immigrants, not only that the half-way station had been established by
the Mormons, but also that the necessities of the latter forced them to
adopt a friendly policy. By the time open enmity had come, the first of
the rush had passed and other routes had been well established.





CHAPTER VII

THE WAY BY PANAMA


Of the three roads to California that by Panama was the most obvious,
the shortest, and therefore the most crowded. It was likewise the most
expensive. To the casual eye this route was also the easiest. You got on
a ship in New York, you disembarked for a very short land journey, you
re-embarked on another ship, and landed at San Francisco. This route
therefore attracted the more unstable elements of society. The journey
by the plains took a certain grim determination and courage; that by
Cape Horn, a slow and persistent patience.

The route by the Isthmus, on the other hand, allured the impatient, the
reckless, and those who were unaccustomed to and undesirous of
hardships. Most of the gamblers and speculators, for example, as well as
the cheaper politicians, went by Panama.

In October, 1848, the first steamship of the Pacific Steamship Company
began her voyage from New York to Panama and San Francisco, and reached