CHAPTER IV.
PBOXmATB EFFECT OF THE GOLD DISOOVERy.
Mabch-Auoust, 1848.
The Pboplb Sceptical at Fibst— AmnJDs or the Bbbss— The Couvtby Converted bt a Sight or the Metal— The Epidemic at San Fran- cisco— At San Jo»t, Monterey, and down thb Coast — ^The Exodus — Desertion or Soldiers and Sailors— Abandonment of BcsiNBBSp of Farms, and or All Kinds or Positions and Propertt.
As when some carcass, hidden in sequestered nook, draws from every near and distant point myriads of discordant vultures, so drew these little flakes of gold the voracious sons of men. The strongest human appetite was aroused — the sum of appetites — this yellow dirt embodying the means for gratifying love, hate, lust, and domination. This little scratch upon the earth to make a backwoods mill-race touched the cerebral nerve that quickened humanity, and sent a thrill throughout the system. It tingled in the ear and at the finger-ends; it buzzed about the brain and tickled in the stomach; it warmed the blood and swelled the heart; new fires were kindled on the hearth-stones, new castles builded in the air. If Satan from Diablo's peak had sounded the knell of time; if a heavenly angel from the Sierra's height had heralded the millennial day; if the blessed Christ himself had risen from that ditch and proclaimed to all mankind amnesty — their greedy hearts had never half so thrilled.
The effect of the gold discovei^ could ndt be long confined to the narrow limits of Sutter's domain. The
