The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1850-02-07
caIIrORNIA EMIGRANTs.

CALIFORNIA EMIGRANTs. -,
Ourssbieee in giving those true views thae W
aid last week Of hat which emiGssnts may *.
Lei y California, was 10 show them that there
ras dark q well = : light sidstc Ne picture.
Ne AssireS to tsss6t them, e prepare their
minds Tor hardships that they must and will ex-
perience in that country. We based our opln-
ions mainly on Bayard Taylor's letters, which
we conceive to be reliable. and partly from the
same strain peryading each letter from every
source weyet have seen. In oil these puo'.snea
accounts the writers do moi say, "come out here
this is the rlace to lives" on the contrary, tnsy
reiterate the edmonton, ssn you can get living
It home. do not come here.'' Why is this! Be-
cause they have found the same hardships that
we predict to those who SO the present year.-
WHY was there so much suffering last year! BE-
cause SO many had visited the dggings that, a.
Bay ard Taylor and Ill others assure US, the sur
face gold had become nearly exhausted ana inc
immense overland immigration came IN Just al
the commencement Of the wet season. NOW,
nearly all of that immigration will be engaged
digging gold next season, and unless new iocai'-
ties be discovered will pick the old ones bare as
the auriferous soil in the gold washinss OF Geor-
eia. What then. More numerous than tue
swarms of ,49 will the overland immigration q
1850 come pouring in. Greedier than those VINO
preceded them, in their efforts to be among the
first in California, they travel ighi; nine-ienths
Of them have no money, and the prices OF provls-
ions become unprecedented; the rainy season
commences; the mechanical branches OF business
are all surfeited labor is little in demand, and
they do suffer Friends, We tell you your lots
are cast in pleasant places, and if you 0il 60 to
California, prepare FOR such hardships as none IN
this favored land are ever called upon TO endure.
The overland journey is nothing, il is the suffer
ing that awaits you there for which you must
steel your minds. You may get much gold, We
never have doubted it, but it will be 1t the ex-
pense, for the time being, Of all that contributes
to your happiness. 1t may sow the seed Of dis
ease in your constitutions and-human nature -
the same all the world oyer-it viii give you an
unquenchable thirst for gold, sthe vile, yellow
slave Of the mine.'
Very few Of the many who have talked OF ieav-
ing oui county for the mines, will 60. Even
while We write has one begged Of us to publish
only what is favorable, because his wife had been
thrown into excitement by the perusai OF our last
spicture.' Poor fe lows. they would listen only
to the bright side to sustain their orn courage,
and many an one Of them, like friend Of ours,
will fall back upon the consent of wife to extr-
cate himself from this his dilemma.
Were it our design to alarm the women, or
their husbands, we would picture sick emigl ant
on the plains, far, far away'from medical atten-
dance OF the gentle nuryings Of wife, his death,
his burial; how as wanderer and fugitive in
his native land, he went down like lonely bark
amidst darkness and tempest, without
. pitying eye to weep bis fall Or friendly hand
% record his Struggles Or, dashing of upon a
more extended scale we would sum up the sum
Of human misery, we could conjure before your
minds in lrishtfui array that long, dense line OF
emigrants with the Asiatc Cholera in their midst
But 60, impelled 0v.i saeri fame, cen though you
look back, contrast your unhappy situation,
and exclaim with Goldsmith's traveller:
But me, not destined such delight to share,
NY prime Of life in wandering spent and care
lmpelPd with steps nncessing TO pursue
Some 1eeting good that n.ocks me with the view,
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allurea from afar, and, as follow, flies
Me. Fortune leads to traverse realms slone,
And find no spot Of all the world my own.