Hawley returned to San Francisco to attend City College there in 1865. He also began to read law at an attorney's office. He apparently completed the coursework he wanted by the spring of 1867. However, he then ran into some difficulty in San Francisco, the details of which "have not been preserved." According to one account, he ran away to sea and ended up in China, on the losing side of the Taiping Rebellion. Supposedly, he escaped death after being captured by government forces through the good offices of the British consul. In any case, Hawley returned to the Boise Basin in 1868, and again took up mining and prospecting.