East. Why that country
should have remained uninhabited for untold ages, where universal
stillness must have prevailed as far as human activity is concerned, is
one of the unfathomable mysteries of nature. It is only one hundred and
twenty-five years since the Bay of San Francisco was first discovered,
one of the grandest harbors in the world, being land-locked, extending
thirty miles, where all the vessels of the world could anchor in safety.
The early pioneers of those two years immediately after the gold was
discovered (of which I am writing) are passing away. As Ossian says,
"People are like the waves of the ocean, like the leafs of woody marvin
that pass away in the rustling blast, and other leaves lift up their
green heads." There is probably not five per cent of the population of
California to-day, of those days, scenes and events of which I have
tried to portray. Another generation have taken their places who can
know but little of those times except by tradition. I, being one of the
pioneers, felt it a duty, or an inspiration seemed to come over me as an
obligation I owed to myself and compatriots of those times, to do what I
could to perpetuate the memory of them to some extent in the history of
our country as far as I had the ability to do it.

THE AUTHOR.

THE CALIFORNIA PIONEER SOCIETY.

The California Pioneer Society was organized in August, 1850. The
photograph of their building appears on the cover of this book, W.D.M.
Howard was their first president. Among their early presidents, and
prominent in the days of Forty-niners, were Samuel Branan, Thomas
Larkins, Wm. D. Farewell, and James Lick--who liberally endowed it.

[Illustration: BUILDING OF THE SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA PIONEERS.]

It was organized for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of the
events of those days and for the benefit and mutual protection of its
members. No person was eligible for membership except he had arrived in
California before the 1st of January, 1850, and the descendants of
Forty-niners when arriving at the age of twenty-one are eligible. At the
opening of the World's Fair in San Francisco in January last, in the
ceremonies in the marching of the procession through the streets of the
city, they were received with the greatest enthusiasm and cheers, which
was a marked manifestation of the veneration in which they are held by
the people of California.

THE ADVENTURES OF A FORTY-NINER.

The writer was practising