The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-02-05

efforts to- get at the half told secret Ger
tain it was that the immensely rich men
of California; had the key in some way to
some part Of the Buried River with its
bed of silver and of gold. He spent a
year in Paris trying TO get at the secret OF
the matter th~rough@other4 men. At the
| end of that time he had much less gold
and not a bit more knowledge than he be-
gan with. 1t@tIJ
He spent half a year searching through
the archives of Spain for some possible
trace or meah1tion Of one Of the trembling
caves" or air holes. No sign,
there among the, old musty tones in the
great library ofsMexico City. But things
there were in such a hopeless state of
confusion that at the end of nearly
twelve months he was about to push on
to- California and appeal alone to the
bosom of the, earth for his money as well
nigh spent.
Standing one sultry noon under the
colossal statute Of Baron Won Humboldt,
the great, he who first made known to
the world the now famous floating gar
dens of Mexico City and so won the warm
thanks of her people; well, standing here
in a half hopeless state and revolving in
his mind how best to reach California, he
noticed, almost at the feet of the great
traveller a heap of dusty and dirty parch-
ments, worn and torn and tumbled into a
hopeless state of confusion. sag "a
It was the work Of amoment to ask and
obtain permission ofthe0bliging librarian
to look this through.
Ten days toll and nothing. Nothing
saveathe absurd statement, set down in
in stately and most excellent Spanish of a
century ago and more, that the second
inland sea above the sea of Cortez, which
must have meant the Bay of San Franz
| cisco, had a maelstrom at It's furthest ex-
tremity much like the great maelstrom off
the coast of Norway.
On the fifteenth day the bottom of the
musty old records of the early Jesuits was
reached. Nothing at all! Nothing more
than some brief mention of Mount Diablo
and the manner IN witch it got it's name.
And it may be as well to set this down;
since this savage and sullen old home of
the grizzly bear and the California lion
stands not far from where John Gray
stood when confronted by the fine Cali
fornsa girl. It is a grand mountain in it's
ugly way, black, smoky, t~reeless, looming
sullenly above San Francisco and all the
surrounding land and sea. It deied con-
quest, or wen near approach. There
many an old Spanish family, ruined of
course, has climbed up it's rugged sides
and rested under its awful frowns; but no
plowshare shall ever tear its mantle of
vine and stone and chapparel. The grizzly
bear shall house there till the end of time,
and the lion and the wolf shall keep him
company.
These steep and stony Businesses. with
here and there a fertile fat for pasture,
here and there a canyon, packed to the
brlm with dense groves of redwood, these
sleeps and trenches and crags and canyons
are dotted all over, even above the clouds;
with flowing springs. Where does this
water come from2 Can this water raise
itself higher than the fountain head =?
How in the name of science and the law
of hydraulics can this climb up here to the
very highest point for fifty miles around
and pour itself out here while nearly all
the land, even to the sea bank, is arid and
dusty below? sa U.s.
But here, in brief, is the way the noun
tain took its name, according to the musty
and dusty papers found at the foot of the
statue in the City of Mexico. Some
Spanish soldiers had Tough and vanyuished
a tribe of Indians that had ventured to
this natural f~astness and taken the chief
captive. hi record runs that the prison.
ers were all released except the chief.
He begin very wicked and rebellious, and
having slain with his own hand two SOL
diers was first tortured and then cast into.
a deep natural we'll which was found to.
exist IN a canyon near where the battle
was fought. But to the CONSERVATION of
the Jesuit father who attended the little
| Spanish army the Indian chief arose that
night on the surface of influx of water
and calmly demanded isswives and chill
dren. II ia
Deciding that he was an evil spirit, the
soldiers seized him and a second time
threw him down the well, the waters in
the meantime having entirely receded.
Fancy their horror to find the ugly black
head of the savage chief again boiling
serenely above the sucking lips of the
bottomless well as they next morning sat
at breakfast. This time the Spanish troop
were terrified, and as the little command
was already in marching order, So soon as
breakfast was dispatched they descended
the mountain in good haste. And the
name of that place is to this day Mount
del Diablo. .21 Sd
And here it is, at least not very far
from this place, we find John Gray, artist,
bending over his meagre maps, growing
gray indeed, worn out, very hungry, ready
to become insane in this long. dreary
quest for the Buried River, or even any
dim evidence of its existence; disputing