Other towns and settlements in California were no
less slow than San Francisco to move under the new
fermentation. Indeed, they were more apathetic, and
were finally stirred into excitement less by the facts
than by the example of the little metropolis. Yet the
Mexicans were in madness no whit behind the Amer-
icans, nor the farmers less impetuous than townsmen
when once the fury seized them. May had not wholly
passed when at San Jos^ the merchant closed his
store, or if the stock was perishable left open the doors
that people might help themselves, and incontinently
set out upon the pilgrimage. So the judge abandoned
his bench and the doctor his patients; even the alcalde
dropped the reins of government and went away with
his subjects.^ Criminals slipped their fetters and
Mason, Jones, and Paymaster Rich on gold excitement; WUUy*H Decade Ser- tnofiJi, 12-17; OUason^s CcUh. Church, ii. 175-93; Sherman's Memoirs, i. 46-9; S, F. Directory, 1852-3; 8-9; S. I, News, ii. 142-8, gi\ing the extract of a letter from S. F., May 27th; Vallejo Recorder, March 14, 1848; Cnl. Past and Present, 77; OillespU's Vig, Com., MS., 3-4; Findla's Stat,, MS., 4-6. The Ccdi/omian newspaper revived shortly after its suspension in May.
- ^The alguacil, Henry Bee, had ten Indian prisoners under his charge in
the lock-up, tM'o of them charged with murder. These he would have turned over to the alcalde, but that functionary had already taken his departure. Bee was puzzled how to dispose of his wards, for though he was determined to go to the mines, it would never do to let them loose upon a community of women and children. Finally he took all the prisoners with him to the diggings, where they worked contentedly for him until other miners, jealous of Bee's success, incited them to revolt. By that time, however, the alguacil had made his fortune. So goes the story. San Jo^4 Pioneer, Jan. 27* 1877. Writing Mason the 26th of May from San Jos^, Larkin says: * Last night sev- eral of the most respectable American residents of this town arrived home from a visit to the cold regions; next week they with their families, and I think nine tenths of the foreign store- keepers, mechanics, and day-laborers of this place, and perhaps of San Francisco, leave for the Sacramento.* West, a stable-keeper, had two brothers in the mines, who urged him at once to hasten thither and bring his family. ' Bum the barn if you cannot dispose of it otherwise, * they said. C. L. Ross writes from the mines in April, Experiences from 1847, MS.: *I found John M. Homer, of the mission of San Jos^, who told me he had left about 500 acres of splendid wheat for the cattle to roam over at will, he and his family having deserted their place en- tirely, and started off for the mines.' J. Belden, Nov. 6th, writes Lar- kin from San Jos^: 'The town is full of people coming from and going to the gold mines. A man just from there told me he saw the governor and Squire Colton there, in rusty rig, scratching gravel for gold, but with little success. ' Larkin^ s Doc,, MS., vi. 219. And so in the north. Semple, writing Larkin May 19th, says that in three days there would not be two men left in Benicia; and Cooper, two davs later, declared that everybody was leaving except Brant and Semple. Larkin^s Doc,,yL^.,\\, 111,116; Vallejo, Doc,, MS., xii. 344. From Sonoma some one wrote in the Cal^fornian, Aug. 5th, that the town was wellnigh depopulated. 'Not a laboring man or
