WCP1629

Campo Seco¹ Tuolumne Co^y.

June 22^nd.1851

My dear Mother,²

I am afraid you will think it a long time since I wrote before but I have been waiting to receive one from you, which I obtained a few days ago & was glad to find you had received the letter with the money order quite safe [.] I wrote the last letter in February³ enclosing the record[?] of exchange & also a few specimens of gold which were necessarily small, & if I do not forget it I shall send a few in this letter. In my last letter I requested you to send me occasionally some English papers & to direct them to Sonora as I shall then receive them without any trouble. I find by your last letter that you sent by the same post an Illustrated News for which I am much obliged but I have not received it yet, although I have given orders to have it brought up if it is at San Francisco. I think too it will be as well to direct my letters in future to me at Sonora [,] Tuolumne County[,] California. I shall get them more direct & at less expense as the little town of Sonora has now grown into a City & has a branch post office, a weekly newspaper, & some fine gambling houses. I sent two newspapers since I last wrote which I suppose you have received, they were directed to Thomas Sims,⁴there was nothing particular in them but I thought they might be interesting as being from California. I seem hitherto to have received all your letters [,] they are all secure[?], but your last dated in March & the previous one in October⁵ seemed a long time between. I have not heard any thing from Alfred since I have been in the mines[.] I wrote to him about two months ago & shall not write again till I hear from him whether he has received any of mine as it is useless writing if he does not get them, try &⁶ [2] ascertain whether he has received mine or whether he has written to me, as if the letters do not pass safely it will perhaps be better to send ^them to England first or you can send him my direction[s]. The account of Alfred's intended marriage⁷ is certainly news & may perhaps in some measure account for his not writing to me, all his spare time being now occupied with other thoughts. However I am glad he has found some one in that distant land⁸ to be a helpmate & companion to him, I cannot say so much of myself as I have seen none yet in my wanderings who can compare with "the merry maids of England so beautiful and fair" — I am sorry however that Herbert⁹ is still likely to be a trouble to you, but I hope he will keep where he is or at all events not return to England, I should rather recommend his coming here, as if he was able & willing to work he might get a good living here & save money too, but it is the worst place in the world for a person that can not or will not work & the best country in the world for a hard working man; where is the country in the world where a labouring man can obtain from 16 to 20 shillings a day for his work? In England a man is in moderate good circumstances who can obtain as much in a week — I have now been in the mine upwards of a year & have gained much experience although I have paid dearly for it, & if Herbert was here & willing to work hard, & would listen to advice, I could put him in a way of doing better than I have done. The mines are now becoming more of a settled place, large strikes as they used to be called are now rarely heard of & are not looked for, but many ^men now come here as they would to any other place for the sake of obtaining good wages for their work & are satisfied. A great many miners now keep horses & waggons, as very little is to [be] done here without, the dirt having to be hauled from the dry diggings to the creek where they can obtain water to wash it, a great number of acres of ground have thus been carted away already in this neighbourhood, one of the streets of this town was found to be moderately[?] [word obscured by copyright stamp] rich & in the course of a few weeks the whole of it was carted away to the depth of about 2 feet, leaving¹⁰ [3]¹¹ the rock at the bottom bare & irregular but ^a good enough ^street for California[.] We had a horse & cart & assisted in carrying away the street [sic], but sold it soon afterwards as we had means of working without it, a company having cut a small canal several miles in length & brought the water from the creek round the hills to Campo Seco so that the dirt can be washed on the ground [,] each man that uses the water paying 1 dollar a day for the use of it which all are willing to do & the company too have made a quantity of money by it.

Since I last wrote I have been doing moderately well that is earning from 5 to 6 dollars a day which is about the average amount made by most of the miners about here — & there is probably about a thousand in this vicinity but for two weeks past not much has been done here the water in the creek getting so low that parties workin<g> [page torn] at the creek would not allow the company <to take> [page torn] water from it, therefore finding we could not <do much> [page torn] for ourselves we are now working for another man — who keeps several waggons with bullocks & horses & hauls the dirt to the creek [;] we get 2 ounces a week for our work[,] it is not quite so pleasant as working for oneself but it does not do to stand idle in California & if we can not do one thing we must another, & if I had hired out ever since I came to the mines I should be much better off than I am. I should much like to be in England now, the grand Exhibition & Chrystal [sic] Palace must be a grand sight & grand times for the tradesmen in London.

I suppose you heard of the terrible fire they had at San Francisco on the 4th of May destroying nearly the whole of the town & doing more damage than all the four previous fires together, some estimate the loss at one hundred million dollars, it is strange that one of the late fires occurred on the 4th of May last year. About two or *¹² [4] three days afterwards a large fire occurred in Stockton which destroyed nearly the whole of the town, but such is the Magical Influence of Gold that both cities are now nearly the same as before. The fires are supposed to have ^been originated with by a band of desperate characters whose chief object is of course plunder during the confusion which such an occurrence causes; & I have since heard that some of the incendiaries were discovered at San Francisco & lynched by the people [,] that is hung at once without the formalities of law.

I wish you could learn the average price of Californian gold in England & let me know & also which would be the best way of sending money [five or six words obscured by paper crease] to pay off my loan, whether it would be safer to consign it to Mr Millard¹³ or Mr Spence¹⁴. I surely should like to know these things in case I should be able to send some money to England although it may be some time first. —

The mines are greatly changed here to what they were a year ago, every thing is much cheaper & even luxuries can be obtained at a reasonable price, milk & eggs can be readily obtained, & oranges at 6^d each, a number of persons have gone into gardening speculations & vegetables, an abundance & moderately cheap, ice creams & eu-de-cologne are also vended in this camp.

Since I last wrote to you we have had a little rain the latter end of April March & beginning of April & one regular winter day when it rained, hailed, snowed, with thunder & lightening [sic] & gusting wind the whole day & sometimes at the same time, we have however actually had no winter at all & next one will probably ^be more severe. The weather is now very hot & has been for some time past.

[I] am glad to learn that Thomas is a first rater at the Daguerotype [sic]¹⁵ [5] & is likely to do well. If Californian newspapers would be useful or interesting to him or you I could probably send them regularly, let me know whether you have to pay anything for postage on them as I pay a postage of 5 cents which they say takes them to England. They will leave San Francisco by the mail on the 1st of July, & I must now close it as I have to take it to Sonora to put it in the Post office so that I shall not be able to fill up this sheet as I should wish so must now conclude & remain your ever affectionate Son

J. Wallace¹⁶ [signature]

P.S. I send a few specimens of what is called rough gold, you will see is [sic] bears no appearance of having been worn by the action of water or any other cause but retains its original roughness as it was formed in its parent rock.