Author : Anon
Publisher : Jackson Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 46,1 MB
Release : 2008-08
Category : History
ISBN : 1443706302
Book Description
The Land Of Gold Reality Versus Fiction - 1855 - PREVIOUS to my departure for California, near and dear friends extracted from me a promise to communicate by letter, upon every conveniant occasion, such intelligence as mould give them a distinct idea of the truthfuluess or falsehood of the many glowing descriptions and reputed vaat wealth of California. In accordance with this promise, I collected, from the best and most reliable rrourcea, all that I deemed worthy of record touching the past of thc modern El Dorado, relying upon my own powers of obscrvation to depicture its present condition and its future prospects. This correspondence was never inhnded for the public eye, for the simple reagon that thc nattcr therein is sct forth in a very plain manner, with more regard to truth than elegance of diction. Indeed, how cconld it be othertvise 1 have only described those things which came immediateIy under my own observation, and, bcaide this, I make no pretensions to extensive scholastic attainments, nor do I claim to be an adept in the art of book-making. A weary and rather unprofitable sojourn of three years in various parts of California, afforded me ample time and opprtunity to become too t, horoughIy conversant with its roftenness and its corruption, its aqualor and its misery, its crimc and its shame, its gold and its dross. Simply and truthfilly I gave thc history of my experience to friends at home, who, after my return, suggest, cd that profit might be derived from giving these lettcrs to the world in narrative form, ancl urged me so strenuously, that I at length acceded to their wishes, but not without much reluctance being rinbtfhl as to the reception of tt book from one soincapable as myself of producing any thing more than a plain unvarnished tale. In order to present a more complete picture of California, I have added two chapters, that describing the routc through. Nicaragua, and the general resume at the dose of my volume. All that I solicit for this, my first offering, is a liberal and candid examination not of a part, But of the whole-not a cursory, but a consirlcrate rcacling. H. R. H. SALIBGY, Sorth Carolina, 1866..........