Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-26
FROM THE MINES.
A SprightIy Letter from the
Santa Clara Region.
WATER SCARCE IN THE CAMP.
A "Fake" from Beginning to End
Which Duped Many People
to their Ruin.
SANTA CLARA GOLD MINES,
Lower California,

EDITORS HERALD-I have not had the
pleasure or profit of securing copy o.
the HERALD for some time. Away of
in this part of the "moral (or immoral.
vineyard" the sight of a copy at the
present writing would be treat to be
remembered. l have now been here fol
some time, and thinking few lines from
this place, giving a candid statement o.
how 1 found matters and things in the
much vaunted gold field of Bsja Cali
fornia, would not be unacceptable tc
yourself or readers, write you. You
may, of course, consign them to your
columns, or, to the waste basket, at your
pleasure.
Myself and five other gentlemen, with
a full outfit of supplies, in the way OF
provisions, tent, tools. etc., left San
Diego by way of Ensenada, per steamer,
intending to hire transportation by
wagon from the latter place to this.
After a short run of seven or eight hours,
we arrived at Ensenada. and there our
troubles commenced. Any one who has
ever tried to get lot of goods through a
Mexican custom house with its eternal
red tape and everlasting "nanana, +"
will appreciate the trouble and annoy
ance attending the unfortunate shipper.
However, to make a long story short, on
the fourth day after arriving, we got our
things, by paying $3.50 on goods costing
us $94 20 in San Diego.
Prior to getting them-indeed, imme-
diately after getting ashore-we COM
menced making inquiries as to the mines,
the way of getting there, and more par
ticularly to find, if we could, part of
the rich yield which these fields were
said to have produced. Here our first
serious and most important disappoint-
ment took place. We could not find the
nuggets. 1t is true gentleman showed
us little lot of gold-about two and a
half or three ounces-which he told US
had been taken out of the mines. The
next day We again prosecuted our re-
searches, and were rewarded by finding
another little lot, of about three ounces,
in the hands of Ybs & Co. but, outside
OF these two lots, nothing more was to be
found. Ybs & Co. told US they had re-
ceived, in all, only about 5000 worth of
gold. Ivinson & Co., bankers, had not
purchased an ounce, nor had any been
offered to them to them to purchase !;
and they, being bankers it was only fair
to presume, would have been among the
first to purchase had any been offered.
This was discouraging, as we had been
told in San Diego, and the Unaon-
Bee had published a statement, that
from 1000 to $4,000 had been received
in one day. We ascertsiped that the re-
port had been spread by gentleman (?l
by the name of Furman, formerly in the
real estate business in San Diego, but
now one of the owners of the Bay View
Hotel in Ensenada. During our stay
there we interviewed person after person,
nearly all of them residents-among the
rest Gaskell, the reputed discoverer of
the mines-and while they all, or nearly
all, spoke in commendation of them and
what could be done in them, to their
credit be it said they did not give us the
glowing and exaggerated accounts that
Diego, and which were 30 rife on the
climate" when we left there. Fl.
nally on the last day of our stay in
Ensenada we did receive some word,
which bore on it's face the stamp of au-
thenticity and candor, and that report
was so discouraging that a portion of our
original party were decidedly in favor of
disposing of our goods for whatever we
could get, and going back; and one gen.
tleman who had some connection, so
understand, with the press, and who had
attached himself to our party, did refuse
to go on, and then and there abandoned
the expedition. When this report had
been received, however, our duties had
been paid ,our teams engaged and We were
ready to take the road; 30 it was deter
mined, we being in 30 far, to go on. Ac-
cordingly that evening we started, only
going few miles and camping for the
night in order to make q fair
and early start the next morning.
1t is useless to take up your time or
space by an account of our trip from En-
senada to the mines, as it was without
material incident either by "by flood or
field" suffice it to say that on the morn
ing of the fourth day we arrived here
safely, and hoping, almost against hope,
that we might find our trip not entirely
fruitless, in spite of the untoward reports
we heard just before leaving Ensenada.
The afternoon OF that day was devoted
to pitching our tent, unpacking our stores
and arranging them in something like
ship-shape, so as to economise as much
as possible every available square foot of
space in our 12x12 tent, and getting
ready, generally, for active operations
the next day. The succeeding day our
party, all save one, left to look after
our tent and stores, left camp for
a thorough prospect and investigation.
1t is useless, however, to weary you with
details of how we conducted our pros
pecting; the result will more particularly
interest you and your readers. Well,
we found two gulches, or cafions, one
called the Mexican and the other the
American gulch. In the Mexican gulch
we found large number of Mexicans
busily at work, and from this gulch had
been taken, we suppose, the gold which
had given the mines their celebrity, that
1s, if the nuggets which had been shown
In Ensenada and San Diego ever came
from these mines; but of this considera-
BILE doubt was expressed by those who
acquainted themselves with the To-
'cality. Doubtless some gold had been
taken from there, and some of it
IN nuggets of various sizes and
weights; but, after watching closely,
learning what we could by actual obser-
walton, by watching them at work (some
Americans were also working in the
gulch), and by all other reasonable
means, we came to the deliberate, not
hasty conclusion, that the reports which
had been circulated 80 freely were grossly
exaggerated, and instead of fortunes
being made, it was very questionable