been here a month sooner. That told the whole story. I saw them take
freight, in my presence, when they were offered $1.50 per foot, when
they told me there was no room for the other half of my houses to go on
the ship, when I had a legal contract with them at sixty cents per foot.
My freight alone would have made a difference of two or three thousand
dollars by excluding it and taking the other in at the difference in the
price of it. There is no doubt they served many other shippers and put
their goods on other vessels, and kept theirs back until the other
ships would get to San Francisco ahead of them, so that they could
deliver the freight according to their bills of lading on the arrival of
the _Prince de Joinville_. That was why my speculation was ruined by
their dishonesty. Instead of being the fastest ship, it was a fraud, a
decoy, a dead trap on those who were unfortunate enough to ship by it.
When I saw the captain he was very humble. He had all kinds of apologies
to make, and invited me to go to China with him. I could have the best
state-room on his ship. It should not cost me a dollar. I could go
around the world with him. I saw that my speculation was ruined by their
dishonesty, and there was no remedy, and, like all human events, that
ended it, and I had to abandon my Sandwich Island expedition and throw
my anticipated fortune from it to the winds. Mr. Meighs, the one who
failed and ran away to Chili, and built the railroad in that country
from Valparaiso to its capital, and then organized a company and
constructed railroads in Peru, had a lumber yard side of me. I sold,
after a while, my other six houses, one at a time, retailing them out,
and, by careful management, just succeeded in saving my original
capital.

I was satisfied with San Francisco, with my interest in the lumber
yards, and with my partnership with Colonel Stevenson on the North
Beach. My interest in my brig, when it came down, and my prospective