saw several vessels had come to for the purpose of pulling around. The
last was a large vessel that the captain said could never get around. If
we anchored behind it we might not be able to deliver our freight
according to the charter. We had put an English sailor in the hold to
let the anchor go, in case we did not succeed, if we gave him the signal
to do so. As we came to the place with all sails set, there was a breeze
sprung up, filling all the sails. I said to the captain, let her go. As
we passed the vessels that had come to anchor there was a howling and
yelling from them of derision and anger at us for going by them. Just as
we got two-thirds of the way around, the sailor in the hold let the
anchor go without orders. He got frightened. If he had not, we would
have made it successfully. As it was, we got ahead of all the other
vessels, and got to Stockton in ample time. The next morning there was a
drove of mules at the side of the brig, and the cargo was being
discharged and packed on their backs to be taken to the mining camps, as
there were no good roads there in those early days. About all the grain
and flour came from Valparaiso and Chili, put up very nicely in fifty
and one hundred pound sacks, so it was easy to handle. As soon as all
the mules were packed, the head mule, who had on a bell fastened around
his neck, which rang as he went, was started first, and all the rest, in
single file, followed him, and they were going for the different mining
camps in the interior. In two or three days we were unloaded, and we
were prepared to return. The freight money was paid to me in gold, at
$16 per ounce in full, all being satisfactory to the shipper. I had
delivered it within the time specified. One of the passengers who came
up with me, a tailor, from Salem, Mass., asked me if I would not give
him a free passage back on the vessel to San Francisco; that he wanted
to try to get home; he was discouraged. I said to him you have traveled
eighteen thousand miles to get to the gold mines, and now you are within
half a day of them and want to go home without trying your fortune. If