and saw that he had reached the train in time to get aboard and continue his journey West.

Johnson returned in a short time.

"Hasn't Dr. Joy been here ?" he said. "I saw him start from the depot in this direction. I ran across Jukell there and couldn't get away from him to bring the doctor up." A significant glance passed between Hollie and the Judge.

tolled the hour for the lecture; they always rang bells for everything in Jefferson. The committee did not stay away as the Mayor advised. In the first place they were fearful about an audience. They were soon put at rest by seeing the room fill up rapidly. Messrs. Doobang, Jukell, Cobbaff, Buckingham, Befog, Doughty, Irons, Miss Gorock, and the sewing girl, duly appeared and took the seats assigned them on the

"Yes."

He

"Well, we have spoiled things. called and the Judge pretended to be crazy, and ran him off with his gun. He got back to the train and left. However, if reports are true, we needn't be very sorry. He is only one of those fellows who think because they are able to preach a little, and have succeeded in getting Doctored by some Western academy, that presumes to carry the title of college or university, that they can't fulfill their destiny unless they lecture also."

Nevertheless the adventure of Doctor Joy and his sudden departure, became a serious matter with the committee. The bills were out, and there was no one to appear; that is no one whom they wished to have appear. Their intention had been to have Doctor Joy, the original Simon Peter, step up and be introduced and deliver his lecture to audience and lecturers alike.

General Thompson, the portly and goodnatured mayor, solved their difficulty.

"You fellers," said he, "had better keep clear of the church to-night. I'll introduce Simon Peter, and trust to luck to see me through. There is a rumor afloat that some fun is on hand, and the house will be packed. Them lecturers ain't a very fierce set anyway, and we'll keep 'em down." The committee gladly agreed to the Mayor's proposition.

Tuesday night came, and the church bell

zens presented by invitation. Promptly the General entered. Stepping out on the platform he announced in a sonorous voice:

6

"Ladies, gentlemen, and feller citizens: Allow me to introduce to you the distinguished lecturer of the evening, Simon Peter, who will lecture on THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.'" Immediately from nine different seats arose Simon Peters, masculine and feminine, who advanced upon the Mayor toward the front of the platform amid the deafening applause of the audience.

The Mayor turned upon the lecturers in seeming amazement, as if he were awed in the presence of a superior power. Then his courage seemed to return, his bosom swelled, and in a lordly way he waved his hand towards the audience that the applause might cease. Each lecturer, as yet, did not suspect but what he or she individually, was the only lecturer for the evening, and that the others who arose did it through a desire to show respect. But they did not long remain in that error.

"There is some mistake," shouted the General. "If the simon pure' Simon Peter is here I want to know it."

"I am " began Doughty.

"Allow! thunder!" roared the Mayor. "I won't allow only just the sure enough Simon Peter to say one word, and all frauds who have come here to humbug us had better leave this house, or I'll have them arrested at once."

All except Miss Gorock and Buckingham began to retreat, amidst the cheering of the audience. Mr. Buckingham was standing behind the Mayor; Miss Gorock advanced to have one more word.

"I wish to say," she began

"Don't say a word unless you're Simon Peter," said the General. "No one has any business speaking here but the simon pure article; and I'll risk public honor that you never were christened Simon Peter.' Now, were you ?"

The applause that followed was too much for Miss Gorock, who immediately retired.

The mayor was in the act of turning his good natured face toward the audience, when he caught sight of Henry Clay Buckingham, who, standing his ground bravely, was now waiting for the final struggle. "What!" roared the General, turning upon him. "Is there yet another? Let the death struggle come! Survive or perish!" Turning to the audience he yelled: "Let some one bring a rail and the tar and feathers. We must make thorough work of this while we are at it."

These last words were enough for Buck

ingham. He slacked not his gait until he disappeared through the door.

Then the Mayor waved his handkerchief and shouted: "Three cheers for the success of the Jefferson Lecture Committee." They came with a good will; and when the committee appeared before them, the uproar was continued with fresh energy.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said Hollie, advancing on the platform, when the house had become quiet, "I shall be fully satisfied with the work of to-night if it brings the committee and the people of Jefferson into full sympathy and confidence. I believe you already appreciate our efforts to defend you from fraud, imposture, and humbuggery. But this is only half of our work; in place of what has been for some time past thrust upon you, we want to give something which you may profitably patronize. We are compelled to disappoint you to-night. We thought we had secured a good lecturer; but I have news this evening which justifies me in promising you something first-class by the last of next week. You may keep tickets or have money refunded.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion-;" but the audience was not permitted to hear the conclusion, for at this moment a boy came forward with a note. Hollie began to read:

"Please announce that Henry Clay Buckingham will lect—”

"What!" shouted the Mayor furiously, springing to his feet. "Is that feller back again? Ha, there he is by the door. Consider this meeting adjourned."

He dashed down the aisle, but hefore he could reach the door Buckingham had disappeared. This time his departure was final; nor were there on the morrow any lecturers to be found within the limits of Jefferson.

F. Mappin.

In the beginning of a course of lectures named after the benefactor, to whose munificence the Society of California Pioneers is indebted for its new home in this magnificent building, a few introductory words may be devoted to his memory. Although

he was much esteemed in our association, and although we repeatedly offered to him and urged upon him more testimonials of our gratitude and esteem than he was willing to accept, yet most of us, and perhaps all, are now ready to confess, with regret for our own blindness, that while he was among us, we did not fully appreciate the breadth of his mind, or the elevation of his motives; and in his case as in many others, breadth of mind had its origin in elevation of motive.

As year after year passes, instead of sinking into oblivion, we see that he is steadily rising in our estimate of his character and capacity. The foibles which filled our eyes while he was among us, have now sunk into relative insignificance, and we wonder at the comprehensiveness of thought and extent of information in this man, born in poverty, bred in toil, educated scantily in his boyhood, secluded in his habits through later years, and scoffed at by many of his neighbors for what they supposed to be narrow-mindedness, penuriousness, and folly. Yet now he looms up as the efficient patron of science, and art, and popular education, as a benefactor of the people, and a teacher by example to the most enlightened governments. Though ten years have elapsed since his death, the time has not yet come when his eulogy can be adequately written and duly appreciated. Not until the greatest of refracting telescopes-the construction of

The first of the course of Lick Lectures, delivered before the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco, January 5, 1887.

VOL. IX.-13.

which has been one of the current topics of general interest through the civilized world for years-shall have been completed; not until all the institutions for which he provided shall have gone into full operation, and have shown the force of their beneficent influence,-will the public be prepared to appreciate the wisdom and generosity of James Lick.

He is entitled to the full credit for all the good results that are to accrue from his life. Many others have rendered, and will render valuable service in executing his plans, but all that they have done in that way must be counted as part of his work. All that he did through others, he himself did.

His membership in our society, and his selection of it as one of the principal recipients of his bounty, have given it honor as well as prosperity. His career besides illustrating the rewards offered by our country to judicious industry and thrift, is a stimulating example of philanthropy---an example that will be rivaled, and we hope surpassed by other Californians of even more comprehensive minds and greater wealth.

Before commencing my personal reminiscences, permit me to say a few words about the day when the gold was found at Coloma. At the annual celebration of this society, on the 9th of September, 1885, I delivered an address upon Marshall's discovery and following his authority which as to that point had never been publicly questioned, I then accepted as the true date the 19th January, 1848. As an attention due to the persons who were with Marshall at the time, and still living, I sent them copies of my address with requests for the correction of any errors. Henry W. Bigler replied that according to his diary the gold was found on the 24th January. I solicited copies of all the

early entries about the gold and he sent them. The only known record of the discovery written on the day of its occurrence was made by Bigler in his diary in the following words: "Monday, January 24th. This day some kind of metal that looks like gold was found in the tail race." Azariah Smith kept a diary, making his entries only. on Sundays usually, and on Sunday, January 30th, he recorded the finding of gold in the previous week, and the departure of Marshall for the fort to have it tested. A letter to the Hon. John Bidwell, who had Sutter's diary, elicited the information that the first mention of the gold there was an entry on January 28th, recording the arrival of Marshall on that day with samples. The three diaries are in harmony with one another, but they all contradict Marshall, whose statement, as written out by Hutchings and Parsons after the lapse of years, (no account of the discovery written in Marshall's own hand is in print,) was not based on any contemporaneous memorandum, and his memory was so vague that he said the day was either the 18th, 19th, or 20th. He added that four days after the discovery, he took some of the gold to Sutter. Now if the gold was found on the 20th or earlier and samples were taken to New Helvetia within four days, then all the diaries are false; whereas if found on the 24th, and samples were taken within four days, then all are true. A written record in regard to a date is, after the lapse of years, a much better authority than an unaided memory, but here are three written records, corroborating one another and against them is nothing but the vague recollection of a man of very loose intellectual habits. Bigler's diary stands out as the only precise authority, abundantly corroborated. The gold was found on Monday January 24th, 1848. The ascertainment of the correct date was the result of inquiries instituted at the instance of your society, the best evidence in its support, comprising the original diary of

John A. Sutter from 1845 to 1848, presented by Hon. John Bidwell, and original letters from Henry W. Bigler and Azariah Smith with extracts from their diaries are, in your archives.

Two months elapsed before any one devoted himself to the business of gold washing near Coloma; three before the news of rich diggings had any perceptible influence in San Francisco; and ten before it gained much faith on the eastern side of the continent. The preparation for the migration to California from the Atlantic slope in 1849 had many features of interest to the general public as well as to the participants in them, but the mention of them this evening must be brief. The rapid succession of favorable reports from numerous distinct sources-the arrival of large amounts of gold in many foreign and domestic cities--the wonderful excitement, beginning before New Year and steadily increasing the organization of gold-hunting companies in all the cities and large towns-the discussion whether it was wise for men to leave friends, steady business, and established law for a country where none of these existed-the study of routes of travel and methods of conveyance-the demand for ships on the seacoast, and for ox teams on the western border-the selection of provisions for use on the way and in the mines

the rules upon which messes and companies were to be governed during the tripthe advantage of oxen over horses for the journey by land-the methods of crossing huge rivers and wide deserts-the precautions to save the cattle from being poisoned by alkali, and from being stampeded by Indians and the departure of nearly one hundred thousand men within the year; all these are topics upon which much might be said, though there is no time to dilate upon them now.

The route of most of the overland emigrants in 1849, as in several subsequent years, was near that of the Union and Central Pacific railways; south of it for the first

three hundred miles from the Missouri River; with it along the Platte for a hundred miles; north of it for a thousand miles; with it for four hundred and fifty miles along the Humboldt; and south of it one hundred and fifty miles to the Sacramento. The train of ox-teams with which I made the trip, started from the Missouri River on the first of May, crossed Green River on the sixth of July, reached the summit of the Sierra Nevada on the twenty-seventh of August, and on the seventeenth of September camped on the bank of the Sacramento. At Fort Laramie, where a record of the number of emigrants passing was kept, (the book has been lost as I learn by a letter from Lieutenant Worden, regimental adjutant now stationed there,) we were told that about thirty-five hundred wagons and ten thousand emigrants were ahead of us, and we supposed that there were about as many behind us. Gen. W. L. Elliott of this city, who was at Laramie in '49, '50 and '51, part of the time as adjutant, says that according to his recollection the total number of emigrants in 1849 was about fifty thousand, and in the next year forty-nine thousand.

Instead of following the main road all the way, our train was one of a number that left the Humboldt River near the present station of Humboldt, and took the Lassen cutoff, as it was called, though it proved to be at least a hundred and fifty miles longer than the main road. When we reached the Sacramento River we had traveled twenty-one hundred and eighty miles and had spent one hundred and forty days, or more than four and a half months since leaving the Missouri River, an average of about fifteen miles a day. The trip between the two rivers is now made by rail in four and a half days; and the change from four and a half months to four and a half days is small as compared with many other changes that have occurred within the last thirty-eight years in the western part of the United States-changes most of which are to be attributed mainly to the

stimulating influence of the gold discovery. Though not without frequent discomforts and dangers, the trip was pleasant to most of the emigrants of '49 in the front half of the line. It abounded with new sensations and interesting incidents. The throng of young men, their bright anticipations of a golden harvest, their contagious confidence and enthusiasm, the contact with fifty or a hundred trains in a day, some traveling faster than the average and others gradually falling behind, thus converting the march into a long race for the best grass and the first chance in the gold field-all these influences combined to fill us with excitement and prepare us to accept with cheerfulness the trials that under less favorable circumstances, might have worried us into continuous misery. Several times we feared that we should lose all our cattle and be subjected to great hardship; but we overestimated the danger; and neither in our train nor in our sight was there any serious lack of food, or suffering of any kind.

Without undertaking to describe the journey in detail, I shall recount a few of its episodes-limiting myself to my own experience. Others may have had more interesting adventures, but I have no distinct recollection of them.

Our route took us to the Snake River, the Southern branch of the Columbia, which we followed down several days. About sunset on the 19th of July, the day after passing Fort Hall, we camped half a mile from the stream. An Indian came to us with fish and we bought all he had. He could speak English and I asked whether he had a horse to give me for two pairs of blankets which I showed him. He said he had. I told him to bring the horse, but he replied that I must first come to his village, on the other side of the river, the smoke of which, perhaps, a mile away was visible. I promised to visit him, and two young men agreed to go with me. Some of our company who had been on the bank of the