Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/41



since visited,  and  how  much  metal   has   been   taken from them  ?

Perhaps twenty  times  the  following  passage  -in Shelvocke, A  Voyage  Round  the  World  in  1719-22,  by no  means  a  rare  or  remarkable  book,  has  been  pointed out to  me  by  men  whose  superficial  investigations have led  them  to  believe  that  gold  was  known  to  exist in California  nearlv  two  centuries  aoo. Here is  the passage :  "  The  eastern  coast  of  that  part  of  California which  I  had  a  sight  of,  appears  to  be  mountainous, barren  and  sandy,  and  very  like  some  parts  of  Peru ; but  nevertheless,  the  soil  about  Puerto  Seguro,  and very  likely  in  most  of  the  valleys,  is  a  rich,  black mould,  which  as  you  turn  it  fresh  up  to  the  sun  ap- pears as  if  intermingled  with  gold  dust,  some  of  which we  endeavored  to  wash  and  purify  from  the  dirt;  but though  we  were  a  little  prejudiced  against  the thoughts  that  it  could  be  possible  that  this  metal should  be  so  promiscuously  and  universally  mhigled with  common  earth,  yet  we  endeavored  to  cleanse  and wash  the  earth  from  some  of  it,  and  the  more  we  did the  more  it  appeared  like  gold ;  but  in  order  to  be further  satisfied,  I  brought  away  some  of  it  which  we lost  in  our  confusions  in  China."

Now in  the  first  place  this  navigator— whose  map by the  way  shows  the  two  Californias  together  as  an island — never  was  in  Alta  California  at  all;  and  sec- ondly, he may  or  he  may  not  have  seen  particles  of something  resembling  gold  at  Cape  St  Lucas,  the only pomt  at  which  he  touched. In a  word,  what- ever he saw  or  said  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with the discovery  of  gold  in  the  Sierra  foothills. And yet I  have  seen  printed  in  more  than  one  Pacific coast newspaper  this  statement  of  Shelvocke's  without any reference  to  the  fact,  and  apparently  without  the knowledge of  it,  that  the  California  referred  to  was not Upper  California.

At the  time  Shelvocke  was  engaged  in  his  circum- navigation, the Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  explor-