Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/57



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a klndhearled  man  but  not  avaricious,  and  he  still thouo-ht his  visitor  a  little  insane. Leadincr him  with- in, he  set  food  before  him,  and  then  giving  him  for a piece  of  the  quartz  a  napoleon,  and  telling  him  to call  again  whenever  he  pleased,  dismissed  him. The man  never  reappeared,  but  the  rock,  when  anal- yzed, was found  to  be  rich  in  gold. Fifteen years elapsed, and  the  incident  was  well-nigh  forgotten, when one  day  a  small,  heavy  parcel,  enclosed  in  a  torn and greasy  handkerchief,  was  handed  with  a  letter  to the  antiquarian,  by  the  keeper  of  a  lodging  house in a  neighboring  street,  who  said  that  they  were  left there by  a  man  who  had  died,  and  that  they  had  been a long  time  mislaid. What was  the  antiquary's  as- tonishment, on opening  the  letter,  to  find  it  from  the poor invalid,  and  dated  but  a  few  days  after  his  visit, while the  heavy  package  was  the  block  of  quartz.

" I  am  dying,"  he  wrote. " You  alone  listened  to me.  You  alone  stretched  out  a  helping  hand.  I  be- queath you  my  secret.  The  country  whence  I  brought this  gold  is  called  California ! "

It is  stated  that  a  Scotchman,  Young  Anderson  by name,  attempted,  in  1837,  to  enlist  English  capital  in mining  ventures,  through  representations  made  to  him by a  Guatemalan  priest  who  had  lived  in  California, that gold  existed  in  the  neighborhood  of  San  Francisco. The Scotchman  was  unsuccessful.

In 1851,  some  three  years  after  Marshall's  discovery, it was  related  in  the  Worcester  Transcript  that  one  W. F.  Thompson,  an  experienced  trapper,  remembered having found  gold  while  on  the  north  Yuba,  some twelve years  before,  a  pound  of  which  he  carried  with him to  Fort  Leavenworth. There he  left  it,  no  one seemino; to  know  or  to  care  what  it  was. When tidino-s of the  gold  excitement  were  noised  abroad,  he  was engaged in  trapping  in  the  far  north,  and  recognizing his mistake,  at  once  hurried  back  to  the  spot,  only  to find  every  inch  of  the  ground  uprooted.

There was  quite  a  mania  for  mining  in  Alta  Cali-