been running to Sacramento, but was condemned as a foreign bottom, when
Collier, the collector, arrived there, a short time before, and extended
the marine laws of the United States over California. The captain and
crew were aboard. The captain was an Englishman; the crew,
cosmopolitan--a Hindostan, a Mexican named Edwin Jesus, an English
sailor and an American. I inquired of the captain about the history of
the vessel. He said she had been built at Quavqiel, down the coast, and
had belonged to a Mexican general, and was built partially of an
American whaler that had been wrecked on the coast, so I got American
timbers in her. They wanted to sell the vessel. I told him I might buy
her. I would let them know in a day or two. So I went to Colonel
Stevenson and gave him a history of it, and asked him if he would see
Collier, the collector of the port, and see if I could not get her
papers as an American vessel, which he did, and informed me the next day
that it was all right. I went at once and bought the brig. As soon as I
got its American papers it was worth twice what I had to pay for it. I
kept the same captain, as he knew the navigation of the rivers, which
few did at that time. I gave him $250 per month and put a supercargo at
$150 per month, and kept the same crew. I had it put up for Stockton,
the head depot for the Southern lines. The first month it made two
trips. Its receipts were $3,100; its expenses, $1,100; so it earned me
$2,000 clear.

There was a friend of mine named R., who owned a third interest in a
factory that belonged to a relative of mine who got the gold fever when
I did, and got me to negotiate the sale of his interest in it to him,
which I did for $8,000, so he could go to California with me. When he
arrived there he proposed to build a brewery. His father had been a
brewer in Scotland. He bought a lot, a part of the city called Happy
Valley, and started to build the first brewery on the Pacific coast. He