The Democratic pioneer. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1845-1853, 1849-11-16
From the New York Journnl Of Commerce.
California.

SACRAMENTO CRY, California, Aug. 26, '4e,
We do not yet know the views OF the
public at home in regard to this Califor-
MIA emigration. Does the gold still jingle
as loudly across the Rocky mountains as
il sounded in our hearing few months
sinceg DO you all still look upon Cali
fornia DIS the land Of milk, and honey, and
gold, (milk here is $4 per gallon and hon
ey $2 per pound, with the same wide
awake eye Of faith? Are your ears still
long enough to hear the flowing music OF
aurIferous rivers, kissing every pebble Of
gold? We only know that the fever some
what subsided after thousands had been
hurried off. We only Wish to know wheth-
er we are considered scripturally as those
mot lost, but gone before
Here, the public voice sounds almost
In unison. The tone is whining-the cry
is for home. Many who have grown sud
denly wealthy complain that California is
rich in gold and nothing else The scores
who are daily dying in the miasma Of these
marshes may well raise feeble wall from
their beds Of death, and mourn for the
comforts, the cooling medicines, and the
old religion of home; for all these they
have left behind them. The thousands
who are perishing upon the plains and in
the passes of the Sierra Nevada may well
lament that they rushed madly away from
the rude plenty Of their western farms to
die Of starvation, while their frames are
still strong enough to wrestle agonizingly
with the Great Conqueror, and prolong
their tormehts till death shall seem pleas
ant sleep-@a dream Of rest: But the ma
ny who came to this land Of fevcrish heat
and slavish toll, forewarned that Califor-
MIA was such land, and after having
lolled pantingly one noon in the shade, Or
maned their clerkly finger with one hours
toll, take hasty fight for San Francisco and
the steamer, leaving their curse upon the
country, deserve not the name of pioneers
in the richest portien ofthe globe. Happy
in their own estimation are those who can
run home again; but the majority find
themselves here without means, and are
obliged to labor. From these men come
grumblings, groans, curses loud and deep.
Yet they should have foreseen all this
and unless they were fools, they did fore
see it, Yet they moan like sick child
rem.
There is much excuse. l have told you
Of the heat. 1t seems, if possible, to in
crease. The nights are intensely chilly
and require clothing for a New England
winter. Every day exposed to these vio-
lent extremes, living at best in tents, ol
more Usually in the open air, seeing their
friends well on Sunday, and buried by
Wednesday, men have some excuse for
dread. The sickness here is very sudden
and malignant Bilious fevers diarfhea,
dysentery, liver complaints, and fever and
aguc, are the every day diseases, which all
must taste before they have lived here ma
ny days, which have already filed the
neighboring graveyard at Suffers Fort.
One month more of this blood boiling at
mosphere, and fatal sickness will, fn course
ofnature, complete the dreaded season;
and then for nine months will follow the
healthy climate of the healthiest country
in the world. We rest until that day shall
come.
lam writing from the most interesting
city of California. San Francisco is moi
the natural emporium of the commerce ol
this country; bnt circumstances have given
it rapid and bloated growth. In salub-
rity Of air, excellence Of harbor, and eve
rything which should form the greatest
seaport, either Benecia or Sansalite is &C.
knowleoged to be superior to San Francis
co. But the latter is Just at the entrance
Of the harbor, and was first settled II
will probably remain for long time the
great city Of California.
We live in grove surrounded by mar
shes. Here is beautiful lake filed with
6sh-the noble Sacramento hurries by,
and Suffers Fort rears its massive walls
on the edge ofthe neighboring prairie
The prospect is delightful. the air poison
ous, the miasma deadly. Yet this is the
central point Of all the mines-Stockton,
our only rival, being Insignificant in COM
parison. Our streets are filed by miners,
merchants, hardy survivors from the plains,
and sleek-looking voyagers around Caps
Horn. Here, too. is the traveller just ar.
rived from Panama, exemplifying in hi.
ANXIOUS, half eye, that old maxim