From Colchis Back to Argos, No. I [pp. 343-350]

1874.] F1?OAJ COLCHJS BACK TO Ai?COS~ 343.
all probability, acquired a competence. ment of wealth; while the American has
From this arises the very important con- probably served a few terms in the Legsideration that be has leisure to think. islature of his State, and is f~~miliar with
We can appreciate the force of this by his country's history, laws, and politics.
comparing an American laborer, who I have not attempted to be exhaustspent only a few years at school, with a ive in my treatment of any of the points
European farm laborer who received a touched on in this article; as any one
similar education. The European, re- who gives the subject much consideraceivitig but little waoes is always confin- tion can scarcely fail to see that indused to thedrudcreryofthe farm; the Amer- trial schools could be made the means
ican usually becomes a farmer himself, of developing the resources of the State,
grows rich, and has leisure to think`and of teaching useful trades, of curbing
study. Upon leaving school their attain- evil propensities, of promoting moral
ments were equal; at forty, the European and benevolent actions, and of training
has made no more progress in the attain-. the rising generation to the duties and
ment of knowledge than in the attain- responsibilities of American citizens.
FROM COLCHIS BACK TO ARGOS.
NO. 1.-TO REALEJO.
NTRODUCTORY NOTE-The whole number of passengemwho ttrrived at the port of San Francisco,
from the 31st of ~Iarcb, 1849, to the itt of January, 1550, as derived from the records compiled by ~Ir.
Joseph A. Coolidge, Secretary of the ~Ierchants' Exchange, was 30,675. This number does not include
the crews and officers of vesseL, who deserted their posts. Of the whole number given, Ia,237 came in
vessels from Atlantic pOrts of the United States, ola Cape Horn; 6,743 crossed tlie Isthmus of Darien over
2.6oa embarked at the ports of San Blas and ~Iazatlan; and the others came from various parts of the globe.
`I~e number Iso catne overland and arrived in the atttumn can never be told, but it probably exceeded that
by sea two~told; all flocking to the new El Dorado, whose valleys were described as a "perfect paradise, and
whose rivets rere literally choked with gold." (Fremsal's E~Aedifion, third edition, preface.) Few came
with the expectation of making permanent homes in California. They came burning with thirst for adventure assd the accttmulatinn of sudden wealth, The "California fever" spread with the fatality and rapidity of
a trtte epidemic. v~008 men of ardent and enthusiastic temperament fell its 6rst victims, Those who were
fost-free, and possessed of the means to obtain an outfit, set forth, alone, or in companies, by such rOttles as
seemed to them most practicoble. Arriving in California, they were exposed to all the hardships of a camp
life, without the discipline of an army or the comforts and care which a commissary provides. The part~al
organseassons with which most of them started frt~m home, fell in pieces as soon as they touched the aitriferous soil. Each man was thrown upon his own resources, inexperienced in hardship, and ignorant of the
dangers by which he was surrounded. Disappointed in his hopes and dejected its spirits, he fell a victim to
disease in a climate the most salubrious in the world. When the warm stins of spring had again dried up
the ra5ns and covemd the virgin fields with a carpet of flowers, one-fifth of that grand arosy was no,more,
Fevers, scurvy, atsd bowel complaints had done their work. (Neto York 7oornal qfdYedicioc, November,
tlsi.) The overland men suffered greater mortality than those who catne by sea, from their longer privation
of wholesome supplies abandoned on the road, Nearly all were anxious to return, whether successful or
not; but fesv were willittg to go by the way they came. So the isthmus route was overcrowded, and others
were opened that offered a prospect of a speedy passage to their homes; any dasger being deensed light that
offered them an escape from the Asiatic cholera, which was paving the path throtigh the sea to Panama with
the bones of their dead, TIte picture that has been presented by the letters published uttder the title of
"Seeking the Golden Fleece," would be incomplete without those that recount the retreat "From Colchis
back to Argos," which are begun herewith.
SAN F~~xctsco, October toth, 1830. death, and not of fruition, with none of
Autumn in California is a very mel- the changing hues which autumn at home
ancholy season; it is the season of brings with it. It is man here that pass