, but still attended with hardships. Many fell a prey to
wasting fevers which burn out one's life, and so never reached the
destined port of San Francisco, through which they would pass to the
gold fields.

The longest way was around Cape Horn. Still there were those who took
it, even if months, five or six, it might be, were consumed in the
journey. The gold they sought would compensate them at last. These too
had to encounter storms, face probable shipwreck or contend with grim
death. Many who sold all to equip themselves, who turned away from
home and kindred, for a time they thought, to enrich themselves, who
would surely return to their loved ones with untold treasure, never
fulfilled their desire. Some perished in the voyage, others died
in San Francisco, and were laid to rest till the final day in her
cemeteries by the heaving ocean. Such as reached the mines did
not always gain the gold they coveted. There were those who were
fortunate, who made a success of life, who realised their day dreams;
and some of these returned to the old home, to the waiting parents,
to the longing wife and children. Some with their gold settled in San
Francisco and sent for their kindred. And what happy meetings were
those in the years of gold mining, when ships coming from many lands,
from American and foreign ports, brought to the city through the
Golden Gate the beloved ones whose dear faces had ever been an
inspiration to the toilers in darkest hours! Methinks the meetings
of loved ones parted here, on the shores of the crystal sea, will
compensate for all life's labours and trials. Yes, if we only have the
true treasures, the true gold of the Golden City.

In those days of 1848 and 1849 and during 1850 and 1851, San
Francisco--on which we are now looking, the stately, comely city of
to-day, was a city of tents in a large measure. Ships were pouring out
their passengers at the Long Wharf. They would tent for a time on the
shore, then hurry off to the mines. In those days you could meet in
the streets men of various nationalities. Here were gold seekers from
New England and old England, from our own Southland and the sunny land
of France and Italy, from Germany and Sweden and Norway, from Canada
and other British possessions, from China and Japan. And it was gold
which brought them all here, the statesman and the soldier, the
labouring man and the child of fortune, sons of adversity and sons
of prosperity, rich and poor, lawyers