. As soon as 
 these glaciers break off and fall into the sea, 
 they are called icebergs, and the matter they 
 brinjr from the far-off mountains is food for 
 fish. They come careering along, loaded with 
 rocks and earth, and flow (;ff into the Gulf 
 Stream, where they melt and deposit their 
 load ; and there, where fur ages the iceberg 
 has found its grave, does the insatiable cod 
 find his living. Around the mouths of our 
 rivers, where food is abundant, brought fresh by 
 the running waters, do the o^^ster, the eel, 
 the clam, the duck, and the fish gather, and 
 make it their home. Seldom, indeed, are fish 
 found in the solitudes of the ocean. The 
 w4iale goes among the floating ice, to gather 
 
124 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 the little insects by myriads, for his food. 
 Thus from the bosom of mother earth, all 
 draw their nourishment. Does your table 
 groan with luxuries? does your coat keep you 
 warm, or make you feel that you are well 
 dressed? does the bride blush under her 
 gossamer veil, or the orange blossoms in her 
 hair? does the old bachelor sit down to his 
 real Havana cigar (grown and made in the 
 valley of the Connecticut) ? does the lover 
 of wines sip his glass? — all must come out of 
 the earth. Out of the earth grow our clothing, 
 our food, our fuel, our houses, the pen with 
 which we write, the paper on which we write, 
 and everything we use. Nature finds materials, 
 and it is for man to take and improve them. 
 We do not know at this day what the wheat, the 
 oat, the rice, the apple, the onion, the potato, or 
 the domestic fowl were, in their wild state. The 
 wild sheep of the mountains, and the merino 
 and south-downs, seem very little related. If 
 
CAPACITY OF CALIFORNIA, 125 
 
 the Baltimore Oriole can gather straws, hair, 
 wool, and, the waste thrums of the factory, and 
 build her curious hanging house, — if the little 
 coral insect can take the alumen which comes 
 from the Amazon, and the lime which comes 
 from the waters of the Missouri, and the col- 
 oring matter which comes from the Nile, and 
 with these build her crimson, coral reefs, and 
 build islands in the ocean, — are we to wonder 
 that man can turn the coarse ore of the pit 
 into the hair-spring of the watch, or be able 
 to take Nature in her wild state, and turn her vN 
 wastes into gardens of beauty? 
 
 The question as to what population a coun- 
 try can feed and clothe, as to what are her 
 capabilities of soil and climate, and not what 
 her mines will yield, is by far the most impor- 
 tant question you can ask. It is of little con- 
 sequence what a State is to-day, in compari- 
 son with the question. What is she to become? 
 
 In regard to California, her produce of 
 
-%. 
 
 126 , THE SUNSET LAXD. 
 
 to-day, either from soil or mines, in bushels, 
 in tons, or in dollars, is of very little conse- 
 quence, except as they bear on the future, 
 and as they are an indication of what the 
 plans of God are in the future, in regard to 
 that territory. 
 
 We have no other State or section which 
 as so great a variety of soil and climate as 
 California, and no State which can yield such 
 a variety of products. All that can be raised 
 in the temperate zone, or in the semi-tropi- 
 cal climate, will grow here in the greatest 
 profusion. The soil and climate are such that 
 the same amount . of labor will yield more 
 than anywhere else, and of a quality unsur- 
 passed. Instead of planting your seed and 
 waiting years before you can eat your apple 
 or your pear, you may feel sure of a good 
 crop the third year. The rapidity of growth 
 wall astonish you, and not less, the early day 
 at which you get returns. I saw in Oakland, 
 
WONDEllFUL FERTILITY. 127 
 
 in the garden of Mr. Hunt, formerly of 
 Springfield, a large area of dwarf apple trees, 
 none of which were much over two feet high, 
 literally loaded wuth fruit, and off which his 
 son assured me, that in the second year, they 
 gathered apples which weighed twenty ounces 
 each ; and I saw, also, a limb of a fig tree, 
 which he said he cut off the last fall and stuck 
 into the ground, and which, this summer, is 
 bearing figs. In the same garden is a century 
 plant, whose stem w^as as large as a man's 
 leg, and then, when I saw it, twenty-one feet 
 high. It had grown fourteen feet in seven 
 weeks. He predicted it would grow twenty 
 feet more, and then blossom. How amazed 
 we should be to see beets that wdll weiffh a 
 hundred and twenty-seven pounds each, onions 
 a foot across the top, cabbages weighing eighty 
 pounds each, and other vegetables in propor- 
 tion ! The great trouble there about fruit is, 
 that, it is so easily raised, it has no market. 
 
128 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 The first steamboat we entered on the Sac- 
 ramento River had twelve tons of sahnon, 
 caught that day, and which she was carrying, 
 as her daily allowance, to the city of San Fran- 
 cisco : fthe fish T^^^ij^ weiglji^ twenty pound^^ ) 
 each, ana they y^Q rj^tixkag ^ six cents, 
 the pound, but (ft^ often \/^^^^|>|>j*g^*'^ twenty-/ 
 
 five or thirty cents, the whole fish. "^The cars 
 that come up from the Santa Clara valley, 
 bring twelve tons of strawberries daily ; and 
 this fruit is in market every month in the 
 year. The potato will yield at least two 
 aiijHKj^ crops ; and such huge potatoes ! You 
 can hardly persuade yourself that they were 
 not at least four years in growing; the fig 
 tree yields three crops. The long, dry sum- 
 mer allows the farmer to take his own time 
 to harvest his wheat and his barley, and to let 
 them lie in the field as long as he chooses. 
 The mildness of the climate saves him the 
 necessity of building barns or raising hay. 
 
DRYNESS OF THE CLIMATE. 129 
 
 He harvests his grains in the latter part of 
 May, or the beginning of June; and one -pecu- 
 liarity is, that the dryness of the atmosphere 
 causes the capsule of the wheat to contract 
 and hold in the great plump kernel of wheat, 
 or else there would be a great loss. The 
 very thing which would shell out our wheat 
 here, retains it there ; so that, if your wheat 
 stands uncut for two months after it is ripe, 
 you sustain no loss. So you thresh it and 
 put it into sacks in the field, and let it lie 
 till convenient to carry it to market. \ 
 
 You know how, in our climate, immediately- 
 after a shower, the sun often pours down upon 
 us, with a heat almost insupportable. The 
 reason is, the air is full of moisture. But in 
 the valleys of California, where there is no 
 rain or moisture, though the thermometer 
 stands high, yet the heat causes no suffering 
 — scarcely inconvenience. Another thing to 
 be mentioned is the very superior quality of 
 9 
 
130 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 the wheat that arrows there. There is nothin<2: 
 like it known in the world. They claim, too, 
 that ;k|^ great number of liflisr^jtiyo^6>*X birds, 
 such as the beautiful valley-quail, protected 
 by law, keep down the insect world. / And 
 
 the very dryness of the wheat, almost as if j 
 
 I 
 
 kflri^(^j49^» preserves the berry well for expor- | 
 tation, and defends it from the weevil and 
 other insects. 
 
 The average .bushels of wheat to the acre, 
 throufifh the- State, is less than it should be, 
 from the fact, that it has been the fashion, 
 after the fii-st ploughing, which gives forty or 
 fifty bushels to the acre, just to brush over 
 the stubble, in the fall, with a bush-harrow, 
 and trust that enough seed has been dropped 
 to insure a crop. The ground was not prob- 
 ably moved an inch deep, and yet the second 
 crop would be from twenty to twenty-five 
 bushels to the acre. And so the third year, 
 the crop would be from twelve to fifteen bush- 
 
RAISING WHEAT. 131 
 
 els. This system is exhaustive of the soil, 
 and suicidal of the future ; and this accounts 
 for the low average per acre. They have been 
 in the habit, too, of just clipping off the heads 
 of the wheat and barley by a peculiar reaper, 
 and then burning the stubble in the field. 
 They are beginning to learn that this is poor 
 economy, and are now ploughing in their 
 stubble. 
 
 The annual produce of wheat, now, is about 
 twenty million of bushels, and about half that 
 amount in barley. This often yields, by the 
 large field, eighty and even one hundred bush- 
 els to the acre. It is used chiefly for feed; 
 for though Indian corn can be raised to great 
 advantage, they find the barley better feed 
 in their climate, and much more easily raised. 
 Of oats they raise two millions of bushels, of 
 superior quality ; but this is not a favorite 
 crop. 
 
 To show you on what a scale things may 
 
132 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 be and are done by our friends there, I would 
 state, that Mr. Jones, on his ranch, in the 
 neighborhood of Stockton, in San Joaquin val- 
 ley, has, this year, sixteen thousand acres of 
 wheat; to prepare the ground for which, he 
 had nine hundred horses ploughing at the same 
 time; thus, calling his yield but half a crop, he 
 will have three hundred and twenty thousand 
 bushels of wheat, and that the cost of the sacks 
 to put it in will be thirty thousand dollars : 
 that a Mr. Hathaway raised twenty-one tons 
 of beets on an acre, among which was one beet 
 that weighed one hundred and seven pounds : 
 that the same gentleman also gathered one hun- 
 dred and thirty-two bushels of oats from an 
 acre : that General Bid well, in one year, raised 
 thii-ty thousand acres of grain. 
 " We found one ranch, ten miles by thirty in 
 extent, or nineteen thousand two hundred 
 acres ; also another, the owner of which has 
 one hundred thousand head of cattle, to say 
 
GREAT RANCHES. 133 
 
 nothing about sheep. He numbers only ten 
 thousand calves this spring. He delivers by- 
 contract twenty thousand head of cattle at San 
 Francisco this season, at thirty dollars a head, 
 yielding him the pretty sum of six hundred 
 thousand dollars. Probably these are not the 
 largest ranches. J Two men in San Francisco 
 own eight hundred thousand acres of land, 
 which they wisely intend to break up into 
 small farms. These great ranches and these 
 monstrous herds of cattle are a nightmare 
 upon the prosperity of a country. It can be 
 prospered, in the long run, only by having 
 small farms. There should be no great, over- 
 grown estates. Every farmer should own his 
 farm. He is then at the head of a little king- 
 dom, and has every inducement to manage 
 it well and make it beautiful. Then, every 
 meadow reclaimed, every hill made fruitful, and ^ 
 every conquest over Nature is a benefit to 
 himself. The owning the soil in fee simple 
 
134 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 is what has done much for the development 
 of soil and of character in New England, and 
 it is an essential element of permanent pros- 
 perity. 
 
 Another production for which California is 
 peculiarly adapted, is the 7^op. The climate 
 and soil of her valleys prevent loss by blight, 
 insects, or winds. So far the yield, on the 
 average, has amounted to two thousand pounds 
 to the acre, while even four thousand have 
 been gathered. They have a method of drying, 
 which prevents the breaking of the blossom, 
 by which the lupuline, or heavier and most 
 valuable part of the hop, has hitherto been 
 mostly lost. The quality, therefore, ranks 
 high, and will be an article of large export. 
 
 Wool is becoming a mighty production in 
 California. There are two gentlemen in Santa 
 Barbara, — an old Spanish mission three hun- 
 dred miles down on the coast from San Fran- 
 cisco, — w^ho own two hundred thousand sheep, 
 
WOOL-RAISING. 135 
 
 producing nearly one and a quarter million of 
 pounds of wool. The estate of these gentle- 
 men is twelve miles square. Another gentle- 
 man owns an island thirty miles long and 
 twenty wide, stocked with ten thousand head 
 of cattle, and fifty thousand sheep, while the 
 hogs have so multiplied that they are consid- 
 ered a nuisance, and a war of extermination 
 is waged against them. The natural increase 
 of sheep through the State is full one hundred 
 per cent., and seventy-five after deducting 
 all that are used for food. Some flocks have 
 yielded one hundred and twenty-five per cent, 
 increase. 
 
 The Cotswold breed is the one usually pre- 
 ferred. The last year yielded thirteen million 
 of pounds, at seventeen cents in gold, and 
 wool of a finer quality need not be desired. 
 They shear by machinery, much to the comfort 
 of the animal, and to the expedition of the 
 process. Though we saw vast flocka on the 
 
136 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 foot-hills and mountains, yet the lower part of 
 the State seems to be the favorite place for 
 raising the sheep. The flock is sheared twice 
 a year, though I am told the second crop is 
 not so convenient for the manufacturer. 
 
 The soil and climate are also so admirably 
 adapted to the raising of silk, that I shall be 
 greatly disappointed if this does not become 
 an extensive and profitable business. The 
 large Japan variety of worm has been intro- 
 duced, and cocoons of a mammoth size are the 
 result. They have nearly twelve hundred 
 thousand mulberry trees already growing, and 
 the past year yielded thirteen hundred thou- 
 sand cocoons, eight hundred ounces of eggs, at 
 four dollars the ounce, were exported, the last 
 year, to France and Italy. The Japanese are 
 coming in colonies, having purchased great 
 tracts of land for the purpose of cultivating 
 silk ; and they, probably, are the most skilful 
 raisers of silk in the world; so that, in all 
 
THE VINE AND WINE QUESTION. 137 
 
 probability, this is soon to become a great 
 business. They also propose to add the culti- 
 vation of the tea-plant to that of the mulbeny. 
 
 Now comes the question of the vine and 
 the wine. Whether wine will increase or de- 
 crease the amount of intoxication, — and I am 
 very sure it will increase it, or, at least, the 
 temptation to it, — yet it is a fixed fact that 
 more wine is now raised in California, than 
 in all the rest of the United States. When 
 inquired of, if I saw much drunkenness in Cal- 
 ifornia, I used to say I saw no drunkenness, 
 but I saw a great deal of hard drinking, and 
 driuking-places were so abundant, that it seemed 
 as if they must be one of life's essentials. 
 
 There is not a variety of grape known on 
 the face of the earth, which will not gi'ow in 
 perfection here. Over the gold belt, thirty 
 or forty miles wide, running the whole length 
 of the State, the soil, being volcanic, exactly 
 meets the wants of the vine. The wine-raising 
 
138 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 regions, properly speaking, are three, — Lower 
 California, four or five counties, where the 
 grape is not pressed till fully ripe, and which 
 produces a wine with little flavor, highly 
 charged with alcohol, and heady. A great 
 portion of the brandies distilled in California, 
 are from the Los An oleics reofion. 
 
 The next region of wine is the west Coast 
 Range, in the valleys made by these moun- 
 tains, among which Sonoma valley is most 
 noted. Here the vineyards are very large, — 
 one of which contains ^ve thousand acres, and 
 here the most capital is invested. These are 
 nearer the European wines, and are in great 
 favor. 
 
 The third region is the foot-hills of the 
 Sierra Nevada. Here, probably, the grape 
 reaches its higjiest perfection; and here, too, 
 they have already learned to make the raisin, 
 equal, it is said, to any that can be imported. 
 There are in the State not far from thirty 
 
WINES AND BRANDIES. 139 
 
 millions of vinos already growing, producing 
 annually nearly seven millions of gallons of 
 wine, and over one hundred and fifty thousand 
 gallons of brandy. The increase of vines is 
 about three millions a year. However much 
 we may regret the abuse of the vine, from the 
 days of Noah to the present hour, the fact 
 seems to be a fixed one, that the vine will 
 accompany civilization, and we must meet it 
 as well as we can — consider it one of the 
 trials of our moral strength, one of the temp- 
 tations we must meet, and to which no man 
 is obliged to yield unless he chooses. Rice- 
 land exists in abundance, but it has not yet 
 been cultivated. 
 
 From what has been said, you cannot doubt 
 that California is to be, at some future time, 
 like the garden of the Lord. There are sixty- 
 five millions of acres of land that can be culti- 
 vated and made most productive ; while there 
 are thirty-three or thirty-four millions of acres, 
 
140 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 — about one third of the whole State, — which 
 is too mountainous to be cultivated. 
 
 There are only a little over four hundred 
 thousand people there yet, to occupy it, and 
 nearly half of these are in the city of San 
 Francisco. Only seven per cent, of the land 
 is yet fenced in at all, and not over three 
 per cent, is cultivated. When the ninety-seven 
 parts remaining shall be cultivated, what may 
 it not produce? A short time since it was 
 thought that wheat would grow only in the 
 rich valleys. But over the hills, and far up 
 too, grows a little bush, called the " Tar 
 Bush,'* with a beautiful leaf; but it sticks to 
 and defiles whatever touches it. Hence its 
 name. But it is found that wherever the " tar- 
 bush" grows, the soil is suitable for wheat. 
 
 Eastern mind, and skill, and perseverance, 
 will meet ample reward. My travelling com- 
 panion met a Massachusetts gentleman, who, 
 seven years ago, bought his lands for one dollar 
 
ALASKA. 141 
 
 per acre, and last year produced twenty thou- 
 sand gallons of wine, two hundred thousand co- 
 coons, has fifty thousand vines, and a garden 
 filled with all kinds of fruits. Lower California 
 has a climate that never freezes, and the ther- 
 mometer seldom rises, even in summer, higher 
 than 65" or 70°. I know of no climate in the 
 world more beautiful, and no region so invit- 
 ing to enterprise as that. 
 
 The coast of Alaska, fifteen hundred miles 
 distant, is to furnish all California with abun- 
 dance of cod, furs, and ice, for every family 
 who wish it. I am believing, too, that a 
 new stimulus to industry will be given when 
 it is known by trial that their delicious fruits 
 — the cherry, the peach, the pear, and the 
 grape, can be brought eastward, and in un- 
 measured demand all along the railroad, and 
 still more in all New England. Any fruits that 
 will bear six or eight days' travel will come, 
 to the benefit of the valleys of the Golden 
 
142 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 State, and to the intense delight of ourselves 
 and our children. 
 
 The rapidity with which manufactories have 
 arisen and multiplied in California is probably 
 without a parallel in a new State. The pecu- 
 liarities of her situation brought many of the 
 most intelligent men to her shores. These 
 had been accustomed to comforts and luxuries, 
 and those they must have. At first they had 
 to import even their lime and brick, and indeed 
 everything except meat. Soon they found the 
 necessity of tools and mining machinery, and 
 then of steam engines and steamships. These 
 they sought for first : then, as their steamships 
 had to travel seventy thousand miles each 
 during a year, it was found that they must have 
 new copper sheathing every year. This led 
 them to build a dry dock, probably inferior 
 to none in the world, where the huge ship 
 can be floated into her bed in a few minutes ; 
 where the monster engine can pum^ out eighty- 
 
COMMERCE. AND MANUFACTURES. 143 
 
 four thousand gallons of water a minute, and 
 exhaust the dock in two hours ; where in three 
 days she can be re-covered, at a dock-rent oT 
 three thousand dollars a day. These two 
 docks, one floating, and the other stone, are 
 four hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred 
 and twenty-five wide, and thirty-one deep. 
 No visitor at San Francisco should fail to see 
 them. 
 
 At first, nobody expected to stay in Califor- 
 nia only long enough to obtain gold; nobody 
 thought the soil capable of producing any- 
 thing. So that it was not till about eleven 
 years ago that men felt safe to go into manu- 
 facturing : and so much afraid were they of 
 dishonesty in companies, that it is said two 
 thirds of all the manufacturing done in the 
 State is done by less than one hundred own- 
 ers. I The nearness to China and Japan has 
 done much to stimulate machine-shops and 
 mills for rolling iron. At the time when the 
 
144 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 commerce of the world is increasing beyond 
 all precedent, God is opening new sources of 
 industry. Ship timber is becoming scarce on 
 the Atlantic coast ; but go north of California, 
 and there is Puget Sound, unequalled for thn- 
 ber, where ships can be built better, and 
 stronger, and cheaper than anywhere else in 
 our country, or in the world ; and where, not 
 unlikely, within a very short time, the ship- 
 building of this continent will be transferred 
 and carried on, and whence, every ship, for 
 any part of the world, can start loaded with 
 lumber. 
 
 \Still nearer California are the iron mines of 
 the Willamet, in Oregon, besides iron, copper, 
 manganese, and plumbago mines, in different 
 parts of California — inexhaustible in extent : 
 and there is half-civilized China, just beginning 
 to rub her eyes open, which will want a vast 
 amount of steam shipping on her great inter- 
 nal waters ; I and then the enormous amount 
 
INCREASING MANUFACTURES. 145 
 
 of iron railing for roads already built and 
 constantly wearing out, and for the almost 
 interminable lines yet to be built as a necessity, 
 — all this must make a demand for iron manu- 
 facturing, to an extent almost unheard of before 
 in our country. The carrying-trade in lumber 
 and grain from the Pacific coast is yet in its 
 infancy ; but I feel safe in predicting that in a 
 very short time it will be so great as to bafile 
 all our present calculations. ^ -^Already they 
 have lead and shot works, and the bells cast 
 in San Francisco are heard ringing all over 
 the State, and their gongs are screaming in 
 China. You would tire and wonder to be led 
 through the mills where industry and skill arc 
 creating such a hum — in the works in broom- 
 corn of the first quality, in the chemical works 
 where they themselves have no conception of 
 what they will yet be called to do, in the jew- 
 elry manufactories, w^herc they astonish you by 
 the quantity and richness of their productions, 
 10 
 
146 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 in the manufacturing of leather, boots, shoes, 
 hose, saddles, and harnesses, even to the mak- 
 ing of organs and musical instruments, — you 
 see the foundations of future success already 
 laid. The manufacturing of flour, of the very 
 best quality, has already been felt over the 
 world. I am sorry to say that the ease with 
 which barley is raised, and its superior quality, 
 have erected a brewery in almost every town 
 through the State ; but of the one hundred 
 and fifty thousand barrels of ale brewed the 
 last year, very little found its way beyond 
 their own boundaries. It will, however, prob- 
 ably very soon be an article of export. The 
 nearness to China brings in an immense amount 
 of sugar in its crude state ; this has necessi- 
 tated the business of sugar refining, and their 
 works are very perfect and large in extent. 
 If they can raise the sugar-beet to the almost 
 incredible weight already attained, I see not 
 why they cannot make sugar enough from that 
 root to supply the Mississippi Valley. 
 
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 147 
 
 Our woollen manufacturers will expect mc to 
 say something about that branch. Hitherto 
 these factories have had to depend on steam 
 as the motive power ; but when railroads 
 shall be opened up to the Stanislaus, the Tuo- 
 lumne, or the Merced Rivers, one of which 
 is alread}' begun frofh Stockton to Copperopolis, 
 .there will be a water-power enough to create 
 scores of Lowells, ufn San Francisco there 
 are thirty-nine sets of machineiy in operation. 
 The Pioneer and the Mission mills operate thir- 
 ty-one sets, one "hundred and twenty broad 
 looms, and about five hundred hands. They 
 consume two million pounds of wool annu- 
 ally, make eighty thousand blankets, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five thousand yards of broad- 
 cloth, fifty thousand yards of three quarter 
 flannel : whole value one million of dollars 
 in gold. Chinese labor — none better — one 
 dollar per day; ! foreman, from four dollars 
 fifty cents to five dollars ; cost of fuel and water 
 
148 THE SUNSET LAND. . 
 
 rents in both mills, forty-seven thousand dol- 
 lars. The other mills in the State use one 
 million of pounds additional annually. Add 
 to all this, gold, not less than twenty-five 
 millions dollars ; silver, still more ; so that the 
 shipments of gold and bullion amount to not 
 less than a million a weAi the year round. 
 Merchandise exported, nearly twenty-two mil- 
 lions dollars, viz. : wheat, ten millions six 
 hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars ; wine, 
 three hundred thousand dollars ; wool, two 
 millions three hundred and seventy-eight thou- 
 sand dollars ; hides, three hundred and fifty- 
 seven thousand dollars ; leather, two hundred 
 and sixty-eight thousand dollars ; furs, most- 
 ly from Alaska, a little short of one million 
 dollars ; quicksilver, besides what is used in the 
 mines, about the same amount — one million. 
 There is another branch of business to 
 which I have barely made allusion. Let u^ 
 now make a little excursion. We take the 
 
Foss. 149 
 
 steamboat at the city, pass over the bay, 
 enter the Saji Puebla Bay, take the cars, and 
 go up the incomparably beautiful Napa Valley. 
 You stop at Calistoga, where are hot springs, 
 boiling hot if you want, and sulphur springs 
 to your heart's content. An early ride the 
 next morning, of about twenty miles, brings 
 you to the foot of a great mountain, over 
 which you are to ride. This is called "Foss' 
 Station," where you eat the best brealdast in 
 California, because the morning ride has given 
 you an appetite. "Foss" is an institution 
 himself — a huge, well-proportioned, unedu- 
 cated New Hampshire man, endowed with 
 qualities which in any condition would make 
 him a marked man ; and you look at his 
 brawny arms and powerful body almost with 
 envy. But he has his six-horse team harnessed 
 to an open wagon, and you are now off for 
 the Geysers. You ascend a mountain five 
 thousand feet high, up which you wind and 
 
150 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 creep, till you come to a ridge about two 
 miles long, and so straight that jou can see 
 the road two miles ahead. It is just possibly 
 wide enough to let the wagon run on its edge, 
 though to look at it in front, it looks as if you 
 were to ride on the edge of a rusty case- 
 knife. Down upon this ridge the horses dash, 
 and you see, if the wheels should vary a foot 
 either side, you would roll down into a gulf 
 that makes you quiver to look at. But over 
 it you pass ; and now you are to go down the 
 mountain into the canon below. You are to 
 descend one thousand nine hundred feet in 
 two miles. You tremble for the Pittsfield lady 
 sitting calmly by the side of Foss, where she 
 sees every danger, and shows no other ef- 
 fect of the strange situation than the bright- 
 ening of the eye. Crack goes the whip, and 
 the trained horses dash down upon the quick- 
 est gait horses ever did go, and after making 
 thirty-five short turns, a failure at any one of 
 
THE GEYSERS. 151 
 
 which would break your limbs, if not your 
 neck, you are at the bottom — just eleven min- 
 utes in coming down, holding your breath, 
 throbbing Avith excitement, glad you have taken 
 the awful leap once, and feeling very sure 
 that whoever takes it hereafter must be a 
 fool I 
 
 You are now in a deep canon, on every 
 side of which the beautiful mountains rise up 
 three thousand feet or more. Nothing can 
 exceed their beauty. A large trout brook runs 
 through the canon, stony, but the water is 
 clear, cold, and beautiful. You go down and 
 cross this brook at right angles, just where, 
 out of another canon at right angles to this, 
 you see another little brook meeting you. On 
 either side of it the mountains rise high and 
 steep. The bed of this canon and along this 
 little brook is the home of the Geysers. The 
 Geysers were originally found in Iceland, and 
 the word Geyser is Icelandic, meaning " vehe- 
 
152 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ment," or " urgent," because a Geyser spouts 
 out water, hot or cold, and sometimes mud with 
 the water. You now feel that you are in a 
 strange place ; the ground burns your feet, 
 the air chokes and suffocates you. The atmos- 
 phere is filled with the smell of sulphur, nitric 
 acid, and every other disagreeable smell you 
 can imagine. At your feet boils out a stream 
 of alum. Perhaps two feet from that is 
 anothe rof nitric acid, or Epsom salts, or soda, 
 or pure sulphur, or sulphuric acid, or ammo- 
 nia. Here is a deep-mouthed opening, up 
 which is boiling a huge volume of liquid as 
 black as ink. It is called the *' Devil's Ink- 
 stand." The ink with which I am now writ- 
 ing this manuscript came from this inkstand, 
 and I am using it just as it was made there. 
 A little above is the "Witch's Caldron," per- 
 haps seven feet in diameter, black, boiling, 
 spouting, and raging. Its depth is unknown. 
 All these are boiling, steaming hot ; more than 
 
THE GEYSERS. 153 
 
 a thousand of these steam-holes are in this 
 canon. On your left is the " Steamboat," 
 where, high above your head, the steam 
 spouts and roars like the letting off the §team 
 when the steamboat stops. Thrust your stick 
 into the side of the hill anywhere, and the 
 steam will rush out. You seem to be treading 
 on the viery borders of the infernal pit. What 
 with the steam, the heat, the smells, your 
 head grows dizzy and whirls, you pant for 
 breath, and you hasten to get out. But you 
 must stop at one more spot. It is called 
 the "Devil's Tea-kettle," where the steam in- 
 termits, and sputters, and wheezes, as if 
 groaning in chains. You stick your cane into 
 it, and, whew ! it roars and sputters like a 
 huge cat when a strange dog comes into the 
 room. You almost expect to see the horns 
 of the Evil One thrust up next. The place 
 is so strange that you want to stay longer, 
 but feel that it would kill you. You can com- 
 
154 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 pare it to nothing but hell. It is called, "the 
 Pluton Caiion." In the cool of the evening or 
 morning, or in cold weather, the steam of this 
 great concealed furnace rises up, and is ^cen afar 
 off. Were a dome of ice to be thrown over it, 
 the steam would be so suffocating that nobody 
 could go near it. There are probably hun- 
 dreds, if not thousands, of orifices in which 
 you could roast eggs. It is said that you 
 might stand at the mouth of the canon and 
 hook a trout in the big brook, and by turning 
 round in your tracks, you could let him down 
 and boil him in one of these little natural 
 kettles. 
 
 By all I had read or heard, before visiting 
 the Geysers, I had supposed them to be 
 volcanic, and that fire was the cause of all 
 this heat, and that it must be not very far 
 from the surface of the earth, and that the 
 Geysers were really safety-valves for the pre- 
 vention of earthquakes. A very short exami- 
 
THE GEYSERS. 155 
 
 nation convineed m6 that my notions were all 
 wrong, — that they are not volcanic, hut a "'' 
 great chemical laboratory, 
 
 I found here iron, — thtit which makes the 
 inky water, — alum, ammonia, sulphuric acid, 
 nitric acid, sulphur, Epsom salts, in large 
 crystals ; acid water, which, sweetened a little, 
 makes good lemonade ; magnesia, soda, and 
 one spring said to be extraordinary in its 
 effects as an eye- water. The alum spring is 
 one hundred and seventy-six degrees by the 
 thermometer, and the Witch's Caldron, one 
 hundred and ninety-five and one half degrees. 
 Now, fill these great mountains with these sev- 
 eral chemicals, and let in the water upon 
 them, and let what is left of it make this little 
 Phiton Brook, and you have all the phenom- 
 ena which you find here. The whole region, 
 abounding in sulphur springs and hot springs, 
 is a hidden treasury of chemistry. Not far \y' 
 from the Geysers is Clear Lake, where they 
 
156 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 dredge up the bottom-mud and find clear, 
 beautiful, crystallized borax, and can get, if 
 . they can sell, six tons a day. 
 
 There is no place in the world where borax 
 so pure and so abundant can be found ; that 
 found in Thibet comes nearest to it, but the 
 borax is far inferior in quality and in quan- 
 tity, and so in China. 
 
 To me it seems clear that the day is coming 
 when Science will come here and uncover 
 these hidden things, and bring out, most likely, 
 in almost fabulous quantities, the treasures here 
 now concealed. I can almost imagine some 
 Yankee standing over the Devil's Inkstand and 
 dipping up ink enough for the use of a con- 
 tinent. Here, or near here, undoubtedly, is 
 sulphur enough to furnish a nation with gun- 
 >. / powder ; and I write down the Geysers, not 
 merely as a place where men will go to be hor- 
 rified, but where they will go, at a future day, 
 for materials to be used for the good of men ; 
 
THE GEYSERS. 157 
 
 and these that now seem to be the breathing-holes 
 of the pit, are only the way-marks by which 
 God shows us where to look for these chemi- 
 cals, laid up till called for. 
 
 I am aware that this view destroys much 
 of the romance of the thing; for it is far 
 more romantic to feel that we have stood over 
 a volcano, just i^eady to burst out, or over 
 regions infernal, where demons are panting, 
 and struggling, and groaning, and you can 
 almost hear the clanking of their chains, than 
 to feel that you are in a huge chemical shop, 
 where the chemicals have got thrown together, 
 and water from the hydrant has broken out, 
 and continues to run in among them. But 
 that under this covering there are rich hidden 
 treasures, which will one day bless the world, 
 I have not a doubt. 
 
 I have thus given you a bird's-eye view of 
 the capabilities of California — where nothing 
 
v 
 
 158 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 that man has done is over twenty years old, 
 — and yet he has achieved wonders, — where 
 the hand of man has yet touched but three 
 per cent, of her rich soil, where everything 
 is and grows, and is to be and grow, on a 
 scale unexampled, and where the invitations 
 for men to go are loud. But the men to go 
 there should be men of industry, men of 
 intelligence, men who only want opportunity 
 and materials with which to work, and if 
 they can carry capital, so much the better ; 
 but it is not the place for drones, or those who 
 waat to live without labor. Such are not 
 welcomed ; but the right kind of men are 
 welcomed with a cordiality that is beautiful. 
 
 The inhabitants gathered there are from all 
 parts of the world, and they all understand 
 that they are to lay aside their prejudices, and 
 melt into a new and homogeneous society; 
 and they do so. 
 
 The country is a new field for human in- 
 
bird's-eye view. 159 
 
 dustry, and experiments new and great arc 
 there to be made. God has reserved all 
 this for designs which I shall hint at here- 
 after. 
 
 Mines of the precious metals there are, and 
 mines of iron, and lead, and copper, and 
 quicksilver ; mines of coal and tin there are ; 
 but after all, the deep, rich soil of the State 
 will be the great source of wealth, and will 
 call in a population that will carry there all 
 that is good in the old States, leaving behind, 
 I trust, what is evil. 
 
 I stand on the Nevadas, and look off over 
 this strange country ; and I am not looking at 
 so many acres of grain, so many mines, so 
 many factories, but I am looking at a territory V^ 
 now embraced in a single State, which, when 
 filled up as Massachusetts is to-day, will con- 
 tain twenty millions of people, — where gen- 
 eration after generation is to come up and 
 pass away, — where art, and mind, and wealth, 
 
160 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 and skill, and luxury, and ambition, and edu- 
 cation, and religion will all struggle together 
 for supremacy, but through it all, will roll the 
 River of God to make glad the cities of our 
 God, and to cool the passions, and moderate 
 the spirits, and fit the unborn multitudes 
 for a higher end than can be attained on 
 any, even the most favored spot, in this 
 world. 
 
 Our Schools and Colleges, our Churches 
 and our Institutions, will live again in all 
 those beautiful valleys, and a tide of living 
 joy will continually roll through them, and 
 the song of praise and gratitude will go up 
 to heaven — " loud as from voices without 
 number." That wonderful region is to be 
 another monument raised to the honor of the 
 Pilorrims, and of that wisdom which was born 
 in the cabin of the Mayflower. 
 
CLAIMS OF THE MORMONS. 101 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MORMONS AND MORMONISM. 
 
 It is very difficult, if not almost impossible, 
 to speak of the Mormons with feelings perfectly 
 balanced. In their history there is the romance 
 of fanaticism and the romance of suffering. You 
 pity them for the cruel persecutions which they 
 claim to have endured ; you are amazed at their 
 credulity ; you are in admiration over their in- 
 dustry, and you are indignant at their assump- 
 tions of religion, under the name of which they 
 glory in practices for which the whole civilized 
 world send men to the State Prison. They 
 claim that theirs is the new, the last, the most 
 perfect Dispensation, — revealed from Heaven ; 
 that they are " the Latter-Day Saints," are the 
 11 
 
162 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 special and only favorites of Heaven, and are 
 directly inspired by God. 
 
 They claim that one Joseph Smith dug brass 
 plates out of a hill, in the State of New York, 
 "which hill they call Cumorah ; that these plates 
 were in an ancient, unknown language ; that 
 Joseph Smith, Jr., was inspired to translate 
 the writings engraven on these plates, and 
 that the Book of Mormon is this translation. 
 How these plates were put into that spot, how» 
 kept from corroding, how they could make a 
 book of five hundred and sixty-three pages, 
 very closely printed, I cannot ascertain. In 
 the beginning of the book, is the certificate 
 of several that they had seen these plates. 
 Three of these testify that an angel from 
 heaven- brought and showed them to them. 
 The others, among which is the testimony of 
 Smith, Sr., merely assert that they had seen 
 them in the hands of the translator, Joseph 
 Smith, Jr. I could not find any one among 
 
HISTORY OF THE MORMONS. 1G3- 
 
 them who had ever seen the plates, though I 
 found a man, stone blind, who assured me that 
 he had seen the hole out of which the plates 
 were dug. They claim that as soon as Smith 
 had fairlj got the plates, he began to be per- 
 secuted, and had to flee from place to place 
 while translating them ; that he had to meet 
 vexatious lawsuits, more than fifty in number; 
 and that he paid out in these lawsuits, first 
 and last, the sura of one hundred and thirty- 
 one thousand dollars ! 
 
 He was the first Prophet. They claim that, 
 for his religion, the Prophet, and his brother 
 Hiram, and some others, were imprisoned, and 
 at one time actually fed on human flesh. For 
 myself, I cannot see why a divinely inspired 
 man should not know what flesh he was eating. 
 They claim that the saints first undertook to 
 settle in Ohio, but were driven out by a mob. 
 They then went to Missouri, and made two 
 several attempts to settle ; had purchased 
 
164 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 farms, built mills, churches, &c., and were 
 driven out by violence, and outrage, and mur- 
 der. They then went to Illinois, into a 
 swampy, unhealthy region, and made it into a 
 garden. This was their Nauvoo, where they 
 built an immense temple. 
 
 Here, too, they were persecuted, driven out 
 by armed men, and their city bombarded by 
 at least five hundred remorseless, armed men. 
 The story of their exile, their persecutions, 
 and their sufierings, is most painful. Of 
 course, I take their own accounts, for the 
 other side of the story has never been written, 
 or if it has, I have never seen it. But it 
 will be written, and we shall then have both 
 sides of the story. I am assured that the 
 other side view will be very different, and 
 will make fearfully against their own history. 
 We shall see. But, taking their version, I 
 hesitate not to say, that the treatment which 
 they received in Illinois was not merely unjust 
 
HISTORY OF TIIE^ MORMONS. 165 
 
 and unkind, but it was cruel to a degree that 
 ought to make savages blush. 
 
 It was in the year 1845 that the mob began 
 to burn then* houses, pillage their property, 
 shamefully treat their women, and finally mur- 
 dered Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram. 
 What it was that so exasperated the comniunity 
 I cannot see. It was not polygamy, for at 
 that time, they had had no revelation allow- 
 ing more than one wife. In their "Book of 
 Doctrines and Covenants," containing the reve- 
 lations made to Smith and many others, men 
 and women, they say positively (page 331), 
 " Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been 
 reproached with the crime of fornication and 
 polygamy, we declare that we believe that one 
 man should have one wife, and one woman 
 but one husband, except in case of death, 
 when either is at liberty to marry again." 
 
 It seems to have been one of those periods 
 of frenzy, like that which burned the witches 
 
166 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 at Salem, and which sometimes unaccountably 
 sweeps through a community. The community 
 of Mormons, being once more expelled from 
 what they supposed their homes, now set their 
 faces westward. As many as twelve hundred 
 wagons had been built by February, 1846, 
 w^hen the strongest and healthiest set forward 
 and crossed the Mississippi on the ice. The 
 feebler portion were left to come in the spring. 
 But violence came upon them, and they had 
 to winter on the bottom-lands of the river, 
 enduring famine, sickness, and death. Here 
 they claim the Lord interposed, and sent them 
 such clouds of quails, and so tame, that they 
 had but to knock them down with a stick. 
 On these they lived for months. 
 
 The w^hole number of Mormons now was 
 al)out twenty thousand. They claim that in 
 every persecution they endured, ministers of 
 Christ — Methodist and Presbyterian — were the 
 instigators and the ringleaders. Gredat Judoeus 
 Apella, 
 
HISTORY OF THE MORMONS. 167 
 
 They were now scattered all through the 
 country between the Mississippi and the Mis- 
 souri, and a more affecting picture of their 
 being spoiled and of sufferings — as drawn by 
 General Kane, the brother of Dr. Kane, of 
 Arctic fame — can hardly be founds Gradu- 
 ally the whole multitude worked their way 
 westward, through the country of the Potta- 
 wattamie Indians, three hundred miles, to the 
 Missouri River. The Pottawattamies had just 
 sold their lands to the United States, and were 
 to give possession the coming season; and, 
 of course, there the Saints could find no home. 
 They had now to build ferry boats, by which 
 to cross the Missouri. They crossed chiefly 
 at Omaha, near which, they say, they found 
 "some missionaries and Indian traders, who 
 occupied their time principally in selling whis-. 
 key to and swindling the Indians." Who 
 these whiskey-selling and swindling missiona- 
 ries were, we are not told. 
 
168 THE StTNSET LAND. 
 
 Such assertions remind one of the prophets 
 described hj Jeremiah : " They are prophets 
 of the deceit of their own hearts." The Mor- 
 mons also chiim, that at the Missouri River 
 an officer met them with a requisition for five 
 hundred men to go to the Mexican war ; that 
 in three days that number left their families, 
 and were on their march ; that they w^ere 
 infantry, and passed over the deserts, and 
 through pathless mountains, and made the un- 
 exampled march of two thousand and fifty 
 miles, to San Diego, California, most of the 
 time on half, and often on quarter rations. 
 
 Brigham Young was now the prophet and 
 leader, in the place of Joseph Smith. He 
 now had a revelation allowing, if not enjoin- 
 ing, polygamy. While waiting for those left 
 behind, covering a path of two hundred miles. 
 Young built over seven hundred log-houses 
 for the next winter quarters ; also water and 
 horse-power mills, and one hundred and fifty 
 
HISTORY OP THE MORMONS. 169 
 
 of what they call ** dug-outs,** i. c, huts in tho 
 ground, and only the roof above the cellar. 
 
 In the spring of 1847, Brigham Young, 
 who bears the title of President, left his twenty 
 thousand at or near the Missouri, and with 
 one hundred and forty-three men, sef forward 
 on an exploring expedition. My belief is that 
 he intended to find a path over the unknown 
 deserts into Oregon. Starting before the grass 
 had groAvn, they carried their food, and fed 
 their cattle on the bark of the cotton-wood 
 tree, till the grass should spring up. For six 
 hundred and fifty miles they made their own 
 road, and for four hundred more they followed 
 a trapper's trail. This one thousand and fifty 
 miles brought them to a valley. This valley 
 was baiTen, and covered with crickets ; but 
 here Young had a revelation that he was to 
 stop, and this was to be the home of the 
 Mormons. . The valley was about twenty-eight 
 miles by twenty-five. Notwithstanding his rev- 
 
170 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 elation, he sent out his men in exploring par- 
 ties, in all directions, to see if they could find 
 a spot more to their minds. This was just 
 twenty-two* years ago this very month, i. e., 
 July, 1847. His messengers returned, finding 
 no spot so good as the one divinely pointed 
 out. Here they began to plant the few pota- 
 toes they had brought, and sowed a little 
 gi'ain. 
 
 The valley was barren , covered with the wild 
 sage bush, which grows only in alkaline soils. 
 Nothing could be more forbidding. Not a 
 tree gi-ew for shade, not a green thing for 
 the eye. With characteristic energy, Young 
 went back to his people, starting them onward, 
 and seeing that they took all the food they 
 could. Now, for years, the work was to get 
 all the multitude — the old, the young, and 
 the infant — on to the new home. Wagons 
 and teams by the hundreds, handcarts con- 
 veying the sick and children, often drawn by 
 
HISTORY OF THE MORMONS. 171 
 
 women, new graves of the pilgrims, strung all 
 along their route, marked this epoch. The 
 first year after their arrival, the large mountain 
 crickets came down in such nmltitudcs as to 
 threaten to eat up everything. Just as they 
 began to despair, the white gulls from the 
 rocks in the Salt Lake came in vast flocks, 
 and with an appetite so insatiable, that they 
 arrested the ruin, and were their deliverers. 
 Notwithstanding, before they had learned how 
 to manage their soil, they came so near starva- 
 tion, that they had to dig wild roots with the 
 Indians, eat every hide and skin they had, 
 and everything that was possibly eatable. 
 
 The Mormons claim that they carried the 
 first printing press that ever crossed the Mis- 
 souri ; that they raised the first national flag 
 that ever waved in Utah; that they made the 
 first brick ever made in California ; that they 
 carried there the first emigrant ship and the 
 fii-st printing press ; that they discovered and 
 
172 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 dug the first gold; that they discovered their 
 valley where the foot of only one trapper had 
 ever gone before. They claim that during the 
 four months' trail, in 1849, when the old and 
 the young died most fearfully, the spinning- 
 wheel and the loom, set up in wagons, never 
 stopped a single day ! They claim that the 
 first newspaper published west of the river, 
 and also the first in San Francisco, was pub- 
 lished by the Mormons. 
 
 Though in 1850 there was not a shingled 
 roof (all being cloth) among them, yet the 
 emigrant wagons, as they stopped on their 
 way to California, never lacked hospitality and 
 kindness ; their sick never lacked care and 
 nursing, and never had or took occasion to 
 complain of heavy charges. Such is a brief 
 history of the beginning of Mormonism, as 
 they give it. 
 
 Now, for a few minutes, forget the history 
 of the Mormons, and go with me to a spot 
 
A BEAUTIFUL SPOT. 173 
 
 in the far interior of North America. In the 
 midst of the fearful desert, between the Rocky 
 Mountains and the Nevada Range, rises up 
 the Wahsatch Range of Mountains, running 
 parallel with the other two ranges, north and 
 south. It is not a single peak or ridge, but 
 a range of ridges and spurs, with little valleys 
 between them. You are now in one of these 
 valleys, with high mountains all around you : 
 one turret before you is eleven thousand seven 
 hundred feet high, and snow hangs and covers 
 their tops the year round. The air is so clear 
 that these mountains, fifteen miles off, do not 
 look to be over four or five. The air is soft, 
 and it seems as if summer had contrived to 
 hide and play under the mantle of winter. In 
 the midst of this valley is a gentle swell of 
 ground. Turn your face north, and you see, 
 twelve miles distant, a great blue sheet of 
 water; and on your right, a mile or two dis- 
 tant, a sweet river, making towards that great- 
 
174 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 er water. On that gentle swell stands a city, 
 laid out in squares. The streets run east and 
 west, north and south, and each four miles 
 long. They are each one hundred and thirty- 
 two feet, or eight rods, wide. On each side 
 of every street flows a brook of clear, pure 
 mountain water, and rows of trees are planted 
 along every watercourse. It seems to you 
 that some of these streams must be running up 
 hill. But there they are, in full speed, running 
 through every street in the city. The squares 
 of the city are laid out so as to have just 
 ten acres in each square, and these ten acres 
 again divided up into eight squares, so as to 
 give one and a quarter acre to each house. 
 These little squares are all made into gardens, 
 planted with trees, bearing all manner of fruits 
 and vegetables. Among this shrubbery, is the 
 dwelling-house, built of adobe brick, — i. e., 
 clay unburnt, — the bricks smooth, well-shaped, 
 and of an olive or gray color, — the houses 
 
WATER AND BEAUTY. 175 
 
 often two stories high, and very neat in ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 In one of these squares, rises up a huge 
 building, oval in shape, two hundred and sev- 
 enty-one feet long, one hundred and seventy- 
 one wide, and seventy high, with a roof that 
 resembles one of the metallic, oval covers with 
 which we cover our dinner platters. 
 
 Every garden is watered or irrigated by 
 a little stream drawn from the street-brook 
 nearest to it. The abimdance and constancy 
 of water make the trees and the veofetation 
 dance in a halo of green. In the most busy 
 street, these acre-and-a-quarter squares are cut 
 up, and store joins store, and shop joins shop, 
 as in any other city. The population of the 
 city is about twenty thousand people. 
 
 This, then, is " Salt Lake City," the centre 
 of Mormonism — a city and a people unlike 
 anything else in the wide world. That huge 
 building is their Tabernacle, or church. You 
 
176 THE SUN8ET LAND. 
 
 gaze upon the mountains rising up all around 
 you like a rim of rock — not a tree on them ; 
 at the Great Salt Lake, twelve miles off; 
 at the Eiver Jordan, on your right ; at the 
 rushing of the mountain torrent, pouring in a 
 paved channel through the middle of a central 
 street, that seems to sing as he goes, "I am 
 what is left of the mountain stream, after the 
 city has drank all that it wants ; " and you 
 gaze at the soft, hazy atmosphere around you, 
 and feel that 3^ou are on one of the most beau- 
 tiful spots on which the sun shines. Can 
 this be the desert which, twenty-two years 
 ago, was covered with wild sage? What mas- 
 ter mind planned, laid out this city of the 
 desert, and made it what it is to-day? You 
 soon learn that this is only one among many 
 evidences of the workings of a very shrewd 
 mind. When you get out of the city, you 
 find the whole Territory surveyed off, first 
 into five-acre lots ; and then the next tier, 
 
UTAH TEKUlTOUr. 177 
 
 ten acres; the third, twenty; and the most 
 remote forty acres, which is the highest amount 
 any one man may own. 
 
 You now find that among the spurs of this 
 great range of mountains, there are many lit- 
 tle valleys creeping up among them, for a long, 
 long distance. You find the Territory of Utah 
 to contain sixty-five thousand square miles ; or 
 about nine times as large as Massachusetts. 
 This, in acres, is forty-one million six hun- 
 dred thousand. Of this, not over five hundred 
 thousand acres are supposed to be capable of 
 cultivation, leaving forty-one millions of acres 
 not cultivable; i. e., only one acre in eighty- 
 three can ever be cultivated. The inhabitants 
 in Salt Lake City amount to about twenty 
 thousand, Mormons and "Gentiles," as they 
 call all who are not Mormons. 
 
 They have one hundred and thirty cities 
 and villages scattered among these valleys, to 
 the distance of four hundred miles one way, 
 12 
 
178 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 and two hundred the other way, and in all 
 about one hundred thousand people. They 
 are industrious and frugal to a wonderful de- 
 gree, and have one hundred and sixty thousand 
 acres, or one third of all their land, under 
 cultivation. Of this, ninety-four thousand 
 acres are cultivated by irrigation, bringing in 
 an annual water-rentage of two hundred and 
 seventy-four thousand dollars. They have 
 eighty thousand acres in grain, two thousand 
 in coarse sugar-cane, six thousand eight hun- 
 dred in roots, two hundred in cotton, nine 
 hundred in orchards, one thousand in peach, 
 seventy-five in grapes, one hundred and ninety- 
 five in currants, and thirty thousand in grass. 
 When, in 1847, they first raised the Amer- 
 ican flag, the Territory belonged to Mexico. 
 In it are mines yet to be worked, of iron, coal, 
 and gold, and probably silver. Their valleys 
 extend, north and south, eight hundred miles. 
 All around these valleys are deserts of a hun^ 
 
SALT LAKE CITY. 179 
 
 dred miles in every direction. The climate 
 is dry and hot, but exceedingly pleasant, and 
 mild in winter. The proi^erty expended in 
 aqueducts is estimated at ten million five hun- 
 dred and eightj^-eight thousand seven hundred 
 and eighty-two dollars. 
 
 Salt Lake has a City Hall which cost seventy 
 thousand dollars, and the city has no debt ; 
 and the Territory has actually a surplus of 
 seventeen thousand dollars in its treasury; 
 they have one hundred and eighty-six school 
 districts, two hundred and twenty-six schools, 
 eighteen thousand children, and three hundred 
 and six teachers, at an annual expense of sixty- 
 one thousand dollars. 
 
 They are taking measures to make a canal 
 from the Utah Lake, forty miles distant, at 
 an expense of about five hundred thousand 
 dollars, which wiH enable them to irrigate 
 fifty thousand acres more ; for nothing can be 
 raised there without constant and careful irri- 
 
180 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 gation. But with it, everything is raised in 
 the greatest profusion and abundance. They 
 boast of a theatre, churches in all the villages, 
 debating clubs, and Female Eelief Societies. 
 Wherever mountain streams are found, they 
 are conducted to the soil, and if, for a single 
 day, it should be shut off from their gardens, 
 they would suffer, if not perish. Sometimes, 
 in dry seasons, the water is allowed but half 
 the day, and often they must get up at mid- 
 night to let it on. In the intensely Salt Lake, 
 twelve miles off, ninety miles long and fifty 
 wide, there shoot up sharp mountains, bare 
 rock, not a living thing on them, unless it be 
 gulls, making an addition to the dreariness of 
 the scene. 
 
 This lake has risen nine feet during the last 
 two years, and is now three hundred feet 
 lower than the water-marks on the surround- 
 ing mountains show it once to have been. Is 
 there any probability that it w^ill ever rise up 
 
WHO BECAME MORMONS. 181 
 
 to its old place? Who knows? It has the 
 Bear and the «Tordan, and I believe other 
 rivers, emptying into it ; but it has no visible 
 outlet. How are Ave to account for the rise 
 of the lake? Have the cultivation of the land, 
 the growth of trees and vegetation, been suffi- 
 cient to increase the rain so as to raise the 
 waters of this great lake? I doubt it. 
 
 Who make Mormons, and whence come 
 they? I reply, they are mostly foreigners, 
 from the lowest, most illiterate strata of soci- 
 ety in Europe. They are from the quarries 
 in Wales, from Norway, Sweden, and espe- 
 cially from Denmark. At a period as early 
 as when they were on the banks of the Mis- 
 souri, Brigham Young sent what they call 
 missionaries to Europe, and began a system 
 of Emigration and filling up his society from 
 abroad. I do not know what arguments such 
 a recruiting officer would use, but doubtless 
 he would tell those who were almost starving, 
 
182 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 that here they would find food enough ; those 
 who wore wooden shoes, that here they would 
 wear leather ; those who never aspired to own 
 anything in the shape of property, that here 
 they would actually become land-holders, and 
 own real estate ! 
 
 In the mean time he started a Permanent 
 Emigration Fund, to which every emigrant 
 was to contribute at least enough to pay his 
 own passage, as soon as he was able. Out of 
 this_ fund they have, up to the present time, 
 expended more than five million dollars in 
 bringing emigrants over the ocean. So per- 
 fect was the system arranged, that when the 
 emigrants landed on the banks of the Mis- 
 souri, there would be five hundred wagons of 
 four yokes of oxen or mules each, and carry- 
 ing ten in a wagon, waiting to put them on 
 to their new homes. A committee of the 
 British Parliament has sat at the feet of the 
 Mormons, to learn their system of aiding emi- 
 
EMIGRATION SYSTEM. 183 
 
 gration. At the present time, when the Rail- 
 road brings on a new colony, they have every- 
 thing arranged most curiously. Almost all 
 who now come, have relatives or friends among 
 the Mormons, who have written to them ; for 
 they assured me of the astonishing fact, that 
 there is not a Mormon who cannot read and 
 write in his own native language — which I 
 am compelled to doubt. Long before the em- 
 igrants arrive, the Rulers receive a list of the 
 names of those who are coming. This list is 
 posted up on the walls near the Tabernacle, 
 and the time mentioned when they will arrive. 
 Now, suppose an arrival of eight hundred on 
 Wednesday evening. It is all known who are 
 coming, and when. From the distant valleys, 
 all through Mormondom, the tealns have gath- 
 ered, and by breakfast time next morning, 
 they are all carried out of the city, to visit 
 a few days with their friends, and then they 
 get on their little tracts of land, build a cayote 
 
184 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 house, which a man can build in a day, and 
 begin life. A cayote house is a small cellar 
 dug in the sand, and a few boards set up over 
 the hole as a roof. The hole into it is like 
 the hole of the cayote wolfs burrow ; and 
 hence the name. The emigrant stays in the 
 cayote till he has the means of building an 
 adobe dwelling. As fast as he is able, he 
 pays back what has been advanced for his 
 passage. In the construction of the Railroad 
 lately, these were let out to work, and the 
 emigration fund was paid in rapidly. Still, 
 there are due this fund, at the present time, 
 the Rulers tell me, not less than six hundred 
 thousand dollars. I suppose this debt, when 
 paid in, would remove six thousand people 
 from Europe 'to Utah. I met three hundred 
 on a single train, on their way, as I came 
 eastward. 
 
 Among a thousand men or more, who worked 
 on the railroad, from the Mormons, there were 
 
MORMON GOVERNl^ENT. 185 
 
 no murders, no drunkenness, and no fightings. 
 In the streets of the city are no brawls, or 
 intoxication. In all Mormondom there is but 
 one place where intoxicating liquors are sold ; 
 and that favored man, who sells them, lias to 
 pay for a license, seven thousand two hun- 
 dred dollars annually, paying one thousand 
 eight hundred dollars, in advance, every quar- 
 ter ! Such a license law would do the business 
 in Massachusetts, or anywhere else. 
 
 The government of the Mormons seems to 
 consist of a Presidejit and Prophet, united, 
 who is Brigham Young — the receiver of rev- 
 elations, and the vicegerent of heaven. With 
 him are associated three chief councillors, then 
 twelve apostles, then bishops enough to be 
 scattered through every town and village, giving 
 one to each. The Bishop is a kind of judge, 
 ruler, alcalde, teacher, preacher, magistrate, 
 and sometimes the miller, or the storekeeper, 
 or the raiser of cattle, or cotton, or the man- 
 
186 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ufacturer, or the hotel-keeper of the village. 
 He is selected for his self-coutrol, shrewd- 
 ness, aud ability to manage men. He is the 
 man — omnis homo — of the village. Then 
 there are subordinate officers, like the Israel- 
 ites of old, down to rulers of tens. 
 
 The greatest shrewdnesss is shown in put- 
 ting the right man in the right place ; and 
 as the keen mind of Young can appoint and 
 remove, and not a soul ever ask a question, 
 he is sure to make a wise selection, first or 
 last. He appoints the officers, and if, for any 
 reason, he thinks it best to remove a man 
 from the territory for a time, he has only to 
 tell him it is thought best for him to go on 
 a Foreign Mission^ and that he will buy his 
 house, setting his own price on it, and the 
 man bows in silence, and does it all. There 
 are what they call Gentiles among them ; but, 
 taking the whole population, they do not ex- 
 ceed two and a half per cent. I ought also 
 
INDUSTRY OF THE MORMONS. 187 
 
 to say that they claim that their treatment of the 
 Indians has ever been just and kind, acting on 
 the principle, that it is cheaper to feed them than 
 to fight them, and that they have never had 
 their emigrant trains molested, or lost a life 
 or a dollar of property by the Indians. Nor 
 is it too much to say, that, had it not been 
 for the Mormons to furnish labor and food, 
 the Pacific Railroad could not have been built, 
 at present, even if it ever could have been 
 done. The bee-hive, painted on the wall 
 which surrounds ^the offices and dwellings of 
 Young, is a good emblem of that industry 
 which is everywhere most apparent. If there 
 are more men in the city than are needed to 
 do the work of the city, they are sent out. 
 You will wondcn- to see an uncouth adobe 
 wall at the foot of the mountains, about 
 twelve feet high, stretching round the city 
 for miles. It is in ruins, and never was of 
 any earthly use. It was built at a time 
 
188 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 when the population had nothing to do, under 
 pretence of guarding against the Indians ; 
 but in reality, it was to keep the people em- 
 ployed. Nor are you surprised, either, to 
 learn that canals, to the amount of a thousand 
 miles in length, have been dug, in order to 
 bring water into the city and over their 
 house lots. 
 
 This untiring industry is manifested also 
 by the one hundred and fifty grist and saw- 
 mills, three cotton, and four woollen factories, 
 twenty-five tanneries, besides the making of 
 shoes, hats, wagons, nails, furniture, and the 
 like. The theory of the leading mind among 
 them is, that they shall raise and manufacture 
 everything they use, and thus be, and con- 
 tinue to be, a community, distinct and sep- 
 arate from all others, having their own stan- 
 dard of civilization and religion. 
 
 I have thus far given you what I deem a 
 candid view of the best side of the picture, — 
 
THE DESPOTISM OF YOUNG. 189 
 
 such as the stranger gets on a single day's 
 visit. Here is a community gathered from 
 diflfereut parts of the world, brought and 
 cemented together, a perfect outward fusion, 
 making them a unit, differing from all other 
 people in government, domestic habits, and 
 religion. Has that community been thus ce- 
 mented by religion, as they claim, or by 
 something else? Will that system be perma- 
 nent, or has it the seeds of death within 
 itself? 
 
 Now,. I am going to say frankly, but I 
 hope kindly, what other impressions were 
 made upon my own mind. 
 
 (a.) I think the government is a despotism, 
 rigid in its exactions, omnipresent in its 
 watchfulness, far-seeing in its plans, and un- 
 scrupulous in using means to attain its ends. 
 I do not deny, nay, I have said, that it has 
 done a great amount of good, in gathering 
 the poor of the earth, melting them together. 
 
190 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 making them earn their bread, and giving 
 them a civilization as high as it is. 
 
 But this ignorant mass is clay in the hands 
 of the master spirit. The presiding Genius 
 wields, in their view, all the authority that 
 earth and heaven can give him. He is 
 prophet and king. When I see that not a 
 man among all Jiis subjects dares disobey 
 any order of his, when their amiable Delegate 
 to Congress tells me that when he is elect- 
 ed, it is done on this wise : In the Assem- 
 bly Young says, " Brethren, we are now to 
 elect a member of Congress; our Brother, 
 Mr. Hooper, has done very well, and I think 
 we cannot do better than send him again ; " 
 and that decision gives a unanimous vote ; 
 and when the same amiable Member tells me 
 that were he, when in Congress, to receive 
 a telegram from Young, saying, "Your pres- 
 ence is needed in London," he would pack 
 up and be off within three days ; and when 
 
DESPOTISM OF YOUNG. 191 
 
 they all tell mo no man has yet ever refused 
 to go on a Foreign Mission, when the Chief 
 told him to go, aud when they admit that 
 w^hen a man dies his will or wishes go 
 for nothing, his property all goes to the 
 church, — can I doubt that here is a despotism 
 beyond anything elsewhere in the world? 
 He becomes offended with a large mercantile 
 house in his city ; they do not pay as much 
 for tithes as he demands ; he excommuni- 
 cates them from his church. He then opens 
 what he calls " co-operative " stores, one in 
 every ward of the city, with the blasphemous 
 sign over each, — a great staring Eye, and 
 "Holiness to the Lord," in large letters. To 
 them, this blasphemy, as it seems to me, is 
 religion. Then there is a system of watching, 
 espionage over everybody and everything. 
 You cannot stay in the city three days with- 
 out feeling that you are watched; the air is 
 close, you cannot breathe easy; hear two 
 
192 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 strangers talk together, and you will soon see 
 some one cautiously listening. You learn to 
 speak low, and if you talk with a resident, 
 not a Mormon, you will see him cautiously 
 looking around, and very likely getting up 
 and closing the door ; and you soon get to 
 have the feeling, that were you to speak out, 
 and tell just the impressions that are made 
 upon you, your life would not be safe for 
 twenty-four hours. A gentleman who resides 
 among them, tells me that this is true in 
 regard to himself; and not a Mormon would 
 dare trade at any other store, save one of 
 the "Mount Zion " stores, as they are called. 
 If you say I got wrong impressions, and was 
 frightened at shadows, I have only to say, 
 that I tried hard to get right impressions ; 
 and those who know me best, do not believe 
 I am often frightened at shadows. That this 
 power is wielded so as to keep these peo- 
 ple in perfect subjection, and much for their 
 
GOVERNMENT OF THE MORMONS. 193 
 
 good, I do not deny ; nay, so far, praise it ; 
 but it is, after all, a despotism which native 
 Americans would not endure a single month. 
 And this is one of the elements that has 
 given strength to Mormonism. The stories 
 about the murder of the physician at the 
 Sulphur Spring, the secret whispers about the 
 presence and deeds of the " Destroying An- 
 gels," of the " Danites," and their deeds of 
 darkness when they come in the form and 
 dress of Indians, may not all be true ; but 
 they are received as truths, and convey im- 
 pressions about the government there which 
 no government can afford to have believed. 
 
 (b.) My impression is, that this people are 
 under the power of a fanaticism most remark- 
 able for this age of the world. When they 
 build their faith and hopes, for this life and 
 the next, on what none but men in a peculiar 
 state of mind can believe, I call it fanaticism. 
 For example: that Smith, in 1826, dug up 
 13 
 
194 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 brass plates that had been preserved for ages 
 and ages, by a perpetual miracle, in the State of 
 New York, in the town of Palmyra ; that these 
 plates, so ancient that nobody, not miracu- 
 lously endowed, could read the language, were 
 found ill a common, coarse box, such as had 
 been used for window glass; that Smith in- 
 terpreted them with a stone in his hat and 
 his hat drawn over his face, while another man 
 MTote down the revelation; and that the con- 
 tents of these plates filled the Book of Mor- 
 mon, — taxe^ credulity to the point- of fanati- 
 cism. That book lies before me, a scries of 
 weak, puerile romances, with a poor imitation 
 of an Eastern dress thrown over them, without 
 dates, without localities, with an abundance 
 of names, an ape of Hebrew names, and of 
 the style of the Bible. Nothing but fanati- 
 cism can swallow such stuff; common sense is 
 outraged by its pretensions. And when I 
 hear, as I did hear, the Yice President, on 
 
FANATICISM. 195 
 
 the Sabbath, declare before thousands, that 
 Brijrhain Youns: had a revelation from heaven 
 which introduced polygamy, and when I hear 
 him further declare that he had " known " — 
 (this was to show that the Mormons are the 
 Latter Day Saints, and have new revelations), 
 *'that in more than ten thousand instances he 
 had known the sick to send for the Apostles 
 and Elders, and they had gone and anointed 
 them with oil, and prayed for them, and they 
 all recovered ^^* I can only say, I do not be- 
 lieve it ; and I do not believe he does ; or, if 
 he does, he is under the full power of fanat- 
 icism. They suffered outrages in Missouri and 
 Illinois which I deplore and condemn with ab- 
 horrence ; but I cannot shut my eyes to the 
 fact that the whole system was begotten by an 
 arrant impostor, or else the judgment of all 
 the rest of our age is lost. Let me add, too, 
 that in conversing with the Mormons you 
 receive the impression continually, that they 
 
196 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 are under the power of a strange spell. It 
 creates an unwavering faith, so that they talk 
 of the certainty of their individual salvation, 
 when you feel that, at the very time, they are 
 living in the habitual violation of some of the 
 plainest precepts of the Bible. It does not 
 alter the case, that they have suffered, and 
 are willing to suffer, for their belief. Fanati- 
 cism cannot be distinguished from religion, if 
 you look only at its martyrs. 
 
 On arriving at a certain age, all the youth, 
 of both sexes, are baptized publicly, by im- 
 mersion, with peculiar rites ; and then they 
 have what is called the "endowment" sys- 
 tem — rooms in which the sexes, at the right 
 time, are initiated into the secret mysteries 
 of Mormonism. 
 
 "Do you know," I asked a shrewd one of 
 the creed, "what the * endowment ' system 
 means ? " 
 
 "Certainly I do." 
 
BAPTISING FOR THE DEAD. 197 
 
 " Could you explain it ? " 
 
 " I suppose I could." 
 
 "Will you be good enough to do it?" 
 
 "Why," said he, with a. peculiar twinkle 
 of the eye, "it is the way to make a Mor- 
 mon ! " and that was all I could get out of him. 
 ** O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; 
 unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou 
 united." 
 
 But there is a step beyond this ; they also 
 are " baptized for the dead," on this wise : 
 You are a Mormon; you have had a parent, 
 an uncle, an aunt, or some other dear rela- 
 tive, who died before the Latter Day Dispen- 
 sation, or, at all events, without becoming a 
 Mormon. You now come forward as the proxy 
 of that relative, are baptized again, and in 
 heaven this is credited to your friends, and 
 insures their salvation. How many you may 
 thus deliver from purgatory, or raise up to 
 higher glQiy, and how often the charm will 
 
198 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 work, I do not know. You may say they are 
 honest in all this ; it may be so, but it is the 
 darkest fanaticism, notwithstanding. 
 
 (c.) It is a system of irresponsible power; 
 no one knows the secrets of the ledger. But 
 through our whole nation, Brigham Young is 
 supposed to be the richest man in the United 
 States. In the first place, accountable to no- 
 body, not even to tell what becomes of the 
 money, there are the hundreds of thou- 
 sands of dollars for the use of water; there 
 is so much for the surveying of every lot 
 sold ; and then there are " tithing-houses," one 
 or more in every city and village of the one 
 hundred and thirty towns. In these is gath- 
 ered annually one tenth of all that the groiuid 
 yields, of all that every man or woman raises 
 by skill, by labor, by trade, by mechanics, or 
 any other method ; not one tenth of the gains, 
 but one tenth part of all that human industry 
 produces. I need not say that this sum must 
 
IRRESPONSIBLE TOWER. 199 
 
 be enormous. You receive the impression 
 tlitit Brigham Young owns the whole, the 
 soil, the machinery, the industry, the cattle, 
 and all the Mormons besides ; and practically 
 ho does. As he is a prophet, inspired of 
 heaven, he can do no wrong, and is too sa- 
 cred to be questioned ; and as President and 
 Governor, he has the power of handling the 
 property as he pleases. The question is not, 
 whether he is the most honest man in the world 
 or not, but whether he has not an irresponsi- 
 ble power, such as is safe in no man's hands. 
 I do not take or receive the things that are 
 said* and printed about him, and language said 
 to fall from his lips, for they would not be 
 endured to be repeated here ; but I take ithe 
 great and admitted facts of his position, and 
 say that if he does not abuse human nature, 
 and wrench from toil and poverty enough to 
 make him rich beyond all other men, it is not 
 for want of opportunity, or power, or temp- 
 
200 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 tation to do it. I am sure I don't know any 
 other man who would not, as I should fear, be 
 overcome by a temptation so great. 
 
 (d.) I regard the Mormon system as a system 
 of insupportable licentiousness. It is well 
 known not only that Polygamy is allowed, but is 
 woven into their religion, and sanctioned there- 
 by as the perfection of all religion. They 
 not only have a plurality of wives, but, like 
 the Indians in owning horses, seem to feel that 
 they are to be esteemed and honored in pro- 
 portion to the number they have. In the first 
 house I entered, the man has five wives. The 
 man at the house at which we stopped, has 
 four ; the first seemed to be grieving and hid- 
 ing in her chamber, the second waiting on the 
 public tables, the third taking care of her baby, 
 and the fourth playing honey-moon. In the 
 same street lives a man who has four wives, 
 the mother and her three daughters ! 
 
 We were told that Young has three daughters, 
 
MANY WIVES. 201 
 
 all the wives of one man. I talked with an 
 Apostle who has but live wives, and twenty-four 
 children. I saw a Bishop who has nine wives, 
 and one of three councillors who has nine, and 
 children, € don't know how many. By no 
 possible means can you learn how many wives 
 Brigham Young has, even if he knows himself; 
 and they do not hesitate to say he does not 
 always know his own children. It was a mat- 
 ter of wonder to me how a man could support 
 so many wives. I told them it put us upon 
 the strain to support one. But their reply was, 
 that their wives supported themselves : they 
 make gloves, knit, dry figs, peaches, and apples, 
 put up garden seeds, spin and Aveave linen, 
 and are always busy about something that will 
 yield a little. But if you think, as a commu- 
 nity, these wives have many fashionable bon- 
 nets, many silk dresses, many gold watches, 
 or rich furs, a single glance over the assembly, 
 when they are gathered together, will undeceive 
 
202 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 you. Their rule is, when the husband takes 
 a second wife, the first wife shall solemifly 
 give her husband away to the new wife, and 
 so she to the thu-d ; and so on through the list. 
 If you ask if this is done cheerfully^ they will 
 tell you. Yes. I say I don't believe it ! It 
 is not human nature, nor woman's nature, to 
 do so, and all the testimony in the world would 
 not convince me to the contrary. I questioned 
 one of the Apostles on this point, and his 
 reply was, " O, our wives understand this, 
 and do it." 
 
 " Yes ; but suppose the wife don't want to 
 do it — Avhat then?" 
 
 '' O, the man is the glory of the woman, and 
 this glory is not to be tarnished by the notions 
 of the woman." 
 
 Then, when you know what the human heart 
 is, and when you know of the case in point, 
 where the second wife went to get the first 
 wife to join with her to prevent the coming in 
 
MARRYING BY PROXY. 203 
 
 of the third wife, and receiving the answer, 
 " No ! you broke my heart, and I don't care 
 how soon yours is broken," you arc more than 
 certain that the instincts of woman's heart must 
 be eradicated or killed before she can ever sub- 
 mit to a degradation so terrible. 
 
 Add to this, their "marrying by proxy;" 
 i. e., like the baptism described, as a matter 
 of religion, a man marries, and raises up a 
 family of children, not, forsooth, because he 
 wants to, but so as to have this wife and chil- 
 dren passed over to some relative or kinsman 
 in the next world, who was so unfortunate as 
 to have but one wife in this world ; and thus 
 they become his crown of glory ! If you 
 don't call that charity "in the. long run," pray 
 what is it? Abomination, if not charity! 
 
 The fact is, these second, third, and ninth 
 wives are nothing but concubines, and they 
 very well know it. A well-dressed woman, 
 and one who had been highly educated, came 
 
204 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 to me, and introduced herself as "Mrs. Cobb, 
 from Boston ; " and then went on to tell me 
 how she had forsaken her husband and chil- 
 dren, and come away from them, when her 
 eyes became opened to see the spirituality of 
 Mormonism. This shameful tale she called 
 "bearing testimony to a Massachusetts Minis- 
 ter." I afterwards learned that she is one of 
 Brigham Young's wives, or concubines, — not 
 calling herself Mrs. Young, but "Mrs. Cobb." 
 You will want to know how such a fifth or 
 ninth part of a wife looks and acts. I reply, 
 the elder women look sad and worn, as if the 
 path had been and is a weary one, — a path 
 of thorns and disappointments, — and when 
 age creeps on, and they have to reap neglect, 
 — being not now necessary to the husband, 
 even from habit, — solitary and alone, with 
 nothing divine to support or cheer them. The 
 young women look as they are, brazen-faced 
 and stupidly bold — very much as wrong-doers 
 
WANTING IN PURITY. 205 
 
 of their sex appear in every part of the world. 
 As for that purity which William Hcpworth 
 Dixon ascribes to -them, and which they claim, 
 I have only to say, that the Gentiles who dwell 
 there, and know them well, scout at the idea ; 
 and if you want further evidence, go into their 
 market-house, and you will hear language from 
 these young Mormon women, which, for ob- 
 scenity and vileness, can hardly be equalled in 
 the vilest alley in New York. It would take a 
 great amount of rhetoric to make you forget 
 what you may there hear in half an hour. 
 
 As for their plea that this system is in the 
 order of nature, and it would be a blessing 
 to introduce it into Massachusetts, where we 
 have so many more females than males, let 
 me simply say that if the system were not ab- 
 horrent to the Bible and to the best instincts of 
 our nature, the fact that in India, where polyg- 
 amy prevails, and has done so for generations, 
 and in Mormondom, where it prevails, the 
 
206 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 females born are altogether out of all propor- 
 tion to the males, and that, were the system to 
 prevail during a few generations, the disparity 
 of the sexes would be still greater, and the evil 
 sought to be remedied, greatly increased. 
 
 What will be the end' of these thin<rs? Will 
 Mormonism, increased continually by emigra- 
 tion, be perpetual? Or how will it terminate? 
 It is very plain that we cannot, and shall not, 
 persecute a hundred thousand people ; we shall 
 not make war upon their homes. • But as for 
 receiving a community, almost every leading 
 member of whom we should shut up in the 
 penitentiary, if they should come here and 
 do as they do there, into the sisterhood of 
 States — we never shall do that. Mormonism 
 is a blotch on the civilization of this age, a 
 mockery of the affections of the human heart, 
 a caricature of the family relation, and a bur- 
 lesque on the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 
 They are building a railroad to join the Pa- 
 
brigham's assurance. 207 
 
 cific Railroad at Ogclen, forty miles. I hope it 
 Avill be like the hole which the Irishman dug 
 into his cellar — "good to let the darkness out, 
 and the light in." Isolated as they were in 
 their mountain valley, they might have lived 
 longer, had not the iron horse climbed over the 
 mountains and snorted at their door. They 
 can't keep their people there. As for the 
 vauntings of Brigham Young, that he wdll re- 
 sist the United States authority as much and as 
 long as he pleases, he is too shrewd a fellow not 
 to know better. He tried the patience of the 
 country once, when he built and armed forts in 
 the Echo Canon to resist our troops, and when 
 our General actually treated with him, and 
 aofreed that if he would oro home and call off 
 his men, he would not pitch his tents within 
 fifty miles of Salt Lake City ! He tried the 
 patience of our country in resisting the United 
 States courts and their operations, when by his 
 influence he kept a Mormon jury from render- 
 
208 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ing a righteous and legal verdict. The Judge 
 kept them before him and at work on that ver- 
 dict eleven months, and then, from sheer ex- 
 haustion, had to discharge them, and justice 
 had to fall in the streets ! Nor will the country 
 forget that at this very hour, he is setting the 
 authority of the United States at defiance, in 
 creating, by his Legislature, and at his bid- 
 ding, "a Court of Probate," and declaring it 
 " co-ordinate " with the "United States Court." 
 Instead of having the United States Marshal 
 select the grand and traverse juries, as is law, 
 and as is done in other territories, his Mormon 
 court makes the selection and appointment, and 
 thus the United States court plays second fiddle 
 to the Mormon "Probate Court." I don't be- 
 lieve Congress knows that such a game is now 
 being played. 
 
 A little out of the city, up on the edge of the 
 foot-hills, is " Camp Douglas," and there are 
 United States troops, commanded by a most 
 
WILL MORMONISM CONTINUE? 209 
 
 judicious, gentlemanly, as well as brave, Gen- 
 eral. He knows very well that he is there as a 
 little army of observation, a kind of moral 
 power. And he knows, and Young knows also, 
 that after the terrible conflict we have had to 
 establish the supremacy of our government, 
 rebellion will never again be allowed ; and that 
 the first motions of resistance to this govern- 
 ment which Young makes, will recoil and crush 
 him. Time, moving on, creating public opin- 
 ion, will sweep Morrnonism away. While 
 isolated in the deep valley, everywhere shut 
 away by great deserts, a thousand miles from 
 mankind, they could uphold their anomalous 
 community ; but the railroads have brought the 
 world to them, and their mines will be sought 
 and opened, and commerce and business will 
 compete with their attempts to shut them away 
 by high-handed laws. There is no great, bright 
 future for Mormonism. It is like one of those 
 poisonous mushrooms that spring up in the 
 14 
 
210 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 night, which men shim, and which die away, no- 
 body knows or cares how. The instincts of the 
 heart, the experience of the past, the civilization 
 of the present, the spirit of this century, and 
 the plam teachings of the Bible, are all against 
 it. There are not enough unbalanced minds 
 created, who can get together, and long hold 
 together, or make a great community. My own 
 firm impression is, that Brigham Young will 
 shortly have a revelation that polygamy is no 
 longer to be permitted. And the sooner he re- 
 ceives this revelation, the better. My honest 
 belief too, is, that there is not a woman among 
 them who is not conscious of degradation, and 
 who would not exult at deliverance, and who is 
 not a victim of the deepest shame, even though 
 they try to make her believe that her shame- 
 less life is sanctioned by religion, and that her 
 heaven will be glorious in proportion as she 
 ministers to the lust of the other sex here. 
 God has created the world, and put it under 
 
WHAT WILL DESTROY IT? 211 
 
 certain laws, on the obeying or breaking of 
 which, our happiness or misery depends. In 
 Eden, when and where he created man in the 
 fulness of happiness and perfection, he gave man 
 and woman to each other — one husband and 
 one wife. These, with their children, make the 
 family, the home. And whoever, in his wisdom 
 or in his wickedness, tries to be wiser than this, 
 will find that he is wrestling against the eternal 
 laws which God has ordained, and he can never 
 succeed. God will vindicate his own wisdom. 
 Silently and secretly he puts causes in opera- 
 tion which men cannot detect or counteract, and 
 which bring down our Babels, which undermine 
 our strongholds, and which mock our wisdom. 
 I pretend not to say in what manner the power 
 will come, which will make this horrible system 
 of open licentiousness to be a thing of the past ; 
 but that it is on the way, I have no doubt. 
 Outraged decency will demand redress. Open 
 defiance of the piety of the earth and the will 
 
212 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of God will meet a rebuke that will bring it to 
 nought, and this stain upon our name, this 
 plague-spot of Sodom, that makes a great 
 nation blush, will be removed. And may God 
 speed the day. 
 
A RETROSPECT. 213 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE HIGHWAY OF NATIONS, OR THE CONTINEN- 
 TAL RAILROADS. 
 
 Let us go back twenty years. Then the 
 cry of " gold," " gold," on the Pacific, had nmg 
 through the land. Ships were urging their way 
 around Cape Horn, and emigrants were throng- 
 ing their way westward, regardless of comfort, 
 and even of life. Over the burning deserts, over 
 the snowy Nevadas, down into the deep canons 
 they poured. In a single summer the over- 
 land emigration Was estimated at thirty thou- 
 sand people, and with their cattle, computed at 
 one hundred thousand, and their wagons, would 
 have made a continuous train of more than 
 seven hundred miles in length ! It took six 
 months to go from the Missouri to California, 
 
214 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 — a journey of the most intense suffering to 
 men and to animals, from hunger, and still 
 more from thirst. It is estimated that the 
 wagon-freights across the mountains, before the 
 commencement of the railroad, amounted to full 
 thirteen million dollars in a single year. 
 
 If the emigrant was caught out in the winter, 
 it took him five months longer, and with suffer- 
 ings and dangers still increased. 
 
 In ten years after gold was discovered, Cali- 
 fornia gained three times as large a population 
 as the entire nation did the first sixty-eight 
 years after the landing of the Pilgrims on 
 Plymouth Rock. A very great part of this 
 overland route was over the great deserts, 
 where there were no towns to supply wants, 
 no tree to shade the weary, and for hundreds 
 of miles, no water but the intolerable alkali 
 water, for man or for beast. Though, in the 
 midst of these deseits, sharp, flinty, naked 
 rocks, shot up by volcanoes, are seen here and 
 
PRIVATIONS OF EMIGRANTS. 215 
 
 there, yet they only make the landscape the 
 more dreary. As the emigrant crept along, 
 from ten to twenty miles a day, under the 
 burning sun, and in the cloud of alkaline dust 
 which his team made, the scene grew more 
 awful as he went westward. 
 
 One man, who had thus passed, twenty years 
 ago, told us that he walked alone thirty miles 
 for one drink of water; and Dr. Harkness, of 
 Sacramento, told us that he actually walked 
 sixty miles to find a drink of water, and then 
 could get only a spoonful at a time. All along 
 on this alkaline region, often white as chalk, 
 you still see the bones of cattle, forsaken 
 wagons, chains, kettles, and the like, strung 
 along the trail of the emigrant. When these 
 poor wanderers came in sight of Truckee River, 
 the men and women would raise a shout of joy, 
 and the poor cattle would gather up their re- 
 maining strength, and rush into the stream, — 
 maddened and uncontrollable. 
 
216 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 When they reached the pass through which 
 they were to make a path over the Nevada 
 Mountains, and as they came to the broAV of 
 the mountain, till they reached the valleys of 
 the Golden State, they had to let their wagons 
 down the mountain side by ropes coiled around 
 the trees, and thus, step by step, and tree by 
 tree, they let their wagons down; the trees 
 showing to this day the cuts of the ropes 
 through the bark, and often into the wood. 
 
 What with building bridges and rafts to get 
 over the streams, making paths on the inoun- 
 tain side, where no path was, — what with 
 watching against the inroads of the Indians by 
 night, and what with hunger, and thirst, and 
 sickness, and deaths, we need not wonder that 
 it was a formidable thing to emigrate to Cali- 
 fornia. And yet, what a magnet w^as gold to 
 draw them there ! 
 
 In 1846, just twenty-three years ago, when 
 Fremont was making his explorations over 
 
JOHN PLUMBE. 217 
 
 these desolate regions, and was burying his 
 faithful Indian guide, " Truckee," on the banks 
 of the river that now bears his name, and at 
 a spot where the town '* Truckee " now stands, 
 there was a Welshman at Dubuque, Iowa, by 
 the name of John Plumbe (educated in our 
 country) , who began to talk and write about a 
 railroad from the Great Lakes, across the con- 
 tinent, to Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. He 
 was an engineer by profession. When he first 
 broached the subject, there was scarcely any 
 railroad, and only a very thin population, 
 west of Ohio. Chicago was a little, ifnknown 
 village in the centre of a vast, unoccupied 
 prairie. No railroad had been made between 
 the Atlantic and the great basin of the inte- 
 rior. A few trappers and hordes of Indians 
 seemed to claim all west of the Mississippi. 
 West of the population, lay an unknown land 
 of two thousand three hundred miles, over 
 which the dream-railroad of Plumbe was to 
 
218 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 traverse ; unsealed mountains, awful deserts, 
 and wide rivers lay between the basin of the 
 Mississippi and the Pacific. Yet never, till 
 the day of his death, did Plumbe relinquish 
 his favorite plan, and he actually lived to see 
 his dream being wrought into reality. Asa 
 Whitney was the next earnest and great toiler 
 to start the enterprise, and did more than any 
 other man to make the nation think whether 
 the thing were possible. 
 
 When our friends in California came to un- 
 derstand that they were to stay there, find 
 their homes there, build up a great city and 
 State there ; that they were five thousand miles 
 from the East, and it took nearly a month to 
 get to or from New York, and forty cents to 
 get a letter; and that they were, in case of a 
 foreign war, peculiarly exposed, — they began 
 to move in the matter of testing the practi- 
 cability of a railroad across the continent. 
 When it was brought before Congress, in 
 
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 219 
 
 whatever shape it came, the South were a unit 
 against it. They had already laid their plans 
 to divide the country into three parts, the 
 North, the South, and the West. In that 
 case, California, with its virgin soil and trop-\-/ 
 ical climate, would fall to them ; but if a rail- 
 road were built, it would most naturally con- 
 nect the Pacific with the arena of freedom. 
 Hence, it was not till the young State had 
 grown up into manhood, and not till we were 
 actually involved in the late war, that our 
 government felt the importance of having a 
 railroad connecting the West with the rest of 
 the continent, so that, in case of a new war, 
 we could get to them. The war seems to 
 have been the weight that turned the scale. 
 Hence it was, that though the ground had 
 been thoroughly surveyed in 1853 and 1854, 
 the government had not felt ready to take 
 hold of it. Congress had, however, appropri- 
 ated two hundred and forty thousand dollars 
 
220 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 for surveys, and six surveying parties were 
 sent out in 1853, and three more in 1854, 
 composed almost entirely of men belonging 
 to the corps of topographical engineers, among 
 whom was General George B. McClellan. 
 These parties surveyed ten diflferent routes, be- 
 ginning at Fulton, Arkansas, up to Minnesota 
 on the east, and from San Diego to Puget 
 Sound, Washington Territory, on the west. 
 These surveys were carefully and elaborately 
 reported and published in thirteen quite thick 
 quarto volumes, and very beautifully illustrat- 
 ed by drawings. Let us now briefly follow 
 the middle route, or the one finally adopted. 
 The surveying party, which we will now join 
 in imagination, start at Omaha, on the Mis- 
 souri River, nine hundred and eight feet 
 above tide-water, passing through the valley 
 of the Platte River, crossing it once, till they 
 reach the highest summit of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, Sherman, eight thousand four hundred 
 
ECHO CANON. 221 
 
 and twenty-four tibove the ocean. This is 
 the highest point in all the survey ; but the 
 rise has been so gradual, that you can't 
 realize that you are on the summit of the 
 Continent. 
 
 You now pass over what is mostly a desert 
 plateau, four hundred and twenty-one miles, to 
 Echo Canon, from five thousand to seven thou- 
 sand five hundred feet elevation. You begin to 
 understand what a desert means. It is a pla- 
 teau, once the bottom of an ocean, heaved up 
 by volcanic agency, while here and there in it, is 
 a sharp thrusting up of rocks in ridges, looking 
 as if they belonged to some world, worn out, 
 and left. Passing through that Avonderful place. 
 Echo Canon, on each side of which the moun- 
 tains rise to a grand and even awful height, 
 bare, crumbling, decaying, now composed of 
 pudding-stone, filled with holes like a honey- 
 comb, now blushing red with red sandstone, 
 here and there rocks left standing, looking like 
 
222 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 forts, or towers, or churches, or men and wo- 
 men turned into stone and standmg in groups, 
 and now a curious place, rocks perhaps five feet 
 thick, thrust up, thirty feet high, twenty apart, 
 and extending parallel up the mountain eight 
 hundred feet. This is called the "Devil's 
 Slide." And then you come to a place where 
 the River Weber rushes out of the canon at a 
 spot wh^re the mountains close up together, 
 giving space that must be enlarged by tunnels 
 and a bridge to let the railroad out and over 
 the fierce, maddened Weber River. This is 
 called the "Devil's Gate." You now enter 
 another plateau, about five hundred milea in 
 extent, but ribbed with naked mountains, rising 
 from five thousand to seven thousand feet. 
 This second and last plateau brings you to the 
 Sierra Nevada Mountains. Where you cross 
 over this lofty ridge, at the pass, near Donner 
 Lake, is seven thousand and sixty -two feet 
 above the sea. You must now descend two 
 
THE SURVEY COMPLETED. 223 
 
 thousand five hundred and seventeen feet in the 
 next fifty miles. In the next ninety-eight miles 
 you must descend six thousand nine hundred 
 and sixty-six feet more. You are now over and 
 in the valley of the Sacramento. This was the 
 path marked out, when, in 1862, Congress 
 passed the Pacific Railroad Bill, to connect the 
 Atlantic and the Pacific. 
 
 At that time, the ^ve hundred miles from 
 Chicago to Omaha had to be built by private 
 enterprise, in order to connect the two systems, 
 this ^ve hundred miles being not before con- 
 structed. 
 
 Having " surveyed " the route, let us now 
 build the two roads, the one commencing at the 
 Missouri and the other at Sacramento. We will 
 begin at our end. You notice a great number 
 of huge cast-iron tubes lying on the banks of 
 the river. Those are to be used in constructing 
 the great bridge, not yet built. Those hollow 
 tubes are seventy feet long and eight feet in 
 
224 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 diameter. They are to stand, one below low- 
 water mark, and the other above it, most firmly 
 riveted together. This will give each tube one 
 hundred and forty feet in length. They are to 
 be placed, eighteen in number, and weighing 
 two thousand five hundred tons, upright, and 
 then all the water is to be pumped out, and 
 then each filled with solid masonry. The ex- 
 pense will be two million dollars, and it may 
 take them two years yet to complete it. And 
 now, under the iron energy and indomitable will 
 of our own townsman, Thomas C. Durant, the 
 men, the materials, the teams, the tools, the 
 ties, and the rails, begin to accumulate at 
 Omaha. Eighteen thousand men and six thou- 
 sand teams are ready. At first, everything, even 
 their locomotives, have to be brought from one 
 to two hundred miles on wagons, the railroad 
 from Chicago not being built. Every mile re- 
 quires six hundred tons of rail. The ties are 
 laid quite near to each other, being two thou- 
 
BUILDING THE ROAD. 225 
 
 sand six hundred and fifty ties to a mile, while 
 our roads in this part of the country average 
 but one thousand seven hundred to the mile. 
 There is no timber, not even a tree, on the 
 route, and the ties must be collected from six 
 different States and two Territories. Every rail 
 is riveted on both sides with the next, with 
 wrought iron plates. For the first five or six 
 hundred miles, the road is so straight, that as 
 you look back or forward between the tele- 
 grap"h poles, it seems as if you were looking 
 between tw^o streets. 
 
 More than fifty temporary bridges have to be 
 built, while the permanent ones are being care- 
 fully and strongly made, at Chicago. One of 
 these bridges, the North Platte, two hundred 
 and eighty-two miles west of Omaha, is to be 
 of iron, three thousand feet loAg, estimated at 
 a cost of one million dollars. 
 
 And now we come to the rough, strange 
 camp life of the workmen. Cars containing 
 15 
 
226 THE SUNSET LAND, 
 
 provisions, cooking apparatus, and beds for 
 these eighteen thousand men, supply their 
 wants. Tents, like those of an army, also ac- 
 company the working multitude. The greater 
 part of the workmen have been soldiers in the 
 war, and are accustomed to habits of obedience 
 and camp life. Nine out of ten of all the work- 
 men had been in the army. They had learned 
 to love out-of-door life, and were initiated to 
 hardships. They knew how to burrow their 
 temporary houses in the most sheltered spots. 
 They laid down the sleepers, having first graded 
 the ground fifty miles' ahead, spike down the 
 rails, rivet them, and press on from two to four 
 miles a day. The whole thing must be so man- 
 aged that there shall be no waiting for timber, 
 ties, or rails. When all ready, four rails were 
 drawn from the cars, and laid in their places in 
 a minute. Ten spikes to a rail, and three 
 blows upon the spike, and four hundred rails 
 to the mile, and twenty-one million of times 
 
BUILDING THE ROAD. 227 
 
 must these ponderous hammers fall upon the 
 spike heads, before the road is done ! 
 
 So they gradually rise up, ninety-two feet 
 to the mile, from Cheyenne to the summit of 
 the Rocky Mountains, when they chisel a path 
 through, and press onward. Men from all 
 countries and nations are among the workmen. 
 They are beyond laws and magistrates, civil 
 officers, and restraints of civilized society. 
 Worse than all, the gamblers, the cutthroats, 
 the convicts escaped from prisons, the vilest 
 and the most atrocious men and women, con- 
 gregate where are fifteen or eighteen thousand 
 men, each receiving four dollars a day. 
 
 When a point is taken for a new terminus, 
 say fifty or eighty miles ojff, these rascals rush 
 there, lay out the tent city, open their grog- 
 shops, filled with the vilest stuff" that ever 
 entered a man's throat, open their gambling- 
 houses, their theatres, and their hell-houses, 
 filled with shameless women ; and they now 
 
228 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 proceed to organize a city government, elect 
 their own men to the office of Marshal and the 
 like, and by the time the workmen get there, 
 they have everything their own way. They 
 would rob and garrote a man for ten dollars. 
 The consequence was, that violence and lawless- 
 ness had to be met with their own' weapons. 
 Every man was expected to carry at least one 
 revolver.. The workmen had, in self-defence, 
 to form Vigilance Committees, and make and 
 execute law. They would spot these villains, 
 and when any one's cup was full, would send an 
 armed band into the gambling or drinking sa- 
 loon, march him quietly out, impanel a jury, try 
 him, give him an hour or two to prepare for 
 death, and before morning light he was hanged. 
 As many as twelve have been found thus sus- 
 pended in a single camp, in a single night. At 
 the Idaho mines, one hundred and twenty of 
 these cutthroats were thus hanged in three 
 months. At two places, at which our train 
 
VIGILANCE COMMITTEES. 229 
 
 stopped, oil two successive nights, a man was 
 murdered at each place, and was buried before 
 breakfast in the morning, without judge or jury. 
 It would be impossible to say how many murders 
 were committed, or how many the Vigilance 
 Committee avenged. Probably they hanged 
 very few who were not murderers. The rope 
 was the only thing the villains feared. When 
 an inquiry was made about any one so disposed 
 of, they would say, " I understood he broke his 
 neck in climbing a tree." 
 
 A curious feature, unprecedented in railroad 
 making, was, that the Printing press accompa- 
 nied the working trains, and three daily papers 
 were constantly issued ! These temporary cities, 
 built of cloth, or, at best, a few boards and a 
 cloth roof, would have drug-shops, whiskey- 
 saloons, and all manner of goods ; the occupants 
 paying from fifteen hundred to two thousand 
 dollars to the railroad company for ground 
 enough to place his tent on. As the road 
 
230 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 moved on, these cities would pull up and move 
 on, and be abandoned. You now see only 
 empty tin cans where they stood. In one of 
 these, lands to the amount of thirty thousand 
 dollars were sold, where not an inhabitant now 
 remains. 
 
 In the first of these plateaus through which 
 we pass, is a low kind of mountain, that looks 
 like a huge rhinoceros, which had lain down 
 to die, and which had died and shrivelled up, 
 till his skin settled down upon him, bare, rough, 
 and full of wrinkles. Strange as it may seem, 
 in this treeless, herbless, dreary place, these 
 hills are full of bituminous coal, soft, of fair 
 quality, and good for the locomotive. It is so 
 near, that it can almost be shovelled into the 
 cars, as they stop before the mines. They have 
 been dug only to draw from the top, where the 
 air has had access to it; but when they come 
 to get down deeper, the coal will doubtless be 
 of a better quality. I mention this coal, be- 
 
BUILDING THE ROAD. 231 
 
 cause without this, I do not sec how the roiid 
 could ever have been built, or kept running 
 when built. So destitute of wood is the whole 
 route, that in going from Omaha, the builders 
 passed one thousand miles before they came to 
 a tree I That stands marked — " The Thousand 
 Mile Tree!" 
 
 So they build, pushing on, summer and win- 
 ter, with an energy never equalled. I have 
 often heard it said, the ties are nothing but 
 cotton- wood, which is a species of poplar. 
 This is true only to a limited extent, till they 
 could get oak ties ; and even the cotton-wood 
 was carefully Burnetized, as it is called, which 
 makes them as durable as any other wood used, 
 — as they claim. The rest are oak, or a species 
 of fir, very nmch like our larch, or tamarack. 
 Where it was built in the summer, it will com- 
 pare well with any other road ; and where it 
 was built in the winter, it is being rapidly made 
 good. I was surprised to find it as good as it 
 
232 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 is. For three hundred miles west of Omaha 
 the cars run at the rate of thirty-four miles to 
 the hour, and fifty-five an hour have been run, 
 which no engineer would dare do on a poor 
 road. 
 
 I may mention, in passing, that Brigham 
 Young, in order to keep his people secluded 
 from the world, took a large contract to build, 
 each way in front of his people, and thus for a 
 time effected his object. Another strong rea- 
 son probably was, it was the first good oppor- 
 tunity he had had of drawing money into his 
 settlement, i. e., into his own hands; for he 
 received very much of it in pay for their em- 
 igration, as one of his confidential friends 
 told me. - 
 
 Let us now build at the other end, begin- 
 ning at Sacramento, under the supervision of 
 Charles Crocker, a second Durant, and appro- 
 priately called a railroad King. On the anni- 
 versary of the battle of New Orleans under 
 
BUILDING THE ROAD. 233 
 
 General Jackson, eighteen months earlier than 
 we commenced at Omaha, gi'ound was broken at 
 Sacramento, and Governor Stanford, amid nods 
 and smiles of incredulity, shovelled the first 
 dirt from a wagon into a mud-puddle, where 
 the road was to commence. This was in 1863. 
 And now the same unconquerable energy was 
 needed, for the difficulties in the way seemed 
 insuperable. Eight thousand Chinamen — and 
 better workmen could not have been found — 
 were put to work. Among all these there were 
 no murders, no vigilance committees needed, no 
 riots, no whiskey-shops, and no drunkenness. 
 These children of heathenism put our race and 
 religion to the blush. Besides these the com- 
 pany often had five thousand men at work else- 
 where. 
 
 The work was to be done on hills and moun- 
 tains, Some of which were so soft and sliding 
 that they were almost impassable in the rainy 
 season, and some were rocks so hard that it 
 
234 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 seemed impossible to drill them. The rails 
 aud most of the materials had to be shipped at 
 New York, and carried nineteen thousand miles 
 around Cape Horn. It was all a very high 
 grade, some of it as high as one hundred and 
 sixteen feet to the mile. Here, too, we ought 
 to say, the road could never have been built 
 without the Chinamen. 
 
 At one time thirty-one vessels were urging 
 their way round Cape Horn, laden with iron, 
 locomotives, and materials for this road. On 
 the Sierra Nevadas w^ere twenty-five saw-mills, 
 yielding six hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 feet of lumber daily, supplied by the axes of a 
 thousand men, as they rang up over places 
 w^here the axe had never been heard before. 
 More than one hundred miles of ties were 
 always in advance. The almost inaccessible 
 mountains poured down timber and stone with- 
 out measure. The two roads handled and laid 
 down about seven hundred tons of iron daily. 
 
BUILDING THE ROAD. 235 
 
 during the six clays in the week, and once, on 
 a strife, one road actually laid over ten miles 
 of rail in one day, and the other one eleven 
 miles, — together making a distance farther 
 than an emigrant team could travel in a day I 
 The whole State was moved and straitened 
 to gather all the supplies needed. Up, up 
 crd^)t the road. They meet a mountain which 
 they can neither climb nor bore. So around 
 it and up it the road winds, till it gets high 
 enough to move off on the ridge of another 
 mountain ; and as you wind around this new 
 Cape Horn, you look down fifteen hundred 
 feet, and yet see the peak still five hundred feet 
 above you, and feel that you ought not to be 
 safe. Over deep gulches (a California word), 
 by high and giddy trestled work, the founda- 
 tions most carefully laid against the rush of 
 waters, and often the waters turned off and 
 away from the abutments, — the road goes. 
 They come to solid mountains, and they blast 
 
236 THE SUNttET LAND. 
 
 tlicm away, so that the locomotive can cling to 
 their sides, or they push a tnnnel through them. 
 There are fifteen of these tunnels, and, united, 
 would amount to six thousand two hundred and 
 sixty-two feet, or more than ten times the tun- 
 nelling between Boston and Albany. Down the 
 sides of the Cape Horn Mountain rushes the 
 American River, looking like a mere brooktet, 
 w^hile all around the mountains rise, till they 
 terminate in perpetual snows. 
 
 Nestled in, under the eye of everlasting 
 snows, lies the little " Summit Yalley," a mile 
 long and half a mile wide, — as if a child of 
 sunshine had crept up to see how it would 
 seem to summer among the desolations of bro- 
 ken rocks, and volcanic mountains, and eternal 
 snows. 
 
 At an altitude over seven thousand feet, far 
 higher than Mount Washington, in New Hamp- 
 shire, and twice or three times higher than any 
 otlier railroad in this country, is the long tun- 
 
ON THE MOUNTAINS. 237 
 
 iiel, bored through rock as hard as porphyry, 
 and then the road cUngs to the mountain-side 
 in a place that had to be blasted out — not by 
 gunpowder, — for that had lost power, — but by 
 glycerine. Just at the dusk of evening, when 
 life would be least exposed, you might have 
 looked up a thousand feet above Donner Lake, 
 and seen the workmen fire their glycerine 
 blasts, when huge masses of rock and a world 
 of powdered debris poured out of the mountain- 
 side like the explosions of a score of thunder- 
 claps, as all this came thundering down, and 
 rolling down the deep declivities, while the 
 echoes rolled and reechoed from canon to canon, 
 till they were lost upon the distant mountain- 
 tops. 
 
 No finer, more sublime scenery can be found 
 than that seen from the different pomts of this 
 Central Pacific Railroad. Huge battlements 
 were laid, deep gorges spanned, mountains 
 climbed and bored, till the home of eternal win- 
 
238 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ter was invaded. The sixteen tunnels tell the 
 story of the rocks. And here, where the ava-* 
 lanche slides and thunders, are the sheds, 
 strong, and inviting for him to slide over. And 
 where the snow falls from twenty to forty 
 feet deep, are sheds supported by mighty 
 timbers, the full round trees used, and these 
 sheds already nearly forty miles in length — 
 the grandest specimens of timber-strength I 
 ever saw. 
 
 And now we have climbed the Nevadas, 
 and again come to the everlasting deserts. 
 "We have met with one covered with alkali, 
 white as snow, and forty miles wide. I have 
 studied not a little to ascertain to what use 
 these vast beds of alkali can ever be put ; can 
 they, should it be possible to sink artesian 
 wells through the alkali and bring up pure 
 water, ever be washed free from the salts, and 
 made fruitful ? How deep is the deposit ? 
 The Mormons inform me that in such alkaline 
 
ALKALI DESERTS. 239 
 
 deposits, the deeper they go, the stronger the 
 salts, and that they cannot be made fruitful 
 by irrigation. Of what possible use can they 
 ever be, then, to the human family? Can the}^ 
 be used for manure to enrich other portions 
 of our country? My friend and travelling 
 companion * brought some of it home, and 
 put it into the hands of a skilful expert 
 to find if it would make soap, and if so, what 
 would be its worth here. The result is not 
 so favorable as I supposod possible, inas- 
 much as there are other insrrcdients mixed with 
 the soda. Still, I am not quite sure that 
 those vast repositories of alkaline matter will 
 not hereafter become an article of commerce. 
 May it not yet be, that, as the cars pass up the 
 valley of the Truckee, the traveller will look 
 out and see a huge, broad building, occu^Died 
 by some Yankee, with a glaring sign, "The 
 Desert Universal Soap Factory?" 
 
 ♦ Thaddeus Clapp and lady, of Pittsfield. 
 
240 THE sunsp:t land. 
 
 As to which railroad deserves the more 
 credit, it is not easy to say. They are both 
 the products of great skill, energy, and labor. 
 
 The Pacific is the more thoroughly built, the 
 Union is by far the longer, and began much 
 later. They are built in a time for shortness 
 unparalleled in the history of railroads. They 
 are monuments of wonderful achievement, even 
 in the nineteenth century. But they are done, 
 and we will now attend a wonderful wedding 
 on the great plateau of the mountains. 
 
 It is Monday morning. We are in the first 
 cars that ever crossed the continent of Amer- 
 ica ! We have crossed over fifty temporary 
 bridges, one of which had just broken down. 
 It was over a swift, rushing river, with a fall 
 of sixty-five feet just below the bridge. It 
 had been mended, and we reached it in the 
 darkness of night. They yere afraid to let 
 the engine rest on it, and so they back us up 
 to the bridge, and very carefully unfasten the 
 
PROMONTORY tOINT. 241 
 
 coupling, and let our cars, one by one, run 
 over. We are in the big, heavy car, and we 
 stand on the platform, see the foaming waters, 
 fifty feet below us, and hear their savage 
 roar, and we hold our breath, till we are 
 over. 
 
 But now we are on a plateau, surrounded 
 by dreary mountains. That bold headland 
 yonder is the object at which thousands of 
 men, on both roads, have been looking for six 
 years. It is " Promontory Point," on the very 
 back-bone of the continent. Engines and trains 
 from the East, and engiijes and trains from 
 the West, some covered with flags, stand 
 facing each other. A rod or two between 
 them has, as yet, no ties and no rails. 
 
 One man. West Evans, who had furnished 
 the Central company with two hundred and 
 fifty thousand ties, and who had furnished thQ 
 first tie put down, was there with the last, a 
 beautiful specimen of the California laurel, which 
 16 
 
242 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 was duly laid down, and then taken up and 
 preserved. The ties of the Central road 
 were all sawed, of red wood ; those of the 
 Union were hewed. 
 
 I At the appointed time, the Master Spirits of* 
 the two roads meet. White workmen from the 
 East and olive Chinamen from the West meet, 
 bearing the last sleepers and the last rails. ■ A 
 few boards, set up like a roof, is the telegraph 
 office. A few tents, bearing the sign of " Sa- 
 loon," or " Restaurant," compose tlie place. A 
 rough flag-staff, with our dear old flag on it, 
 tells us we are yet in our country, and the 
 glorious flag is a witness of the scene. A 
 regiment of soldiers, on their way to Alaska, 
 are present to see the occasion. Telegraph 
 arrangements have been made, so that every 
 telegi-aph in the land shall be connected. A 
 skilful officer has been detailed by the Gov- 
 ernment to carry the wire down to the " Gold- 
 en Gate," below San Francisco, and attach it 
 
THE MOUNTAIN WEDDING. 243 
 
 to a fifteen-inch Parrott gun, to see if a gun 
 can be fired eight hundred miles off. At the 
 appointed hour, the last tie is laid ; and now, 
 before the rails are laid, the telegraph flashes 
 through the country, "Are you all ready?" 
 Back, from scores of cities comes the echo, 
 "All ready." Again the telegraph says, "At 
 the third tap " it will be done. " We under- 
 stand," say the wires. In Washington, Cin- 
 cinnati, Chicago, all the western cities, in New 
 York, Boston, even in Halifiix, in all the 
 Pacific cities, people stand grouped and breath- 
 less around the telegraph ofllces. " We are 
 now going to attend prayers — hats off," say 
 the wires, and in all these places they take 
 off hats and listen to the prayer as it leaps 
 over the wires, sentence by sentence, to places 
 four thousand miles apart. The officer at the 
 fort at the Golden Gate can hardly retain his seat 
 for excitement. What a place in which to pray ! 
 Was prayer ever -offered there before ? Was 
 
244 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 ever prayer heard by mortal ears four thousand 
 miles away, before? The occasion would have 
 been overwhelming, had we not felt that God, 
 who had lifted up this continent, and had placed 
 us on the summit, and who had given to man 
 his skill, — God, God alone is great ! The 
 Governors of four States or Territories, with 
 their gold and silver sj^ikes, are there — each 
 golden one having nearly four hundred dol- 
 lars in it. And now the last rail is laid and 
 spiked. A telegraph wire is coiled around a 
 silver hammer, and the President of the Cen- 
 tral Pacific just taps the head of the golden 
 spike ! That tap j)roclaimed to the country, 
 and through Europe, that the work is done ! 
 The railroads are wedded into one ! That gen- 
 tle tap fired the big gun which the officer was 
 watching at the Fort, and instantly set all the 
 bells in the land a ringing, and announced 
 that the greatest work ever attempted in rail- 
 roads was a success ! In three minutes the 
 
MOUNTAIN WEDDING RING. 245 
 
 telegrams came back from all the cities — 
 " The bells are ringing, and the people rejoi- 
 cing." The whole thing seemed a wild dream. 
 The telegraphing seemed to be magic, and 
 we could hardly realize that creatures so small 
 and feeble as men, had accomplished a work 
 so great. It made all other works of the 
 kind seem small and insignificant. This was 
 May 10, 1869. The little ring on my fin- 
 ger, bearing the significant words, " The 
 Mountain Wedding, May 10, 1869," and 
 presented me in commemoration of the occa- 
 sion, was made, as I know certainly, from a 
 piece of one of the golden spikes.* And thus 
 the marriage was consummated, under the 
 bright sun, in the desert place, and under 
 the eye of Promontory Point — hereafter to 
 become historical. 
 
 Perhaps there were three thousand men, 
 including workmen, present, besides a sprin- 
 
 * Presented by David Hewes, Esq., of San Francisco. 
 
246 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 kling of ladies ; but in reality, the millions of 
 our country were present. I understand there 
 is to be an historical painting of the scene. 
 
 If you ask how I came to be there, and be 
 a participator on the occasion, I can only 
 say, that as it was without my expectation or 
 seeking, I do not feel especially to blame ; 
 and as for my participating, you know that 
 when men cannot get better materials, they 
 have to use such as they can obtain. 
 
 Allow me, now, to attempt to* convey to 
 you my own impressions as to the results of 
 this great work — premising, that I consider 
 railroading but just in its infancy, and that 
 we have no conception of what the system 
 is to become. I do not look at it merely 
 as a new and short pathway by which we 
 may visit that wonderful land, California — 
 as a means of bringing us fruits that have 
 ripened under their rich sunlight — and as an 
 advance in the progress of civilization ; but 
 
TWO MINDS IN ADVANCE. 247 
 
 as giving all the institutions of the east 
 power to kiss the young sister at the West, p^ 
 and breathe our love upon her, as she *' sits, 
 the highway of nations." 
 
 There were two minds that saw this result 
 many years ago ; I mean the Rev. Theron 
 Baldwin, of New York, who has planted and 
 matured, as the exponent of the College Soci- 
 ety, more Colleges and permanent Literary Insti- 
 tutions, than any other ten men that ever lived. 
 More than ten years ago he saw this railroad, and 
 called it "the highway of nations." He looked 
 over these vast heights, and began to dig Jacob's 
 wells on the Pacific, not waiting for the road 
 to be built. The other was Thomas H. Ben- 
 ton, who, twenty years ago, urged this work 
 upon his country with an eloquence worthy 
 of the man. I wish I had time and space 
 to quote his own beautiful language. 
 
 This remarkable speech of Mr. Benton was 
 made at the first National Convention in be- 
 
248 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 half of a railroad to the Pacific, held at St. 
 Louis, October, 1849. 
 
 The Hon. Thomas Allen, of Pittsfield, 
 wrote the call for this Convention, addressed 
 to the people of the United States ; also the 
 address of the Convention to the Nation ; also 
 the Memorial to Congress. He started the 
 first Pacific Railroad ever actually commenced, 
 now running from St. Louis to ' Sheridan, six 
 hundred and ninety-five miles, — was its Presi- 
 dent over three years, — took the first locomo- 
 tive (" Pacific No. 3 ") from Taunton, Massa- 
 chusetts, that ever crossed the Mississippi : he 
 also wrote the Memorial to Congress, urging 
 them to grant lands and loan bonds. The 
 plan thus suggested was adopted, and is 'the 
 basis of the Pacific Eailroads. 
 
 Thus two Pittsfield men, Allen and Du- 
 rant, have been very prominent in these great 
 works. Can any other town claim like or 
 equal honors? 
 
BENTON'S VISION. 249 
 
 Benton pleads that the nation shall build the 
 railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific. He 
 seems to stand higher than any one of his fel- 
 lows. He looks back three hundred and fifty 
 years, and sees the great Columbus, sent out 
 by a King and Queen, searching for the East by 
 sailing west. He sees him checked by a conti- 
 nent which he had discovered, and from which 
 he was afterwards carried home in chains. But 
 the great thought — " find the east by going 
 west" — has never died. The Franklins, the 
 Kanes, and the other navigators w^hb have 
 perished in the attempt to solve the problem, 
 have kept the thought active. It has been 
 reserved for our day and this Republic to com- 
 plete the great design of Columbus, by making 
 a highway over a continent, turning the ship 
 into a steam-car, and eveiy day launching the 
 true ship of the desert westward, every way 
 larger, more costly, and freighted with more 
 mind, than Cook's ship ever had, though she 
 
250 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 sailed round the globe. This car-ship starts 
 from Boston, joins hands at New York, looks in 
 at the half-way house at Omaha, and passes on. 
 And Benton in his vision saw all this, and on 
 the heights of the Kooky Mountains, he seemed 
 to see a Statue of Columbus, chiselled from the 
 everlasting rock, with his face looking west- 
 ward, and his arm outstretched, saying to every 
 passing car, '' There is the East ! there is In- 
 dia ! " On these sublime heights the traveller 
 sees a great, awful Rock, lofty and square, like 
 a great fort. Who knows but, coming in sight 
 of that Rock, now called "Watch Rock," the 
 eye of the traveller may yet moisten as he sees 
 such a Statue of the Great Navigator, with a 
 scroll in one hand and the other pointing 
 towards the setting sun, and saying, " Eureka I 
 I have found my passage to the East ! " 
 
 One of the immediate results, I have no 
 doubt, of the successful termination of this 
 great enterprise will be the construction of 
 
RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED. 251 
 
 three more such roads — the Southern, from 
 San Diego to Fulton, in Arkansas, and thus to 
 New Orleans; the second, from St. Louis to 
 San Francisco ; and the Northern, from the 
 northern lakes to Puget Sound, or to Oregon. 
 The country will never rest till all this is done. 
 In thinking of what has been done, you must 
 bear in mind that this whole thing has been 
 against nature. It is easy to build' railroads i-- 
 north and south, for so run the rivers and the 
 valleys. But go from Boston to Albany, east 
 and west, and how is it ? We had to cross the 
 continent, where mountains and deserts had 
 risen up to the snow regions, as if forever to 
 keep the two oceans apart. Skjjl hath laid his 
 iron hand on the mane of the everlasting moun- 
 tains, and, grinding flinty rocks to powder be- ^ 
 neath his heel, hath leaped over the barriers of 
 nature. Is it possible that the Prophet caught 
 a glimpse of the iron horse, thousands of years 
 ago, when he says, "The chariots shall be with 
 
252 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 flaming torches in the day of his preparation, 
 and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The 
 chariots shall rage in the streets ; they shall 
 jostle one against another in the broad ways ; 
 they shall seem like torches ; they shall run 
 like the lightnings"? 
 
 There is another text also, quoted by the 
 Rev. Dr. Dwinell, of Sacramento, in his most 
 beautiful sermon on the completion of this rail- 
 road, most expressive of the thought I now 
 wish to convey. "Prepare ye the way of the 
 Lord, make straight in the desert a highway 
 for our God. Every valley shall* be exalted, 
 and every mountain and hill shall be made low, 
 and the crooked shall be made straight, and the 
 rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord 
 shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together, for the mouth of the Lord hath 
 spoken it." * 
 
 ♦ I have not hesitated to use some of my brother's beau- 
 tiful thoughts as they lie in my memory, having lost the 
 
RESULTS. 253 
 
 Had a company of angels been sent to fling 
 that great highway across the continent ; had 
 they put down the stakes where cities and vil- 
 lages should spring up, and be strung along 
 like pearls on a dark string ; had they been the 
 Directors, and laid the plans to make it a high- 
 way for our God, — I cannot see that it would 
 have evinced a higher end than that we now see. 
 Did it not seem like God's coming to take 
 possession of it, when he so ordered it that a 
 Minister of the Gospel should be on the ground 
 to consecrate it to his glory, ere the last spike 
 should be driven? that this minister should be 
 in the first car that ever passed the continent, 
 and preach the first sermon in the Golden 
 State, on arriving there, of any one ever thus 
 to arrive? that he should find at Sacramento 
 nine Christian people, most of them mission- 
 sermon. But the beauty, I fear, I have lost. It is an ex- 
 quisite specimen of occasional sermonizing. I really do not 
 know how much or little I am indebted to Dr. D. 
 
254 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 aries from the Sandwich Islands, waiting to 
 take the first cars that would come the other 
 way? When I look at the barrels, the boxes, 
 and the passenger-cars on this road, I look at 
 them with a Christian's faith, and see them as 
 so many instrumentalities to carry out my 
 Father's plans. I see that by this pathway 
 hearts that have been long separated, faces that 
 are to be washed with tears of joy, homes that 
 have been broken up, are again to meet and be 
 reunited. The cold iron is to be kept warm by 
 the bounding hearts that are flying over it to 
 meet kindred hearts. It was the last link 
 needed to belt the globe. You leave New 
 York by steam to Liverpool ; by steam on land 
 you spin through France ; by steam you go 
 from France, on the water, to Alexandria; 
 from Alexandria, on rail, steam takes you to 
 Suez ; from Suez to China or Japan, on water, 
 by steam; from China to San Francisco by 
 steam ; and now again the last link is supplied ; 
 
POWER OF THIS RAILROAD. 255 
 
 over land by rail, to New York, about one sixth 
 of the whole distance by this new channel. 
 Now the couriers of civilization can go round 
 the earth in three months. And this earth-born 
 Daughter of Strength wends her way, as we V" 
 should expect, among and through the highest, 
 most civilized nations of the earth. There is 
 England, a hive of industry on a little earth- 
 spot in the ocean, made brilliant by a galaxy of 
 talent, planting her colonies all over the earth, t/ 
 aggressive, massive, the true successor of the 
 Roman power. There is France, with her ar- 
 tistic civilization, the creator and umpire of 
 taste, the queen of fashion, and the wonder in 
 the workmanship of what is beautiful. There 
 is Egypt, a land that ever has been, and ever 
 will be, a puzzle. There is China, with its im- , ,. 
 movable, half-civilization, abiding her time ; 
 and old India, waiting for the British people 
 to do for her what she cannot do for herself; 
 and here is the New World, working out for the 
 
256 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 human race the great problem of human gov- 
 ernments, individual freedom, the highest civil- 
 ization, and the problem of human responsibili- 
 ties, and aspirations, and achievements, — this 
 New World, having been the last nation to take 
 the torch of freedom directly from the hand of 
 God, and in the best possible position, to hold 
 ^ it up in the presence of earth ; and here is the 
 Church of God, sublimated and set free from the 
 materialism of past ages, and leaning on the 
 
 \^ breast of her Beloved as no church ever did 
 before ! Why, it seem^ as if around this great 
 "highway of nations," God had gathered the 
 wealth, the population, the intelligence, the 
 civilization, and the religion of the earth ; and 
 
 V here are to run the shuttles that shall weave the 
 garments of peace and good-will, which all 
 nations shall soon put on. Here, on this path- 
 way, are to be found the elasticity of the temper- 
 ate zone, the institutions of learnins: which are 
 to be the school-house of the nations, and also 
 
GREAT RESULTS TO ENSUE. 257 
 
 the pure Christianity which is to be the leaven 
 that is to leaven the whole lump. Whatever of 
 education, learning, intelligence, virtue, pro- 
 gressive thought, human freedom, power to 
 plan and power to do, which earth possesses, 
 is on this line of quick communication. 
 
 'And can you see nothing but freight and 
 cars, and the smoke of the locomotive? Hu- 
 manity now revolves around this great axis 
 created by man, and it is to be the centre for 
 the re-construction of humanity. It will be the 
 highway of commerce and of learning, of broth- 
 erly kindness, of the messengers of peace, and 
 of the Gospel of Christ. It is not an evidence 
 of decay, but of new life, — this mingling of 
 blood ; and when I see this great link supplied, 
 letting in our east, and bringing the old east — 
 China and the like — to be their west, I can see 
 a future for the Atlantic slope, for the Inland 
 mighty valley, and for the Pacific slope, such 
 as I never saw before. | 
 17 
 
258 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 California, cradled in excitement, and now 
 giving promise of a rapid and great growth, 
 must have been dwarfed, had she forever been 
 isolated and shut away from the rest of us, and 
 she must have degenerated. Human beings 
 must mingle with others, or they become inbred, 
 and degenerate. That downward tendency 
 which seems to be a part of all that is human, is 
 arrested by contact with what is vigorous and 
 healthy. Our gardens and flower-beds must 
 have their seed changed. And at this hour, and 
 by the means of steam, God is pouring one na- 
 tion into another, and mingling languages and 
 tongues. Over the snowy summits of the Ne- 
 vadas we shall pour our people, creating new 
 homes, and villages, and cities, like those we 
 have here, — starting on a new race of improve- 
 ment. And this railroad makes our country 
 one. It can now never divide, creating a gov- 
 ernment oflf on the Pacific slope by itself; but 
 all will unite in one grand eflbrt to make our 
 
. RESULTS. 259 
 
 nation great at home, and a leader in the 
 world's march after improvement. '. 
 
 Said William H. Seward, when that road 
 shall hare been extended to the Pacific Ocean, 
 "disunion will be rendered forever afterwards 
 impossible. There will be no fulcrum for the 
 lever of treason to rest upon." 
 
 There was a time when old Paganism stood 
 trembling, on feeble limbs, and looking, with 
 anxious eye, for something better ; and then 
 God lifted up the Star of Bethlehem, and the 
 world advanced. There was a time when the 
 eye of science was dim, and the word of God, 
 whose " entrance " everywhere " giveth life," 
 was shut up and away ; and then God gave 
 the printing-press, and knowledge and truth 
 were unbound, to walk together among men. 
 There was a time when the population of the 
 earth needed more comforts, and better material 
 things, and the opening of the coal mines, and 
 the putting the spindles and the looms of the 
 
V 
 
 260 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 factories in motion, created the supply needed. 
 Brain was worth more than mere muscle, for 
 brain could turn wood and iron into muscle. 
 There are epochs in the world's history, and 
 in the advancement of our race. Our day is 
 the day for making the earth smaller, by cre- 
 ating speed ; and I see in it a Divine plan ; 
 and I hear His voice, saying, "Prepare ye the 
 way of the Lord ; make straight in the desert 
 a highway for our God ; and the glory of the 
 Lord shall be revealed." All the discoveries 
 which men make, all the inventions which they 
 bring out, all the facilities for intercourse which 
 they create, be it rushing over a vast continent, 
 bringing Commerce to move her burdens on the 
 land instead of on the water ; flashing thought 
 along on the bed of the ocean, — all are taken 
 up in God's plans, and made to reveal his 
 glory. It is taking the materialism of earth, 
 and sanctifying it, and making it not merely 
 harmonize with, but be the carrier of spiritual 
 things. 
 
RESULTS. 261 
 
 It may take a century, or three centuries, 
 before men will understand the full import and 
 power of the railroad ; but this we do know — 
 that a road which goes into the far west of the 
 Pacific, does not stop there. In ways that we 
 do not know, it reaches into the spiritual world, 
 and is the bearer of spiritual good to our 
 race. It already melts away our prejudices, 
 and brings us into brotherhood with all the 
 nations. I may not be able, and I am not able, 
 to point out all the bearings which this one 
 new road will have on the kingdom of light and 
 mercy ; yet I feel just as sure that it will have 
 mighty results upon that kingdom, as if I had 
 seen the Divine hand swing this great enter- 
 prise over the mountains, and press it down 
 there with his foot. 
 
 China is our neighbor now. The East and 
 the West embrace ; nay, we hardly know which 
 is East or which is West. This one road has 
 turned the world round. J Thus beneath all this 
 
262 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 labor, and toil, and skill, in the cry of Com- 
 merce for new working-ground, and in the rising 
 up of myriads to find better homes, we see the 
 Divine Mind urging it all on, and forward, for 
 the good of that race, which His Son hath 
 redeemed, by becoming one of them. 
 
 That great dome of heaven, which our Heav- 
 enly Father hath hung over all the earth, 
 covers one great famil}^, and their means of 
 intercommunication are creating a warmer 
 brotherhood, and thus causing us to feel that 
 we are at home anywhere beneath that mighty 
 dome. 
 
SAN FRANCISCO BAY. 263 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE, AND THE 
 CHINESE QUESTION. 
 
 On the Pacific shores are three harbors, 
 conveniently located to meet the wants of 
 commerce — on the north, Puget Sound ; on 
 Jhe south, San Diego ; and in the centre, San 
 Francisco Bay. The latter is the queen of 
 harbors, and has a great headway in advance 
 of the others. As you come into the bay, 
 passing the Golden Gate, you are sailing 
 directly east. After passing east a few miles, 
 you turn to the south, around the point of 
 a peninsula. On the end of that peninsula is 
 San Francisco — a city built on and among 
 the most dreary sand-hills. Originally no 
 spot could be more uninviting. But in twenty 
 
264 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 years the high hills have been cut down and 
 carted into the water, rocks blasted, sloughs 
 filled up, till now you find a wondrous city, 
 with nearly one hundred and fifty thousand 
 inhabitants, with architecture which would 
 honor any city ; with nothing that looks young, 
 green, or unfinished ; and kept in order by its 
 police, superior to any other city in the land. 
 You^are amazed at seeing a city looking old, 
 and ripe, and finished, having twelve daily 
 papers, and many of them of mammoth size -^ 
 having six miles of wharfage already built; 
 having huge steamships, that run regularly, 
 not only every day and hour through the 
 harbor, but on the New York line, and on 
 the lines for China, Japan, Sandwich Islands, 
 and Oregon. In this city capital has centred, 
 and has been wisely and generously used to 
 build public institutions, free schools, hos-' 
 pitals, asylums for the blind, for the deaf 
 and dumb, for the orphans, and for all in 
 
FUTURE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 265 
 
 distress. San Francisco is, by her position, by 
 her energy and wisdom, to be the Elect Lady 
 of the coast, and nothing but earthquakes 
 will interfere with her growth. In the centre 
 of mines which have but just begun to be de- 
 veloped, in the midst of a region unequalled 
 in the world for agricultural productiveness, 
 with unexplored mines of coal and of iron, 
 with unmeasured forests .of the finest timber 
 ever found anywhere, with one continental 
 railroad already built, and another — that to 
 St. Louis — which will be built, she must 
 become a great commercial and manufactur- 
 ing city. 
 
 California can support twenty millions of 
 people by her own resources, and the whole 
 Pacific slope twice that number, at least. 
 One eighteenth of all the land in the State 
 was given by Congress, to be devoted, as fast 
 as sold, to public schools. In addition to this. 
 Congress gave her five hundred thousand 
 
266 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 acres of land, to be devoted to iuternal im- 
 provements ; and the State has wiselj^ decided 
 that the inside of the human head is the 
 place to begin improvements, and has set this 
 also aside for schools and public education. 
 She also taxes all the property of her peo- 
 ple for schools. The free-school system of 
 Massachusetts is adopted, and there is not a 
 child in the State v^hich may not be educated 
 at public cost. These schools are established 
 as fast as population requires, and are al- 
 ready of a high order. This free-school sys- 
 tem is justly the pride of the State, and no 
 new State can boast of better. And as goes 
 California, so will go all the Pacific slope. 
 There will be no better schools in the land 
 than these will be. Both California and Ore- 
 gon have determined to have a College or 
 University that shall be like a steam engine 
 on the top of a hill, to draw up what is at 
 the bottom of the hill. In every neighbor- 
 
MORALS AND RELIGION. 267 
 
 hood, it is already true, that the schoolmaster 
 is abroad. The churches, of course, must be in 
 their infaucy, but they are well organized, 
 manned with an able, devoted, and talented 
 ministry. They have the right ring to them.* 
 
 The Sabbath is far better observed than I 
 expected ; and while six military companies 
 march through the city, to fife and drum, 
 every Sabbath, and strike the stranger very 
 unpleasantly, yet they go out into the coun- 
 try to spend the day. I am happy to say 
 that they are Germans^ or Italians. No com- 
 pany of Americans thus desecrates the day. 
 
 And as to Sabbath Schools, they are per- 
 fectly bewitching. I have never seen so large 
 a proportion of the population gathered into 
 Sabbath Schools, nor finer schools. Whatever 
 
 * Among these ministers I found Rev. Drs. Stone, Scud- 
 der, Eels, Wadsworth, Moar, Dwinell, Professors Durant, 
 Willey, and many others like them — inferior, certainly, 
 to no men in the land. The other denonunations are 
 equally fortunate in their clergymen — all wide-awake men. 
 
268 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 these people take hold of, they do it with a 
 heartiness that is truly refreshing. I attend- 
 ed the State Convention of Sabbath Schools, 
 and also the State Convention of the Young 
 Me^'s Christimi Association, and was most 
 highly gratified and satisfied with the earnest- 
 ness, the judiciousness, and the success, with 
 which the working power of those churches 
 is brought out. There is no narrowness or 
 bigotry of denomination apparent. They work 
 together in the common cause, and for the 
 common Master. 
 
 I may say, too, that, probably owing to the 
 climate, you find the finest set of children 
 in that country that you ever saw — the fairest, 
 fullest, and most perfect physical develop- 
 ment. I was struck with this, and feel as- 
 sured that here will be developed a physical 
 manhood, such as has nowhere yet been 
 found. It can hardly be otherwise, when 
 every child can live out of doors more than 
 
THE GREAT PLATEAU. 269 
 
 half of every year, and will prefer to do so. 
 The question they ask is, not, to what de- 
 nomination does a man belong, not what his 
 attainments, but, "What can the fellow do?'' 
 And this standard of doing something and 
 much, with the climate and the thousand in- 
 centives to effort, will, in the future, I have 
 no doubt, produce, not giants, but a noble 
 race of men, if not superior to any now in 
 the world. 
 
 On the great Eastern continent, west of 
 the Yellow Sea, is a great plateau of the most 
 fertile land, surrounded by mountains, watered 
 by vast rivers, connected by a canal seven hun- 
 dred miles long, teeming wuth multitudes 
 of human beings, packed together, and hardly 
 getting food enough to sustain life. Nearly 
 a third of earth's population are crowded 
 together there. The people are almost as 
 ancient as the flood, and were probably there 
 when Abraham was in Canaan. Two strong men 
 
270 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 have tried to impress their own minds upon the 
 people — Buddha, in India, who lived about six 
 hundred years before Christ, and Confucius, in 
 China, who lived about a century later. You 
 now understand me to be speaking of China and 
 the Chinese. The latter of these men gave laws 
 and religion ; but the law^s were barbarous, and 
 the religion had no stamp of divinity upon 
 it, carried no divine sanctions with it, and 
 only set human character, like mortar, with- 
 out elevating or advancing it; the most it 
 hoped to do, was to stand still. So the gen- 
 erations have come and gone — now and then 
 a vast revolution ; but as President Hopkins, 
 in his admirable sermon before the College 
 Society, says, it was "the mountain-pressed 
 giant simply turning over," "There have 
 been," he also sftys, " stability and order, but 
 a stability without growth, and an order with- 
 out progress." Such is the amount of human 
 life in China, that men take the place of 
 
CHARACTER OF THE CHINAMAN. 271 
 
 beasts, and a dozen men will do the work 
 of a single horse, for the wages which one 
 horse ought to earn. / The result is, that this 
 people, half starved from generation to gen- 
 eration, are dwarfed — not larger or heavier 
 than our women. Still the Chinaman is lithe, 
 strong, active, enduring, quick to imitate, 
 quick to learn, mild in disposition, taught to 
 respect law and obey magistrates, kind to 
 animals, industrious, willing, economical, and 
 able to live on very little. His religion is 
 gloomy, and suicide is more common than 
 with other races. The overgrowth of pop- 
 ulation induces infanticide and a disregard 
 to human life. The Chinaman has very little 
 self-respect, and is, of course, tricky, deceit- 
 ful, and untruthful; but he is never mali- 
 cious or revengefuhj 
 
 I am speaking of the mass. Among the 
 educated and mercantile classes, there are fine 
 specimens of integrity and all the commercial 
 
272 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 virtues. The following beautiful speech was 
 made a few days ago, by a pure-blooded Chi- 
 nese merchant, Choy-chew, at an entertainment 
 in Chicago : — 
 
 " Eleven years ago I came from my home in 
 China to seek my fortune in your great Repub- 
 lic. I landed on the golden shore of Califor- 
 nia, utterly ignorant of your language, unknown 
 to any of your people, a stranger to your cus- 
 toms and laws, and in the minds of some an 
 intruder, one of that race whose presence is 
 deemed a positive injury to the public pros- 
 perity. But, gentlemen, I found both kindness 
 and justice. I found that, above the prejudice 
 which had been formed against us, there flowed 
 a deep, broad stream of popular equality ; that 
 the hand of friendship was extended to the 
 people of every nation ; and that even China- 
 men must live, be happy, successful, and re- 
 spected in ' free America.' I gathered knowl- 
 edge in your public schools ; I learned to speak 
 
THE chinaman's spj2ech. 273 
 
 as you do, to read and write as you do, to act 
 and thiuk as you do ; and, gentlemen, I rejoice 
 that it is so ; that I have been able to cross this 
 vast continent without the aid of an interpreter ; 
 that here in the heart of the United States, I 
 can speak to you in your own familiar speech, 
 and tell you how much, how very much, I ap- 
 preciate your hospitality, how grateful I feel 
 for the privileges and advantages I- have en- 
 joyed in your glorious country, and how ear- 
 nestly I hope that your example of enterprise, 
 energy, vitality, and national generosity, may 
 be seen and understood, as I see and under- 
 stand it, by our government. Mr. Burlingame 
 has done much to promote good feeling in 
 China towards the American nation. He made 
 himself well acquainted with the authorities at 
 Pekin. He won their confidence to a remarka- 
 ble degree. He is an excellent man, and, I 
 believe, if his advice is received and acted 
 upon, China will soon be the cordial friend of 
 18 
 
274 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 all the commercial powers of the earth. Al- 
 ready we are doing something in the way of 
 progress in modern improvements. Steam- 
 boat lines have been established on our rivers, 
 and the telegraph will soon connect us with the 
 wonderful sovereignty of the Western Hemi- 
 sphere, where the people rule, where every- 
 thing proclaims peace and good-will to all. 
 China must brush away the dust of her anti- 
 quity, and, looking across the Pacific, behold 
 and profit by the new lessons of the new 
 world. We trust our visit, gentlemen, may 
 be productive of good results to all of us ; 
 that the two great countries. East and West, 
 China and America, may be bound forever 
 together in friendship, and that a Chinaman in 
 America, or an American in China, may find 
 like protection and like consideration in his 
 search for happiness and wealth." 
 
 The Chinaman will often learn our alphabet, 
 and even to put syllables together, at a single 
 
JOSS-HOUSES. 275 
 
 lesson. He is a good washer and cook, and 
 will make a little go a great way for himself, 
 or for his employer. Such is the Chinaman, 
 when I have added that he is an idolater, is 
 superstitious, carries his temples and gods with 
 him, lives upon rice and tea, and smokes opium 
 with his tobacco when he can get it. 
 
 Though I went ink) their Joss-house, or 
 Temple, yet, not being able to communicate 
 with the old priest, I could not understand 
 much of their worship. There seemed to be 
 two parts or rooms. In the first were various 
 hieroglyphics, in large gilt letters, and images, 
 and abundance of little Joss-sticks, or candles, 
 which are to be bought and burnt before the 
 idol, to take away sin ; the sins are removed as 
 the stick burns. I was told that these are very 
 much sought after by dissolute women. 
 
 In the second room, was a kind of table or 
 altar, on which lay two pieces of wood, flat on 
 .one side and rounded on the other, very much 
 
27G THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 like a pea-pod split open. These the priest 
 takes up, the faces meeting, and drops them 
 on the table. If they fall and remain on the 
 round side, yon are to have good luck ; if on 
 the flat side, bad luck; and they fall so, nine- 
 teen times, at least, out of twenty. You may 
 now buy "good luck," by paying the priest 
 a small sum of money. 'Beyond that table, and 
 behind a kind of screen, were three idols, be- 
 dizened by gilt, and each in a kind of niche 
 or recess. The left hand one was the god of 
 medicine or health ; the middle one, " the best 
 woman that ever lived," i. e., the goddess of 
 purity; and the third one, on the right, the 
 god of gold, or riches. There was a large hand- 
 bell, used, it would seem, to wake up the god, 
 before propitiating him, by burning sticks or 
 gilded or silver paper before his little shrine. 
 There was no provision for social worship, or 
 teaching of any kind. All seemed planned to 
 let the votary go directly to the god whose fr.vor 
 
CHINESE IN MULTITUDES. 277 
 
 ho was most anxious to obtain. It seemed to 
 be the lowest kind of idolatry, the very gods 
 being hideous in shape and countenance. 
 
 When the gold mines were discovered, their 
 rcpoi-t went out into all the earth. Thousands 
 of Chinamen were soon scattered over Califor- 
 nia, digging gold. When the railroad was to 
 be built, they were on hand and ready to en- 
 gage by thousands. The more they are known, 
 the more their labor is in demand ; and now, 
 there are at least one hundred thousand already 
 on our shores, and within a year that number 
 is to be doubled, and they will probably be 
 numbered by millions in a very few years. They 
 could send out forty millions, equal to the pop- 
 ulation of our nation, and be benefited by the 
 depletion. They can all, without exception, 
 read and write in their own language. 
 
 The great besetting sin of the Chinese, is 
 their inordinate love of gambling. Every even- 
 ing, as you pass along a Chinese street, you 
 
278 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 will hear, here and there, a strange din, which 
 you suppose is meant for music. The doors 
 and windows of every shop are wide open. 
 That shop where you hear music is a gam- 
 bling shop. As you enter, you notice, on the 
 right hand and on the left, a high counter, 
 nearly as high as the chin. In the centre of 
 the counter is a place marked out, four square, 
 perhaps ten inches square. The sides of this 
 square are numbered one, two, three', and four. 
 You want to try your fortune. You put down, 
 say four bits, i. e., fifty cents, or silver half 
 dollar. That must be laid at the side numbered 
 four. A man sits by, having copper coin before 
 him about as large as our old-fashioned cent 
 piece. He has quite a heap of them, each with 
 a square hole in the middle of it. With a little 
 square stick, about as long as a goose-quill, he 
 now counts these coins, carefully putting the 
 end of the stick in the square hole. If, when 
 he has counted up to a certain number, — which 
 
CHINESE GAMBLING. 279 
 
 he docs with astonishing rapidity, — there be a 
 remainder, — one, two, three, or four, — the 
 man who put down the silver, gains so many 
 bits, but loses his forfeit, — on some principle 
 which I could not comprehend. I could see, 
 however, that the bank or saloon had decidedly 
 the lion's share. On both sides these gamblers 
 stand. At the end of the room, behind a par- 
 tition, about* a yard or four feet high, sit the 
 musicians, who both play and sing. But of all 
 musical instruments ever invented, of all sounds 
 ever put forth as music, of all contortions of 
 faces ever made, you now see the superlative. 
 The music wails at times like a sick animal, or 
 screeches like cats under your chamber-win- 
 dow, in a dark night. 
 
 Just in front of the half dozen musicians, 
 who often relieve one another, is a table with 
 a huge tea-pot on it, holding, perhaps, two gal- 
 lons of most delicious tea, — free to all, — and 
 which they quaff out of little shallow, china 
 
280 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 bowls, without cream or sugar. But whether 
 they sing, or drink tea, or gamble, they smoke 
 their long pipes, with tobacco medicated with 
 opium. The fumes fill the room ; your head 
 begins to swim, and to grow dizzy ; your 
 stomach grows nauseated, and you are glad to 
 get out into the open air, satisfied that most 
 who gather there, will spend all their day's 
 earnings before they leave the hideous place. 
 
 Thus far they feel that they are strangers, 
 and intend and expect to go back to their 
 country. All their dead are carried back for 
 burial. Over twelve hundred bodies, as is esti- 
 mated, are now annually carried back to China, 
 at a cost of one hundred dollars each, in gold. 
 The State of California has a law that every 
 man who works in the mines shall pay a tax 
 of four dollars a month, unless he is a citizen, 
 or declares his intention to become one ; but 
 no Chinaman has, so far, ever signified his 
 purpose or wish to become a citizen, though 
 
THE CHINESE TO COME. 281 
 
 there are thousands engaged in gold-dig- 
 ging- 
 
 And where and what is to be the end of 
 this thins: ? Our Irish friends in California 
 have risen up against the Chinese, and abused 
 them, and declared they shall not come to our 
 shores. They might as well go down to the 
 Golden Gate, and say that the tide shall not 
 come in, with the Pacific Ocean behind it. 
 \They can no more be stopped than water dan 
 be prevented from running down hill. Inter- 
 communication is such, that labor will go where 
 it is best paid. Nothing can keep back the 
 myriads of starving people in China. And 
 besides, the thing that we now want, — the 
 great material want of the country, — is cheap 
 labor. 5 And whoever will furnish that, will find 
 enough to employ him. A few years ago, and 
 the employees in the factories at Lowell were 
 all American girls. They determined, and the 
 owners determined, that none but American help 
 
282 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 should be employed. But now, there is not 
 over one American girl, we are told, to a thou- 
 sand Irish. That is all right, and is in accord- 
 ance with unalterable laws. 
 
 Now, as to our Irish friends saying " the 
 Chinese shall not come," I should like to talk 
 with an honest, warm-hearted Irishman on this 
 point. I would say, " Now, look here, friend ; 
 I know, and you know, that all that the Irish- 
 man is to-day, is what our country has made 
 him. He came here poor, scorned, and op- 
 pressed. We have lifted him up to be a citizen, 
 — to be on an equality with ourselves. He 
 owns farms, has millions of money in the Sav- 
 ings Banks, has a good home, and his children 
 are educated at the public expense ; and now, 
 for him to rise and say that any other poor, 
 oppressed people shall not come here and re- 
 ceive the same blessings, is a meanness so 
 despicable, that no Irishman ought ever to be 
 guilty of it. He ought to blush to name the 
 thing." 
 
RESULTS OF THEIR COMING. 283 
 
 But what is to be the result of this influx of 
 Chiuamen? No mortal can say. The first 
 effect will be to expedite the building of rail- 
 roads and developing the resources of our 
 country. Already all the railroads west of 
 Chicago are negotiating at what price they will 
 transport them, and have fixed upon a cent and 
 a half a mile, j Another effect, immediate, will 
 be to stop the strikes among workmen — a 
 curse to themselves and a curse to the com- 
 munity. In the factories o^San Francisco they 
 had none but Irish, paying them three dollars a 
 day in gold. They struck, and demanded four 
 dollars. Immediately their places, numbering 
 three hundred, were supplied by Chinamen at one 
 dollar a day — and superior workmen they are. 
 So it will be all over the country ; for all over 
 the country they will come, and be welcomed. / 
 Well, you will ask, won't this be a great 
 injury to our Celtic and Teutonic workmen now 
 among us ? I answer, no : I believe it will be a 
 
284 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 great blessing to every mother's son of them. 
 And how do I make that out? I will tell you. 
 It will show them that the sooner they cease to 
 be Irishmen or Germans, and become Ameri- 
 cans, the better. It will put them to educat- 
 ing their children. It will scatter them on our 
 farms, and on farms of their own. It will be a 
 power under them to lift them up. It will be a 
 power behind, to push them forward. They 
 will see that they must rise or sink. They 
 must gain intelligence and skill enough to em- 
 ploy this new power, or they must work for itTl 
 The question cannot be settled by the shillaleh 
 or the fist, the dirk or the pistol, but by intelli- 
 gence and manly character. And if any one 
 doubts which race wins, he does not look at it 
 as I do. What will be the effect on the negro? 
 Good, I have no doubt. It will make him feel 
 the necessity of working, not by fits and starts, 
 but continuously, and of being economical and 
 frugal. Placed side by side, the Chinese will 
 
COLONIZEES OF THE EARTH — WHO ? 285 
 
 be the educator, and the negro will rise. J But 
 wh?it, say you, will be the result on the govern- 
 ment of this country — creating here a con- 
 glomerate mass, such as our form of govern- 
 ment never contemplated? ^Yill not these 
 Foreigners at some day, perhaps not distant, be 
 able to take this nation into their own hands, 
 and become its Kulers? I reply, no, and that 
 because there are some things that will prevent 
 it, deeper than numbers or votes. There are 
 certain organic laws that override all human 
 plans and notions, and to these I want now 
 briefly to allude. Will you follow me? 
 
 /The great colonizers of the earth are the 
 Anglo-Saxons. They scatter and plant them- 
 selves in any climate, create a government, and 
 retain their ground. This implies character — 
 to plan, perseverance to carry out the plans, 
 and the power of governing. / East, West, in 
 India, or in America, the results are the same. 
 And when the question is, will this race retain 
 
286 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 its supremacy in this land, the answer must be 
 found in the peculiar character of this race — 
 the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 We are far less imaginative than the races 
 around us, and, of consequence, far less impul- 
 sive. That fiery eloquence which is found in 
 the Welsh and in the Irish, and those picture- 
 words which make the Scotch language so fas- 
 cinating, we know nothing about. Even the 
 tragedies of Shakespeare are calm, sober, strong 
 utterances in pure English, compared with the 
 every-day language of the Highlander. The 
 Celtic people love to follow leaders in politics, 
 priests in religion, and to be superstitious, 
 while we want to be self-reliant, self-asserting, 
 and have individuality, in every possible way. 
 The French are mercurial. They are more 
 lively, more impulsively eloquent, more easily 
 excited to enthusiasm, and more successful in 
 matters of taste. Educate the French mind 
 thoroughly, and it becomes a wonder in meta- 
 
THE ANGLO-SAXON. 287 
 
 physics, mighty in abstract speculations, but 
 wholly unpractical. The Anglo-Saxon says, 
 " Bring on your theories ; I don't especially 
 object to theories, but cui bono — what's the 
 use?" Then he calmly thinks and balances 
 matters, and lets the judgment come in, cool 
 and sober. He puts his imagination in abey- 
 ance. He has his eye intently fixed on what is 
 practical. Others may have more dash, but he 
 has pluck. In the battle of Waterloo, the 
 Anglo-Saxon stood in solid, immovable columns, 
 and let the French dash on him with the finest 
 cavalry the world ever saw. The cavalry of 
 Wellington were drawn up where they could 
 overlook the whole battle-field, and were com- 
 manded to — do nothing but wait ! There they 
 did wait, cool, collected, calmly abiding their 
 time. The very horses seemed to feel the oc- 
 casion, and hardl}^ champed the bit. There 
 they waited for eight long hours, when the 
 word " charge " came ; and charge they did, and 
 
288 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 scattered their foes like chaff. No other race 
 would have done so. "I abide my time" is the 
 motto of the race — persevering, and ever 
 guided by "common sense." You will notice, 
 too, that it is the Latin races who have, as a 
 whole, stuck to Popery — a system that gratifies 
 the imagination, gratifies the taste, and abounds 
 in superstitions, as much certainly as they can 
 swallow, let their capacity be what it may. 
 Against all this, our race early rebelled. Long 
 before Luther was born, our own glorious 
 Wickliffe, the Father of bur Eeformation, thun- 
 dered in his own country from the pulpit, and 
 gave his wonderful translation of the New 
 Testament to the world, as the strong pillar 
 against which men might lean. 
 
 We complain that our Congress and our Le- 
 gislatures meet and spend their time in speech- 
 making. Why, they can't help it ! It is a 
 part of the very nature of the Saxon race, 
 to get together, to discuss and plan, and act 
 
SAXON CHARACTER. 289 
 
 together. You may trace it back to our 
 early ancestry. Trial by jury grew out of 
 this, and so did Parliaments. This leads us 
 to discuss, to respect one another's opinions, 
 whether we arc in the Senate Chamber, in the 
 town meeting, or in the little school district 
 meeting. It leads us not only to plan, but 
 to act together for a common object, which 
 is for the good of all. We may add to this, 
 it causes us to reverence and obey the laws 
 which we ourselves have enacted, and which 
 have proceeded from ourselves. To respect 
 our own laws, becomes self-respect. There 
 is a great amount of dormant will in the 
 Saxon, and sooner or later, he makes it felt. 
 The little boy who requested the teamster to 
 stop, that he might ride, and, on being re- 
 fused, threw himself coolly down on the track 
 where the wheel must go over and crush 
 him, if it did not stop, — was a true Saxon. 
 Now it seems to me that these umistakable, 
 19 
 
290 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 natural endowments fit our race remarkably 
 for colonizing the earth, for enlargement, and 
 for governing. The one involves the other. 
 While other races are often convulsed, — (see 
 the twenty-two revolutions in China without a 
 particle of progress, the violent and bloody 
 revolutions in France, Spain, Italy, and South 
 America, — you see that while they are unable 
 to hope for any change for the better, except 
 by wading in blood) , — our race efiects the 
 greatest changes, amounting to a revolution 
 in results, by means entirely peaceful. The 
 recent disinthralment of the church-establish- 
 ment in Ireland, is an example of what I 
 mean. In all other races, when such changes 
 are made, you expect riot, bloodshed, and 
 anarchy, more or less. I have said, that we 
 are the great colonizers of the earth. The 
 French, the Spaniards, the Italians, the Irish, 
 have never established great colonies, and 
 managed and governed them ; they are not 
 
IRISH CHARACTER. 291 
 
 the races to do it. No other race would have 
 gone to California, and to Oregon, and there cre- 
 ated their own government so peacefully, and 
 there waited in patience till the nation was 
 ready to cast the folds of its flag over thein, 
 and still wait and work, till their raih-oad 
 brought them to us. y 
 
 The Englishman asks, "What would the Irish 
 be in the United States as rulers? What 
 would they be without the Anglo-Saxon? 
 They are useful elements of society, but 
 alone they would cut a sorry figure. If Ire- 
 land could be towed off into the middle of 
 the Atlantic, and its northern parts emptied 
 of its population back into Scotland, and left 
 to manage its own affairs at its own cost, 
 we should have a sorry specimen of what such 
 a people would do in the way of govern- 
 ment." It is not necessary for me to indorse 
 or refute these sentiments ; they are the woi;ds 
 of a great and a good man. You can judge 
 
292 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 of their correctness, and of tlie allowance, 
 if any, to be made, for the English feeling. 
 But this I may say, that it does not seem 
 very likely to me that the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 having founded and created this government, 
 and having the original traits of character 
 which they have, will ever.yield this government 
 to any other race. I plant myself there. 
 Add to this, that God hath given us a language 
 that seems fitted to become almost universal. 
 Men won't ride in an ox-cart when they can go 
 in the stage, nor in the stage when they can 
 go in the cars, nor in" a scow when they can 
 go in a steamboat. It is found that there 
 is no language in the world, so terse and so 
 condensed as the English. It is becoming the 
 language of the ocean telegraph all through 
 Europe, and probably will be through the 
 earth. They won't write messages in any lan- 
 guage but the best. And what is best for 
 the telegraph, will be the best medium by 
 
ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 293 
 
 which to convey all thought; the world can- 
 not use any instrument but the quickest, and 
 thus the simple wires on the poles, stretching 
 round the world, may change the language of 
 a world, and bring one race to be uppermost. 
 Or, if you say they use the English language 
 because the English Operator is so superior to 
 any other, then the argument accumulates for 
 the superiority of the race in handling the 
 world. 
 
 God, in his providence, reserved the great 
 western slope of this continent, looking off 
 on the Pacific, till the Atlantic States had 
 become settled, their ^soil much exhausted, 
 their institutions planted and tried, their pop- 
 ulation flowing out, and carrying their habits, 
 and schools, and churches, into the great 
 Interior Valley, and made that great basin 
 safe ; and then he suddenly swept off the 
 imbecile races that roamed over that slope, 
 and annexed it to our inheritance. It was a 
 
294 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 new world, having a new climate, a new soil, 
 new and unfailing mines, forests that over- 
 whelmed the spectator with awe, fertility 
 scarcely equalled in the annals of the world, and 
 peopled with the most energetic men that 
 could be culled from the civilized world, our 
 own people vastly preponderating. 
 
 And what are the plans of Infinite Wisdom 
 in all this? I believe, to give us an opportu- 
 nity to work out a higher civilization, more 
 and better means of educational development, 
 a nobler exposition of human capabilities, 
 and a loftier type of spiritual Christianity. I 
 believe that vast slope, so rich in mineral, 
 agricultural, and manufacturing wealth, so little 
 that is wasteful in climate, is put into the 
 hands of men who will never do what is 
 mean, never settle down into sloth, never re- 
 fuse to meet responsibilities, and never be 
 satisfied with a meagre development. I be- 
 lieve, too, that God has pity for other por- 
 
CHINESE PROBLEM. 295 
 
 tions of his great family, and is bringing here, 
 by thousands, and most likely by millions, 
 that race who must be, from their past, life- 
 long minors, intrusted to our care, making us 
 responsible for their receiving kind treatment, 
 careful training, and, above all, the Gospel of 
 His mercy. What shall we do with the Chi- 
 nese? is said to be the great problem of this 
 generation. I anslvcr, it is a problem we 
 cannot solve, nor are we called to do it. 
 God is sending them here, and we cannot 
 stop the stream. Their industry will add 
 immensely and rapidly to our wealth ; they 
 will have their idol temples through Califor- 
 nia, in New York, most likely in Boston, and 
 very likely in our villages ; that we cannot 
 help. If they are to let us, by treaty, build 
 churches and enjoy our religion in China, we 
 must allow them to enjoy their idolatry here. 
 And no one can certainly say that this new ele- 
 ment will not change the centre of power in 
 the world. 
 
296 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 But won't the Chinese be abused, outraged, 
 and almost reduced to slavery here? I an- 
 swer, no. We have Associations to protect the 
 dumb beast from cruelty, and, if necessary, 
 we shall organize similar associations to protect 
 the Chinaman. Cruelty and barbarism will 
 not be tolerated at this day ; the press will 
 make the groans of the distressed ring through 
 the land. 
 
 You will see, now, why I look upon the 
 Pacific slope as so important. Our gold is 
 there ! Our silver is there ! Commerce is 
 making herself a gi'eat place there ! Noble 
 men and beautiful children are there ! Mul- 
 titudes are gathering there! Free schools 
 are there ! Colleges are being planted there ! 
 And a great future must be there ! 
 
 I stand on the heights of the Nevadas, and 
 I look off over mountain and valley, till I see 
 the blue waters of the Pacific, and I see 
 centuries crowding into single years, and I 
 
• THE WEST FOUND. 297 
 
 see showers of mercy, which have hung up in 
 the dry tiir, descending upon that wonderful 
 
 " Tyrants ! in vain ye trace the wizard ring, 
 In vain ye limit mind's unwearied spring. 
 What! can ye lull the winged winds asleep, 
 Arrest the rolling world, or chain the deep ? * 
 
 No ! the wild wave contemns your sceptred hand ; 
 It rolled not back when Canute gave command." 
 
 From the place where the sun rises, have 
 our race been travelling, towards where the 
 sun sets, to the present time. Every gen- 
 eration has seen 
 
 " Westward the star of empire take its way," 
 
 till that star can no longer guide the poor wan- 
 derers farther. In that long march of ages, 
 what cities and nations have halted long enough 
 to grow, and mature*, and die ! what graves 
 have belted the earth ! But the West is found, 
 and the Star pauses. Seventy-five years ago, 
 probably before any one of my readers was 
 born, 1794, there lived a clergyman in one of 
 
298 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 the smallest parishes in Connecticut. While in 
 this position he wrote a poem. He was after- 
 wards known as Timothy D wight, President of 
 Yale College. It would seem as if he must 
 almost have been a prophet, and seen what we 
 see, when he penned the following lines: — 
 
 *' All hail, thou western world ! by Heaven designed 
 Th' example bright, to renovate mankind. 
 Soon shall thy sons across the main land roam, 
 And claim on far Pacific's shore their home ; 
 Their rule, religion, manners, arts, convey, 
 And spread their freedom to the Asian sea. 
 Where erst six thousand suns have rolled the year 
 O'er plains of slaughter, and o'er wilds of fear, 
 Towns, cities, fanes, shall lift their towery pride ; 
 The village bloom on every streamlet's side ; 
 V Proud Commerce' mole the western surges lave; 
 The long, white spire lie imaged on the wave ; 
 O'er morn's pellucid main expand their sails, 
 And the starred ensign court the Korean gales. 
 Then nobler thoughts shall savage trains inform. 
 Then barbarous passions ^ease the heart to storm : 
 No more the captive circling flames devour ; 
 Through the war path the Indian creep no more ; 
 No midnight scout the slumbering village fire, 
 Nor the scalped infant stain his gasping sire ; 
 But peace and truth illume the twilight mind. 
 The Gospel's sunshine, and the purpose kind. 
 
PROPHETIC VISIONS. 299 
 
 Where marshes teemed with death shall meads unfold; 
 
 Untrodden cliffs resign their stores of gold; 
 
 The dance refined on Albion's margin move, 
 
 And her lone bowers rehearse the tale of love. 
 
 Where slept perennial night, siiall Science rise, 
 
 And new-born Oxfords cheer the evening skies; 
 
 Miltonic strains the Mexic hills prolong. 
 
 And Louis murmur to Sicilian song. 
 
 Then to new climes the bliss shall trace its way, 
 
 And Tartar deserts hail the rising day; 
 
 From the long torpor startled China wake, 
 
 Her chains of misery roused Peruvia break; 
 
 Man link to man, with bosom bosom twine, ^-^ 
 
 And one great bond the house of Adam join ; 
 
 The sacred promise full completion know, 
 
 And peace and piety the world o'erliow." * 
 
 There have been attempts made .to keep our 
 foreign population separate, — to have schools 
 in German, and churches in German; and in 
 the great settlements of Pennsylvania this has 
 
 * Explanatory Notes by the Author, 
 
 Asian Sea. " Pacific Ocean." 
 
 Korean. " Korea is a large peninsula on the eastern shore of Asia." 
 
 Albion. "New Albion; a very desirable country, on the western 
 Bhore of America, discovered by Sir Francis Drake." (See p. 4.) 
 
 Mexic hills. "A. range of mountains [evidently the Rocky], run- 
 ning from north to south, at the distance of several hundred milea 
 westward of the Mississippi." 
 
 Louis. " The Mississippi." 
 
 Sicilian song. •' Pastoral poetry." 
 
300 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 been done ; but the raikoads that have been 
 pushed through that State, are letting in the 
 English language, and in a very few years 
 nothing but English will be spoken. It is 
 inevitable. 
 
 Our nation is a universal solvent. Put the 
 children of a dozen nations into our free schools, 
 and they will all come out Americans. And 
 when I see the Germans in Hartford and New 
 York setting up and demanding German schools, 
 it does not worry me in the least, for I know 
 it cannot ceme to anything. Those who enjoy 
 our privileges and breathe our air, must become 
 y/ Americanized. They cannot help it ; and that 
 for a strong reason, viz., that the American char- 
 acter impresses itself upon whatever it touches, 
 ^v/It is strong, intelligent, active, direct, practi- 
 cal, and is everywhere a power. I assert that 
 it is not boasting, but a simple truth, to say, 
 there is no character on earth so certain to im- 
 press itself on the world, as the American. 
 
AMERICAN ENERGY. 301 
 
 Thrown into a war, hi 1860, with a popula- 
 tion of only thirty-one millions, with no Army 
 and no Navy, the free States, in four years, put 
 one and a half million of armed men in the field, 
 fought two hundred and twenty-five battles, 
 raised the navy up to six hundred and eighty- 
 four vessels and fifty-one thousand men ; invent- 
 ed the Monitor, that nondescript power; laid 
 the nation under a terrible debt, and came out 
 of the war victorious, richer in men and in prop- 
 erty than when we began ; and to-day are a 
 power in the earth, at least fifty fold greater 
 than ever before. 
 
 Despotism has learned that there is no people 
 so powerful as a free, intelligent people, who 
 make their own laws, create their own institu- 
 tions, and, if necessary, fight for them. Mind 
 you, eighty per cent, of all who were in our 
 armies were native-born Americans. At this 
 hour, England congratulates herself that she is 
 emancipating her Catholic Ireland noiselessly 
 
 w- 
 
302 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 and without blood. I may safely ask if she 
 ever could or would have done it, had there 
 not gone over the water an influence from this 
 country, which she is quick to feel and slow 
 to acknowledge ? Even Napoleon, at this hour, 
 feels the air of this free country, and is trying 
 to loosen the ropes by which he has held the 
 elephant, which he is afraid to hold and afraid 
 to let go. Other nations do and must cut one 
 and another rope, and let the ship of State 
 swing and ride easier, or she will blow up. 
 
 j^The Chinese must and will learn our lan- 
 guage, gradually adopt onr dress and customs, 
 and when he reads our Bible, and learns our 
 religion, in laying aside his own language it 
 will be comparatively^ easy to drop his idolatry, 
 and become a Christian believer. In two Sab- 
 bath Schools, I have seen, on an average, a 
 hundred Chinamen in each, delighted to learn to 
 read in English, and having the Bible for their 
 reading-book. The force, the cool energy, and 
 
MIXING RACES. 303 
 
 the persistent power of the American chai*- 
 acter, is something which makes a deep im- 
 pression upon weaker races, f 
 
 [If, then, I am told, as I am almost every 
 day, that this conglomerate mass, made up 
 of Anglo-Saxons, Europeans, Africans, Chi- 
 namen, and a sprinkling of all nations, is 
 hereafter to cement into a sort of pudding- 
 stone race, I reply, it may be so, but I do 
 not believe it. God has given this continent 
 to the strongest race on earth, and to the ^^ 
 freest and best educated part of that race, 
 and I do not believe he is going to let it 
 drop out of hands that can handle the globe, 
 and put it into hands that are hands with- 
 out educated brains.! 
 
 It is putting our government, and our civ- 
 ilization, and our Educational Institutions, 
 and our Protestant religion, to a test more 
 severe than was ever put upon a people. 
 Eno^land, the old hive, is full, and there can 
 
304 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 be no such influx of foreign elements there ; 
 but here they come, and will come — to be 
 scattered over a vast territory, to be in- 
 structed in human rights, and human respon- 
 sibilities, and, be the risk great or small, 
 i^ hanging over us like an avalanche, threaten- 
 u ing to fall on us and grind us to powder, 
 or hanging over us like a cloud, to be dis- 
 solved in fruitful showers to gladden every 
 part of the land, — be it the chest into 
 which the giant is to be pressed, and the lid 
 shut down, and the chest thrown into the sea, 
 or be it the treasure-box, out of which un- 
 counted blessings will flow, — we must accept 
 it, and feel, that for wise and good purposes, 
 God has opened the door of hope to other 
 portions of his family, and is sending them 
 here to share our inheritance, and to be en- 
 lightened and blessed by our sympathy and 
 kindness. 
 
 You now see why I have attached so much 
 
FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY. 305 
 
 importance to the slope west of the Rocky 
 Mountains. On that slope hangs the future 
 of this country I Heretofore we have said 
 that the Great Valley of the Mississippi is to 
 contain the numerical population of the coun- 
 try, and guide its destiny ; and so it would, 
 had it not been that the whole thing is al- 
 tered by settling California, and bringing the 
 ocean Isles, and China, and Japan, and all the 
 East to our very door, and had it not been 
 that the swarming, teeming population • of 
 those countries have found out that here is 
 food, and here labor is needed, and will be 
 rewarded, and hence they are to flow in, 
 like the waves of the Pacific, unceasingly, 
 till the demands for labor are satisfied ; 
 this is inevitable. I have seen single steam- 
 ers come into San Francisco, with from twelve 
 hundred to fourteen hundred Chinamen on 
 board, — once a fortnight each ; and hereafter 
 there must arrive two such ship-loads weekly, 
 20 
 
306 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 to meet the engagements already made. Thus 
 the Golden Gate has become the gate-way 
 
 ^' of a living stream of humanity, in the 
 forni of a half-civilized heathenism. We 
 have now to learn — God is forcing it upon 
 us — that they, as well as we, are a part of 
 God's family, and must be cared for accord- 
 ingly. They may seem like the two barley 
 loaves that tumbled into the camp of the 
 Midianites ; they may be for our food or 
 for our ruin. And who, at this hour, tries 
 to cast the horoscope of his country, without 
 taking this new element into the account, 
 will make a terrible mistake. 
 
 And here comes in a thought that I deem of 
 - great importance, and that is, the destiny of the 
 
 s /human race is every day becoming more and 
 more closely linked together. A few days since, 
 and we talked of the Sandwich Islands as a 
 far-oif people ; now they are our next-door 
 neighbors, and we hardly know whether to 
 
GREAT PllOBLEMS SOLVED. 307 
 
 think of them as Americans or as Foreigners. 
 The eighty thousand English and Americans 
 in Paris cannot be forgotten in the plans and 
 measures of the French Government. 
 
 Oceans and mountains were made to keep 
 nations apart, so long as the world knew no 
 power but the brute jDOwer of war ; but since 
 the Prince of Peace hath created such facilities 
 for travel, that, practically, there "is no more 
 sea," and the everlasting mountains have bowed 
 before his chariot, and the nations are poured 
 into each other as water, the whole human 
 family are to work out the same destiny and 
 have a like inheritance. Everything points that 
 way. Everything works that way. I look 
 upon the generation now living, and soon to 
 live, as called upon to decide questions wide as 
 the earth, and to solve problems that will affect 
 the whole human family. Whether we will, or 
 no, we are linked in with all the rest, and we 
 cannot rise without lifting them up with us. It 
 
 v/ 
 
308 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 means something to live now — far more than 
 ever before. 
 
 I must add, too, that the world is rushing 
 on its own destiny with a rapidity never be- 
 fore known. The earth is becoming smaller, 
 and time is becoming longer. A month now is 
 a year, compared with a century ago. The 
 man who builds his hopes for the elevation of 
 his race on science, sees science advancing as 
 never before. The man who looks to politics 
 and human governments to create a millennium 
 on earth, sees the principles of human rights 
 steadily marching on, and threatening shortly 
 to tread tyranny under foot. The man who 
 looks to education to renovate the world, sees 
 free schools everywhere spreading, and Colleges 
 endowed most richly, and springing up like 
 mushrooms. And the man who looks to the 
 Bible and the Church of God to usher in the 
 day of "good will to men," and the day of 
 God's glory, sees that everything there is ad- 
 
INCREASE OF RELIGION. 309 
 
 vaiK'ing; that lliice fourths of the population 
 of this country are under the dominant influ- 
 ence of the chief Protestant churches; that 
 the largest increase of Christianity in the world, 
 during the present century, has been in the 
 United States ; that every church reaches a 
 population about four times as large as its 
 membership ; that the increase of our church 
 members, notwithstanding the great influx of 
 foreign and Papal population, has greatly outrun 
 the increase of the people ; that in 1800, with 
 a population of about five million, the church 
 members were three hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand ; while in 1860, with a population of 
 thirty-one million four hundred and forty thou- 
 sand, we had over five million church members, 
 i. e., the ratio of professed Christians to the 
 population was one to fifteen in 1800, while in 
 1860 it was one to six. We may add, the 
 vast preponderance of talent, skill, enter- 
 prise, wealth, and manhood of the nation 
 
310 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 is under the direct influence of the Gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 The church Edifices in this country in 1860 
 amounted to fifty-four thousand, at a value of 
 one hundred and seventy-one million dollars, 
 and the number had increased fifty per cent, in 
 the ten years preceding that. The edifices 
 averaged, for the Methodist, two thousand dol- 
 lars each church ; the Baptists, one thousand 
 seven hundred dollars each ; the Presbyterians 
 and Congregationalists, five thousand five hun- 
 dred dollars each; and the Roman Catholics, 
 three thousand seven hundred and ninety-five 
 dollars. Between 1860 and 1866, the contribu- 
 tions of the Protestants in this country, for 
 benevolence, were two million two hundred ancj 
 fifty thousand dollars annually; in 1866, ovei 
 five million dollars ; and the sums given to CoL 
 leges and schools of a high grade, have been 
 over a million a year for the last eight years. 
 And all this relying on the voluntary principle, 
 amici the burdens of a great war. 
 
DESTINY OF OUR COUNTRY. 311 
 
 Now then, kind Reader, if I fail to make the 
 right impression on yon during the few minutes 
 that remain before I close, I have lost the great 
 object of these pages. 
 
 I believe this nation has a mighty destiny 
 before it ; that the tide of time rushes as never 
 before ; that our dangers and our responsibili- 
 ties are inconceivably great ; that the Gospel, 
 in its power and purity, going to the heart and 
 guiding the conscience, and controlling the 
 passions, and bringing out the man to individ- 
 ual responsibility to God, is the great power on 
 which we are to rely. The Church of God is 
 called upon for money, for labor, for thought, 
 for faith, and for love. We ought to see that 
 every child in the land is in the Sabbath School ; 
 — one school in every neighborhood ; that the 
 Home Missionary is all over the land, treading 
 every mountain, visiting every glen, on the 
 banks of every river, preaching Christ, planting 
 churches, and lifting up humanity. We ought 
 
312 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 to see that there are free schools everywhere, 
 as free as the air we breathe, and Colleges to 
 educate and prepare the mind to act in clear 
 light, wdth expanded views, and with noble 
 ends. We must cast up and " prepare a high- 
 way for our God," and then occupy that high- 
 way. 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that all this is calling 
 for money, money, to flow like water ! Truly 
 it is ! Truly it is ! But can you travel fast, 
 on land or on water, without spending money ? 
 Can you live at this day without spending 
 \J money? AVould you go back to the days 
 of the spinning wheel, and saddle and pillion, 
 , because you could live cheap? Why, there 
 is not a man among us, who may not be, 
 and if true to himself, will not be, older at 
 fifty, than Methuselah was at nine hundred 
 and fifty years. You tell me I lived fast 
 during my journey to California ; truly I did. 
 I travelled fast, saw fast, made friends fast, 
 
IMPRESSIONS TO BE LEFT. 313 
 
 iinJ lived longer iu two months than during 
 any other period of two years of my life. 
 We are all living at the same rate. It would 
 once have cost me live years to obtain the 
 information contained in these pages. The 
 Church is living centuries in a generation, 
 and what matters it, if she is called upon 
 to give her labors and money in proportion? 
 
 I want my generation, and I want the gener- 
 ation coming after me, to rise up in views, and 
 in heart, in proportion to their opportunities 
 and responsibilities. To be a Christian in this 
 country now, is to be lifted up to fly with the 
 angel that hath the everlasting Gospel to preach 
 to every creature. I had rather live with my 
 generation now, than to live the life of Methu- 
 selah. 
 
 O my country ! the names of thy great sons 
 will hang over thee like so many bright stars ; 
 the great spirit of our fathers lives, and will 
 live, and the Sun of Ri£]:hteousness himself is 
 
314 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 rising on thee with warmer and warmer beams. 
 God's great plans move on, and the roar of the 
 ocean, and the stern silence of the flinty moun- 
 tain, are waiting at His feet. Those plans, like 
 the century plant, are now unfolding, in their 
 beauty and in their richness. We have bled 
 for thee, O my country, and we will now pray 
 and labor for thee, and we will raise up sons 
 and daughters worthy of our fathers, and 
 worthy the inheritance which they have left us. 
 Over all the land their spirit lives ! 
 
 " The Pilgrim spirit has not fled; 
 It walks in noon's bright light, 
 
 And it watches the bed 
 
 Of our glorious dead, 
 With the holy stars by night I 
 
 And it watches the bed 
 
 Of the brave who have bled, 
 And shall guard this wide- spread shore, 
 
 Till the waves of the bay 
 
 "Where the Mayflower lay, 
 Shall foam and freeze no more ! '* 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 The visitor in California should not fail of going 
 to the following places : — 
 
 1. Almadan Mines. 
 
 These are the Quicksilver Mines, .about seventy 
 or seventy-five miles from San Francisco. You can 
 go in the morning on the San Jose Railroad ; but it 
 is better to leave in the afternoon, go to San Jose, 
 and stay over the night, enjoying the beautiful 
 Santa Clara Valley, through which you pass. Early 
 in the morning take a carriage, and go to the mines, 
 twelve miles, and spend the day there, getting back 
 to San Jose in the evening. Go up to and into the 
 mines, and see the whole. 
 
 2. Vera Cruz. 
 
 Stop at Santa Clara, and take the stage over the 
 mountains — a wild and beautiful ride; and the old 
 city is so Spanish, that it will pay well for the visit. 
 Observe the Redwood tree, the Madrona, and the 
 beautiful landscape view fi-ora the mountain. You 
 can, if you choose, return in a steamer ; but I would 
 not, unless it is very hot and dusty. The steamers 
 are too small. 
 
 (315) 
 
316 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 3. The Geysers. 
 Take the afternoon boat to Vallejo, and then the 
 cars up through the exquisite Napa Valley — beauti- 
 ful beyond description. Stop, and spend the night 
 at Calistoga. Make all your arrangements to leave 
 in a carriage (open wagon), at live o'clock, next 
 morning. Ride twenty miles to Foss's to breakfast ; 
 and such an appetite, and such coffee ! It pays you 
 for the ride. Did you see that elder bush on the way 
 
 — a tree a foot in diameter ! If possible, get Foss 
 to drive you over with his six-horse team, himself. 
 James is next best. Watch that grand mountain 
 on your right, all the way. Enjoy, without fear, 
 your ride of two miles on the "Camel's Back." 
 Hold your breath without terror, as Foss drives you 
 down the mountain, nineteen hundred feet, in ten 
 or eleven minutes, and then look round on the 
 weird place where you find yourself. Get a guide 
 when you visit the Geysers, and don't tarry among 
 them too long, and be sure and go and take a warm 
 bath on your return from them. Stop over night 
 at the hotel, and return, if you choose, through the 
 Russian Valley, and by a longer, but not a pleas- 
 anter route, to San Francisco. Be sure and not 
 omit this visit. 
 
 4. Yo-Semite Valley. 
 Leave the city at four o'clock, P. M., for Stockton 
 
 — a beautiful sail, as long as you are on deck. 
 Arrive at Stockton at six o'clock next morning. 
 From Stockton there are two routes to the Valley. 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 As I wanted to see the Calaveras big trees, I took 
 tlie left route — the shortest and cheapest, when I 
 was there. Now stage — a miserable old wreck of 
 a wagon — to Copperopolis to dinner, and thence 
 to "Murphy's Cainj)"to lodge — a hard day's ride 
 of" sixty-five miles. Go to Sperry's, where your 
 accommodations are good, and your stay made 
 pleasant. You are now among the foot-hills, and 
 the mines, both j)lacer mines and quartz, and can 
 examine either or both. Next morning take stage 
 over the mountain, fifteen miles, to the Big-Tree 
 Grrove — a very romantic ride. At the grove you 
 will find Mr. Perry's hotel — of the same comforta- 
 ble stamp as Sperry's. Take your time here. The 
 trees will have to grow much before you will realize 
 their greatness and grandeur. 
 
 Leave in the morning, and return to " Murphy's 
 Camp," dine, and in staijje ; press on over the wild 
 Stanislaus River and fearful mountain gorges, pass- 
 ing Columbia and the amnzing relics of the miners, 
 lodge at Sonora. In the morning, on through the 
 " Chinese Camp," over the mountain and the Tuo- 
 lumne River, through Garotta, to Harding's Ranch. 
 Stop over night. Now get the best horse you can, 
 and, with a guide, set out with good courage for 
 an awfully hard day's ride in the saddle. Through 
 parks of Nature's planting, over mountains, and 
 through deep banks of snow (supposing it to be 
 about the first of .June, which is the best time), 
 you at last come to the spot where you stop on the 
 trail, and look down into the chasm below, three 
 
318 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 thousand feet. Such a vision you never had before ! 
 Go down the mountain — getting off to walk is best 
 — two and a half miles; and descending three thou- 
 sand feet, brings you into the Valley. Don't be dis- 
 couraged now, but make your way, some miles yet, 
 to the very centre of the Valley, and go directly to 
 Hutchings' ; put yourself under his care and direc- 
 tion ; let him furnish you guides and horses, and 
 mark out each day's work for you. DonH hurry^ 
 now. His charges are reasonable; and if you are 
 not satisfied with the treatment at his house, and 
 what you see in the Valley, you must be hard to 
 please. Visit all the falls and Mirror Lake, and 
 climb the mountains, if you have strength. Get the 
 geography of every fall, and peak, and pinnacle well 
 fixed in your mind. Stop days here, and don't 
 hurry any part of your visit. You are receiving 
 impressions that' are to be a life-long source of joy. 
 In returning, you will not go out of the way to the 
 Calaveras Grove, but from the Chinese Camp direct 
 to Stockton. You can get a ticket for the whole 
 route, via the Grove, at Stockton ; and this is the 
 best way. You can examine the Chinese at their 
 camp, where you will stop over night in coming 
 out. 
 
 The journey to and from the Yo-Semite is a hard 
 one ; but, as you value your peace of mind the rest 
 of your life^ donH fail to make it. You will need 
 7iot less than a fortnight to make the tour, and may 
 reckon the expense at one hundred and twenty 
 dollars in gold. 
 
APPENDIX. 319 
 
 When you get back to San Francisco, and get 
 rested, make directly for ^^Watkins^s Galleri/,^^ and 
 see his niagnilicent Views, large, and most beauti- 
 fully executed, of the Valley. The climate in Cali- 
 fornia makes the best photographs in the world. 
 These, of the Yo-Semite -Valley, excel anything I 
 ever saw. There are about fifty of them, and I urge 
 you to buy just as many of them as your purse will 
 possibly allow, and then sigh that you cannot buy 
 them all. You will bring home nothing from Cali- 
 fornia so beautiful as these large Photographs. Mr. 
 Watkins spent years to take the Views, and to 
 admiration has he succeeded. 
 
 •Next I advise you to go to " J/r. Houseworth! s^"^ 
 to get some Photographs of the Big Trees, and his 
 "Stereoscopic Views" of California. The former 
 are large; the latter, the usual size; and of the 
 many hundreds of Views which he will show you, I 
 can't recall one that is a poor one. I think he must 
 have towards two thousand different Views, and 
 they become, on your possessing them, a source of 
 pure and lasting enjoyment. What you buy of 
 thes5 is a good investment. 
 
 5. The Gold and Silver Mines. 
 
 Visit these, — the Gold, in Grass Valley, near 
 Nevada City, asking advice and direction of Edwin 
 F. Bean, Esq. ; the Silver Mines, at Virginia City, 
 or White Pines. If you stop at Nevada City, get 
 "Bean's History" of the County. You will want 
 it when, you get home. 
 
320 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 6. The Seal Lions. 
 
 These are about seven miles from San Francisco, 
 over a beautiful road. Stop at the Cliff House, and 
 watch the lazy, quarrelsome, uncouth monsters at 
 your leisure. 
 
 7. Down the Coast. 
 
 You should take the steamer, and go down to 
 Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, &c., and get a correct 
 idea and picture of Lower California. It will take 
 a week or more. 
 
 8. The Sandwich Islands. 
 
 When at San Francisco, you are only fourteen 
 days from the Sandwich Islands by steamer; and 
 if you can go, you will enjoy a trip there exceed- 
 ingly; where you will find two races mingling, 
 an old religion and system of things vanishing 
 away, and a new one taking their place ; and where 
 scenery unsurpassed, and in some respects, never 
 equalled, will abundantly compensate you for the 
 voyage. 
 
 9. Hunting and Fishing. 
 
 I have been asked repeatedly about these ; and I 
 can only say, that the grizzly Bear is retiring, and 
 seldom shows himself now; that the Elk has for- 
 saken the valleys, and gone north ; that the Buffalo 
 seems never to have crossed the mountains; that 
 the Deer are still plenty in the mountains, and in the 
 little wild mountain valleys; that the Antelope is 
 
APPENDIX. 321 
 
 found only on this side of the Nevadna, as also the 
 Snge-hen (a sj)ecics of the grouse) ; that the Moun- 
 tain-quail, -tlie Mourning-dove, and the large Hare 
 meet you everywhere ; that in the mountain streams 
 Trout are very abundant, but the meat is white, soft, 
 and ver^ inferior to tlie trout on the Atlantic coast; 
 that Foxes and Lynxes are very plenty in some 
 parts; and that, on the whole, it is a region abound- 
 ing in wild game. 
 
 You will hear the old pioneers describe their 
 encounters with Indians, robbers, and grizzly bears, 
 in days gone by, with a warm eulogium upon the 
 Winchester or Improved Henry Rifle. Indeed, they 
 place it above all other weapons of defence; and, 
 rather than be without his " Winchester," the pio- 
 neer would deny himself anything. The accounts 
 of the power and safety procured by this arm make 
 you cease to wonder at the universal admiration 
 expressed in its favor. 
 
 This Rifle, as now perfected, is, as all who have 
 used it think, the very best gun in this country, and 
 probably unsurpassed by any yet made. 
 
 In crossing the continent — a long and weary 
 journey — don't fail, by letter or by telegraph, to 
 secure a place in one of "Pullman's sleeping cars" — 
 a palace on wheels. Nothing can exceed them, 
 unless Pullman should excel himself. He has a 
 capital of a million in this manufacture — has already 
 one hundred and twenty of those "sleeping cars" 
 running, seven " dining cara," and eight " hotel cars." 
 
 21 
 
322 THE SUNSET LAND. 
 
 He will soon have these cars running, so that you 
 can take the number of your berth in New York, 
 and keep it till- you reach San Francisco. I could 
 wish we had his cars on every railroad in the land. 
 They are flir, far superior to anything of the kind 
 ever invented. He is a public benefactor, notwith- 
 standing he makes it profitable for himself. Pitts- 
 field furnishes a part — and, in cold weather, no 
 small part — of the comforts of the " Pullman car." 
 
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