knowledge, I achieved the greatness which springs from untold wealth.
But this was not all. The blessed accident which led me to this golden
land was the means of disclosing a pearl of price--a treasure in
comparison with which California and all its mines shrink, to my mind,
into insignificance. You know how the war-cry went forth to all lands,
and men of every name and nation brought their arms to the field of
fortune. Famine came next, with disease and death in its train; and many
a man, hurrying on to reap the golden harvest, fell by the wayside,
without once seeing the waving of the yellow grain.

"Half scorning the greedy rabble, I could not refuse in this, my time of
prosperity, to minister to the wants of such as fell in the way; and now
for once my humanity found its own reward. A miserable, ragged,
half-starved, and apparently dying man crept to the door of my tent and
asked in a feeble voice for charity. I did not refuse to admit him into
my narrow domicile and to relieve his sufferings. He was the victim of
want rather than disease, and, his hunger appeased, the savage brutality
of his coarse nature soon manifested itself in the dogged indifference
with which he received a stranger's bounty and the gross ingratitude
with which he abused my hospitality. A few days served to restore him to
his strength; and then, anxious to dismiss my visitor, whose conduct had
already excited suspicions of his good faith, I gave him warning that he
must depart; at the same time placing in his hand a sufficient amount of
gold to insure his support until he could reach the mines which were his
professed destination.

"He appeared dissatisfied, and begged permission to remain until the
next morning, as the night was near, and he had no shelter provided. To
this I made no objection, little imagining how base a serpent I was
harbouring. At midnight I was awakened from my light and
easily-disturbed sleep to find my lodger busily engaged in rifling my
property and preparing to take an unceremonious leave of my dwelling.
Nor did his villainy end here. Upon my seizing and charging him with the
theft, he snatched a weapon and attempted the life of his benefactor.
But I was prepared to ward off the stroke, and succeeded in a few
moments in subduing my desperate antagonist. He now crouched at my feet
in such abject submission as might be expected from so vile a knave.
Well might he tremble with fear; for the Lynch-law was then in full