Handsome Mexicans, lithe Chilenas, escaped
female convicts, and women of Australia were reinforced by the
adventuresses of New Orleans, Paris, New York, and Liverpool--a
motley crowd of Paphian dames.
Maxime Valois, reaching Suiter's Fort by a launch, falls in with a
lank Missouri lad. His sole property in the world is a rifle and
his Pike county name of Joe Woods. A late arrival with a party
of Mexican war strays, his age and good humor cause the Creole to
take him as valuable, simply because one and one make two. He is
a good-humored raw lad. Together in the broiling sun, half buried
under bank or in the river-beds, they go through the rough evolution
of the placer miner's art.
The two thousand scattered foreigners of the State are ten thousand
before the year is out. Through the canyons, troops of gold seekers
now wander. Sacramento's lovely crystal waters, where the silvery
salmon leap, are tinged with typical yellow colors, deepening every
month. Tents give way to cabins; pack trains of mules and horses
wind slowly over the ridges. Little towns dot the five or six river
regions where the miners toil, and only the defeated are idle.
From San Diego to Sonoma the temporary government is paralyzed.
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