CHAPTER II.
THREE CEXTURIES OF WILD TALK ABOUT GOLD IN CALI- FORNIA.—1537-1837.
Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling,
Frowning, preaching — such a riot! Each with never-ceasing labor. Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbor,
Cheating his own heart of quiet.
— Shelley.
In those clays of unbridled adventure, when man was permitted to prey upon his fellow-man, and when the many-sided world was as yet but partially known to civilization, gold was the chiefest good that strange lands could yield, and hence every strange land, in the imagination or desire of its discoverer, abounded in gold. So it was that California, e"ven before it was seen by any Spaniard, was reputed, without reason, rich in gold. What stories Cabeza de Vaca had to tell, when he arrived from the Mexican gulf at Culia- can, in 1537, of the vast wealth of this whole northern legion! As to the truth of the report, it must be true, for it was the people of the country who had informed him, though in language that he did not understand, and of realms of which they knew noth- ing. From the very first a strong conviction possessed the minds of the conquerors of Mexico that the west- ern coast, particularly toward the north, was rich in gold and pearls; and so all through the century suc- cessive expeditions were sent to the gulf of California, and to the peninsula.
That most reverend and truthful man, Francis Fletcher, preacher to the pirate Drake, who, because God commanded Adam to subdue the earth, felt it
