The Adventures of a Forty niner by Daniel Knower

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THE ADVENTURES OF A FORTY-NINER

An Historic Description of California, with Events and Ideas
of San Francisco and Its People in Those Early Days

By

DANIEL KNOWER

1894

DEDICATED TO
Colonel Jonathan Stevenson,
Colonel John C. Freemont, and
Captain John A. Sutter,

THE THREE PRE-EMINENT PIONEERS OF CALIFORNIA.

[Illustration: DANIEL KNOWER.]

PREFACE

The discovery of gold in California, in 1848, with its other mineral
resources, including the Alamada quicksilver mine at San Jose, which is
an article of first necessity in working gold or silver ore; and the
great silver mines of Nevada, in 1860, the Comstock lode, in which, in
ten years, from five to eight hundred millions of gold and silver were
taken out, a larger amount than was ever taken from one locality before,
the Alamada quicksilver mine being the second most productive of any in
the world, the one in Spain being the largest, said to be owned by the
Rothschilds. Its effect upon the general prosperity and development of
our country has been immense, almost incalculable. Before these
discoveries the amount of gold in the United States was estimated at
about seventy millions, now it is conceded to be seven hundred millions.
The Northern Pacific coast was then almost unpopulated. California a
territory three times as large as New York and Oregon and the State of
Washington, all now being cultivated and containing large and populous
cities, and railroads connecting them with the East. Why that country
should have remained uninhabited for untold ages, where universal
stillness must have prevailed as far as human activity is concerned, is
one of the unfathomable mysteries of nature. It is only one hundred and
twenty-five years since the Bay of San Francisco was first discovered,
one of the grandest harbors in the world, being land-locked, extending
thirty miles, where all the vessels of the world could anchor in safety.
The early pioneers of those two years immediately after the gold was
discovered (of which I am writing) are passing away. As Ossian says,
"People are like the waves of the ocean, like the leafs of woody marvin
that pass away in the rustling blast, and other leaves lift up their
green heads." There is probably not five per cent of the population of
California to-day, of those days, scenes and events of which I have
tried to portray. Another generation have taken their places who can
know but little of those times except by tradition. I, being one of the
pioneers, felt it a duty, or an inspiration seemed to come over me as an
obligation I owed to myself and compatriots of those times, to do what I
could to perpetuate the memory of them to some extent in the history of
our country as far as I had the ability to do it.

THE AUTHOR.

THE CALIFORNIA PIONEER SOCIETY.

The California Pioneer Society was organized in August, 1850. The
photograph of their building appears on the cover of this book, W.D.M.
Howard was their first president. Among their early presidents, and
prominent in the days of Forty-niners, were Samuel Branan, Thomas
Larkins, Wm. D. Farewell, and James Lick--who liberally endowed it.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.]

It was organized for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of the
events of those days and for the benefit and mutual protection of its
members. No person was eligible for membership except he had arrived in
California before the 1st of January, 1850, and the descendants of
Forty-niners when arriving at the age of twenty-one are eligible. At the
opening of the World's Fair in San Francisco in January last, in the
ceremonies in the marching of the procession through the streets of the
city, they were received with the greatest enthusiasm and cheers, which
was a marked manifestation of the veneration in which they are held by
the people of California.

THE ADVENTURES OF A FORTY-NINER.

The writer was practising his profession in the city of Albany, his
native place, in 1848, when reports came of the discovery of gold in
California. In a short time samples of scales of the metal of the river
diggings were on exhibition, sent to friends in the city in letters.
Many of Colonel Stevenson's regiment had been recruited in that city.
Soon these rumors were exaggerated. It was said that barrels of gold
were dug by individuals named. Soon the excitement extended all over the
country, and the only barrier to wealth, it seemed, was the difficulty
of getting to the Eldorado. Why the discovery of gold there should have
produced so much excitement cannot be fathomed. It seemed an era in
human affairs, like the Crusades and other events of great importance
that occur. Your correspondent became one of its votaries, and organized
a company to go to the gold rivers and secure a fortune for all
interested in it, and it seemed all that was required was to get there
and return in a short time and ride in your carriage and astonish your
friends with your riches. Suffice it to say, this company was fully
organized (with its by-laws and system of government drawn up by the
writer), and sailed from the port of New York on the ship _Tarrolinter_
on the 13th of January, 1849, to go around Cape Horn, arriving in San
Francisco on the following July. From that time I became absorbed in all
the news from the gold regions, and losing confidence somewhat in the
certainty of a fortune from my interest in the company, and reading of
the high price of lumber, the scarcity of houses, and the extraordinary
high wages of mechanics there, conceived the project of shipping the
materials for some houses there, having all the work put on them here
that could be done, thus saving the difference in wages, and to have
them arrive there before the rainy season set in, and thus realize the
imaginary fortune that I had expected from my interest in the company.
In the following spring I had twelve houses constructed. The main point
upon which my speculation seemed to rest was to get them to San
Francisco before the rainy season commenced. I went to New York to
secure freight for them in the fastest vessel. Fortunately for me, as I
conceived at the time, I found the day before I arrived in New York, the
_Prince de Joinville,_ a Havre packet ship, had been put up to sail for
the port of San Francisco, and as yet had engaged no freight. I made a
bargain with them at once to take my houses at sixty cents per square
foot, and had the contract signed, half to be delivered at the side of
the ship by such a date and the other half at a subsequent date. I
delivered the first half of the houses on the time agreed, sending them
down the Hudson river by a barge on a tow. I sent the second half on a
barge to get there on the day they were due, apprehending no trouble, I
going down myself a few days in advance. They commenced complaining at
the ship that they would not have room for the balance of my houses on
board, although I had their written contract to take them at sixty cents
per foot.

There was great California excitement about this time, and other parties
had come to the conclusion that the _Prince de Joinville_ was probably
the fastest ship taking freight for San Francisco. I saw them accept of
offers at $1.50 per foot, when their contract with me was for less than
half that price, which would make a difference of several thousand
dollars in their favor. So, if the balance of my houses did not arrive
within the time stated in the contract, they would not be taken on that
vessel, and my speculation ruined. The time was up the next day at
twelve o'clock. I was down on the Battery the next morning early
watching for the tow, with the barge with my houses. The ship was at the
dock in the East river. About ten o'clock, A.M., I had the good fortune
to see the barge rounding the Battery. I cried out to the captain to cut
loose from the tow, employ the first steam tug and I would pay the bill,
which he did, getting on the side of the vessel by eleven o'clock, thus
saving my contract by one hour. But they did not commence taking them on
board, so the captain of the barge put a demurrage of $20 per day for
detention. In the meantime, I had bought my ticket to sail by the
steamer _Georgia_ to the Isthmus to go on the 1st of July which was but
a few days off. They, seeing that I had them on my contract, came to me
and said that my houses should go on their ship according to contract,
if they had to throw other freight out, and that they would sign a
regular bill of lading for all the material deliverable to me upon the
arrival of the _Prince de Joinville_ at the port of San Francisco, and
take my carpenters' specifications for the description of them, which
seemed all right to me.

The following is an article from the _Albany Evening Atlas_ of June 23,
1849:

"CALIFORNIA HOUSES.

"Our estimable fellow citizen Dr. Knower, who is to start
for California by the Crescent City _via_ Panama, is about
to ship to that place twelve houses, complete and ready to
put up on arrival at San Francisco. The venture is a costly
one, the freight on the material approaching the cost of as
many frame buildings in this quarter, and the projector, we
think, has managed the speculation with great foresight and
judgment. The best timber has been selected, and the best
work men employed, and a plan of architecture pursued,
which is supposed to offer the greatest advantages with the
most economical expenditures of material. Four of these
buildings are 18 feet front and 25 feet deep. A partition
running lengthways divides the buildings into two rooms, and
the stairs leads to a second platform, which is large enough
for bedrooms, or for storing materials and tools of miners.
Two others are 18 feet front and 18 feet deep, with a small
extension in the rear of 8 feet. Two are 16 feet in front
and 22 feet deep, with the entrance on the gable front; and
the four others are 18 feet front by 14 deep. The sides of
the building will be composed of a double framework of
boards planed, grooved and tongued, fitting air tight on
each side of the timber, the interval between them being
either filled with the moss of the country or left vacant,
the confined column of the air being found sufficient to
keep off the excess of cold or heat. The roofs of all the
buildings shed from the front, except two of which are of
gable shape. The roofs are to be made of solid,
close-fitting planks, covered with fine ticking and coated
with the patent indestructible fire-proof paint, and
applications which our citizens have just begun to use here,
and which they have, found entirely successful.

"The houses can be easily transported to the placers or may
be put up on the sea-board. We should suppose that the
numerous land-owners who are speculating on the prospects of
future cities would be glad to give the land necessary for
the location of this village.

"The houses go by the _Prince de Joinville_, a first-class
vessel, which leaves New York soon."

I sailed on the steamer which left New York at 5 P.M., July 1, 1849.
Friends were there to see me off, but there were no persons on the boat
that I had ever seen before--I was wondering who would be my first
acquaintance.

Being very tired, I retired soon to my berth, and woke up the next
morning on the broad ocean. Two days of sea sickness and I was all right
again. There were about one thousand passengers from all parts of our
country. I tried to fathom the motives and standing of different ones.
Colonel B. from Kentucky, an aristocratic-looking man, with his slave
for a body servant, who could not have been bought for less than $1,500
in Kentucky, where slavery existed at that time. Why a man in his
circumstances should be going to California to seek gold I could not
fathom. One day a party of us were seated around the table talking
matters over. It was proposed that each should reveal to the others what
he expected to do and his motives for the expedition. We each related
our expectations and the motives that had inspired us. My aristocratic
friend was one of the party. My curiosity was at its height to know his
views. He said: "Well, gentlemen, you have all been candid in your
statements, and I shall be the same; I am going to California to deal
Faro, the great American gambling game, and I don't care who knows it."

Later on in my narrative, I shall have occasion to refer to Colonel B.
again under other circumstances. The fourth day out being the fourth of
July, was duly celebrated on the steamer in true American style. Our
course was to the east of Cuba. We passed in sight of the green hills of
San Domingo to our left, and in sight of Jamaica to our right, crossing
the Caribbean sea, whose grand, gorgeous sunsets I shall never forget. I
could not buy a ticket in New York for the steamer from Panama to San
Francisco, but was informed at the office in New York that sixty tickets
were for sale in Panama by Zackery, Nelson & Co., the American Consul,
who were agents for the steamer on the Pacific side. I naturally
supposed that those who offered their money first for those tickets
could buy them. The price was $300 for the first cabin, and $150 for
the second, from Panama to San Francisco; but a fraction of the
passengers had a ticket for the Pacific side.

The objective point was to get to Panama to secure a ticket, so I made
an arrangement with four others; three were to take charge of the
baggage of the five, and take it leisurely, and Lieutenant M., of South
Carolina, and myself were selected to run an express across the Isthmus
and get there ahead of the other passengers and secure tickets for the
five, and try and be the first to land at Chagres. We came to anchor in
the bay. The captain announced that no passengers would be permitted to
go ashore until the government officials had inspected the vessel. A
boat came from shore with the officials. After a short stay the
officials went down the side of the steamer to their boat to return to
the shore. There was a guard to keep all but the proper persons from
getting into the boat. I had a small carpet bag in my hand, passed the
guard, slipped a $5 gold piece in his hands, and took my seat in the
boat, and, of course, passed as one of the officials, and was the first
passenger to land from the steamer. The first point to be made was to
secure a boat for passage up the Chagres river. I was recommended to
Colonel P., who was the head man in that business there. He was a
colonel in the Granadian army. I found him a full-blooded African, but
an active business man in his way. I got his price for a boat and two of
his best men, and then offered double the price if they would row night
and day, and an extra present to the men if they made good time, for
every thing seemed to depend on securing those tickets on the Pacific
side. By the time I had all my arrangements made, Lieutenant M. made his
appearance. He said he was the second passenger that landed from the
steamer. Then behold us in what they called a dug-out, a boat somewhat
similar to a canoe, with a little canopy over the center that you could
crawl under to lay down with the two naked natives, with the exception
of a cloth around their loins, neither understanding each other's
language, to whom we could only communicate by signs. At 4 P.M.,
starting for Gorgona, fifty-five miles up the river, where we were to
land and take mules for Panama. Eight miles was the first stopping
place. We felt elated that we had got so good a start of all the other
passengers. The denseness of the vegetation first attracted our
attention on the banks of the river. The trees, the vines, the
shrubbery, the vines clinging to the trees, hanging in all fantastic
shapes, it seemed to be impenetrable, an ocean of green, unlike any
thing we had ever seen before.

Early in the evening we arrived at the first stopping place, eight miles
on our way up the river, where we both made ourselves at home, excited
at the strangeness of the scene, surrounded by the thatched huts of the
natives, who were having a dance on the square in the village. After we
had been there an hour, we thought our men had their rest, and it was
time to go on according to our contract, to be rowed night and day.

In the meantime it seems the natives had taken some offense at
Lieutenant M.'s familiarity, and they appeared with handles of long
knives projecting back of their necks in a threatening manner. We
likewise learned that that was the home of one of our men, and that he
proposed to stay there all night in violation of the contract. So we had
a consultation to decide what to do to get away. It was pitch dark; we
laid our plan. Lieutenant M. beckoned one of the men away from the dance
as if he wanted to give him something, and drew his pistol on him and
marched him down to the boat, while I, with a pistol, kept him there
while he went for the other man.

After a while he came with him and we got them both in the boat and
started. About this time there was a storm came up with the rain, and
thunder and lightning, as the elements can only perform in that way in
the tropics, surrounded by impenetrable darkness, and to us an unknown
river, with its serpents and alligators, with our two naked savages,
that we only got in the boat by force, and, of course, could not feel
very friendly toward us. Expecting to be fired on from the shore, if
they could see us through the darkness, we took our departure from our
first landing place on the Chagres river, surrounded by romance enough
to satisfy the most romantic imagination in that line. Our men kept
steadily to work. After a while the clouds broke away, the moon showed
itself, and we made good progress that night. We had no trouble with our
men after that. The colonel at Chagres had evidently given us his best
man. They found that we were masters of the situation and it was for
their interest to submit. We treated them kindly after that, and all
went well, for we passed every boat we came to. I shall never forget the
look of despair at two Frenchmen, evidently gentlemen, as we went by
them, and they informed us the length of time they had been coming up
the river, and that they could do nothing with their men. That afternoon
we came in sight of a thatched hut on the banks, evidently a ranch. We
thought it for our interest to rest. We saw a man whom we took for the
proprietor, entirely naked, rubbing his back against a post. On landing
and approaching him he excused himself for a short time, and returned
dressed, walking with the air of a lord of a manor, which dress
consisted of a coarse bagging shirt, coming down to his knees. We
arrived the next day at 11 A.M., at Gorgona, and took our dinner at the
hotel kept by the Alcalde of the place, and bargained with him for a
guide and three mules to continue our journey to Panama. As soon as our
guides and mules were ready, about 1 P.M., we started for Panama. We
soon got enough of our mules by being thrown a number of times over
their heads. They did not understand our language. "Get up and go
along," was Greek to them, but when the guide said "mula vamous" they
knew what it meant. On reaching the place where we were to stay all
night, we arose in the morning refreshed, but concluded to leave our
mules and make the rest of the way a-foot, as we considered them a
nuisance, and as we had no baggage but my little satchel previously
referred to, in which I had bills of lading of my houses, they being
consigned to me, the specifications of my carpenter's schedule, my
letters and a gold chronometer watch, worth $250, belonging to H., a
broker in New York, a friend, and a bottle of the best brandy, which he
presented to me to keep off the fever in crossing the Isthmus. This bag
I handed to the guide boy, about seventeen years of age, taking out the
brandy bottle. The watch I was to sell, for he had two nephews who had
gone to California, and if they were in need, to supply their wants. I
did not meet them; sold the watch for $500 to Mr. Haight, one of the
owners of the Miners' Bank in San Francisco, and remitted the money to
my friend, so I shall not refer to the watch again.

We were walking on at a free pace, our guide boy following behind.
Looking back after awhile we could not see him. We stopped and waited
some time, but he did not come, so we thought we would go on and he
would follow. The result was we lost our way and craved for a sight of
the Pacific ocean with all the ardor that Gilboa could have done, the
first Spanish discoverer of it, and on the same route, after our
wanderings all day, almost without hope, until four in the afternoon, we
came to a stream of water; oppressed with the heat of the tropics and
fatigued I threw myself in the water. Lieutenant M. exclaimed: "Do not
give up in that way." "I am not giving up," I replied; "only refreshing
myself." In a short time he did the same thing. As we lay there we
thought we heard voices. In looking back who should we see but one of
our countrymen, the most gladdening sight to us. We felt saved at once.
We asked him if he had any provision. He said he thought not. Then he
said one of his companions might have a little piece of ham left and
some crackers. He said there were three of them, and they would soon be
there, and when they came one of them had some bacon and a few crackers,
which he gave to us. The eating of it soon refreshed us. As I had some
of the brandy left in the bottle, I extended it to them, which they were
very glad to receive. Explanations ensued. We, by chance, had struck the
Crusos road, and were but ten miles from Panama. They had come from
Philadelphia in a brig, and had started across from Crusos, the head of
boating on the Chagres river, and had been from two to three weeks
getting so far across the Isthmus, and were perfectly astonished at the
rapidity with which we had come. So we joined them and arrived in Panama
that evening. Lieutenant M. and myself were the first of the one
thousand passengers of the _Georgia_ to enter the city. The office of
the agents of the Pacific steamers was closed. I went, the first thing
in the morning, to purchase the five tickets for our party. Alas for
human expectation! I was informed it would be several weeks before the
steamer would sail. She had not yet returned from the first trip to San
Francisco. They said there were but sixty tickets for sale, and they
would not be offered until a few days before the departure of the
steamer. Of course, all we could do was to abide our chances of getting
them. The city was walled around and dyked like those of the Middle
Ages. Toward the bay the wall was one hundred feet high by twenty broad.
The city had been on the decline for most a hundred years. We could see
the ruins of what it once had been. At one time Spain owned all South
America, Mexico, California, Louisiana and Florida. Panama was the only
port of entry on the Pacific coast, and controlled its commerce. As you
enter the gates of the walled city there is a chapel just inside, where
the lights are always burning on its altars. The first thing on entering
all good Catholics enter, kneel and make their devotions, seeking the
protection of the patron saint of the city. The head alcalder of the
city was a Castilian Spaniard, a venerable-looking gentleman, white as
any Northern man, evidently of Scandinavian descent, who ages back
conquered Spain and divided the land up among themselves and became its
nobility, from whom the present rulers of Spain are descendants. It is
said that when conquered, the original inhabitants of Spain, to a great
extent, fled to their vessels, put to sea, and found the island of
Ireland, from which the present inhabitants are descendants. The second
alcalder was a negro as black as I have ever seen.

In the city of Panama in its days of prosperity, when under Spain, the
higher classes must have lived in great luxuries, the negroes their
slaves. The natives the peons were in a condition similar to slavery,
they could not leave the land as long as they owed any thing. But the
despotism of old Spain became so great that when they struck for
freedom, all classes united. They gave freedom to the negroes and the
peons, and even the priests of the Catholic church had been so
tyrannized over by the mother church in Spain that they joined the
revolutionists and all classes are represented in the government. I
called at a watchmaker's to have a crystal put in my watch. Two brothers
had furnished rooms like a parlor. I could not speak Spanish, nor they
English. I could speak a little French. I found they could speak it
fluently. I asked them where they learned it. They said, "At the Jesuit
college at Granada." Then one, of them, when he learned that I was from
the United States, went to the piano and played Hail Columbia as a
compliment to my country, which would trouble most of us to do the same
for their country.

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