"Ha, ha, ha, how we laughed.  To-morrow, we said, we shall be able to push on to the mines, and begin to dig for gold.  In an instant every one was talking of gold.  `Gold, gold, gold,' was heard on every side. Did any one think of the poor wretches we had left dying on the road-- men--brethren by nature, by a common faith--men with souls?  Not one of us thought of going back.  At all events, not one of us offered to go back.  An all-powerful loadstone was dragging us on--the lust of getting gold.  Had we gone back to relieve our fellow-beings, we should have been unable to proceed the next day for the diggings.  A whole day would have been lost.  Oh, most foul and wretched was the mania which inspired us!  Unnatural! no; it was that of fallen, debased human nature; it was too true to that nature.  Those miserable men must have died horribly-- devoured by wolves or scalped by Indians.  The next day we pushed eagerly on; yet we had to sleep high up on the side of a snow-capped mountain; thence we were to descend to the scene of our labours. Bitterly cold it was; yet we dared not move, for frightful precipices yawned around.  We reached the first diggings that evening.  The miners had just knocked off work, and crowded round us to hear the news, and to see what we had brought.  Rough as they looked, by far the greater number, I judged by the tone of their voices, belong to the educated classes.  And shall I become like one of these men?  I thought.  I soon became like one of them, and rougher still.  `I expected a friend about this time,' said one, describing him.  He was among those who had fallen and been deserted.  He made but few other inquiries.  He knew that such events were too common to complain.  I saw him brush away a tear, as he turned from us.  That man was too good for the company he was among.  We encamped by ourselves, we knew not whom we must trust.  After this our travelling party broke up.  My companions from the ship and I were to work together.  We fixed on a spot, and erected our rude hut; then we bought a rocker and shovel, pick-axe and spade, with two tin pans, and set to work.  I dug out the earth, another carried it, and a third washed it in the rocker.  Our success was tolerable; but it was many days before we got enough to pay for the articles we had purchased, and our provisions.  In the meantime, what scenes of wretchedness, misery, dissipation, and violence, did I behold!  In every direction men were dying of fever and dysentery.  At night the gambling booths were filled with those who rapidly got rid of the earnings of many days.  I was witness, too, of an encounter between two large parties of diggers.  One party had encroached on the ground prepared by the other, and refused to quit it.  Bowie-knives, and pick-axes, and hatchets, rifles and pistols, were instantly brought into play.  A sanguinary encounter ensued. Numbers fell on both sides; at last one party turned and fled.  I visited the scene of the strife soon after.  A dozen or more human beings lay on the ground dead, or dying--arms cut off--pierced through and through with knives--skulls fractured with spades and pick-axes, and many shot to death.  The dying had been left to die alone without aid or pity, while their companions returned to their gold digging.  Often and often I sickened at the sights I beheld, but still I continued at the work.  I was compelled to continue at it.  I had given up everything for it.  I was like a slave chained to it by the leg.  Gladly would I have gone back to my steady occupation and quiet life, surrounded by those I respected and loved.  I have only partly described the hardships we endured.  We had famine, and cold, and rain.  Often we were without fuel, our clothing was ragged and insufficient, and sickness in every form came among us.  Besides desperate quarrels among the diggers, the Indians came down upon us--fierce, sanguinary warriors, eager for our scalps.  Their vengeance had been excited by aggressions made on them by the whites.  We could scarcely leave the camp without risking an attack from them.  Many diggers became their victims.  Such was our life for months.  At length my companions and I, by unexpected good fortune, saved a sufficient amount of gold dust to enable us to return to San Francisco.  Steady work at home would have enabled me to lay by nearly as much, while my health and spirits would not have been broken as they now are.  We kept together to defend each other.  Many diggers on their way to the city, after labouring for years, have been robbed and murdered.  My companions spent most of their hard won wealth, and returned to the diggings, where, one after the other, they fell victims to disease, or the knives of assassins.  I had had enough of the life, and my knowledge of business enabled me to procure a situation in a merchant's office in this place, where, by employing the sum I had scraped together, and by stript attention to business, I have realised an amount four times as large, in a quarter of the time it took me to collect it at the diggings."