The Portsmouth inquirer. [volume] (Portsmouth, O. [Ohio]) 1849-1855, 1850-08-19
Mariposal California.

4 !. T.
MR.; CLEVELAND :-7Sir, BY your re
quest viii commence by giving you de
scription Of some of The waysto California
AT Ohagrcs you Can get canoe and ne
groes te take ybu'up 10 Gorgona for so
10 dollars, and 10 Cruces lor l2 or rs
and you will betwo or two and d halliday
IgofagGs Passengers shoald take seine brea,
land meat. Coffee. or chocolate you car
lGet from The negroes at stopping places,
or there are a good many Americans OF
the road now that keep eating .houscs.--
From Gorgona 10 Panama you fare tht
same. You can get anything carried a
cross. ! saw a man carry a trunk tha
weighed 230 pounds and walk 10 miles.
/ Panama is an old, rusty looking place
lAll the houses are covered with tiles aft
Hook like the barns IN Pennsylvania, al
though allof them are three stories high
and five or six families live in them. Blu
the fruitof every description was very
fine, when we were there, on the first O.
March 8.ir,
line next place we stopped at was Aca,
puleo in Mexico; a much handsomerpace
with fruit of all kinds. The banyontret
grows there making the prettiest shade
ever saw. 1t is on evergreen. The co.
Goa, nut tree is in abundance and fruit
called the plantain. The bananas and
mangoes are delicious fruits. When we
were there, in April, watermellons were
without number. 80 M
We were next in the bay of San Fran
cisco, and it was SO fullof ships, briggs and
Schoohers that it was hard to get ashore
but we landed on the 18th Of April all sale,
although there were several sick of the
Panama fever, but all getting bettpr, Our
little party got along very well except some
sea sickness, and John Clugsten and my.
self escaped even that. P7f4 ~
San Francisco is poor place and will
never be any better. Heavy fogs abound
there for whole days, and in dry weather
the dust blows so for about one half Of the
day that You cannot sec man across the
street. The houses are dirty and look old
before they are finished. Business was
very dull when we were there, as they
said, and | thought so TOO. Very little
was selling except at auction, and house
rent was down two or three hundred per
cent; but it is better now, reckon, since
almost ono fourth Of the place is burnt
down. | suppose | have lost my trunk
and most of my clothing by the fire, as it
was left in part Of the town that was
burnt.
Salters, ClugsteD, my son and myself
went to the southern mines. We took a
steamboat to Stockton, distance Of about
$50 miles, al $25 each without bed or
board. From Stockton tothe mines where
we are is something over 100 miles Haul
ing was SIS per hundred and the same for
each passenger. Flour where we are is
$50 hundred, and pork $40, fresh beef
from Is to % cents a pound, dried apples
IS, rice 81, potatoes 81 pound, molasses
from 4 10 5 dollars gallon and beans 40
cents a pound. The expense Of getting
things to the mines is what makes them so
high. In coming out to the mines part
Of the plains was beautiful We were
seven days in going about 100 miles; as long
as it would take to go from Portsmouth to
New Orleans, but no expense for Injuries.
You do your own cooking and sleep on the
ground. There was plenty Of grassso that
cottle or mules needed no other food, There
we're three ferries and they charged S. for
taking team across.
We are now in the mines and hard look
ing places they ore. The dirt is thrown
hilher and thither and ifyou get gold now,
you have to work in the water and mud.
have not seon but one or two who did not
wish themselves at home before they had
struck a lick. Itis a perfect lottery for
a man 10 get rich here. The time that
they take TO do it in is 10 short any how ).
Some men will make money and the next
man tobim, perhaps, will work equally as
hard and make nothing, not even enough
TO pay for what he cats. John Clugsten,
my son and myself have done tolerably
well, but Clugsten has now started for The
north along with William Salters. ~
Things are beginning 10 dry up now
and grass and weeds begin to die. People
talk Of farming in California, but you
might as well undertake to do almost any
thing else. There is no rain from March
to oNovember and very hot sun almost all
the time, seldom cloud to be seen. Reads
that arc travelled get so dusty that you 90
over shoetop every step. There are places,
however, where wheat and oats can be
raised or anything which makes most of lis
growth in the winteror rainy season, Though
there are late frusts, even ia May. Every
thing here that is found in The States or
that can be shipped is brought here for sale,
and many things sell below first cost.--
Some very fine pines grow here, The
oak frees ooklike old apple trees and are
about as high and ofthc same appearance
at a distance. Where the timber grows it
all looks like an orchard. The trees are
from 20to SO yards apart. Sometimes
for miles you can see and pull flowers Of
every, description and at the same time
look at tho mountains covered with skow,
thought is melting away very fast now,
outhe nearest Of them. The nights are
ycrycold so that you can sleep very COM
forlubly with three or four blankets on, that
is if you happen 10 have them. 4