Washington telegraph., 1849-10-24

30th, there ere in the harbor of San
Francisco 81 ,5s2 tons of shipping, exclu.
sive of about sixty river craft.
The News of the 1st, says:
| 1--WE are sorry to state that the Hon
| 7. Butler King is no better, and fears are
entertained of his recovery. His disease
is an aggravated attack of the prevailing
dysentery."
An invoice of thirty dozen shirts was
received at this port, from the Sandwich
! Islands, having been sent to Honolulu,
where labor is cheap, to-be washed. The
PRICES vary here, from five to nine dollars
! per dozen.
On the 2Sth of August, eighteen sailors
and the coxswain, III the morning watch
escaped from the U. S. steamship Ohio,
in boat alongside; and when some forty
yards off, were fired upon by the marines.
In their way to the shore, they were
| obliged to pass by the sloop-of-war War
rem, and the storeships Southampton and
Fredonia, which each fired upon them,
but without success. The boat was rid
died, yet none were wounded. They
fled, on reaching the shore. and are doubt
less now i'll the "diggins.''
The following IS extracted from pri-
vate letter, written by one of our friends,
who made the trip in one hundred days
by the Corpus Christi route. After Civ
ing an amusing ACCOUNT of his adventures
aud description of San Francisco, he
says:
ga small 16x38 weather boarded house
bac
and rents for $4,000 year, payable in
advance. Building lots are worth from
$4,000 to $4,000. l pity the poor devils
who have bought and built at these prices,
for in six months they will not be able
to realize one-tenth of their outlay
Those who have come out with goods
are bouud to lose money. Goods have
been shipped from all the pacific ports,
which can always supply the country
with the required provisions. Our friend
here gives the story of his travel to the
diggins, and then says:] The goldis not
on the surface, as has been represented,
but you have to dig deep for it, tear up
the solid rock, work in the water and
then it is all luck whether you get much
or none. The work is of the hardest
kind, and after trying it, may candidly
say, that would rather drive dray or
roll boxes OH the Levee, than follow it
up. TO all who purpose coming out, |
would advise them first to begin at day
light and carry kegs of nails, boxes of tin,
or any other heavy packages from the
sidewalk of any street in New Orleans,
carry them into the store and pile them
up, do not stop for breakfast, or lunch,
or liquor; at noon stop an hour and eat
small piece Of salt pork and a ships
biscuit, and then work until sun down,
and see how you feel. If you can then
find comfortable nights sleep on the
ground, under a tree, with single blan-
ket and million ants running over you;
and enjoy all this, you can then come out
to California and live six months, and be
able to save with good luck at digging,
from $500 to $4,000 1t is ali in the
luck, for where there is one who has
made $4,000 or $4,000, there are 500
who have not $500, and all doing the
same labor, There is no doubt that Call
ifornia is one vast gold mine, but it re-
quires much hard labor to get it out
Five years hence, when labor can be
hired, regular mining companies will re-
alize fortunes.
The letter concludes by saying, that if
the church gets as many repentant sinners
within the year, as there are repentant
miners at the "diggins." her. population
and prosperity VIII be enormously in
creased.