The Portland daily press., 1893-05-06
CALIFORNIA STORIES.
Old Days Of 1S4s Recalled by a Man
Who Was on Hand.
Il Tedious Sail Around Cape Horn-Bat-
Ting with Wind and Tide In the Straits
of Magellan-The Mysterious Box of Hid
den Gold Dust.


of Ngagellan-Ths Mysterious Box of Hid
den Gold Dust.
It YVES one night last week and OF
board the Fall River steamer in the
group Of chance acquaintances smoking
and chatting amidships. The man with
gray hair and fine wrinkles around his
eyes was talking.
sit is matter Of almost A years." he
was saying, "ginoe the old brig Robert
laid her course between here and Beaver
tail in the September Of 1s49. On board
her were a lot of'us Fall River men who
were going out to California to the gold
mines. There were ono or two incidents
following that starb that are worth tell
ing.
''Our wabbly, cranky old craft worked
down to thestraiss of Magellen, and then
we were 60 days more in thestraits. The
old square bowed brig-an awful slow
sailer-would spread canvas at daylight
and sail all day in the straits and anchor
at night about where she started from,
banging back and forth with the adverse
wind and tide.
Zone day we lost an anchor, and we
sent some men out in a boat. They
rowed up into one of theinlets and there
came upon a rakish, queer looking
schooner at anchor. They found the
craft was a wrecking schooner looking
around for wrecks. She hadn't been in
any port in long time. When they
J had got an anchor and chain from the
captain, he said as our men were leav-
ing:
"sWhat the devil is the matter? I've
seen hundreds Of sails going along into
the Pacific lately
when they told him Of the discovery
of gold in California he said nothing
and thought a moment, with his fore
head all pucanered up, and then he said,
We'll, to California we go, thenr and at
once made preparations to sail to the
westward.
Before she sailed Captain Henry
Winslow, Edward Pratt and myself
changed ships in hope Of a faster pas
sage, going aboard the schooner, whose
captain we paid 800 apiece. We lay to,
waiting for a favorable time for the
schooner to go out. One awful foggy
night, with hurricane blowing, we
saw a vessel going through the head
lands. We put the glasses on her, and
it was the old brig Roberti We just
made up cur minds the lubbering old
tub would be blown down to Cape Horn
and never heard Of again. But at Per-
nambuco she turned up again all right,
and the two vessels started out together,
we on the schooner promising to wait
in San Francisco for the Roberts COM.
pany before going UP to the mines. We.
did not see her again on the voyage.
After several weeks we arrived at the
Golden Gate and sailed up the bay Of
San Francisco. We saw lying at q
wharf an old brig, put the glasses on
her, found it was again the Robert
been in port over two weeks. She was
hauled up side of the dock, and she
never was moved from there, but lies
there now, covered by some Of the fine
down town business blocks which are
standing on made land, a quarter Of
mile from the water Of today.
ED Pratt and went up to the mines,
located a claim and went to work. After
Pratt had been working quite awhile
and been pretty lucky, he was called
away ON business to another mining
camp. We were SO far away from San
Francisco we couldn't get our gold dust
changed, SO Ed took his and without
any ones knowledge put it in tin box,
and one night rose and going out behind
his cabin dug about four feet down into
the soil and buried it, marking the spot
by tree that stood by the side of it.
Gle came back several weeks after to
renew work on his old claim, and he told
me about hiding the gold anc that he
was going curt to dig it up. He took his
spade and went out, along with him.
He began to dig and very soon struck
the box, took it up and carried it to his
cabin,
&C THAT don't look like my box he
said. TT looks little bigger some way
''He opened the box, and, sure enough,
it wasn't his, for it had about three times
the weight of gold he had buried. We,
were just bewildered. I suggested he
must have forgotten or made mistake
the gold, but he was dead sure
about it. Then I said we ought to go
out and dig around the place, and he
took his spade, and digging down about
eight inches lower found the box he had,
buried.
s'The question was, whose box was the
first one? rs was put into the camp sup
ply store, ard 1t was advertised, but no
enc ever came to claim it. No one was
missing from oszr camp, and we could
never explain tho mystery OF the strange
box. After four months Ed Pratt took
tho gold, by right Of declared ownership.
1t il supposed the owner who buried it
had either been killed by the Indians or
murdered by Joaquin Marietta's gang,
which was the terror Of mining Cali
forpia at that time. New York Sun.
Thumb Nail Pictures.
In collections, centuries old. to be seen
in both China and lamar, ara enacimarcj