RUSH TO GOLD

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 RUSH TO GOLD
The French and the California Gold Rush, 1848–1854

Malcolm J. Rohrbough

New Haven & London

 Copyright © 2013 by Yale University.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rohrbough, Malcolm J.
Rush to gold : The French and the California gold rush, 1848–1854 /
Malcolm J. Rohrbough.
pages cm. — (The Lamar series in western history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-18140-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. California—Gold discoveries.
2. French—California—History—19th century. I. Title.
F865.R66 2013
979.4'04—dc23
2012050401
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
 For Sarah
For all the reasons . . .
This page intentionally left blank
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix
Author’s Notes xii
Introduction 1

Part One France

one France in 1848: Another World Turned Upside Down 7
two News of California Gold Discoveries Spreads across France 21
three The French Respond to the California Gold Discoveries:
Adventure, New Beginnings, and Trade 37
four The Rise of the French California Companies 55
five The Rush to Gold: Obstacles, Preparations, and Departures 73

Part Two California

six Voyages and Arrivals 91
seven In the Mines: Living and Working in a
Masculine Community 110

Part Three France

eight The Flowering of the New California Companies 129
nine The Lottery of the Golden Ingots 143
ten French Stories and French Images of California 162
viii Contents

Part Four California

eleven The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 177
twelve The French Argonauts Encounter the Americans 193
thirteen The Last French Argonauts 217

Part Five France

fourteen The French Argonauts Return to France: The Close of the
California Adventure 237
fifteen The Long Echoes of the French “Rush to Gold”
in California 253
sixteen The Balance Sheet 269

Notes 289
Bibliography 325
Index 335
Illustrations follow page 174
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have pursued this project over several years on two continents. The
scholarly and personal debts that I have incurred have the same extended
reach.
Let me begin by expressing deep appreciation to three institutions for
financial support: the University of Iowa, the National Endowment for the
Humanities through the Huntington Library, and the Camargo Foundation.
The initial support came in the form of the University of Iowa’s Global
Scholar Award, which provided financial assistance over two years. This award
made possible my first sustained research in France.
The Department of History also made available research assistance, and
I wish to acknowledge the work of Caroline Campbell, Rebecca Church,
Russell Johnson, and Richard Mtisi.
Colleagues in the department have assisted me in many ways. In this
connection, let me mention James Giblin, Colin Gordon, Jennifer Sessions,
and Alan Spitzer.
The University of Iowa Libraries have offered an array of resources. I
especially wish to thank John Schacht, colleague and friend, for his many
helpful suggestions.
Next, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship provided
through the Huntington Library sustained this project and helped it to grow.
I am greatly indebted to Robert R. Ritchie, director of research, for his
continuing advice and support.
Colleagues and friends at the Huntington who have helped with continuing
advice and counsel over many years include Shelly Bennett, Bill Deverell,
Barbara Donagan, David Igler, Michael Johnson, Alex Kendall, Susi Levin,
Karen Lystra, Robert Smith, and Samuel Truett.

ix
x Acknowledgments

The Manuscript Collections at the Huntington have been an invaluable

resource. Special thanks are due Peter Blodgett, Sara Hodson, and David
Zeidberg.
Finally, the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, provided me a residen-
tial fellowship, and I used its wonderful facilities and hospitality to write much
of a first draft.
I wish to thank Michael Pretina and Christian Luciani for their friendship
and assistance, as well as several fellows at the foundation for lively criticism:
Peter Baker, Rachel Fuchs, Cheryl Krueger, Martin Levin, and Rosalynn
Voaden. My appreciation extends to Monsieur Brun’s inimitable café, which
dispensed hospitality to the foundation’s fellows.
As befits a study with its focus on France, the sources are largely French. The
richest depository is the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. This study has
benefited by the opening of the new Bibliothèque, with its comfortable working
conditions, helpful staff, and extensive newspaper holdings. These included
more than a score of French works on the French participation in the gold rush.
Many of these were by contemporaries; others were by historians anchored in
the twentieth century. Among the former were a number of works of drama and
fiction, giving an added flavor to the “rush to gold.” All were available in the
Bibliothèque. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of its librarians as guides
to its fine collections.
French scholars have greatly assisted me. In the early stages of this project,
Pierre Lagayette (Paris IV) invited me to participate in a conference, and his
edited collection of the papers contains my first publication to emerge on this
study. Claudine Chalmers (French by training, American by residence) shared
with me her detailed study of the French in San Francisco during the gold
rush period.
My greatest debt is to Annick Foucrier (Sorbonne), whose scholarly publica-
tions on the interactions between France and California in the nineteenth
century set the scholarly standard in this field. I owe much to her work and to
our conversations.
Four scholars (and friends) read an earlier version of this study: Stephen
Aron (UCLA), Peter Blodgett (Huntington Library), Philip T. Hoffman
(California Institute of Technology), and Walter Nugent (University of Notre
Dame). Their incisive comments have been of great assistance.
To Helen Chenut I owe special thanks for helping me to find accounts in the
possession of French families whose relatives participated in the California gold
rush. I owe a special debt to two families who provided me with unpublished
materials: Monsieur Jérôme Ansart du Fiesnet (Besançon) and Monsieur and
 Acknowledgments xi

Madame Michel Lamontellerie (Tourtoirac). Their manuscript materials have

greatly enriched this study.
Closer to home, I am grateful for the vital assistance of Mianne Hanley. She
has played a crucial role in transatlantic communications.
I also wish to express my appreciation to three Paris friends: Shirley Jaffee
and Holly Hutchins-Puéchavy and Michel Puéchavy. They are wonderful
guides to the “City of Light” and its endless mysteries and surprises.
I also wish to acknowledge the helpful staff and rich resources at the
Houghton Library in Harvard University. Both assisted this project.
Tatjana Lorkovic of the Sterling Library in Yale University provided impor-
tant advice and counsel. At Yale University Press, Christopher Rogers, Christina
Tucker, and Ann-Marie Imbornoni have answered innumerable inquiries
promptly and with good humor. Bojana Ristich’s careful copyediting has helped
to give shape and precision to the manuscript. I also wish to acknowledge two
anonymous readers for Yale University Press, whose comments were also most
helpful.
Finally, my greatest debt is to Sarah Hanley. She introduced me to Paris and
to its libraries, cafés, museums, gardens, restaurants, and galleries, and she also
shared her many Paris friends with me. Without her infectious enthusiasm, this
project would never have been begun.
 AUTHOR’S NOTES

CURRENCY, TRAVEL COST, AND INCOME

1 piastre = $1
$1 = 5.5 francs
1 ounce of gold = $16

Average daily wage of an unskilled French worker: 2.5 francs

Average daily wage of a skilled French worker: 4.5 francs

Estimated annual income for a working French family: 1,000 francs

Average cost of passage, Le Havre to San Francisco: 1,000 francs

Average individual daily return in the California goldfields in 1849: 100 francs
Average individual daily return in the California goldfields in 1850: 60 francs
Average individual daily return in the California goldfields in 1851: 40 francs
Average individual daily return in the California goldfields in 1852: 30 francs1

TRANSLATIONS

All translations from the French are the author’s unless otherwise noted.

xii
RUSH TO GOLD
This page intentionally left blank
 INTRODUCTION

On a Monday morning, January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall opened the

mill race of John Sutter’s mill on the American River. When the water had
cleared, Marshall saw flakes of mineral in the bed. He immediately identified
these particles as gold, and later primitive tests confirmed his judgment. By this
act, Marshall unleashed a series of events that would influence the history of
California, the American nation, and peoples around the world, from Western
Europe to China.
In spite of Sutter’s determination to keep the gold discoveries secret, the
news spread rapidly in ever-widening circles. In the summer and autumn of
1848, the first wave of gold seekers came from Oregon, the Hawaiian Islands,
Peru, Chile, and Mexican Sonora. In 1849, prospective “Argonauts” (a term
that would come to have universal use in describing gold seekers) from most
of the nations and principalities of Europe joined the rush to California
and with them, prospective miners from Australia, and in the next year, from
several provinces in China. Within two years of Marshall’s discoveries, news
of California gold circled the world, leaving in its wake cycles of doubt,
acceptance, and finally gold mania.
In the twelve months from the middle of 1848 to the middle of 1849, gold
fever took hold. It spread unevenly in terms of time and the nature of the
impact. In some places, government officials and newspaper editors attempted
to dampen interest and immigration for personal and national reasons. In
several countries, the immediate response was commercial and only gradually
came to include numbers of individuals. Almost everywhere, the California
gold discoveries were viewed through the prism of local interests. Thus, for
example, economic hard times made emigration to California more desirable.
Another significant dimension was the aftershocks of the political revolutions of

1
2 Introduction

1848. The failure of many of these uprisings drove liberal dissidents into exile.
In these respects, 1848 was one of the most remarkable years of the first half of
the nineteenth century.

The series of events that we refer to as the California gold rush captured the
attention of peoples and governments around the world and produced a series
of surprises for participants and historians alike. For the participants, the
surprises included the dramatic California landscape, economic opportunities
in both the mining camps and the emerging urban centers, and the hardships
of labor in the mines measured against the chance of unimagined wealth. For
the miners in the camps, this new setting included living and working in a
masculine world that would require exercises in domestic self-help such as
cooking, washing, and sewing.
Among the surprises for the historians was the large number of foreign
groups. Their presence, at least in the early years, was submerged by the noise
and universal presence of the Americans, and they are often overlooked or
regarded as victims of American xenophobia. The French were among these
foreign groups, and they were neither shadowy nor victims. In the “rush to
gold”—the universal French expression in use at the time was “la ruée vers
l’or”—they arrived in large numbers—some thirty thousand at the height of
their presence—from a variety of places and through many different travel
arrangements. These arrangements reflected a range of social and economic
conditions as well as the participants’ diverse origins.
This is a book about the intrusion of California and America into French life
with the powerful pull of wealth in the form of gold discoveries. They were an
attraction that would involve large numbers of French people over three years.
They took place at a time of accelerating changes in France that involved the
countryside and the cities, the shape of the government and the political prin-
ciples that defined it, and the future direction of a nation whose people were
still, in many ways, regional rather than national in identity.
As the title and the five sections of this book suggest, this is a study of the
French and the California gold rush set in both France and California. On
balance, the emphasis of the study falls in France. It begins with the arrival of
the news of the gold discoveries and the response to the news. The response was
a mixture of commercial excitement and personal decisions by individuals. The
California gold discoveries represented the first French contact with California
on a large scale. This study then traces the preparations for emigration to
California, the departures from France, the voyages, and the arrivals. Eventually
some eighty-three California “companies” were organized as platforms for
 Introduction 3

emigration and investment. The French emigrants who made the long voyage
landed in San Francisco and marched to the distant goldfields. In both loca-
tions, they found themselves confronted by Americans. The relationship
between the two groups was complex, a mixture of admiration and assistance
on one side and intense competition and friction on the other. Whatever the
conditions and circumstances of the encounters, the French held their ground.
The first reports in the French newspapers from the California goldfields
spoke in awed tones of the great wealth found by ordinary citizens in this world
of wide-open opportunity. Gradually, a second cycle of descriptions appeared,
this one based on letters from the early French arrivals. These accounts, more
immediate for they reflected the experiences of French people, noted the
immensity of the landscape in California, the astonishing economic opportuni-
ties in many occupations and in many places, and the reality of making one’s
way in a strange place surrounded by strange people and a strange language.
These reports gave a specific dimension to the heretofore golden outlines
available in the press. The emerging news was both exciting and troubling: it
indicated a mixture of great opportunity at several levels surrounded by an
emerging society that seems to be without structure, law, or restraints of any
kind, except for individual weapons.
Spurred by such reports, back in France, another cycle of interest and
emigration began to take shape. This was bounded, on one side, by a new surge
of California companies organized for investment and emigration and, on the
other, by the Lottery of the Golden Ingots. This was a great national lottery
whose profits would be used to send five thousand French people to California
at the expense of the government. Eventually, this official emigration moved
some 3,300 French citizens to California.
In California a growing sentiment crystallized against foreign miners, espe-
cially those who did not speak English. A series of confrontations between the
French and the Americans grew out of these rising tensions. That these clashes
were, for the most part, resolved peacefully was a reflection on the prompt inter-
cession of outside officials, mixed with the shared knowledge that violence in
any form was bad for the mining business, which repaid a continuous applica-
tion of labor. In the greater measurement of economic benefits, a peaceful
settlement and return to work were preferable to a bloody alternative in a land
with no government entity to provide hospitals for the wounded or pensions for
the disabled.
Within California, the emphasis of this book falls on miners and mining.
It focuses, therefore, on the goldfields and the gold camps. Of course, there
was another dimension of the French presence—namely, in the towns and the
4 Introduction

city of San Francisco. Here the French acted within the context of a growing
urban presence. Yet as the cry “the rush to gold” suggests, the focus of French
commentators, authors, and artists was on the goldfields, where the real drama
of the search for riches was played out. The two words “California” and “gold”
remained the passwords for this short but intense interlude in mid-nineteenth-
century France.
Throughout, individually and collectively, through the letters and writings of
those who came to California, the French attempted to understand and come
to terms with the Americans. The future of California was obviously American.
But how much of the rest of the Pacific was also squarely in the sights of the
Americans, and who was to counter their imperial designs? As the much
maligned but still captivating Lottery of the Golden Ingots was laid to rest
through the long-anticipated drawing and the departure of seventeen lottery
ships, so the last vestiges of this great French presence in California drew to a
close in late 1852. By then, the loud roar of the rush to gold had been reduced
to a quiet murmur.
Part One

FRANCE
This page intentionally left blank
 1

FRANCE IN 1848
Another World Turned Upside Down

THE HARD YEARS

The year 1848 was a momentous twelve months in the life of the French
nation, bounded on the one side by the revolution that established the republic
and on the other by the election by universal male suffrage of Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte as its new president. This year and the events within it would define
the outlines of the nation for the next twenty years.
The context for these dramatic changes lay in the recent history of the
French nation and its responses to major changes in this world. In 1815, France
emerged from a quarter-century of revolution and war as the same rural and
decentralized nation it had been. Beyond the central feature of Paris and its
influence, most French people lived in the countryside or small villages,
where they worked the land. The lack of any kind of national transportation
system—to be remedied only with the appearance of a railroad network in the
1850s—kept people isolated socially, politically, and economically. Economic
exchanges were local, except in rare cases where a major town or city provided
an accessible market. The most important influences were the church, the tax
collector, and one or more large landowners. Education was minimal; illiteracy,
widespread. Regional languages and cultures were a strong influence. Contact
with a wider world was minimal, and where it came into play, almost entirely
negative. Visitors or officials from a distance were almost always the bearers of
bad news.
Embedded into life on these small farms and villages was an aura of perma-
nent class distinctions of the highest order. At the top rested a few hundred
families, some with titles but all with large landholdings; at the bottom, a large

7
8 France

and seemingly permanent peasant class, doomed to hard work in the fields at
all seasons for marginal returns, in a world like that of their parents and grand-
parents. Further disadvantaging the larger group were local restrictions about
hunting, gathering, the use of vacant lands, and continuing tax liabilities.
Adding to the influence and command of the few were education and literacy,
the capacity to read and understand written documents for business and
pleasure and to respond accordingly.1
In 1789, this structure and these privileges had come under attack. Several
cycles of revolutionary governments had attempted to modify and then abolish
these privileges. As popular movements moved forward to change French
society, they were accompanied by an equally fervent and driven opposition,
who saw the very foundations of the nation under assault. Some of this opposi-
tion was internal; other parts were represented by the thousands who went into
exile. One of the noteworthy changes in the lives of the peasantry was the rise
of a nationalist fervor that would lead to their widespread recruitment into
an army that would fight battles across Europe, eventually into Russia, for
twenty years.
At the conclusion of the Napoleonic experiment, France was welcomed
back into the club of civilized nations, its armies disbanded, its great military
victories and losses consigned to history books and memorials, and its govern-
ment and economy reconstituted in what seemed familiar forms. In 1815, the
Congress of Vienna defined the new shape of Europe, to the extent that it
was new. Monarchies, including that of France, were restored (as well as
they could be), and the long deliberations that closed France’s first great
revolutionary period seemed to restore the status quo ante bellum everywhere,
but especially in France, which had been defeated. A single noteworthy
addition to the French forms of government was the National Assembly, perhaps
the most important surviving institution of government from the revolution.
The Assembly was elected by limited suffrage and represented the interests of a
narrow group of French citizens, but for the first time, it provided a degree of
popular expression.
The heady principles of the revolution—even its excesses—were kept alive
by groups unhappy with the new French nation, which in their eyes was not
new but old. Opposition of various kinds lived on in intellectual salons in Paris;
in the working-class neighborhoods of Paris, Lille, Lyon, and Rouen; and in
some parts of the countryside. This uneasiness emerged in the uprisings of July
1830, when, after fifteen years on the throne, Charles X attempted to increase
his authority at the expense of the National Assembly. Turmoil rapidly engulfed
Paris, the king abdicated, and two weeks later Louis-Philippe took the oath as
 France in 1848 9

the new King of the French. The Revolution of 1830, as it came to be called by
historians, was quick and largely bloodless, especially when contrasted with
1789 and subsequent events of the 1790s.
The accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe, the “Bourgeois King,” carried
with it, for many, the optimism of a new government with new policies. As it
turned out, the new king pursued no basic reforms of the kind republicans
had sought. Instead, in his first months on the throne, the king’s ministers
mounted attacks on freedom of the press, on the right of association, and on the
independence of the National Assembly. These were all fundamental issues for
republicans. Of course, the king had inherited several long-standing problems
for which he was not directly responsible. These included failures of the harvest,
a rise in the cost of living, and food shortages. By the close of his first two
years, a strong and determined republican resistance had appeared, and this
opposition movement had spread to the working classes. The insurrection in
June 1832 was the physical manifestation of this opposition and a strong strain of
disillusionment with the new government. That the rebellion was quickly
suppressed did not make its brief history less violent and bloody. The troops of
the regular army, the National Guard, and the Municipal Guard remained
loyal. By the time the last barricades had been taken in the Paris neighborhood
of Saint-Antoine, forces loyal to the government had suffered three hundred
casualties, including one hundred dead. The numbers of the dead and wounded
of the insurgents were not exactly known, but they probably reached four
hundred. There were also fifteen hundred prisoners, and their trials kept the
issue alive in working-class neighborhoods and in the press. The insurgency
had failed, but as in so many cases, the blood and trials would lay the basis of a
continuing protest movement.
Later uprisings also failed to generate widespread participation, but taken
together these continuing outbreaks suggested a nation with many disaffected
groups. The king seemed perplexed. He appeared in public on a regular basis,
exhibiting considerable personal bravery. Louis-Philippe tried to dilute these
turbulent moments with compromises of various kinds. Although he believed
in a strong monarchy and censorship, he believed that his personal rule and the
devotion of French people to him (represented by the cries of “Vive le Roi!”
when he appeared) would diffuse revolutionary sentiments or at least direct
them elsewhere. He hoped to govern as a benevolent monarch, supported and
even loved by his subjects.
As the decade of the 1840s moved forward, various strands came together
in a surprising and unexpected way to produce a successful popular uprising.
The first of these was the ongoing demand—now under way for more than a
10 France

decade—to broaden the suffrage. Another was a series of economic crises that
culminated in widespread harvest failures in 1845 and 1846. The long-suffering
peasantry of the villages and countryside found itself hard pressed with the
failure of the rural economies. In Paris (with a population of almost one million)
and other cities, an industrial depression had filled the streets with the unem-
ployed. The migration of the desperate landless from the countryside increased
these numbers. For the first time in a generation, a great mass of French workers
in countryside and city found a degree of common cause with the middle-class
republicans who had preached so long from their salons and clubs to little or no
audience but themselves.2

THE REVOLUTION

Hard times in the countryside generated in France, as elsewhere in Europe,

emigration to the towns and cities. Employment was scarce to nonexistent in
all these urban places. For the new arrivals, the harsh, closed economy of
urban life gave rise to a cry of “the right to work” (le droit du travail). That
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen should have the right to gainful employment,
however difficult the task and meager the wage, seemed embedded in the
principles of the revolution. The presence of large numbers of unemployed
worried local officials. The customary institutions of charity and benevolence
were quickly overwhelmed.
For the largest part of the French population, the most important issue was
not the franchise or individual expression or even “the right to work.” Rather, it
was the price of bread. The cost of bread and its availability became the bench-
marks that led to domestic disturbances. The variables were the harvests and the
activities of speculators and merchants. These economic factors made no differ-
ence to families in the countryside, small villages, cities, or even Paris. In all these
places, individuals and families had to eat, and bread was the staple of every
meal. When it was not available, available only in short supply, or priced beyond
the means of the ordinary people, widespread protests often appeared. Between
1846 and 1847, the price of wheat doubled. Accordingly, in parallel fashion,
discontent appeared among wide segments of the population.
The explosion of these discontents into revolutionary fervor happened
rapidly and almost by accident. Banquets became a key mechanism in the
expression of popular discontent, a device created to evade the censorship asso-
ciated with public meetings and the press. Reformers scheduled a continuing
series of dinner meetings to express their views. They used the banquets to
campaign for enlarging the suffrage and to promote the right to work.
 France in 1848 11

The first such banquet was held in Paris in July 1847, and the banquet
movement expanded across the nation and became increasingly radical as
the demands for relief in the face of economic depression blended with the
long-standing demands for suffrage reform. The scuffles between street
marchers and the authorities in Paris over the issue of banning a banquet led to
a confrontation on the evening of Wednesday, February 23, 1848. With neither
the protest crowds nor the soldiers under effective control, the front ranks of the
two groups converged and jostled. A shot rang out, and immediately the soldiers
fired a volley. The final casualty count, as well as the circumstances of the tragic
encounter (who fired first at whom and for what provocation?), was disputed,
but some sixty Parisians died. Marchers paraded their bloody bodies through
the streets. The demonstrations grew. Barricades of paving stones went up, and
leaders urged the crowds to armed resistance. After all, they argued, peaceful
marches had led only to a bloody massacre.
The next day, all of Paris was in turmoil. The troops, on the streets for forty-
eight hours, were withdrawn to the barracks. To the military, the withdrawal was
a maneuver to consolidate forces and to issue new orders. To the crowds and
their leaders, the withdrawal was a retreat, clear evidence that the government
and the military had been intimidated by the power of the assembled citizenry.
The government of Louis-Philippe had ceded the streets to the crowds of angry
demonstrators. Shortly after noon, the king abdicated in favor of his grandson.
It was too late. With the king’s departure—he would go into exile in Great
Britain—the crowds surged forward to occupy the important public buildings.
The monarchy had fallen. Popular leaders immediately formed a provisional
government, which met and proclaimed a republic.3

THE REPUBLIC

This spontaneous popular uprising, later called the Revolution of 1848, had
succeeded in toppling the monarchy. Almost literally overnight, France became
a republic. The fall of the monarchy was so sudden that even the most ardent
republicans were caught unprepared. The provisional government, overjoyed
at the success of its uprising and newfound authority, now moved to embed
the principles of the new republican form of government into the fabric of
the nation.
The government that emerged might be characterized as politically radical
but socially conservative. Most of the ministries were in the hands of men who
had previously served in the National Assembly, albeit in opposition. Many of
these men shared a fear of the armed mob in the streets as an instrument of
12 France

change that could not be controlled by thoughtful, responsible leaders.

The first measures enacted reflected concern for legality and moderation.
Nonetheless, popular pressure forced the adoption of some measures that
represented dramatic departures. As the government or the experiment of
government moved forward, it had the support of liberal and reformist elements
for its potential for a better life; it also had the acquiescence of conservative
elements that feared the alternatives.
The government immediately created a Ministry of Works and enacted by
decree the reforms so long desired by French republicans and so necessary in
the face of continuing economic crisis. These included the guarantee of the
right to work for citizens, the ten-hour workday (eleven in the provinces), and
the creation of national workshops to provide work-relief. The leaders of the
new French republic also embarked on a series of fiscal reforms. The main
concern was to equalize or at least make sense of the many taxes and duties that
fell with special weight upon the poorer elements in the population. The
government also wanted to conduct its business in a legal and orderly way. In
order to raise financial resources to pay for the new proposals, the government
immediately (March 1848) enacted a land tax of 45 centimes to finance the
workshops. For people in the countryside, the tax was an outrageous burden.
It was the more resented because it was levied by the leaders of the new repub-
lican government, which was supposed to safeguard the interests of working
people in the cities and small landholders in the countryside. The tax was
widely caricatured as an example of the ineptness of the new republican govern-
ment and the failure of the National Assembly to respond to the fundamental
needs of the citizens of the republic.
The political reforms were no less dramatic: the death penalty abolished in
political trials, freedom of the press and liberty of association guaranteed, and,
most significant for republican reformers, the adoption of universal suffrage (in
practice, universal male suffrage). Overnight, the number of electors expanded
from 250,000 to more than 9,000,000. The new National Assembly completed its
revolutionary changes by passing a law that mandated national celebrations each
year on February 24, the anniversary of the proclamation of the republic. This day
became, by law, a day of national celebration, reflection, or mourning, depending
on individual attitudes toward the new form of government. Yet the obligatory
ceremonies highlighted the deep and growing internal divisions within the
country. As the new government attempted to carry out these remarkable changes,
it found itself besieged on one side by divisions within the republican ranks and
on the other by growing organized opposition to the idea of France as a republic
and fear of the disorder associated with the upheavals of the past several months.
 France in 1848 13

Almost immediately, the nation and its newly enlarged voting rolls confronted
the first election. National elections in April 1848 reflected the growing
divide between left and right. No organized political parties existed, and the
candidates selected themselves. Most of the candidates were well-known names
without any very clear sense of platform or principles. The radical reformers of
the revolution petitioned to have the elections postponed, but the elections
went forward on a wave of energy for the new, enlarged electorate. The results
showed a marked absence of national unity. The more conservative candidates
had won an overwhelming majority. The republicans had split into factions,
and the most radical of these emerged from the elections with a representation
reduced in numbers (something on the order of 100 deputies in an assembly of
880) but more radical in its views. Behind these numbers and these platforms
hovered the specter of further street violence, outbreaks that were seen as a
logical expression of public opinion by radical leaders and as a symbol of chaos
and anarchy by the emerging conservative opposition (or the “party of order,” as
it liked to be known).
Amid this struggle over principles, the new government sponsored costly
“national workshops” as part of the commitment to the right to work. The
workshops provided a measure of employment to the crowds of unemployed
who had surged into Paris. By the middle of May, more than one hundred
thousand were at work in these national workshops. In a sense, the workshops
represented the hope of the revolution for a mass of workers, especially those
who had poured into Paris in search of employment. Whatever the object of the
workshops, someone or something must pay to support them, and more than
one hundred thousand men at work with a daily stipend added up to a large
sum. Whatever the demand in the streets of Paris, it was not long before both
taxpayers and local communities (who paid the bills) began to rebel against the
ongoing expense. The drift toward resentment was early and strong, even within
those communities that made a sincere effort to make the workshops answer
individual and community needs. Many opposed them from the start; their
opposition grew and attracted additional supporters as the costs spiraled upward
and out of control.4
Nor was the opposition to the national workshops growing only in the city of
Paris. Local towns across France had joined the national movement to provide
workshops for the local unemployed. Whatever the results in diluting hard
times, the costs had become a significant issue everywhere. The town of Dieppe
opened workshops in March “in order to come to the aid of workers without
employment.” In the following four months, according to a notice issued by the
mayor, the town had spent 50,000 francs on this enterprise, and the future of the
14 France

town had been mortgaged. These extraordinary expenses “had exhausted [the
town’s] last resources.”5
In the face of rising deficits, the National Assembly moved to disband the
workshops. A decree issued on June 21 required all those unmarried nonresi-
dents who worked in the Paris workshops to return home or, if under the age of
twenty-five, to face obligatory military service. The more radical leaders took
their case to the streets. In a sense, this was a choreographed and inevitable
tragedy. The leaders had to turn to the streets because it was their only source
of power. In doing so, they only confirmed the view of the supporters of
“order”—namely, that this faction would lead France to anarchy, chaos, and a
bloody future.
The abolition of the workshops was the cause of the popular insurrection that
immediately followed. That this was an uprising of the poor people of Paris
suggested that what they wanted out of the revolution and the republic was not
social reform or even political reform but changes that would bring them greater
material subsistence for themselves and their families. Barricades went up;
working-class quarters were in turmoil. This time the outcome was very different.
The government, determined to restore order, brought in loyal troops from the
countryside and enlisted a Garde Mobile—a mixture of unemployed young
men and the National Guard—to retake control of the city. The momentous
events begun in January with a relatively peaceful transformation of the form of
government ended in June in four bloody days on the barricades of Paris. In the
so-called June Days, the uprising was violently suppressed. Some ten thousand
French men and women died on the barricades or in assaults on the barricades;
twenty-five thousand were arrested; some eleven thousand were brought before
military courts martial; many were executed and imprisoned; and five thousand
were deported to penal colonies in Algeria. The bloody “June Days” and the
subsequent retributions intensified the deep divisions within French society.
The failed insurrection greatly weakened the reform elements associated
with the revolution of February and in like fashion weakened the republic itself.
In the fall of 1848, there were bitter political feelings throughout France nurtured
by the recent violence and large numbers of unemployed, especially in Paris,
and many groups were unhappy about the past and uncertain about the future.6
The uneasy quiet that fell in the aftermath of these spasms of violence
seemed to highlight the divisions that had emerged over six months of repub-
lican government. The rising opposition was to the direction of the nation,
which was viewed as moving from republican to radical and for which the
principal object lesson was the violent uprising in June. Then, too, there were
the divisions between Paris and the major cities of Lyon and Lille, on the one
 France in 1848 15

side, and the vast majority of rural France (la France profonde), on the other.
For the peasants who worked the land, the changes of the republic seemed to
be indifferent or futile. They had an extra tax to pay; they still tilled someone
else’s land. The gulf between their lives and the lives of those in the cities
seemed as great as ever. The only different was the sense of failed expectations.

THE REACTION

Just as the sudden collapse of the monarchy caught republicans by surprise,

so did it confound the conservative opposition. The heady rush of the creation
of the republic and the promulgation of its principles seemed to carry all before
it. Those in opposition slowly organized. But the force of the republican march
confirmed them in their views. The principle of republicanism, reduced to its
fundamental strength, was based on the threat of armed mobs in the streets.
Whatever differences might appear among conservative groups, they were
united in their fear of such popular demonstrations. After all, a parade of armed
men and women on the streets without control was only a short step removed
from a popular uprising. And a popular uprising provoked memories of 1789.
So those in opposition to the republic—or at least the direction the republic
had assumed—began to organize. They had ample resources, beginning with
major newspapers. They had important public figures to give voice to their
views. They also had a range of missteps on the part of the fledgling republican
government as examples of mismanagement. Moreover, among many in the
countryside and small villages, any expression of authority aroused views from
skepticism to downright opposition. The new government inherited severe
problems with the economy. Its failure to solve them immediately gave rise to
disillusionment among its early supporters.
The initial focal points for those in the opposition were the first elections
under universal (male) suffrage. Here they had substantial successes. They had
the support of major newspapers. They had candidates whose names were well
known. This was a new, enlarged electorate without much sophistication in
terms of mobilizing popular votes. The new composition of the National
Assembly reflected the ascent of the opposition.7

A NEW FRENCH VISION OF A JUST WORLD

Running parallel to the founding of the republic and its economic and polit-
ical experiments was a new vision of a just world. This was the model proposed
by Étienne Cabet in his Voyage to Icaria. Cabet’s book described the model
16 France

of a perfectionist and equal society, and his planned community aroused a

response that far outweighed the numbers involved. For his followers, this was
the answer to the misery of a France wracked by harvest failures, unemploy-
ment, the desertion of the countryside for the uncertain future of the city, and
the air of hopelessness that had become a signature of French life for so many.
On the other side, critics of Cabet’s equal society raised the cry of an economic
upheaval against private property, with its twin specters of “socialism” and
(soon) “communism.”
Across the broad range of issues that engaged (and sometimes infuriated)
politicians, commentators, and editors at the opening of 1849, none generated
more heat than Étienne Cabet and his Icarian movement. From the appear-
ance of his Icaria and the subsequent growth of salons and clubs that espoused
his views of a cooperative society characterized by economic justice and polit-
ical participation, Cabet and then his followers became a lightning rod for
impassioned commentary on the French scene. For conservatives, those who
soon displayed uneasiness, skepticism, and even hostility toward the new
republic, Icaria represented a fantasy nightmare that posed an alternative to the
drudgery of French peasant life. For liberal reformers and republicans, now in
a position of strength for the first time in a generation, Icaria represented a
future with a prospect of an unheard of economic justice and a high degree of
democratic participation in shaping the direction of the new colony. In prac-
tical terms, the Icarian movement seemed directed toward a landless peasantry,
trapped in an endless cycle of static labor. That it drew some of its most vocal
supporters from the cities, especially Paris, gave it the air of unreality associated
with communal enterprises focused on land and agriculture that attracted
liberal reformers who were generally strangers to hard physical labor. As the
Icarian movement gained converts and laid plans to establish a visionary colony
in America, so too did the opposition to it.

NEWS OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD DISCOVERIES

It was in this fall interlude of 1848 that news of the discovery of gold in
California reached France through the combination of a French diplomat and
an elected American official. The French diplomat was Jacques Moerenhout,
the consul at Monterey. In October 1848, he wrote an account of the gold
discoveries to the French admiral commanding the Pacific Squadron, who
forwarded the news to the headquarters of the navy at Bordeaux. At about
the same time, several officers in the Pacific Squadron sent letters to their
families in France with the same news. If these reports were to be believed,
 France in 1848 17

astonishing discoveries of immense wealth had been made in the quiet, pastoral
former Spanish colony of Alta California, now part of the new continental
American nation.8
The American official who confirmed these improbable stories was President
James K. Polk. When the president delivered his annual address to Congress
on December 5, 1848, he used the occasion to authenticate the discovery of
gold in America’s newest western possession. Paris newspapers published
Polk’s address in mid-December. Their responses acknowledged that his speech
had validated the unlikely rumors that had circulated for a month, but many
French editors continued to discount the stories as the usual American exag-
geration. The Siècle noted that the American political scene was dominated by
the issue of slavery, but the new gold discoveries were heavily covered in
American newspapers: “Another subject occupies the American press [as much
as slavery]: c’est la Californie.” Every American newspaper, the Siècle continued,
had five or six full columns “of descriptions or accounts.” By the second week
in January 1849, even the most cautious French editors had acknowledged
the presence of gold in quantities in California. “The discoveries made by the
Americans . . . of gold mines of great richness, are of an importance that
is impossible to contest,” confirmed the Journal des Débats. A month later,
the Journal reprinted J. Tyrwhitt-Brooks’s account of the goldfields. At the
same time, the Constitutionnel offered its readers “Les Chercheurs d’Or
du Sacramento.”9 Gold fever, California, and Sacramento had entered the
vocabulary of French life.
The discovery of gold in California and the subsequent spread of the news
intersected Étienne Cabet and his utopian experiment in direct ways. That
Cabet intended to pursue his dream in America brought the United States
under increasing scrutiny by some groups. News of Cabet’s disastrous first
experiment in Texas appeared in the French newspapers almost coincidentally
with the news of gold in California. To many French observers, the two were
symbolically linked through the common landscape of the United States. In
this view, Cabet’s experiment was a fantasy based on a complete misunder-
standing of human nature or, more to the point, crafted in such a way as to
deceive honest, hard-working French peasants. The discoveries of gold in
California, in parallel, were also a fantasy, created by the press (or, for those
of a more conspiratorial bent, by the American government itself) to lure
large numbers of bright-eyed immigrants to a remote, sterile, and alien land-
scape. That this landscape had been so recently acquired by the Americans
in an aggressive war of conquest made the news of gold in connection with
its recent acquisition all the more suspicious. After all, James Marshall had
18 France

discovered gold on January 24, 1848; the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ceding
the northern third of Mexico to the United States, was signed ten days later, on
February 2, 1848.
Thus, the widespread and growing mania for gold was clearly a carefully
orchestrated campaign to flood the newly acquired California with immigrants
from all over the world, especially with newcomers from the eastern United
States. As a result, the western anchor of the new continental American empire
would be firmly in place. California was simply another successful chapter in
American imperial designs. The discovery of gold and its universal appeal was
simply another example of manipulation of the newspaper press, bounded on
the one side by an abiding belief in national destiny (as represented by the idea
of “Manifest Destiny”) and on the other by the excessive, exaggerated, irrespon-
sible qualities of the American press, or “American puff,” as it was known to
French observers. That gold had been discovered in California was entirely
possible, or so ran the argument. That gold was available in large quantities was
improbable; that gold was available to everyone was impossible.

THE YEAR 1848 CLOSES: A NEW CONSTITUTION

AND A NEW PRESIDENT

Beyond the discovery of gold in a distant place and a French plan for a just
society, two issues of great importance faced the French citizens of the new
republic. The first of these was the adoption of a new constitution. The debate
began with the proclamation of the republic in February. It continued through
the spring and summer, through the first elections with universal suffrage, and
across the dark and bloody “June Days.” The strength of the insurrection and
the resources necessary to repress it confirmed to many that the republic needed
a strong government. The constitution of the new republic that emerged in
November 1848 was an inevitable compromise. Still, it embodied many of the
basic principles of the revolution, including the weaving of the republic into
the fabric of French life, the expansion of the franchise, the principle of the
right to work, and a declaration of the basic rights of man. As such, the new
constitution proclaimed the spirit and principles of the revolution. Accordingly,
the constitution and the republic were opposed in many quarters, and the
opposition was immediate and unrelenting.
The second issue was the presidential election of December 1848. This
election was mandated by the recently enacted constitution. It reflected
the compromises of this document. In fashioning a framework for a new
government, the authors shared the growing uneasiness associated with the
 France in 1848 19

factionalism in the National Assembly and the raucous and uninhibited elec-
tions associated with universal suffrage. The solution was a government headed
by a strong executive, or president, who could control local factionalism.
As it turned out, the framers of the constitution had the popular election
they wanted but not the result they expected. The run-up to the election was
intense, and it captured far more attention because of the provision of universal
suffrage under the new constitution. Three of the many candidates commanded
most of the popular attention. The first was Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, a longtime
leading figure on the left. A man of great personal charm and a substantial
personal fortune (acquired through marriage with his English wife), he had
served on the original committee that established the republic, and he was
minister of interior in the first provisional government. He was regularly
returned to the National Assembly with a large popular vote. The second candi-
date was General Louis-Eugène Cavignac, who, as minister of war, used his
authority to suppress the popular uprisings of June. He was considered a proven
candidate of the party of “order.” The third was Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the
nephew of Napoléon I. The younger Bonaparte had been active against the
government for a decade or more, even imprisoned upon one occasion. He was
independent in outlook, with views on the issues of the day that were largely
unknown. His resignation from the National Assembly endeared him to those
who thought that body a useless exercise in debate. In the run-up to the elec-
tion, he wrapped himself in a well-financed campaign that emphasized a single
dominant theme: his name.
On December 10, 1848, the Second Republic took a decided and, for most
republicans, unanticipated turn. The final vote count was Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte, 5,434,000 (74 percent); Louis-Eugène Cavignac, 1,448,000 (20 per-
cent); and Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, 370,000 (5 percent). Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte had won a decisive (even overwhelming) victory. There was a certain
irony in his huge majority. The republicans had fought for a generation for the
expansion of the electorate. With the success of the revolution and the founding
of the republic, their wish had come true. French male citizens clearly enjoyed
their newfound suffrage, and they voted in overwhelming numbers for a familiar
name. For those on the side of “order,” December 10 became a day of cele-
bration in which the nation had been redeemed from its downward spiral.10
As the nation exhaled, the political future was in the hands of an unknown
with the best-known name in France and little else certain about him. And into
this breathing space came news that the rumors of gold in California might very
well be true. This rebirth of interest produced an outpouring of enthusiasm like
that in other countries around the world. On January 13, 1849, the first notice
20 France

appeared of a planned French emigration to California. The sailing ship La

Meuse departed for San Francisco on February 15, 1849. After a long but
uneventful voyage of seven months, it anchored in the harbor at San Francisco
on September 14, 1849, and immediately disembarked the first fifty French
Forty-Niners.11
 2

NEWS OF CALIFORNIA GOLD DISCOVERIES

SPREADS ACROSS FRANCE

THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT

In May 1848, Jacques Moerenhout, the French consul in Monterey, wrote to

the minister of foreign affairs, “The most important new discovery, and [the
one] which just now is causing the most excitement, is that of a gold placer,
which is found on the plain of the Sacramento near New Helvetia. This deposit
or placer, it is said, is more than twenty leagues in length and of a considerable
width. The gold is found in flakes in a sort of loose alluvial soil. This deposit is
as rich as the richest placers of Sonora, in Mexico.” Moerenhout, as a profes-
sional diplomat, was charged with conveying accurate information to his supe-
riors in Paris, and, accordingly, he intended to visit the sites himself so that he
might report firsthand “with exact details” on this startling new development
that had come to dominate life in Alta California.1
Moerenhout’s tour through the “gold country” took twenty-four days. He
began on July 11 at the eastern edge of the San Joaquin River Valley, crossed the
river, and moved to French Camp (named for French Canadian trappers).2 In
the low, swampy areas, he and his companions suffered from the “absolutely
unbearable” heat at midday and from the clouds of mosquitoes, so thick as to
make the horses almost unmanageable. Pushing on, they passed through the
“Dry Diggings” (mining with little or no water for immediate use) and stopped
at French Camp, where Moerenhout and his companions received “a hearty
welcome, and considering where we were, a good supper.” At this point in the
expedition, Moerenhout’s companions left him for three or four days and joined
the miners to dig and wash. The mining district, between the American and
Consumnes Rivers, had been the site of mining since early June, or for about

21
22 France

six weeks. The original discoverers, according to Moerenhout, made from two
to three hundred dollars a day with only a crowbar and a knife. When news of
the astonishing returns circulated, in less than a week some 800–1,000 miners
had appeared from the American River.
Most of the miners lived and worked in groups, Moerenhout continued,
already using what would become known as the “cradle.” This simple but effec-
tive machine—four men were necessary to work it efficiently—could wash a
ton of gravel in three to four hours, with a ton yielding between sixteen and
twenty-five ounces, and sometimes as much as thirty ounces. As the water levels
declined, the hours of operating the machine declined in direct proportion,
and the daily earnings fell to three to four ounces.
The pace of work was frantic as “the workmen were swarming there like so
many ants.” At some sites, miners “equipped only with their knives and little
iron bars, do not wash the dirt at all but simply gather the visible grains and
pieces that they find.” The crowds reflected the richness of the diggings, and
“the miners . . . could scarcely move about”; with “the abundance of gold there
was something marvelous.” Already Moerenhout remarked on the exhausting
physical labor associated with digging and washing for gold, and his companions-
turned-miners found the work so exhausting that they stopped at noon. His
friends “were all bathed in sweat,” but they were more than satisfied with the
gold harvest and determined that they would not leave until they each had two
or three thousand dollars. Moerenhout concluded his observations that in these
diggings, the average daily return for each miner was at least three to four
ounces.3
Moerenhout remarked on the different mining patterns among the
Americans, the Californians, and the French. “The Americans come in carts,”
he wrote, “bringing all provisions and everything necessary for a trip or for the
time that they intend to be away, have no expenses except for fresh meat, which,
strictly speaking, they can do without. Some, bringing wives and children with
them, take their meals at regular hours and live almost as they would at home.
The Californians and the Frenchmen, on the other hand, come on horseback,
bring provisions for only a few days and eat poorly, irregularly and at random,
and are obliged to leave after a short time or to buy provisions at exorbitant
prices.” These differences were reflected in the level of wealth. “The American,”
he continued, “better equipped and more persevering, does not return until he
has amassed quite a considerable sum, rarely less than three or four thousand
dollars, whereas the Californian, obliged to return for lack of provisions and less
avid or more careless of the future, comes back after a week or two with seldom
more than eight to twelve hundred dollars.”4
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 23

Moerenhout then went to Coloma, the site of James W. Marshall’s original

discoveries some six months earlier. He observed that miners worked on the
American River at a distance from one another, with not more than 250–300
people on the “whole extent of the river.” The modest numbers testified to the
vast extent of the gold-bearing region and the few miners involved at this early
date. Perhaps they also reflected the smaller returns, which Moerenhout esti-
mated at one to one and one-half ounces rather than twice that number in the
“Dry Diggings.” Moerenhout then turned north toward the Feather River,
where he found many Indians at work, most of these “directed by Americans
who, having farms in the vicinity, can easily obtain Indians.” At this point,
fatigued by a hard journey of ten days, constantly in the saddle or walking across
rocky and often wet landscapes, he decided to retrace his steps and return to
Monterey. He had examined the principal mining sites over eighty miles from
the Consumnes to the Feather Rivers, although he admitted that the gold-
bearing region surely extended farther to the north. He concluded that in the
fewer than three months of active mining, more than $4 million in gold had
been taken from the mining sites by an average of 1,700 miners, although the
composition of the miners continually changed.5
Finally, Moerenhout described the impact of the gold discoveries on “the
condition and character of the people of this country”: Upper California was a
place of abundance and fertility. Thus, he wrote, “there had never been any
poor in the true sense of the word.” Still, he continued, “it was a place where
money was almost unknown. It functioned with a barter economy, including
the trade in hides and tallow with eastern merchants in the United States. Rare
were those individuals who possessed as much as five hundred or a thousand
dollars.” All this had changed in the most dramatic kind of way, for “now the
lowliest, the most unfortunate among them, finds himself in possession of that
much or of a much greater sum, obtained overnight and with such ease that it
seems of little importance to him and he parts with it with indifference and
prodigality.” As for the Americans, they “seem all to come back with the same
disposition, spend extravagantly, throw away gold by the handful and assume
the air of prodigious importance and generosity.” Moerenhout returned to
Monterey to find the town deserted. All the men, Californians and foreigners,
had left for the mines; even soldiers and officers had deserted.6
In the course of his tour, Moerenhout had observed the various mining tech-
niques; acquired samples of gold in various forms; and spoken at length with
miners, merchants, and officials. His subsequent letters were simply an amplifi-
cation of his earlier observations, with specific attention to the growing number
of miners from around the world. “The quantity of gold in the hands of
24 France

Californians and foreign inhabitants is incalculable,” he wrote. “Judging

from this state of affairs it is probable that for a long time yet this country
will be an excellent market for ships coming from Europe.” If the French
were to profit from commerce, he continued, they must move rapidly to inject
themselves into the commercial scene of Upper California. The French were
an experienced commercial people, and they had products in demand in
California (especially wines and brandies), but France was distant from
California. Moerenhout urged the ministry that French commercial interests
move aggressively.7
Moerenhout finished his long report on August 17, 1848, and he conveyed it
to the ministry by way of a Chilean ship departing that day. When the letter
arrived at the Quai d’Orsay about the middle of January 1849, the French
government was in possession of the most complete information available about
the gold region in Upper California. The consul’s observations, based on his
journey of four weeks, accurately described the extent and location of the gold
country as it was then known, the mining techniques and individual returns for
mining in different mining districts, and the condition of the varied landscape,
with special attention to the agricultural opportunities in the interior valleys. As
noted, Moerenhout also analyzed the commercial opportunities available for
French companies. In many respects, his report was superior to that of Colonel
Richard Mason, whose detailed account of his tour of the goldfields chronicled
the experiences of American miners by a high-ranking American official.
Mason’s report to the adjutant general in Washington (with samples of gold)
created a sensation when it reached the eastern United States. Moerenhout had
done his job with great skill and promptness; it now remained to be seen
whether the French would profit from his insightful report.

UNOFFICIAL REPORTS

The village of San Francisco had two newspapers, and its press soon trum-
peted the news of the gold discoveries. The first notice appeared in the
California Star under the date March 15, 1848. Newspapers in other towns from
Honolulu to Valparaiso, Lima, and Sydney gradually became aware of the same
reports, for much of the early information consisted of copies of the San
Francisco papers, carried or mailed to friends and other editors. The spread of
the news also reflected what editors chose to print and their attitudes toward
these improbable accounts of ordinary citizens harvesting gold nuggets from
streambeds and even from the open ground. To these sources of information
must be added the letters and reports from government officials. That these
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 25

sometimes appeared in print and sometimes not depended on what editors saw
as the interests of a particular town and region.
For the English-speaking world outside California, the leading sources were
the New York Herald and the Times of London. The New York Herald was the
foremost large-circulation American paper, and it reflected what would become
a common cycle in moving from indifference to skepticism to acceptance to
frenzy. Indeed, the Herald would become the journalistic center of gold mania,
and the range of its national reputation would put the gold discoveries at the
head of columns of local newspapers across the eastern half of the continent,
from Boston to St. Louis, from Detroit to New Orleans. The Herald was also an
early and significant voice in identifying the possible commercial bonanzas that
would accompany the mass movement to the goldfields.8
The Times of London initially took a more careful position. Yet it too would
succumb to a significant degree to the reports of wealth in distant California. By
December 1848, the Times had joined the chorus—albeit in muted tones—of
those who accepted the presence of large quantities of gold in California
and searched through a variety of columns for ways to turn these discoveries to
individual and national advantage.9
There was a third important paper in the spread of news about the gold
discoveries to France and Europe. It was a French-language newspaper
published in New York City that served as a conduit of news across the Atlantic—
in both directions. The Courrier des États-Unis strongly supported France,
French national interests, and French culture. The Courrier applauded the
revolution of February 1848 and the establishment of a republic, but at the same
time, the struggles of the new republican government, with its uncertainties
and the looming echoes of the terror of 1792, cast the paper as conservative on
social and economic issues. The paper quoted with approval Alexandre Dumas’s
(father) catalogue of the three sacred touchstones of French life: country,
family, and property. The Courrier hinted that the new government, especially
in the aftermath of the April 1848 elections, would attack “these three roots of
French life.”10 The paper supported the position of “Citizen Louis Napoléon,”
including his resignation from the National Assembly. It constantly praised the
vitality of French life, especially Paris life. Parisians of all classes thronged to the
streets to seek distractions, pleasures, wonders, an emotional outlet at all hours
of the day and night. There, the boulevards served as a stage for public theater,
what the Courrier called “the theater of asphalt.”11
News of the gold discoveries in California appeared in the Courrier on
November 30, 1848, on the eve of the French presidential election. The source
was a letter from Monterey, dated September 15, from a ship captain to a
26 France

commercial house in New York City. He wrote of the discovery of gold mines
on the Sacramento, in response to which the inhabitants of California had
been seized by a kind of collective vertigo. There was, however, a practical
issue: the captain’s crew had deserted, leaving him with nine hundred barrels of
merchandise to unload and not a single laborer in all of Upper California avail-
able at any price. The Courrier’s subsequent reports were sober and measured.
In the middle of December, the Courrier reproduced a letter from the director
of the Philadelphia Mint affirming the purity of the gold samples from
California. The same day, the paper noted that some sixty to seventy ships were
set to depart from East Coast harbors—from Boston to Baltimore—for the
country of gold. The Courrier summarized the situation in terms that echoed
other New York papers: the mines of California dominated the dreams of
everyone; the population of San Francisco had declined precipitously as its
inhabitants deserted the town for the goldfields; all stores now had scales to
weigh gold being used in payment for goods and services. Throughout its
coverage, the Courrier tried to maintain a degree of objective analysis in a world
that seemed to be rapidly losing any semblance of this quality.12

PARIS: MANY VOICES JOIN THE CHORUS

Any important issue in French life was first announced, analyzed, and
judged by the newspapers in Paris. It was understood that Paris newspapers
would give careful consideration to questions of national importance and
pass judgment on them. From this center, the news of gold spread to distant
cities, towns, and the countryside.
In the closing months of 1848 and the opening months of 1849, Paris newspa-
pers presented a broad mosaic not so much of French life as of Parisian life.
There were well-established dailies published for a half century or more; there
were new papers published for six months in response to the creation of the new
republic, for with the success of the revolution in February 1848, press censor-
ship disappeared. Indeed, new newspapers appeared every week, reflecting the
principles of the revolution and the republic. Paris newspapers were, by turns,
serious and playful, aloof and catty, and through the early months of 1849, more
and more intensely political.
Of the long-established Parisian dailies, the most significant were the Siècle,
the Constitutionnel, and the Presse. Each had a circulation of more than twenty-
five thousand, the numbers driven up by a new strategy of reducing the prices
of subscriptions in the interests of raising circulation. Closely behind this group
was the Journal des Débats, followed by Illustration (an illustrated weekly), and
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 27

several publications devoted to humor and caricature. The most important of

this last group were Charivari, Journal pour Rire, and Silhouette. Paris was also
the publication origin for three journals of business and law, two significant
areas of professional life in Paris and France at mid-century: the Gazette des
Affaires, the Phare Commercial, and the Gazette des Tribunaux.13
The Paris newspapers were initially extremely skeptical of the news of gold
in California. The gold strikes were too rich and too accessible to be believed.
They were also too American. French newspapers long had reservations about
the reliability of the American press, whose items they sometimes reported as
much for amusement as for news. Accordingly, they considered the earliest
reports of widespread availability of gold as the usual “puff” associated with
American journalism. In the eyes of French editors, their American counter-
parts created fantasies to entertain their readers; where such fantasies might
have a basis in fact, they exaggerated them. Thus stories of gold discoveries in
California were initially distrusted by the Parisian press, and, accordingly, it fell
to French editors to examine news from America and to protect the French
reading public from such exaggerations and even downright deceptions.
The first notice of the gold discoveries in a French newspaper appeared in
the Journal des Débats in November 1848. “It seems that mineral deposits of
great value have been discovered; everyone speaks of gold mines, of fabulous
riches awaiting only the hands of the miners to be picked up. Whether true or
false, exaggerated or not, these rumors seem to have powerfully aroused public
imagination.”14 From this time, the news of California and gold began to appear
on a regular basis.
The leading Paris dailies all gave the gold discoveries extensive coverage. The
single event that triggered widespread acceptance of the news, as noted in
chapter 1, was President James K. Polk’s address to Congress on December 5,
1848. French officials and editors paid attention to public pronouncements by
an American president, especially as they reflected foreign affairs. That Polk’s
address coincided in its proximity to the French presidential election guaranteed
that it would receive extensive press coverage. The Siècle carefully analyzed the
address as the news arrived in France some three weeks later. Polk noted that the
discovery of gold, in the aftermath of the conquest of California, had been
confirmed “by the authentic reports of public officials who have visited the
mineral district in order to make personal observations.” In its analysis of note-
worthy events at the end of the year, the Siècle observed that news from California
had begun to dominate American newspapers: “There was not a single American
newspaper that did not devote five or six columns to it, along with numerous
announcements of the expeditions planned for the country of gold.”15
28 France

In late December, French newspapers began the transition from doubt to

acceptance to unbridled enthusiasm. Some joined the chorus early and seem-
ingly without reservation. The Siècle headlined its coverage on the last day of
1848: “It’s California! It’s California! California is Theater!”16 Thus, the editors of
the Siècle captured the sense that California was a stage on which larger-than-
life dramas were unfolding. Like other dramas on the stage, those who would
understand the impact of the gold discoveries must suspend rational analysis
and open themselves to the possibility of something entirely new, something so
dramatically different as to involve almost a new dimension of life’s experiences.
The Constitutionnel offered another explanation. Its initial response to Polk’s
message of the California gold discoveries was to view it in the larger context of
American imperial designs. Through prosperity and growth now extended for
sixty years, the American nation had acquired a degree of vanity in the admin-
istration of its affairs. So President Polk, observed the Constitutionnel, could not
resist the temptation to give European governments a lesson in foreign affairs.
But there was another lesson to be addressed to Europe, the Constitutionnel
concluded—namely, that contrary to popular views, a republic, even a federal
republic like the United States, was perfectly capable of undertaking a war of
conquest in its national interest. The message of the president about California
showed how the Americans had made themselves masters of their new
conquests. At the close of its analysis, the paper quoted from Polk’s account of
the “famous gold mines whose discovery has had such repercussions.”17
The responses of the Journal des Débats, a newspaper with an international
reputation, reflected those of the Paris press. The first mention of California
gold in France appeared in the Journal on November 15, 1848. After a period of
doubt and uncertainty, the newspaper offered these conclusions in early
January: “The discoveries which have come to the Americans, scarcely in
possession of California, on the banks of the Sacramento, of gold mines of great
richness, have an importance that is impossible to contest. It is henceforth
beyond a doubt that in a great number of places in this valley the exploitation
of gold is possible with extraordinary success. . . . The richness of the ore beds
in California seems to surpass all that has been known up to this day.” On
February 14, 1849, an editorial in the Journal summed up the wide-ranging
influence of the gold discoveries on economic and social questions and the new
significance of the Pacific Coast in affairs: “The most remarkable development
of our age, in the field of material progress, is beyond any contradiction the
discovery and exploitation of the goldfields of California.”18
The other large Paris daily newspapers covered the California gold discoveries
with a rising crescendo of interest in January. The Presse noted that in the New
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 29

Year, three subjects dominated the American press: California, Congress, and
cholera. One newspaper pronounced that “there was no doubt that the age of
gold had returned.” By the end of the month, some prominent Paris newspapers
suggested that the stories were indeed “no exaggeration.” The Pays offered this
summary: “The golden riches of this country are inexhaustible.” Over the course
of the month, “discovery” had become “acceptance,” and “acceptance” was
moving toward “fever.” By the middle of January, the word “fever” was often
used. Illustration captured the impact of the news and its effect on a wide range
of different groups of people with the comment, “The frenzy comes nearer and
nearer.” Finally, “The worker renounces his machine; the laborer his plow, the
merchant his counting house. ho! for california. Forward! Forward!”19
The Paris press found much to marvel at in gold rush California: the disap-
pearance of a servant class; the rise in wages to extraordinary levels for the most
menial kind of work; the transition of California from an economy based on
credit and small notes of indebtedness to a cash economy almost literally over-
night; the desertion from their duty posts of officials at every level, including
soldiers, sailors, and even officers from the army and navy.20
Other papers also noted the spread of the gold fever to Paris—indeed, to the
working-class districts of Paris. One account spoke of the appearance of a visible
representation in Paris: “gold mines. This is the magic title on the posters on
the walls of Paris.”21 Another raised the political implications: “California!
California! This is the cry that is heard from all the parties of European democ-
racies in 1848. . . . Ships leave every port bound for California. Here, in the
Faubourg Montmartre, a great concourse of citizens crowds before a poster of a
ship leaving L’Havre for this modern El Dorado.” But the price of passage—F
1,500—placed it beyond the reach of “the good republicans.”22 The California
gold rush had intruded into French politics.

Amid the rising voices marking the transition of Paris newspapers from the clin-
ical analysis of discovery to that of willing participants in the growing epidemic
of gold fever, one newspaper tried to preserve a sense of order, decorum, and
distance. This exception was the Moniteur Universel, a quasi-official voice
of the French government sent free every day to bureaucrats and officials
of the government at many levels. The masthead of the paper called it the
“Official Newspaper of the French Republic.”23 The reports of the gold discov-
eries in California that made their way into print in the Moniteur may
be said to represent a kind of official voice of the French government’s view
and its evolution over the first four months of 1849. It was in this crucial period
that French officials, commercial houses, and private individuals received
30 France

increasingly detailed accounts of affairs in California. Not surprisingly, these

accounts and their presentation initially differed in detail and in tone, gradually
assuming a degree of consensus by the end of the four months.
The Moniteur’s initial approach was brisk and businesslike. The first notices,
in early January, noted the arrival of a large shipment of gold powder in
Valparaiso. These were followed, within a week, by accounts of English
companies organized to exploit the prospects in the goldfields. These ventures
were “speculation” but reflected a degree of acceptance of the rumors
coming out of Alta California. Later accounts in the Moniteur described the
impact of the gold discoveries on the American military presence, citing
American commodore Thomas Jones’s letter to the effect that the presence
of gold had raised the prospect of massive desertions from American naval
vessels.24
In the last two weeks of February, the Moniteur published two extended
columns that seemed to set the tone for official French reaction to the gold
discoveries. The first of these appeared under the heading “Commercial
Documents” and began with a detailed analysis of the enormous expansion of
the boundaries of the American nation by the annexation of Texas and the
results of the American war against Mexico. This account then went on to
analyze the spreading stories of gold in California: “The metallic riches of
California occupy at this moment all spirits and turn every head.” That the pres-
ence of such mineral riches was not longer open to doubt represented a degree
of official acceptance. The Americans, in pursing the “kind of colonization
which has been so fruitful on the North American continent, have opened lines
of communication and emigration from eastern ports through Valparaiso to the
West Coast.” The result was a new stimulation to commerce in the Pacific by
way of the shores of the American continent, to the Sandwich and Society
Islands, and eventually to China.25
A second letter in the Moniteur, dated January 10, described the organization
of a French company to take advantage of these commercial opportunities.
This account reflected the idea of a direct French national interest in the gold
discoveries. The detailed organization of this venture was intended to assure its
success. It would be made up of an “expert in refining,” two merchants, a
civil engineer with a knowledge of California soils, a mechanic, a carpenter, a
cook, and three trusted associates. Instead of going to the goldfields by way of
San Francisco, the official leaders of this small colony would cross Mexico,
while the materials necessary for the expedition—machines, tents, food—
would be shipped around Cape Horn to San Francisco. The intention was to
establish a permanent official commercial presence whose object was to refine
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 31

gold, but once on the ground, it would have the capacity to found a commercial
establishment directed toward common interests.26
These plans were amplified a week later in the Moniteur’s second column
with a long and detailed listing of the cargoes headed to the California ports, as
well as information about agriculture and the future commercial prospects of
California. The article warned of the American tariffs that would be vigorously
imposed and urged captains and shippers to have the proper documents in
order. For the moment, those items that would sell the best and with the greatest
certainty of profit would be “the wines from Champagne and Bordeaux and
others, brandy and liqueurs . . . and a wide range of clothing for men (summer
and winter) and women.” These are the needs of “a population . . . incapable of
delivering any labor other than that associated with the extraction of gold.”27
The document then added a cautionary note about the nature of immigra-
tion then under way to California—namely, “that the riches of California will
be principally exploited by the people of the United States.” And these people
exhibit the well-developed “activity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Anglo-
American race.” With these guidelines, the ministry of commerce had analyzed
the outlines of California’s future economic development and the most prom-
ising role for French commercial interests. At the same time, the document
noted the energy and entrepreneurial spirit of the Americans, forces now
directed toward California and the potential of large-scale trade with China.28
Within the next two weeks, the Moniteur had shifted its emphasis from large-
scale commercial opportunity to the details of daily life for individual miners in
digging and washing for gold. The contrast was striking. These meticulous and
detailed descriptions of life in the goldfields were the best in any French news-
paper at the time, and their authenticity was far stronger than the widely read
accounts published in the larger French dailies. The source of the Moniteur’s
accounts was the diary of a visitor to the gold sites, presented in the form of a
series of letters, still listed under the heading “Commercial Documents.”29
After a brief account of the “Dry Diggings,” the author described his travel
down the American River, where gold was found in every site with running
water. In a visit to a small valley, his party found “tents, wagons, horses, cattle
and soon a multitude of men at work. Some dug in the ravines separated by
several hills, others carried or washed the dirt; it was a continuous movement,
comparable to that in a large city.” His tour now brought him into contact with
French miners. It was, “one could say, a French camp,” where “at daybreak,
everything was in motion. Men moved on foot or on horseback, burdened by
pickaxes, spades, and shovels to dig the ground, the others to carry. Almost no
one remains in camp.” In the mining operations, four men would work a
32 France

machine, digging, carrying, washing, up to two tons a day. Yet the gold harvest
came at a price. The work was extremely hard, especially from nine or ten in
the morning to three in the afternoon, for the heat was excessive. “In spite of
these conditions, throughout where I went, from hill to hill, I found a crowd of
people at work. In some places the most renown for their richness, the miners
were so numerous that they could scarcely dig. . . . And when one finds one of
these ‘bonanzas,’ as they are called here, everyone rushes there; there, one day,
an hour suffices sometimes to make a small fortune.”30
The second half of this diarist’s account was a description of the towns that
he visited: San Francisco, Yerba Buena, and Benicia. He observed that for all its
growth and ambitions, San Francisco was almost deserted: “It had lost three-
fourths of its population, the largest part of its houses are empty, all work has
ceased, and, everywhere, one could find neither carpenters, nor joiners, nor
blacksmiths, nor any workers to perform the slightest labor. They had all left for
‘the Placer,’ where they will become too rich and too independent to resume
the work of their professions.”31 The first break in this universal search for gold
was the local festival of Santa Clara, when a flood of miners returned from the
mines to the pueblo of San Jose for eight days of celebration. Some five hundred
miners carried an average of one thousand dollars each. They instantly emptied
the shelves in all the boutiques and stores.
The author concluded with an insightful description of the ways in which
the gold harvest had changed the character of the population. “The extraordi-
nary changes occasioned by this state and the character of the people of this
country by the discovery of gold in the soil are hard to understand. The poor,
that is to say, the people really in need, no longer exist in Upper California.
With the abundance of livestock and the extreme fertility of the soil, food is not
lacking for anyone, but money was almost unknown.” This economy was based
on the exchange of hides and tallow, and it was rare for anyone to have in his
possession from five hundred to one thousand dollars. “Today, to the contrary,
the poorest among them possesses a similar sum or something much larger,
obtained in an instant, and with such an ease that it seems of little importance,
and which he then separates and dispenses with indifference and prodigality.”
This astonishing rearranging of the traditional class structure of Upper California
was one of the most remarkable by-products of the early months of the gold
discoveries.32
A final step in the preliminary accounts of the gold rush in the Moniteur was
one of the most unusual. In response to the “many inexact versions” in circula-
tion about California and its golden rivers and valleys, the minister of commerce
authorized several travelers engaged in commercial speculations or scientific
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 33

explorations to correspond with the ministry with a view to transmitting to the

minister documents and information that would be judged of an interesting
nature. It was understood, of course, that such an authorization did not confer
any official status.33 Still, it was a revealing request and a reflection of the official
interest of the French government and its search for reliable information.

THE CHORUS OF GOLD ECHOES ACROSS FRANCE

Paris newspapers, significant as they were, represented only one dimension

(albeit a very important one) of a thriving newspaper presence across France.
French journalism came in a variety of forms and variations at mid-century.
These included more than forty papers published in Paris. In addition, there
were multiple dailies in the major cities, a strong journalistic presence in the
ports, with a commercial dimension, and other newspapers of varying size and
interest across France that promoted local and regional interests.
The spread of the news of gold in California across France reflected the
scope of French journalism, with its subdivision of newspapers according to
size, place, and regional interests. The large cities of Lyon (234,000), Marseille
(198,000), Bordeaux (131,000), and Rouen (100,000) each had daily newspapers
organized around political ideology. This focus on politics extended across the
nation. It was diluted (if that was possible) in the port cities, where the emphasis
was often on economic opportunity associated with trade. So Nantes,
Dunkerque, Le Havre, and Cherbourg had common interests and a degree of
competition among themselves. Small cities and towns saw the news of the gold
discoveries as reflected in local interests.
In one respect, there was a degree of unanimity among this diverse group of
French newspapers: they almost universally took their cue on the legitimacy of
the gold discoveries from the Paris papers. When the papers in the capital city
(and the word “capital” had a strength and resonance in France unlike that in
the United States) decreed, the editors in other French towns, ranging from
cities to villages, accepted their judgments. The major Paris dailies were gener-
ally regarded as true and sufficient gatekeepers. So from the middle of January
1849, the California gold discoveries were accepted as a fact on the interna-
tional scene, and the question was what this new economic bonanza would
mean for local people at various levels.
French newspapers buttressed the astonishing details from the great Paris
papers with a selective publication of other sources. For example, in the
first months of 1849, many papers published excerpts from the report of
Governor Colonel Richard Mason.34 Among the other sources cited was the
34 France

correspondence of Thomas Larkin, the American consul in California, and an

early published account by Bayard Taylor, a journalist from the New York
Herald, both of which also appeared in some French newspapers in 1849.35 At
least two French papers published the journal of J. Tyrwhitt-Brooks, an English
medical doctor, who described in detail his visit to the goldfields in mid–1848.36
French newspapers supplemented the state papers, reports, and published
accounts with some of the many letters that were written over the six months
after the first reports of California gold. The first letters were written in the fall
of 1848, and they originated in the places where reports of gold first surfaced and
spread. One of the most widely cited early letters, dated October 26, 1848, was
from Mazatlan and was written by a French ship’s captain to the shipowner in
Bordeaux. His opening words: “This port has an excited response to the news of
the gold in California.” Published in late December, this letter would make its
way from Bordeaux across France.37
A second widely reprinted letter from the early months of the gold discov-
eries was the work of M. Henri Carey, a junior officer on board the Poursuite, a
French naval vessel in the Pacific waters. Carey wrote, “All the world is leaving
for California; it is a real fever. One only encounters these words: ‘When do you
leave?’ ” Carey went on to describe the goldfields as 175 miles from San
Francisco and some 300 miles in length. He recounted the cycle of desertion
from an English ship: five men deserted; an officer sent ten men to find them;
then he dispatched twenty men and two officers; finally five officers and the
chaplain, who was still on board, were included in the search. All remained in
the goldfields.38
With the first wave of French Argonauts en route to California, letters
appeared from ports of call. The first common origin was Panama. The
continuing surge of prospective gold miners across the narrow causeway
connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific engaged a wide range of prospective
French correspondents. The numbers were the greater because of delays in
finding passage up the West Coast, a situation that generated both leisure and
unhappiness. An outpouring of letters met both needs. The first French
Argonauts crossed Panama in the spring of 1849, and the early reports date from
these travelers. The most widely quoted of the Panama letters was the work of
Emmanuel D’Oliveira, who crossed the isthmus in May 1849. His letter, which
first appeared in mid-July 1849, described in detail the hardships and expense of
crossing the isthmus.39
For those who went to California by way of Cape Horn, the first point of
contact was the stop in Valparaiso, Chile. After the physical stresses of the cape,
the harbor at Valparaiso was a welcome sight, fondly remembered by the
 News of Discoveries Spreads in France 35

arriving Argonauts. While the ships repaired damage and took on supplies,
the passengers wrote letters, in hopes of placing them on ships bound in the
other direction. A number of these made their way into print. As befits an
isolated but welcome way station, the letters described the harbor and city in
detail, often including an account of fellow passengers and the long voyage to
that point. One account from Valparaiso noted “there are here many
Frenchmen, above all Gascons, who exploit strangers and recent arrivals
without pity.”40 Another, dated March 28, 1849, confirmed that “California
continued to absorb the attention of the speculators in Chile.”41
Finally, of course, there were growing numbers of letters from San Francisco.
This was the place in California most directly connected in the minds of most
people with the gold discoveries. It was also the site of the landing of most of the
French Argonauts. Accordingly, much correspondence originated there, from
merchants engaged in the San Francisco trade, from newly arrived gold seekers
(les chercheurs d’or), and from miners returned from a season in the mines.42
These letters were documents in the public sphere. That is, they spoke of
trade, commercial connections, and prices, mixed with a travelogue of the
experiences of exotic (and even, in the case of Panama, dangerous) places on
the way to the goldfields of California. There was another kind of letter that
made its way into print. These were personal accounts, with the individual and
his struggles at the center of the story. These accounts tended to range across
time from sunny to cloudy to dark. The first letters often told of great successes
by individuals. They involved ordinary Frenchmen who had found astonishing
bonanzas in the goldfields. Their stories affirmed the democratic nature of the
exercise, and they simultaneously offered the hope and inspiration that the
same rich diggings would be found and exploited by later arrivals. It was a
circular exercise, but one fraught with great human interest. In April 1849, two
“California stories” recounted the adventures of three ordinary workers. In one
case, Glein, a blacksmith from Hesse-Cassel, harvested thirty-two pounds of
gold, and Michel, fifteen pounds. Another Frenchman, Boc, a cooper from
Le Havre, deserted from a whaler, and in a few days amassed F 15,000. A
letter dated from San Francisco in July 1849 told of the experiences of “a citizen
named Charpentier,” who, working alone for twelve days “in the placers,”
harvested three pounds of “gold dust.” He also found pieces as large as two-
thirds of an ounce, with larger ones the size of eggs. According to this
account, miners averaged $150–200 of gold a day. In two hours, one man
harvested $400 of gold. A man and his son took nineteen pounds and two
ounces. In response to these bonanzas, there were already twenty thousand
miners in the country of gold.43
36 France

Among the many stories and accounts (official and unofficial) that flooded the
newspapers in early 1849, a few themes stood out. The first was the sense of
excitement, movement, and energy wrought by the gold discoveries. Peoples
from diverse places across the western hemisphere and into the Pacific were in
motion toward California. They encountered one another in the transit points
and the ports of call, where they competed for services and accommodations.
Another was the rising consensus among the authors of the accounts that the
gold discoveries were real. And as an addendum, not only were they real, but
they were also open to exploitation by all these diverse peoples headed for the
goldfields. Finally, the gold discoveries had completely recast California society.
The traditional ways of doing things had vanished, replaced by a new world
whose outlines were still taking shape. As part of this domestic upheaval,
California’s working class at all levels had deserted the farms and villages and
streamed to the placers. Officials had soon followed. An economy based on gold
had replaced a system based on barter and notes. In short, a series of societies
had been turned upside down. These dramatic and rapid changes added further
and, for some, conclusive evidence of the emergence of gold mania.
 3

THE FRENCH RESPOND TO THE CALIFORNIA

GOLD DISCOVERIES
Adventure, New Beginnings, and Trade

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FEW

For some individuals, the news of the California gold discoveries opened
opportunities for a new chapter in their lives. One group sought relief from
boredom, a sense that life moved forward in comfortable rhythms (appropriate
to their comfortable station in life) but without any sense of urgency or adven-
ture. Whatever their frustrations with this condition, California was the perfect
remedy. No one, participant or observer, could fault someone for striking out to
a new country—even one halfway around the world—in search of gold. And
from all reports, the gold was readily available to anyone. This was not just a
voyage in search of adventure; it was a voyage in search of wealth—or at least it
could be so cast. Consider the case of Arsène Grosjean. By his own account,
written later for his aunt and uncle, he was “without occupation” and with
twenty-four hours a day at his disposal. To pass the time, he read several different
Paris newspapers. In these papers, he everywhere found accounts of the “many
brilliant discoveries in foreign lands.” But a single theme dominated all the
papers: “Each sheet shouted out the news of the gold mines in California.” At
this time, he continued in his memoir, many large companies were in process of
formation in all parts of France. “Everyone wanted to have a piece of gold.”
People were leaving from all the ports of the world for this marvelous country.
Grosjean asked himself: “Why not go and seek gold myself? Finding no serious
impediment I made a plan to leave.” That he immediately booked passage on the
Vesta, the next available ship departing from Le Havre for San Francisco, suggests

37
38 France

that he was not overly concerned with expense. Nor does he ever refer to the
need to consult other family members for their approval or financial support.1
Many of the same impulses to adventure and wealth emerged in the account
of Edmond Jomard. He began: “I was then in Paris, seated quietly by the fire.
As I read an American article, I sensed my young ardor awakening, I felt ignited
in me this old passion for distant excursions, and my memories grew more
embellished again; the marvelous scenes spread out through my thoughts. I
could not resist the temptation to go visit this strange country, this California,
this new El Dorado of which I dreamed.” Jomard also alluded to the influence
of climate: “And then, it is necessary to say, we were then in the middle of
winter; the snow and the mud claim the streets of Paris, and, beyond the gloomy
horizon that surrounded me, I saw the splendor of the tropical sun and its
eternal spring.”2
Others, presumably more numerous, had a range of pressing financial
reasons. These might be subsumed under the heading of retrieving personal
and or family finances that had suffered from mismanagement or extravagance.
In the world of the bourgeoisie, family fortunes and family prospects could be
blighted by several forms of extravagance, including the maintenance of large
estates, mistresses, or the expenses associated with the search for entry to a
higher station in society. Or the family patrimony might be dissipated through
a series of bad investments. Sometimes some or all of the antecedents of these
failures might be laid to the Revolution of 1848; sometimes they lay in invest-
ments in risky (but potentially profitable) schemes in agriculture, commerce,
transportation, or any of the myriad opportunities for stock schemes. Such
downturns might be remedied by traditional means, such as a favorable marriage
with substantial dowry, borrowing from friends and relatives (a temporary
stopgap), or manipulation of the courts and the law to ward off collection. Now
there appeared a new and, if one was to credit the accounts in the press, a sure
way to retrieve family fortune and honor. Perhaps most important, it was certain
to succeed. And the whole enterprise also took on an element of adventure in a
foreign land, sharpened by an assured financial success at the end of an exotic
encounter with strange people in a distant landscape.
Ernest de Massey, who sailed to San Francisco as a first-class passenger on
the Cérès, found most of these motivations and objectives in his fellow passen-
gers.3 A mixture of bad decisions combined with the economic upheavals asso-
ciated with the revolution in 1848 had straitened the financial situations of
many heretofore secure occupants of the upper classes and even the lesser
nobility. California now emerged as the answer to their problems: rapid wealth
in the form of gold, available to all with resources and energy.4
 The French Respond 39

FOR THE MANY, COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

“The most remarkable event of our age, in the order of material things . . . is
without contradiction the discovery and exploitation of the golden beds of
California.” So wrote the editor of the Gazette de France in February 1849.5
Among the newspapers of France, large and small, almost no one came forward
to dispute his claim. News of the gold discoveries generated a wide range of
astonishing images of large gold nuggets lying about, available to anyone who
would go to the trouble of bending over to pick them up. Yet from the perspec-
tive of many in France, the most important dimension of the California gold
discoveries was commercial.
France, at mid-century, was a nation with a tradition of exploration and
trade. Together with and often in competition with the British, the French had
sent voyages of exploration to the most distant parts of the known world with a
view to an expansion of influence and trade. Pursuant to its overseas ambitions,
France had a number of important ports, for communication and trade, on
three different bodies of water. These included Dunkerque, Abbeville, Dieppe,
Le Havre, and Cherbourg on the English Channel; Nantes, La Rochelle, and
Bordeaux on the Atlantic; and Marseille and Toulon on the Mediterranean.
Some of these ports faced the open sea; others lay on rivers a short distance
inland. No other European nation had such a wide range of sea-going connec-
tions to the outside world.
The emergence of California as a commercial opportunity coincided with
the continuing commercial crisis in parts of the French economy. One
commentator observed, “This stagnation of all business, which has plunged all
families into distress, had arrived at such a serious point” that the government
needed to become involved. These hard times had become the responsibility of
the government of the new republic, and the issue of the Revolution of 1848
and its part in the downturn of the economy was another in the endless debates
over the impact of the revolution on French life. In this, as in all such issues,
the divisions immediately assumed ideological lines.6
What immediately caught the eye of many French observers were the
extraordinary prices paid for ordinary goods in California. An officer of the
American Navy wrote from Monterey on November 1, 1848, “It is impossible to
give an idea of the state of things in this country. A man returned from the
mines told me that he had sold a blanket for the price of 280 dollars in gold, and
a hat that he had thrown away for 64 dollars. Another told me that flour sold for
4 dollars a pound, sugar 2 dollars.”7 As each miner worked with intense focus on
his claim, “and with all these marvelous riches at his disposal, one [did] not stop
40 France

at paying incredible prices.”8 The paymaster of the American Army in California,

who arrived in Monterey on October 18, 1848, paid off four companies from
the New York Regiment, and all the men immediately left for the mines.
“There they joined the sailors who had deserted their ships as soon as they
anchored. . . . Provisions, clothing, all the necessities of life are at an exorbitant
price. Life has always been expensive in Monterey, but this passes all reason.”9
The commercial opportunities associated with California and the gold
discoveries were summarized in an editorial in the Boulogne Gazette: “Of the
startling discoveries of this wonderful age, we cannot but think that the discovery
of the existence of gold in such incalculable quantity on the earth’s surface is
the most startling.” The Boulogne editor continued his analysis with the obser-
vation that France was distant from California, “but if, as there is reason to
believe, California promises handsome profits to the skilled speculators, French
trade, which has no reason to await the melting of the ice, whose sailors and
ships already know the parts of the Pacific Ocean, and to which the protection
of the naval forces of the state is assured, has, in that occasion, an incontestable
advantage over other competitors.”10 This account was accurate in describing
the experienced French traders, but it was overly optimistic in suggesting that
the French state would intervene directly in support of this trade.
What might French merchants, traders, and seamen do to profit from gold
discoveries halfway around the world? The Pilote de la Somme offered a concise
response: “For some time, the gold fever has seized all spirits; this fever has only
increased again by the discovery of gold deposits . . . toward which will stream
entire populations from all points of the globe.” It was a short step to commer-
cial preparations. “England has furnished her contingent; France is preparing
to send her own, and from Belgium [came] the announcement on February 25
of the departure of a ship which ought to send toward the new El Dorado hardy
voyageurs who will undertake their part in the rich proceeds of California.”11
The range of commercial opportunities in California reflected the nature of
the gold-digging exercise. The early reports confirmed the single-minded nature
of the gold-mining cycle, in which the inhabitants of Alta California had rushed
pell-mell for the gold diggings. Thus, “all the industries are nearly on strike, . . .
even the domestics have left their service, and . . . one has trouble retaining
soldiers under the flag.” The result of this new condition was the gathering in
California of “an immense population that consumes and that produces
nothing.” So “the greatest chances of success for them and for France . . .
[would be] if, in place of carrying to California the gold hunters, [France] could
carry on its lines a mass of manufactured products, objects of clothing, for
example, that one sells at a dear price to those who have gone to the banks of
 The French Respond 41

the Sacramento to enrich themselves, and with whom one can make these
exchanges so precious.” In short, “it is not men who ought to be conveyed to
California, it is things; it is not explorers, but traders and the products of our
industries; it is not the mines that we ought to seek to exploit; it is these exploiters
themselves with whom it is necessary to establish an immediate rapport, for
these exploiters, who possess gold in abundance, are, they say, the great part of
them without shoes, without stockings, and without clothes.”12
The Mémorial Bordelais published with approval extracts from documents
of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. This excellent analysis of
commercial opportunities began with a description of the seasonal movement
of population. All of California went to the mines over the spring and summer.
At the opening of the rainy season in late fall, this large group retired from the
placers, carrying large quantities of gold. “For the moment, what sells best and
with certitude at a great profit, above all for those expeditions coming directly
from France, would be liquids, wines from Champagne, from Bordeaux and
others, brandy and liquors.” For individuals, “footwear and ready-made clothing,
outfits for men for winter and summer, footwear for women, cotton shirts for
men already made, stockings of linen and cotton, etc. without counting a flood
of other articles which are too long to enumerate.” The market for these goods
was “a population always growing, for which everything is lacking at once, and
which is incapable of delivering any work other than that which is the extrac-
tion of gold.” In short, there seemed to be a continuous demand for goods and
services: in the mining camps during the mining season and in the towns and
cities as the miners returned at the end of the season.13
In early March 1849, a letter from a Frenchman in Valparaiso offered a hypo-
thetical example for the exploitation of trade in French products. One would
begin with a ship of 400–500 tons. The cargo would be half wines of Bordeaux,
Champagne, Madère, and Tenerife. The other half would be “luxury confec-
tions” and, for the working class, shirts, trousers, smocks, and footwear, as well
as tools for working the ground, cooking pots and pans, and strongboxes.
However, the prospective merchant-entrepreneurs needed to be aware of the
hazards of doing commerce in California: the crews immediately deserted their
ships upon arrival.14
This demand for goods and services, growing in diversity and always profit-
able, would attract merchant houses from around the globe. The principal
competitors would be the Americans. Accounts in the French papers paid
tribute to the commercial character of the Americans, to their high degree of
entrepreneurial energy and ambition. Any account of trading prospects in
California must take them into consideration. Indeed, the arriving Americans
42 France

became instant merchants. According to one account, “The American

emigrants, when they arrive, open their trunks; they sell everything at the lowest
price in order to procure money that they need to move on.”15 This was only the
beginning of a larger plan, which would create “on the west coast of America a
trading apparatus for their operations with China.” Both activities showed the
range of “the activity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Anglo-American race.”16

One port embraced the gold discoveries as a potential commercial bonanza. Le

Havre was a trading town of twenty-eight thousand whose economy, like so much
associated with trade in post-revolutionary France, had stagnated. The city had
been losing population for a decade. California loomed on the horizon as a
commercial savior. The port’s newspapers and commercial leaders joined
together to embrace what they regarded as an opportunity for the port to capi-
talize on its new railroad connection with Paris. Indeed, it was this transportation
facility that would help to make it the center of emigration to California.
At the opening of 1849, the newspapers in Le Havre described in detail the
tour of Colonel Richard Mason through the new gold discoveries. His report,
continued one editor, “will lift all the doubts still existing in the place of the
fabulous riches of this modern El Dorado.” This acceptance had already begun
in Paris, and the spread of the news of the gold discoveries in Paris reverberated
in Le Havre. A Le Havre paper proclaimed, “For two days, one sees on the walls
of Paris a great rose-colored poster indicating that the ship ‘la Marie,’ destina-
tion California, leaves from Havre, the 15th of February next.” Items that
involved commerce, emigration, or investment would invariably point to Le
Havre, the port of choice for connections to California. Soon a list of ships
bound for California was regularly published.17
The port soon had its own company to provide an opportunity for local inves-
tors. In early February a notice appeared: the subscription list of the Caravane
Havraise, a company for trade in California; opportunities for “merchandise
and consignments” would close the fifteenth of the month. The advantages
associated with investment in the company received continuing reassurance
from the French officials. “The reports transmitted by the government, by the
consuls of France in Upper California, on the gold mines . . . have awakened
the interest of the sort of men and capital that the industry of the country
will enjoy.”18
Through the spring, summer, and into the autumn of 1849, Le Havre news-
papers printed extended news from California at least twice weekly and some-
times more often. Among the themes enumerated were continuing gold fever,
the issues of the rights of foreigners in the goldfields, the political condition of
 The French Respond 43

the country, and the struggle of California to attract the attention of Congress
with a view to statehood. Throughout the news from the mines was mixed.
There was a large gold harvest, high wages for working men, and the magical
rise of towns on California’s golden landscape, juxtaposed against anarchy
and martial law. As a result, the commercial news from California seemed
uncertain, “far from presenting a reassuring view.”19
By the fall of 1849, San Francisco was becoming a great commercial center,
remarkable not only for its wealth, but also for the pace of its growth. The flags
of all nations could be seen in San Francisco Bay. Perhaps as many as two
hundred ships were anchored in its great harbor, most of them without crews.
It had active trade connections with Lima, with Mazatlan, and along the coast
of California. The harvest from the mines in 1850 was reliably estimated at
$100 million. This was a number cheerfully accepted by the most knowledge-
able observers. “Gold,” wrote a citizen of Nantes living in San Francisco, “was
as easy to amass in the placers as sand in the Loire.” It was a striking image, and
the more so from a Frenchman participating in the “rush to gold.”20
At the end of 1849, when the rainy season suspended mining for the season,
accounts in a Le Havre paper summed up a year of gold fever in California. San
Francisco had a population of more than thirty thousand. Steamboat service
had been established between San Francisco and Sacramento. “El Dorado is
on the road of progress, and without a doubt this new country is destined to
become the largest and richest trading center of the Pacific Ocean.” Thus, from
the French trading perspective, in the previous year, the gold rush with its
feverish intensity had moved beyond discovery and surprise. Its strong presence
was now acknowledged as a fact in the economic and trading life of the West
Coast of America (stretching south to Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Chile) and
extending westward across the Pacific.21
With all this enthusiasm, there were cautionary voices. The most respected
belonged to the French explorer and world traveler Eugène Duflot de Mofras,
who had explored Upper California on behalf of the French government in
1842–1843 and 1845–1846. In the first months of “gold fever,” when California
investment schemes proliferated and merchants rushed to outfit ships for the
new El Dorado, Duflot de Mofras described the many difficulties that would
await miners and merchants alike. It is true, he wrote, that rich deposits of gold
are in this attractive country. It is a place “where France some years ago could
have founded a magnificent establishment at so little expense,” but the govern-
ment had not taken this initiative. Instead, across French ports, merchants and
colonists are now outfitting for a voyage to California and its goldfields. The
perils of the voyage, five months around Cape Horn, were very real.22
44 France

Furthermore, Duflot de Mofras continued, on arriving in San Francisco, the

French miners or merchants “do not know the discomfiture that they will expe-
rience in the midst of two populations: the Spanish and the Anglo-Americans,
whose language they do not know and whom they will find already experienced
masters of the region containing the metal.” The captains of the ships would
see their crews immediately desert; the merchants should be aware that the
American and European populations are still slight (perhaps twelve thousand
Americans and six thousand Spanish), and on arrival, merchandise from France
will pay a tariff of about 30 percent. Over the years, the country has already
“been exploited by the trading houses, agents, and vessels of the powerful
Hudson’s Bay Company,” as well as trading firms from Boston, New York,
London, Valparaiso, and the other major trading cities of the western world. In
the harbors of California, “the flag and merchandise of the [American] Union
enter free of duty, the soil is occupied by its hardy pioneers, and upon my word,
if French colonists, speculators, [and] searchers for gold cannot compete
successfully, they will find only disappointments and suffering.” Duflot de
Mofras’s analysis was accurate, but his voice was a faint echo against the loud
chorus of enthusiasm and haste that characterized the California companies
and commercial enterprises.23

VIOLENCE, DANGER, AND CHAOS

Almost at the same time as the celebration of gold and its open access began
in France, the accounts from the California goldfields began to describe a
darker side of the gold discoveries. Several of these issues had their origins in
California’s flood of immigrants. Many observers described these arrivals as a
mixed population, unsavory at best and dangerous at worst, disreputable (even
criminal) characters from all over the world. With this influx came rising crime
rates (especially robbery and murder), with successful miners often as victims.
Adding to these physical dangers and the chaotic condition of society was the
absence of any kind of formal institutions of government to provide security for
its population and to restrain and punish its criminal elements. Thus, in
response to this crisis in security, spontaneous and quasi-official institutions
appeared to provide a degree of order.
In the French discussions, issues of physical security and civil order in
California seemed to run parallel to a similar question in France. In the context
of the revolutionary fervor unleashed by the events of February and June 1848,
the new constitution, the new rights to suffrage and work, and the recent presi-
dential election, the French had embarked on a prolonged struggle between
 The French Respond 45

the forces of liberty and order. Both were central to the vision of French life,
filtered through the lenses of increasingly divided views of the revolution and its
legacy. Already in the first months of 1849, important elements in French
society and political life had begun a campaign to emphasize the necessity of
“order” as the most basic ingredient in French society. And “order” was juxta-
posed against the chaos of the “June Days,” still fresh in the minds of French
men and women of every political persuasion. Now, amid this ongoing conflict
in France came disturbing rumors about a new place that had intruded into
French life. California was originally seen as virtually empty, a vacuum awaiting
organization and exploitation. But almost immediately in the aftermath of the
news of gold on the banks of the Sacramento came the disturbing news that
civil society in California was falling into anarchy and chaos.
Among the most widely cited documents was a letter written in October 1848
by Commodore Thomas Jones, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Squadron.
That the author was a naval officer of high rank with an important command
gave its contents added weight. From his flagship, the Ohio, Commodore Jones
wrote to the Navy Department: “Nothing can give you an idea of the deplorable
state of everything from one end of Upper California to the other, not the
madness which begat the mania for gold.” The impending “whirlpool of
anarchy, of the confusion and disorder [could be] stopped by the establishment
of a legal government sufficiently strong to force observation of the law, and to
protect life and property, who are, at the moment everywhere in great danger
outside the walls of our ships.”24 The Journal des Débats cited another letter
from an officer in the American Navy, dated San Francisco, December 26,
1848, that spoke to the absence of any civil authority in the midst of a massive
influx of humanity. “There is not here any kind of government, neither civil,
nor military,” he wrote. As a result, people have turned to “lynch-law,” and over
the past three or four days, informal courts had tried, convicted, and hanged
three men for murder. The Congress must immediately give some organized
form to the territory.25
As early as December 1848, news from San Francisco spoke of immense
riches and in the same breath noted that pillage and assassination were the
order of the day. There was revolt and piracy at sea. At the same time that one
harvested incredible amounts of gold, one’s personal safety was at risk. In three
weeks, there had been fifteen murders. Among the victims was a family of ten.
Neither life nor property was safe. The world of gold had turned into a world
“dominated by the strongest.”26 A summary of the growing civil disorganization
and unease enumerated the various dangers that threatened to unhinge order
on the banks of the Sacramento: “Gambling, drunkenness, and the most brutal
46 France

passions reign as sovereign mistresses in the midst of this crowd of adventurers,

who come to kill suddenly on the banks of the Sacramento.” Within this group,
there are those who simply take the gold already washed from the pockets of
others. Thus, “thefts are numerous, murders are not rare, and what contributes
to worsen the situation is that at the very least almost all the soldiers sent by the
government of the United States have not been able to resist the temptation,
and having deserted in order to go themselves to search for gold, there exists in
the entire country no public force, no defenders of the law and of morals.”27
Accompanying the descriptions of California and the gold-mining sites
sliding into anarchy were the continual observations about the absence of any
form of organized government with a legal code and court system. As the theater
of recent military operations, California’s Mexican civil government had largely
vanished, replaced by an American military occupation. One of the early shocks
associated with the gold discoveries was the failure of the military to enforce
civil order. As early as November 1848, the impact of five thousand gold seekers
pouring into a landscape without government and law struck observers at the
time as an invitation to anarchy and violence. A letter from Monterey, dated
November 2, 1848, observed, “Law is no more than a word here: the country is
without administration, without government of any sort. The New York regi-
ment of volunteers, after being disbanded, has all run off to the mines. Soldiers
have stolen the horses and the saddles which they needed to make the trip. The
government and almost all the officers of the garrison have left for the placer.”28
This disorganization of society affected all classes. “The diverse branches of
a population recruited continually from speculators and adventurers, where the
differences in race and in origins fester under the empire of this ardent thirst . . .
for this brutal force” had placed all law-abiding people at risk.29 The array of
dangers included firearms such as pistols, everywhere available (if only at the
highest price), many of them brought to the goldfields by military deserters.30
The French newspapers now carried stories of how the Americans proposed
to deal with the absence of a centralized government authority. One of the first
detailed comments appeared in the Journal des Débats: “The citizens of the
United States know the need to punish . . . as they need to do at this moment in
California . . . in the midst of a population composed, one could say again, of
the scum from all parts of the world.” This early account introduced French
readers to the idea of local self-government interwoven into the American fron-
tier experience over two hundred years. The idea of self-government and self-
regulation carried easily into the California gold camps, where it met the need
for order and system. The early mining associations established rules for laying
out and holding claims; they also provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and
 The French Respond 47

preserve order. From the beginning, two factors drove this organization: the
knowledge that official government would be slow in arriving and the need to
establish rules and preserve order in a transitory society in which all participants
were directed toward a single end that often brought them into conflict in a
limited landscape.31
The French press responded with a mixture of praise and astonishment over
tribunals of summary justice that sought to give a degree of order and security
to the burgeoning gold rush population. The Journal des Débats described the
trial of three men found guilty of murder by a “jury of citizens” and hanged the
next day. The Journal praised the “moral sense of the Anglo Saxon race” and its
attempt “to conquer the abyss of anarchy.” It was a “noble example” that should
not be forgotten on the other side of the Atlantic.32 Later, the French and other
groups of foreign nationals would come to have less positive feelings about such
spontaneous local tribunals.
For the French, as for the Californians themselves, the search for order asso-
ciated with government and law was bound up with statehood. Throughout, a
universal sense prevailed that statehood would give California a degree of civil
order or at least the means to enforce civil order. Within France, French
observers did not understand the delay. In their eyes, Congress should have
conferred immediate statehood on California in response to the incoming rush
of population. With a central government three thousand miles away, statehood
seemed a minimal gift to Californians. The French understood little or nothing
about the territorial system or the continuing struggle over the extension of
slavery into the territories that formed a contentious backdrop for opposition to
the war against Mexico. The news that Congress had adjourned without voting
statehood was regarded as a severe blow in California’s ongoing struggle for
order and led to demonstrations of unhappiness in San Francisco. In French
eyes, such neglect was both incomprehensible and dangerous.33
California and the gold regions also had serious physical dangers beyond
criminal activity. Disease was a widespread issue because “epidemics . . . have
already created great devastation among the immigrants.” Various American
newspapers, notably the New York Herald, warned against the dangers of the
goldfields themselves: “Sickness decimates the miners, exposed to fevers. The
price of food is exorbitant. The climate of California, in the regions where one
finds gold . . . is intolerably hot in the summer.” Matters of health and sanita-
tion came, in part, from the poor diet of the miners, mixed with privations of all
sorts; excesses; the lack of shelter, which left them exposed to bad weather in
the open air, all of which gave rise to intermittent bilious fevers that made for
great ravages among the gold hunters. From Angers, the Précurseur de l’Ouest
48 France

summarized the privations and miseries of those who sought to become

the Midases of Sacramento: many were dead, a sad end, without succor, in the
middle of riches.34
Then there were other less tangible but equally dangerous aspects to the
rush to gold. In the most ordinary men lay the danger that the unending search
for gold unleashed violent passions, further enflamed by the widespread
consumption of brandy, commonly priced at five dollars a bottle. Reports from
the goldfields described the deaths of hundreds of miners from disease and
drunkenness.35 A second letter from Commodore Jones noted, “The bad food,
the yellow fever, the intermittent fever have made great ravages among the gold
miners, because they absolutely lack food, proper clothing, and the greatest of
them do not have any shelter against the bad season which is commencing.”36
Then, there were the conditions associated with mining itself. Here, physical
demands and indeed suffering “were also abundant. Fevers are epidemic and
fatal; diseases multiply among men who work with their feet in water hunting
for the precious dust and a fiery sun on their heads.”37
There was a final moral dimension: did the rush for gold “encourage vice
and perhaps crime?” Some thought so. The summary phrase was simple
and direct: “We want gold!” Nothing could be clearer. And nothing should
stand in the way of realizing this ambition. In the face of such single-minded
behavior, some saw society unraveling.38 Even the American papers spoke with
“a serious sadness of the disorganization that the gold fever has thrown into
all classes of society.” “The law of the strongest is the only one that rules,”
was a common response. “All social ties have been broken in the middle
of this gathering of adventurers and deserters welcomed from all parts of
the globe.” It was an “epidemic that rules on the new continent and that
is not felt less in Europe, if the marvels that one reports are confirmed.”39
An article in Illustration described the “complete upheaval . . . social structure
rent and torn to pieces.” Later, the same publication wrote that “life in
California is a frenzy [that] turns any gold miner into an assassin.”40 The impli-
cations seemed clear—namely, that in a rush of immigrants to seize the golden
opportunity, all moral sense had been lost in a population transfixed by the rush
to gold.
With the coming of summer 1849, the coverage of the French press changed
from reports on gold fever mixed with grave reservations about the nature of
California society to the ongoing search for a government in California. Of
course, mining camps had a form of government (or at least organization) and
had almost from their founding. California as a political entity, however, had
only various temporary forms of government. The military government that had
 The French Respond 49

its origins in American occupation remained in place, but the military governor
was burdened from the beginning of the gold rush by the large-scale desertion
of soldiers. Various civil elements continued to exercise a degree of authority,
especially the alcaldes (Mexican officials of local government with varied
powers and authority to maintain order and punish crimes) in the major
towns. Some Californians moved to organize a government independent of
Congress, at least with a view to calling a convention that would write and
adopt a constitution. All these forms lurched forward through spring and into
the summer.
In later summer, the issue assumed a heightened degree of necessity, for the
large sea expeditions of the previous spring and the overland immigrations of
May and June began to arrive. California’s already large population grew
dramatically. “The ships that departed the ports on the Atlantic in January and
February last are beginning to arrive,” noted the editor of the Indépendance
Belge. He continued, “The greatest evil which can befall a society is to be
without government and without laws.” The editor praised the recent proclama-
tion of the new governor, General Riley, as “a piece that has the spirit of govern-
ment and moderation, the instinct of order and liberty.” In response to these
enlarged needs, Californians organized a government “on the initiative of the
inhabitants.” The establishment of a new government coincided with vicious
attacks on Chilean merchants. Presumably the new California government did
not see the protection of foreign nationals as a priority.41
Within a few short months, the California gold discoveries had created a
series of self-perpetuating images of this New El Dorado halfway around the
world. To begin with, gold mining was accompanied by many dangers. Miners
needed to fear two-legged animals in the form of bandits, four-legged creatures
like the grizzly bear, a wide range of illnesses and fevers, harsh working condi-
tions characterized by cold rushing water and intense heat, and, finally, the
absence of the basic necessities of life. Among the most important of these was
food. French images of the miners showed shadowy skeletons with sacks of gold
in search of something to eat. For the Americans, these stories told of immense
wealth; for the French, they suggested an absence of the basic necessities.42
Benjamin Delessert, writing from California in October 1849, captured the
twin messages of opportunity and anxiety: “On the one part, . . . there has been
harvested a prodigious quantity of gold in very little time and by the most prim-
itive means; on the other part, . . . the population has found itself reduced to
extreme misery by the lack of foodstuffs; lastly, given the complete absence of
government, there prevails no security for those who have already enriched
themselves.”43
50 France

THE EMERGING ISSUE OF FRENCH NATIONAL INTEREST

A final thread needs to be added to our tapestry—namely, the appearance

and growth of French imperial ambitions. In the two decades before the middle
of the century, France had greatly expanded its voyages of exploration with a
view to colonization and expansion of French imperial influence. The model
here, of course, was the British Empire. In the restoration of Europe in 1815
after a quarter-century of warfare, nations began to think in terms of influence
elsewhere around the world. The British had a long jump on the competition.
Already in 1815, the British flag flew from outposts across the globe, and some of
these outposts were, indeed, massive kingdoms. India, Australia, and Canada
suggested the range and size of these colonies. British influence depended on
the control of key locations and large populations, the presence of imperial
officials, the development of a local indigenous civil service, and a powerful
navy to facilitate communication and trade with these far-flung constituencies.
The French saw the first republic end in Napoleonic pomp and splendor and
in a series of far-flung military campaigns. With his and the nation’s defeat at
Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was again exiled and France was a monarchy under
the restored house of Bourbon.
Over the next generation, amid the changes in government and the
simmering popular unrest that lay just beneath the surface (and not always
beneath), one thing that monarch, ministers, assembly, and citizens (or subjects)
might have agreed on was the need to expand France’s presence and influence
to distant corners of the globe. So the crown and the government dispatched a
variety of official voyages of discovery and exploration (with a possible eye to
colonization) around the world. French ships and officials criss-crossed the
Pacific and delivered detailed reports to the Foreign Ministry. The most impor-
tant physical manifestation of French ambitions was the seizure of Algeria in
1831. This would be a symbol of the determination of this government and
subsequent governments to promote French colonial expansion.44
When the French first encountered California in the 1830s and 1840s, they
considered it a promising place for French influence. California lay in the
northern extremity of the new, independent Republic of Mexico, a place where
the authority of the central government in Mexico City reached only with
reduced force. French relations with Mexico were cordial. Unlike the colossus
to the north, whose perfidy would be shown in the revolution in Texas and the
establishment of an independent Texas Republic, France remained a friendly
presence. Furthermore, in addition to benign attitudes and interests, France
was a nation whose trade might be encouraged as a way of lessening California’s
 The French Respond 51

dependence on trading houses centered in Boston and New York. Finally,

France and Mexico shared a common Catholic heritage. While the church was
still suspect in Mexico as a last supporter of Spanish rule at the time of the revo-
lution against Spanish imperial authority, Mexico was still a Catholic nation, if
only a Catholic republic. The difference was the more striking in a comparison
of France’s laissez-faire Catholicism with the aggressive declarations embodied
in America’s “Manifest Destiny,” which was a kind of Protestant manifesto. All
these qualities suggested the possibility of a welcome and close cooperation
between France and Mexico.45
The only difficulty was that in their voyages around the Pacific, French
vessels repeatedly crossed paths with the Americans, and when they examined
California and its possibilities for commercial and political influence, they
found the Americans in strength. “Yankee ships,” so-called because of their
ports of origin, dotted the coast at the entrances to harbors. Americans had
already established a powerful commercial influence within the California
towns and ports that directed trade and other kinds of commercial activity
toward American ships and commercial agents. The establishing of a French
consul at Monterey in 1845 gave the French government a window on affairs in
California and a source of current information on the political and diplomatic
scene in Alta California. As late as the spring of 1846, the consul could declare
that the presence of a couple of French warships would firm up French influ-
ence in California and might lead to the establishment of a French colony,
small in size but French nonetheless. With the American declaration of war
against Mexico and, two years later, the military occupation of California and
its permanent cession by treaty, the future of California was fixed as American.
The French officials could only look back and wonder how things might have
turned out differently.46
America’s new permanent presence on the Pacific Coast had implications
for the French nation. The competition for strategic sites, trading bases, and
military outposts in the Pacific now had a new player. Heretofore, the French
had always thought in terms of the competition from the British. Now the
Americans had injected themselves into the imperial game in the most direct
way. As the United States now controlled the Pacific Coast of North America,
one French voice argued that in case of a war, France should immediately ally
itself with the Americans.47
This powerful presence on the Pacific Coast (as a gateway to the Pacific) also
offered important economic opportunities to the Americans. Foremost among
these was a trading and commercial base for trade with China. In this connec-
tion, the French noted that one of the first things the Americans would do was
52 France

to establish a trading post (comptoir) in China. The genius of Americans had

carried them to the shores of the Pacific. It was an immense field for coloniza-
tion for the future. Given their history, there was no reason to think that the
Americans would not exploit it to the fullest. Of course, it seemed inevitable
that the California gold discoveries would be manipulated by the American
government to serve national ends. That is, the occupation and organization of
California needed American settlers in large numbers. These large immigra-
tions would serve American national interests, even as they added to the wealth
of the nation.48
Into this ongoing story of American expansion with its latest chapter in
California, the French should pursue their own interests. There was ample
incentive to do so. California was a potential bonanza open to all. France must
participate in sharing the booty. As the news of the gold discoveries spread,
California appeared as an open country, awaiting colonization and economic
development by advanced (by which read European) nations. Certainly France
must play a leading role in such an exercise. The French had important issues
at stake here: a powerful presence on the Pacific Coast, with its gateway to
China; opportunities for the French export economy and for French artisans
to rise above the stagnation of the last two years; the need for the new republic
to establish its credibility in defending French national interests.49
In voicing the opportunities associated with this imperial and economic
windfall, the French (individually or collectively or in representations in the
press) seemed to take only passing account of the American presence. Perhaps
this failure reflected the recent seizure of these lands by the United States in the
war against Mexico, given final form by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed
in February 1848. Yet part was also a traditional attitude toward America and the
Americans. The French viewed America as an expansive nation, possessed of a
staggering land mass that was distributed as farms to all citizens and foreigners
alike, but it was hardly to be compared in its imperial authority to England or
France. French observers, for all their insights, seemed to have little sense of
American sovereignty and the vigorous and expansive nationalism as reflected in
the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Indeed, the war against Mexico that began in
1846 intensified this sense of American national authority and even national
superiority. Although various elements in American national life had opposed
this war as a war of conquest or a war of the southern slave states, the idea of the
creation of a continental nation, from sea to sea, and the acquisition of the great
ports in California (especially San Francisco) had great national support.50
The commercial possibilities opened by the California gold discoveries
engaged a wide range of individuals and groups across France: merchants,
 The French Respond 53

shipowners, and editors in port cities; factory owners (and indirectly workers) in
industrial cities; bankers and commercial traders in Paris. All these varied
groups profited from the timely response of the ministries of the national
government. The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce and the Ministry of
Foreign Commerce issued a series of documents over twelve months that char-
acterized the business conditions in California with special reference to the
trading prospects of French merchants. Excerpts from these “Commercial
Documents” appeared in the Paris newspapers, especially the Moniteur
Universel, and from there spread to publications in the port cities and other
large cities in France.51 As more information became available, the bulletins
from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce became increasingly detailed.
On March 1, the ministry published “a piece with the names of items of
merchandise which would be most useful to assemble as a shipment for the
ports of California.”52
One of the main themes that emerged in the search for commercial advan-
tage was a discussion of the active role of government. Information came in the
form of documents issued by government agencies on a regular basis. But what
about exploration? What about a scientific expedition to ascertain the real facts
about California? What about the presence of naval support in the form of an
armed escort? The need for a strong official French presence was shown by the
case of the Chateaubriand. The ship sailed with 250 passengers and 700 tons of
merchandise. As soon as it landed in San Francisco on April 22, 1849, the crew
deserted. Without a French consul in San Francisco, there was no official
French authority for the ship’s captain to turn to. The absence of French
authority contributed to desertions. This had become a crucial issue for
commercial ships bound for San Francisco.53
The demands of California on French civil and military authorities came at
an awkward time. The revolution in Italy had reached a flashpoint. Italian revo-
lutionaries had proclaimed a republic in Rome. The Pope had fled. This Italian
republic and the flight of the papacy aroused conservative forces to action. In
France, the newly inaugurated president of the republic, Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte, confronted the upheaval in Italy and its threat to Catholicism almost
immediately on taking office. Accordingly, he began to make plans to embark
on a military expedition to Rome that would simultaneously put down the
new republic and restore the Pope to his palace in the Vatican. That the Pope
had personally appealed for assistance seemed to make the relief expedition
even more pressing. The planning moved forward; the expedition departed on
April 24. With the focus on the Mediterranean, few resources remained to send
to the shores of California or to explore its fabled mines.
54 France

It was now that the visit of Jacques Moerenhout to the mines and his official
report became significant. Suddenly his fortuitous presence and vigorous
response became an indication of the government’s interest.54 As an important
European power with imperial ambitions, it was necessary for France to protect
its citizens. If Frenchmen were to open commercial houses and relations in
California and if Frenchmen were to go to California as members of companies
to mine in the placers (such companies were already being organized), France
must provide support and, if necessary, protection for its citizens. However
distant they might be, they were still citizens of the new republic and entitled to
its support. Indeed, the new republic was already overcommitted in foreign
affairs. As the plans for its expedition to Italy moved forward, the issue of
California as a responsibility of the government diminished in like proportion.55
Benjamin Delessert touched on another dimension of French national
interest. In the competition for California among the Russians, the English,
and the Americans, he wrote, “The youngest as the most adventurous of these
three nations is today the mistress.” That was good news for France. He went
on, “Without a single doubt, the Americans know how to exploit with their
ordinary activity the buried riches in this land which conceals so much of the
treasures.” And the proceeds of this exploitation would benefit many nations,
including (perhaps especially) France. “The adventurous citizens of the United
States will rapidly disperse the gold that they have gathered so easily in
California, and one can say that it is a veritable kindness of Providence that the
riches of California have fallen into the hands of the Americans.”56
Thus, instead of regretting France’s lost opportunities in not moving more
aggressively with a naval display or even a colony to show its early interest in
California, the French should rejoice in the opportunities now available to
them. These opportunities were those of an outsider—that is, a foreign nation
engaged in trade. But within this context, the French should move forward and
compete. In the final analysis, however, the French should be pleased that
California had fallen into the hands of the Americans and not the British
(another landmark in the already worldwide empire) or the Russians (who
would have kept the gold within the Russian Empire).
 4

THE RISE OF THE FRENCH CALIFORNIA

COMPANIES

By the middle of January 1849, gold fever had spread across France. The
Précurseur de l’Ouest, published at Angers, made reference to the outfitting
of expeditions for the gold country: “The gold fever has crossed the Atlantic;
the epidemic has won us over; two ships have left for California; a third is
outfitted at Bordeaux for the same destination. Companies are organizing, on
all sides, to effect the exploitation of the country, where the precious metal is in
such abundance.”1
The Journal des Débats described “the company,” a unit that would become
so universal in the American approach to California, first in travel and later for
living and working in the mines. “All of these emigrants have not left singly,”
began the account. “A good number among them, warned by less favorable news
arriving on the state of morals in California, have formed companies composed
of men who have chosen one another, bringing each to the community a share,
in money, in special skills, [and] have joined with one another to obey the rules,
the laws particularly voted by a majority of the associates.” The New York Mining
Company was an excellent example. Each member paid the company a member-
ship fee of $350. The company benefits included provisions for two years, arms,
munitions, a library of three thousand volumes, musical instruments, and, finally,
everything necessary for the mining operations. The Journal concluded that
among the members of the company were “many educated professionals, whose
arrival in California would represent a veritable benefit for the country and
renewed hope for reestablished security for people and for property.”2
The challenges of California and the gold discoveries shaped the organiza-
tion of the California companies in France. There was an immediate consensus

55
56 France

that California was a great commercial opportunity. It was a place where people
dug and washed; it was a place where they harvested large quantities of gold, so
much gold, so dramatic an opportunity for individuals, that even modest reports
seemed exaggerated. At the same time, the gold seekers (and finders!) produced
nothing they required. They could not feed themselves; they could not clothe
themselves. They needed everything on a continuing basis. Miners were
making, by the standards of the day, fortunes in a few short months. Traders
should position themselves to meet the continuing needs of miners. Many
prospective French Argonauts intended to bring goods with them to California,
sell the goods at high prices, and then go to the goldfields to dig and wash a
second fortune. The establishment of companies met both needs. Furthermore,
the organization of French companies open to the public offered an opportu-
nity for investors to profit from the endless riches associated with California and
gold. In this fashion, French investors could multiply their hoarded savings
many times (according to the advertisements) while never leaving the safety
and comfort of their rural villages or Paris neighborhoods.
Economic conditions in France increased the appeal of the California
companies. The economy recovered slowly after the domestic upheavals of the
“June Days.” There was a diminished attraction of government bonds in light of
the recent overthrow of the monarchy. The national workshops were a costly
failure; many unemployed in Paris were destitute. The issue of emigration had
emerged as a possible solution. French investors, individually and collectively,
were attracted to the idea of pooling capital, large-scale investment for large-
scale returns, opportunities for investment that reached across the social
and economic spectrum to include small investors. The success of railroads
in their investment opportunities, financing, and success in construction
seemed to prove the validity of this investment model for the organization and
financing of a company. All these influences came together in the opening
months of 1849 to provide the energy and credibility for companies directed to
the exploitation of the California gold discoveries.3

THE STRUCTURE OF THE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

In the first five months of 1849, French entrepreneurs organized fourteen

California companies. The collective share offerings totaled some F 28 million.
Of course, the companies sold only a fraction of these shares to the public,
but the size of the offerings indicates the ambitions of the companies and
the opportunities to capitalize on the magic words “gold” and “California.”
The seemingly endless flood of articles in French newspapers provided a
 Rise of the California Companies 57

continuing stream of free publicity. To these articles, the companies now added
an aggressive advertising campaign.4
The structure of the French California companies was largely the same. A
company would be capitalized at a figure between F 1 million and 5 million,
the numbers rising in the later companies. Stock would be sold to the public in
sums ranging from F 100 a share down to as little as F 5 a share. The higher
number would appeal to the large investors; the lower number could attract
even the unskilled worker or farm laborer. The capital raised would be used to
meet the immediate expenses of an expedition to the goldfields; most compa-
nies referred to this as the “first” of several expeditions. The board of directors
would charter a ship, advertise its passage, purchase goods to be traded in
California, and make provision to carry workers to California and the goldfields.
Those who bought shares of stock in the company to the value of F 1,000 were
named “associate workers.” Under the terms of their contracts, these “associate
workers” would be transported to California free on the company’s ship and
fully supported while there, in exchange for a specified portion of the gold they
harvested (often one-half) remitted to the company. Almost all California
companies also intended to set up commercial enterprises, whether agricultural
or trading, to make large profits, and these profits, from commerce and the gold
harvested by their “associate workers,” would be used to pay dividends to the
shareholders. Such enterprises would also give France a substantial commer-
cial influence within California, whose future was yet in flux.5
Consider the numbers of one such venture proposed by the French California
companies. First came the expenses of the chartered ship for a two-year cruise,
with the necessary supplies and crew, estimated at F 400,000. This capital
outlay would be divided into eighty thousand shares of F 5 each. As noted, to be
admitted to the status of “associate worker,” a prospective traveler must subscribe
to two hundred shares of F 5 each, or F 1,000. Every subscriber to one or more
shares could pay in either money or merchandise of all kinds.6
Beyond the grandiose promises lay the issue of the strength and credibility of
the company. In a world of ever-grander advertisements, a company proclaimed
this core strength by its council of overseers. This roster should be filled by men
of substance with recognizable pedigrees and public honors. The Californienne
company used the phrase “men of serious weight.” The council of surveillance
of the Californienne included a marquis, a count, a baron, a priest, and a former
mayor of Paris’s ninth arrondissement. Who would not feel confidence in such
a group? Other companies “boasted of their deputies or paraded their generals.”7
In exchange for the use of their names, the members of a company council
received shares of stock in the company they were overseeing and promoting.
58 France

The task of every California company was to sell stock in a risky commercial
venture to the public. Promoting the emigration of French people was an effec-
tive way of legitimizing the venture. In other words, by taking French citizens
to California, supporting them there, and bringing them home, the company
established its credibility as a serious and solid investment opportunity. From
the beginning, most companies focused on the investors rather than the
emigrants. Still, the periodic departure of chartered ships, with a hundred eager
French Forty-Niners, attracted great attention and generated much free
publicity. The advertising campaigns were intense and continuous. Several
California companies had their own newspapers, or broadside sheets for adver-
tising their achievements, generally measured in numbers of ships sent to
California, numbers of men, and amount of trade.8

THE PROMISES OF THE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

The growing number of French California companies—it would reach

eighty-three in 1850—that offered stock appealed to the public in two ways. The
first was the organization of companies for emigration to the goldfields in
California. For those who wished to participate in this greatest of economic
opportunities but were intimidated by the distance and the challenges of
making their way in an American possession in which Americans were
becoming increasingly dominant, both in numbers and in setting the rules for
the gold camps, the California companies offered to provide all the necessary
assistance. The company would charter a ship and provide accommodation
and meals, instruction in mining and tools for harvesting gold, technical advice,
and a priest to minister to the spiritual needs of the French Forty-Niner. In
making this commitment, the prospective French Argonaut would be more
than a client; he would become a member of a community.9
The company notice would first list the important goals of the expedition.
These would offer assurances of care and support, mixed with allusions to the
boundless opportunities for profit. The profit-making enterprise extended to
both “associate workers,” who would join the expedition, and the absentee
stockholders, who would see their investments multiplied many times. The
broadsides often went on to describe the dangers of the voyage and the mining
exercise and the importance of a communal approach, in which the company
would provide support across the board against the unpleasant surprises—
whether human or natural—of the goldfields of California. Here, the analysis
and tone had to balance carefully between the dangers of California (physical
hardships, fatigue, unpleasant surprises of various kinds) and the plentiful
 Rise of the California Companies 59

supplies of gold (with easy extraction) and the solid company support for its
members.
The first notice often enumerated the support staff that would assist the
prospective French Argonauts on the voyage and after their arrival in the gold-
fields. This staff might include one or more doctors, a pharmacist, and a trained
mining engineer. It would be the main object of the company to protect the
French Argonaut against any and all hazards encountered in distant California.
It was important to remember that all these dangers and difficulties were multi-
plied for those who traveled and worked alone, for they would be abandoned on
a California beach and left to fend for themselves. There, they would struggle
against a wide variety of challenges: the search for food; the absence of care in
case of illness or injury; a continuing language barrier; the ongoing lack of
security to save what they had worked hard to amass; and, finally, the difficulty
(perhaps impossibility) of arranging a return to France. The services provided
by the company would meet all these inconveniences and dangers. The ship
would rest anchored in San Francisco Bay during the entire duration of the
expedition, serving, first, as a place of convalescence for the “associate workers”
in case of sickness; second, a store for food supplies; third, a storehouse for
merchandise; and finally, a place of security for the riches acquired and the
means of return.10
The second appealing dimension of the California companies was commer-
cial. Every company intended to establish a trading office in California. This
business dimension would capitalize on the widely perceived condition of
miners—namely, that they had large quantities of gold but none of the necessi-
ties of life, much less the luxuries to which their new wealth would entitle
them. Accordingly, with its “associate workers” the company would transport
on its ship quantities of goods for sale in California. Such items often corre-
sponded to the lists compiled and published by the Ministry of Agriculture
and Commerce. These would include wines, brandy, spirits of various
kinds, clothing appropriate for the mines, especially boots, and even tools.
In addition, enterprising traders identified other scarce items, such as
prefabricated houses to take advantage of the high prices of real estate in San
Francisco.11
The California companies initially seemed to flourish. Wave after wave of
publicity through the spring and summer of 1849 conveyed the impression of
solid investment enterprises whose stock should be eagerly sought by the public.
A Belgian Forty-Niner offered a summary to this period of frenzied speculation:
“Indeed, men, women, even children, servants, people from every profession
and merchants, bought stock. It was irresistible.”12
60 France

LOCAL COMPANIES ORGANIZE

The California companies, as they came to be known, were national in

scope. They sought investors everywhere, equally in the suburbs of Paris and in
the villages of the French countryside. The widespread appeal of the gold
discoveries in California also had its representations in smaller, local compa-
nies. These were designed to attract local French Argonauts and local investors,
more comfortable with familiar names on a prospectus. There was also a
measure of local pride that this community or that commercial company would
become part of this greatest economic opportunity in recorded (or unrecorded)
memory. The variations among these local companies were as numerous as the
companies themselves.

The Comptoir Dieppois was a proposal for a commercial and financial company
based in the port city of Dieppe that would do business in California. It
was a small-scale enterprise, appropriate to its local roots. Nonetheless,
it advertised itself as fully capable of sophisticated planning to take advantage
of the commercial opportunities offered by the California gold discoveries
and the attention lavished on this remote part of the world. It reflected the
many opportunities and the several practical pitfalls that dogged any such local
operation.
This company was the creation of a certain M. Collette-Quenouille, a
Dieppe merchant. His original proposal, presented in great detail, appeared
in the Vigie de Dieppe on January 9, 1849. Under the heading “opération
dieppoise,” M. Collette-Quenouille offered an overview of the project. This
business enterprise would have a ship of two hundred tons, outfitted in Dieppe,
bound for California. “The cargo would be composed of first, a load of merchan-
dise, with the hope of an investment at a one hundred percent profit; second,
workers to mine the gold in a claim then to be discovered . . . and then to carry
back a shipment of leather, tallow, and other products of the country with the
gold that our miners have harvested there or bought from other miners, for one
[miner] has said that he gives $12 (60 francs) an ounce and sells [it] in France
for 100 francs (profit 65 percent).”13
The number of participants involved in the enterprise would be modest. A
total on the order of twenty-four or twenty-five would embark on the ship, with
ten or twelve of these sailors. The vessel would be under the command of one
of M. Collette-Quenouille’s sons, age twenty-seven, recently discharged from a
regiment of artillery, where he had learned to build earthworks, indispensible
work for the extraction of gold.
 Rise of the California Companies 61

The financial details of the expedition were straightforward—indeed, by the

standards of such enterprises that would emerge in the next six months, they
were almost transparent in their simplicity. The main expenses would include
leasing the two-hundred-ton ship, estimated at F 15,000. The cost of securing
the services of a captain for the vessel would be F 200 a month, or F 2,400 a
year. For the prospective Argonauts and their wives, the cost of a round
trip voyage would be F 20 a month each for twelve months, or F 3,360 for
fourteen individuals. For provisions for twelve months the cost would be
F 12,174. The added expenses of trade goods, the crew, and insurance make the
total cost F 112,434. The estimated profits: F 300,000.
In the face of objections to his proposal, M. Collette-Quenouille responded
vigorously. When an unassuming citizen of the town attempts to organize a
trading arrangement in the interests of his city and his country, he wrote, he is
subjected to envy and jealousy. At an earlier time, the issue had been railroads,
and the cost had been measured in millions of francs. Today it was a question
of an expedition to California. To this venture, he had contributed F 15,000 of
his own funds, without reimbursement. From the arrival of newspapers and
news from America about California, he had conceived of an expedition to
California as a way to awaken in the spirits of his fellow citizens the sacred
fire of distant voyages, as well as a source of riches for Dieppe. He continued,
“I propose to the outfitters and other commercial men to do this operation as
one, and I will do all the work without charge, and I will take only half the
profits that accrue to the resident director at Dieppe.”14
Three weeks later, in response to a demand to distinguish between his
company and others bound for the same destination, M. Collette-Quenouille
had a direct and succinct answer. The purpose of his company was to establish
in California a Comptoir Dieppois. This company, in partnership with its
stockholders, would supervise the exchange of goods from Europe, against the
products of the country, and have the opportunity to extract gold or mercury.15
M. Collette-Quenouille’s plan soon assumed definite form, and the ship
departed for California on March 25, 1849, under the command of his son. In
early December, M. Collette-Quenouille received a letter from his son. The
ship had anchored in San Francisco harbor. What an astonishing sight it was!
Two hundred and fifty ships at anchor, abandoned by their crews.16
Here was an example of a local enterprise beset by local jealousies. This was
a very distant and remote opportunity riding the crest of a great wave of national
publicity. The experiences of this company reflected the difficulty of mounting
a substantial local operation, given the extensive resources required. That
M. Collette-Quenouille persisted in his plan for a local California company
62 France

was a tribute to his determination to move forward against all obstacles,

including local opposition.

Other towns and cities had their local investors. These were scattered across
France, evidence of the widespread appeal of the gold discoveries and the
shared sense of investment opportunities. In one region of southern France,
“Ten honorable men from Vaucluse and Gard have formed an association—
‘the Société pour l’Exploitation d’Or en Californie’—to exploit the gold regions
in California.” The company would be composed of appropriate elements
for an enterprise of this kind. Those who wished to join in the enterprise should
be prepared to invest a minimum of F 10,000, “an indispensable condition” to
participation.17
The city of Reims had its own company, the Mines d’Or de la Californie: La
Société Californienne de la Champagne, with shares from F 10 and a minimum
capital of F 15,000. The initial prospectus spoke of an investment that would
return a hundred times over in a few years—that is, the F 10 share would be
worth “at least 1,000.” The company would be registered and administered from
California by M. Alexandre Cretenier, “veteran lawyer,” with two other direc-
tors and a consul to be named by the shareholders. Shares might be purchased
at an office in Reims.18
Marseille’s own company, the Marseillaise, had leased the ship Princess-
Belgiolusa, staffed, among others, with two doctors, a chef, a sous chef, two
bakers, two engineers, a chemist, two mechanics, and a priest. The company
intended to protect both hygiene and morals. The prices for passage: F 600,
1,000, and 1,500 for third, second, and first class, respectively.19
Of all the small, select companies, the most recognizable name and the most
public voyage was that associated with Jacques Arago, the head of a company of
young Parisian gold seekers. Arago was a prominent man of letters, an eminent
traveler who had lost his sight in an accident. Now, blind and sixty-four years of
age, he proposed to found a company “to exploit the golden placers of
the modern El Dorado.” Riding the burst of enthusiasm for California and its
gold, Arago mounted his own expedition to San Francisco in the ship Édouard.
His company departed Le Havre on March 30 on a voyage that would be char-
acterized by discord among the passengers and conflict with the captain.20
The most complete account of the voyage was left by Alphonse Antoine
Délepine, an original member of the Jacques Arago Company. Délepine began
his recitation by noting the clothing and equipment specified in the company’s
contract: “Each member will provide himself with an outfit: six shirts, three
pairs of shoes, two jerseys, two pairs of pants, two smocks, a felt hat, a leather
 Rise of the California Companies 63

belt, a military sack, bedding, a set of metal dishes, the whole in good condition.
Each member will own the following weapons: a brace of pistols and a two-
barrel gun, ammunition, and a long dagger. Each member will have to buy his
own ticket and pay for the freight of his goods taken by him on the ship, the
‘Édouard,’ at present in Havre and ready to leave sometime the coming
March.”21
Arago’s company, the Société Parisienne, later better known as “Arago’s
Company,” was composed of a broad range of participants. Délepine’s list
included, among others, four “artists” (one was a pianist), an engraver, four
laborers, three clerks, six manufacturers (of watches, jewelry, and hats, among
other items), a house painter, a peasant, a distiller, a doctor, a lawyer, an accoun-
tant, six men of independent wealth, three landowners, and “a man of letters”
(Arago himself). Taken as a whole, his company had a large proportion of men
from good families, with respectable professions, and a majority of young men.
Délepine identified forty-three members, “young men for the most part filled
with fire and ardor.” The whole group was well armed and supplied with
six months of provisions to support the stay in California. The members
of the company swore allegiance to one another in a banquet before departing
Paris. They journeyed to Le Havre, where they awaited departure with
“impatience mixed with emotion.”
Of the scores of companies that eventually emerged into the light of day,
perhaps no other was so intensely associated with a single individual. Arago was
a charismatic leader who generated feelings of devotion and almost veneration.
Members of the group spoke of him as “our chief,” “this new Jason,” and “this
other Belizaire” and referred to themselves collectively as the “Argonauts of
Arago.” This intense personal identification would be important in retaining
the identity and morale of the group over a long voyage and in the face of many
frustrations.
The difficulties aboard ship reflected a growing division between Arago and
the captain of the Édouard. When the ship reached Valparaiso, Captain Curet
disembarked the Arago Company, declaring that his ship would remain in
port for three months instead of the customary fifteen days. His intention was
to embarrass Arago, who had promised a prompt voyage to his company.
Eventually, most of the Arago Company would part from their leader in
Valparaiso and proceed to San Francisco without him. Arago wrote with some
bitterness that his “companions on the voyage abandoned him in Chile.” It was
an unhappy ending to a very personal undertaking, yet the dissolution of the
Arago Company would be duplicated by almost every other “California
company” on landing in California.22
64 France

THE COLONY OF LYONVILLE

The city of Lyon lay at the junction of the Rhône and the Saône Rivers. It
was the most important urban center in the heartland of the nation. Its popula-
tion in 1851 was 234,000, making it the second city of France. A center of industry
and trade, it had been the site of domestic rebellions in the 1830s, and large
parts of it had welcomed the Revolution of 1848 and the proclamation of the
republic. One Lyon paper called the city “the cradle of the most fiery socialism.”23
In Lyon, on March 18, 1849, a new newspaper appeared. The name on the
masthead was Le Moniteur de la Californie: Journal de Lyon et des Colonies.
The subtitle proclaimed its purpose. This and subsequent issues spelled out the
intent of the founders to establish in California what they called the colony of
Lyonville. The founders intended to bring the economic opportunities associ-
ated with the rumors of the gold rush to benefit Lyon and its entrepreneurs and
adventurous merchants.
The editors began with a declaration of the significance of the moment.
Among the salient events of 1848—and there were many in the life of the
French nation—was the discovery of rich gold deposits in California. In
response, from everywhere, expeditions and emigrants were moving toward the
new El Dorado. They continued, “Lyon, an industrial city par excellence, ought
not to remain distant from this great movement; also already two companies
have organized themselves in its center. . . . One of these enterprises is
composed of some two hundred members, all active, vigorous, and swept
away by a powerful conviction.” The members had a personal wealth of
F 2,000–2,500 each, in order to embark with food, arms, tools, and clothing.
They would exploit the gold sites in common and return to France the product
of this exploitation.24
A second part of the operation, equally ambitious, took the title “General
Company of Lyon for the Foundation of the Colony of Lyonville in California,
an Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial, and Mineralogical Association.” The
company would be capitalized at F 1 million, with shares at F 1,000, intended
to run from five to ten years. One hundred colonists (of which fifteen to twenty
would be married without children) would be admitted to the rank of “associ-
ates,” and they would have no financial obligations. In other words, those so
chosen would be transported free. All the colonists would depart for California
at company expense, supplied with the necessary arms, clothing, food, tools,
and shelter.
The colony, thus composed of about 150 members, would be governed by a
director chosen by the headquarters. After acquiring a grant of land generously
 Rise of the California Companies 65

offered by the American government, the director would then make plans
for the arrival of the colonists. The first duties of the colonists would be construc-
tion and agriculture. Next, they would be occupied with establishing useful
and necessary branches of trade or industry, then the trade of products coming
from Lyon, seat of the company. The exploitation of the mines would be a last
priority, and “we are insistent on this point.” Even if the stories of gold were
exaggerated, the colony of Lyonville would prosper from its agricultural harvests
and the sale of products from Lyon. In short, the colony “would become like a
factory in the colonies, a trading house of rare importance.” As for the colonists,
they would be “carefully chosen from among a number of applicants . . . honest,
intelligent, brave and active workers.” The selection process would also pay
attention to the morality, welfare, and health of the prospective colonists. Thus,
the Moniteur described the creation and marketing of a different kind of
California enterprise. And here in the pages of the journal would be a “faithful
narrative of the joys and sorrows, of the progress and the reverses which are
attached to colonial emigrations, those which are called by the name of
California, of Icaria, or of Algeria.”25
The editors also connected the founding of Lyonville to a long history of the
founding of colonies. Colonies were the foundations of the spread of “universal
civilization and the enormous revenues of all the parts of the globe.” The
moment was auspicious. The editors continued, “Our Europe is sick; our
France is laboring under passions, needs, parties, sects, systems. . . . And here
there opens a new way, a marvelous outlet which it matters at the moment to
exploit, to follow with the guarantees of experience, with a conscientious solici-
tude.” They went on to connect California to Algeria, the most important
French colony. In short, they argued, enlightened French citizens should throw
off the old world and its reluctance to try new things; they should embrace the
new and the opportunities for profit and to uplift distant peoples. Seen in this
framework, the founding of such a colony stretched beyond mere riches; it was
a calling to a grander duty.26
The theoretical foundations for the colony were broad based and clear. The
immediate challenge was to find willing investors. Without sufficient support,
the virtues of the enterprise were irrelevant. From the beginning, the editors and
directors struggled to translate opportunity and a carefully crafted plan into a
ship departing with colonists and goods. As the news from California became an
unending recitation of several kinds of economic opportunity, so the Moniteur
pressed the need to translate opportunity into reality. It was a hard task.27
While it continued to praise the main object of the voyage to California—
“Gold!!” and “the golden promises”—the Moniteur conjured up the vision of a
66 France

new kind of enterprise. The voyage of twelve thousand miles would be made
“en famille,” and the colonists would not leave their country, for however
distant, they were always part of a French enterprise. “On arriving in the New
El Dorado, the voyagers would be installed with the greatest ease; as we have
already said, it will not seem to them that they are in a strange land; they are
trained to live together; they are united the more by the identity of a common
past; and this kinship forms a community of interests and of hopes.”28
By late April, the Moniteur’s columns conveyed a sense of missed opportu-
nity. As for the great rush to California, the editor wrote, Marseille, Bordeaux,
and Le Havre have sent embarkations. “Lyon should not be left outside the
great California speculation. It possesses all the elements necessary for
this enterprise. It would serve a natural role to mark out the road to California
to the other cities of France.” In short, “Lyon must take its place on the rich and
fertile soil of California; we might have in the south seas a trading house of a
rare importance and an immense market for our cumbersome products.”29
Energetic and ambitious men had made the commitment as colonists. The
editors continued: “The number of colonist applicants impatient to depart
gathers every day in our office. Never has the moment been better chosen. . . .
Our small army of volunteers has accepted the conditions with joy. . . . With a
little courage and an honest willpower, in a few days, the colony of Lyonville
soon takes its place among the numerous colonies that leave each day from the
principal ports of France.”30
Unhappily, the dream of Lyonville did not to come to pass. The vision of a
new kind of colonial outpost, with a market for Lyon’s products, with a financial
center for commercial men, and with an imperial outpost devoted to the spread
of civilization as well as commerce, could not attract the financial support
necessary to send forth the willing colonists. When the project died, so did the
newspaper that promoted it.

THE DOUBTING PROFESSIONALS: THE GAZETTE DES AFFAIRES

The sudden proliferation of California companies in early 1849 caught the

attention of the Parisian and French business world. Many other companies
already existed anxious to sell their shares to the public. The emergence of
this new attraction had become more than an exotic curiosity; it was a strong
potential influence in investment patterns. The most important journal to
take note was the Gazette des Affaires, with the subtitle “A General Paper
of the Companies for Stock Shares, Assurances, and So Forth.” Beginning on
January 13, 1849, this business paper published a weekly article on California
 Rise of the California Companies 67

gold and the California companies. These weekly columns would follow the
proliferation of companies and, at the same time, attempt to inject a note of
skepticism into the rush to invest. In attempting to stay or at least slow this rush
to embrace the goldfields and California, the Gazette tried various appeals to
caution and common sense. None of these seemed to have much impact in the
heady first half of 1849.
In its first detailed report on the California gold discoveries, the Gazette was
already counseling caution. “The riches of California turn every head, fore-
casting all greed,” was the opening statement. “All the world wishes to enter
upon this new bonanza. Gold! Gold! Is the cry from all parts, and each one
wishes to rush toward the country that promises the fortune. We have many
things to say on this . . . but we limit ourselves only to announce that several
companies have formed in London to exploit the mines in California.” At least
one of these companies had supposedly entered into negotiations with the
American government for the necessary arrangements. “We ask ourselves in
this connection,” the Gazette queried, “why the American government would
cede to the gentlemen speculators of Great Britain their mines in California? If
these mines are as rich as supposed, it is presumed that the American govern-
ment would value them so much as to protect them rather than deliver them to
the English.” Furthermore, there was about the whole enterprise the echo of
the “Mississippi bubble . . . and the banking schemes of John Law.” Over the
past century, a wide variety of schemes had appeared for investment in foreign
mines; most of them had ended with high expectations that “[went] up in
smoke, so much money lost, so many stockholders disappointed.” It was
difficult to imagine that the gold mines in California would be different. The
Gazette concluded: “We know well that the English are of a serious character,
more positive and cold than in this corner, but this consideration does not quite
reassure us about the reality of this El Dorado.”31
By the middle of February, the Gazette conceded that the French had joined
the rush to organize several limited partnership companies in pursuit of the
golden dreams evoked by the image of El Dorado in California. On the walls
in Paris, a “great rose poster” advertised the forthcoming departure of the ship
La Marie for California, scheduled to sail from Le Havre on February 15. Also
in Le Havre, a company had organized “under the patronage of lawyers and
shipowners, for the same object, a mutual company, having for its name the
Caravane Havraise, a bizarre title which is a monstrous barbarism in maritime
language. Finally, a Sieur Collette-Quenouille of Dieppe has ordered a limited
partnership shareholders company for the modest sum of F 100,000, to charter
a sailing ship and send it to California to search for gold.”32
68 France

In the face of this haste to organize companies to join the rush to California,
the Gazette argued that potential investors should heed a voice of experience:
“M. Duflot de Mofras, who has recently explored California by order of the
government, tells us some things from a totally different point of view, in a
sensible letter.” According to Duflot de Mofras, after surmounting the difficul-
ties of a long and hazardous voyage and encounters with American officials, a
French company would confront competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company,
with the Imperial Russian-American Company, and with other trading houses
from Boston, New York, and other cities around the world. He had concluded
that to join such a competition would be “madness.”33
Next, the Gazette raised the issue of the role of the French government—or
in the words of the editor, “the question of authority”—in the growing number
of companies and ships departing for California. Before Frenchmen left to
seek the precious metal that infused the ground so liberally, “the government
should at least do everything to enlighten its citizens on the truth of the public
reports by the American newspapers on the subject of the fabulous treasures
of this country.” Apparently, the French government had decided to send an
official expedition to California, with a view to examining “the nature of the
beds and veins of gold and of mercury that exist in this region. On the rending
of accounts and after the exact and authentic reports of these agents, adminis-
trators will know the truth about everything that is recited and printed about
these marvelous mines and thus give to industry the information which will
prevent men and capital from leaving in search of perhaps imaginary riches.”
Persons tempted to make the voyage to California or to invest in California
companies would be prudent to “await the results of the investigations of
the French administrators before undertaking this adventure there.”34
The Gazette also noted American national self-interest in promoting the
gold discoveries. California “is an immense emptiness that waits colonizers.”
Gold was the vehicle to induce immigrants “to people and to fertilize this
country. . . . [It] is thus for the American government a subject of great impor-
tance.” The advertised presence of gold “is never exactly a deception for the
emigrants; only their activity and their energy become offered to another end.”
American occupation will be accelerated; the national interest will be served
“in a manner to give much satisfaction to their interests, realizing for the Union
immense advantages.”35
Soon thereafter, the campaign of the Gazette to slow the rush to California
companies received gratifying news. One of the first companies (founded in
January 1849), the Société Franco-Californienne, had voluntarily dissolved.
The cause was the failure to generate the funds necessary for initial expenses
 Rise of the California Companies 69

and to transport the first cohort of associate workers. The Gazette thought this
failure showed the “good sense of the public,” but the editor discerned other,
highly principled motives. Perhaps the directors of the company had been
“seized by doubt” over the success of the enterprise. They had retired before the
“possible misfortunes of emigration which they provoked and they had not
sought to stop.” He hoped that the other California companies would step forth
to show the “same honesty.” Perhaps the rush to California and its companies
was already in decline. In spite of the golden promises, the shareholders of the
Société Franco-Californienne (“excited by greed”) had come to realize that
promises of the company were uncertain, whereas the demands on them were
real. In short, they had become wise enough “to guard their funds and not
abandon prayer for shadows.”36 In spite of the Gazette’s hopes, this voluntary
dissolution turned out to be the exception and not the rule.
Among the companies that did not abandon its ambitions was the Société
Nationale pour l’Exploitation des Mines d’Or de la Californie. The Gazette
called this one of the most suspicious of the California companies, an example
of an organization “led by men without conscience, without fortune, and
without morals.”37 It was “a case study, a poster, for such deception.” Its three
principal officers had questionable reputations. M. Abounze, for example, had
served as consul in the Republic of Guatemala, and when he became a stock-
broker on the Rue Bondy, he sold stock in several questionable mining ventures
that came “to a deplorable end.” The second officer, M. Touaillon, was the son
of a moving force in the Moulins de Saint-Maur scandal, a limited partnership
company organized in 1837 that left a long trail in the police records. The third
was M. Boutmy, the author and editor of the prospectus for the Société
Nationale. The editor of the Gazette described him ironically as “venerable, the
doyen, the oracle of this industrial enterprise of our age.” In short, these were
the directors to whom the willing stockholders delivered their money for invest-
ment. Under the circumstances, the Gazette concluded, the investors should
not be surprised at its almost certain loss.38
With its exposure of the Société Nationale, the Gazette temporarily rested
from its labors. It had warned, cajoled, threatened, and pleaded. It had presented
a range of compelling arguments: the sparse Anglo-American population as a
market for goods; the reservations as expressed in the letters of M. Duflot de
Mofras; the conscience and scruples of at least one of the California companies;
the hardships of the voyage and the dangers of coexisting in the goldfields with
a Spanish-speaking population (the Californians) on one side and an English-
speaking population (the Americans) on the other; the obvious difficulties of
land ownership and rights in a landscape claimed by the Americans under
70 France

recent treaty. The public had been warned. Unfortunately, for many the lure of
gold and the investments associated with it overrode any such warnings. Images
of California and gold danced before their eyes in an endless stream of wealth.

THE INFORMED PROFESSIONALS: THE PHARE COMMERCIAL

The Phare Commercial was a different kind of professional voice. It was not
instinctively skeptical of the structure and promises of the California compa-
nies; rather, it thought of itself as highly selective in its judgments. The Phare
Commercial early established standards for the organization of a California
company. Although it had strong doubts about most of the companies that
appeared on the scene in the first six months of 1849, it judged a handful as
acceptable, and it warmly supported a few that met its stringent conditions.
The Phare Commercial first introduced the subject of the California compa-
nies in its issue of April 1849. An important context was the difficult economic
circumstances that followed the Revolution of 1848. That series of events, the
editor wrote, seriously damaged “both public and private fortunes.” Into this
world of anxiety and confusion came the California companies. In outline, they
followed a long tradition of speculative enterprises. The Phare Commercial
noted that “certain speculators who, in turn, have exploited the coal mines, the
railroads,” have moved to “the gold mines of California.” The paper had “exam-
ined their statutes, their administrative personnel, as well as the guarantees that
they offer[ed] to their shareholders.” It would use this information to help guard
prospective investors against fallacious promises. They deserved nothing less!
The paper would be “ruthless” in exposing this new stampede to riches and the
principal actors in this new drama. At the same time, it had come to admire a few
of the companies, “founded by honorable men, surrounded by public consider-
ation, and which have the desire and the force to fulfill their promises.”39
The first object of its approval was the Société Lallier Columbel. This
company stood in contrast to most of those established by men who did not
know California. The Société Lallier Columbel was “a company of experience”
that offered “serious guarantees” to its subscribers. “First, the founders of this
company are all honorable men by their social position, their moral standing,
their specialized knowledge, [and they] have an incontestable title to the public
confidence. . . . They all seem to be of a rank distinguished in society.” At the
head was “the brave commander Lallier, whose eminent services are known to
all.” He and his company are experienced in exploration. Hence “the colony of
workers will have a hospitable reception. These leaders know the perils and
risks, as opposed to other sedentary speculators.” The article listed the six
 Rise of the California Companies 71

members of the council and their public offices and honors. The company had
already chartered a ship, to be commanded by “M. Lallier, the younger. After
landing, the vessel will not lie idle at anchor in San Francisco but instead enter
into the coastal trade.”40
Furthermore, the editor continued, this company has “authentic and certain
information about the cargoes that it intends to buy and transport.” To its
prospective shareholders, the company offers “modest guarantees: that their
capital, at least over the two years of the company, will quadruple or quintuple.”
And, “with a degree of interest rare in our time, [the directors] have reserved
only a modest portion of the dividends that will inevitably be produced by this
enterprise, to which they have consecrated their heavy labor, their researches,
their inheritance, and their very existence!” By every high standard imposed by
the Phare Commercial, this company had won its approval and deserved the
support of the public.41
Within two weeks, the number of recorded California companies had risen
to twenty, of which “ten to a dozen have found it necessary to dissolve.” The
proliferation of the California companies and the stream of “premature dissolu-
tions” associated with them, the Phare Commercial continued, were the result
of deficiencies already identified. Among other shortcomings, “they had at their
head obscure and reckless speculators who had not gathered any of the neces-
sary conditions to attain the confidence of the public and to conduct effectively
such a complicated and difficult operation.” They were aided in this enterprise
by gullible investors, shareholders who sought outlandish profits for little or no
investment. In short, “they appeared to their shareholders an Eden, an El
Dorado. Once embarked on the privileged land, they had only to bend over
to amass gold. All of these exaggerations bore fruit. And there was a certain
defiance in the correspondences.”42
As for California, there was much gold, but the difficulties of its extraction
could be met only by “strong companies, possessing considerable capital, well
thought of by public opinion, and led by men not only of irreproachable probity,
but also who possess special knowledge and who by their social position are in
a condition to be accredited and protected by the authorities of the country.”
Such were the companies that had met the stringent standards of the Phare
Commercial.43
The Phare Commercial now identified a second company for its strong
support. The Société Brugnier Jeune et Cie had been formed as a family enter-
prise and not a joint stock company. The company had chartered a ship, the
Suffren, to depart on July 15, 1849. The perceived success of this company in
organizing a departure for its workers offered the opening for another analysis
72 France

of the reasons “why others have languished or failed.” The principal reason was
that most of the California companies were, by the standards of the Phare
Commercial, “not serious, founded by men who are past masters in the art of the
joint stock company and who do not have as their aim the exploitation of mines
in California as much as a means of personal speculation, seeking to exploit this
rich and fecund placer. We continue to be on guard and urge our readers to be
skeptical of these companies.”44 Like the Gazette des Affaires, the Phare
Commercial struggled to slow the rush to establish the California companies or
invest in them. The power of stories from the press mixed with the continuous
advertising of the companies pulled the public toward them in defiance of any
cautionary admonitions, however intelligent and carefully reasoned.

Beginning with the opening of 1849, the California gold rush generated an
astonishing outpouring of commercial activity in France. Aside from the
expected voyages with French commodities and products (often recommended
by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce), the most remarkable was the
emergence of the so-called California companies. They came in varieties of
size and location, but they were generally alike in their structure and financial
arrangements. The most different of these many enterprises was the Colony of
Lyonville, but, like others, it was in an unending competition for investors. In
pursuit of the idea that to every action there is an equal reaction, the surge of
the founding of California companies attracted critics. Among the most
outspoken were the two commercial newspapers discussed above. In spite of
many columns of serious analysis, these two papers could do little to slow the
rush to embrace the promises of the California companies.
 5

THE RUSH TO GOLD

Obstacles, Preparations, and Departures

THE OBSTACLE OF DISTANCE

For the French people caught up in the frenzy for California, travel to this
golden land was hedged in by many obstacles. The first and most obvious was
distance. San Francisco harbor was some twelve thousand miles distant,
depending on the port of embarkation in France. Most of the French Forty-
Niners would make the voyage on chartered ships, whether as members of one
of the California companies, in a group of friends, or as lone passengers. The
largest number of French Argonauts went by way of Cape Horn. The duration
of the voyage ranged from four to six months, with most California-bound
vessels calling for food and water at Rio de Janeiro on the Atlantic Coast and
Valparaiso or Callao on the Pacific Coast. Accounts of French explorations
around the world had been public news for almost a generation, and these
stories had heightened an interest in distant places, driven by people’s thirst
for adventure mixed with pride in French imperial designs. Still, almost
no one among the early French Argonauts had made the voyage to
California. It was a formidable undertaking, even under the most favorable of
circumstances.
There was also a choice of routes. Although most of the advertised ships
departing French ports went around Cape Horn to San Francisco, another
route ran though Panama. The Panama option meant substantially greater cost,
physical dangers involved with the trek across the isthmus through a tropical
jungle, crowds of Argonauts all headed to the same destination in competition
for the same scarce services, and, finally, negotiations in a foreign language for
highly competitive passage up the Pacific Coast. The great advantage was time.

73
74 France

If the individual French Forty-Niner or French group could manage these

obstacles and handle the cost, the trip would be much shorter—perhaps half
the time of the Cape Horn voyage. In the fever provoked by the gold discov-
eries, many prospective Argonauts thought of the voyage to California as a race,
and a shorter route always attracted attention.

THE OBSTACLE OF COST

The second major issue was cost. For most future French Argonauts, three
ways emerged to make the voyage to California. The first involved participation
in one of the proliferating California companies. The advantages included the
several services offered, all of them designed to simplify the details of the voyage
and reduce anxiety on arrival in San Francisco. The company selected—the
California companies were largely interchangeable in their offerings and in
their costs—would provide transportation; accommodation; meals; and a
support system in the form of a priest, a doctor, and a mining engineer—all
provisions designed to accommodate every contingency. Some companies
intended to take women employees to do laundry and cook. Once arrived, the
“associate worker” (the small shareholder who had opted to travel with the
company) would be transported to the mining site, outfitted with tools and
subsistence, and sheltered in case of illness. In exchange, the worker would
labor in the goldfields, with a fixed percentage of his returns (generally one-half
or more) paid to the company for his support and to meet expenses and divi-
dends to the shareholders. The remainder would be divided among the workers.
Such contractual arrangements ordinarily ran for a period of two or three years.
The company might void the agreement if the worker absented himself without
leave or deserted.
The second route to the goldfields involved creating a company of like-
minded individuals who would contract independently with a ship for passage.
The expense was only for the voyage to San Francisco. Most ships offered varia-
tions in accommodations, generally described as first, second, and third class,
with the cost proportionate to the better accommodations and food. The
responsibility of the shipping company and its captain ended when the French
Argonauts set foot in San Francisco. Those who chose this option needed to
have faith in one another and to take careful measure of the ship’s owner and
captain. Once under way, no discussion of details or complaints was permitted,
and the captain’s word was law.
The third option for the voyage was that an individual simply made his
own arrangements. Some of those who fell into this category had a degree of
 The Rush to Gold 75

wealth and resources that allowed them to proceed independently. Many of

these traveled first class, often with goods to sell. In first-class accommodation,
they found themselves among other passengers like themselves. Those with
fewer resources made individual arrangements that might include a lower price
for assisting the crew or accepting inferior rations.

NECESSARY TRAVEL AND FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS

Prospective emigrants needed a passport for departure. They made applica-

tion to the mayor (or another official) of their place of residence. Such a civil
servant had to confirm the character of the applicant. Another necessary part of
getting a passport dealt with the applicant’s obligation for military service. The
prospect of going to California in search of gold did not exempt the applicant
from his obligations. When issued, the “Passe-port à l’Étranger” listed the hold-
er’s name, birthplace, and destination (e.g., San Francisco, Californie). It also
had a physical description: age, height, and single-word descriptions of hair
color, eyebrows, forehead, beard, chin, nose, and mouth. The passport would
be valid for one year after the holder’s departure from France. It was signed by
the prefect of the department or his associate.1
Whatever the route and choice of transportation to California, the prospec-
tive French Argonaut had to raise a sum of F 1,000 to finance the trip. Whether
as an associate worker of a California company or part of an independent group,
the cost for the traveler was about the same. As the attractions of an expedition
to California in search of quick and certain wealth spread out to villages and
the countryside, the future French Forty-Niners had to canvass prospects and
conditions for raising such a sum.
For most future French Argonauts—aside from the few wealthy individuals
for whom cost was no issue—the non-negotiable need to raise funds to make
the journey called on the long and deep connections to family and community.
Among the variables that came into play were the family’s economic condition,
the web of relations across generations, and decisions by family leaders. With
financial demands of F 1,000, this was a costly adventure, albeit one that would
benefit the family as well as the individual member. Such numbers were beyond
the immediate reach of working French families. Furthermore, the final leg
from San Francisco to the goldfields, including shelter, food, and transporta-
tion, was a substantial additional financial drain. To raise such a sum involved
financial decisions that would affect the whole family at several levels.2
Deliberations over such crucial decisions involved the interplay of family
dynamics. Who were the family leaders who would make the decisions? What
76 France

were the implications of the decisions for the family as a whole? The voyage
to California must be viewed as an investment to benefit the entire family.
As the family would provide the resources for the voyage, so all members
expected eventually to benefit. The key issues were, first, the decision makers.
Next came the question of the resources to finance the trip. Finally, who would
be designated to make the voyage on behalf of the family? What was at stake was
the future of the family.
In making arrangements for the necessary financing, families had various
choices. These options depended on family resources. One of the first options
was to borrow the necessary funds. This choice reflected the financial arrange-
ments available in France at mid-century, especially in rural areas and small
villages. These were places where individuals and families would make their
own arrangements. In borrowing, a family had two options. It could pay
the money that was borrowed directly to one of the California companies,
or the money could be paid to a third party or intermediary who would make
the transportation arrangements. The latter option made the prospective
French Argonaut independent of the structure imposed by a California
company, but at the same time, he did not have the support system a
company offered. In the case of a family’s borrowing locally, the lender
was often a local person of wealth and influence. The standard terms provided
for a loan of three to five years, with interest payable at 5 percent a year. The
loan would be secured by a mortgage on landed properties. Thus, this
option was open to those who had property in various forms that would serve as
security. As property ownership was fairly widespread in nineteenth-century
France, many families would have collateral that could be mortgaged. Still,
the issues were complicated. The three parties each had interests to protect. For
the prospective California emigrant, the issue was how to raise the necessary
funds. For the lender, it was the terms, especially the security of the landed
property. With a view to this protection, prospective lenders commissioned
appraisals of the lands in question. Finally, the family needed to make
sure that the arrangements did not place the family inheritance at risk in
any fundamental way. These family assets had many claimants across
generations. Each needed to be assured that his or her interests would remain
unthreatened.3
Another financial instrument in raising funds for emigration was the lease.
In this option, the traveler would sign a contract with a company before
his departure. The company itself would become the source of funds. In
exchange, the gold seeker would agree to work for the company for two or three
years. This contractual arrangement was guaranteed by a bond on the landed
 The Rush to Gold 77

estate of the family. Once again, an appraisal was a part of the negotiations, for
properties often had existing liens on them. When the terms were satisfactory
and the necessary safeguards in place, both parties would sign the contract.
These gold rush emigrants were not “associate workers” as described in the
company’s advertisements. Instead, they were indebted to the company for their
passage and obligated to serve the company for a designated period as part of
the agreement.4
In another variation, the monies for passage might be borrowed within the
family. In these cases, it was often the father who had access to the family
resources and served as lender. The advantage was that the obligation remained
within the family rather than in the hands of a stranger. But the family nature
of the transaction would provoke disagreements about the use of the family
resources. The extended French family was a complicated mechanism. It
had several parts and generations, almost always in stages of transition. The old
died; the next generation ascended to positions of authority; the younger
members had to be provided for; the elderly had to be supported and consulted
as befitted their senior status in the family. These issues invariably provoked
another important variable—namely, the role of women in the family in
response to the rush to gold. In some cases, they had to become a necessary part
of the financial arrangements. In others, young women had to be provided for
in the arrangements of the estate.5
Some characteristics were common to all the financial arrangements. The
first and most obvious was the intention of the traveler to return and return
soon. The passage to California and the sojourn there was invariably viewed as
a brief interlude within which the individual and the family would be enriched
to the benefit of all parties. The second characteristic, related to the first, was
the high expectations that were placed on the travelers, given the import of the
decision to go and the arrangements—personal and financial—that decision
entailed. This was a substantial investment on the part of the family. The
member charged with its execution was all too aware that he carried the family’s
prayers, best wishes, and highest expectations on his departure.6
Rural France (most of the country) was not a stagnant economy. Financial
transactions and mortgages in particular were widespread. Money was borrowed
for several reasons: to provide a dowry for a daughter, to exempt a son from military
service, to buy adjacent lands, to construct a mill, or to purchase livestock. Such
loans were designed for the interests of the family, long and short range; likewise,
it was anticipated that the sums raised to support a family gold seeker would
produce the necessary and expected dividends.7
78 France

PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURES: ADVENTURE AND DESTINY

As noted in chapter 3, for many individuals, the news of the California gold
discoveries opened economic opportunities for a new chapter in their lives and
the lives of their families. Another group sought relief from boredom. Some
French Argonauts had a range of pressing financial reasons. Albert Bénard de
Russailh emphasized the qualities of adventure. “For about two years now the
world has been preoccupied only with the discovery of gold mines in Northern
California made by intrepid travelers in North America,” he wrote. “Everywhere
some fabulous stories are told of the colossal fortunes to be acquired in a few
days in this new El Dorado. The fever of emigration commenced at that time.”
He continued: “In the month of August 1849, my brother decided to undertake
this voyage. Younger than I by a few months, of an adventurous character, with
no doubts when one is twenty years old, he embarked on the Cachalot.” Albert
followed a year later. He took the same route, ran the same hazards, and “went
through the same waters in order to seek a fortune that destiny has not allowed
me on my native soil.”8
Charles de Lambertie’s account of his decision and preparation for the
voyage to and experiences in California, written in 1849 and later published as
a guide for prospective French Argonauts, represented a particular class of
French Forty-Niner. De Lambertie wrote nothing of his initial decision to go,
nor did he dwell on the issue of the cost. He seemed to regard the first as already
made; the latter was unimportant. After a brief retrospective on the emotional
tug of leaving his wife and family, de Lambertie soon put this sense of loss
behind him. He faced forward to the challenges, the adventures, and the pros-
pect of economic advantage that drove his voyage and that of so many others.
He concluded, in short, “I go to search for gold in California, Messieurs, and
that is all that you see in my plan. . . . But what will you do in California? They
reply to me. I have told you: I go there to search for gold. And then? The future
awaits me.”9 At the last moment, various friends tried to make him renounce his
California venture, but he rebuffed them. He saw it as a matter of character. He
left with regret but left nonetheless: “But alas! One cannot escape one’s
destiny.”10
Others saw the departure for California as forced upon them by outside
circumstances. Jean Frédéric Chauvin, born in 1831, was the youngest son of a
successful medical doctor. The father, Jean (the elder), had followed his father
into “the art of healing.” He was determined that three of his sons would follow
him into the medical profession.11 The eldest, Jean Homère Chauvin, did his
studies at Bordeaux and then in Paris. There, he fell in love with the married
 The Rush to Gold 79

daughter of one of his professors. He was killed in a duel by the outraged

husband. Amid the scandal in the closed medical community, the reaction of
the father was to break off the studies of his two other sons. The middle son,
Jean Lambert, accepted the father’s decision. He went on to achieve a substan-
tial degree of success as a large landowner and in the illegal exercise of medi-
cine, in which he achieved a high reputation in his local part of the countryside.12
Jean Frédéric did not accept the decision of his father. He decided “to leave
for the Americas.” He departed in 1849 or 1850, thanks to the savings of his
mother and with the curses of his father, who, however, gave him his permis-
sion. As a minor child—he was eighteen in 1849—he would have needed
parental permission. Jean Frédéric departed from Le Havre like so many
emigrants from Charante-Maritime, probably as an associate worker of the
Californienne.13

PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURES: FRIENDS

TRAVEL TOGETHER

The village of Bruley in Lorraine was one of innumerable small French

communities. It had been in place for hundreds of years; its families had been
part of an established cycle of economic and social life stretching back beyond
memory. For generations past, the young men and young women had grown up
in the village, inherited land or worked at trades, married, begun their own
families, and prepared to write the next chapter in this multi-volume story.
The Lorraine people were by nature cautious. They did not like to go off on
adventures but preferred to live a modest life of hard work in the fields.
Suddenly, years of natural disasters and economic hardship ruffled the smooth
exterior of this town of five hundred. The sources of unhappiness and misery
were bad harvests and economic depression. For many it had become a time of
desperation.14
Bruley and its families, together with much of France, were profoundly
influenced by the news of the discovery of gold mines of extraordinary richness
in California. Coming after two years of famine, 1846 and 1847, this remarkable
series of distant events laid the foundation for a heretofore unimagined exodus.
Thus, the years from 1850 to 1856 were marked by, among other events, the
departure of the sons of the village for California.15
Given the character of the people in a village of five hundred, one needed a
powerful motive to leave the place of one’s birth and connections, to become
an expatriate, and to live many years on the other side of the ocean. For perhaps
the first time, numbers of young people began to consider leaving the village.
80 France

This sense of desperation at mid-century led some of the young people on a

voyage from this small village toward the unknown. For a group of friends,
departure did not represent a rupture in the permanence of village life; rather,
it would take the form of an expedition together to California, where the golden
returns from the rich landscape would provide the means to return to the village
at the end of a limited sojourn. And so it was that 1850 was the year of departure
of the first wave of young emigrants.16
The Bruley Argonauts prepared to go to California by way of Cape Horn.
The leader of the group was Jean Migot, twenty-eight years old. With him were
his cousin Joseph Bouvée, N. Verlet, Nicolas Goujot, Joseph Raison (called the
elder Raison), Justin Demange, and Nicolas Trottot. The last was married and
left a wife and two young children. The following year, 1851, three other inhab-
itants of Bruley joined them in America: Firmin Gillet, Louis Bouvée (brother
of Joseph), and Clément. A little later, departing in their turn, Grégoire and
Stéphane Demange brought the total number to twelve.17
Known subsequently in the annals of the village as “the Great Departure,” it
was an occasion for the gathering of the entire community. The date was a
morning in September 1850. The inhabitants of Bruley were in a high state of
emotion over the impending departures of their young people. At the decisive
moment, the men “hoisted seven trunks, containing repaired clothes and a few
of linen, then a box of arms and a box of tools on a cart with a ladder.” The
driver, Louis Migot, brother of Jean, cracked his whip over the draft animals
with the cry, “Hue Loulou! Hue Coquette!” Thus, the first seven young men
began a journey of 120 kilometers to the railroad station. On this first leg of a
long voyage, the travelers walked. Along the way, they sang. After three days,
they arrived at the train station at Vitry-le-François. There, they boarded the
train to Paris, where they spent a day and a half. Then they went to Le Havre,
where, like so many other prospective French Argonauts, they waited.18
Several weeks later, their ship, the Moise, loaded a full complement of
French Argonauts. There were 240 passengers and 30 members of the crew,
with enough provisions for two years. The ship carried, among other groups,
the associate workers from two California companies, France and Toison d’Or.
Finally, in late October, they departed for a voyage of five months. On the eve
of the departure, Jean Migot wrote a letter home that began, “We leave tomorrow
with a curious joy.” He continued, “Do not grieve for my fate. I hope, by the
grace of God, to succeed.” Referring to his companions, “We love one another
as brothers.”19
There were other emigrations from Lorraine. Gabriel Richard described the
same hardships in Lorraine in 1849 as in the previous years. Of all the districts,
 The Rush to Gold 81

the town of Luneville was among the most affected. There were ravages from
cholera; even an epidemic of suicides spread throughout Lorraine. The Munier-
Pugin family was a leader in the plans for emigration. Those who prepared for
their departure for California included Charles Gadel and Édouard and Victor
Munier-Pugin. A distant cousin and young veterinarian, Émile Maubon, joined
them. A letter from Le Havre, dated February 10, indicated that the four French
Argonauts would depart on March 18.20
In preparation for the long trip, Édouard and Victor, with Émile Chanal,
their young protégé, arrived in Nancy on March 12. In addition to trunks,
“large chests, solid, circled by hoops of iron, decorated on the front by bands
of pigskin,” they also brought a barrel of eggs submerged in lime for nourish-
ment on the voyage. The account described the farewells: “The last adieux
exchanged, the heavy wagon starts in a great sound of metal and bells on the
route to Toul.”21
The first letters from the voyageurs reached the village on March 20, 1849.
“We left with full hearts; it has been only three days and it feels to me like a
century.” At Le Havre, they booked passage on the Édouard, with 150 other
emigrants. The third-class price from Le Havre to San Francisco was F 750, but
two made the voyage for F 1,200 on condition that they assisted the crew and
were content with the food of the sailors.22
In 1849, ninety-two emigrants left Lorraine for California. Among the great
diversity of professions among the Argonauts, alongside farmers, day laborers,
and casual laborers, were traveling salesmen, dealers in old iron and novelties,
joiners, glass cutters, sawyers, stone cutters, leather workers, shoemakers, bakers,
a stockholder, and several property owners. Most of the emigrants had contracted
for their passage with a California company. Like so many others, concluded
Richard’s account, they had been seduced by the outburst of publicity.23
The accounts by Louis Migot and Gabriel Richard emphasize the contrast
between the decisions and plans of the affluent adventurers juxtaposed against
the heavy hearts of the less affluent travelers from the villages. The former
brushed off the ties to families and communities with thoughts of adventure
and triumphal return. The latter felt burdened by separation from family and
village; their departures were marked by large gatherings and emotional fare-
wells and the expectation of a shared return in triumph.

PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURES: ERNEST DE MASSEY

At the opposite end of the young workers and farm laborers from Lorraine
were the members of the aristocracy. Ernest de Massey was one of the younger
82 France

sons of the nobility who joined the rush to California. He was a member of a
well-known family that had lived for generations at the Château de Passavant on
the Upper Saône River near the Swiss border. De Massey had trained for a
military life, but he abandoned this career to become a glass manufacturer.
When this venture failed, he tried agriculture with no more success. With these
two failures behind him, he decided to join the migration to California. He was
accompanied “by Alexandre Veron, my cousin and associate, and by François
Pidaucet, engaged as carpenter and as day laborer.” Throughout, de Massey
referred to his continuing personal responsibilities; these were devotion to his
family, as exemplified by his loyalty to his cousin Alexandre Veron. The two
young men suffered through trials of disagreements over two years, but de
Massey never flinched from his responsibility. While he confided his frustra-
tions and anger to his journal, he never turned his back on his cousin. Although
de Massey was separated by a yawning gap from the travelers from the villages,
he shared with them a common commitment to family.
De Massey was a man of strong views about politics and the nature of society.
He was deeply suspicious, indeed openly hostile, to the recent revolution and
the founding of the republic. There was a sense of the voyage and sojourn in
California as his exile from a nation that he saw falling apart. Wherever he was
and under whatever conditions he lived, de Massey attempted to conduct
himself as a gentleman. He expected no less of others, at least of those with
pretensions to meet him as equals.
His departing words to his family referred to his failures and his determina-
tion to atone for them and “to assure to all a tranquil future.” He went on: “I fix
my destiny far from the county where I have been tested by all the misfortunes
and boredom you have always found in me, your best relative, your most useful
friend.”24 With these words, he turned his back on his family and the country of
his birth.
As the sailing vessel moved away from the dock in Le Havre, some of the
prospective French Forty-Niners burst into song. De Massey observed of this exer-
cise: “The songs, called ‘Patriotiques,’ surrounded by cries of ‘Vive la République,’
follow the ship across the water, the last expression of the political and social views
of the majority party of the emigrants.” He continued in the same vein: “Of all the
songs, that of the Girondins, ‘To Die for the Country,’ produced the greatest
effect; only I offer this remark: it is that it was badly placed in the mouths of our
Patriots, who left the country, instead of staying there to die for it.”25
The numbers of passengers on the Cérès reflected the new demands associ-
ated with the California gold discoveries. On a ship with accommodations for
thirty-odd, the owner and captain had crammed some eighty-eight passengers,
 The Rush to Gold 83

plus a dozen members of the crew. They were apportioned: sixteen passengers
in first class (including de Massey); forty in second class; thirty-two in third
class. The second- and third-class passengers were allotted space in steerage,
one group in the rear, the other in front of the ship. Their quarters were so tight
that the two lower-class passengers often slept in the open air, whatever the
dangers. Taking the passengers as a whole, de Massey called them a representa-
tive group.26
De Massey confided to his journal that in a moment of indecision that must
have confronted many French Argonauts, cousin Alexandre “was close to
deciding to return to France with the pilot . . . and if above all his pride was
not involved, he would return into his family, where he feared the sarcasms and
the pleasantries.”27 Once publicly committed to the voyage to California,
prospective gold seekers in France (and the eastern United States) found it
difficult to back out or, later, to return empty-handed.
De Massey continued: “It is in these sentiments, that the 21st May 1849, I
departed France, at nine o’clock in the morning, on the ship ‘la Cérès’ from
L’Havre, shipowner Joseph LeMaître, chartered by Barbey of Paris (from whom
God preserve the inexperienced travelers), captain Messmaker, false bonhomie,
of which I will often make mention in the course of this account.” He summed
up his objectives in a brief sentence that might have stood for all the French
Argonauts: “I hope for a good voyage, a rapid fortune, and a prompt return.”28
“At 10 kilometers from L’Havre, the steam tug left us,” de Massey wrote.
“The shipowner LeMaître, . . . before descending into his boat, drank a toast
with the passengers, to success of their futures in California.” He continued: “À
propos of this shipowner, it is good to record here the opinion that all the passen-
gers have of him: he is a businessman who treats the whites in the same manner
as others treat the blacks; it is for him a matter which is worth so much and
nothing more. Few of his contracts are conscientiously lived up to; also there is
only a single voice in his profit, and that is not favorable to his honesty and to
his good faith. People say that the shipowners of L’Havre are almost all the
same; that is not flattering for the place, and [they say] that the shipowners of
Bordeaux are more conscientious.”29

PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURES: LÉOPOLD

ANSART DU FIESNET

Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet was the second son of a well-to-do Parisian family.
His father, Félix-Charles, was professor of history and geography at the Royal
College of Saint Louis. Léopold grew up as the adventurous counterpoint to his
84 France

hard-working, high-achieving older brother, Edmond. The family correspon-

dence described Léopold’s dissolute habits and rowdy friends. By the time he
was nineteen, Léopold kept late hours or no hours, sometimes appearing drunk
and bloodied. He was also “insolent” toward his family. The death of his father
in April 1849 caused no reformation in his habits; indeed, it seemed to intensify
his alienation. After negotiations, his family found him a position as a clerk in a
bookshop. After a few weeks of faithful attention to his duties, he began to
absent himself. Finally, he disappeared, to resurface at a masked ball. The
family was in an uproar. In March 1850, he visited the family to announce that
he wished to embark for America. A “council of the family” authorized his trip,
charging his uncle Selim Ansart with making the necessary arrangements at Le
Havre. On March 11, 1850, Selim signed on behalf of Léopold (a minor), for an
engagement of three years as a pilot’s apprentice on board the sailing ship
Pescatore. Selim also bought the necessary clothes and outfit and gave the
captain F 500, to be distributed in small amounts to his nephew as “pocket
money.” A month later, the vessel sailed for San Francisco with 250 passengers
headed to the goldfields. The departure was not smooth. The night before the
scheduled sailing, Léopold asked to go to the bathroom. He disappeared and
spent the night and early morning on the quays, where he ran up a debt that the
uncle was obliged to pay.30
Léopold Ansart belonged to a small but select group of French Argonauts
who were both pulled and pushed toward California. The “pull” reflected that
this was the great adventure of the age, almost certain to end in a fortune.
Léopold had asked his family to support his ambition, and it agreed to do so.
This commitment had an air of “push” about it. His arrangements and depar-
ture had unusual qualities. Pooling all the costs—Léopold’s apprenticeship,
clothing, and pocket money—Selim Ansart might have purchased passage with
one of the California companies. But it was clearly the will of the “family
council” that he not do so. Instead, the prodigal son Léopold would work his
way to California.

PREPARATIONS AND DEPARTURE: JEAN-NICOLAS PERLOT

At the age of twenty-six, Jean-Nicolas Perlot decided to join the rush to

California. He was impatient with his career as a linen draper. News of the
California gold discoveries had spread across the nation. California represented
a new and dramatic opportunity to break out of the cycle of low wages and slow
advancement. “All the walls, in Paris, were covered with [California company]
announcements, and these were filled with alluring promises. They aimed at
 The Rush to Gold 85

finding both shareholders and workers; each of them presented to the former as
to the latter the prospect of a swift fortune: the latter, after two years—three at
the most—should all return rich.” Perlot continued: “The chance to tempt
fortune thus presented itself. I seized it and decided to leave for California.”
The obstacle to his intention was F 1,000, “which had to be paid first.” At this
point, an accidental business connection came forward to assist him.31
Perlot’s employer put him in touch with the manager of a California
company, Fortune. After extended negotiations with the manager, M. Thibeau,
they reached an agreement. Perlot would join the company as a “worker,” and
on his part, he signed a contract for a five-year engagement with the company,
with a note to Thibeau for F 10,000, which would be repaid by Perlot’s earnings
in California. As part of the agreement, Thibeau appointed Perlot “steward” of
the company, which meant he would be fed, lodged, armed, clothed, and cared
for in case of illness at the company’s expense. Perlot also had a 40 percent
interest in the profits that the company would realize during his engagement.
At the end of the contract, the company would pay for his return to Paris. In
Perlot’s words: “I accepted with pleasure; I was saved. I was leaving!”32
Perlot also had a second negotiation, this one with his family. Under this
agreement, his uncles would have the use of his property in his absence; in case
he did not return, they would inherit. In exchange, the uncles and his brothers
agreed to advance F 200 for him on the voyage and after his arrival in California.
The family finances were complicated, involving railroad shares, bank shares,
and cash. The arrangements for his absence had to be worked out in detail.33
Perlot’s arrangements to make the voyage to California suggested that in the
case of small companies—Fortune’s first expedition numbered forty-three—the
manager of the company might work out individual contracts. The workers of
the company were from departments across France and included two Swiss and
two Belgians, of whom Perlot was one. Perlot’s sailing ship, the Courrier de
Cherbourg, also carried fifteen independent passengers, twelve of these bound
for California.34

THE DEPARTURES OF COMPANIES

The mixture of joy and nostalgia during departures was reflected in the
departure of the Jacques Lafitte from Le Havre. One of the local papers, Journal
du Havre, called it a sort of “family celebration [that] has taken place within our
walls.” The account continued: “Two days before the scheduled departure of
the ‘Jacques Lafitte,’ the associate workers of the company ‘Californienne’ of
Paris have come together sixty strong for a banquet to celebrate M. Ch.
86 France

Hochgesangt, the chief of the expedition.” For the occasion, “the banquet hall
was in perfect taste for the needs of the workers and was filled by numerous
guests.” The celebration went on for more than three hours. Those present
were joined by loyalty to one another and “by the mission that they proposed to
accomplish.” At the end of the meal, several toasts were offered to the whole
assembly: “To the Directors, to the Union, to the Harmony of the Company!”35
M. Gaillard, the head of the expedition, responded with a heartfelt speech,
greeted by unanimous applause. Each of the guests expressed his fidelity to the
man who would lead the expedition to California. Then, M. Ch. Hochgesangt
said a few words, confirming the loyalty of the company’s director-general to
their enterprise. This celebration bought together men who for the most part
had not known one another until a few days before and who from that moment
had become friends and brothers.
The following day, Sunday, all members of the association joined together at
the Church of Notre Dame in order to celebrate a mass of intercession to the
Virgin. In the choir, musicians of the National Guard played orchestral music.
The service concluded, M. Herval, vicar of Notre Dame, addressed some words
of thanks to the travelers for their good works regarding the poor. As the travelers
left the church, the music of the National Guard accompanied them into the
streets as they made their way to the Theater Square in the midst of a large and
sympathetic crowd.
The associate workers of the Californienne, on the departure of the Jacques
Lafitte, addressed a letter to their director: “The ‘associate workers’ of the
Californienne leave France with sadness if they leave without expressing their
recognition of the care that you have taken in the organization of the company,
[whose workers] you have surrounded with attention on the occasion of their
departure. They have confidence in the success of an enterprise to which you
have so largely contributed. Count on their concurrence and their union to
assure, in the proportion to their forces, a common success. Receive, M. le
directeur, the assurance of our esteem and our confidence.”36
Another kind of departure was reflected by Arsène Grosjean, a passenger on
the three masted Vesta. He was one of 250 on board, including 25 women.
When the ship departed the quay, some 3,000–4,000 people had come on the
jetty to watch it sail. Of the occasion, he wrote: “We saluted one another with
cries of ‘vive la république!’ All the passengers laughed and sang. A few cried.”
Grosjean noted that he did not shed tears. Still, he did say that he felt a pang “in
my heart which lasted 3 or 4 days” when he could no longer see the French
coast. He often thought of his family and his determination to return to France
after making his fortune.37
 The Rush to Gold 87

Jean-Nicolas Perlot, sailing on the Courrier de Cherbourg, observed the same

demonstrations. His was a different perspective. As a Belgian, he had neither
family members nor friends among the throngs bidding adieu and waving hand-
kerchiefs. This sense of loneliness affected him just as much as the physical
separation as the ship pulled away from the dock and spread its sails. He walked
the deck with Latuy, another Belgian. “After some seconds of silence, I told him
what I was feeling; without saying a word, he looked at me fixedly; then,
covering his face with his handkerchief, he fled; I remained alone, mournful,
my eyes turned toward Le Havre, which was slowly receding.”38

Where did the French Argonauts come from? They came from across France,
but mainly the east and south. And of course, they came from Paris. For many,
Paris was not an origin but an intermediate stop. They originally came from the
countryside and small villages roiled by economic depression and hard times. It
is important to note the broad array of participants. This extended far beyond
the written accounts, which tended to reflect an affluent class of gold seekers.
The urge to join the rush to gold in distant California engaged scores,
hundreds, and eventually thousands of French people over four years. Beyond
the youthful search for adventure and the repair of lost or damaged fortunes and
family prospects were questions of long-lasting economic and structural changes
in France. France was still a nation in which the largest numbers of families
were tied to the land. Yet rural life was now in process of an enforced transfor-
mation that upset patterns that had been in place for centuries. The failures of
harvests after years of declining prices had shaken the traditional stability of the
countryside. Added to these changes was the emergence of industry and indus-
trial transformation, of which the most obvious signs were railroads snaking
across the French landscape. All these influences came together to produce an
accommodation and even an urgency to the possibility of emigration, even to a
land as distant as California. It is true that the rush to gold affected only a small
portion of France’s population, yet it is significant that this group participated
and that it did so from unlikely places.39
Yet even before the voyage came the issue of resources to pay for it. The
French Argonauts who left accounts identified a broad range of origins, occupa-
tions, and character. Many had left behind families, including some with wives
and children, and their departure must have entailed extended negotiations
with other family members over resources and care. Some of the more affluent,
like Charles de Lambertie and Ernest de Massey, carried a cargo of goods to
California, presumably to realize a substantial gain. The exceptions that we
have in hand were groups of friends from villages. Here, several families
88 France

(and perhaps even outside lenders) pooled resources to send local young men
to California. Across varied landscapes and class lines, what they shared was a
profound hope. Some had the leisure to pursue wealth; others had to leave the
village or countryside. The question for each group was to go where? The news
from California created and nurtured a dream. It was an alternative limited to
those who could find or negotiate resources, but an alternative nonetheless.40
Taken as a whole, this varied group of prospective Argonauts shared two
common qualities. First, collectively and individually, they knew nothing about
customs in or the language of the United States, to which they proposed to
come with such high hopes. Second was a focus on national identification.
These French people left France as inhabitants of a particular region or village.
In California they were all French. In short, a form of national identity replaced
regional orientation.41
 Part Two

CALIFORNIA
This page intentionally left blank
 6

VOYAGES AND ARRIVALS

The excitement of departures passed quickly astern, to be replaced by the

routine of ship life. For some French Argonauts, the introduction to a long
ocean voyage was seasickness. This condition passed, even with the most
afflicted. What remained was the monotony of a long voyage, interspersed with
occasional stormy weather. Five or six months was a long time to share cramped
quarters with others, often strangers at the start of the voyage. Over the duration
of the trip, most passengers (a mix of individuals, small groups, and members of
California companies) invented various kinds of recreational activities, ranging
from music and dancing to lectures on California and techniques for mining
gold. Gambling was almost universal.
Voyages from the French ports to San Francisco reflected the ships and mari-
time technology of the day. Ocean travel was making the transition from sail to
steam. The gold discoveries in California and the massive emigrations they
inspired over the next dozen years cut across this maritime fault line. Most of the
prospective French Forty-Niners, whether traveling as individuals or parts of
companies, made the voyage by sail. California companies often chartered the
vessels. Sometimes shipowners simply scheduled a voyage to San Francisco,
advertised in local and regional newspapers, and sold passage to individuals or
groups. The sailing ships that made the voyage from French ports to San Francisco
were generally modest in size. Quarters were tight for passengers. The cargo holds
were full of baggage and merchandise being transported to California for sale at
great profit. In response to the rising demand, many shipowners and captains sold
extra tickets for passage, in some cases far exceeding the usual numbers for a
passage. Crowding, inconvenience, and friction increased in like proportion.
Voyages were also profitable exercises for those providing a wide range of
goods and services. Shipowners especially profited, but so too did all those

91
92 California

connected with outfitting ships for a voyage of several months. In addition,

many of the French Argonauts, within and outside of the California companies,
intended to take goods to California for immediate and profitable resale. These
goods had to be bought and shipped to the piers where they would be loaded on
the vessels. With all these variables, it was not surprising that the sailings of such
vessels were repeatedly delayed, to the growing frustration of passengers ready
to debark.1

VOYAGES VIA CAPE HORN

For the French Argonauts, there were two routes to the California goldfields:
by way of Cape Horn or by way of Panama. In general, individuals and compa-
nies that brought extensive baggage or goods for sale in California traveled by
way of Cape Horn. The voyage by way of Cape Horn involved arrangements
that could be made in France. It did not expose travelers to tropical landscapes
or transportation arrangements that must be made in Panama. There were ports
of call on the Atlantic Coast and the Pacific side. Still, the ports of call were few.
Rounding the Horn itself was an exercise fraught with both danger and incon-
venience in equal parts. Like so much else on a long voyage, it depended on the
random qualities of the weather and the captain’s skill in managing his ship.
Alexandre André departed on the Georges from Le Havre in May 1849.
He sailed with 125 passengers and a crew of 20. The voyage was long and the
routine unending. According to his account, the most noteworthy breaks in the
monotony were the elaborate ceremonies associated with crossing the equator.
These sometimes got out of hand, according to André, and led to riots. It took
thirty-seven days to round Cape Horn: “a nightmare to the most intrepid sailors,
and where one runs into the worst possible weather in the world.” The ship
arrived in Valparaiso on September 26, where it remained until October 20,
pursuing arrangements to transport goods to California. André reported that
the harbor was filled with activity, mostly with ships destined for California.2
The accounts of the young men from Bruley offer another dimension of
the voyage and the activities of the passengers. At sea, on February 24, 1850, the
crew and passengers celebrated the “anniversary of the Republic.” This group
reflected that the political sentiments of the passengers remained strong long
after the shores of France disappeared. To friends and family in the village, Jean
Migot sent this message: “All have a contented heart and the desire that this fête
celebrates in France with the republican sentiments that move all in the middle
of the ocean.” It was a poignant example of the depth of devotion to the idea of
the republic, thousands of miles distant from the republic itself.3
 Voyages and Arrivals 93

The young men from Bruley had a rapid and smooth passage around the
Horn. Jean Migot wrote that they “doubled Cape Horn in eight days.” He noted
that in summer (it was late January in the southern hemisphere) at the far
southern latitudes there was scarcely any night. The sun set at eleven in the
evening and rose at two in the morning. When the sky was clear, he wrote, one
could read a book the entire night. He and his companions from Bruley rejoiced
at the sight of the coast of Chile a week later. He described the small port of
Talcahuano as very like Nancy but with fewer people.4
For Arsène Grosjean, the dominant feeling of the voyage was extreme
boredom. The Argonauts passed the time by exchanging views on their future
fortunes. Grosjean wrote: “One kills time as best one can. Many times we speak
of our future fortunes. One said when I have 300,000 francs, I will return. Me,
said a second, I will not return before I have 400,000; it is necessary to have
600,000 added a third; it is not worth it to come so far for less.” Then, there was
entertainment. “Every Saturday and Sunday nights, when the weather was
good, we danced on the bridge, to the tune of a flute and a cornet à pistons. . . .
Every evening we sang.”5
Of the diversions that appeared throughout the long voyages from French
ports to San Francisco, the most universal was gambling. Faced with hours and
days of idleness, the passengers played cards. In Grosjean’s account, he played
on a whim and soon lost F 300, his capital for the first month in California.
“I was not discouraged,” he recorded. He sold a cravat to a fellow passenger for
10 francs, borrowed 10 francs from a friend, and won back the F 300, plus an
additional 35. Exultant and relieved, he never played again. But his account
makes it clear that many others did through the five-month voyage. A final part
of the routine was complaining about conditions of the voyage, especially the
food. “For a landsman,” noted Grosjean, “the food on a ship is terrible.” The
standard daily fare: coffee with brandy for breakfast; salt beef or lard beans and
hard biscuits for lunch; beans and beef for dinner. Wine was served with lunch
and dinner. Grosjean noted that first-class passengers ate well, the same diet as
the captain.6
Henri Alric made the voyage to California as the chaplain of the Paris-based
company the Ruche d’Or. He wrote, “After a mass at the main church, we left
L’Havre at 9 in the morning.” He embarked September 9, 1850, on the Anne
Louise. The ship carried two hundred emigrants from three companies: the
Bretonne, the Californienne, and the Ruche d’Or. Alric continued his account:
the Bretonne was a regionally financed and locally recruited company that
sponsored only one expedition. Each company was supposed to send a doctor,
a pharmacist, a chaplain, and three women, “preferably ‘sisters of charity,’ ” to
94 California

mend the clothes of the workers. This joint expedition had seven women and
only one chaplain.7
They stopped at Santa Cruz in the Canaries for water. Unfortunately, the
officers and crew left the water on the dock. The passengers managed on short
rations until they reached Rio de Janeiro, where they laid over for a month.
There, they were courteously received by the French colony. The ship departed
Rio on December 4. It rounded Cape Horn with favorable weather and landed
at Valparaiso on February 7. The voyage resumed on February 11. In a display of
naval authority, the captain left nine passengers who had complained against
him in Rio. The Anne Louise arrived in San Francisco on April 26. The voyage
took seven and a half months, a long, hard crossing. On arrival, the ship reported
a roster of 151 passengers, including 7 women.8
Charles de Lambertie’s voyage had the usual boredom and discomforts. He
was seasick for the first week. De Lambertie’s account contained the fullest
description of the natural wonders associated with the long voyage. He described
in detail the ports of call, including the Canary Islands, Tenerife, Gomera, and
Palma. He wrote of the spectacular high seas and the phosphorescence of the
waves. He described varieties of fish, including tuna, flying fish, porpoises,
sharks, and dolphins. He also offered an account of several varieties of exotic
birds. His account of a sunset on the equator remains a tribute to his descriptive
powers.9
These long voyages to California have many common features. The initial
response was seasickness, to be followed by the boredom of long days and nights
on the rising and falling seas. The first-class passengers found refuge in gossip.
First-class accommodations brought more space and better food, but it could
not cut short the length of the voyage and the endless repetition of the days. For
those crammed into third-class quarters with marginal food, the voyage was an
exercise in survival. Their refuge was sitting on the open deck in good weather
and exchanging hardships of the past, mixed with hopes and expectations for
the future. They sometimes sang, their voices rising to the first-class passengers
accommodated so high above them.

THE VOYAGE OF ERNEST DE MASSEY AROUND CAPE HORN

Ernest de Massey took first-class passage on the Cérès, which departed from
Le Havre. The voyage would last five months. The excitement of departure,
new faces, and the routine of ship life gradually gave way to boredom mixed
with physical discomfort. In his tiny cabin, most of the space was taken up by
two beds. His cousin Alexandre slept on the lower one because of his chronic
 Voyages and Arrivals 95

seasickness. The ship was crammed with passengers, merchandise, and supplies.
De Massey wrote, “The bridge, on our departure from L’Havre, is literally filled
with containers of water, of wine, of merchandise of all sorts.” The deck was
lined with the cages of chickens, hens, ducks, and turkeys, and their cries were
“blending constantly with the noise of maneuvers, with the groans and hiccups
of the sick, with the refrains of the more or less patriotic Californians in the
between decks.”10
Gradually, the voyage assumed a routine. In the morning, de Massey wrote,
“One dines at 9 o’clock, ordinarily some 18 to 20 at the captain’s table. The
menu consists of bad bread, detestable wine from the Midi, undrinkable water,
worthless coffee, and good tea.” There were also quantities of cognac. He
continued, “You may judge the quality of the air breathed when twenty people
sleep, eat, drink, breathe, smoke, etc. in this small space.”11
Day-to-day activities for the passengers included the interplay of class and
personalities. De Massey pursued cultivated companions with whom to pass
the time. His options were limited to his fellow passengers in first class. The
description of his companions always began with family connections, titles,
places of birth, education, politics, marriage, and economic circumstances.
From his conversations with fellow passengers, de Massey compiled a list of
reasons for going to California. They included the need to recoup a personal or
family fortune, with the passenger often sent by the family with financial support
and sometimes goods. Or the voyage might be a form of exile, in which the
family sent the gold seeker with the expectation of his not returning. For some,
it was a voyage of political exile (de Massey thought of himself as an example).
The strangest case was that of a son whose father fell in love with the son’s
mistress and sent the son into exile in California. De Massey also noted the
financial conditions of the French Forty-Niners in first class. This was a
group—for the most part—of impeccable social standing mixed with financial
stress. As recognition of their standing, the captain had taken the personal notes
of several individuals in partial payment for their passage.
De Massey described the political divisions in detail. The first-class passengers
were generally on the political right, except for one Dr. Briot, an attractive figure
who had early succumbed to the blandishments of socialism. De Massey found
Briot the most interesting of his fellow passengers, and he forgave his political
defection, at least sufficiently to engage in endless discussions with him. The
loud celebrations and radical songs rising from below reflected the politics of the
second- and third-class passengers. De Massey concluded, “There are some fifty
on board of the most red type, professing for their part Robespierre, a cult fanatic.”
A wide range of other political opinions was also represented on the Cérès.12
96 California

De Massey also recounted the origins of the passengers. “Among them, I do

not wish to guarantee that there are not some old offenders from justice: sailor
deserters, traders and sons of ruined families . . . employees out of work, from
agriculture, servants, workers of every state, poets, industrialists, and the
crowned heads of the great concourse of Paris; the largest part are the victims of
our political dissensions.” As for national origins, there were Belgians, Dutch,
Swiss, some English, some Spanish, and the French who formed the majority.13
Among the passengers encountered by de Massey were fallen officials or
aristocrats driven by the need to replenish or recoup economic fortunes and
social standing. Having experienced economic disasters of various kinds, they
sought relief in the sunny skies and golden land of California, where all such
misfortunes might be put right. De Massey recounted the story of the “trea-
surer” of one of the companies headed to California: “I have made the acquain-
tance of M. des Finances, veteran officer in the cavalry corps of King Charles
X, having resigned his commission in order to marry a Demoiselle de Rochemur.
Ruined by agriculture and by imprudent security, he leaves in France his wife
and two daughters, and goes to California, his purse almost empty, but the heart
filled with hope and courage to repair these disasters; it is possible, but it is
perhaps difficult; he deserves to succeed.” There were many others like him.14
Within the first-class space, there was also a large room (by the standards of
the ship) known as the Chamber. This was the headquarters of a company
composed of four people: Jules de France, de Lamoller, Langlet, and Gosselin.
De Massey continued, “It is hard to imagine four individuals more opposite in
taste and manners, offering more contrast in terms of personalities. Jules de
France, having wasted his fortune, goes to California without a single end in
view” to recoup his past financial mistakes. De Massey wrote about de France,
“His father, the Count de France, lives in Soissons, occupying a place in admin-
istration. I cannot say to what point his father knows about the projects of the
son. . . . If de France is the most rowdy person . . . of the four associates, M. de
Lamoller is the principal, the most serious person of this society.” De Lamoller
was from an honorable family; he had an uncle lieutenant-general. He had
launched himself on a shaky venture “without money, without consideration,
without credit, going to search for gold in California, with a stock of goods of
2/3,000 metallic and quill pens.”15 As a man, he “is insolent and violent, void of
judgment and discretion. He has fallen low with bacchanalian habits. He has
with him a female companion, who tells the entire world that she is going to
rejoin her husband in California. He has promised to pay the half of her passage.”16
On the question of the woman traveling with de Lamoller, Estelle, joining
the first-class table, de Massey reflected his distaste for upward mobility. The
 Voyages and Arrivals 97

woman had the right only to second-class accommodation, but he declared

himself open to changing his opinion. When she at last arrived and seated
herself, he made reference to a pullet introduced among fourteen roosters. The
sanctity of the first-class dining room reflected his status. He was reluctant to see
this exclusivity breached.17
De Massey continued his recitation of his companions. De Lamoller had
tried agriculture without success. He had been a retired officer since 1830. He
was married, father to four children, and not happy in his family life. He goes
“to repair his losses in California. He is about fifty years old. He is decisive and
courageous, but not a strong head. He has paid a part of the passage of de
France, who himself has signed some billets for the captain. For the other party
and for the half-fare of his sweetheart.”18
During the prolonged period at sea, de Massey posed for an artist, studied
English, and examined pamphlets and other reading materials with informa-
tion about California. Above all, he took refuge in his journal. Here he wrote at
length and under a variety of conditions. As the end of the voyage approached,
he concluded that it had been long but had passed agreeably. It was a tribute to
his journal and his first-class accommodations.

VOYAGES VIA PANAMA

The Panama route was the choice of a minority of French Argonauts. In part,
this choice reflected the enormous publicity associated with the rise of the
California companies. The advertisements of these companies, which flooded
newspapers throughout 1849 and into 1850, emphasized the attractions of their
elaborate plans to reach the California goldfields. Their arrangements exclu-
sively involved the companies’ chartered ships that would sail around Cape
Horn. That only a few of these companies actually sent ships with associate
workers and goods for commercial transactions did not change the impressions
created by the extensive publicity associated with their founding.
Panama appealed to independent spirits with resources. The route across the
isthmus was shorter; it was also hedged in by a variety of hazards, expenses, and
uncertainties. The hazards included the overland trek through a jungle, water
transportation by canoe, and ever-present diseases. The expenses were propor-
tionately greater. The uncertainties that surrounded a two-week isthmus
crossing emphasized continuing interaction with the Americans for the same
goods and services in a strange language. These issues came to a head on the
Pacific side of the isthmus, where in the spring of 1849, a thousand prospective
Forty-Niners were camped out, all seeking transportation up the coast to San
98 California

Francisco. Here, the sense of competition with the Americans reached a climax.
Prices for accommodation on the Pacific side rose, tempers flared, rumors
abounded. It was, at best, a hazardous undertaking. Yet some French headed to
California chose it, in part unaware of the hazards and others convinced that
they could compete and make their way north as well as any other group.19 The
Panama challenges lay in the future, however, and the initial voyages of the two
groups—via Cape Horn or Panama—were remarkably similar.
On January 17, 1850, Edmond Jomard “set foot on the magnificent steamer
belonging to the West Indies Company, and I once again left one more time the
shores of the old Europe. During the first six days of the voyage . . . there was
frightful seasickness; but the seventh day, the sickness diminished.” This inter-
lude was followed by an outbreak of cholera on board. The first stop on the
voyage was the Barbados Islands, which he described in these brief terms:
“Bright sky . . . beautiful clouds. . . . Barbados is English.” Jomard character-
ized the islands as a center of racial tension, with ongoing disorder associated
with the presence of blacks, a condition that the English seemed unwilling or
unable to control. He strongly disliked the islands and their dark-skinned
peoples.20
The terminal point of the first part of Jomard’s trip to California was Chagres,
on the Isthmus of Panama. From this point, Jomard proceeded to the town of
Gorgona. “This Indian town, by its position between the two oceans, is the
rendez-vous of the whole world; at each moment of the day and night hundreds
of canoes and mules carrying their travelers come, some from the Atlantic,
others from the Pacific, and one can gather, in the midst of these primitive huts,
the rumors of the whole earth. In one hour, I have exchanged my news of
Europe against the news of California, of the Indies, of China, and of Peru.”21
The hazards of the trek across the isthmus surmounted, Jomard then joined
the intensely competitive search for accommodation from Panama to San
Francisco. He described the difficulties of not knowing the language: “I arrived
in this town [Gorgona] persuaded that, the day after tomorrow, one could find
the means to leave for San Francisco; unhappily, the most indispensable thing
[escapes me], a ticket on a steam boat . . . and more than two thousand
Americans have waited with impatience the arrival of the steamers on which
they took all the places before their departure from the United States. I saw
forcefully if I did not wish to risk passing the rest of my life in Panama, [I should]
take passage on board a sailing vessel which would be found leaving for San
Francisco.”22
At last, Jomard was under way on a voyage to San Francisco with a ship filled
with Americans. Because of his lack of English, “I have from the beginning
 Voyages and Arrivals 99

been condemned during the entire voyage to the most absolute silence. . . .
The food, composed of salt rotten meat and biscuits, would have given an attack
of gastritis to an ostrich; the water was not drinkable.” The passage up to the
Pacific side “was supposed to last a month; unhappily this did not include
calms.” Instead, the ship was “becalmed opposite Realejo, twenty days
unmoving, exposed to the heat of a sun of copper.”23
While the ship was becalmed, “a terrible epidemic struck; of 150 passengers,
forty were afflicted. Within a week, we buried a dozen men at sea.” He described
the captain checking each morning. Members of the ship’s crew placed the
bodies in sacks for burial at sea. In the burial procedure, “The guard of the night
counts out the deaths: ‘One! Two! Three! Four!’ ” This is how Jomard learned
to count in English. With the vessel becalmed and stressed by disease, its
command seemed to wither. Suddenly the winds reappeared, and the crew and
passengers seemed restored to health. Underway, the vessel quickly sailed up
the coast to San Francisco.24
The journalist Alexandre Achard has left a detailed account of a voyage the
following year. Achard was among the first to write of the French in California
for the Revue des Deux Mondes. He left Southampton on January 18, 1850, on
board the steamer Le Tay. The passengers were a cross-section of Europeans
headed to the California goldfields: English, French, and Spanish. Achard
described Panama at great length, apparently pleased to find something to
write about after the monotony of the voyage. He left Panama on March 5, on
the California, a steamer that would become the most important carrier on the
San Francisco–Panama route. The vessel carried “500 Americans, lying about
in various postures.” They arrived in San Francisco on March 26. As soon as
they anchored in San Francisco, the passengers dispersed as quickly as a flight
of birds.25
Panama was the site of conflicts among the various groups crossing the
isthmus on the way to the California goldfields. The tropical nature of the land-
scape, the native peoples attempting to profit from the transient gold seekers,
the high cost of limited but necessary goods and services—all produced a sense
of competition, exploitation, a shared worry that in the race to the goldfields,
some individuals or groups were falling behind. Arguments broke out between
national groups over access to services and especially passage north to the gold-
fields. Almost invariably the Americans were involved. There were more
Americans, and they banded together to pursue their interests, accommoda-
tion, and passage north to San Francisco. Sometimes their outbursts of violence
were directed against the native peoples, whom they accused of exploiting their
control of accommodations and transportation.26
100 California

MADAME DE SAINT-AMANT CROSSES THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA

For the French, as for the Americans and other national groups, the gold
rush was a predominantly male exercise. The accounts of French participants
reflect this dramatic misproportion between men and women. There was,
however, an important exception, an account of voyages to the California gold-
fields by a French woman. It was even more unusual in that she traveled unac-
companied to California by way of Panama, the more expensive and also the
more dangerous of the routes to the goldfields.
The author of the account, Madame Françoise de Saint-Amant, was the wife
of a prominent political and military figure. Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant was
a captain in the National Guard when, on February 24, 1848, the provisional
government of the republic named him the commandant of the Tuilleries
Palace. He discharged his responsibilities well. He was also an ardent early
supporter of Louis Napoléon. As a reward for his continuing loyalty to the man
elected president of the republic in December 1848, Saint-Amant was promised
a diplomatic consular post in California. Unfortunately, his post was not written
into the budget, so Saint-Amant stayed in Paris to lobby for funding his diplo-
matic position, and he did not depart for California until May 2, 1851. He sent
his wife to establish a family presence and to report back privately and publicly.
Her accounts kept her name, and by indirection his name, before the public.27
In early 1851, the first of Madame de Saint-Amant’s letters appeared in the
French press. The editors introduced her account by describing her as “an
intrepid and spirited Parisienne who has gone to seek a fortune in California.”
They continued, “The fatigues, the embarrassments, the difficulties that she has
encountered, the advice that she gives through experience to her husband are
precious information for all who attempt today to take the same route, and for
others it will be a curious and amusing reading, serious in spirit, good humored,
with piquant details which swarm through the letter.”28
Madame de Saint-Amant first addressed her husband in a letter dated
Panama, October 5, 1850: “You will be very surprised when you learn that your
poor wife has been here for a month and six days.” In this difficult crossing, she
was notably assisted by the Curé of Cruces, who helped make the arrangements
and who carried across the isthmus a valuable case of cognac. Two French
nationals in Panama also aided in making possible “this second miracle.” She
continued that they were “an exception to all our compatriots.” In Panama,
“the Spanish, the Americans, and above all the English are full of deference
and respect for women. Our dear fellow-citizens, to the contrary, are for the
most part fellows of little respectability.” In short, they lacked gentility and
 Voyages and Arrivals 101

gallantry toward ladies. As for the expenses, the cost from Paris to San Francisco,
including unpacking, repacking, and delays would be F 6,000.29
Her first letter was also a detailed description of the journey across Panama.
The first stage of the crossing left Chagres by water. She was one of eleven
passengers with baggage in a longboat, “exposed to all the inclement weather of
this changing climate.” The passengers had bought provisions of mediocre
quality at a high price. “My small cases of claret were the best of our resources.”
After spending the first night in a plank hut little better protected than on the
river itself, the next morning, the party transferred to five Indian dugouts.
Twenty four hours later they landed in Gorgona and from there went to
Cruces.30
The landscape and climate were forces of nature, she wrote. The rainstorms
were downpours with thunder and lightning beyond the protection of any
umbrella or raincoat. And immediately after “the end of the cataclysm,” the
brilliant sun again. The rivers were bordered by green foliage impenetrable to
the eye. In places, the vegetation was so dense as to prevent the sun from
reaching the ground. Mixed with such foliage were the shrieks of monkeys, the
howling of the ferocious jungle animals, and the cries of the different species of
birds. Everywhere, there was an unimaginable array of vegetation, flowers,
fruits, colors, and perfumes. For Madame de Saint-Amant, it brought to mind
the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. This landscape was home to poisonous reptiles,
and the Chagres River was filled with crocodiles. In the midst of these extrava-
gant demonstrations of nature, she wrote, one is constantly preoccupied with
the vulnerability of the individual. She summarized the trip: “Assailed by fear,
overwhelmed by fatigue, one is still certain to not find at the end of the day a
good meal and above all, a good bed, for one or the other is a state of myth.”31
In the next stage of the journey, one was perched on mules, went up moun-
tains, across precipices, and down ravines, reminding Madame de Saint-Amant
of a trip through the Hautes-Alpes the previous year. The caravan was composed
of sixteen mules and guides “of various colors.” Surrounded by dangers, her
mule fell down twice, leaving her with a scratched knee and her clothes lacer-
ated and dirty. Finally, she preferred to mount in the style of Joan of Arc rather
than accept an old English saddle. “There is only myself the woman, and I
could not arrive safe and sound on a part of a saddle; it is better that I do not play
the fool.”32
At last Madame de Saint-Amant arrived in Panama City, where “a sad and
ancient village” tried to cope with the flood of hundreds of transients, all anxious
to leave for California. She thought the village represented “the vices and
virtues” of civilization. She found “a passable bed” and rested after six days of
102 California

“uneasiness, suffering, and great fatigues.” After a rest, she went on to say that
“in all my tribulations, I am still very happy; I have not had even an hour of
sickness, and this is extraordinary in such an unhealthy country, where one dies
too quickly of cholera, of dysentery, and of fever.” She concluded this section
with the observation that the passage of life and presence of sudden death were
like what “we saw in Paris during our deplorable days on the barricades.”33
Although she had not yet arrived in California, Madame de Saint-Amant
thought of Panama “as a suburb of California.” It was not a compliment. Of
Panama, she wrote, “There is neither police nor justice. One steals everywhere,
and one also kills without embarrassment. Not a week passes when one does not
find people dead or cast into the streets and public places.”34 She noted that
natives as well as foreigners were the victims. As for herself, she was happy,
healthy, and seemingly under the protection of Providence. No one, she wrote,
would wish to harm her, and she had lost nothing. She concluded, “Our sex is
here under a particular kind of protection.”35
At last, Madame de Saint-Amant was at the end of her enforced idleness, for
she would leave soon for San Francisco on the American steamship the
Republic. She had been delayed by the necessity of making arrangements for
her merchandise. The difficulties of transporting people across the isthmus
were increased for bulk merchandise; hence the reluctance of those who had
quantities of goods to choose the Panama route. In the midst of the challenges
of Panama, Madame de Saint-Amant remained conscious of French national
interests (and, indirectly, presumably her husband’s career). As she departed,
she noted the growing importance of this part of the world for France and
other European nations. She was convinced that with Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte at the head of the French nation, “French interests would not
entirely abandon to the English and the Americans the glory and the profit of
this part of the Pacific world.”36

“GOLD! GOLD!”: ARRIVING IN SAN FRANCISCO

Edmond Jomard was delighted to be freed from a shipboard imprisonment

of several months. He wrote: “One morning when I was looking out a porthole,
the sailor of the watch announced the land of California to us with cries of:
gold! gold! We found ourselves face to face with the Farallones, and shortly
thereafter we distinguished through the fog an immense coast, the middle of
which widened to a large opening; it was the neck of the bay of San Francisco.
We crossed this neck; but what a surprise! We saw, in a country that we supposed
to be almost deserted, 500 to 600 ships, 3,000 to 4,000 houses . . . ; we heard
 Voyages and Arrivals 103

from the coast of the town a deafening sound like that escaping from London or
from Paris.”37
The end of the long voyage was a time of high drama. The defining moment
was entering into San Francisco harbor. The reactions of the French Argonauts
(for they could now be so addressed) were remarkably similar in their awe at the
size of the bay, the hundreds of ships at anchor, with the knowledge that most
of them had been deserted by their crews on arrival. Hypolite Ferry described
the arrival of a Peruvian bark in San Francisco Bay: “In an instant, sailors,
masters of the crew, cabin boys, officers themselves, as if they were lifted up
by a powerful magic, dashed forward and sprang overboard, rushing into the
boats, reaching the banks, and immediately disappeared behind the waves
of the plain.” The answer to what had happened was the same everywhere:
“They have all left for the country of gold.”38
The first wave of French Argonauts—and other later arrivals—found San
Francisco a truly astonishing place. A small village of some eight hundred at the
time of the gold discoveries had already grown into a town of several thousand.
No one knew how many. A letter from San Francisco dated August 1849 had
this description of the town: “Built in the shape of an amphitheater; it has today
eight hundred houses of wood and four hundred tents; 150 ships are at anchor
in the harbor.”39 According to these first French accounts, San Francisco was a
vast encampment. Most of the residents lived in tents, cabins, or brush wick-
iups. Streets were dusty or muddy and filled with men and goods, both recently
landed from the parade of ships that dotted the harbor. The institutions for law
and a court system were minimal and confined to the old Spanish office of
alcalde. Regulations for sanitation and public health were unknown.
Furthermore, San Francisco’s population was endlessly in motion: landing,
arranging accommodation and sustenance, finding employment. Above all,
large numbers were engaged in selling something.40
As the French disembarked in San Francisco, many of them began an imme-
diate search for lodging and food. Here, they encountered for the first time the
high prices that characterized gold rush California. Wages were also high;
opportunities for employment lay everywhere. Whether they intended to make
their fortunes in the mining camps or find economic opportunity in San
Francisco, the new arrivals had to find temporary shelter and subsistence. Then,
they could make plans that might include preparations to move toward the
placers in the interior. Almost immediately they found in San Francisco—like
California itself—a place of endless economic opportunity; it was also, in
parallel fashion, a place of endless economic risk. French observers early agreed
on both dimensions of the story.
104 California

Enthusiasm and excitement were tempered by the reality of daily life. This
range of astonishment and eager anticipation was described in a letter from a
French gold seeker to his parents, written from San Francisco, dated September
25, 1849: “Thanks be to God! We have arrived in good health, Henri and me.
We are now in the land of gold! The day that I disembarked I found work with
an American merchant for 5 dollars a day. I have worked six days. We leave after
tomorrow for the mines. We are six French men from the same ship who leave
together, where we have a good chance to gain some advantage.”41
While the first French arrivals accustomed themselves to the economic and
social rhythms of San Francisco and California, mixed with the arrival of the
first great wave of overland Americans, they found the rhythms upset by seasonal
changes. The onset of winter in late November changed the dynamics of the
mining cycle. With snow falling in the mountains, most of the mining sites
closed down. Miners packed up and headed to the towns along the coast and in
the valleys, in search of warmer weather, short-term employment, and a degree
of rest from the harsh labors of the fall. With the influx of gold seekers from all
over the world, San Francisco was more crowded than ever. Accommodations
were scarce, subsistence high. Miners with gold from their labors of the previous
months sometimes went to the many gambling establishments; even when they
did not, their gold (the prevailing currency) drove up prices.
Many of the initial waves of French Argonauts landed in the late autumn,
the opening of the rainy season. San Francisco was chaos. The streets were mud
ditches; goods and people were everywhere. Arsène Grosjean arrived in
November 1849. He described San Francisco Bay as the largest in the world.
Three-quarters of the houses were made of pine planks, he noted, with commer-
cial houses and gambling establishments made of brick. And the wind blew
constantly. Practical matters soon intruded. Grosjean continued: “On my
arrival in California I was almost without a cent. I rented a small room with
some of my comrades for 75 francs a month. . . . We made our own meals. . . .
After dinner we got together for the evening to relate the events of the day. I
stayed there a month.” Grosjean took a job as a day laborer, carrying packs on
his back. He worked as a carpenter and then as a shipyard worker. Finally, he
sold goods from a cart: ‘’One spoke to me in Turkish, another in English; a third
interrogated me in Chinese. I understood nothing, but I sold all the same. In
the end, at the end of the first month, I had realized about three hundred francs.
I left with this [on] the first of January 1851 for the placers (or gold mines). We
were four in number.”42
Other arrivals pursued much the same pattern. A letter from a young gold
seeker to his family in Orleans described the high wages and the admirable vista
 Voyages and Arrivals 105

of San Francisco Bay. He joined with seven other young men to set up a tent.
Other foreigners without money, he noted, did the same. “There are many
French; one place is called Camp Français.” He immediately found work as a
porter, and “we have met individuals from many companies, here from two to
four months, making a living the same way.” He described San Francisco
as a place without thieves, citing the piles of goods everywhere on the streets.
“For the rest,” he noted, “everyone is at the mines.” After individuals made some
F 1,000–1,500 in a month, they went to “the placers.” Thus, the city was a way
station for gold seekers to gather resources and make plans on the way to the
goldfields. As for opportunities for profit, “The best speculation to make, on
coming here, is to carry some crowns [écus], money worth more than gold,
relatively. One lends here at 10% a month.” There was a general agreement that
miners at the placers made F 50–75 a day. Others, luckier, might make much
more. One French Argonaut was said to have harvested F 45,000 in three weeks.
Grosjean concluded: “It’s all a matter of luck.” Indeed it was.43
Another range of responses came from a group that traveled together. The
first letter of three men from Lorraine was written from San Francisco, dated
November 1849. Ten days ago, they had disembarked and immediately sought
work to assist in their subsistence. Thus far, the letter writer had found nothing.
“Only those with a special trade, carpenters, and joiners find continuous
work, and these earn up to 80 francs a day.” He continued: “Life here is
difficult; everything reaches the highest price.” The three men lived outside
San Francisco in an abandoned den.44
One of the most important and widely publicized of the San Francisco
letters was from an ordinary working French Argonaut named Jean Montes. In
the letter, dated San Francisco in December 1849, Montes wrote of the difficul-
ties of the French gold seekers on first landing: “We have been very fortunate
being in a country where a great deal is earned and where work is not lacking.
I say ‘work’; that is, go to the docks in San Francisco, become a working man,
carry bales of merchandise in various stores, and you will be quite well paid. For
carrying a trunk weighing about a hundred and ten pounds for a distance of fifty
meters or more one is paid three dollars (about sixteen francs); and in this way
we have lived up to now.” For Montes and other French Argonauts, it was
temporary work in a temporary (and expensive) place as they awaited the
reopening of the mines in the spring. In the interim, Montes and his compan-
ions worked hard and were paid well. He continued, “It seems unbelievable to
me when I think that for working two days, six hours per day, the six of us
received two hundred and twenty dollars in pay.” Numbers like this kept alive
the dream of gold in California, even on the docks.45
106 California

One of the more detailed accounts of arrival was that of Ernest de Massey,
who sailed into San Francisco harbor on December 14, 1849. He wrote of
his initial impressions: “Two years ago this spot was almost a wilderness. Now
it is crowded with wooden and sheet-iron houses of every kind, shape, and
description, and with tents of every color forming an amphitheater. These
house a population of adventurers, bankrupts, refugees from justice, merchants,
deserted sailors, gamblers, and vagabonds who have no home or country.
Interspersed among them are some honest men, workmen and speculators,
who have come here from all over the world. This is what we see about two
kilometers ahead of us—a great city in the making.” And surrounding the future
city, three hundred ships lay at anchor.46
Even the businesslike de Massey was moved by the sights of the city and the
bay. The sparkling lights made it seem “just as if every star in the heavens had
been seized with gold rush fever and had migrated to the coast of California.”
The lights that reflected off the water “seem to have a supernatural and magical
air about them.” Like so many other arrivals, beyond the rain, mud, and confu-
sion, de Massey found the scene suffused with an air of magic.47
Other accounts also emphasized the wide-eyed sense of newness and oppor-
tunity. One of the members of the Société Lyonnaise described the setting, his
vessel’s arrival, and some of the activities of its members. He wrote: “We arrived
four days ago in this golden land. Our first need has been done, to land our
baggage and to put up tents . . . on the shore of the bay and close to the city, near
wood and water; tomorrow we begin to unload our merchandise. . . . The view
of the city of San Francisco is magnificent.” Prices were high, even for bread and
meat. Upon the ship’s anchoring, the authorities immediately came on aboard
and assessed the passengers and the cargo for duty, which had to be paid forth-
with in cash. Upon landing, the passengers discovered that wages by comparison
with French standards were high, especially for those with specific skills. Bakers,
butchers, cooks, carpenters, and joiners could ordinarily earn F 1,000 a month,
plus food, lodging, and laundry. “A printer on board, knowing English, Italian,
Spanish, and French, had been offered 2,000 francs a month, plus food and
lodging,” he wrote, “then a commercial house offered him 40,000 francs a year,
plus food and lodging. It is the English language that dominates in this country.”
There were forty thousand inhabitants in San Francisco and sixty thousand in
the mines or placers. There were endless stories of immense fortunes realized in
a short time. “I have seen six Frenchmen who arrived in the placers in the middle
of summer; in one month of work, they amassed 300,000 fr[ancs], that is, 50,000
each. They employed Indians. Another company built a dam; 100,000 francs
for each associate.” As for order and security, they were effectively enforced. The
 Voyages and Arrivals 107

writer thought the security for goods was equal to that in France. The reason was
simply that thieves were immediately hanged.48
The relief and joy of the French Argonauts on arriving in San Francisco was
soon tempered by the ongoing challenges of food and shelter. This was a strange
land with an alien language, a growing village swimming in the mud of the
rainy season, and prices were out of all reason. In general, the French seem to
have made a remarkable adjustment, but immediate needs must be seen within
the context of their long-range plans, which for most focused on the mines.

THE VANISHED PROMISES OF THE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

One of the shocks that French Forty-Niners encountered on arriving in San

Francisco was the disappearance of the support so grandly promised by the
California companies. The blizzard of advertisements for the California compa-
nies presented a common consensus on one point. The companies would trans-
port associate workers to California, and once there, the company would be a
source of ongoing, indeed unending, support. Whether in the form of daily
subsistence, a ship of succor and refuge anchored permanently in San Francisco
harbor, or the continuing attendance of a doctor or a priest, an associate worker
would be part of a community where he would be sheltered and supported from
the unpleasant surprises of this strange golden land. The reality turned out to be
painfully different. From the first landings, the California companies failed to
make good on even the most elementary of their guarantees. The shocked asso-
ciate workers struggled to survive and triumph over this unpleasant surprise,
and while doing so, they sought to convey the news of this desertion to France.
One of the early reports followed the adventures of Jean Montes, who made
the voyage as an associate worker of the Société Nationale pour l’Exploitation
des Mines d’Or de la Californie. He wrote to his father that he and others had
been abandoned by the company. Instead of the promised elaborate and
continuing support on arrival in California, they received only tents. He was
one of a group of six Frenchmen who joined together. Still, in spite of the
failure of his company, Montes remained optimistic about this new world:
“Everything is inconceivable.” He and his friends had determined to go to the
mines in February.49
The news of the default of the companies on the Argonauts’ arrival in
California appeared at almost the same time as there was a second great surge
of new companies, and French newspapers responded by revisiting the founding
and promises of the California companies. “Apropos of California,” commented
one paper, “the most seductive promises have combined with the most pompous
108 California

qualifications.” Yet the intercession of the news does not seem to have seriously
damaged the reputation of the old companies or the prospects of new ones.
That it did not do so was a continuing tribute to the magic of the words
“California” and “gold.” But there was another dimension—namely, the jobs
created and the business generated by what one paper called “the repercussions
of the California movement . . . in our seaports.”50
The most complete analysis of the failure of the California companies was
that of Étienne Derbec, whose account appeared in the Journal des Débats. His
letter, dated February 1, 1850, represented an obituary for the grandiose support
schemes that played such a prominent part in the public advertisements for the
California companies. Derbec wrote: “I do not want to end this letter without
saying a word about the Companies which are forming in Paris and elsewhere,
whether by stocks or by agreement between workers and others, and which
have California as their destination. In the public interest, it is good to know
how they end. The truth is that the companies no longer exist here and that all,
without exception, dissolve on arrival if they have not already broken up during
the voyage.” He continued, “Even the best constituted Société and those which
seemed to be very strongly organized do not last any more than those which
appeared to be without safeguards and without strength.” As a result, “the
disunity and wretchedness of the human race have everywhere won out over
reason and common sense, and everyone relies on his own strength.” He
concluded: “It is with this knowledge that those emigrants who plan to come to
California must prepare themselves, for without doing so, many regrets await
them when they arrive here without money and without help, after having
entrusted their savings into the hands of strangers who have jeopardized them.”51
For Jean-Nicolas Perlot, the failure of the California company Fortune was
immediate and personal. The members of his company had made a good
voyage—albeit a long one (six months and three days). The Courrier de
Cherbourg anchored in Monterey harbor to the voices of the company rising in
song, at last freed from their water confinement. To the surprise of the company
and its officers, the approaching longboat brought the French vice-consul and
the American customs officers, but M. Thibeau, the manager of the company,
did not appear. Gradually, the unhappy truth dawned on the newly arrived
French Argonauts: “The company, less fortunate than its members, had been
wrecked! Shortly after our departure from Le Havre, it had been declared bank-
rupt.” Customs officials seized the ship. The members of the company were
“thrown on the shore like castaways, without money, without resources, in
an unknown land whose language we did not understand.” They set up tents
(the customs officers allowed them to land tents), and they were fed at the
 Voyages and Arrivals 109

expense of the vice-consul. It was a shocking welcome to California and the

rush to gold.52
The French consul, Patrice Dillon, reached the same conclusion about the
California companies as had Perlot. He extended the indictment to include
companies from several countries, but he argued that the impetus to dissolve lay
with the workers. “All the companies that are organized so noisily, be they in the
United States, or in France, or in England, are dissolved from the day of the
arrival of their directors in San Francisco, and it will be the same for all those
that are formed again.” The foundation of this decision was grounded in simple
self-interest. The worker or the mechanic had concluded that the company
counted on his labors to make a fortune, so he walked away from the one-sided
arrangement. Dillon summarized the thoughts of the French Argonaut about
his company: “Why should I do this? . . . Why accept a role that puts me out
and prevents me from moving on to those spots where each [man] enriches
himself at the end of a few days?” So the associate workers marched toward the
placers as independent miners, leaving the directors of the company with
machines they did not know how to operate.53
Dillon went on to suggest a new form of unity and identity in California.
“I write history, not of one, but of a hundred companies. The only kind of asso-
ciation that holds in California is that of the family. A family of six boys and
girls, knowing how to work and having a spirit of unity can make, in San
Francisco, from 20,000 to 30,000 francs in six months. Life there is not exces-
sively expensive for an ordinary person.”54
 7

IN THE MINES
Living and Working in a Masculine Community

MOVING TO THE MINES

Much of the West Coast of North America turned out to be a vast and varied
landscape brought together under the single word “California.” It was an area
larger than most European nations. With the discovery of gold in January 1848,
attention focused on the land forms west of the sierra and the streams that
drained the mountain ranges, for it was here that gold was found. The gold-
bearing region would eventually stretch north and south for more than 150 miles.
As the origins of the gold were the swift streams that drained the mountains,
none of the many sites was close to San Francisco, the principal port of entry.
Thus, although the French Argonauts had survived the long ocean voyage, they
still had before them another voyage (this one by land) to reach the sites of
the gold mines. Many of them fresh from five months at sea now confronted the
final leg on their long pilgrimage to the promised land of gold, about which they
had heard and read so much and that they had worked so hard to reach.
This final stage of moving to the goldfields, for most French Argonauts,
involved two separate parts. The first was a trip by steamboat from San Francisco
up the Sacramento River to the village of Sacramento. It was a one-day trip,
made at considerable expense and not without the twin dangers of boating acci-
dents and robbery. Still, most of the French Argonauts arrived safely in
Sacramento, where they now made arrangements for the final stage of their
long trek to the goldfields. Instead of a “rush to gold,” it turned out to be a long,
three-day slog, with the Argonauts walking alongside the wagons and beasts of
burden they had hired to move their baggage into the mining camps. This final
leg of the journey was slow and expensive. It emphasized in the most direct way

110
 In the Mines 111

the remoteness of the mining camps in a California that was a place of vast
spaces occupied by only small groups, whether Indian peoples or European
peoples of various origins. Such was the isolation of these mining sites and the
primitive nature of roads and other means of communication that the prospec-
tive Argonauts must carry their baggage and supplies to the camps. Whatever
the transportation costs, they were surely less than the cost of buying anything—
whether food, clothing, or tools—at one of the local stores. So the miners who
had joined forces for the trek followed their wagons and oxen along the dusty
roads toward the green band that marked the beginning of the mountains.
Charles de Lambertie has left a detailed account of the trek up to the mining
camps on the Mokelumne River. His starting point, with three other French
Argonauts, was Stockton—he described the town as “strongly commercial”—
the outfitting point for the southern mines. In order to move his baggage some
fifty miles to the site on the river, he hired mules and Spanish-speaking mule-
teers. Throughout, he commented on the endless streams of traffic, mule trains
moving toward the camps or returning. There were also carts pulled by oxen,
carrying “foodstuffs of all sorts and tools of work for the gold miners.” Interspersed
along the route were tents and wooden houses where travelers could purchase
meals or refreshments or even spend the night. But, de Lambertie continued,
the face of the country never changed: “It was always immense savannahs
covered with groves of oaks which seem on approaching always [to be] in the
distance.” When they camped with a big fire, beef roasting on spits, he was
reminded of the treks of Arabs and Oriental peoples. The guides offered them
beef; they reciprocated with French wines. As he fell asleep wrapped in his coat,
he was serenaded by distant barking coyotes.1
The second day en route, de Lambertie spent much of the time riding in the
wagon, saving himself from “the terrible fatigues” of the journey. Over the
course of the day, the landscape changed to rolling hills interspersed with flow-
ering valleys. He collected several flower bulbs to send to France. Finally, the
track carried the travelers into the foothills of the mountains, covered by fir and
pine, with the smell of heather. After another night under the stars, the four
French Argonauts reached the Mokelumne River late on the morning of the
third day.2

JEAN-NICOLAS PERLOT AND THE COMPANY OF TEN

Many of the orphaned members of the bankrupt company Fortune found a

readily available economic opportunity in agriculture. Their mining company
bankrupted, some attached themselves as workers to the farmers in the area
112 California

around Monterey. For a large group, this seemed an attractive solution to an

awkward situation. Jean-Nicolas Perlot declined such an offer. He refused to
give up his dream of mining, which had propelled him to California in the first
place. The placers were some two hundred miles distant; reaching them was a
forbidding challenge. Perlot organized the Company of Ten, each man contrib-
uting F 110 to the common treasury. The company then purchased a mule (and
later a second mule) and set out for the placers, guided by a map drawn by the
French vice-consul. Perlot led his company on the march armed with a compass
and a Spanish-language dictionary, the two necessary tools of the land voyage
toward the sierra. His Company of Ten occasionally crossed paths with another
company, the Provençaux, also formed from original members of Fortune, this
one composed of a dozen men from Provence.3
In moving from Monterey to Mariposa, Perlot and his companions ran
through the range of experiences common to many new Argonauts. They began
by attempting to impose their wills on unbroken mules. Over the two weeks of
the trek, they encountered grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, and Indian peoples. In
spite of the map and compass, they were often lost or at least uncertain about
where they were. They were also sometimes hungry and thirsty. They passed by
shallow mounds that they eventually recognized as the graves of miners who
had died en route to the diggings. It was a harsh and intimidating introduction
to the California landscape.4
When Perlot and his group reached the placers at Mariposa, their euphoria
lasted until an inventory of their resources: they had no tools and food for only
one day. A trip to the stores in Mariposa introduced them to the high cost of
tools. Throughout, they were confronted by language problems. Almost all the
miners spoke English; a few spoke Spanish. There were almost no French
speakers. Like others arriving in the goldfields in 1851, the first mining experi-
ence of the Company of Ten was working for someone else. The wage was four
dollars a day (twenty francs) and food. The remaining six of the original
company (four had left for another opportunity) dug trenches and then washed
the gravel in a “long Tom” (a larger version of the cradle, built on two levels
with a perforated iron sheet to strain the gravel). After two and a half days of
hard work, they were paid in gold. The sight of the gold, measured from the
harvest of the week, gave rise to a burst of optimism. As Perlot wrote, “We were
at last convinced that the placers and their product were not a chimera but a
brilliant and ringing reality. For sure, we were all soon going to make our
fortune, and Lord knows the castles we were building in Spain!”5
Over the next month, as the six Frenchmen labored to keep the “long Tom”
full of gravel, they learned about the customs and culture that framed the rush
 In the Mines 113

to gold in California. The basis of mining was the claim. Miners on a water-
course would meet and establish rules for staking and holding a claim.
Punishments for violating these rules, or for theft or assault, were draconian.
The eight articles that formed the basis of Perlot’s camp would remain in force
until changed or “until the government of the United States should be legally
installed.” To change the rules required a petition of twenty-five signatures and
a public notice of fifteen days. In case of issues not covered by the laws, conflicts
would be submitted to a jury of nine composed of individuals acceptable to
both parties. The decision of the jury was final and could not be appealed.6
When Perlot and his French miners decided to leave wage labor and strike
out on their own, their American employers urged them to reconsider. They
were good workers. Perhaps some accommodation could be reached. Perlot
asked for a wage increase to six dollars, and it was immediately granted. The
Company of Six agreed to work under such terms for the next thirty days. Later,
after mining on their own for two weeks with disappointing results, four of the
company decided to resume work for wages with their original employers.
Perlot and the remaining companion, Beranger, determined to mine indepen-
dently on their own. The Company of Ten was now the Company of Two.
Their second claim brought them good results—F 2,350 cleared after six weeks
of hard labor. They wintered in the placers, mining during breaks in the
weather. With the coming of spring, Beranger left to work for four dollars a day.
Perlot was now a “Company of One.”7

ARSÈNE GROSJEAN: THE SEARCH FOR GOLD AND

A FRENCH COMMUNITY

Arsène Grosjean’s account covered the broad range of living and working in
the mines. On arriving in the placers, he wrote, “I saw there unbelievable
activity; some work in the river, others dig holes; at the bottom of a hill each
searches for gold and finds more or less.” He noted that the miners worked in
water and mud, “which seemed to have the power at every minute to bury them
under their debris.” Whatever the dangers and discomforts, they worked with a
single focus: “Nothing slows them [down]; everywhere there is gold, someone
comes forward to go to search for it.” When he had completed his reconnais-
sance, Grosjean noted, “I chose a place and I put up my tent, with a stone
chimney.” He then built a small house, “and I was ready to defend it to the last
extreme.” Of his mining activities, he wrote, “The gold of the river is in the form
of grains; the gold of the steams is in powder and found throughout. When one
hunts for gold in the rivers and in the holes, it is always necessary to go up to the
114 California

rock. It is ordinarily in the crevasses of this rock where one finds it in greatest
abundance. The main instruments for washing are the long Tom, the cradle,
and the pan. The pan is always necessary.”8
Grosjean’s account reflected his wide-ranging activities. French Argonauts
mined, but they also traded, hunted, and sought other economic advantage. He
wrote of his surroundings: “Throughout where there is a gold mine, there forms
a small village; merchants of all sorts come to establish themselves there, and
today with money, one can procure a little bit of everything.” He enumerated
the high cost of provisions, including bread, meat, potatoes, onions, and bottles
of wine, beer, and brandy.9
Grosjean continued, “I immediately resumed my search for gold, which I
left for an instant.” He had first worked with his companions from the voyage,
but this partnership was unproductive. Over two months, he scarcely made
enough by mining to buy his food. To support himself, “all the Sundays and the
Thursdays I hunted. I killed some deer for a part of the week. All the deer of
France are found in California, and in large quantities.”10
When Grosjean became ill, he was cared for by an American who came to
see him and gave him some opium. The next day, the American returned with
a new remedy: “He made me a half glass of brandy, which he boiled with a
piece of white sugar.” In two days, Grosjean began to recover. The illness
sapped his energy and his enthusiasm for the search for gold: “I swear frankly
that these two months were very hard for me. I regretted to have gone
[to California], and if I had money, I would immediately have left California,
but I didn’t have enough means, so I stayed. Some days after, I sold my rifle, I
thanked the American, and I left for another placer. I left my colleague, who in
his turn fell ill.”11
Grosjean resumed his account: “The placer where I took myself was called
Mont Calamet. It was a dozen leagues farther than the other. I had a small
journey. I carried on my back a part of my tools and some provisions.” He was
en route for two and a half days. In this new place, he found an abandoned
house without a roof. It had been built by some Chinese, and he found in it two
Chinese hats. “I wore them for a long time on my head. They shaded me very
well from the sun. I stayed temporarily in this house.”12
As a veteran in the gold camps, Grosjean “received visits from many French;
some asked me for a priest, another for work. I tried always to make them
content. One day there came three [visitors] at one time: the captain of a ship,
a baron who had dissipated his family fortune (both of these were French), and
a Polish doctor. They stayed at my house four days. I made them work a little
for their food, and at the end of this time, I took the captain on as a partner. He
 In the Mines 115

had a good character, always gay and happy. The baron spoke to me only of his
old family fortune; the doctor, of medicine and sickness. I put two of them in
the abandoned house, and I gave them a place to work.”13
Grosjean’s prospects improved, and he described the multiple uses of his
donkey, Trompette: “My work continued to be good. I purchased a donkey for
300 francs; I no longer went any more without him when I worked. He carried
my tools. When I went hunting, he carried my deer the Sunday mornings we
went hunting, the two of us, for the provisions of the week. After noon I rode my
donkey and toured the placer; I visited with my friends and sometimes invited
two or three to dine with me; when one entertains reciprocally, one better
conserves.”14 When Grosjean hunted, his faithful donkey carried provisions for
three days.
Moving to the Feather River, Grosjean continued, “We [Grosjean and his
partner, the captain] worked to buy a small hut, clean and well located. It was
sheltered from the rays of the sun by two splendid pines, cooled by a small
stream that flowed by the side. I spent two months there, which seemed to me
quite short. I was with my partner like with a brother.” His partner did the
cooking; Grosjean kept up the house and brought the water. After the evening
meal, the two of them would sit before the fire until late in the evening, drinking
coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.15
More than most miners of any nationality, Grosjean enjoyed a kind of
domestic tranquility, a combination of good returns from his claim, a pleasant
place to live, hours of rest and introspection after work, and happy companion-
ship. That most of his companions were French was not surprising.

CHARLES DE LAMBERTIE: THE SEARCH FOR GOLD

AND COMPANIONSHIP

One of the most complete accounts of the mining experiences in the first
full year of French participation in the gold rush was that of Charles de
Lambertie. His experiences began in the gold camps when he and his three
French associates arrived on the banks of the Mokelumne River. It was the
summer of 1850. De Lambertie’s account was the story of a man who struggled
to mine and, at the same time, find reliable and amiable companions. Like
others in the mining fields, he was often dissatisfied with his partners because
they were less driven than he. And like so many others, when he found an
attractive companion for living and working, that companion would leave.
Miners, even the French, were often in motion in the goldfields. They moved
from mining site to mining site (claim to claim); they left one partner for
116 California

another; they departed the mining camps to go to the city or to go home. In the
face of the random quality of the mining harvest—many compared it to a
lottery—the current and future prospects on their claims were a perpetual topic
of conversation. Even the most productive claims would give out. Hence, the
sense of miners in constant motion was well-nigh universal. All these qualities
emerged in de Lambertie’s story.
De Lambertie’s first experiences in mining seemed to confirm the pessi-
mistic views of his friends in Stockton. The labor was difficult, and the returns
were marginal. He wrote, “My harvest of gold during the first fifteen or twenty
days was not of a nature to give me spirit and courage.” He also emerged from
this apprenticeship period with serious misgivings about his partner, “the most
indolent and the most lazy that one could find.”16 Placer mining rewarded
continuous digging, carrying, and washing. De Lambertie wrote of his partner,
“If I had listened to him, I would have washed only 40 buckets of dirt a day.”
Instead, spurred by de Lambertie’s endless badgering, they washed seventy or
eighty. As for his partner, “Every day there were new complaints, followed, on
his part, by exhibitions of fury unlike any I have ever seen.” Fortunately, some
fifteen days later, another Frenchman established a second camp on the
Mokelumne, and de Lambertie’s unreliable partner left to join the new arrival.
De Lambertie was greatly relieved. He continued his “labors and happily
enough. One day I found 6 dollars in 7 buckets of dirt. . . . I made 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10, 11, 12, and up to 17 dollars a day. . . . In a short time, I had gathered a pound
of gold.”17
Still, de Lambertie needed a partner for shared work and living and for
companionship. One soon arrived in the person of “a young Englishman, who
was not happy either, at the beginning. I encountered him many times, and as
he spoke French well, we chatted. He told me I was wise not to leave
Mokelumne. . . . Finally, he implored me to take him as my companion.” The
new arrangement was an exceptionally happy one (the more so by standards of
his earlier partnership). The difficulty was that his new companion tired of the
constant labor and “determined to return to San Francisco.” De Lambertie
tried to dissuade him with the argument that working on the Mokelumne for
eight dollars a day was a sure thing; San Francisco meant high costs and the risk
of unemployment. “I am no longer able to endure the idea of the placers,” his
partner responded. “In San Francisco, I can always do one thing or another, but
I do not wish any longer [to endure] the difficult labors that break down the
body and stupefy me.” De Lambertie continued, “I saw that everything was
useless to divert him from his plan, and he left the next day for Sacramento,
depriving me, at the same time, of the only agreeable acquaintance that I had
 In the Mines 117

at Mokelumne.” It was a separation that characterized life in the mining camps.

De Lambertie missed his English companion’s presence (and very likely his
fluent French). He wrote, “After his departure, I was plunged, for two days,
into a dark melancholy, which was so strong that I quit my work to dream in
my tent.”18
De Lambertie soon resumed work. His view of the world was a panorama of
endless movement in pursuit of the same goal. “One sees continual goings and
comings of men with buckets, now filled with dirt, now empty, others who
come from large distances with bags heavily loaded, who come to a place favor-
able for washing.” The landscape was littered with heaps of stones and dirt.
Holes five or six feet deep dotted the mining sites. The clang of the pickax, the
shovel, or the iron bars sounded at all hours. In the background was
“the murmur of the cradle, where the shining metal comes to a stop.”19
The new season brought crowds of new gold seekers in the months of July
and August. These included Mexicans from Sonora and Chinese. At the center
of the camps were several provision stores, cafés with musicians, and restau-
rants. The successful miner could fill all his needs: tools and clothes for work,
liquor and gambling houses for recreation. Sunday was a day of rest and recre-
ation. People came together in restaurants and cafés. They consumed strong
liquor and refreshment. The miners might be divided into two groups. One
worked to gather, the second to spend. The Sonorans did not practice economy.
They lived from day to day. They were happy without a fortune. De Lambertie
liked them a lot.20
De Lambertie’s experiences and observations encompass the range of reasons
that drove men forward in the mines. A part of the response was coming to
understand and accept the random nature of the exercise. He observed: “It is
still a singular thing that in the mines, some make much and others hardly find
what they need.” The narrow and irrational line between subsistence and
wealth provided justification for continued hard work in defiance of experi-
ence. That a miner had found little or nothing over a long period did not
mean that his fortune could not change tomorrow with the single blow of a
pick. De Lambertie’s companions soon left, some for Stockton, others for
Sacramento or San Francisco.
One day, de Lambertie recounted, sitting in the shade, on the banks of the
river, “I heard chatter by some Frenchmen who worked on the other side and
whom I had not seen before; I listened. They said that ‘the desire to come to the
mines is a fever, a passion, and this curiosity costs dearly.’ [One said,] ‘I know
young people who in France were commercial travelers, who had a steady five
francs a day, all expenses deducted, and a commission in the sales they made,
118 California

happy as princes; they are miserable here in the placers where they lack for
everything, even bread.’ All this was very sad to hear. I greeted them and, after
various questions, I asked them how much they made each day. ‘Two dollars,’
they told me.” It is not necessary to lose heart over that, de Lambertie replied,
for over the past fifteen days, he had gathered eight to ten dollars regularly.21
De Lambertie’s experiences were the gold rush in microcosm. He had cycles
of good days and bad days; he made friends and lost friends. On occasion, he
reminded himself of the family he had left behind in France, and after a brief
period of introspection, he returned to dig, carry, and wash.

LÉOPOLD ANSART DU FIESNET MINES TO RAISE CAPITAL

Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet arrived in San Francisco after a voyage of more

than twelve months. He wrote to his mother that he no longer knew precisely
“his destiny,” but California seemed to offer endless opportunities and choices.
He admitted that he had been “an ingrate” and did not merit his mother’s atten-
tion or advice. When the ship anchored, he asked the captain’s permission to go
ashore. When the captain refused, Léopold deserted. In order to raise funds to
go to the mines, he sold his possessions, but his trunks were still on board ship,
limiting his inventory for sale. So he “went to the placers with my blankets and
a linen shirt on my back.” He “arrived at the placers without a cent and
famished.” A generous and understanding innkeeper lodged and fed him on
credit. He was lucky.22
Léopold immediately turned to mining. He “had a little luck” and repaid his
innkeeper. Still, the constant work in the cold, rushing water and sleeping on
the ground, sometimes in wet clothes, damaged his health. He fell ill. The
doctor who attended him charged one ounce of gold a visit, and the medicines
added another half-ounce a day. After three weeks of illness and recuperation,
he was in debt 147 piastres. Still, he wrote home, “My character was sufficiently
resilient that I worked to surmount this first test.” He did so. He thought that he
might remain in California for ten years, but he hoped to return earlier “with a
fortune.”23
Léopold had success in the mines, and with his profits, he returned to San
Francisco. There, he bought a house, a quantity of brandy, and other merchan-
dise. His business prospered, and he was in the hopes of “gathering a fortune to
return to France at an appropriate rank.” Among his projected enterprises was a
series of transactions with a miner named Longchamps. The object was to
move money from California to France. In order to finance the exchange, he
asked his brother Edmond to send him 150 piastres from their late father’s estate.
 In the Mines 119

He ended his request with a promise to use the funds wisely. He also wrote of
his upbeat frame of mind and his “determination to make a fortune.”24
Léopold’s request to his brother Edmond for funds was the first of a series of
such appeals. The death of his father in 1849 and his mother in 1851 gave him
expectations of inheritance. With the monies dispensed by Edmond and the
profits from his mining operations, Léopold pursued commercial ventures.
When he mined, he did so to raise capital for his schemes in San Francisco.
Léopold had an entrepreneurial focus. He always used mining as a means of
capital accumulation, and he soon recognized that the larger profits from the
gold country came by providing goods and services to the mining community.
His plans fell victim to one of the periodic fires that ravaged San Francisco.
Imagine, he wrote, a city the size of Caen reduced to ashes. Nonetheless, like
his vigorous response to illness and debt, he continued to believe that he had
the ambition, talent, and determination to make a fortune. And he continued
to believe that California was the place to do it.25

FRIENDS FROM LORRAINE MINE TOGETHER

A group of French Argonauts from a village in Lorraine traveled to California

together, reached the goldfields, and remained united in their work and living
arrangements. From the placers, they wrote to inform their friends and relatives
of their new world and their efforts to succeed there. The three Lorrainers wrote
that they prospered in the placers. They did not publicize their riches for fear of
being robbed. They concluded with a plea: “Prie Dieu. We will not forget you,
either in our thoughts or in our prayers. I hope that we will be rewarded.”26
In September 1850, one of the Lorrainers, Victor Munier-Pugin, wrote a
letter from the placer where they mined to his brother Jules in Gerbévillier.
After two months of hard labor in the mines with marginal results, the Lorrainers
had decided to travel to Oregon in search of richer claims. It was a major under-
taking, involving the transportation of four hundred pounds of baggage over
some 240 miles. They had several encounters with rattlesnakes, which were part
of the French lore of the California mining landscape. Victor also wrote of
meeting hostile Indian peoples. After twenty days, they arrived at the Trinidad
River, where the news was discouraging: “Unhappily on our arrival, all the
mining sites were occupied and all the claims taken by some Americans coming
by the overland route.” In order to live modestly for several weeks, they had to
sell the most valuable parts of their baggage. Some of their difficulties had
become personal: “Our trials are not over.” Another of the Lorrainers, Édouard
Gadel, was ill. “He received assistance from four young men, three Englishmen
120 California

and one Frenchman. He recovered and worked a neighboring claim to repay

his hosts. In only two days, he made 180 francs in gold, of which he found more
than fifty francs in a single rock crevice.” The Lorrainers returned from Oregon
to Sacramento. Victor concluded of the first year in the goldfields: “The experi-
ence was over; it had come at great cost.” The pessimism of his letter echoed a
general sentiment that reigned in France concerning the hopes for California.27
A second letter from Victor Munier-Pugin to his brother Jules in Gerbévillier
was dated December 1850. Here he wrote that bad luck was following them.
“On returning from Oregon to our old placer in the Sierra Nevada, we were
badly received by our old comrades. They give back to us only a part of our old
claim, which is already poor in minerals.” Édouard Gadel’s health was poor; he
was ill with fevers. There was not a single doctor in the region to attend him. If
his condition worsened, they would take him to Sacramento. As Victor’s brother
would see, at the end of the year, their ideas were no longer optimistic. In a
burst of nostalgia, Victor wrote, “What we would not give to be in the grand
room of our old house in Gerbévillier!” He reported on rumors of violence
against French miners: “French miners, installed for a long time on the Stanton
Plateau, have been attacked by lawless Americans; there are a number of
wounded, but you should not worry, for this took place in the rocky mountains,
far from us.” More and more, the issues in the correspondence were not about
mining but about the health and condition of the young men caught up in an
adventure so far from home.28

CALIFORNIA MINING CAMPS AS COMMUNITIES

WITHOUT WOMEN

For the French, among the most striking characteristics of gold rush society
was that it turned out to be almost exclusively male. During the summer of
1848, when mining operations were the work of Californians, Indians, and
Mexicans, families were a common presence in the goldfields. Men who came
without their families often went home every week to see them. There was a
sense that the search for gold existed along with the long-standing commitment
to family and community. With the arrival of prospective Forty-Niners from
ever greater distances—Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, Peru, and Chile—the
mining sites became increasingly male. When the Americans appeared in
large numbers—first by sea in the winter of 1848–1849 and especially in the
fall of 1849 with the appearance of the great overland migration—this maleness
had become overwhelming. The federal census of 1850 reflected that of every
one hundred people enumerated in the mining counties, only three were
 In the Mines 121

women. Gold rush California had become one of the most male societies in
the world.29
Within a nation where family connections lay at the heart of political,
economic, and social life, the French found this condition almost as aston-
ishing as the widespread presence of gold. This dramatic skewing of gender
ratios might be seen as another sign of the uncivilized nature of California, its
gold camps, and its towns. And who except the Americans could produce such
a society and be comfortable in it? Alexandre Achard commented in some
detail on the women in the mining camps—or rather the absence of them:
“Here one surrounds them with respect, and all the fortunes of the camp are at
their feet.” In Camp Murphy, Achard “found five French women, one American
woman, in a population of 500 or 600 able-bodied men.” So “here is the secret
to their empire!!!”30 It was numbers. And women enjoyed a status that was partly
the result of their scarcity but went beyond it. Patrice Dillon wrote of the
American attitudes: “Since a purely American element has taken over in San
Francisco, no one is able to insult a woman with impunity. In no place one
knows is a woman more respected than in the United States.”31
Manners aside, the scarcity of women in gold rush California had two sepa-
rate dimensions for French women. The first was opportunity, a quality that
they shared with their American female counterparts. Those who could afford
the voyage and made it to San Francisco could find immediate employment in
saloons or gambling houses for F 2,000–3,000 a month. Others found a bonanza
in prostitution, where French ladies were at the top of the profession and their
rates reflected their standing. Alexander Holinski, an observer, wrote, “California
is a paradise for women in general, and French women in particular.” Far fewer
women went to the camps to mine, and many of these accompanied their
husbands there. Reports of French women miners suggested they dressed with
a certain stylish flair and did a man’s work.32
The second dimension was the absence of marriage partners for the male
population. A letter written by an American woman from San Francisco
described the only commodity scarcer than gold: young women to marry. In the
new arrivals to the gold rush country, men outnumber women by a ratio of five
to one. As a result, according to this account, men married Indian women.
Indeed, she continued, “Father Manaque, a Catholic priest, has blessed, during
the past month, the marriages of one hundred and ten whites with Indians. If
this continues, the tribes of Indians, already reduced in numbers considerably
by their immoderate use of brandy and by other vices that they have [acquired
from contact with the] Europeans, will soon disappear with the mixing of the
races.” A rumor spread that a “a cargo of young women will be sent to California,
122 California

where they will be advantageously married, for up to the present, there are few
women among the emigrants, and they are in great demand.”33
Amid the sarcastic asides on the lack of civilization and refinement, the over-
whelmingly male nature of gold rush California also carried with it a strong
commercial dimension. If women could be provided for such a vacuum, they
would command a respect and price beyond imagination. Indeed, women
would be more valuable than gold in California. It was universally accepted
that gold was everywhere, whereas women were nowhere to be found. Even the
most experienced prospectors could not find them! More than one observer
commented on the great opportunity for profit in bringing to California the
most valuable cargo imaginable. By the summer of 1849, the ratio of men to
women in California was estimated in the press as fifty to one; in the mining
counties, according to the census of 1850, it was closer to one hundred to one.
Accordingly, amid all the other talk of commercial prospects—the cost of
food, tools, or land—the greatest commercial opportunity would be a cargo
of women. Journalists called the idea “an excellent speculation.” The very
idea sparked an image of intense, competitive bidding for the services of
scarce women. The French press gave much attention to these commercial
expressions.34
One entrepreneur, Mrs. Eliza Farnham of New York City, moved aggres-
sively to take advantage of this scarcity. A respectable widow, Mrs. Farnham
proposed to organize a company to transport to California some 100–130 young
white women. These poor but virtuous young ladies would provide testimonials
to their character. Mrs. Farnham would screen the candidates and vouch for
them. This female company would also include six to eight respectable married
women who would act as chaperones. Mrs. Farnham’s objective was the
marriage of each of her charges to a lonely but affluent miner in the gold
country, “[so] that the gold diggers of California are likely to have help mates to
share the fruits of their labor.”35
If the French were mesmerized by the intensely male nature of California
society, they were equally fascinated by the so-called Farnham Plan. They noted
Mrs. Farnham’s departure (with her “lovely companions”) from New York and
her progress toward California. French accounts, perhaps anticipating her
arrival and the astonishing appearance of her charges in the mining camps,
announced that many marriages had already been agreed to.36
Mrs. Farnham’s plan soon had imitators. The most prominent was a
merchant in Santiago, Chile, who proposed a similar scheme. He would iden-
tify some two hundred young white women, poor but beautiful and virtuous, to
be transported to California. The object was an honorable marriage to North
 In the Mines 123

Americans, with a substantial profit for him.37 In discussions of the various

schemes to bring women to California, no commentators in the United States
or France objected to the commercial dimensions of the enterprise. The need
was sufficient to justify whatever price the market would bring. In the end,
neither enterprise achieved its goal. Mrs. Farnham did sail from New York for
California, but she had only a handful of eligible ladies. The Chilean merchant’s
scheme came to naught, perhaps discouraged by the violence against Chileans
in the fall of 1849. That the Chilean commercial houses in San Francisco were
looted and burned provided scant encouragement for shipping such a rare and
valuable cargo to the north.
The failure of the plans to bring numbers of virtuous single women to
California as marriage partners for the newly enriched gold miners of the
remote gold camps intensified interest in the gender balance in California. The
topic of the scarcity of women changed in its popular presentation from
arranged marriages for doughty old miners who had struck it rich to issues about
how to construct a viable civil society. Women were desirable because they
were necessary to such a society, and not until California had a suitable propor-
tion of women would it move into a new stage of maturity and development.
Accounts of the condition of “society” in San Francisco emphasized the
increasing numbers of women as a way of promoting the virtues of the new city
on the bay. One San Francisco paper noted that “society in San Francisco was
as good as in the cities of the East, although here were few women. Many
women arrive daily with their husbands.”38 The new mix was a welcome one.
In the end, of course, the growth of San Francisco and California would
accommodate increasing numbers of women and families. San Francisco
would gradually mature into a city less dependent on commodities for the
mines and entertainment for miners and more attuned to city growth, the legal
profession, merchants, and banks, and with these, issues of schools and
churches. Already by the 1850s, families in San Francisco would live in an
increasingly genteel world more like Boston and less like Grass Valley and
Nevada City. For the French, the male nature of gold rush California was
another in an endless series of bizarre qualities associated with this remote
fantasyland.39
There was another dimension to the absence of women and the families left
behind. An analysis appeared in the Chronique de Paris. At the close of a long
recitation of the opportunities in California, the Chronique offered this observa-
tion: “The largest part of the Europeans who leave their country with a view to
making a fortune make the serious mistake of leaving in their country their
wives and children.” In the first place, this decision affected their morals and
124 California

then their health. They deprived themselves, in the second place, of the oppor-
tunity to double and triple their riches. “There are no idle hands California.”
Women and children can be fully employed. “Cooking, management of the
household, washing, . . . all the little industries . . . prosper and more so than
some of the major professions. The number of women is greatly inferior to the
numbers of men. Fathers of families would have an interest in bringing their
daughters to California, where they would be sought by the richest and most
distinguished men.” Here was the new dimension to the California excitement:
California offered great economic opportunities not only to single women, but
also to married women with families who would do a thriving and profitable
business in supplying those services that single men so desperately needed.40

THE BALANCE SHEET AFTER TWO SEASONS IN THE PLACERS

French miners struggled to find a balance between hard work and hope.
One observer estimated that by the end of June 1850 some ten thousand French
were working in the mines. They were established along the San Joaquin River
and the streams that flowed into it. The Americans, by contrast, worked in the
valley of the Sacramento River. Last year, this observer continued, the average
French miner had realized some F 50–60 on a daily basis, of which F 10–15 had
to be set aside for food. Although this was a good return, two conditions limited
the eventual results. The first was the seasonal limitation of mining, which
ended in late November. The second was the severity of the work. Even the
most vigorous constitutions could hardly work a full five months. These were
sobering reminders of the physical limitations of the exercise in a world in
which such labor was still done by the human body and not by machines.
The “cradle” could process dirt and separate the gold from the gravel, but the
dirt had to be dug and carried to the cradle. The task was hard and endlessly
repetitious.41
In the fall of 1850, M. Lombard, the French vice-consul, made a trip to the
placers to observe “the general conditions of our nationals.” His report to the
consul, M. Dillon, emphasized the severity of the labor. “For a man accus-
tomed to hard labor of the soil, there is not a point on the globe which can offer
comparable results to those awaiting him in the mines of California.” Yet in the
midst of so many riches, there was not only misery but also “frightful poverty
among our nationals.” Among the most intractable of the problems was the
difficulty of Frenchmen working as a group. “There is not a single example of
Frenchmen in the mines having been able to remain twenty-four hours associ-
ated together for exploitation in common. . . . This special trait of the French
 In the Mines 125

character has been extremely unfavorable to the interests of our nationals,

whereas magnificent profits crown the collective efforts of the American popu-
lation.” Still the net harvest of the French miners was from two to three dollars
a day.42
Others had a more pessimistic conclusion. Alexandre André offered these
comments based on his tour of the French camps in the sierra: “The miners
work from 5 in the morning to 7 in the evening, and they hardly make 20 francs
a day. And they need more than that for food. They stay because they don’t have
enough money to leave and return to San Francisco. The largest part find them-
selves in the same situation; they continue their routine.” André advanced
money to two of these for their passage, for which he was later repaid.43
Charles de Lambertie’s conclusions also had a strong strain of pessimism. By
the end of the second mining season, he thought the mines had been played
out. “I strongly believe that if one does not discover new placers,” California
will soon suffer the fate of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil: a country fallen from its
primitive glory. “Gold was a great lure which attracted all the peoples of the
universe, and at the moment it failed, not only was there nothing more here,
but they left in crowds, leaving empty towns and their trade up against it. Here
is the future that I predict for California.”44
To succeed at mining demanded a particular set of physical skills—namely,
strength and endurance mixed with mental determination. Those who lacked
these traits, whatever their accomplishments and training in other fields, worked
at a great disadvantage. The French consul, Patrice Dillon, observed that the
human order was reversed in the mines. That is, those who succeeded—“with
ten, fifteen, twenty, and often one hundred thousand francs in their yellow
belts—were the day laborers, sailor deserters, or the robust peasant.” Dillon
continued: “Thus the simple worker, who gains hardly enough for his daily
needs, becomes a millionaire in California, whereas the man of letters, the
lawyer, the banker, the commission merchant run a great risk of dying of hunger
if they are not able to live from those occupations connected with their special
aptitudes.”45

In an overview of the first years of French mining, the images that emerge from
the accounts of French miners in gold rush California run parallel to those of
other mining groups. The French Argonauts complained about
their partners, the high prices of tools and food, and the uncertainty associated
with the mining enterprise. At the same time, they continued to work on
in the face of their own difficult experiences and those of others. The reality of
returns could be measured by hard work over a period of months (even an
126 California

entire season). However, mining was an enterprise in which fortunes might be

reversed in a single stroke. So the search for a rich strike that would repay the
endless days of hard work and small returns went for weeks and months, to be
terminated only by the end of the mining season.
Alexandre Achard wrote at length on the randomness associated with life
and work in the mines. Indeed, le hasard was simply the defining quality of life
in California. Even as an emigrant exhausted himself in the repetitive fruitless
search, he looked up to see his neighbor “amass in three blows of the pick more
gold than he had found in a month of fierce labor.” Two Basques, with a claim
of six square feet, harvested from ten to a dozen ounces of gold a day; the men
working equally hard on the adjacent claim did not find a single nugget. There
were several similar examples.46
The French mined, in large part, surrounded by other French people. This
was understandable. Their lack of English tended to isolate them and to place
them at a disadvantage in disputes over claims. They seem to have been creative
in finding other sources of income, although probably no more than other
national groups.
Like other individuals and groups, in discouraging times, the French had
moments of introspection. At these times, they rationally (or so they thought)
assessed their past and their prospects in the placers. They invoked their fami-
lies and their long absences from home. And like others in the mining camps,
the French celebrated on Sunday. It was a welcome reprieve after a week of the
hardest kind of labor.
Part Three

FRANCE
This page intentionally left blank
 8

THE FLOWERING OF THE NEW

CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

THE SECOND LIFE OF THE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

In the summer of 1849, after the initial surge of interest, the energy in the
California companies seemed to fade. Other issues intruded into French life.
The dispatch of French troops to Italy to put down the revolution there and
restore the Pope to his Vatican sanctuary dominated the news. At the same time,
railroads increasingly entered into the future of every city worthy of the name,
which meant plans for a line to Paris. Work on railroad lines moved forward,
and railroad companies actively sought investment funds. There was a sense
of recovery in the rural areas. In Lorraine, for example, the period of cata-
strophic harvests seemed ended. The ravages of cholera declined. Agriculture
recovered, and rural France began to come to life.1
In the autumn of 1849, a flurry of new California companies presented them-
selves to the investment public and to prospective gold seekers who intended to go
to California. In September and October 1849, five new companies announced
themselves, with shares valued at F 85 million. Once again, the publicity organs of
the California companies sprang into action and bombarded the public with a
flood of new advertising. This activity was followed by a final flowering of the
California companies that occurred in the middle of the new year. Between April
and October 1850, another fifty-two companies appeared, making these six months
a golden age of California companies. The total shares of this group of companies
had a face value of F 200 million. Driving this resurgent interest were the glowing
reports from the mining country, mixed with the usual flood of new advertising.2
The new California companies entered into a competitive world. The first
generation of companies had been on the scene for more than six months,

129
130 France

filling the newspapers with their prospectuses and news of their departures.
The new companies, like their elders, showed the continuing fascination for the
words “California” and “gold.” This reliance had not changed since the first
companies had appeared in January 1849. Many of the new companies relied
on the traditional arguments, with bigger numbers, more guarantees, and more
inducements to the prospective emigrant or investor. Other new companies
sought to find a specific clientele that would embrace their views of California
gold and ways to profit from it. For both groups, a continuing appeal to the
public was crucial. After all, without the continuing sale of shares, most compa-
nies had a scant present and no future.3

THE OLD COMPANIES: BUILDING ON SUCCESS

The ads of the first generation of California companies carried the tradi-
tional appeals: wealth, adventure, group solidarity, and continuing support in a
venture that blended associate workers into an extended community. For those
who participated in such an exercise, the strange landscape, the English
language, and the presence of the Americans in overwhelming numbers would
hold no anxieties. For those who wished to invest, the opportunities for stag-
gering profits were greater than ever, continuously proven by the flood of golden
accounts from the placers, reported in all the newspapers, American, English,
and French. Aside from reports of individual hardships, which were real
enough, the production of gold from the Sacramento, according to a French
newspaper, had reached $100 million a year—that is, as much as from all the
mines in Russia.4 And everyone was aware of the most important difference
between the mining enterprises in Siberia and California. The Siberian mines
were the sole property of the Russian royal family; the mines of California were
open to anyone with basic tools, strength and endurance, plus the necessary
determination.
At the same time, the older companies (and their newer competitors)
continued to pay scant attention or ignore crucial issues that came into play in
California and especially in the goldfields. For example, the California compa-
nies paid little or no attention to issues of American tariff charges applicable to
goods imported from foreign nations. It was an immediate issue when French
ships arrived in San Francisco, where the assessed duties had to be paid in cash
before the goods could be unloaded. Instead, many French Argonauts seemed
surprised and outraged by such charges and complained to the French consul,
who could provide them with little or no relief. Yet this issue attracted little or
no attention in the flood of advertisements of the California companies and
 The New California Companies 131

little commentary in the newspapers. Nor did the management of the California
companies seem attuned to the issue of American sovereignty. California was
now an American place. The authority of government—national, state, and
local—rested in the hands of Americans. American institutions of government
and law in the goldfields were often extremely informal (by French standards)
and in flux, but these ad hoc arrangements did not change the American sense
of authority, which was often accompanied by a sense of entitlement. When
rumors of conflict reached France, the managers of the California companies
downplayed such outbreaks as long as they could, or they shifted advertising to
emphasize their attempts to acquire title to land and mining rights.5
With these common denominators that flowed from the original great
surge of publicity for the California companies came variations. One of
these was in the trumpeting of successes. As these original companies (such as
the Californienne) and their promises had been before the public for several
months, so one could declare that the original promises of the company
(however quixotic they may have seemed at the time) had been fulfilled.
The evidence lay in the preparation for and sailings of associate workers. The
Californienne was the most active in dispatching associate workers and so
the most energetic in offering a detailed accounting of the various expeditions
of associate workers that had set sail and arrived under its auspices. In a charac-
teristic statement, the company proclaimed that the “Californienne is the oldest
of the companies for the exploitation of the gold in California.”6 By early 1850,
the Californienne could boast (and did!) of four sailings of associate workers: on
the Jacques Lafitte, the Gaetry, the Uncas, and the Louisiane. Such was the
demand for passage, noted the company, that its managers had refused more
than two hundred prospective associate workers passage on the Uncas because
the ship was filled to capacity.7 In August 1850, the Californienne published the
names and addresses of the associate workers transported to California by the
company. The specific names and addresses gave a sense of the widespread
nature of the emigration to the California goldfields and the central role played
by the company in making this possible. A large proportion of those listed came
from small towns and villages. There were no unattached women. Those
women listed accompanied their husbands.8
As a gesture of its firm foundation and transparency for the public, the
Californienne held the first annual meeting of its shareholders. This was
designed to dispel doubts about the responsibility of such companies. Its
annual report, issued in anticipation of the meeting, noted branches in
Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. The company had sold
5,636 shares to the public; it had sponsored multiple sailings of associate
132 France

workers. The board voted a 5 percent interest payment to shareholders. There

were no dividends.9

THE NEW COMPANIES: NEW DIRECTIONS AMID

INTENSE COMPETITION

Among the new companies, there were extravagant claims and the constant
search for a distinguishing advantage. Consider one company, Fortune.
Launched May 12, 1849, it boasted of a technical advantage in the form of
company machines. In operation, each machine harvested two kilos of gold a
day, or the work of one hundred men. The profit would be F 6,000 a day for a
party of eight, or F 5,670,000 a year, with dividends to shareholders in like
proportion. Or note the Société Française et Américaine de San Francisco,
with equally extravagant claims, bolstered by exclusive rights to a machine
recently invented by a university professor. This California company also moved
to a new level in its self-proclaimed popularity, with the declaration that its
shares at five francs were in such demand that the administrators were unable
to sign all the certificates.10
Another new company, the Gerbe d’Or, pledged to take care of the families
of its associates, each of whom would make at least F 120,000 a year. That these
promises enlisted only thirty workers suggested the intensity of the competition.
There was also an appeal to regional, religious, political, and personal senti-
ments. The Société de Jésus et de Marie included a large number of rural
priests as investors. The most diverse of the inducements came from the
Californienne Française, which promised each member F 500, free transporta-
tion, 10 acres of land, and 12 head of cattle.11
The financial promises of the new companies (and the old, for that matter)
escalated through the early months of 1850. Along with the guarantees for share-
holders went expanded terms for the associate workers. The conditions of
passage included rave reviews of the ship, enticing accounts of the food for all
classes of passengers, and the presence of a support staff including doctors,
pharmacists, and chaplains. On arriving in California, the company’s workers
would proceed to the mines under the direction of an engineer. The fatigued or
injured might avail themselves of the company’s vacation resorts and hospitals.12
Consider, for example, the travel arrangements for the company Toison
d’Or. The workers would travel to California on the “superb ship” the Louis.
The three classes included a “very lovely comfortable room” for first-class
passengers, a beautiful roof on the bridge for passengers of the second class, and
a “vast and magnificent steerage” of 8-foot elevation and well ventilated, able to
 The New California Companies 133

hold two hundred passengers” of the third class, with separate beds for each
passenger. The “food and the care given to the passengers leave nothing to be
desired.” Of course, “the first subscribers would have their choice of cabins.”
Other support included “a doctor, pharmacist, etc. specially allocated to ships.”13
With the entry of so many new companies onto the scene, some companies
began to focus on new ways to tap into the great profits associated with an
outpouring of riches at a great distance, generated by a large and growing
population of miners that needed a wide range of goods and services. One of
these services was banking. One company proclaimed, “We are occupied
neither with the search for gold nor with workers; our special purpose is a bank
and consignment, the exchange between France and San Francisco of the
products of the two countries.” Or note this ad for the French Bank of California:
“Most of the emigrants exchange their resources for goods, but on arriving in
California, they have great difficulty in profiting because of the tariff [because
they must] pay immediately these charges and those for transportation, etc.
Hence the creation of the French Bank of California. This is the opportune
moment.” Here was a bank for the French in California, whether digging and
washing in the mines or engaged in commercial pursuits.14
Another special area of potential profits was real estate. An early advertise-
ment proclaimed “150 francs a year . . . for 25 francs.” The origin of this bonanza
was the Société pour l’Exploitation en Californie, which proposed to convey to
California some fifty prefabricated houses made of wood and iron. Another
company with a special interest was the Société Immobilière de San Francisco,
which specialized in fireproof constructions. The Ruche d’Or directed its appeal
to agricultural workers.15 The Bretonne noted that it had sent two hundred
emigrants to California with a view to establishing an agricultural colony.16
In response to the intense competition, new dimensions of investment
appeared. For example, one company offered to exchange shares of stock for trade
goods. Specifically, shares of one hundred francs would be given in exchange for
merchandise. Manufacturers and industrialists were urged to come forward. This
proposal was cast as an opportunity for French merchants and artisans to exploit
the new market of California. Individuals or companies that participated would
receive shares with the same dividends paid to regular investors.17
In the rush of the new companies to distinguish themselves from their
competitors, one group exclusively pursued trade. The public appeal of the
Société du Commerce de San Francisco drew on a successful English model.
The prospectus intoned, “There has been much talk of the dividends realized
by the Anglo-American companies. Here is a grand ‘exclusively commercial’
enterprise.” It was neither a bank nor a discount house; both were deemed too
134 France

risky. Instead, this was a carefully thought-out enterprise focused on trade. The
first expedition of selected merchandise with a F 200,000 investment was
already under way in September. Others would follow on a monthly basis.18
As the California companies became more numerous, joined by the unifying
search for investors, a market appeared for information about the companies. By
the fall of 1850, advertisements proclaimed reliable sources of information about
the California companies: their shares, their status, and all the information neces-
sary for investors. These sources were impartial, or so it was said. They would
guide the provincial and foreign shareholders.19 The most important of these was
M. Philippart’s Petit Manuel de l’Actionnaire. This pamphlet analyzed California
companies based on confidential information. Throughout, M. Philippart and
his journal focused on a single issue: which companies gave the best results.20
July and August 1850 were the months of extravagant promises. The stock-
holders could hardly make an exact count of all the images that came before
their eyes. So dizzying were the claims and counterclaims, one observer
declared, that the founders of the companies struggled “to find out what
they have promised.” Almost everyone agreed that whatever the claims of the
companies, the dividends for shareholders were as distant as ever.21

THE COMPANY PAPER: THE ÉCHO DU SACRAMENTO

In a world of communication and advertising, a company newspaper was a

logical extension of the use of the popular press. Several companies published
on a regular basis, at least for some months. As for the rest, their publication
schedule was generally irregular and did not extend past a few issues. These
newspapers were filled with wondrous information: they reported all the
news of California (at least the favorable news); reproduced the letters of
emigrants and articles borrowed from the American press; signaled the next
ships’ departures; and, above all, contained full pages of advertising.22
The Écho du Sacramento was an excellent example of a company newspaper.
A “monthly publication of the interests of the associates of the Compagnie des
Mines d’Or de la Californie,” the Écho was sent to all shareholders and prospec-
tive shareholders. This publication simultaneously served two separate but
compatible purposes. Of course, its first mission was to provide the most favor-
able support for the company—specifically, to recount in as much detail as
possible the company’s voyages to San Francisco and the activities of its associate
workers there. Its second purpose was to mount a spirited defense of California
companies at a time when these institutions were coming under continuing
attack. In this capacity, the Écho du Sacramento was untiring, as we shall see.23
 The New California Companies 135

The Écho began publication in November 1849, and the early issues detailed
the embarkation of the first sailing of the company’s associate workers. It was an
intimidating voyage of twelve thousand miles. The editor wrote in detail of the
gathering of the group in Le Havre; he described the imposing mass sung at
the Church of Notre Dame, celebrated by Father Delmas, the priest of the
company. In the choir were the attending associate workers, dressed in the
uniform of the company: “brown berets, black tunics or pea jackets, and velvet
trousers make up the uniform of these gold seekers.” There followed a listing of
the principal officers of the company, with their qualifications. At five thirty, the
company’s ship, the Espadon, raised its sails and at about eight, dropped its pilot
and moved silently into the night.24
Also sailing on the Espadon were the company employees, to provide the
support necessary for such a venture at such a distance and to fulfill the prom-
ises to the shareholders and the associate workers. A roster of these employees
included the director; an engineer, architect, priest, doctor, optician, and health
officer; two mechanics; a carpenter; a blacksmith; three bakers, two naturalists;
and two commercial men. There were also several manual laborers. The
company also embarked equipment to assist in the gold-mining operations.25
The Écho had another theme that it explored on a regular basis—namely,
the importance of the California enterprises for the French nation: “The exploi-
tation of the California mines for the profit of France is an eminently national
work. We think to have proven it.” The great successes associated with these
ventures would redound to the benefit of the nation.26
The others engaged in this national enterprise were collaborators, but they
were also rivals. Here, the Écho moved carefully: “Our intention is not to
critique rival companies; each is responsible for its own work. . . . If we have the
pretention to do better than the others, it is by acts and not by words that we are
able to prove it.” What the journal felt strongly about, however, was the notion
that “pretends to show that it is more advantageous to emigrants to leave
alone rather than in a company.” That was an outrageous suggestion, character-
ized as “this enormous anti-social argument,” to which the editor responded
in detail. Over the course of twelve thousand miles, ran the reply, the single
traveler confronts a series of dangers that would deplete his resources. Suppose
he arrives in San Francisco ill? Who is going to help him? He does not have
the security of associates. The editor became specific. He did not approve of
expeditions of 300–400 emigrants. No company could give proper attention
to such large numbers. “As for us,” he continued, “we propose 50 to 55 workers
for the first and second expeditions. The power of the machines will
advantageously supplement the number of arms.”27
136 France

The Écho identified another and more dangerous adversary. An important

mission of the editor and his paper was to defend the idea and the operation of
the California companies against what he called “the regular abuse every day in
the industrial press of [so-]called chanteurs.” These critics “exploit in an indig-
nant manner the cause of every new enterprise.” This abuse was based on a
system of intimidation; their charges were “expressions of lies and ridicule.”
They sought to shape public opinion against the California companies. In so
doing, they trashed “every new company formed.” In their chants—hence the
origin of the name—“their conduct wounds the interests of all, capitalists and
speculators.” Here was the great danger, and the Écho intended “to combat the
effects of scandal in the licentious sheets.”28
With the Espadon’s arrival in San Francisco, the Écho turned to practical
issues. The initial reports were vague but hopeful: “The condition and spirit of the
members of the company are good, and we have the greatest affection for our
director.” But more pressing issues soon intruded. The first was the charge that the
machines so widely hailed and so carefully transported to San Francisco were too
heavy to move to the mines, and when there, too unwieldy to assist the associate
workers. This charge was made by the Courrier de la Californie, which wrote that
the machines, the tables sibériennes, were too heavy to be carried to the placers.
Nonsense, responded the editor of the Écho: the machines are light and efficient.
They will give the company’s workers a notable advantage in the placers. Before
the company’s future miners moved to the goldfields, however, the company offi-
cials had much to do. In the first month, they were “employed in the unloading
and transporting of supplies; with the paperwork associated with customs and
preparation for departure, all has been accomplished with great difficulty.”29
With the arrival of the Espadon came immediate rumors of the dissolution
of the company. After all, widely circulated rumors, supported by the letters of
Étienne Derbec, had pronounced the California companies dead on arrival.
The editor of the Écho was quick to separate the Compagnie des Mines d’Or de
la Californie from the others. “All the companies have dissolved except ours,”
he wrote. “Thanks to their loyalty our emigrants have resisted numerous seduc-
tions.” There were eight deserters. The remainder were steadfastly loyal. Given
the record of the California companies on reaching San Francisco, this was a
noteworthy accomplishment. The editor and the directors of the company
thereafter called constant attention to the continuity of their enterprise and the
loyalty of their workers, both of which confirmed in the strongest terms the
integrity of the company.30
The message was clear: only a well-run company that fulfilled its promises
would command such loyalty. With the remaining twenty-eight loyal workers
 The New California Companies 137

and after a month of preparation, “our faithful band heads to the placers,”
where they anticipated “a rich harvest.” Thus, continued the editor, “our
company is the first among all those in France to avoid dissolution.” After some
delay and careful preparation, “we have arrived at the mines; this was excellent
news for shareholders! Good news because we will soon gather the fruits, and
the abundant fruits, we hope, of our enterprise.” There were prospects of a divi-
dend by December.31
In this time of high anticipation, the editor turned to the great opportunities
before the company. California was rich beyond belief: “Gold was everywhere!
There was feverish commercial activity.” San Francisco was a place of fantasy:
“All appears as if by enchantment: steamers, horses, streets, hotels, etc.; all is
prodigious, inexplicable.” Mixed with the great riches of California was the
high character of the French nation in responding to the gold discoveries,
although there were drawbacks as well. France was “the most enlightened, the
most intelligent, the most advanced [nation] in the world; we reason, we discuss,
we dispute everything, and we do little and that tardily. Our neighbors across
the channel, by contrast, talk little, but they act. . . . We should adopt the taste,
the allures, and the methods of the English.”32
The story of the Écho de la Californie and the Compagnie des Mines d’Or
de la Californie that it represented was one of a dozen company papers and
their sponsors. The Écho and its company were more long-lived than most. The
paper chronicled the modest-sized sailing (thirty-six workers) of the company
and its successful arrival in San Francisco. There, the leaders of the expedition
marshaled their loyal workers for the trip to the mines. The company and its
paper saw the success of the voyage and the loyalty of its workers (surrounded
by the temptations of San Francisco) as evidence of the company’s success.
Amid these narratives and celebrations, the Écho fought a determined rear-
guard action against critics of the California companies, of which there were,
by this time, several. As the company’s mining force left San Francisco for the
mines, the paper ceased publication. The future of the enterprise remained
shrouded in the mists covering the placers.

“WHAT SHOULD ONE THINK ABOUT THE

CALIFORNIA COMPANIES?”

In April 1850, the Chronique de Paris posed the question: “What should one
think about the California companies?” Over the next several months, the
Chronique offered an exhaustive analysis of the companies, to which it added
advice to prospective French gold seekers. It was the height of the resurgence of
138 France

new companies and widespread advertising. Amid this flood of visual and verbal
images of gold for prospective French Argonauts, the Chronique advised against
joining a company and pronounced that “the monopoly of the companies was
the cause of the ruin of European emigrants.” Accordingly, prospective French
gold seekers should go to California independent of a company or with a group
of friends. They should contract directly with a reliable shipowner or through a
well-known agent in Paris.33
The Chronique entered wholeheartedly into the opportunities for French
people associated with the California gold discoveries. Indeed, to promote these
prospects “which open an immense horizon for the proletariat, a future of
unexpected hope, the Chronique would happily furnish free, to all who
demanded it, all the indispensable information for the crossing to California.
For the benefit of the public and its readers, the Chronique proposed to give, in
each of its issues, a view of the march of affairs in California and of the progress
of this country.” It was a vigorous declaration of the potential significance of
the gold discoveries for French people at all levels of society.34
Other observers offered a skeptical response to the question about the
California companies. There was a growing sense that the promises of the
companies—ever more enlarged in response to the competition—had outpaced
common sense, much less the real world of gold rush California. The company
officers of the Compagnie des Mines d’Or de la Californie had good reason to
be concerned about the publication, reception, and reputation of their enter-
prise. Even as the new companies organized and joined in the flood of adver-
tising, skeptics continued to raise cautionary flags, and their doubts grew with
the proliferation of the California companies. There were several sources of this
doubt. Some of the mainstream Paris newspapers began to show increasingly
critical coverage.
The business journal Gazette des Affaires continued a drumbeat of critical
analysis. The arrival of the first ships with associate workers in San Francisco
provided a major benchmark in the history of the California companies. In the
eyes of many observers, this was the point at which judgment might be passed
on the companies. In the view of the Gazette, the companies failed the test of
legitimacy. Landed on the wharves in San Francisco, the company officers and
their crew of associate workers, equipment, and goods found themselves
confronted by the reality of gold rush San Francisco. Challenges were every-
where. Whether it was an issue of the continuing food and shelter for
workers, mining equipment, transportation to the mines, or negotiations with
American officials, these extended challenges and negotiations cost money.
Companies often found themselves in straitened financial circumstances, and
 The New California Companies 139

as they negotiated, their workers became impatient. On every side, they saw the
bustle and confusion of California, the universal presence of gold as a circu-
lating medium, the varied opportunities to make money outside the goldfields,
and the temptations to strike out on their own or in small groups. Many did.
Those who remained loyal found themselves deserted by the company to whom
they had given allegiance and whose shares they had purchased to assure their
participation.35
One of the most remarkable features of the flowering of the California
companies in the spring and summer of 1850 was that it did so amid a rising
chorus of cautionary—even alarmist—reports that appeared in a track parallel
to the endless ads trumpeting the virtues of this or that company. In addition to
the Gazette des Affaires, among the journals that published skeptical accounts
were Illustration and the Journal des Débats, which printed the letters of
Étienne Derbec. In a curious juxtaposition of promotion and criticism, the
rising tide of negative comments appeared in the same newspapers as the flood
of advertising for the new California companies with their extravagant claims.36
The critics of the California companies fell into three broad groups. The first
was composed of individuals who wrote from personal experiences. Their letters
and reports were accounts of the difficulties of miners in general and foreign
miners in particular, mixed with questions about the legitimacy of the claims of
the California companies. Their attacks targeted both the arrangements to
transport associate workers and their arrival in California. Added to these were
the implausible—indeed more like fantasy—promises made to shareholders of
future dividends.37
A second group of critics were those associated with the press and especially
the Gazette des Affaires. This weekly report on economic issues in France
emphasized stability, with constant coverage of railroad construction projects
and the attendant financing of such lines. In the view of the editors, the claims
of California companies were not only deceptive, but also siphoned off invest-
ment capital important to the development of a financial infrastructure in
France into a series of quixotic schemes focused on distant California. These
schemes were more than bad business; they were bad for the nation. From
the beginning of these company ventures—and rising with their second life
and proliferation in 1850—the Gazette noted that the extravagant ads of the
companies had the effect of distracting French people generally and potential
investors in particular from legitimate French investment opportunities. The
Gazette concluded: “The greatest part of these enterprises consists of promising
the most exaggerated results, in exchange for a minimum payment; and the
fools, the ambitious, and the needy are persuaded to accept the mirage of a
140 France

clique. It is above all in the country . . . that one throws out these golden
come-ons.”38
A third group of skeptics were French officials in California. Here, the
French consul, Jacques Moerenhout, was the leading figure. From his early
tour of the mining camps and placers in the summer of 1848, Moerenhout had
been extraordinarily well informed about the opportunities and hazards associ-
ated with the gold rush for French people. He continued to speak in strong
terms, urging French commercial participation and advising individual
Frenchmen to stay home. Perhaps the appearance of so many destitute French
Argonauts at his home and office gave an additional intensity to his strictures.39
In August 1850, at the high point of the flowering of the second generation of
California companies, the Chronique de Paris published two long articles
summarizing the indictment of these speculative ventures. The first began with
an account of the infatuation of the French people with California and gold.
“The question on the order of the day, that which is the most important of all
others, is the California question. California is at this time in the dreams and
imagination of everyone. This magic word, before which the most superb head
bows down, is gold!!!” The Chronique then analyzed the individual companies
by name with a view to their resources and prospects. It concluded that “these
companies seem, for the most part, without capital, without operating funds;
they count on foolish mankind, and they are right.” The editor published two
letters from San Francisco, “the most complete information with regard to this
country, on which the eyes of the entire world are fixed at this moment.” He
concluded that the activities of several companies in San Francisco did not offer
confidence to the French investor.40
Another paper, the Télescope, identified itself as protecting the interests of
the French in California. After the usual disclaimer of its disinterested posture,
the Télescope went on to describe its mission: “We have no single interest in
California; we do not export merchandise; we do not lead a single worker to the
Sacramento. . . . We enter into the lists, entirely free, without pretensions,
without hate, without friendship, uniquely with the strong desire to serve
whomever, with intelligence; to aid the movement of emigration, the develop-
ment of foreign commerce, and to facilitate for French people the means to
gather this gold, which already in great numbers the avid hands of strangers
have amassed for two years.” The editor continued: “Our paper is separated thus
by the direction of these ideas in all the California papers. Everything that has
been written, said, up to here on California is stained by the spirit of partiality
that all men necessarily press to make a return from the enterprise to which
they are attached.” Nonetheless, in spite of these disclaimers, the Télescope was
 The New California Companies 141

prepared to pass judgment. By the middle of August, it would confirm, “In

our last issue we said that companies founded only on the basis
of the exploitation of gold, by the hand of associate workers, do not have a
serious future.”41
At about the same time, an exchange of letters appeared that gave a serious
cast to what had become a war of numbers and competing claims. In January
1851, Étienne Derbec, whose work had regularly appeared in the Journal des
Débats, published another in a series of letters from California. This newest
account chastised the California companies for failing to live up to their elabo-
rate promises and leaving their associate workers to fend for themselves in gold
rush California. In response, Victor Viard replied on behalf of the Compagnie
des Mineurs Belges. In so doing, he attempted to rescue the reputation of the
California companies (or at least his own company) from a barrage of bad news
and negative publicity. He began his response by noting that Derbec’s letters
“had a certain literary merit which we take pleasure in stating.” However, he
continued, “We have sought in vain the cause of his disfavor. . . . We say to our
miners, and we repeat the terms to our shareholders, [that we offer] not extrava-
gant and foolish promises of fabulous riches, but the certitude that their capital
will be engaged in one of the richest and one of the most fertile exploitations of
gold in the world.” What emerged was the sense of an honest company of
mining professionals caught in a backlash against the excessive claims and
failed promises of so many of the California companies.42
Two months later, Viard wrote another letter in which he raised larger,
national issues: “If France remains inactive, the colossal riches of California
will not be less extracted, and our country will soon be disinherited in the family
of nations. Well! On soil saturated with gold, eighteen men, forming a small
company of the Mariposa, represent France! However, these eighteen men, in
spite of their inexperience [and] the imperfection of their tools, have carried
F 1,100,000 to San Francisco after two months of work.” Enough said!43
Viard and his company continued to advertise their professional qualifica-
tions (“the special character of the company”) and their realistic expectations
(100 percent dividends in January 1852—that is, after three months of work) at
the very moment when the criticism of the California companies had reached
a crescendo. Viard later addressed the development of quartz mining, an impor-
tant change in mining technology readily adopted by the professional miners
of the Compagnie des Mineurs Belges. Viard noted that the harvest of the
quartz-mining operations would be deposited on a monthly basis in the vaults
of the Bank of France, from which dividends would be paid at six-month inter-
vals on the first of January and July each year. Viard’s letters represented a last
142 France

gasp for the legitimacy of mining operations under the structure of a California
company.44
By the end of 1850 potential investors and directors of new California compa-
nies were becoming aware of continuing discouraging news. The work in the
mines remained hard to the point of exhaustion. There were continuing fric-
tions within the gold camps, especially directed against foreign miners. A
foreign miner’s tax, enacted in April 1850, gave these attitudes official state sanc-
tion. Foreign miners had been singled out, French miners among them. A kind
of disillusion had set in, driven in part by the news from the goldfields but also
in part by the grandiose expectations generated by two years of unremitting
publicity and advertisements couched in the most extreme numbers and super-
latives. The close of the year prompted an accounting or a kind of balance
sheet. The outlook for French miners and investors was not promising.45
 9

THE LOTTERY OF THE GOLDEN INGOTS

THE LOTTERY AUTHORIZED AND THE OPENING DEBATES

The magic words “gold” and “California” received fresh impetus with the
explosion of new California companies in the first six months of 1850. The
rolling barrage of ads for new companies kept the economic opportunities
associated with this distant, exotic place before the public. To this mix was now
added a dramatic new event that would become the most remarked on and
written about, the single topic universally associated with France and the golden
land of California. It was the Lottery of the Golden Ingots.
The most famous lottery in French history had its origins in the plans of a
whaling captain from Le Havre, Jean-François Langlois. His idea was a great
national lottery that would offer a golden ingot as the first prize; the proceeds of
the lottery would be used to send five thousand French emigrants to California.
Thus, the enterprising captain tapped into the twin streams of interest that
mesmerized France at mid-century: gold and California, now brought together in
the same enterprise and open to all citizens. The California companies had raised
the level of interest in “California” and “gold” to an astonishing level, but the cost
of emigration—F 1,000 for an associate worker or a private passenger—was far out
of the reach of ordinary French people. This lottery scheme of assisted immigra-
tion would send deserving French citizens to California at the expense of the
government. The prefect of the Paris police presented the idea to the minister of
the interior with a recommendation for approval. The minister endorsed the idea,
and he authorized the lottery on August 3, 1850. In so doing, he placed the Lottery
of the Golden Ingots under the sponsorship of the government of the republic.
What was the scheme that now burst onto the scene with the official impri-
matur of the French government? It was a lottery with 7 million tickets of one

143
144 France

franc each. The first prize, the golden ingot, would be worth F 400,000; second
prize, F 200,000; third prize, F 100,000. There were lesser prizes to the number
of 224. The profits of the lottery were estimated at F 2 million.1
As it emerged in final form, the lottery served a number of constituencies. To
begin with, the transportation of five thousand French emigrants to California
provided a modest bonanza for the commercial shipping industry. Eventually,
some seventeen ships were chartered for the voyage. For the government, it
provided a useful and effective way to raise money to move emigrants a long
distance. Then, there were continuing domestic considerations. Some influen-
tial figures thought that part of the solution to domestic unrest and economic
upheaval lay in emigration. The favored destination was the French colony in
Algeria, for which companies had been formed and the National Assembly had
voted F 50 million. Several thousand of those arrested during the violent
uprising of June 1848 had been transported to Algeria. Finally, for government
officials at several levels, the lottery offered a way to move a large number of
undesirables out of France to a destination halfway around the world with the
prospect that they would never return. This dimension of the arrangement
depended, of course, on who would choose the emigrants and why. But as it was
an official government lottery, the government would control the mechanism
of selection.2
From the beginning, the project was controversial. The lottery was first
debated in the newspapers. The editor of the Siècle began the discussion by
noting that for the first time since the abolition of lotteries in 1836, “the govern-
ment has engaged its responsibility directly in affairs of this kind. It is therefore
a place for the press to examine in the most careful way the organization of this
lottery without precedent.” And what was the project? The Lottery of the Golden
Ingots, said the prospectus, “has for its objective to facilitate the free transport of
five thousand workers to California and their initial establishment there.”
Serious question should be raised about the enterprise, the editor continued,
including cost and the arrangements to support the five thousand emigrants.3
Whatever the divergent views, the lottery was about to become an important
national presence. Writing from Blois, an editor confirmed: “Everyone in Paris
and the Departments is talking about the Lottery of the Golden Ingots to trans-
port 5,000 workers free. The benefits which are offered are complete and
without restriction.” He concluded that this was a “work eminently national
and philanthropic in its implications” and so deserving of the support of the
public.4
The humor magazine Charivari began what would become its extended
coverage with a tongue-in-cheek observation: “The California lottery is going to
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 145

eclipse all the other lotteries known up to this day. Aside from the massive and
extraordinary first prize, the smaller prizes will be composed of trifles such as a
river of diamonds, a table service of solid gold, and so forth.” The most impor-
tant question that comes to mind, continued Charivari, is the purpose of this
new lottery. “Why has the minister of the interior authorized some philanthro-
pists to find seven million [francs] in the pockets of French people under the
pretext of California?”5
In December 1850, the focus of the public debate on the new lottery shifted
to the National Assembly. Some members of the Assembly thought the idea
of a national lottery was a bad precedent on principle. Others, who accepted the
idea of the lottery, thought the California destination worked against the
national interest. In their view, deserving French citizens should be sent to
Corsica or Algeria. These were French places; they were close to France, as
opposed to California, which was halfway around the world. What was the
point, ran their argument, in promoting the emigration of French people to
places that were not French? Later, other objections would arise. Did the
emigrants really wish to go to California? They would have to endure “a long
and barbarous journey.” The debate provoked a new consideration of the lottery
plan and gave voice to continuing opposition to it. An editor of the Bordeaux
Indicateur thought the honor of the nation and the Assembly was tarnished by
such a scheme.6
A writer for the Mémorial Bordelais had another view. He noted that the
Lottery of the Golden Ingots was, in every respect, legal. The attackers of the
lottery could not cite a single violation of the law, but this did not stop the party
of the “left” from raising its voice in opposition. The writer continued his anal-
ysis with a discussion of the legal issues. The Lottery of the Golden Ingots
advantaged two groups. First, there were poor workers seduced by brilliant
promises “to seek a fortune on a soil richer than ours.” The second group were
the discharged members of the Garde Mobile who wished to enjoy the free
passage. The Mémorial Bordelais concluded that it was for the second group
that the minister of the interior had decided to embrace the Lottery of the
Golden Ingots. Hence, the new lottery was not a violation of the law of 1836,
which had abolished all lotteries grounded in real estate. As for the debates,
they were politics as usual. In the end, the séance of the Assembly had produced
much noise for nothing.7
The Siècle had its own interpretation of the lottery and a different set of
questions. It began with the observation that the lottery “has occupied the
public for some time.” This was the work of the government itself, which
promoted it, recommended it, and propagated it. So there was reason to examine
146 France

the organization of this lottery for necessary guarantees and vigilance. But there
was far more at stake here—namely, the futures of the five thousand French
workers who would be brought to California under the auspices of this project.
They would be “removed for the most part from the sedentary trade of towns into
a life filled with adventures, of perils and hazards, in the middle of a country
where there is still no regular or functioning authority, where the largest part of
the only important city has been destroyed by fire. Where it will be necessary to
struggle against intemperance, against disorder, against the passions loosed by the
thirst for gold. What is necessary is order. Repeat: Order!!! The responsibility of
the government has been gravely compromised in this affair. Will we give these
emigrants free passage only to abandon them on the shores of America?” The
Siècle referred to the lottery’s objective of establishing French workers in
California, and it concluded: “What is the point of initial establishment in a
country where the great masses of emigrants are not established?” These French
emigrants would end up living the nomadic lives of the American pioneers or
trappers. The images of the American frontier of Kentucky and in the works of
James Fenimore Cooper were firmly established reference points in French life.8

ENTHUSIASM, ADVERTISING, AND CRITICISM

These arguments were overtaken by the enormous burst of enthusiasm for

the lottery scheme. The price of a ticket at one franc placed it within the reach
of literally every French man or woman. The blending of “gold” and “California”
in one enterprise proved irresistible—and the more so because the official
endorsement of the French government seemed to promise that the lottery was
honest and well managed. “This Lottery of the Golden Ingots, as one calls it
vulgarly, has seized all imaginations the very first time,” announced one paper.
And another added, “Everyone in Paris and in the departments speaks of the
Lottery of the Golden Ingots.”9
With the support of the national government and leading with the word
“gold,” the Lottery of the Golden Ingots rapidly spread across the nation. It
penetrated into every geographic locale; it found roots in cities and small
villages; it cut across the political landscape. Journalists and scribblers of every
persuasion, who had found the finest subject in a generation, promoted its
dreams of castles in Spain and carriages pulled by white horses.10
Debates and editorials aside, the government moved quickly. As noted, the
minister of the interior authorized the new lottery on August 3, 1850, and
the prefect of police issued his initial directive within a month. The first of
countless ads for the new lottery appeared in early September, a month after its
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 147

authorization. The first ticket was sold on September 5. A series of official

notices sent to all the departments set the commission for the sale of individual
tickets at 3 percent, with the assumption that tobacco shops would be the most
natural and universal outlets. And, the directives continued, the merchants of
Paris should assist in placing the tickets, along with their counterparts in “Lyon,
Toulouse, Rouen, Havre, Avignon, and many others.”11
Some commentators raised the issue of the connection between the Lottery
of the Golden Ingots and the California companies. One observer noted that in
a sense, every California company was a lottery, for it promoted prizes of various
kinds for the payment of fees. He continued: “There is not a company . . .
which does not offer to the shareholders a gold ingot. There have been other
fantasies of riches, but the greatest is ‘the California metal.’ ” This analysis
reflected the close connection between the lottery with its real gold ingot
(or its equivalent) and the California companies, who traded on the fantasy of a
golden ingot for the investor.12
The lottery was at the forefront of the news, and as such, it became the target
of humorous publications. The most important of these, Charivari, accused the
French government of fomenting “this disease of gold,” heretofore associated
with the American press, now given official sanction by the French govern-
ment. Now the government proposed to lure honest French working men,
laborers, artisans, servants for wages, and tailors or dressmakers to a hazardous
California, where one promised them F 400,000 in consideration of a twenty-
sous piece. The price of a ticket was one franc, continued Charivari, but this
was a day’s wages for a male laborer, two days for a woman. And a family would
miss this franc, “the mother and the children with no bread to eat!” Such a
game of chance carried onto every street corner made a mockery of the revolu-
tion’s principles of economy and hard work. Instead, the circular of the prefect
of police “has transformed . . . mayors into dealers at a gaming table.” Charivari
concluded that the lottery was “nothing more than a concealed raid” on the
pockets of ordinary French people.13
Charivari further attacked the circular from the prefect of police to the
mayors of France because it created pressure to sell lottery tickets. It recreated
scenes of the mayor consoling a grieving widow, advising recruits for the army,
and performing a marriage ceremony, each conversation leading to the sale of
lottery tickets. An employee selling lottery tickets advised a prospective
purchaser that the ages of family members taken together provided the winning
lottery number. With such advice, the sale of tickets surged.14
At the same time, Charivari ran continuous ads for the lottery. As the budget
of the government for publicizing the lottery far exceeded that of any California
148 France

company, the ad business for the lottery was its own bonanza for newspapers
and magazines. In the midst of its caricatures and outlandish sketches, Charivari
made sure to collect its share of advertising revenues.15

THE PUBLIC EXHIBIT OF THE FAMOUS GOLDEN INGOT

Amid the initial burst of enthusiasm for the lottery and the emerging ques-
tions about it, the organizers moved to ensure the continuing fascination with
this government-sponsored project. They produced a golden ingot designated
the first prize and exhibited it in a store on the Boulevard Montmartre. It was a
public relations bonanza. Much of Paris lined up to view the golden ingot. It
was the subject of articles and illustrations in every Parisian newspaper and
magazine. It was an ingenious scheme ideally suited to the time and place. For
the first time, the magic words of “California” and “gold” seemed within the
reach of everyone. In short, the lottery carried the California adventure to the
doors of everyone, joining the hopes and dreams of ordinary French people
across the length and breadth of the nation.16
The exhibition of the ingot began with a parade of the ingot from the head-
quarters of the lottery to the exhibit site. With the heading “The Promenade of
the Golden Ingot,” Charivari described the “splendid ceremony . . . being
prepared in Paris.” It continued, “One is occupied at this moment at the
Treasury to melt down the famous block of pure gold which will serve as
the first prize for the drawing of the California lottery. This ingot will next
be transported from the Quai Conti to the Passage Jouffroy, but the administra-
tors of the lottery have understood that such a voyage could not take place
in a vulgar carriage, with the blinds lowered. The Parisians do not have
the occasion every day to be able to contemplate a golden ingot of four
hundred thousand francs.” The account went on: “The philanthropists
who had the idea of this first prize have wished that it be seen by all the
subscribers. Only one [Frenchman] will win the ingot, but all the others
should have the joy of seeing it; this will always be a consolation. The golden
ingot will be placed in a triumphal carriage, and all the administrators of
the lottery [will be] around it, dressed in California style.” What an introduction
to the exhibition!17
Charivari noted the opening of the exhibit with an account in the form of a
conversation between two Parisians. The most recent “great news,” began the
first, was the opening of the exhibit of the famous gold ingot. “Is it pure
California gold?” asked the second. The program affirms it, responded the first,
and the Municipal Guard on duty nearby gives its “word of honor!” “And will
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 149

the great drawing take place soon?” “Indeed, it only remains to sell four million
tickets . . . a trifle.”18
The exhibit was fully as successful as the promoters hoped. The crowds
lining up to see the ingot ranged from working-class Parisians and small
children to the bourgeoisie in formal dress and top hats. Uniformed security
testified to the value of the object and the significance of the occasion.19

ALEXANDRE DUMAS (SON) AND THE HISTORY OF THE LOTTERY

The director of the lottery now moved to build on this enthusiasm by another
creative stroke. The first was the exhibit of the ingot, an event that attracted
crowds of onlookers and endless articles in newspapers and news magazines.
The second was to provide a history of the lottery that would enable those
beyond Paris to grasp its significance. To do this, the director employed
Alexandre Dumas (the son) to write a history of the lottery. The son of a famous
father who was already making a name for himself as a dramatist, Dumas was
handsomely paid for the work. Certainly his was a name that would be recog-
nized by every literate French person. A letter from Dumas to the editor of
the prospectus as part of the introduction included these closing lines: “I shall
be happy to have taken part in the publicity of the lottery, which I’ve found
original and which I believe useful.”20
Dumas began his history with an observation about the exhibition of the
golden ingot. This event had “excited the curiosity of the capital to the highest
degree [and] exerted the same kind of influence upon the province.” Fashion
has embraced the lottery and its golden prize, “and speculation, which travels
behind them like canteen women in the trains of victorious armies, will not
delay exploiting it by all possible means and under every possible form.” Perhaps
Parisians will soon take their coffee “in cups modeled after the golden ingot.”
And soon thereafter “we shall see the golden lion of the Jouffroy Arcade toss his
glittering mane in the first rays of the April sun.”21
As for opposition to the lottery on moral grounds, Dumas wrote, monies
generated by lotteries have financed some of the grand monuments of Paris.
This new example will benefit five thousand workers. In reality, to suppress the
lottery, “it would be just as well to suppress everything because everything in
the world is a lottery. Life is a perpetual lottery for the benefit of death; love, the
lottery of the heart; ambition, a lottery of the head; the future, the lottery of
everything.”22 Whatever the objections, everyone had to agree “that at least the
lottery, with its delightful illusions, does poetize the miseries of the poor and
gilds their lives with a ray of hope. How many thatched roofs, how many attics,
150 France

are at this moment metamorphosed into castles and palaces by the magic prop-
erties of a little square of paper bearing the numbers of the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots.”23
Dumas emphasized that this was without doubt a French lottery. Accordingly,
this prize should be won by a Frenchman or Frenchwoman. One can condemn
a “patriotic egoism,” but we should feel “acute pain upon seeing the great
Golden Ingot worth 400,000 francs, or one of its 223 brothers, take the track to
Lisbon, Madrid, or St. Petersburg.” For it is not only the government and the
prospective immigrants who benefit. Shopkeepers would sell tickets and receive
a commission; purchasers stay to buy cigarettes and newspapers. Such a program
benefits those engaged in “domestic work.” Consider that a “maidservant, who
did not earn six francs a week by her usual labor, earns by selling tickets four,
six, or eight a day according to the number of tickets she places.”24
Dumas extolled the administration of the lottery, with expenses estimated at
14 percent, as opposed to the 25–30 percent costs for other lotteries. He show-
ered compliments on the director of the lottery. Soon, the public would
embrace the vision that had moved him from the beginning—namely, that one
franc could win “a big chunk of gold worth 400,000 francs.” Gold, he wrote, is
the key here: “insolent, brutal, without grace notes, with no ornament but itself,
borrowing nothing from art, owing nothing to anyone, radiant as the sun, naked
as the truth, and saying, ‘Look at me; touch me; open me up; cut me; melt
me—and you will have done a fine job. I am worth 400,000 francs.’ ‘And I,
200,000,’ says the neighbor; ‘and I, 100,000’; ‘and I, 50,000.’ ”25
Dumas then appealed to the character and role of women. “Women,” he
wrote, “are so fond of gambling and the unforeseen!” Tickets in this lottery will
make the perfect gift to a woman. They cost little, and if the recipient wins
something, “She will be eternally grateful to you, and who knows what might
come from the eternal gratitude of a woman?” “Take these tickets, then,” he
concluded, “for I confess to you that this article has no other objective than to
encourage you to take some of them. Take a lot of them, and, as one does not
know what may happen, you, perhaps, will win this golden monster so recently
displayed at the Jouffroy Arcade.”26
Dumas’s brief recitation touched on all the issues of the moment: concern
for the poor, the moral issues surrounding the lottery, questions about its origin
and administration, and the sale of tickets in other nations. This brilliant display
of French character and hopes came down in the end to a single word: Gold! It
was gold that drove the lottery and its message. It was the image of gold that
stoked the fascination with the ingots displayed before the French public. It was
gold—as Dumas had described it, “radiant as the sun, naked as the truth”—that
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 151

would ensure the seduction of the French public. His was a splendid introduc-
tion to the strengths and weaknesses of French life and the prospects for a
golden future.
Dumas’s history of the lottery was straightforward. What was striking was a
closing section in which Dumas turned the lottery into a matter of national
interest and national honor. There were great resources at stake here, he wrote.
He was not speaking of the potential emigrants. He was writing of the prizes.
Four hundred thousand francs was a part of the national patrimony that should
remain in France. Accordingly, every patriotic French man and woman must
buy up all the tickets, even at the cost of personal sacrifice.27

THE STORM BEFORE THE DRAWING: FAVORITISM

AND INCOMPETENCE

Even as the Lottery of the Golden Ingots captivated the French imagination
and the pocketbooks of so many ordinary French people, rumors began to
circulate about the conduct of the officials in charge. In the fall of 1850, as the
sale of tickets was just under way, the first whiff of scandal surfaced over the
awarding of contracts to transport the lottery emigrants to California. Jean-
François Langlois, whose original idea was the foundation of the lottery, sought
the contract for transporting the emigrants soon after the lottery was officially
approved. (He would already get a percentage of the ticket sales.) There was a
scandal over the issue, and the two legislators from the National Assembly
resigned from the board.28
The administrators of the lottery had programmed a series of uninterrupted
triumphs in presenting the lottery to the public. The enormously successful
exhibit of the ingot had been followed by Dumas’s widely reprinted history.
Throughout, the advertising budget financed an endless series of ads in news-
papers across the country. All pointed to a surging sale of tickets and the
continuing fascination of the public with the lottery. In the midst of this
unbroken record of successes, the lottery’s administrators stumbled. On
August 21, 1851, Langlois announced that all the tickets had been sold,
lottery offices would close on August 31, and the drawing would take place on
October 31. As it turned out, all the tickets had not been sold. Indeed, many
tickets were still available. The editors of a prominent Paris newspaper, the
Droit, reported that more than 1 million tickets were unsold. If this number was
anywhere near accurate, then the lottery scheme had turned into a great specu-
lation, and the administrators of the lottery appeared to have lost control of
ticket sales.29
152 France

Additional coverage of this very public issue followed almost daily (imagine
how many individual French people and French families had already purchased
tickets). One account confirmed that all the boutiques sold tickets at the
premium prices of F 1.25, 1.50, or 2 apiece. Those selling the tickets had
“exploited the credulity of the public for a profit.” In the face of such reports,
the prefect of the Paris police moved to shut down such sales. Rumors swirled
in the Palais de Justice as officials tried to calm the storm and regain control
of the apparatus of the lottery. The drawing scheduled for October 1 was
postponed indefinitely.30
Another and even more embarrassing issue soon intruded. A Paris tobacco-
nist displayed lottery tickets as a way of promoting their sale in his store. A few
sharp-eyed observers noted duplicate numbers. An angry crowd gathered, and
the embarrassed tobacconist went to the headquarters of the lottery and brought
back one of the officials. After a careful examination, four of the numbers were
found to be duplicates. The tobacconist took the duplicate lottery tickets to the
nearest police station. The ensuing investigation found other irregularities. The
prefect of the Paris police dismissed Langlois. The date of the drawing remained
postponed indefinitely.31
The controversy over the removal of M. Langlois immediately captured the
attention of the press and the public. Officials suspended the sale of tickets, and
the suspension created “a certain anxiety in the public.” The Patrie devoted
almost daily attention to the issue, with the observation, “All these actions rela-
tive to the lottery have preoccupied the public for several days now.”32
The blizzard of rumors about the lottery and its tickets received a degree of
confirmation in the form of a lawsuit. With the close of the lottery approaching
and a large number of tickets still unsold, stories had circulated that M. Langlois
had wholesaled out some five hundred thousand lottery tickets (the number
varied widely) to a M. Savalette. On October 1, even as the government took
over management of the lottery in the face of many administrative missteps,
M. Savalette sought a subpoena in civil court to protect his financial arrange-
ments associated with the sale of these tickets. He demanded a confirmation of
the sale and the sum of F 250,000 for damages and interest. On October 13, a
month before the newly rescheduled drawing, the Tribunal of Commerce for
the Seine rejected his suit.33
The Mémorial Bordelais had a different perspective. The administration may
have been flawed, ran its argument, and there was also the issue of an unac-
counted-for block of tickets—listed precisely as 427,259—somewhere. But the
main question was the credibility of the lottery as an institution promoted by the
government and squarely in the public eye. Accordingly, the drawing must
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 153

proceed as soon as possible. Whatever the other questions, the need to proceed
far outweighed any possible inconvenience.34
Yet even as rumors swirled and some were confirmed, the public’s fascina-
tion remained undiminished and even grew, and the tickets continued to sell.
The government was walking a fine line between putting its house in order and
trying to maintain confidence in the lottery. The drawing was rescheduled
again, this time for November 16, 1851. After the series of postponements,
some commentators remained unconvinced that the new date for the drawing
was any more certain than the previous dates. The newspaper the Droit, a
confirmed critic of the lottery, claimed that the drawing would not take place in
1851 and was uncertain for 1852. The same paper also provided a breakdown
of the F 7 million generated as income from the sale of tickets: for the five
thousand immigrants, 4.6 million; administrative expenses, 1.2 million; prizes,
1.2 million.35
On the eve of the drawing of the greatest lottery in French history, many
issues continued unresolved. How many tickets were unsold? Had the adminis-
trators of the lottery, reversing an early declaration that all the tickets had been
sold, attempted to retrieve the error by wholesaling out the last several hundred
thousand tickets? Newspaper accounts examined every side of the question of
the missing tickets. Or were they missing? Some doubted the capacity of the
administrators to organize a credible drawing, one that would be transparent
and accepted by millions of ticket holders.36

CHARIVARI SERENADES THE LOTTERY AND ITS

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The weeks leading up to the drawing and the drawing itself were probably
the most heavily covered national news story of the year. Like the arguments
that accompanied the lottery from the beginning, the end created no perfect
consensus. Charivari was always a caustic critic. Under the heading “The
Thousand and One Winners of the Lottery,” it surmised that the individuals
who bought lottery tickets were “perhaps some poor workers, the fathers of fami-
lies having women and children crying from hunger at home. They, waiting,
have come to spend their last sou, the product of many days, and the bread of
their families in tickets of the lottery.”37 Charivari went on: “It is necessary to
leave hope and illusion to the poor, say the philanthropists, the friends of the
family and of religion . . . ; let us be creative, let us be authoritative, let us set
things up, let us push the lottery.” If these aggressive tactics fall short, let “M. le
Curé recommend the lottery in a sermon.”38
154 France

Charivari also captured the place of the lottery in the dreams of ordinary
French men and women. With high expectations of relief from the drudgery of
ordinary life, the many ticket holders (whom Charivari addressed directly)
would “then take up the plow again with light heart, return to the forge, to the
mine, to the attic, inhale the gas, all the smoke, all the dust, all the emanations
of the workshop, return to the incessant labor, to the work that uses all the forces
of body and spirit, when for six months you have held in [your] pocket, tight
against your heart this ticket of liberation which must change your poverty
into riches, your painful labor into pleasures.” It concluded, “What noble and
religious means the philanthropists have found to offer hope to the poor: a
lottery!!!”39
Two weeks later, Charivari soon issued another dispatch from the front lines
of the lottery. This one took the form of a fictional conversation between two
characters, Gros-Pierre and the narrator, who had recently arrived from Paris in
the provincial town that formed the center of the journal’s story. Gros-Pierre
asked the recent arrival for news. He went on to enumerate the most important
local issue: his neighbor, Gros-Jean, and his neighbor Goton (who was the
daughter of Marie-Jeanne), and then the niece of grandfather Nicolas, and then
the rural police, and then the bell ringer at the church, and then the priest, and
then the apothecary—all had bought tickets for the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots. What news from Paris of this important item “of interest to the entire
country”? When will the drawing take place? Village life is at a standstill until
the drawing. The president of the republic also wants to know. It is the first
question he addresses to his minister on arising in the morning. The answer: no
one knows when the drawing will take place. Let us raise a glass of wine to the
health of the emperor!40
Charivari now embraced the new date of the drawing: “Sunday, November
16, will be a memorable date in French history.” It continued: “We hope that
the new prefect of police is up to the job. Already immense preparations are
under way on the Champs-Élysées ‘for this national ceremony.’ Not only in the
Salle du Cirque, but also on the grand avenue, which is covered with shops and
boutiques as in the days of the great public holidays. The expectation is that the
poor devils who win the grand prizes will abandon themselves immediately to
all sorts of expensive follies.” There were many examples to prove this outcome.41
Charivari concluded with the solemn declaration: It was the age of gold
fever! “All Parisians this evening have the fever—and the most terrible of all—
gold fever! Time was when one said: See Naples and then die! Today all of
France repeats with sighs: Win four hundred thousand francs and then live
well.” As part of the proof, “This evening fifteen hundred people are already in
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 155

line for seats for tomorrow’s drawing. Now, I understand perfectly the folly that
invaded the Americans with the discovery of the mines in California.”42

THE DRAWING: “ALL PROCEEDED IN THE GREATEST ORDER”

The rising intensity of interest in the drawing for the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots was matched by doubts about whether this great moment would ever
come to pass. As it turned out, in spite of the checkered history and continuing
doubts, the drawing did take place on November 16, 1851. It was preceded by
official bulletins as to time, place, and procedure. The most important first
directive (aside from the date) was the declaration that the drawing would be
supervised by a special commission that would oversee the whole affair and
guarantee its legitimacy.43
Anticipation now replaced debate and doubt. What remained was the
drawing and the final closure of this great benchmark in French life. On the eve
of the drawing, the Chronique de la Semaine summarized the anticipation in
these terms: “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots—the king of ingots and his
family. . . . It is altogether worth more than politics.” And a Marseille paper
commented: “All Paris is completely occupied with the drawing of the lottery.
All preoccupation with politics seems to have ceased.”44
The drawing was to take place at ten in the morning in the great amphithe-
ater on the Champs-Élysées. The Constitutionnel described the hours before
the drawing: “All night the boutiques where one sold lottery tickets remained
open.” All the shops were illuminated, and the crowds were everywhere.
“Just after midnight,” the account continued, “all the boutiques were filled
with purchasers. One hears the story of one shop which sold tickets worth
40,000 francs in the day and evening before and in the morning today.”45
Another crowd began to gather at the site of the drawing: “This morning,
before six o’clock, a considerable crowd filled the approaches of the Cirque-
Olympique on the Champs-Élysées.” The people waited patiently for the
opening of the doors, “chilled with cold.” It was, after all, mid-November. The
doors opened at nine, and the public was allowed into the chamber. Inside
the Republican Guard and the sergeants of the city were in place to resist the
avalanche that engulfed them. Within a few minutes, the vast amphitheater,
which held some six thousand seats, was filled.
Little by little, calm was reestablished in the amphitheater, and precisely at
ten, after a drumroll, M. Monnin-Japy, the president of the proceedings, accom-
panied by the mayor of the sixth arrondissement and the other senior mayors
of Paris, declared that the meeting was open. He then read the decree that
156 France

authorized the drawing at this time and in this place. The decree also named a
special commission to preside over the proceedings. He then gave an explana-
tion of the system used in the drawing. It featured seven independent wheels.
Twenty-one young people from the Asylum of the Enfants-Trouvés had been
chosen to participate in the drawing. The twenty-one would rotate in three
shifts of seven throughout the 224 drawings. At the command, the first group of
seven young people would spin the seven wheels, then reach in and take a
number, and, finally, post the number in a designated space at the top of the
wheel. The seven numbers from the seven wheels would represent the winner
of the first prize, the golden ingot. Thereafter, the wheels would be spun again
until all 224 prizes had been identified by number.46
With the legal forms certified, shortly after ten, the command was given and
the seven wheels spun for the first time. In the moment of great anticipation,
the winning number appeared: 2,558,115. When the buzz had died down, the
proceedings continued in the same businesslike format, through 224 drawings,
for some three hours. All observers agreed that the long-anticipated and, for
some, anxiety-provoking drawing took place in a joyful yet calm and subdued
atmosphere. One newspaper commented: “This operation was performed in
great calm, and there did not take place the scandalous scenes that one could
imagine.” And another agreed “that all proceeded in the greatest order.”47
Gradually, the hall emptied, and the crowds on the streets also began to drift
away. By five o’clock, some seven hours after the opening of the proceedings,
the square was empty of onlookers. Shortly after one o’clock, news vendors on
the Paris streets were selling sheets with the numbers of the winning tickets and
“doing a brisk business.”48
Then came the rush to identify the large winners. As late as November 30,
the identity of the grand prizewinner was unknown. Only then did his identity
emerge. The grand prize, F 400,000, went to a vintner from the Reims area;
second prize, F 200,000, to a Parisian; third prize, F 100,000, to a landowner
near Honfleur.49 Alexandre Dumas (son) must have been pleased. French citi-
zens had won all the major prizes. The largest share of the patrimony of the
golden ingots had stayed in France.
The drawing of the winners in the Lottery of the Golden Ingots produced
human interest stories to satisfy the most devoted observers of Paris and French
life. Winners came from every part of France and from every social and
economic condition. Most of the attention focused, naturally enough, on the
larger winners. A brigadier in the Republican Guard won F 25,000; an inter-
preter at the Hotel Maurice, 5,000; a wine merchant in the Faubourg du
Temple, 10,000. Among the other winners, a Paris chambermaid won F 25,000,
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 157

authenticating the argument that the lottery was an equal-opportunity enter-

prise, open to people of every class. An Irishman, living temporarily in Paris,
won F 10,000. And then there were the stories of winners outside Paris, in
Rouen, Banon, Tours, and other places. Among the winners of F 1,000: a
woman in a counting house, a man of letters, a day laborer, a bookbinder, a
postal clerk, a hairdresser, a schoolteacher, and a clerk to a wholesale merchant.50
Then there were the less happy experiences. A young woman from
Montrouge who bought four hundred tickets won nothing. An apprentice
dressmaker asked for 1 franc, 10 sous, from her employer to buy a ticket. After
many objections, the employer agreed. The ticket “won an important prize,”
which the employer claimed in its entirety. “The poor young woman is in
despair,” but in spite of newspaper opinion to the contrary, she received nothing.
The message of this unfortunate incident was to call attention, once again, to
the lottery and “the cold side of the human heart.”51

AFTER THE DRAWING: SATISFACTION, SADNESS, CONFUSION,

AND LITIGATION

In the aftermath of the drawing, the first great response was satisfaction. In
spite of scandals, confusion, and questions of omission and commission, the
government had produced a credible drawing with a ceremony of considerable
dignity. The administrators of the lottery breathed a collective sign of relief. The
nation exhaled. The holders of the lottery tickets, winners and losers, retired
satisfied that the individual numbers each had had a valid chance. And with 7
million tickets supposedly outstanding, a chance was all one could reasonably
hope for. The credibility of the government to oversee such an operation of
national importance, badly scarred and tarnished, seemed reestablished. At
least to a degree. Newspapers across the nation celebrated the results and the
odd quirks that had singled out random individuals for fortunes, or at least parts
of fortunes. Stories of cupidity and selfishness were mixed with the heart-
warming accounts of ordinary working people, who, if they had not won castles
in Spain with a horse-drawn carriage, had at least won enough to make a change
in their work-weary lives and those of their families.52
There was another surprising quality associated with the aftermath of the
drawing. This was sadness. It was the loss of dreams. It was the disappearance of
hope that had flowered during the wait. Before the drawing, every ticket had an
equal chance at a fortune. Every ticket holder could dream accordingly. After
the drawing, all these dreams disappeared. The drawing was a dash of reality.
One newspaper said of the famous day: “Let us repeat only that Sunday has
158 France

been a fatal day. We don’t regret the loss of the twenty sous to purchase a ticket,
but everyone regrets bitterly the loss of their dreams.” One can only speculate
on the conversations in cafés, in places of business, around the family table that
revolved around the prospects of winning and the plans that would accompany
such a triumph. The poorer the family, we can only imagine the richer the
dreams and the harder the results of the drawing.53
Some did not take the loss of their dreams passively. Their response was liti-
gation. The newspaper La Patrie noted the appearance of duplicate tickets, at
least three confirmed. One was for a prize of 50,000, a second for 25,000, a third
for 10,000. The stakes were large as the courts began to sort through conflicting
claims of various kinds. Clearly some kind of high-level investigation was
needed. Individuals who were party to such confusions moved quickly to
the courts.54
Two major legal cases grew out of the lottery. The first concerned the deci-
sion to sell large blocks of lottery tickets to a third party for resale. This policy
was the subject of rumors for several months. The decision to move in this
direction apparently reflected the director’s concern about sales of the final
tickets. The fascination of the public drove the sale of the tickets in the final
months of 1850. Then came the display of the ingot and Dumas’s history to
drive interest in the early months of 1851. But 7 million was a lot of tickets to sell.
As spring rounded into summer, in the midst of continuing postponements of
the drawing, stories circulated that a principal reason was simply that several
hundred thousand tickets remained unsold. These stories were lost in the
exciting run-up to the drawing and the drawing itself, followed by fascination
with the winners and endless human interest accounts of the winners and even
the losers. In response to the many rumors of malfeasance on the part of the
director (leading to his replacement), the government determined to offer a
complete and transparent public accounting. As the new administrators were to
discover, the balancing of the lottery books involved an accounting of the large
blocks wholesaled to third parties.
The first of these major cases heard before the Civil Court of the Seine
involved a lawsuit by the “liquidator” of the lottery against the administrators of
Lafitte, Caillard, and Company. Or in the words of the official description of
the case, “An affair connected to the famous Lottery of the Golden Ingots has
been brought to this Court.” The issue was the demand of the administrators of
the lottery for the “restitution of the lottery tickets” from the company to which
they had been sold. The lawyer for the director of the lottery, M. Oudine,
outlined the case. At the close of the year 1850, M. Langlois, then director of the
lottery, offered to Lafitte, Caillard, and Company a large number of lottery
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 159

tickets with a premium of 5 percent, to be placed mainly in Paris rather than the
departments. The offer was accepted, and the lottery officials imposed the
condition that the receipts for the tickets given to the company would be signed
by the company directors themselves. On December 5, M. Langlois delivered
20,000 tickets; on December 7, two days later, another 10,000 tickets. The
directors receipted the two deliveries. Over the next eight months, there were
seventeen additional deliveries and seventeen receipts with the signature of
M. Godoneche, one of the company’s directors. Langlois conveyed a total of
150,000 lottery tickets to the company. After the drawing, an accounting showed
that 117,358 tickets had been sold and the receipts transmitted by M. Godoneche
to the directors of the lottery. On October 3, 1851, M. Oudine wrote to the
company in order to reclaim the remaining 32,642 unreimbursed tickets. Two
days after receipt of the letter, M. Godoneche disappeared, and the company
now refused to pay for the remaining 32,642 tickets. M. Oudine sued the
company for the face value of the tickets plus other expenses, totaling F 38,500.
This sum, according to the lottery’s lawyer, was now owed to the lottery.
The learned counsel for the company offered a different account. In his
summary, M. Langlois, the former director of the lottery, had sought agents to
place lottery tickets in the provinces. He had addressed an inquiry to the
company along these lines. First, the company refused. It was an awkward busi-
ness because of the many small sums involved, and the collections were uncer-
tain and difficult. There were many opportunities for dishonesty, the lawyer
continued, and it was impossible to keep exact track. In effect, the system of
control adopted by the company, so simple and ingenious, became impossible
to execute. But the learned counsel’s principal legal point revolved around the
conditions set by the lottery itself. In brief, M. Godoneche, the signatory, was
not a proper officer of the company, and the more so as he had now fled. Or, in
the words of the court’s decision, “M. Oudine had transmitted the tickets
directly by the agents of the lottery to the employees of the company.” The
messengers had emerged “without the signature of the administrators.” As a
result, “The director of the lottery has thus committed an infraction of the
contract, and this infraction is the primary cause of the loss sustained by the
lottery.” Therefore, the lottery was entitled to nothing. The basis of the decision
was a narrow point of law, revolving around the signature on the receipts for the
tickets and the authority of the individual. That the signatory had disappeared
cast further doubt on his position with the company. The judge declined to
make the company liable for his signature and oversight.55
The narrow grounds for the decision skirted many of the charges made
against the lottery in the months leading up to the drawing. Yet the case provided
160 France

an insightful look into some of the inner workings of the lottery. As rumor and
newspaper stories had claimed, the lottery had indeed wholesaled out large
blocks of tickets, especially in the final months, in a last attempt to sell the
full 7 million tickets. The case also offered a window into what must have
been a large administrative apparatus deep inside the lottery headquarters.
As counsel for the defense reminded the court, the record-keeping apparatus
must have been extraordinary. Seven million tickets represented 7 million
individual transactions. The details were infinite; the opportunities for errors
were everywhere, accidental and deliberate.
The second major case before the court involved the duplicate numbers of
some winning tickets. Or, as the official account characterized the case: “The
Lottery of the Golden Ingots—duplicate tickets; the winning number—
dispute.” This was another issue that had engaged the press and damaged the
credibility of the lottery and its administrators.56 The second case was also tried
before the Civil Court of the Seine. After long arguments and much delibera-
tion, the court handed down its verdict. The holder of the duplicate ticket with
the face value of F 25,000 was to receive F 1,000 from the lottery office. The
reasoning of the court seemed to follow the line that the duplicate tickets were,
in the final analysis, the responsibility of the government. At the time, the court
limited the government’s liability to F 1,000, a fraction of the face value of the
ticket. The court moved to protect the government from a larger figure. The
law was implacable on this point. Yet as a question of responsibility to its citizen-
participants, the issue was more open-ended. After all, the lottery had generated
the better part of F 2 million in profit (to be used for the lottery emigrants, to be
sure). No matter; the government presumably must be protected in this and
other future suits.57

The Lottery of the Golden Ingots had a brief but powerful intrusion into the life
of the French nation. To begin with, its identification with gold and California
fascinated the nation for twelve months, at the expense of politics and even
economic hardship. Second, in spite of the scandals and irregularities, which
would be visited in the courts in subsequent years, the government managed to
organize and execute the drawing with order and a degree of dignity, amid a
scene of great rejoicing that drew orderly crowds. Finally, the lottery financed
the departure at government expense of 4,016 emigrants from France; of these,
3,293 disembarked in San Francisco.58 Even as the wheels drew forth the
numbers, so the lottery ships, as they were called, were loading and setting sail
with their human cargoes. Between November 1851 and May 1853, ships set sail
from France every month. At the end of a long and hard voyage, they dumped
 Lottery of the Golden Ingots 161

their human cargoes on the wharves of San Francisco, where they were issued
some food, clothing, and supplies (described in chapter 13 below). They were
now free to seek their fortunes in California.
The long lottery experience, from authorization to drawing, with its bursts of
national publicity, had another unforeseen consequence. In its advertising and
commentary, it drew attention to the hardships of French life for ordinary fami-
lies. If part of the appeal of the lottery lay in its dreams of relief from the drudgery
of the routines of life, then the drudgery of this life had to be identified and
remarked upon. So the lottery came to depend on the dreams that it spawned
among working people. A hard-earned franc or several francs could buy a
chance at a new life, a chance so astonishing as to promote dreams around
the table of bread and thin soup. The revolution had brought these hard lives
(for all members of the family) out of the shadows, and Étienne Cabet’s “Icaria”
had created a utopian community of equality and justice. But these interludes
had quickly faded in the reality of the economic uncertainty (whether correctly
blamed on the upheaval of the revolution or not), and relief (quickly lost in the
fading national workshops) had been replaced by the promise of a ticket in a
great national lottery. Even as the news went out on the results of the drawing,
so there appeared nostalgia for the lost hopes embodied in a single one-franc
ticket. Although an occasional item in the press alluded to these vanished
dreams, the inarticulate condition of so many of these working families would
keep these references to a minimum and ensure that they would soon disap-
pear. So there faded from French public life one of the most important and, at
the same time, one of the most underplayed and shadowy dimensions of the
great lottery.
The drawing of the Lottery of the Golden Ingots and the sailing of the seven-
teen lottery ships wrote a conclusion to the public story of the French and
California. It was a story characterized by fantasy and dreams, mixed with hard
reality, in the gold fields and in the schemes of the California companies.
 10

FRENCH STORIES AND FRENCH IMAGES

OF CALIFORNIA

THE FIRST STORIES AND IMAGES: HUMOR AND CARICATURE

News of the California gold discoveries trumpeted the improbable reports of

ordinary citizens picking up gold nuggets off the ground. Such accounts lent
themselves to doubt and scorn: doubt that such events could be true; scorn that
people would give them serious credence. Not surprisingly, visual representa-
tions soon joined these verbal descriptions. The early months of 1849 produced
an increasing number of such representations. Humor magazines, growing in
number and shielded from censorship by the new press laws of the republic,
were a center of visual images depicting the California gold discoveries and
their impact in France.
The assault on shaping (or reshaping) the California image was led by
Charivari, the leading humor magazine. Initially, the sheet decried the news of
the gold discoveries as the worst kind of fraud. Then, it moved to unwilling
acceptance of the presence of gold, perhaps grounded in part in the recognition
that potential stories were more interesting if the gold was there. Other maga-
zines, such as Silhouette, the Caricaturiste, and the Journal pour Rire soon
followed. These visual presentations may be grouped under several headings
that reflect how they were brought to the attention of the public.

COST OF FOOD: MINERS ARE RICH BUT STARVING

A widespread early caricature of California and the gold discoveries reflected

the richness of the gold discoveries and the parallel potential for French
investors at several levels. One example involved a fictional character, “the

162
 French Stories and Images of California 163

celebrated Barbanchu.” “All the world is leaving to search for gold in California,”
he writes in his journal, and he soon sets sail for California with a band of
emigrants. After months at sea, he hears the cry: “Sacramento! Sacramento!!”
He quickly goes to the fabled goldfields and begins work. Imagine the instant
results! “I have only been at work three hours after my arrival; because of fatigue,
today I have only harvested two hundred fifty-five dollars of gold.” For his dinner
that evening: bread—$25; wine—$50; beefsteak—$100; Chester cheese—$50;
a toothpick—$25; plus $5 to the waiter. The next day, he works a new and richer
mine. “Today I gathered ten thousand francs of gold. The price of food is rising.
After having dinner and buying a pistol, I still have two thousand dollars.” Thus
begins an account of rising (indeed astonishing) success, balanced against the
parallel rise in the cost of all basic necessities for life. The following day,
Barbanchu discovers a mine that he names “the Tragic Virgin.” Its riches are
astonishing. Yet “with the two thousand dollars which is left to me, I cannot find
a slice of roast beef to purchase; I dine with two thousand dollars’ worth of
cheese. Today they found two new mines to the west.” And the next day, “three
new mines to the southwest. I made fifty thousand dollars in my day.” His daily
gold harvest rises to $100,000 and then $150,000. For dinner, he buys a piece of
cheese for $50,000. Three days later, amid this continuing hard work, his boots
split. The cost of a new pair of boots: $1 million!1
The accounts of the world of California quickly moved into the realm of
fantasy. Among the best examples was the widely circulated account of a soldier
who deserted his unit, found a substantial fortune in the placers, and left the
mines weighed down by gold in several forms. On the road from the mines,
overcome with hunger, he collapsed at the side of the road and offered to
trade a large gold nugget for a plate of pork and beans. No fellow miner, going
to or returning from the mines, would accept the offer. This story nicely fed
the French perception that amid an abundance of gold, American miners
lacked every other element necessary to life, of which the most important
was food. Driven by stories of outrageous prices and isolated mining camps,
French editors and caricaturists saw gold miners as constantly on the edge of
starvation.2
Another newspaper wrote of the harvesting of blocks of ore worth F 15,000 or
16,000 each, but “it was necessary to spend ten thousand for a bit of potatoes and
twenty thousand to have a piece of black bread. . . . If you have a million dollars,
of course, you can sleep on a hard surface, and one dies of hunger before the
end of a week.” And the Pays continued in the same vein: “The largest part of
the gold hunters are in the position of King Midas, who, changing everything
that he touches into gold, feels famine in the midst of these treasures.”3
164 France

THE WHOLESALE DESERTIONS

Another dimension of the gold country now engaged Charivari and other
humor magazines—namely, the desertion of San Francisco and the country-
side as individuals of every age and station rushed to the goldfields. Crews
deserted as soon as ships anchored in the harbor. Servants left their masters and
mistresses, who were forced to do household chores for the first time in their
lives. Enlisted men in the army deserted, followed by their officers, and finally
by government officials. If the governor’s servants and those of the alcalde
deserted for the mines, the servants of new French emigrants would surely do
so. The visual representation of this world without a servant class quickly caught
the eye of caricaturists.4
The earliest reports from the goldfields—as early as the official report of
Jacques Moerenhout to his minister—emphasized the wholesale desertion of
Upper California’s villages and countryside as the population rushed to the
mines. What was even more striking in this generally ordered world was the
desertion of officials, both civil and military. In a structured world of civil bureau-
cracy and a well-ordered military, French observers found such dereliction of
duty truly astonishing. It spoke to the compelling attraction of the goldfields;
perhaps it also reflected on the fitness of the officials and military officers.
Whatever the origins of this powerful force that swept people of all stations
toward the gold streams, the occasion caught the eye of artists and commentators
alike. Their attitude seemed to be one of astonishment mixed with disapproval.

THE SCARCITY OF WOMEN

Another of the caricaturists’ fascinations with California was the scarcity of

women. Given the popular impression of commercial opportunity in California,
it was only a short step to transforming women into a commercial enterprise.
What lovely stuff! Charivari conjured up commerce in women based on
Mrs. Eliza Farnham’s attempts to transport several score young women of good
character to California, with a view to marriage with wealthy single miners.
Mrs. Farnham was real enough, pursuing a reality as she “brought together two
interrelated symbols: the symbol of marriage and a good-faith commercial
enterprise.” Imagine the idea of eligible women in California on a commercial
basis. In the words of Charivari: “Prix fixe! How much is that blonde? So much!
And that brunette? So much!”5
Another journal, the Caricaturiste, commented in these terms: “What can
we say about an entire nation, a modern and civilized nation, which assimilates
 French Stories and Images of California 165

a woman as a thing, as an item of merchandise. It is true that this is a nation of

merchants. Decidedly the merchants make money in every possible way. Here
one reads in the American newspapers that much of California awaits the arrival
of Mrs. Farnham with her valuable cargo. The Caricaturiste castigated the
“brutal” treatment of women, who were seen “as an article of shoddy goods.”6

THE FANTASY RICHES OF CALIFORNIA

The French had another variation on the extraordinary riches of California’s

gold-bearing landscape and the almost Midas-like thirst for gold. One account
of the new El Dorado began with the comment, “What a country for misers!
What ground! The fertility within it is so great that with nothing more than
thrusting one’s knife or fork into the ground, one withdraws a knife or fork of
gold. What a wonderful transformation for those who love gold!” The account
continued in the same vein: “But this is still not all; if the ground of California
is the ground of gold, the climate is not less marvelous; it makes men almost
immortal, something incredible.” And such is the power of California on the
individual that one man lived to be 250 years old, and tired of life, he wished to
die. “But [to die] in this happy climate of gold is not easy.” Finally, “our ancient”
leaves California, and when in a different country, at last he can die. A friend
then returns the body to California for burial, but as soon as the body experi-
ences the vitality of the California climate and ground, it springs to life again!
Imagine! This is the penultimate account of California as fantasyland, a myth-
ical place of perpetual riches and eternal life some twelve thousand miles and
five months distant.7

IMAGES OF THE CALIFORNIA COMPANIES

Of all the excesses and foibles loosed by the gold in California, none provoked
so much activity or comment as the wave of emerging California companies.
And such enterprises made a wonderful subject for humor magazines and cari-
caturists. Here is one response: “The walls of Paris are covered with large
notices, shaded yellow, and the color of gold. These posters are destined to
inform us about the charms of California, and naturally these are based on the
most golden promises. . . . A new company is being formed to permit Parisians
to go to California in return for five francs.”8
Of course, as the gold fever burned hotter and the company promises rose in
like proportion, the companies themselves were an irresistible target. Whether
it was their extravagant promises of dividends, of the luxurious accommodations
166 France

and of continuing services provided to associate workers or the ever-reduced

price of shares to find a new market, the California companies, by their elabo-
rate, pompous, and continual advertising, lent themselves to caricature. By
the end of March 1849, “one counts at this moment in Paris more than two
hundred companies or associations . . . to go to California. We have the fraternal
association, the national association, the European association, the universal
association, etc. All these associations have a social capital of several millions.
One subscribes for stock certificates of five francs. I am not certainly the most
tight-fisted to refuse a certificate of five francs in an enterprise of such eminent
use, and as I hold to favor the maritime commerce of my country, I subscribed
for ten francs.”9
The opportunities offered by the California companies led to the resurrec-
tion in updated dress of a traditional French comic character. Robert-Macaire
was a rascal. He was clever, quick, and at heart a fraud. In this sense, he was a
character created for caricature. He combined new and innovative ways to steal
with a bumbling quality that ensured he would invariably be caught. He was
joined in his adventures by his faithful companion Bertrand.
The California gold discoveries were ideally suited to such a pair of confi-
dence men. Charivari rose to the occasion. “One has asked for some time, what
has become of Robert-Macaire? He is dead, say some. Not at all, reply others;
he has emigrated. And Bertrand? Bertrand has followed him. It’s true. Robert-
Macaire is at the head of a company for the exploitation of mines in California.
It is not a question of one of these mean exploitations which have hardly to put
posters on the corners of some streets, one of those vulgar traps, where one
makes the stockholder the victim of . . . the trick so characteristic of the
Americans.” The account continued: “Robert-Macaire does things in a grand
style as usual. . . . [The company] has a magnificent suite of rooms, sumptuous
furnishings, employees, servants, everything pointed to permanence and
opulence. Enter, Messieurs the stockholders, enter! You wish to have nothing
but the most accurate information about California, Messieurs; meet with the
celebrated traveler, Sir Bertrand.” Every Paris reader could infer the outcome of
that conversation and be amused by it.10

THE CALIFORNIA IMAGES OF CHAM

Cham was the artistic name of a celebrated mid-nineteenth-century French

caricaturist. Born Amedée de Noé, son of the Comte de Noé, a peer of France,
the son turned to the arts. His images represented a summing-up of California
and gold as both appeared in the popular imagination, faded from it, and then
 French Stories and Images of California 167

returned. Cham and his work mark the division of the images of California into
two separate groups, representing interest and subject matter. The first appeared
with the opening of 1849 and extended for the next five months. A second and
separate upsurge of interest and popular representation reappeared with the flow-
ering of the California companies in the first six months of 1850. So Cham’s work
might be described as at the close of the first period of popular images. The focus
of the first period: California and gold; the second: the California companies.

STORIES: THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH AS THEATER

The several different venues that emerged for verbal images of California
included long fictional accounts—generally presented as feuilletons in newspa-
pers—theatrical productions, poetry, children’s literature with moral messages,
and narrative accounts to accompany commercial panoramas.
Beginning in early February 1849, Paul Duplessis’s “Les Chercheurs d’Or du
Sacramento” appeared in several newspapers.11 This fictional account arrived
with the first explosion of interest in “gold” and “California,” and the transition
from acceptance to gold mania was under way. Within the year, the lengthy
story—it ran for six issues when serialized—had been transformed into a drama
and staged at a leading theater in Paris, opening in January 1850.12
Duplessis’s story of the “rush to gold” in California began in New Orleans. It
was built around three main characters. The first was a gigantic American from
Kentucky. Presumably, the identification with Kentucky would evoke images of
frontier strength and manliness. The second character was “a young woman of
18 to 20 years [who] seemed without contradiction, of that beautiful and strong
American race that the excesses of civilization have not yet had the time to
corrupt. The regular features of her fresh face—her large blue eyes, her magnif-
icent auburn hair, her lustrous complexion . . .—form an ensemble otherwise
poetic and distinguished, little short of very agreeable . . . and she is called Miss
Annette B.” Attention now passed to the third character, “who, with the large
Kentuckian and the pretty Miss Annette, has the privilege to attract, as I have
already said, my attention [and who] was seated at the other end of the table
facing me. It was a man with a figure bronzed by the sun.” This was the native
Californian. The drama tells the story of the main characters in pursuit of gold
in California. It contrasted the nobility of the native Californian with the
grasping, clumsy, naked pursuit of gold by the Kentuckian, with the young
woman offering a romantic interest in the background.13
As noted, almost a year later, a drama with the same title opened at the
Théâtre de la Porte-Martin. Subtitled “A Drama in Five Acts with Six Scenes,”
168 France

it was co-authored by Marc Fournier. The theatrical production reflected

changes appropriate to the place. The role of the Kentuckian and other
Americans had disappeared, replaced by French characters on the way to
California to search for gold. Georges, Comte de Montalegre, goes to California
to retrieve his family fortune, ruined by his ill-advised speculations. He is a wild
gambler, a man of few scruples who seeks out adventure and does not hesitate
to risk the most perilous enterprises. He is accompanied by his wife, Clarisse de
Montalegre, in almost every respect his opposite. She has joined him out of a
sense of duty and a marriage sacrifice. At the hotel in New Orleans, they
encounter a French doctor, Henri Desroches. Another French character,
Polissart, a “professor of dance and pantomime,” provides humor. The several
American characters, appropriate to French images of travel across the plains,
included Apache Indians and an escort of twenty-four Americans to guard the
count and countess on the overland trek to California and who, when they
arrive, will work in the placers.
In a hotel in New Orleans, the large party organizes for the overland trek.
When Dr. Desroches and Clarisse meet, the encounter reveals that he is a
former suitor for the hand of Clarisse, who emigrated to America after his suit
was rejected. He is joining the caravan for the voyage overland. His destination
is San Francisco; theirs, the goldfields.
A fourth main figure appears on stage toward the close of the first act. He is
Andres Arrianiga, a native Californian. He represents the natural man in his
native landscape, surrounded by invading gold seekers, all flawed in different
ways. The three main characters play out their roles to show the range of the
impact of gold. Georges de Montelegre meets Arrianiga, who is known as
the King of Golden Sands. De Montelegre’s search for gold on his own fails,
and he comes to believe that the Californian knows the location of a huge gold
deposit. He is right. He uses Arrianiga’s attraction to his wife, Clarisse, to pry out
the secret. Arrianiga had paid homage to his mother by surrounding her burial
site with a great bed of gold. De Montelegre kidnaps Arrianiga and violates the
grave to seize the gold. He now confronts a choice between his wife and his
gold. He abandons his wife to the Indians. On the orders of Arrianiga, Georges
de Montelegre is shot several times and expires on the stage. With his vengeance
secured, Arrianiga returns to his desert solitude with his gold and his sister,
Carmen. Clarisse de Montelegre and Henri Desroches join hands and walk
together toward the setting sun. The curtain falls.
The play was widely reviewed. Two reviewers paid much attention to the
issue of California and its new place in French life. The reviewer from
Événement wrote, “California is one of those real dreams that God has pleased
 French Stories and Images of California 169

to send to our age.” In this production, “the two authors have created three
characters to show the range of the impact of gold. In the end, one character,
Georges, finds death; Arrianiga regains his solitude; Henri finds love.” And from
the review in the Presse: “Gold fever has invaded society from the highest to the
lowest level, as a sign of the characteristic of our age.”14
A second and different kind of verbal and visual representation soon appeared
in the form of a panorama, ideally suited to the varied landscape of the American
West, with the added fascination of gold embedded in its streams flowing out of
the sierra. The first large-scale production advertised itself in these terms: “The
Voyage to California or an Explanatory Notice of a Panorama Presented for the
First Time to the Public, in the Théâtre des Variétés, August 6, 1850.”15
A third example showed the theater moving to meet a demand of the public
for visual images of gold and California. This production carried the title Le
Train de Plaisir pour la Californie. A reviewer in the Siècle described the presen-
tation in these terms: “The director of the Théâtre des Variétés has announced
a splendid spectacle on California, something fantastic, etc.” At the theater, the
reviewer saw a “broadside to announce a spectacle, and what a spectacle!”
Unfortunately, the visuals were accompanied by a most banal recitation of the
passing landscape, with reference to the trunk of a tree, a rock, the Kansas
River, and the Great Salt Lake. “Fortunately,” the reviewer continued, “there is
a little booklet.” The cost is 20 centimes, and “it explains everything that
passes before your eyes.” The reviewer concluded by calling it “an attractive
vaudeville, and good comedy.”16
Another reviewer in Événement spoke of the intensity and look of California,
where “one gathers gold like little pebbles.” He continued: “Everyone is anxious
to know about this curious country, where the fourth page of newspapers, trans-
formed by translation of ‘A Thousand and One Nights,’ gives us some of these
marvelous stories.” Some of the views presented in the panorama included the
Valley of Desolation, the Devil’s Door, the waterfall, the port and city of San
Francisco, and the panners of gold at work.17

STORIES: THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH IN FICTION

The California gold rush was an author’s dream. For newspaper editors and
feature writers, it was an unending source of news and human interest stories,
at the national and local levels. For writers of fiction, it had every necessary
ingredient to capture the attention of the reader. French authors, like their
American counterparts, seized the opportunities. One of the most prominent of
French literary figures, Alexandre Dumas (father), used the setting. Others,
170 France

lesser known, wrote features for newspaper feuilletons, capturing popular

interest driven to heights by the publicity and advertisements associated with
the California companies and later the Lottery of the Golden Ingots.
The longest and most detailed account of the French in the gold rush,
published contemporaneously, was the work of Edmond Texier. The title of his
twenty-two-part feuilleton was “Two Parisians in California,” and it first appeared
in March 1849. This work touched all the pressure points of the gold rush: gold,
wealth, adventure, danger, Indians, landscape, high society, class, and romance.
It featured two young men from Paris, albeit very different from one another.
Indeed, the differences added to the charm and flexibility of the narrative. The
first, David, was a sober and skilled carpenter, anxious to work but without
work; the second was a young man from the streets, “File-ton-Noeud” (his street
name), who had lived by his wits, also without future prospects.18
The two men initially come to America as a part of the Icarian community
that sailed with great fanfare from Le Havre in 1849 to establish a new commu-
nity in Texas. The expedition was a disaster. The land in Texas was a desert,
and the community broke up, much to the satisfaction of critics in France. The
two characters in our story take passage to California, the obvious site of
economic opportunity. On the voyage they meet a cross-section of gold rush
immigrants, “a pandemonium which is worthy of inspiring the brush of Callot.”
Among their new friends is an American named Tom, with whom they plan a
partnership.19
Arriving in San Francisco, they accept the hospitality of an hotelier—“They
are fed, given rooms with beds and sheets, and a new outfit of clothes”—
unaware that he will present them with a large bill. Faced with a large debt they
are unable to pay, they agree to work in the mines for the hotelier. Their conclu-
sions about California and San Francisco: “California is a very amusing place.
We have not yet found much gold, but considering how easy it is to spend
money, it ought to be easy to get.”20
In the placers on the San Joaquin, our two heroes encounter a cross-section
of the world, with endless variations in clothing, languages, and customs. After
the hard work of the day, the community comes together for recreation: “In the
evening, the work done, the placer is transformed into a rendezvous of pleasure
and well deserves its name. All the ranks are mixed together. There is an equality
about gold. The magistrates, the doctors, the workers—all play, gossip, and eat
together. The Spanish women who have followed their husbands each evening
organize a fandango.”21 Unhappy about working for the hotelier and amazed by
the large quantities of gold amassed by ordinary miners, the two Parisians flee in
the dark of night.
 French Stories and Images of California 171

The flight provides the author with the opportunity to describe the dramatic
California mountain landscape, which is both challenging and dangerous for
our two Parisians. Tired and hungry, they are surrounded by the dangerous
Apache Indians. Surprise! The king of the Apaches is Polyphème, who turns
out to be a former French blacksmith. Polyphème tells his story, which like that
of David and File-ton-Noeud, is about harsh work in his native France, cold,
hunger, starving little children, and laboring within an inflexible and pitiless
system. Coming to California, Polyphème immediately goes to the placers,
where he is captured by the Apaches. Using his skills as a blacksmith, he shows
the Indian leaders how to transform a plow into iron lances. With this new
weapon, the Indians win a great victory over a traditional rival, and Polyphème
is made a chief. He is exercising his prerogatives as a chief when he meets the
Parisians. The three friends now flee the Apache encampment, and after suit-
able adventures, they leave the mountains behind and reach the lovely valley of
the Sacramento.
The three friends now unfold Tom’s map, which reveals the location of a
hidden mine. They work in a frenzy: “David was by nature honest and hard
working. He was the personification of that class of honest and intelligent
workers, of which File-ton-Noeud himself was the expression of joyful insouci-
ance.”22 As the three friends work on building a cabin, the author tells the story
of David’s first months in America. Landing in New York, he opted to find work
in or around the city rather than go with the Icarians to Texas. His search for
work as a carpenter led him to the estate of William Hamilton and to his niece,
Anna Lawrence. David is astonished to learn that Anna’s wealthy merchant
father was once a laborer. America is truly a land where hard work, initiative,
and talent can overcome class. David is smitten with Anna, and her father’s
experiences give him hope. David has gone to California to make the fortune
that will enable him to become a legitimate suitor for her hand. While the
friends work at the mining site, File-ton-Noeud passes himself off as a doctor
from the Faculty of Paris. Using folk medicine practiced by his Aunt Cadiche,
he cures ill miners and establishes the primacy of commonsense folk remedies.
One of his patients calls him the greatest doctor in the world. When he departs,
“he takes two bottles of rum, tools, and the benediction of the colony.”23
With the first harvest from the hidden mine—F 60,000 in gold—they return
to San Francisco. What a pleasant surprise! Anna Lawrence is in San Francisco,
visiting her uncle, who is governor. Word of the wealth of the three friends
spreads across San Francisco. David and File-ton-Noeud are invited to a
soirée at the governor’s home at the Presidio. In the meantime, on the East
Coast, Anna’s father has been ruined by an unscrupulous partner. David
172 France

and Anna meet in an emotional reunion. After they renew their vows to
one another, David makes a dramatic statement: “I am rich, very rich!” David
offers to pay her father’s debts. He “understands the power of gold. Miss Anna
is stupefied.”24
The three friends return to work the mine. They achieve astonishingly
rich results. One evening, just as they uncover a huge block of gold, an
unknown figure appears and demands the gold. “Give me my treasure!” A
terrible struggle follows. The unknown intruder is killed. Horrors!!! It is Tom,
the American, the source of the map that led to the treasure. David buries
Tom and resolves to hide the involuntary crime. David and File-ton-Noeud
return to San Francisco, where David’s suit for Anna is accepted by the uncle:
“I know enough of Mr. Lawrence to be persuaded that he will not refuse his
daughter to an honest working man who will make her happy; a former working
man himself, he has not denied his origins; moreover, in our country, a large
number of masters, of manufacturers, of businessmen have begun by working
in workshops.”25
Anna’s father has disappeared. He has gone to the source of the Sacramento,
and Anna and the two Parisians follow. Horror of horrors! The man that David
struck was not only his benefactor Tom, but he was also Mr. Lawrence, Anna’s
father. “I killed him for a piece of gold,” cries David. They all return heart-
broken to San Francisco. In the dénouement, David gives all his wealth to Anna
to pay her father’s debts. David watches her ship leave the harbor. Polyphème
urges David to use his future wealth to aid others. The two Parisians depart for
the mines of the Sacramento. The story ends.26
Texier’s story was a perfect summary of the several exciting strands of the
rush to gold in California. Two Parisians of very different character, fleeing the
hardships and harsh world of France, join together in a great adventure in
California. They are, at various times, exploited by an unscrupulous innkeeper;
they are laborers in the placers and fugitives in the vast California landscape;
they are captured by the legendary Apaches, released by another Parisian in his
guise as a chief, and later are successful beyond their dreams in mining gold.
Running parallel to this narrative of unending excitement is the story of David’s
romance with Anna Lawrence. This exposes the very American life of Anna’s
wealthy father, who began his career as a laboring man. His rise contrasts with
the lack of opportunities for our two Parisians in France. They have not
only come to the so-called land of gold; they have come to a place with infinite
opportunities for honest working men. Whatever the tragic ending of misunder-
standing and misidentification, the story is a continuing recitation of the oppor-
tunities in golden California for ordinary working men.
 French Stories and Images of California 173

Another kind of fictional account of the California goldfields was one intended
for young readers. J. B. J. Champagnac’s Le Jeune Voyageur en Californie: Récits
Instructifs et Moraux appeared in 1852. The author proposed “to make known to
our young readers this California, a name that has served to make so many
dupes, this country nearly marvelous, of which one has said too many things
true and false, and which has precipitated in our days a great number of adven-
turers who have not found what they sought there.”27
The story opens with Cadet Grosjean, “who has wrestled long against the
temptation of gold.” On one of the narrow streets that lead to Rue Saint-Paul,
not far from the old convent of Ave Maria, the revolution closed “all these aisles
of venerable piety.” La mère Jérôme, the grandmother, was the essence of strong
character and piety. “Alas this happiness was not to last. At this time, the marvels
of California excited all the imaginations, and above all, those of the poor.” All
of the young people listened to the amazing stories about California, “but with
the exception of Cadet, no one was tempted to make this distant voyage.” Cadet
continued to be transfixed by stories of California gold, and “the thought of
making a quick and large fortune haunted him day and night.” He would use
the fortune to make his grandmother comfortable in her old age. She had
worked hard and been tired all her life. He could also make gifts to pious and
useful institutions. He was supported in this ambition by M. le Curé, who
recognized his philanthropic goals. The final advice from la mère Jérôme is
accompanied by her benediction. As Cadet is making preparations for
departure, she constantly expresses anxiety about the people he will meet. “In
villainous California, there are many bad types from all nations.” The curé
responds that California is not more dangerous than the Faubourg Saint
Antoine, where Cadet has passed his days.28
Yet even as the moral story unfolds, the larger story adds to the prevailing
sense of the richness of the goldfields in California. In Cadet Grosjean’s journal,
which he writes in the mines, gold is found everywhere. He describes the wide
extent of the gold region. He offers details on the exploitation of the mines. In
his informed view, the gold found in the beds of the rivers will eventually extend
to the Oregon border. His account of the “riches of the mines” is one of aston-
ishment. He continues: “A hard worker will harvest 25–40 dollars of gold a day.”
He recounts the stories of great fortunes. He reflects on the hard work and
the harsh landscape: “California is rich in other ways, but everyone rushes
headlong toward gold.29
As the title implies, this story of a voyage to California by a deserving young
man was couched in terms of the right moral decisions. Among the several
influences on the young man were his grandmother, his priest, and his friends.
174 France

All contribute in their own way. Cadet Grosjean goes to California to find gold
to relieve his grandmother’s hard life. The priest provides the funds to enable
him to make the trip. The young friends provide a parade of information and
insights into California and the goldfields. The young man has adventures and
makes good, but within the appropriate moral guidelines of the day: he seeks
gold to support his grandmother and to do good works for the less fortunate.
The story is one that would have resonated with young men or women
surrounded by endless news of California gold.

These visual images and verbal accounts fed the public’s growing fascination
with California. The visual images were especially strong and numerous in
the early months of 1849, when interest in California gold burned white
hot. The advertisements for the many California companies fed the frenzy. And
amid the rumors, many bizarre stories emerged to be printed repeatedly. The
starvation of miners in the midst of piles of gold and the scarcity of women were
only two of the most prominent. Over the first six months of 1849, a kind of
popular consensus emerged in which California appeared as a true El Dorado
but surrounded by so many dangers, internal and external, as to make plans to
go there fraught with hazards. The difficulties once one had arrived were
equally challenging. The publicity surrounding the failure of the celebrated
California companies to support their associate workers confirmed the idea that
California was hazardous under the best of circumstances.
A final visual representation of the California gold rush in French life was an
image by Honoré Daumier. The great French caricaturist of the nineteenth
century, Daumier skewed politicians, financiers, lawyers, and the middle class,
all within the context of the issues of the day. As a subject of multiple stories and
visual representations, the California gold rush caught his eye. The subject of
his sketch is the dock at Le Havre and the accidental meeting of two French
Argonauts, one about to depart, the other returning. What is striking about the
two representations is not only the visual contrast of the characters, but also
the date of publication of the sketch. The sketch appeared on October 30, 1851.
The French nation was in the throes of the excitement leading to the great
drawing for the Lottery of the Golden Ingots. In a larger sense, in retrospect, this
drawing and the departure of the lottery ships would represent the end of the
story, or at least the close of a national fascination with California and gold. In
one image, Daumier had summed up the fantasy and the reality of the previous
three years.30
 Figure 1. “Croquis Californiens.” This is one of the most widely reproduced of
Cham’s early California images. It represents the widespread availability of gold in
California to every participant. Charivari, April 11, 1849.
 Figure 2. This ad of the Fortune company features a machine for washing and
gathering together the particles of gold. It reflects the emphasis on technology
by some companies. The implications were that the machines were more effective
and reduced the hard physical labor associated with mining and that only the best
companies would have them in service. Note the matching costumes of the workers.
The fine print advertises shares in the company beginning at ten francs.
Charivari, June 25, 1850.
Figure 3. The great exposition of the prized ingot from the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots on the Boulevard Montmartre. A cross section of fascinated onlookers by
age, class, and gender is under the watchful eyes of two guards in the background.
Charivari, February 28, 1851.
 Figure 4. The successful miner (with the signature pick) has harvested F 10,000
and wishes to dine. The cook replies that he cannot serve him a dinner for less than
F 15,000! The image reinforced the French perception of the high cost of
everything in the goldfields. Charivari, January 14, 1849.
Figure 5. A French family, just landed, finds itself deserted by the servants fleeing to
the goldfields. The solution: perhaps we should offer them a small increase in their
wages. Charivari, January 29, 1849.

Figure 6. The governor of California, having seen his servants depart for the mines,
now sees his wife (with a pick) and son make a hasty and clandestine exit for the same
place. Charivari, April 24, 1849.
Figure 7. The governor of California is approached by a traveler who asks him to take
note of the proffered letter. The governor demands to be left alone. “You can see that
I am busy!” The image reflects the desertion of officials, even at the highest level, for
the mines. Charivari, January 14, 1849.
Figure 8. The commercial packing of a shipment of young women for the mines.
This article is “in great demand.” Charivari, April 11, 1849.
Figure 9. A distraught mother expresses the hope that she may embrace her daughter
one final time before the girl is shipped to California. The official in charge regrets
that he has already sealed the box. The notices fixed to the box state “Women from
30 to 40” and “Women—Fragile.” Charivari, August 1, 1850.
 Figure 10. Underneath the sign of a California company with the title The Joke of
Gold, two officials of the company plot strategy. It is necessary to gild something for
our shareholders, says the first. His colleague replies that that’s right. Let’s sugarcoat a
pill. Note the costumes of the employees and in the background the outrageous
figure for the capitalization of the company. Charivari, September 28, 1850.
 Figure 11. A meeting of two shareholders of California companies. The first has
poured F 5,000 into a thousand shares of the Company of California Gold Coins.
He says the company will work the entire right bank of the Sacramento River. He
believes this is a good business arrangement/investment. The second prefers the
Company of the Golden Carrot. He has placed all his money there. Both the image
and the commentary spoof the California companies as financial fantasies. Charivari,
September 27, 1850.
 Figure 12. Cham offers another caricature of the sales techniques of the California
companies. Here a company official (with a slightly sinister look) offers prospective
investors an array of items found in the mines in California. Who would “now
hesitate to take a share for five francs?” The banal nature of the objects is juxtaposed
against the surprised expressions of the prospective victims. Charivari, April 24, 1849.
 Figure 13. Honoré Daumier’s image of the before and after of “the rush to gold.”
The well-dressed man is departing; the skeleton in rags is returning. The timing is
intriguing, for the image appeared at the height of the national enthusiasm for the
Lottery of the Golden Ingots. Charivari, August 30, 1851.
 Part Four

CALIFORNIA
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 11

THE FRENCH TRADE, MINE, AND REFLECT

TRADE, ARTISANAL SKILLS, AND PROFESSIONS

French immigration into California surged in the winter of 1849–1850. Ships

that had departed from the French ports in the spring and summer had
begun to arrive. The French consul, Patrice Dillon, documented this growth.
At the close of 1849, he estimated the French population in California at ten
thousand, and he wrote of their experiences in these terms: “Those of them
who are well behaved—and I am happy to be able to say that they are the
great majority—succeed perfectly.” Although the French would come to
California over four years, most of them arrived in a twelve-month period
between fall 1849 and fall 1850. On October 15, 1850, nine months after his
initial calculations, Dillon estimated twenty-five thousand French people in
California, and a year later, he thought the French population the same. He
described their distribution as ten thousand at Marysville and on the Yuba and
Plumas Rivers; six to eight thousand at Mokelumne Hill; five thousand in
Sonora and on the banks of the Mariposa and Merced Rivers; about six thou-
sand in the city of San Francisco; and fifteen hundred agricultural workers
around San Jose.1
Whatever their reservations about the character of California society and its
confusing systems of local governments (down to individual mining camps), by
the end of 1850, French observers of all political and economic persuasions had
agreed that California was a wonderful place to make money. A large number
mined (with boundless hope and uncertain results); some in the camps became
merchants; many made their way to San Francisco and the other growing towns.
There was plenty of money in circulation, for the mines produced an unending
flow of gold. Prices, accordingly, were high, and California had about it the air

177
178 California

of a series of unending speculations, whether in mining claims, real estate, or

trade in commodities.2
In his letters to the Journal des Débats, beginning in the spring of 1850, the
journalist Étienne Derbec described the varied experiences of the French
immigrants. The French, he wrote, had great products, but they displayed little
savvy about the market in San Francisco and the gold camps. They were also
handicapped by the extended sea voyages necessary to move their goods from
France to markets in California. He thought the commercial situation generally
unfavorable, with intense competition everywhere. At the same time, whatever
his skepticism in some areas, Derbec praised “this wonderful land of California,”
where “everything points to a brilliant future for this country.” It was the
language of a true believer. At the same time, he noted the high cost of every-
thing. He advised future French Argonauts to bring food for the sea voyage, but
above all, they should bring “pockets full of money” for the many initial
expenses they would encounter.3
Just as the costs of basic goods and services were astonishing, wages for ordi-
nary workers were also high. Ordinary laborers earned five dollars (or twenty-
five francs!) a day! What an extraordinary wage! With the arrival of the rainy
season in the late autumn, miners suspended operation in the placers and
streamed into San Francisco, where they were employed by the city in a series
of civic improvements. Derbec likened the system to the French national work-
shops of 1848. Of course, this work in the city would be suspended with the
opening of the mines in the spring.4
It was significant, wrote several observers, that the markets of San Francisco
and California were part of a large and growing economic matrix. These trade
and commercial ties bound New York to California (for immigrants and
commodities), and on the distant horizon lay the connection between California
and China. This future market reflected the long-range significance of
American sovereignty on the West Coast of North America and its control of the
important harbors along this long coastline. French reporters recognized that
California was only one part (albeit a very important part) of this growing
highway of trade. The market connection between California and New York
was now “40 days by the isthmus of Panama, and the proximity to Oregon, the
Sandwich Islands, and the coasts of South America forecasts that this new
country is destined to have a great influence on the commerce of the U.S.”
Much of the California gold was destined for New York City, anchoring that
port with its trading and financial institutions to California. On the other side of
this network, China lay some 40–60 days west of California. This was clearly
one of the great commercial markets of the future.5
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 179

Within this confusion and endless flux, the French had established reliable
markets for their exports. The most important of these were for beverages, espe-
cially wines, brandy, and champagne. Brandy had found a universal market
among all nationals. The higher-end products depended on the prosperity of
the mines and the demand for luxury goods unleashed by unexpected bonanzas
in the placers. This trade was made the more uncertain by the long period
necessary to transport these goods from French ports to San Francisco, and
once there, the French had long, awkward, and often tense negotiations with
American customs officials.6 Outside of San Francisco, a growing market lay in
the interior. There, the immediate needs of the practical miners defined the
market in the camps.7
The French had gone to California with visions of immediate wealth,
whether in the goldfields or through commerce. Wrote one participant in the
California cavalcade, “California is the only country, the only chance, the only
business which is able, in an almost certain way, to make you a millionaire at
the end of two years.”8 After three years in this golden land, the conclusions
were not so much different as refined. With all the risks (and there were an
infinite number), many observers concluded that California was still the best
place to make a fortune.
While trade captured the attention of the French officials, newspaper reports,
and other commentators (such as the correspondents of the Revue des Deux
Mondes), the French soon fashioned other routes to fortune in San Francisco.
Some established themselves as prominent doctors and lawyers. Among the
most important of other occupations were entertainment, especially the theater;
restaurants and food service; and banking. Finally, there were the opportunities
associated with prostitution. Charles de Lambertie wrote, “There are at this
time in San Francisco courtesans who earn fabulous prices; also they are the
true dispensers of a stream of gold, which passes from their hands into those of
the stores of new things. . . . San Francisco is thus a city, par excellence, of the
courtesans.”9
Other accounts of life in California and San Francisco noted the opportuni-
ties for profit but also emphasized the unstable condition of society. Newspapers
across France but especially in Paris described the cycles of crimes and punish-
ments in San Francisco. In an American tradition of local sovereignty that was
inexplicable to the French, citizens of the mining camps or San Francisco
seized suspected parties, immediately tried them before a local jury, and
executed the sentences within hours.10
For some, San Francisco and California seemed remarkably secure. Étienne
Derbec wrote of the order in San Francisco: “In no country are the laws better
180 California

observed and crimes more rare. Theft and thieves are at present unknown.” He
continued: “There is the greatest security, and everyone has complete trust.”11
Others supported Derbec’s comments about increasing safety, security, and
order in San Francisco. The systematic application of the court system seemed
to have made “considerable progress.” Yet French observers were astonished
that the vigilante groups that exercised such influence included some of the
most respected professional people and merchants in the city. The French had
little understanding of the American tradition of creating a sovereign body that
would make its own rules and enforce these rules through whatever means it
thought necessary.12
Among the cries that echoed through San Francisco in the years 1849–1851,
the most terrifying was “fire!!!” At the same time that people and goods were
more secure from lawless elements in San Francisco, the town growing into a
city was continuously vulnerable to destruction by fire. Indeed, San Francisco
burned in December 1849, May 1850, and May 1851. What was astonishing
beyond the catastrophic losses was the rapidity with which the city was rebuilt
to await the next conflagration. Losses to merchants were serious and some-
times devastating. In the intensely competitive commercial atmosphere that
characterized the city, fire was a great leveler that struck the experienced and
savvy merchant with the same force as the new arrivals. Losses among French
merchants were high.13
Throughout the story of the French in the professions, entertainment, and
trade runs the constant theme of the challenge of the Americans. One news-
paper editor wrote of “the energy, the courage, the spirit of enterprise and the
prodigious activity of the North Americans.” Étienne Derbec agreed. He
admired American organization and initiative, and he thought San Francisco
showed these American qualities at their best. Everything had to be built (and
later, in response to the periodic fires, rebuilt) in San Francisco, and the
Americans readily accepted the challenge: “The American genius is essentially
organizational, and everything is being created, everything is being started, and
the town is taking on great dimensions every moment.”14
Against these displays of initiative and energy, the French struggled to
compete. Derbec wrote that the French were not skilled workers, and they
lacked knowledge of common trade. Most important, they refused to
learn English. Hence, they tended to fall behind in their commercial
transactions. On balance, he concluded, the French were at their best in the
mining camps, where they energetically competed in spite of periodic discrimi-
nation against them. They were less effective in the hurly-burly competition
in trade.15
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 181

LIFE IN THE PLACERS: PROSPERITY, HARDSHIP, AND CONFLICT

Mining camps were isolated islands of settlement (almost always temporary)

in a vast, wooded, often mountainous landscape. Here gathered from all over
the world the men (almost always men and generally young) who had come to
make their fortunes and to change the trajectory of their lives and the lives of
their families. They were driven by a sense of mission and opportunity. They
were gladdened by the prospect of wealth and saddened and anxious about the
sense of competition, the random nature of the rewards, the endless hard work
without commensurate returns, and, in the end, the fear of failure. In short, the
miners feared that this great opportunity, which appeared only once in their
generation, would pass them by and leave them stranded in their old world of
hard work, marginal returns, and no hope.
The French Argonauts joined this mixture of expectation and fear. They
quickly embraced the contradiction that the most selfish of enterprises
demanded cooperation. They joined other Frenchmen in mining companies.
Their results were like those of other national groups. Their informal compa-
nies had strains and stresses and in due course disbanded, fractured by the
playing out of a claim or the defection of members toward greater perceived
opportunities. Yet such were the random results of mining that the French
sometimes joined with other national groups or they worked for others. The
gold rush created an amazing blend of new economic opportunities and an
equally complex mixture of people who pursued them.
The cycle of mining was well established by the close of the first full season
in 1849. Once arrived at a mining site, the French Argonauts prepared to dig,
carry, and wash. The extraction exercise was simple and straightforward, at least
in the early years of the gold rush, but there were necessary preparatory steps.
To begin with, the company of French miners had to establish a camp. Like
others, they pitched one or two tents. If the opportunity presented itself and the
financial arrangements suited, they might buy a cabin. They then established
rules for housekeeping, sharing duties and expenses. Already the pressure of
numbers intruded. By the summer of 1849, the first waves of overland immi-
grants had reached gold rush California. As soon as they put the last crest of the
Sierra Nevada behind them, they headed for the mining camps, anxious to
begin their gold harvest as soon as possible. Burdened by their dreams and the
expectations of those they had left behind, they were driven to begin mining
and show returns immediately.
As the population of the placers increased, so did the pressure to establish a
claim. For without a claim, any mining group lacked the basic ingredient to
182 California

begin work. One French Argonaut laid out the basic ground rules: “The claim
here always belongs to the first occupant. The excellent spirit of order that
develops under the influence of this law is really marvelous and without
example.” Thus, mining emerged as an exercise governed by a series of house-
keeping functions on one side and quasi-legal forms and local customs on
the other.16
Although new to the French arrivals, these forms and customs had a long
history in the story of American expansion. The mining claim had been recog-
nized as an American legal form for a generation, stretching back to the lead
mining enterprises of the American Midwest and later the flurry of gold mining
in Georgia. In California, the idea of the claim appeared early, but the vastness
of the landscape diluted its need and presence. When existing claims became
too costly, so much landscape lay adjacent to the watercourses that new arrivals
simply moved whatever distance was necessary to separate them from the
existing claims and established their own. Then they might or might not register
their claims in the approved fashion in the mining district, as they chose. French
miners were not familiar with the institution of the mining district or the mining
claim, but they surely learned rapidly, probably from the French colleagues
they met in the diggings. They soon came to recognize that mining for gold in
California was not a free-for-all; rather, it was an exercise of hard work conducted
according to carefully established rules.
As the numbers of miners increased at the same rich sites and the size of
claims shrank, questions of ownership assumed new significance. How were
claims to be laid out? How did a miner established a right to a claim? What
were the conditions under which a claim might be held? How many claims
could a miner (or mining company) hold? When was a claim vacated? How
were claims to be sold? And, above all, how were disputes among miners
(over claims and other issues) to be resolved? It was widely accepted that
violence in a mining camp was bad for business. Miners should spend their
time digging and washing, not feuding. Pursuant to this end, the miners met
and enacted rules; these were then posted around the camp.17
Thus, mining camps were more than simply communities of like-minded
individuals at work in the same place for the same product. They could be
transformed into structures with legal form and authority. The institutional
form was the “mining district.” A letter dated “In the woods” described for
French readers the establishment of a mining district with its sovereign authority.
Newspapers and letters were filled with stories of murder, robbery, and civil war.
To the contrary, wrote the author of the letter, “All the miners in our diggings
assembled every Sunday morning, to the number of 120 or 130, of the 153
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 183

members that signed the statutes. . . . At ten o’clock the secretary reads the stat-
utes, after which the president rises and says: Does anyone here know of any
infraction committed? Three times out of five, there is no response to this ques-
tion. And since I have been a member of the association, that is, eight months,
I know of only a single example of a real offense,” and that could be punished
by something as simple as a reprimand of the president.18
The nature of these rules reflected the conditions of living and working.
Within the camps, the French confronted the same issues of security and order
that appeared in every mining camp. The problem here was that the miners
spent the days digging, washing, and carrying. In their long work day, they left the
campsites vacant. Hence the harsh penalties for those who robbed or despoiled
the vacant campsites. Those who violated the rules of behavior in camps might
be confronted, tried, and, if necessary, expelled. Alexandre André wrote of “an
infernal Parisian who had stolen from his comrade and who was expelled from
our company.” Of this miscreant, he wrote, his fate in the hands of the Americans
or the Spanish would have been hanging. “But we French are more humane; we
are content to chase him out of camp.” Still, whatever the variations in punish-
ment, the challenges of maintaining order were largely the same.19
The many letters from the mining camps almost always opened by canvassing
the prospect of profit and loss. There was a continuing consensus of the rich-
ness of the California placers and the opportunities associated with them. After
two years, wrote one correspondent, “California is decidedly a marvelous
country; such is the refrain that one hears from each new arrival at Chagres [in
Panama] and truly with reason, for one does not know how to assign the limits
of the richness of El Dorado. The mines there seem inexhaustible.”20 Yet the
closer one came to the mines and to the miners, the more mixed the message.
That is, the mining was invariably hard to the point of exhaustion, and success
was random and elusive.
There were also constant references to the physical hardships of mining.
The seven young men from Bruley (discussed in chapter 5) found work in the
mines harsh and unending. With the gold harvest seemingly defined by constant
labor, individuals and companies had to work continuously to achieve a
minimum daily return for each individual. In a letter from the goldfields, Jean
Migot wrote of the terrible heat of the mines in July. Mining was “a hard trade,”
to use a term more commonly associated with a skilled artisan. These men had
labored on a regular basis from their youth, since they were old enough to walk
to the fields. Migot went on to describe the combination of heat from the sun
juxtaposed against the cold water that challenged the strongest men. The
successful miner, he wrote, needed a “constitution of iron.”21
184 California

An official report from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce agreed

that the condition of “our emigrants, if not miserable, is one to be pitied.” Still,
the report concluded, with the return of a minimum of F 20–25 a day, French
miners have generally accustomed themselves well to their new kind of life.
The conclusion was probably valid, given a comparison between the average
daily wages in France and those in the goldfields.22
Étienne Derbec was among the most important commentators on the
French in the mining camps for three reasons. First, he was among the first to
report in detail of the French mining; second, he was on the ground, where he
talked to French miners and visited French camps; finally, he mined himself
and wrote of his own experiences. In the camps, Derbec wrote that drunken-
ness was unknown and gambling was rare. The sanitary conditions were excel-
lent. At the same time, mining and the opportunities associated with mining
had narrowed. He continued: “I must say, so that it will be well known in
France, that the mines are no longer what they think and that it is necessary to
be distrustful of those marvelous accounts which are only partially true and
[that] only rarely.” Many of the original rich placers were exhausted. Out of one
thousand miners, scarcely ten were satisfied. At the same time that a sadness
hung over the miners, they all remained hopeful. “Each one awaits his day, but
luck will not come to all. The average daily earning of a miner here is two,
three, sometimes four dollars.” Derbec recounted the story of a Frenchman
from the Stanislaus who had harvested a fortune of F 200,000, but his dramatic
success was the exception. “Several [of the miners] have returned to San
Francisco or other places, preferring to do the work of the huckster rather than
run the risk of the mines, for all is chance.” And it was chance within the context
of the hardest kind of work, standing in icy water for eight to ten hours a day.23
Derbec now turned his attention to mining himself. After four months, he
was disenchanted, even exhausted. “Good God! How many holes have I dug,
how much earth have I moved and washed!” He went on: “No one has had as
many trials as I.” Finally, he wrote, he had found a good hole. He wrote a few
words to reassure his mother. By the end of the year, he would have several
pounds of gold, but only after great hardships. He offered an observation typical
of all miners, Americans and French alike: “What does it matter! I would prefer
death rather than return to France like a poor, shame-faced fool! But my turn
will come, and perhaps I shall return with honors, especially as I know how to
appreciate and know other people!” As for the present, “I live and sleep there on
the ground in the midst of snakes, Indians, and bears, with more safety than in
any place in the world.” Next month, “I am going to try to find some safe way of
getting a few ounces of gold to my mother.”24
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 185

Six weeks later, Derbec wrote of continuing hard work. He had also held
extended discussions with several French in the area along the Merced River.
He concluded: “For us, the California of today is a real disappointment.” He
recounted the story of four Frenchmen who, “discouraged and disgusted with
the mines, are preparing to leave.” There are, at the moment, at least two
hundred thousand miners, he wrote. The cost of provisions was high; poverty
was widespread. Miners worked for subsistence. With the cost of food and
limited information and methods, “it is impossible for this work to be very
fruitful.” This reality must be made known in France. He advised those
Frenchmen who insisted on coming to California “to hold back a sufficient
amount of money to enable them to return to France; for they will soon see
that, despite the splendor and wealth of the new Eldorado, the life one leads
there is not worth the most modest existence under the skies of his homeland.”25

ERNEST DE MASSEY MINES AND REFLECTS

Ernest de Massey has also left an account of his own mining experiences.
After several months in San Francisco, he decided to cast his lot with the miners
in the placers. His choice was the mines on the Trinity River, a new mining site
some two hundred miles north of San Francisco. After a hard voyage, de Massey,
his nephew Alexandre Veron, and their laborer Pidaucet landed on a deserted
shore, from where they began an overland trek to the Trinity mines. During this
ten-day ordeal, they were lost most of the time. When de Massey and his
companions straggled into the Trinity mines, exhausted and discouraged, he
wrote of their condition: “Skins tanned, features drawn, beards uncut, feet
almost bare, clothes in tatters, hats hardly recognizable, we looked more like
rascals in disguise or famished brigands than honest and respectable citizens.”
He continued of their new location and conditions: “But here where we
are now; brute strength and luck count for more than education, clothes, or
good looks.”26
The camp consisted of thirty or forty tents and shacks. There was a general
merchandise store and a butcher. At this site, de Massey marked the end of his
first year in California, and he characterized the anniversary as a very unsatisfac-
tory one: “We were lost in the depths of a virgin forest without help of any kind,
and exhausted after three weeks or more of steady walking, reconnoitering, and
enduring every kind of privation.” On the placer “Big Bar” on the Trinity River,
de Massey and his companions confronted the life of a miner. This was what he
had come so far to embrace; it was “what is in store for me.” The labor was hard
and repetitive, but the constant element of chance kept interest high. A good
186 California

miner washed one hundred pans a day, with returns of twenty-five cents to
twenty-five dollars. He concluded: “This is a hard life. However, it is the one
that appeals to men of strong and independent character.”27
Unable to buy or rent a cradle, de Massey was forced to work for two Irish
miners. His wages were four dollars a day and food. He had never worked for
someone before, and he found it extremely hard to make the adjustment. “So
in a year, you see I have descended all the rungs of the social ladder which I am
now trying to climb up again.” In his situation, “if you are out of funds, you have
no choice but to go to work as a day laborer.” With food at three dollars and his
wage of four dollars, de Massey thought his employers broke even for his labor.
By his own account, “the work was extremely irksome. I had to fill, carry, and
empty three hundred buckets of sand. I made one hundred and fifty trips up
and down a path as hard to descend as it was to climb—a distance of seven
kilometers in all—carrying a weight of fifteen kilograms in each hand. It was all
under a boiling sun! In addition, we were badly treated, badly fed, and hardly
housed at night.” Next, he went to work for three Americans. “These Yankees
out here are boorish in the extreme. They have a sinister look and are absolutely
uncommunicative. Hard workers themselves, they believe in making those
under them labor. Also they are very strong physically.”28
When de Massey finally had his claim and cradle and mined for himself,
other issues appeared to distract and perplex him. His unhappy cousin, Alexandre
Veron, had made de Massey the object of all his grievances. “His pride wounded,
his character embittered and negligent, he blamed me as the cause of all his
misfortunes, past, present, and future.” De Massey regretted his decision to bring
Alexandre on the voyage in search for gold, but family loyalty prevailed.
Alexandre was related in a world in which family counted for everything. De
Massey feared that severing his connections with his cousin would expose him
to criticism at home, so he indulged Alexandre’s behavior. Finally, he reached
the breaking point and divided his resources into two equal parts; Alexandre took
one and left the camp. Throughout his physical and personal trials—and they
were severe—de Massey never forgot his responsibilities to his family. He wrote:
“For my part my personal sacrifices will seem small, indeed, and I shall be well
satisfied if I can only save the family reputation and fortune.” The fortune
seemed distant indeed. “But out here in this wild, uncivilized country, closer to
poverty than a fortune and surrounded by strangers who are coldly indifferent to
what becomes of me, I am no longer justified in building castles in Spain or
even card houses.” At the same time, “an inner voice, a voice of pride and duty,
steadily urges me on and on, but in moments of discouragement, I ask myself
whether the game is worth the candle. The situation seems intolerable.”29
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 187

After two months of steady work for marginal returns, de Massey decided to
return to San Francisco. As he left Big Bar, he thought back on his experiences
there: “I have done everything in my power to succeed. I have willingly stooped
to any kind of work, no matter how fatiguing, but I am now convinced that a
miner’s life is practical only for men who are accustomed from childhood to the
hardest manual labor and that only by extraordinary good luck is it possible to
take out a fortune within a few weeks or months.”30
De Massey started out for the coast, with a view to returning to San Francisco.
“I carried my entire fortune along with me consisting of a large fund of philos-
ophy, some energy, a gun, ammunition, a good blanket, some biscuits, and
about sixty dollars.” He eventually reached Trinity City on the coast. “Full of
hope, courage, and vision it was from here that we started the 25th of last April.”
He booked passage for San Francisco. He wrote his thoughts on departing: “On
Wednesday, August 15, 1850, I left behind the inhospitable river where I had
almost died of hunger, thirst, cold, fatigue, and discouragement, and poorer
than ever embarked on the brig that was just sailing, to face, no doubt, more
trials and tribulations.”31
De Massey’s experiences reflected several different dimensions of the French
in the mining camps. On the distant site on the Trinity River, far from the
camps in the northern and southern mines, surrounded by an infinite land-
scape of forests, streams, and mountain ranges, he and his companions were
lost much of the time. Amid the other challenges, he was continually confronted
by his own commitment to his family at a cost to his own plans and ambitions.
Still, he always remained loyal to his irresponsible cousin. When he boarded
the boat to return to San Francisco, de Massey counted himself rich in experi-
ence and poorer in almost every other respect.

LÉOPOLD ANSART DU FIESNET PURSUES HIS “FORTUNE”

Over the eight months from November 1851 to July 1852, Léopold Ansart du
Fiesnet wrote a series of letters to his brother, Edmond, detailing his many
diverse and generally unsuccessful financial affairs and his continuing determi-
nation to make a fortune in California, and he included a series of requests for
financial assistance. In the first of these, dated November 25, 1851, Léopold
began his recitation by describing his recent wounding in a duel. It was an affair
of honor with a Frenchman. The police presence was “so feeble” in his commu-
nity of some sixty French, English, Americans, Irish, and Spanish that everyone
went about armed. The basic weapon was the revolver with six shots. As for the
confrontation, “I was able to put down my adversary,” although apparently not
188 California

without suffering a flesh wound. His conclusion to the affair of honor: “But
don’t be anxious; it is not serious.” His business affairs he described as “entan-
gled.” He was owed money in Sonora; he had a business (with a partner) that he
would like to liquidate, “but I am at a loss to do it at the moment.” Elsewhere,
he had a vast tract of land, where he hoped, with “several French, to establish a
ranch.” He had another tract where he mined with enough success to give him
“a little gold this winter.” In spite of his wound, he had “the courage of a
22-year-old.”32
As for life in California, “one does not long remain a child in a country like
this one.” To the contrary, this country “is a life of freedom and wealth and also
deep misery within two days.” “After weeks of misery,” he had made money; he
had spent it. “If I had in France the money that I spent here in what one calls a
drunken bout, [I could have lived] very pleasantly for three months.” As an
example, the last time he and his friends visited the town of Murphy, they
ordered and ate a rum omelet (fifteen eggs!) at a cost of F 250! He closed with a
request that his brother take wreaths on his behalf to the grave site of their
parents. His letter suggested the wide range of entrepreneurial activities in
which he was engaged. Whether the net effect was to increase his brother’s
confidence in his affairs was open to question.33
Léopold’s next letter, four months later, carried the news that he would
shortly leave for Mexico in order to recover “some capital” owed him. The
wound he had suffered in the duel had reopened, and his bills for doctors and
medicine had exceeded 400 piastres. In order to make the trip, he had drawn on
his brother for F 1,000. He was leaving California “without regrets, having tried
all possible ways to make a fortune.” Perhaps he would return again in a few
years, when the country was less dangerous (when “bullets are less frequent”)
and “when the country will be organized.” As for California, “today you have
some money and tomorrow you are in misery.” As for the subject of the letter,
“I count on your generosity for the note.”34
In mid-June, Léopold wrote again, this time in a more pessimistic vein. He
was still in California. A creditor carried a letter to Paris, with another note for
F 1,000, drawn on Edmond. Léopold offered detailed instructions for the finan-
cial arrangements. If Edmond did not have the funds readily available, he could
mortgage property. Léopold advised Edmond that he would “profit by borrowing
the money that I ask you to send me.” His money was invested at 5 or 6 percent
a month, and he had all the necessary “guarantees.” Léopold had a first mort-
gage on the ranch, which was valued at 10,000 piastres. Within a year, Léopold
expected to double his capital. In order to execute this scheme, he needed
F 6,000. Accordingly, he authorized Edmond to sell “whatever is convenient.”
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 189

He needed to raise the sum immediately; he already had the draft of a banker,
payable on November 1. He closed with a reminder: “A good brother is a rare
thing, and one is happy to have one.” His next letter, three weeks later, directed
his brother to “sell what is necessary.” Once again, he closed with the ringing
declaration of confidence in his brother, “his honesty, his good sense, and his
good heart.”35
Two years of silence followed. Léopold apparently needed no additional
advances on the estate of his parents. Edmond had no need to solicit such
inquiries. The relationships among the family members (now reduced by the
death of the younger sister in 1852) remained frozen in place. Léopold remained
a real but shadowy presence in the family, one of those absent members who
had followed the route of the rush to gold.

FRENCH OBSERVERS DESCRIBE FRENCH COMMUNITIES

AND PROSPECTS

Information about the French in California emerged from a variety of

sources. To begin with, there were many participants who described their daily
experiences in the goldfields in letters to family and friends. Some of these
made their way into print. France had a group of professional journalists who
wrote about California and the French participation in the gold rush for French
newspapers and periodicals. In addition to Étienne Derbec, several of these
were well-known names, such as Patrice Dillon (French consul), Alexandre
Achard, Martial Chevalier, and Benjamin Delessert (four who wrote regularly
for the Revue des Deux Mondes); Edmond Texier (a commentator on French
life over three decades and a wide range of places); and finally, Alexandre
Dumas, father and son, who wrote popular accounts of the French in California.
These observers analyzed the experiences of the French against those of the
Americans. They also commented on the implications of the French immi-
grants in the gold rush for individuals, families, and the French nation. It was a
complex series of connections, and they wrote about them for some five years.
These observers found French gold camps of varied character. Alexandre
Achard described the intersection of mining and politics in the French gold
camps. Whatever its name, Achard wrote, Murphy Camp was a French camp.
The first half of his account described the camp as a refuge of the disinherited
revolutionaries of 1848. So the early sections of this account were not about
mining; they were about politics. Achard detailed a world in which the princi-
ples of the uprisings of 1848 were still alive in the mountains of the Sierra
Nevada, seven thousand feet above sea level and twelve thousand miles from
190 California

France. The views of these miners were as radical and their principles as intense
as if the men and women on the barricades in June 1848 had won! Achard wrote
not of digging and washing during the day but of the songs and political
harangues of the evening. “Camp Murphy is almost exclusively inhabited
by the French, all the insurgents of June, deserters from ships, or habitual
criminals. . . . These men exiled from their country have conserved in all
their savage violence the political passions that made them run to the
barricades in 1848.”36
Achard described “the conversations on the events that brought about their
emigration, interminable and noisy, discussions on the deep principles of
socialism, aspirations and tirades in favor of the universal and democratic
republic.” He continued: “Sunday above all and Monday are reserved for poli-
tics; the small clubs in the open air are improvised in the interior of the camp,
and the harangues on the crimes of the aristocracy are only interrupted by the
Marseillaise, the Chant des Girondins, and the Chant du Départ. If I had been
able to forget a little of those republican hymns which for so long were kept
alive in the streets of Paris, the echoes from the mountains of California have
recalled them for me. They celebrated news of the terrible insurrections in
Paris, the retiring of the army, and the triumph of socialism as the countryside
rises.” He concluded: “This race of insurgents . . . their rancor insatiable and
their violent desire for vengeance, this undisciplined and savage race is still
worth more than the American race that peoples the neighboring placers.”37
As for mining, Achard continued, even though the population of miners was
already large, there were still places for thousands. Every ravine, every brook,
every river has sand and gravel in its bed. Those who come to try their luck and
fortune should be aware of “the indefatigable activity and avidity without
parallel . . . of the Anglo-Americans.” Still, adventurers had come from all over
the world. “In due course,” he concluded, “this first generation of diggers will
be succeeded by a population of workers parallel to that vigorous race that has
flung the first and strong foundations of the American Republic.”38
Étienne Derbec offered a contrasting view. As for the accounts of violence
and adventurers who robbed and killed, left their neighbors to die without aid,
stripped them after death, leaving bodies to be devoured by hungry wolves, he
wrote, all those stories were false. “I wish to emphasize this strongly: the moral
condition of the country is admirable, a hundred times more than admirable in
every respect. There is no selfishness, only the most generous devotion.” As for
stories of theft, “There is not the smallest crime, not the smallest offense to
repress; and yet the tents are open, and the wooden huts have no doors and are
empty during the working hours; there is gold in all of them, a little or a great
 The French Trade, Mine, and Reflect 191

deal, but there is some, and no one tries to steal it. All the miners in the placer
know one another, associate with each other, and they get together in the
evening around a roaring fire.” Finally, “as for sanitary conditions, they are
comparable to the state of morals. Not a single man has yet died of illness at
Agua Frio.” Derbec had returned to a theme that would be developed by other
French observers—namely, that in spite of the outward chaos and hurly-burly
of the gold rush, this competition for gold was framed by a set of clear (although
often unstated and certainly unwritten) rules.39
Whatever his views on the search for a stable society, Derbec offered the
sobering observation that “the hope of making a quick fortune, or even almost
one, has rapidly vanished; and those of us who, on the way to California, were
not going to be satisfied with fifty, sixty to one hundred thousand francs and in
the delirium of their fever asked for millions, are now reduced to desiring
enough to live on while they await their lucky strike.” He continued: “If some
of my compatriots should be tempted, despite what I have said, to seek their
fortune in California,” they should come with their eyes open. The fantasies of
a quick fortune had vanished, replaced by the reality of continuous hard work
for uncertain returns.40
Beyond the issues of profit and loss and the ongoing accounts of the hard-
ships of the mines, there arose another question—namely, the impact of these
influences on the individuals who lived for months and even years surrounded
by them. How did such individuals respond, adjust, wear down, maintain a
sense of sanity and the world as understood by ordinary people far from the gold
rush country? These were questions important to their families and friends.
They were not easy to answer. Perhaps few wanted to explore them. Yet a few
observers and participants in the mining camps sought to describe the world in
these terms.
The French settled into this different world with varied responses. On the
one side lay an open-ended world with new values or no values, without the
structures of government and law to which they were accustomed in their
personal and business lives, without the accustomed support of their families.
In the city (or almost city) of San Francisco and in the placers, they clustered in
communities united by language and commonalities. In the city and towns,
they dealt with economic uncertainty bordering on a lottery. In the placers,
they found the same uncertainty mixed with great physical hardships. Like
others in the goldfields, they depended on support from their friends and
working partners. On another side, the French Forty-Niners found the
Americans everywhere, at least everywhere money could be made. And straight
ahead or perhaps at an angle, they saw opportunities for profit. These opportu-
192 California

nities ranged from a fertile and productive claim in the placers to the many
commercial opportunities in urban places. The latter included a trade in
commodities, especially food and wine; restaurants and food preparation; the
theater and other forms of entertainment; and female employment in gambling
parlors and houses of prostitution. In this hurly-burly of life in California and
the goldfields, the largest part of the French Argonauts kept their eyes fixed on
France, waiting for news from home, assessing their economic prospects, and
wondering when to return.
 12

THE FRENCH ARGONAUTS ENCOUNTER

THE AMERICANS

EARLY OBSERVATIONS ON THE AMERICANS

The most important early French observer in the California goldfields was
the consul, Jacques Moerenhout. One of his first observations described the
differences between the responses of the Americans and the Californians
regarding the discovery of gold. That the Americans hurried toward the rumored
goldfields and the Californians displayed little haste, he wrote, showed “the
great difference that there is between the characters of the two races, the Anglo-
American and the Spanish descendants of the continent.” He continued:
The former [the Anglo-American], quick to decide, with almost nomadic
habits, and dominated by a single passion, that of enriching himself, as in the
present case abandons home and interests or disposes of them as he can, and
taking only the bare necessities, leaves with wives [sic] and children for an
unknown place where he and his family will be exposed to a thousand priva-
tions and sufferings, but where he hopes to find wherewithal to satisfy his
ambitions, change his social position and assist in the execution of his proj-
ects for the future. The Californian, on the other hand, calm in the midst of
the general excitement, continues his even train of life, awaits further news,
and though he be poor and in need, still seems quite undecided whether he,
too, really should go to gather a little of this gold which he desires as much
as anyone and which it makes him jealous and angry to see fall into the
hands of foreigners. But despite this apathy and the charm which this care-
less and vagabond life, which they nearly all lead, seems to have for them, it
is probable that when they see the gold in circulation they will likewise bestir
themselves.1

193
194 California

Whenever the French gave serious consideration to the exploitation of the

natural resources of California, the Americans were at the center of any anal-
ysis. California was a recent imperial American acquisition by war with Mexico.
Indeed, the treaty of cession had been signed in early February 1848, soon after
the first gold discoveries but before they were widely known. The Americans
were advantaged by proximity, although they were still separated by half a conti-
nent from the gold-bearing streams. The Americans were numerous. And most
important, they had behind them two centuries of experience in expansion and
exploitation of natural resources. This expansion and exploitation had hereto-
fore been directed to the acquisition and occupation of agricultural lands. Now
they would be brought to bear in the search for precious minerals.
After three generations of independence, many French commentators
thought they understood the character of the American nation and its citizens.
Several American qualities they found admirable. Onto a continent of almost
unparalleled natural riches, the Americans had grafted a spirit of endless adven-
ture, mobility, enterprise, energy, and ambition. Indeed, at mid-century,
Americans wandered across a vast benign landscape, which they exploited to
the fullest. They were accustomed to making their own rules and to minimal
interference by government at any level. These attitudes were reflected in their
ongoing exploitation of the public lands and their indifference to federal rules
and regulations. They were also reflected in their attitudes toward Indian
peoples, whom they regarded with contempt for their failure to develop the
lands or hostility for resisting the Anglo-American advance. That Indian peoples
had solemn treaties with the federal government that guaranteed them certain
rights and specific living spaces meant little or nothing to American pioneer
families on the ground or to their representatives in Congress.
These qualities were nicely captured in an analysis in a Dunkerque paper.
The editor began: “What energy the certitude has given to the spirit of
adventure that characterizes to such a high degree the population of the
United States.” He observed that neither age, nor ties to family, nor a position
already achieved had stopped or even slowed the rush of Americans to
California. This immigration included citizens at all stages in life: “The worker,
the young man at the beginning of his career, the man already established,
equally alert to attempt a fortune, and owing to the resplendent mirage of the
Sacramento, the trip to California . . . seems today the most simple thing in the
world.” The editor concluded that this immigration would give “an immense
impulse” to the growth of California. In the end, “as an indirect consequence,
a new era has opened for the United States, an era of easy wealth and of limit-
less property.”2
 French Argonauts and the Americans 195

It was characteristic of the Americans that in the fall of 1848, when rumors of
gold spread, they immediately left the coastal settlements in the eastern half
of the continent and headed west to the site of the discoveries. This impulse to
motion, as the Journal de Rouen continued, “is the genius of the nation!”
Americans had been flocking to new economic opportunities for two hundred
years. What an admirable country! After all, such opportunities were the object
of the voyage—by sea or overland—to California. The Americans would imme-
diately gravitate toward the heart of potential wealth.3
Some French commentators offered strong praise for the Americans in their
expansion and the growth over the last thirty years. Part of this development lay
in the genius of the American union, which “offers the most marvelous example
of power that can be acquired through human activity.” Part lay in the creation
of a form of government that allowed individuals a wide range of independence
and freedom from supervision or control. An important dimension of this
freedom was referred to as “the salutary example of the American union, in
adopting the policy of non-intervention . . . unless its interests are directly
engaged.”4
These national qualities would immediately be brought to bear on California.
The American acquisition of California was simply a continuation of the three
generations of expansion since independence. America opened the decade of
the 1840s as a nation rapidly settling the eastern half of the continent. It was
actively engaged in ongoing disputes about the futures of Texas in the southwest
and the Oregon Country in the Pacific northwest. The decade ended with the
United States in command of the continent, Texas annexed, and the Oregon
Country acquired by diplomacy. War against Mexico assured the acquisition
of the southwest, with the great harbors of the Pacific Coast. Now the discovery
of gold in California had driven a large exclamation point to the close of
this decade of expansion. These were the people and this was the nation that
the French must now confront on the distant shores of the Pacific. Contact
would take place at several points: on the quays, in the harbors, in the customs
houses, on the streets of San Francisco and other towns, along the byways
of the interior and upland valleys of California, and, last but not least, in
the gold camps and the placers themselves. Everywhere, French people and
French companies must come to terms with the presence of the Americans,
their ambitions, their endless entrepreneurial energy, and their expanding
imperial ambitions.
This recitation of growth had a familiar outline—namely, that of replacing a
backward people with a progressive one. Such an account was familiar to
everyone who knew of the expansion of European empires that was already
196 California

under way. One writer noted, “By one of those admirable secrets that suddenly
comes to modify and to regulate the destinies of nations, Providence has wished
that this country, with unexploited riches and lost while it was in the hands of
the indolent Mexicans, pass suddenly into those of the hard-working and inde-
fatigable Yankees. . . . The same day when the Anglo-Saxon race takes a step on
this old Spanish possession, a stream of gold, the wealth of which one knows
neither the depth nor the limits, will be the first fruit of this conquest. There it
is!” The returns from the goldfields would pay the cost of the war against Mexico
a thousand times. As for the conquered territories, the United States would go
on to settle and exploit these new lands as it has done with equal rapidity “to the
forests and prairies of Illinois and Indiana.” The writer concluded: “So here is
an ardent population, active, adventurous, which runs to all parts; colonies of
immigrants already cover the placers, spread over the valley of San Francisco
with tents, camps, and forts that will quickly become villages, towns, and cities;
already the enterprising Americans have traced out the streets of the new city of
San Francisco and begun several houses, established a hotel, a school, a chapel,
and a bank will not be delayed in rising from the earth.” In short, the Americans
were a force to be reckoned with. And what a force!5
Not only were the Americans dominant by their physical presence, but also
this authority would continue and change character in the coming years.
Alexandre Achard wrote of the two cycles of American settlement. Miners
represented the first. But, he continued, after all the ravines have been exca-
vated, “this population of adventurers will be succeeded by a population of
workers parallel to that vigorous race that has thrown out the first and strongest
foundations of the American republic.” Thus, California would in due course
repeat the settlement cycles seen in the eastern half of the continent.6
The genius of the Americans as pioneers and entrepreneurs, widely acknowl-
edged by the French, did not extend to their tolerance of foreigners. Rooted in
part in the two years of xenophobic propaganda generated by the war against
Mexico and by saturation in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the Americans
soon reacted to the press of competition in the goldfields. The initial targets
were Chilean merchants and Mexican miners. The Mexicans were among the
first arrivals in the placers, and, accordingly, possessed some of the best claims
in the southern mines. Beginning in the summer of 1849, they were subjected
to harsh treatment with a view to expulsion. According to one account, “in
Sacramento, the Americans have armed and threatened to expel foreigners by
force.”7 As the news of violence against foreigners spread, the reputation of the
Americans as exploiters and colonizers took on new dimensions. By the end of
the year, some French commentators would call the Americans “a terrible
 French Argonauts and the Americans 197

people.” Another contemporary wrote, “These Americans are terrible men,

everything considered. They chase foreigners to death; they pillage them, they
hunt them down, they kill them to remain masters of the country by the act, as
they are by the right of conquest.” The author of a letter from San Francisco
cited chapter and verse to support such strong words. Even beyond the issue of
violence, the question of the Americans in disputes over rich mining claims
reflected outrageous favoritism.8

THE AMERICANS IN PANAMA

The French first encountered the Americans in Panama. A letter from

Chagres, dated March 25, 1849, described the arrival of swarms of Americans
headed to California. Already in the spring of 1849, there were some fourteen
hundred passengers awaiting transportation. The account concluded: “Those
who cannot find transportation return to New York.” The French Argonauts, of
course, did not have that option.9 The French in Panama found themselves in
competition with the Americans for goods, accommodations, and space on
ships going north to California. A letter from Emmanuel d’Oliveira, dated
Panama, May 14, 1849, described this hot, crowded, tropical world in these
terms: “Chagres is encumbered by an unheard of number of Americans who
are all, like me, on the way to California. Transport is scarce; one must pay ten
to a dozen times the rate.” He continued: “At the moment of our debarkation,
Gorgona has been invaded by the Americans, who live entirely in tents. They
are armed to the teeth.” Their arms included carbines, pistols, rifles, swords,
and knives of every kind. The account affirmed that the Americans “are invari-
ably faithful to the traditions of their mother country. They do not waste an
hour of time.” They seemed like the reincarnation of the armed bands of Pizarro
and Cortes “for the conquest of the new world.” Thus, they formed a striking
contrast to the peaceful travelers from Europe. “But [although] this attitude,
this bright look, the strong and determined look of these adventurous pioneers
have something of seizing the moment at first, one sees very quickly that they
have no other interest than to procure without delay the honest means to get
passage to San Francisco.”10
Madame de Saint-Amant characterized the Americans in Panama as a kind
of alien species. These Americans, she wrote, “are armed to the teeth like brig-
ands in melodramas. They have an air of marching off to war.” At the same
time, she was struck with the respectful attitude of Americans toward women.
Amid the confusion and hurly-burly of that transient outpost, she felt safe. “Our
sex is here under a special protection,” she wrote to her husband.11
198 California

Alexandre Achard, traveling in 1850, had a similar encounter with Americans

in Panama. On March 5, he left Panama for San Francisco, aboard the
California with some five hundred Americans. He described his fellow passen-
gers as “lying indifferently on the bridge or in the hold of the ship, dressed in
loosely fitting red jackets and hats of great grey felt. Almost all of them pass their
days in smoking; some in conversing—in small numbers—all gaming. Not one
of them speaks French; some speak Spanish; several understand German. A
great silence reigns among these groups. Our five hundred passengers are, for
the most part, tall, lean, vigorous and endowed with a constitution of iron;
almost all are destined to work in the extraction of gold in the placers; some will
attempt their fortunes in San Francisco; many make their way to a place in
California only thinking of gambling, and it seems that gambling houses are
not lacking in this country.”12

THE AMERICANS IN THE GOLD CAMPS

The first full mining season was 1849, and by all reports, it was a tranquil one.
The endless mining sites provided space for the growing numbers. Patrice
Dillon, the French consul, wrote in October 1849 of the early cordial relations
between the Americans and the French in the mining camps. “The most perfect
tranquility reigns in the mines. The French, the American, the English, work
side by side, without their rising among them the slightest difficulty.” A pick or
a spade in a claim indicated that the claim was the property of others. On seeing
this sign, miners would pass on their way and search for a place still unoccu-
pied. They respected the rights first acquired by others.13
Dillon also conjured up visions of the common past between France and
America. When friction between the Americans and the French surfaced, a few
wanted to resort to violence, but they were shouted down by a large majority.
“Why, cries an American orator, would we fight against the French? Their
fathers have been the friends of our fathers. They have fought together for the
same cause, that of the independence of our country, and against our common
enemy, the English. Rochambeau was French; Lafayette also; they count yet
among the heroes of our history, and their names hold place, in the memory of
all true Americans, from that of Washington.” The French would have a place
of honor at the celebration of Independence Day. They would unite around the
same table and fraternize loudly. “From this moment, the French and the
Americans are living in the mines in perfect understanding.” Dillon had often
encountered Americans in the solitude of the forests, where they had shaken
hands and exchanged hearty greetings. They were always happy at the arrival of
 French Argonauts and the Americans 199

their “great ally, as they still call the French.” Dillon added a paean to the noble
character of the Americans of the West: “This fraction [is] simple of heart, but
faithful and forceful like noble people.” And if the Americans are sometimes
hostile toward the French, it is because the great voice of the West has forgotten
to speak out.14
This cordiality did not last, at least not to the same degree. As the number
of miners grew and the size of claims diminished, friction in the mining
camps grew in like proportion. To the extent that mining was a competitive
enterprise—and most miners thought it was and becoming more so—the
Americans acted wherever possible to enhance their own prospects, and if so
doing diminished the prospects of others, so be it. Individually, Americans
sometimes were partners and friends; they aided those sick and disabled and
sought to emphasize the human aspect of the endless search for gold.
Collectively, Americans acted out the principles of Manifest Destiny, which had
guided the recent expansion that had produced a continental nation. They saw
themselves as uniquely favored by Divine Providence and by their own initiative
in seizing lands, resources, and the opportunities for their exploitation. They
looked down on other peoples, especially non-English-speaking ones. Foremost
among these groups were American Indians and Mexicans. These were inferior
peoples who did not know how to use the natural gifts given to them.
The first targets of the Americans in the goldfields were the Spanish
speakers—namely, the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Chileans. Tension between
them was increased by proximity and numbers. Mexicans gravitated north to
the mining country in response to the rumors of gold discoveries in the summer
of 1848. Peruvians and Chileans were equally well established in San Francisco,
where they were early merchants and traders. This proximity and their success—
in towns and in the camps—drove a degree of envy that carried over into xeno-
phobia. The United States was, after all, a nation emerging from a war against
Mexico. Two years of war were not a good context for cooperation or even
proper conduct in places where great wealth seemed to be at stake.15
Americans were also, after two hundred years of expansion to the west,
strongly committed to informal and spontaneous systems of government and
law. These were associated with the need to meet informally and to take neces-
sary steps to establish a form of government to preserve order. Such informal
but powerful institutional forms, emerging in the placers as “mining districts,”
were dominated by Americans, who grafted onto them their needs and wishes.
So the first claimants established mining districts. They laid down the rules
(remarkably similar from camp to camp) by which a site might be exploited.
These rules were designed to define the “claim” and to create a mechanism to
200 California

resolve disputes. They were part of a long frontier tradition, earlier used to
promote defense against Indian attacks and to protect land claims. But these
rules could also be changed by a majority vote of the claim holders. As a
minority and a non-English-speaking minority, the French became all too
aware of these institutions and how they might be victimized by them.16
The local usage of the mining district often worked against foreigners. The
French were no exception, and they were often attractive targets, as they had
good claims. In response, the French congregated in French camps. Here they
found mutual support and language solidarity. In this respect, they were like the
Mexicans, except they were not the enemies in a recent war. The Mexicans, the
first targets of the Americans, had the option of going home. Other foreign
nationals, especially the French, did not have that option. The French fell back
to their status as a newly created republic (the only one in Europe) and their
long-standing friendship for the United States (especially during the American
Revolution), and they also appealed to their consul.
Alexandre Achard wrote in the most uncomplimentary way about how the
Americans banded together against foreign miners. “Nothing can give a just
idea of the character and the customs of the men, the dregs of the American
population; drunkenness is the least of their faults. The placers they occupy are
a theater of assassinations without numbers, which threaten to become daily.”
He cited examples in which drunks wandered through the streets and cafés,
menacing, striking, injuring, and finally shooting at random. He went on: “All
the Americans from birth make common cause and support one another.
Whoever resists one of these bandits has all of them against him.”17
Charles de Lambertie’s account captured the force of the Americans moving
against the Mexicans. “Nothing is as transient as the population of the placers,”
he wrote. “Today they are here; tomorrow they are no longer. One evening, the
Mexicans had disappeared. And with them, a certain gaiety passed. Perhaps
they were harassed by the Americans. For whatever reasons, their guitars and
violins are now gone. There only remained the Americans, who are, in general,
the most famous boors that I have seen. They are far from having the affability
and politeness of the peoples who speak the Spanish language.” De Lambertie
quoted from an Englishman: “One cannot expect an agreeable conversation
from the Americans. They are badly behaved and are unable to say two words
without articulating a swear word. They do not have a single culture of the
mind, and you will never see them with a book in hand. I cannot endure these
men.” As the numbers of Americans increased, so did their aggressive and
violent behavior. “It was difficult to meet up with more brutality and egoism
than in a place where there were great numbers of them.”18
 French Argonauts and the Americans 201

However, it was more than a matter of bad manners. In disputes, especially

over mining sites, the Americans used local law and custom to their advantage.
Victimized by a series of openly biased decisions, de Lambertie decided to quit
the mines forthwith. What infuriated de Lambertie as much as the open favor-
itism was the lack of protest on the part of the Americans. He wrote, “There was
not a single protest on the part of the . . . Americans who were witnesses; they
laughed, on the contrary, a silly laugh; it was that which showed me that what
had passed was not only individual but a question of nationality which
mattered.”19

THE EMERGING AMERICAN EMPIRE

In another theme of French commentators, the striking feature of American

behavior was the expansionist quality to it. The Americans were in the process
of creating an empire. However they might disguise their expansion under the
umbrella of the spread of political democracy and economic opportunity, theirs
was an imperial force by any name. With the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in February 1848 and the simultaneous announcement of gold in
California, the expansionist dimension of the American nation was unveiled for
all to see. French observers saw it all too clearly. The editor of the Journal des
Débats wrote, “The state of anarchy that one finds in California has not
prevented that vigorous race which is seizing it, no more than the rigors of the
last winter, to continue to exploit the riches buried by nature in the soil of this
marvelous country.”20
Another commentator, Benjamin Delessert, offered a brief history of
American expansion. He began with Upper California and the arrival of John
Sutter and his grandiose ambitions. Delessert wrote that the competition to
control California among the Russians, the British, and the Americans had
ended with a decisive victory for the Americans: “The youngest and the most
adventurous of the three nations is today its mistress.” He went on to describe
the great future influence of the Americans in these terms: “If the reports that
we have on this country are confirmed, the colonization of this rich country by
a race also as intelligent and entrepreneurial as the Anglo-Saxon race can hardly
avoid having a great influence on the future destiny of the world and on our
commerce. Without any doubt, the Americans will exploit with their usual
vigor the buried riches in this country, which conceals so much treasure.”21
California was only a part, albeit a rich and important part, of the American
possessions seized within the last few years. Delessert continued: “What an
imposing and extraordinary spectacle is given to us in the constant and rapid
202 California

progress of this powerful America, which, each year, further extends her
embrace.” First, it was Texas, conquered from Mexico, and then a large part of
northern Mexico was added to America’s national domain. “What are the limits
of this always bullying ambition? Where will this continuous need to extend
stop? Mistress of five hundred leagues of coastline on the Pacific Ocean, today
California is joined to Oregon; this power will never retreat but will continue
on without doubt to found a new empire on shores still unknown. What an
immense future is reserved for the nation which commands the Pacific Ocean!”
He concluded: “There is a new world to exploit, to civilize, [and] to enrich, and
while old Europe debates and wears itself out in sterile struggles against a barba-
rism which one wishes to restore, the genius American marches by grand steps
to the peaceful conquest of this new world.”22
Thus, the Americans rushing to California in search of gold were only one
dimension—albeit an important one—of America’s growing imperial expan-
sion. The extraordinary talents of Americans as explorers and settlers had carried
them to the shores of the Pacific. Now they paused to dig gold in California. But
even as they dug, carried, and washed, the eyes of some were fixed westward
across the Pacific.

CONFLICT IN THE GOLDFIELDS

From the opening of the California gold rush, mining had been a competi-
tive enterprise. In the first full mining season of 1849, this sense of competition
was diluted by the many gold-bearing streams and the small number of miners.
It appeared with the growing number of miners and the inevitable exhaustion
of many of the first mining sites. As the numbers of miners grew—from 50,000
at the close of 1849 to 100,000 at the close of 1850 to 125,000 at the close of
1851—and the average return from a day’s labor in the placers fell, so the sense
of competition increased.23
The air of competition led to a growing proprietary sense on the part of
Americans that rich gold mines on American soil should belong to Americans.
As noted, the immediate targets were foreigners, often non-English speakers.
The Chileans and the Peruvians, with a strong commercial presence, were
the first targets. The Mexicans soon followed. Talk early began to circulate
about the official policy of the American government toward foreign miners.
The issue was an important one that captured the attention of every group
of foreign miners, becoming the subject of both rumor and innuendo. That
government officials and their messages often changed only added to the
confusion.24
 French Argonauts and the Americans 203

The California gold rush presented an old theme with new variations. The
old theme was the search for and exploitation of natural resources. This had
been the focal point of Anglo-American settlement since the opening of the
seventeenth century. Now there were changes. To begin with, gold was infi-
nitely more valuable than any commodity harvested in the previous seventy-five
years. Added to this factor was the sense that the search for gold in California was
intensely competitive, that gold was present in limited sites, and that the placers
might soon be exhausted (as some sites were already played out). As a result of
rising numbers, mining claims were reduced in size. This rush of miners and
shrinking size of the mining claims enhanced the sense of competition.
Into this scene charged with wealth and competition came prospective
miners from all over the world. The meeting of large numbers of American
Forty-Niners, nurtured in the doctrines of Manifest Destiny, with prospective
foreign miners inevitably produced tensions and sometimes confrontation and
violence. The first physical encounters took place in Panama, heightened by the
competition for scarce berths on vessels traveling from Panama to San Francisco.
Already there were rumors of foreign miners in possession of rich claims that
should have been the prize of Americans. The first response of an American
official to these perceived injustices came in the form of a pronouncement by
General Persifor Smith, on his way to California to take command of the
American Army. In January 1849, while awaiting passage in Panama, Smith
wrote a letter that seemed to give official sanction to the barring of foreigners
from the goldfields. The letter read, in part: “As nothing can be more unjust and
immeasurable than for persons not citizens of the United States . . . to dig the
gold found in California, on lands belonging to the American Government, and
as such conduct is in direct violation of the laws, it will be my duty immediately
on arrival there, to put these laws in force to prevent any infraction there.”25 This
new policy of access to the goldfields seemed to reverse the findings and recom-
mendations of Colonel Richard Mason, who had accepted the presence in the
goldfields of numbers of native Californians and Mexican miners from Sonora.
Rumors of Smith’s letter and its contents soon spread to San Francisco and to
South America and Europe. A few French newspapers reported the news, citing
it as a reason to discourage emigration toward the goldfields.26

THE FIRST SKIRMISHES

The French were among the first group of foreign miners in the northern
mines, where they established some of the most productive camps. Here as
elsewhere, they were intensely loyal to their own mining communities. French
204 California

language was a defining element here, so the French in the placers joined in
communities of French-language speakers. They were uninterested in learning
English and generally indifferent to their neighbors, except in common hostility
toward Indian peoples. This French strength was also their vulnerability. For
their clannishness marked them as a people apart, alien sojourners who had
come to harvest wealth and then immediately return home with their gold. A
degree of friction between the Americans and the French was always a charac-
teristic of the early camps, where they lived in proximity to one another. With
the growing competition over sites and claims, it was inevitable that this friction
would intensify.
This escalation was the more inevitable because the French were not passive
in the face of American aggression. They regarded themselves as strong in
numbers and independent in outlook. Furthermore, from the beginning, they
were armed. Indeed, most observers noted that they were as well armed as the
Americans, who were walking arsenals in the gold camps. The French often
stood their ground. Although their strength in communities and numbers gave
them a reputation for independence, such a posture also gave them a reputa-
tion as foreigners who were in violation of American and local laws. In the long
run, it was a hazardous position, for it made them vulnerable to those who
preached a call for law and order in the mining camps.
One final quality intensified the potential for confrontation—namely, the
French misunderstanding and ignorance of American frontier traditions. From
the opening of permanent English settlements on this continent, vast landscapes
and relatively few numbers of Europeans had meant a slow and uncertain spread
of legal institutions. The tendency of remote English settlements to make their
own rules intensified with the establishment of an independent American
nation. What emerged here was a powerful belief in the importance of individ-
uals in fashioning local institutions and laws. Such a belief was based in part on
principle and in part on necessity. To the extent that the American Revolution
had been a rebellion against a central authority—and many believed that it
was—the successful outcome of the revolution confirmed the view of the impor-
tance of the individual and local sovereignty at the expense of a central authority.
The adoption of the new constitution in 1789 with its new, national government
diluted this local influence. Still, the rapid movement of American pioneer
families to the West led to settlements beyond the reach of established institu-
tions of government and law. Thus, by necessity on these distant landscapes
frontier peoples in the interior continued to make and enforce their own rules.27
The French (and other foreign nationals) in the California goldfields initially
found these procedures mysterious and soon discriminatory. A meeting of the
 French Argonauts and the Americans 205

claimants in a mining district (each claim holder had a vote) adopted rules and
changed them. Thus, rules in force this week could be changed next week.
Majority vote ruled. This was a process that placed system and order ahead of
justice and equity. If the majority of American claim holders convened a
meeting and voted to bar foreigners from the diggings, they were so barred.
There was no recourse, except occasional appeal to the local official (the
alcalde), who was almost always an American. The French accused the
Americans of supporting one another in the most outrageous way.
The news of the confrontations in the California goldfields spread from Paris
to the more distant areas of France. An account from Bordeaux described “a sad
and deplorable series of events.” It continued: “The collisions in the mines and
the prospect of the most serious conflicts are forming the principal character.
This is above all in the districts of Sonora, Tuolumne, and San Joaquin, which
have been the sites of the main agitations. At Sonora especially, one can believe
a veritable war in the streets of the town.” The main antagonists in the conflict
were Mexicans and Americans. The accidental discharge of a firearm had led to
a riot.28
The most important manifestation of this continuing friction for the French
was a quarrel at Camp Murphy. Alexandre Achard had described the radical
strain running through the camp. In his eyes, it was a camp filled with unrepen-
tant exiles from the barricades of the June 1848 uprising. This hard edge
probably served the French miners well in their confrontations with the
Americans. The Americans, newly arrived from Oregon, resolved to expel from
the mines all non-English speakers. The French in the camp now manned a
new set of barricades. After a tense confrontation in which the French gave no
ground, the Americans retired. It was one of the rare occasions in which they
failed to impose their collective will on a camp of predominantly foreign
miners.
Achard now analyzed what he called “the fight at Camp Murphy” with a
view to accounting for the success of his countrymen. He wrote: “That which
has provided up to this time the security of the French residents at Camp
Murphy is their superior numbers. They are armed as well as the Americans.”
In his view, however, the Americans would return, and the fight for the camp
would have to be repeated. He continued: “But with regard to the fierce
exchanges between the French and the Americans, to the resolutions that circu-
late, to the thousand rumors being spread, it is evident that an explosion will
burst out sooner or later.” Accordingly, the French slept with their arms.
Sentinels were posted. “At the first signal all the foreigners would rise up en
masse and run to the fight.”29
206 California

A letter from Étienne Derbec, published in the Journal des Débats, also had
reference to this rising tension: “In a country where law is still hardly estab-
lished, where every nation in the world has many representatives, each one has
felt the need to join with his own people, near those who speak the same
language as he and who have the same interests.” Some eight to ten thousand
French miners were clustered along the banks of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus
Rivers, “where they have discovered some very important gold deposits. This
situation has earned them the jealousy of the Americans, who, claiming to be
absolute masters of the land and its resources, tried to drive them out.” Derbec
continued: “A combat, a veritable battle, is reported to have resulted in which
many are said to have lost their lives on both sides; however, the military victory
supposedly went to our compatriots.” Even this victory “may bring about some
lamentable consequences for our countrymen. Will the government of the
Republic intervene and protect them? We desire it more than we dare hope.”30
The reports of casualties were exaggerated, but such accounts fed a fear of the
dominant Americans and their self-serving institutions. It also reaffirmed the
sense that only a resort to numbers and arms would enable the French to defend
their rightful claims against the imperious Americans.

THE TAX ON FOREIGN MINERS

This long-standing hostility against foreign miners in the California gold-

fields simmered below the surface. It reflected jealousy that good mines were in
the hands of non-English speakers, mixed with a characteristic American
egocentrism enlarged by the doctrines of Manifest Destiny and the recent war
against Mexico. The unofficial campaigns against the non-English-speaking
groups received official sanction when on April 13, 1850, the California legisla-
ture passed a foreign miners’ tax. The tax was twenty dollars a month on all
foreign miners, to be collected by revenue agents of the state, and it reflected
the intention of American miners to use the power of a popularly elected legis-
lature to restrict competition.31
Public (as opposed to legislative) debate over the tax continued after its
passage. A letter to the Sonora Herald noted that foreigners immediately
objected to the sudden imposition of “a heavy tax” without warning. Their
response was “a repugnance, mingled with strongly incensed feelings.” The
question of international law was immediately raised. Did the United States not
have “treaties of reciprocity with France?” The answer surely was yes. If so, it
followed that “the act passed by the last legislature was illegal, unjust, abortive,
and extremely prejudicial to the best interests of the state.” As for the tax itself,
 French Argonauts and the Americans 207

foreign miners accepted the idea of “a reasonable tax,” for a tax with its accom-
panying license “would protect them from outrage and indignity.” Such “a
reasonable tax” might be three to four dollars a month.32
Another letter at about the same time focused on the reactions of the French.
The initial response from the French community was quiet. In this account, “a
large body of Frenchmen under arms encamped near the town yesterday and
met in a deputation. They had received word from men badly disposed that the
French inhabitants were in danger of their lives, and they armed themselves to
assist their countrymen. Upon discovering the falsity of the report, they peace-
ably dispersed. Do not believe any of the numerous reports flying about the
country. I will keep you posted up in regard to facts, if any occur of impor-
tance.” This letter reflected, among other things, the role of rumor as the two
sides eyed each other. The Americans seemed driven to uphold the law; the
French seemed driven by indignation.33
A third communication reflected on the economic condition of the
foreigners. An important reason for the objections to the tax, the author began,
was that most of the foreign miners in the country were newly arrived and
simply did not have the money to pay. Under these circumstances, they were
inclined to resist. Alternatively, some of them left. The Mexicans had
already departed in large numbers. The leaders of the resistance to the tax
“were a body of two or three hundred Frenchmen, who, I am informed, have
left for the mountains in search of new diggings. Since quiet has been restored,
many of the foreigners have paid the tax and gone to work. Others are paying it
by installments.”34
The debate over the tax continued at the local level. Among the sharpest
critics were the commercial interests of the towns that outfitted the miners. To
these merchants, national identification was of far less importance than a
continuing demand for food, tools, and services. In the late summer, the Sonora
Herald opened its columns to canvass the question. Governor Peter Burnett
strongly defended the law (and his decision to sign it). In a letter to the Herald,
he laid out his arguments. “The true cause of the many complaints against, and
opposition to, our laws,” he began, “is to be found in the temporary and mixed
character of our population.” He continued by noting that thousands of foreign
miners had come to California in search of gold. They had come to exhaust the
California placers and, at the same time, to take their bonanzas back to their
own country. The governor continued that the government of California must
put an end to this tide of immigration and parallel loss of precious minerals.
The tax was a step in this direction. Furthermore, the rate “is not unduly oppres-
sive.” The law, by its terms, establishes a distinction among foreign miners. On
208 California

the one side, “the idle, profligate, and extravagant portion of the foreign miners
could not have paid the tax, and would not . . . while the energetic, industrious,
and persevering portion would have remained and been able to pay.” It was
true, he concluded, that only some two to three thousand licenses had been
sold, but he anticipated greater sales in the coming months.35
The Herald’s editorial response treated the governor with respect but
pronounced his logic in error. Its editor continued: “The slopes and ravines of
our placers are deserted by the hard working population which formerly filled
the air with the music of industry.” As a result of the tax, formerly thriving settle-
ments were “in the state of prostration and ruin. Traders are standing with
folded arms. Merchants with empty exchequers.” The answer was to reduce the
tax rate to one dollar a month. Like so many other correspondents, the Herald
affirmed its support for the principle of the tax but objected to the high rate.36
Already there were suggestions of modifications in the tax and the form of its
collection. In late August, a collector declared that he would accept twenty
dollars in payment for a license that would run until the end of the year, or four
months. Furthermore, he was “instructed to protect all who comply with this
requisition, and to punish all others who are violators of the law.” Thus, for
foreign miners under siege, this tax and the accompanying license gave them
legal rights to hold and work claims in the placers. The Herald noted that the
miners rejoiced. As for the local merchants, with “so moderate a tax . . . we shall
shortly again be on the high road to fortune.”37
The introduction of the tax against foreign miners raised the larger issue of
taxes against citizens in new settlements without established institutions. So
what did the taxes pay for? Who was enriched from them? Transient peoples in
newly settled areas objected to taxes of every sort. In this sense, they expressed a
kind of indirect support for opposition to the tax on foreign miners. Meeting in
August 1850, for example, the Grand Jury of Tuolumne County noted local
resistance to the revenue laws. The county collector complained that collec-
tions were hindered by a universal public sentiment opposed to the laws. The
grand jury concluded, “The system of licenses adopted here has many defects.”
It also noted “the inclination of Americans to tolerate, encourage, and practice
the vices and institutions of foreigners.”38
Although it was vigorously debated, strongly protested, and often honored in
the breach, the tax against foreign miners was still an official weapon that could
be used against particular groups on especially attractive sites. The first targets
seemed to have been Mexican miners and Mexican camps. In response to its
passage, most Mexican miners returned to Mexico. They had long fought a
series of undeclared wars to protect their interests in the southern mines. The
 French Argonauts and the Americans 209

intrusion of the state into the war was a decisive change in the balance of power.
But other groups also felt the impress of the tax. Among these, any non-English-
speaking group was an immediately recognizable target. The responses to the
tax included compliance, resistance, evasion, and flight. Perhaps with the
emigration of large numbers of Mexican miners out of the southern mines,
some legislators may have felt the tax had done its job. After all, it was not a
revenue-raising measure. It was designed to punish or, alternatively, to favor the
American miners.39
The French were upset. They initially argued that this levy was contrary to
international law, for the Americans resident in France were not subject to any
such special impost. California officials brushed off this argument as unworthy
of serious consideration. Yet early efforts to collect the tax were sporadic. In
October 1850, the tax collectors descended on the French settlements in the
San Joaquin Valley. Many if not most in the French settlements could not
afford to pay the tax, and they resisted the revenue officers. A number of these
Frenchmen were veterans of the revolutionary uprisings of 1848, and these
heroes of the Paris barricades did not fear a sheriff or other revenue officials
from a distant state authority. And aside from the issue of the legitimacy of the
tax, there were ongoing questions about its collection. The State of California
presumably sent official representatives into the mining camps to collect the
tax. The foreigners subject to the tax were understandably suspicious of this
mechanism. They wondered whether monies paid to these scruffy-looking indi-
viduals would ever reach the treasury in Sacramento.40
At the request of the governor of California, the French consul, Patrice
Dillon, went to the valley in order to attempt a compromise. At the same time,
Dillon made great efforts to show the injustice of the tax to the governor.
He argued that the tax had the effect of alarming all honest and moral
foreign miners, while, at the same time, it did not frighten in the slightest those
who could sustain themselves by fraud, without paying the tax, in a country
where there was no recognized police force. M. Dillon immediately asked
M. Lombard, the vice-consul, to make a trip to the French mining camps to
calm the French opposition to the new law.
Lombard’s report focused on the issue of the tax. He began, “I wish to speak
of the tax imposed on foreign miners, and of all the violence for which it served
as a pretext.” The violence and threats of violence were even more serious than
the tax itself. He continued: “This abuse of power on the part of certain officials
(the ‘alcaldes’); these illegal contributions collected by certain swindlers, who
claim to be agents of the United States Government; in short, this violence,
which is not at all justifiable: all these facts are almost nil today.” Such illegal
210 California

and outrageous acts “have become rarer and rarer today.” And they were often
dealt with on the spot by American authorities, to Lombard’s satisfaction.41
There was, however, a response to the tax that revolved around the virtues of
compliance. This was the position of Charles de Lambertie. Before laying out
his argument, he began with a description of the placer at Mokelumne and the
crowds of gold hunters who had come to exploit it. He then continued: “Another
great subject of annoyance and of hindrance was the payment of the tax on the
miners, which was more than twenty-five dollars a month, as one had already
established, and that all the foreigners had, with perseverance, refused to pay,
because it was exorbitant and at the same time harassment, because the
Americans were exempt.”42
Lambertie’s argument reflected the practical miner at work. Prolonged
opposition to the tax or even debate about the tax took up time and resources
that should be spent working the claim. So the smart thing for the ambitious
French miner was to pay the tax and get to work. Furthermore, there was
another side. If the French miner (or any other foreign individual) paid the tax,
he should be permitted to mine without the endless harassment to which the
Americans routinely subjected foreigners. In other words, the tax was a license
that conferred certain rights on the holder. De Lambertie paid the tax. He was
unhappy about the tax, but he was outraged by the behavior of Americans
toward foreigners who had paid the tax. In their harassment of foreign miners,
the Americans seemed to make no distinction between those who had paid the
tax and those who ignored the law.43
In March 1851, Governor John McDougall voided the tax. The legislature
imposed a new levy of three dollars a month. Most foreigners subject to the
tax paid it. The most important influences in the easing of the tax seemed
to be the storekeepers and the merchants, always powerful at election time,
who had complained about the decline in their business.44 The new tax
represented more than simply a new number, significant as that was for foreign
miners. It identified a new target. Just as the original tax seemed directed
against Mexican miners, the second was aimed at the Chinese. Unlike the tax
issue with Mexicans (departed for Mexico) or the European non-English
speakers, the collection procedures against the Chinese involved neither
discussions nor negotiations. The tax collectors simply moved into a Chinese
camp, made a head count of the miners, and seized enough property to pay the
estimated tax.45
The observations of two Americans captured very different views of foreign
miners and their claims. On the one side, we have the prickly views of a prac-
tical miner. Lucius Fairchild, who later became governor of Wisconsin,
 French Argonauts and the Americans 211

reflected a hostile view. From his camp in the placers, he wrote, “It’s a shame
that our government will allow themselves to be run over by the off scourings of
all God’s creation who are taking the bread out of the American miners mouths,
or the Gold which is the same. Both the Americans and the naturalized
foreigners are greatly dissatisfied about it. I think that all foreigners who had
declared their intentions previous to the admission of this state are all who
should be allowed to dig a dollar and I hope Congress will pass such a law.”46 In
an unusual distinction, Fairchild noted the difference between itinerant foreign
miners and those who had been naturalized. Perhaps the large foreign-born
population in his native Wisconsin made him sensitive to the difference.
On the other side, Israel Lord noted the contradictions between the tax on
foreign miners and previous responses to immigrants. He wrote in his journal,
“It is strange that Americans are not willing to give foreigners an equal chance,
when there is so much labor required to secure the uncertain gains which fall
to the lot of the laborer here. One would be led to think, by the talk of some,
that gold can be picked up anywhere without any trouble, and belong to them-
selves exclusively; that they had dropped or deposited it to be reclaimed when
they deemed most convenient. I, for one, contend that they have the same right
to dig for gold here, as in the older States for iron, wheat, or potatoes.”47
Whatever the previous precedents, many American miners intended to make a
distinction between potatoes and gold.
The growth of “mining districts” and discriminatory practices that culmi-
nated in the enactment of the foreign miners’ tax intensified the isolation and
clannish nature of the French mining communities. The French saw their soli-
darity as their only defense against the discriminatory behavior of the Anglo-
Saxons. Accordingly, they came together in armed groups wherever possible,
for mining and for living. Whatever the amount of the levy, its presence
conveyed the sense that foreign miners had fewer rights or more fragile rights
than Americans in the international bazaar known as the California gold rush.
The tax and the response to it were the subject of much commentary, serious
and even humorous. It is striking, however, that the tax generated no visual
images on the part of caricaturists or humor magazines. Perhaps it was consid-
ered too touchy a subject in a panorama of topics caricatured for readers on a
regular basis.48

THE CONFRONTATION AT MOKELUMNE HILL

The major confrontation between the Americans and the French took place
in April 1851 at the gold diggings on Mokelumne Hill. This was one of the most
212 California

celebrated of the southern mines, renowned for its richness and its French
origins. After it was first mined in 1849, the successful French miners departed
and the Americans moved in to less successful operations. Then, in 1851, a
second French group found another rich deposit nearby, soon known as French
Hill. The news produced a rush of miners to the site and the inevitable squab-
bles over the rich claims. From this point, the friction between the two groups
escalated.49
The Americans decided to expel foreigners from Mokelumne and posted a
decree with this demand on many trees. Charles de Lambertie responded that
many Americans opposed the resolution: “They understand that such base
egoism and these arbitrary acts are not of an honorable nature, in the world, for
the American nation; and the merchants see here reduced sales.”50 De
Lambertie continued: “The day chosen for our expulsion, I went to work as I
ordinarily did, and about ten o’clock [I] saw a troop of Americans approaching
the place where I worked.” They gathered at the house of the alcalde. A large
number of men from de Lambertie’s camp also attended. A president was
chosen. He made a long speech, which argued that foreigners should be
expelled. The alcalde presided over the debate. In the vote, “those for expul-
sion went to the left, those against, to the right. Almost everyone went to the
right, to the disappointment of the others. So we stayed!” At the same time,
someone wrote to San Francisco to ask for a tax collector. He came, and
de Lambertie and other French miners paid the twenty dollars demanded
for a year.51
The escalation and confrontation between the French and the Americans
had three principal sources. The first was the acknowledged richness of the
claims, mixed with the dramatic increase in numbers. “Some placers yielded
gold abundantly: one, two, sometimes three pounds per day,” wrote Étienne
Derbec in his account. “Such discoveries are so rare that the news quickly
spread to the neighboring camps, where it excited the greed of the miners.52
The second source was the pride and prickly nature of each group. In
reflecting on the aftermath of the clash a year earlier at Camp Murphy, Ernest
de Massey wrote the following in June 1850: “We have also heard that at Camp
Murphy, in the mines south of here, the French to the number of five or six
hundred and the Americans, some twelve or fifteen hundred, have had trouble,
declared war, and as a result of some disagreement are fighting. We understand
that the conflict [was] threatening to assume the proportion of a civil war until
the Governor of California and the French Consul, Mr. Dillon, stepped in and
curbed the disorder. The bitter feeling, however, still runs high.” De Massey
observed that such a confrontation might be expected, for “anyone who knows
 French Argonauts and the Americans 213

the quick temper, pride, and aggressiveness of the two nationalities as reflected
in these particular individuals can without injustice readily imagine that both
sides must have been equally guilty. This is what made the attempt at recon-
ciliation progress so smoothly.”53
Finally, to these influences should be added the ethnocentric and proprie-
tary attitudes of the Americans. De Lambertie characterized them as the egoism
and arbitrary behavior of the North Americans. The government permitted
foreigners to work in the mines for a tax, he wrote, “and a handful of egotistical
men, because they feel like the largest number, have the audacity to discuss if
they ought to run them out.”54 De Lambertie’s attitude was understandable and
even correct in his assumption that a license should permit the foreign miner to
work undisturbed. But he failed to adjust his views to a decade of the doctrine
of Manifest Destiny, a successful war against Mexico, and the establishment of
the continental American empire. In an increasingly competitive mining
world, with more miners and claims reduced in size, Americans would respond
with what they regarded as justifiable national solidarity.55
The conflict at Mokelumne Hill flowed out of a series of ongoing confronta-
tions marked by rich claims. To this basic cause should be added the confusion
that surrounded the differences in languages that gave rise to endless rumor and
misunderstanding. The triggering incident was a quarrel between the French
and the Irish. In late April 1851, a former officer of the French marines (or so it
was related) found and exploited a particularly rich claim at Les Fourcades
(or Mokelumne Hill, as it was known to the Americans). A quarrel took place
with Irish miners. French friends appeared, and the disagreement became
violent. Shots were exchanged, and two Frenchmen and three Irish miners
were wounded. A fourth Irishman was killed. The French retired to a nearby
French camp, where they rallied all French miners to their cause and raised the
tricolor. By the next day, they had as many as 250 men under arms. They talked
in grandiose terms of retaking Les Fourcades, which they felt was theirs by right
of discovery and usage. The Americans also called for reinforcements, and they
soon had some 500–600 men under arms. The Americans called on the French
to disarm and leave within twelve hours. The French were not disposed to
retire; they felt themselves in the right and sufficiently numerous and well
armed to make a stand. There may also have been a substantial degree of
lingering resentment over the casual aggressive and bullying attitude of some
Americans, so recently in evidence by the harassment of the Mexicans. That
the Americans became so aggressively involved in a quarrel that began between
French and Irish miners suggests that this was simply an excuse to settle long-
standing disagreements, and the more so over mines acknowledged to be rich.
214 California

The local French consular agent sent an emergency message to Consul

Dillon in San Francisco, urging him to come with American officials to resolve
the dispute. Dillon arrived on May 3, with Thomas Butler King, the president
of the California Senate and a prominent political figure in California. Dillon
and King assembled miners from both sides in a large tent and heard the
accounts and complaints. Dillon talked to the alcalde, and the two sides agreed
to move back and unload their weapons. It was also agreed that the French were
to be restored to ownership of their claims. This was a crucial outcome for
the French. That the Americans agreed to it suggests that the American claims
to these placers were weak under the usual rules established for a mining
district. Within a few hours of the agreement, Dillon and King received word of
the great fire in San Francisco, and they immediately departed Mokelumne
Hill for that city. The fight for Mokelumne Hill was over. It had involved the
mobilization of hundreds of men on each side and an exchange of volleys of
shots. In the end, there were few casualties, which probably made a compro-
mise easier.56
The immediate accounts in the French press had a different tone. The first
and most important of these was a letter from Étienne Derbec. He wrote: “A
deplorable fight took place last week in the Mokelumne placer, at the Les
Fourcades site, between some Frenchmen and some miners of other nations.
The rich placers of that site had been for some time exclusively occupied by our
countrymen who discovered it. Some placers yielded gold abundantly. . . . A
good number of [miners] established themselves above and below the rich
plateau, but in spite of their grand expectations, their digging produced little or
nothing. Accordingly, they resolved to seize mining sites whose output was
more abundant and installed themselves there early in the morning. Then the
struggle began, each miner wanting to keep the precious earth which had
already cost him so much labor. Our nationals were beaten with stones in their
holes. At that moment, one of them, instead of going to demand justice from
the alcalde, committed the grave impudence of using firearms. His adversary
fell stone dead.” Derbec continued his account: “That mishap was exploited
and gave the fight a character and proportions which it would not have had
otherwise.” The loudest cries came from
these vagabonds from every country who usurp the name of Americans, of
which they are unworthy, then carried their dead man through the surround-
ing camps, crying vengeance and succeeded only too well in presenting this
deed to the Americans as a quarrel between nations, whereas there was actu-
ally only a partial collision, and, as a matter of fact, the right was entirely on
the side of the French, who were violently attacked and, so to speak, on their
 French Argonauts and the Americans 215

own territory. Deceived by these false reports, the Americans sent messen-
gers in all directions. There followed an almost general taking up of arms,
and five or six hundred of them came to assault our nationals with gunshot.
The French then found themselves under the necessity of defending their
lives, and replied with shot. But being so much less numerous (they were
scarcely sixty), poorly armed, lacking munitions, and caught unprepared,
they were forced to abandon the place and withdraw into an enclosed space
(corral), where they fortified themselves.57

The situation had become very serious, Derbec continued, because in an

armed confrontation, the French were far fewer in number. The town of
Stockton was in an uproar, and all business there was suspended.
At this crucial point, Derbec wrote, “the matter came to the attention of the
French Consul at San Francisco. M. Dillon immediately sent an express
messenger to the government at San Jose, asking them to join their efforts to his,
in order to end this conflict, and he dispatched at the same time some messen-
gers to the interior bearing some messages which stopped hostilities.” Dillon
went to the site of the confrontation, where he mediated with great skill and
dignity. Derbec concluded: “The prompt intervention of our consul in that
unfortunate affair prevented great misfortune. His moderation, his distin-
guished reasoning, the esteem which he enjoys in San Francisco on all levels of
society, combined with his profound knowledge of the language and customs of
the country in which he resides, allow me to affirm that the honor of repre-
senting France could not be entrusted to more dignified hands. He was about
to leave for the mines, the scene of the conflict, when he received news to the
good effect which his messages had produced on the Americans; they had put
an end to the quarrel.”58
The peaceful closure of an episode that began with such a threat of large-
scale violence should not obscure the collateral damages. Derbec noted
in his account, among other things, that wandering bands looted and burned
the tents of the French miners during their absence. The Americans also took
over some of the rich French claims. An American miner from Maine, William
Hanson, wrote to his wife of the war with the French. As a result of the siege,
the French retired and left some rich claims. Hanson and others immediately
seized them.59
The American response to the conflict at Mokelumne Hill was astonishingly
low key. The Alta California offered an understated account. It described the
“wave of anxiety from a brush,” a term that seemed to describe a serious
confrontation but not one that threatened to become lethal. The editor later
called it “a very great excitement.” Once again, the emphasis was on posturing
216 California

rather than actual physical conflict.60 The French were more upset, probably in
response to Derbec’s account. In reply to its publication, the Constitutionnel
referred to “the deplorable confrontation.”61 Among the Americans and even
the French involved, the issue of the confrontation at Mokelumne Hill was
almost immediately forgotten with the news of the great fire in San Francisco.
 13

THE LAST FRENCH ARGONAUTS

THE GARDE MOBILE: EMIGRANTS SENT

BY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT

The exception to the general discrimination of Americans against foreign

miners, especially the non-English-speaking ones, was a military unit sent by
the French government to the California goldfields. It was an unlikely story,
with its origins on the barricades of the “June Days” of 1848, when the rein-
forced military units of the government overpowered the uprising on the Paris
streets. In executing this triumph, the government called upon a wide range of
volunteers who came forward to assist in suppressing the uprising. The pres-
ence of these volunteers was especially significant because of the failure of
elements of the regular army to support the king and his government in the
earlier demonstrations of February 1848. One of the most important of these
volunteer units was the Garde Mobile. Then came the question of paying these
units. The debate over the cost took place in an atmosphere of increasing
concern about the veterans of the Garde Mobile wandering the byways of the
countryside and the streets of Paris in search of employment. The government’s
solution was to offer former members of the Garde Mobile a one-way passage to
California. With surprising speed, given the layers of bureaucracy in executing
any decision, representatives of the government chartered a ship and screened
the applicants, and the vessel departed in the spring of 1850, arriving in San
Francisco in November. Given the reports of Alexandre Achard of the strong
presence of insurgents from the rebellious faubourgs of Paris in the mining
camps, especially Camp Murphy, the prospect of the arrival of veterans of the
force that had subdued the barricades was intriguing. Were the clashes of June
1848 to be resumed in the mining camps of California? The government and its

217
218 California

representatives are silent on this point, although one can sense the palpable
sigh of relief as the veterans leave the shores of France. In any case, on the
arrival of the veterans, representatives of the French government were respon-
sible for transporting them to the mines and supplying them with food, tools,
arms, and tents. Whatever happened in the goldfields became the responsibility
of some other government.1
The emigrants of this group embarked at Toulon on May 25, 1850, on the
corvette Capricieuse for Valparaiso, where they were transferred to the corvette
Sérieuse. Numbering some 131 men, they were then brought to San Francisco,
where they landed November 23, 1850. This foreign military force disembarked
with military precision, formed up on the pier, and marched into San Francisco
in uniform. There, they received a warm welcome. The customs officials
exempted them from all formalities, and the state gave them a dispensation
from paying the tax imposed on all foreign miners. The mayor and the authori-
ties in the town, accompanied by the French consul, paid a visit to the captain
of the Sérieuse, who had prepared “a welcoming reception in their honor.”2
The experiences of the Garde Mobile on American soil represented a
notable exception to the general hardships of French immigrants on arriving
under the auspices of the California companies. This was the first expression of
sympathy by the city to a foreign ship of war; this was also the first time that a
ship anchored in the harbor had not lost a single member of the crew to deser-
tion. Five days after the arrival of the Sérieuse, the first detachment of eighty-two
members of the Garde Mobile left for Mokelumne Hill. They were soon
followed by another, composed of twenty men. The rest remained in San
Francisco. On the march to the goldfields they were led by a bugler. Throughout
the march and on arrival, they presented a strong military appearance. American
miners first suspected hostile intentions, read one account, but they were soon
reassured.3
The first notices of the arrival of the Garde Mobile in the French press
appeared in late January 1851. The Moniteur Universel reported the debarka-
tion: “The San Francisco authorities suspended all the usual formalities
surrounding the arrival of foreign ships.” It continued: “The sympathy of the
authorities echoed in the whole population.” After brief ceremonies, they
boarded the steamboat Stelztron for the trip to the mines. “The Americans who
lined the streets . . . seem to have been remarkably accepting, even enthusiastic
about the presence of armed men in uniform marching through San Francisco.”
It is true, the contingent did not stay in town; it left immediately for the mines.
And when they arrived in the mines, the collectors of the foreign miners’ tax
suspended the law for the newly arrived veterans.4
 The Last French Argonauts 219

The most complete account appeared in the Journal du Havre. Its report
began with the arrival of the Garde Mobile. These emigrants were transported
to California at the expense of the government by their own wish “in order to
increase the number of workers in California.” These passengers disembarked
without difficulty, for the formalities of visitors and the verifications prescribed
by the regulations had been suspended in their case. The article continued:
“The authorities of the city have, on their part, shown a real sympathy for these
new immigrants, a sympathy which has found an echo in the entire popula-
tion.” As for the preparation, “Nothing has been lacking for the Garde Mobile,
either during the long voyage from France or during their arrival. They are also
strong witnesses to the paternal care of the French government.” In recognition
of their official status, as reflected by the sponsorship of the French consul, “the
privilege of a worker in the mines has followed the example of American citi-
zens, without the payment of any fee. This very generous measure has greatly
assisted the first attempts of this emigration.”5
A letter from San Francisco published in the Constitutionnel told the same
story. The account began by describing the arrival of 150 veterans of the Garde
Mobile on the Sérieuse. The letter continued: “It is a fine corps of men, armed
and in uniform. Fifty of them have been conveyed to Stockton at the expense of
the French government [and] have gone to the southern mines. Their manner
is in every respect inoffensive and their excellent conduct has made a favorable
impression, and, like all French immigrants, they have been well received. On
arrival, their baggage was lost. A subscription was immediately opened for their
benefit. The French consul has done excellent work. He has given them money.
This is an assistance which greatly smoothes their way.” By contrast, most of the
other French immigrants felt horribly poor and neglected: “They are rejected on
all sides because they do not speak English.” Clearly the citizens of San Francisco
were prepared to make an exception for the French-speaking Garde Mobile.6
The California gold rush and the actions and reactions of participants were
generally predictable but sometimes surprising. One of the surprising dimen-
sions was the generally warm response of the Americans at every level to the
arrival of the Garde Mobile. Here was a foreign military force, uniformed and
armed, landing on American soil, forming up, and marching off in military
formation. Yet the Americans on the streets cheered them, and the newspaper
editors spoke of them in the highest terms. Perhaps in the midst of a confused
and chaotic series of events known as the gold rush, the arrival of a disciplined
group (albeit under arms) was something to be celebrated. After all, this was no
mob. Their parade under arms in San Francisco may well have appealed to the
citizenry, who liked parades and military discipline.7
220 California

Whatever the response of American officials, some individual citizens, espe-

cially those in the goldfields, did not share in the welcome. The future governor
of Wisconsin, Lucius Fairchild, was one of those dissenters. In a letter home, he
wrote, “There are eight thousand French in the mines who were sent here by
the French government to work here, they were the Guard de Noble of Paris
[sic]and for their services were sent here at the expense of the government.” As
for himself and other miners, “the Americans did not like it and in Mokelumne
Co. they have given them (the French) notice to leave or fight. They are all well
armed and live and travel in military style having their officers Music Flags etc.
with them.” Fairchild was outraged at the warm welcome offered by the local
government. Whatever their military pretensions, in the mines these new
arrivals were simply competitors. Their presence intensified the simmering
tension between American and foreign miners.8

THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE LOTTERY SHIPS

For six months, the Lottery of the Golden Ingots transfixed the French
nation. The drawing of the winning ticket represented the close of that dramatic
series of events for most people. The lottery itself, however, was a prelude to a
further connection between France and California in the form of the emigrants
who would be transported to the new El Dorado at government expense. Over
eighteen months, as noted, seventeen ships with their human cargoes made the
tedious voyages from Le Havre to San Francisco. Like everything else connected
with the gold rush, these debarkations, voyages, and arrivals had their own
stories and variations.
First among the arrangements came the issue of choosing a company to
carry the “lottery emigrants” to California. On July 23, 1851, the transportation
contract was awarded to the firm of Victor Marzieu and Company of Le Havre.
The company had offered to transport the lingotiers (as the lottery emigrants
were called) to San Francisco for the price of F 795 each. Under the terms of
contract, the emigrants would be carried on French ships of at least four
hundred tons, with a baggage allowance of one hundred pounds per passenger.
They would be treated as second-class passengers. Among their benefits, they
were guaranteed fresh bread, to replace the usual biscuits, and tinned rather
than salted beef. Each ship would have a doctor.9
The arrangements for the transportation of the lottery emigrants specified a
degree of control appropriate to an operation sponsored by the French govern-
ment. Those selected for emigration were subdivided according to category.
Families would go on one ship, military men on another, single men on a third.
 The Last French Argonauts 221

The passengers of each vessel were divided into companies of thirty-two, and
each company was subdivided into four squads of eight. This structure provided
a kind of chain of command for communication and control. Each ship
included an expedition chief and four assistants. In case of trouble, the captain
of the ship could put into nearby ports and hand troublemakers to the French
consul or a French warship. On arrival in California, each emigrant would
receive fifteen days of food; a mattress and blankets (used on the voyage); a
linen shirt, pants, a workman’s smock, a sailor’s hat and coat, a pair of shoes; and
a pick, shovel, ax, hammer, and chisel. As part of his support, the consul,
M. Dillon, gave each lingotier money, originally twenty dollars, later reduced to
three dollars as funds provided by the government dried up.10
The enterprise raised once again the issue of the government support of a
venture to send French people to a non-French destination. The Courrier du
Havre noted that for the considerable cost involved, the government should
send the emigrants to a French place. Its sister journal, the Journal du Havre,
observed that some Paris newspapers remained opposed to sending people at
government expense to California to face uncertainty and hardship. The
Journal crafted a lengthy reply to make the point that given the amount of
gold moving from California through Chagres to New York, “it is evident
that an active and robust worker possesses a great chance of finding an occupa-
tion that is lasting and well paid.” It is true, the Journal continued, that the
French emigrants would undergo serious privations, and they would be forced
to do hard manual labor. Even the nobility (“counts and marquises”) should
know that one could acquire a fortune in this country only at the price of
hard labor.11
Charivari harshly criticized what it described as this enforced emigration to
California. The minister responsible for this philanthropic gesture of sending
“these five thousand poor devils” twelve thousand miles from their country
would be sending them to a place where they would confront hunger, for they
lacked that most important ingredient for arriving in San Francisco: money. It
seems clear that within a year, Charivari continued, the French government
would be obliged to undertake a new lottery with a capital of F 6 million to raise
the funds necessary to bring this five thousand home. The second lottery would
be even more philanthropic than the first! Charivari returned to an often-cited
corrective about California and its gold—namely, the difference between
fantasy and reality. California had assumed a fantasy quality in France, buoyed
by the flood of advertisements with the claims of the California companies.
Charivari wanted to introduce the reality of a world of hard work and even
penury. And why not? These were individuals chosen at random to fulfill the
222 California

several purposes of the lottery. The categories for selection did not mention the
resources of physical strength that would be useful (even necessary) in
confronting the challenges of gold rush California.12
Another dimension of the issue soon appeared—namely, the suggestion
that the transportation of five thousand French citizens might be viewed as
an imperial thrust in the national interest. Argued the Mémorial Bordelais,
“What should the French government do to establish its political and
commercial preponderance there? Evidently, it should favor emigration by
all means, to multiply the French element in California by the largest
number possible. We have now to be thankful to the Minister of the Interior for
his having understood this necessity.” The editorial continued: “Surrounded
by a [French] government of a solicitude which accompanies the emigrants
as far as California after their arrival, this measure cannot help but have fecund
results.”13
By the time of the drawing, some prominent newspapers had accepted the
California destination as offering advantages to the emigrants and an opportu-
nity to enhance the French presence in this part of the world. As for the future
prospects of California, French newspapers and commentators should stop
discouraging French immigration on the belief that the California prosperity
would vanish. Instead, “eh bien! We affirm that the real prosperity of California
has not yet begun. She has still only the germs of future grandeur.”14

THE SELECTION OF THE LOTTERY EMIGRANTS

Whatever may have been the intent of the framers of the bill to authorize the
lottery, the law itself specified that any French citizen could petition to be trans-
ported free to California. Many citizens did so. That the requests were addressed
to the prefect of the Paris police suggested the degree of involvement on the
part of officials charged with maintaining “order,” a key word in post-
revolutionary France.
In a letter dated Montmartre, October 9, 1850, M. Courtin made the case for
his free transportation to California. He began with an extended account of his
many and varied services to the French nation. He had volunteered in 1830 and
served seven years in the ranks of the 26th regiment. Subsequently he had
worked on the fortifications at Soissons, and in 1845, he was admitted with the
rank of junior officer into the Bureau of Warehouses with a salary of F 900 a
year. In 1848, he was named a sub-lieutenant in the National Guard. In this
capacity, “I took an active part in the combat for the defense of order in the
dreadful June days; the 23rd on the streets of the Faubourg Poissonnaire, on the
 The Last French Argonauts 223

hill of the Rue Richer, I dashed off several volleys of fire, at the head of my
detachment mounted the first barricade, and we seized some insurgents. I took
them as prisoners.” Courtin’s petition continued: “We advanced to the second
barricade on the Rue Bellefond, tremendous because of its height and the
number of defenders, [and] we experienced there a murderous battle which
lasted more than a half hour, during which we lost 82 men more dead than
wounded; it finally fell into our possession, and I took prisoner Captain
Robert of the chapel Le Pennisel, who commanded there almost six hundred
insurgents.”15
Courtin added that in spite of his heroic actions on the dangerous barri-
cades, he received no advancement. Indeed, in spite of all his efforts, he found
himself in a precarious financial position. At this point, he approached one of
the California companies then so conspicuous by their presence, but he was
deceived by that company. Unfortunately, he had already tendered his resigna-
tion in order to depart. The minister of war had given him F 200 to assist in
his passage. So he now appealed to the prefect of the Paris police to accept
him as one of the five thousand for free passage, given his skills in public
works and geology. These talents would ensure him the means of existence in
San Francisco. So ended the first appeal of M. Courtin. A second appeal
was dated from the Mazas Prison, January 23, 1851. In this follow-up account,
he referred to supporting letters that would be submitted on his behalf by a
general and an architect testifying to his skills. He was confined in prison, he
continued, “for an affair in which I was charged with having struck my wife in
a fit of jealousy.”16
Other petitions for passage under the lottery act were briefer. M. St. Louvent
described his circumstances in stark terms: “Without fortune and without
employment, I beg you to grant for me and my wife a free passage to California.
And I agree to place myself, without any restriction, under the discipline of the
ship which transports me as well as under the orders of the head of the expedi-
tion in charge of directing the convoy of emigrants on board.”17
M. Noquez sought free passage in order that he might find “the means of exis-
tence.” M. Arsène Buisson, junior officer in the 2ème régiment de Marine, living
in Paris, “without employment and without fortune,” pleaded for a free passage
to California.18
Various officials wrote on behalf of petitioners. M. Michelin asked special
consideration in the case of a M. Carraguet and his wife, and he urged that
Madame Carraguet be added to the next convoy for California. Carraguet, he
wrote, “was a brave man” who had served as a junior officer in the Zephir corps
in Algeria. After his return to France, Carraguet had been employed as an agent
224 California

by the central bureau of police in Marseille. For the past five months, he had
been without work. He asked to have this recommendation added to his
previous four requests for the same destination. Michelin continued: as
Carraguet was “active and intelligent, I beg that he be named chief of the
escort.”19
Several letters of recommendation passed through M. Henrieq. One request
to him asked for special consideration for Mme. D’Eu, “my fellow country-
woman, and the wife of one of my formers comrades in arms, who goes to rejoin
her husband in California.” De Montort from the Ministry of the Interior wrote
to the prefect “to recommend in a special manner Monsieur the Count de la
Villatelle, “who has lost all his fortune and is today in the greatest misery.
He would like to depart for California with a free passage, having no other
resources.”20
Léon Faucher, the minister of the interior, used his influence on behalf of a
different kind of emigrant group. A wide range of appeals crossed his desk.
Among them, the Papal Nuncio had written to ask if it would be possible for the
bishop of Vancouver and his party to travel to North America on one of the
lottery ships with a free passage under funds provided by the Lottery of the Gold
Ingots. “M. Demers, the Bishop of Vancouver, is French in origin, as is a
medical doctor who is with him, both born in French Canada. His party is
composed of six missionaries; three are French, two are Belgian, and the sixth a
Hollander, and finally two lay people, who are French. This is a total of ten, the
prelate included.” The prelate raised a legal question. Could funds from the
Lottery of the Golden Ingots be used for a destination different from that for
which the lottery had been established and authorized? But might it be possible
to offer free transportation to California for the Vancouver mission if the ship-
owner used the services of the six priests on the voyage and the doctor also
offered his professional services on the voyage? Minister Faucher asked the
prefect of police to examine this request and report the results of his inquiries to
him as soon as possible.21
There were more personal requests. One petitioner pressed the case of a
family with five members. Living on the Rue Bourbon Villeneuve, the family
included M. Chartray, 39, an unemployed servant; Mme. Chartray, his wife, 32,
a milliner; two children, Denis Marie Louisa, 8, and Denis Henri Raoul, 9; and
M. Viaud Diogene, hairdresser, 21, a cousin of Mme. Chartrey. What gave the
case an added force was that Mme. Chartray’s father, M. Rouchard, had been
in California for three years, and at his invitation, the family wished to be
reunited. And their passage should be paid by the funds of the Lottery of the
Golden Ingots.22
 The Last French Argonauts 225

The petitions and the lists of emigrants focused on individuals and families,
accompanied by whatever supporting documents the petitioner could generate.
On one level, this procedure involved a thousand personal decisions. For those
accepted, the decision had a permanent quality to it. The individual or family
was to embark on a voyage almost halfway around the world on a one-way
passage. The chances of returning were small. On the next level, the bureau-
cratic challenges were daunting. This was a government-sponsored emigration.
It would eventually involve some 4,100 French people, including men, women,
and children. The paperwork was challenging, as evidenced by the boxes of
documents that survive. Careful lists had to be made of the emigrants, ship by
ship. The information included their residence, place of birth, occupation, age,
and employment. Then came the task of moving these dispersed individuals
and families in the proper order to the port of Le Havre and staging them for an
ocean voyage of some five months. Once arrived in the port city, there were
other details. Baggage had to be labeled and sorted. The prospective emigrants
then had to read the rules of the ship governing their passage, and each had to
affix a signature that testified to the acceptance of these rules. The procedures
specified, “The rules are established to maintain order, cleanliness, and a regu-
larity of service. Each Passenger, after reading the rules, commits himself tacitly
to conform to these point by point.” The rations, part of the bid contract, were
described in detail. The foodstuffs that were specified included biscuits or fresh
bread, rum or Tafia, table wine, coffee, sugar, salt beef, salt bacon, dried vege-
tables, rice, and cheese.23
How might we characterize the selection process? Petitions aside, the prefect
of police was the dominant figure. The political dimension was a strong influ-
ence. Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant wrote that the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots “had for its principal purpose to purge French political life of a great
number of frères et amis who were an embarrassment when they were not a
danger.”24 Apparently the need to send a number of undesirables, criminal and
political, was a widely understood dimension of the process. Another impres-
sion persists—namely, that, gold and sunlight aside, one of the great attractions
of California was its distance. If the urge or opportunity to return varied by
distance, those sent to California were much less likely to reappear in France
than those conveyed to Algeria.25
Saint-Amant quoted with approval from the Moniteur Universel: “The
French emigration was composed of strongly heterogeneous elements. There
were, among the passengers on the lottery ships, some good and brave workers,
some dignified and honest tradesmen; there was also a notable contingent of
highly skilled drunkards and some individuals habituated to count above all on
226 California

Providence [rather] than on their arms to provide their daily subsistence. The
real workers started out well, persevering and succeeding. The ex-orators from
the clubs of Paris, the drunks and idlers, faithful to their old instincts, hold forth
if they succeed in finding an audience.” By contrast, Saint-Amant characterized
the French population in San Francisco in the most favorable terms: “an intel-
ligent French bourgeoisie, moral, and which continues to develop; some strong
houses of French banks and consignment operations, as well as a large number
of small workshops equally French.” He continued: “There does not exist any
point in the outside world which contains at the same time a French popula-
tion as rich and respected, and a French population also garish and slovenly as
in San Francisco.”26 The arrival of the lingotiers would introduce a new element
into the French population.
The lists in the ship’s manifests suggest a broad base of French working-class
trades. Among those listed on the first ship, for example, were seamstress, coffee-
house keeper, baker, linen maid, sailor, carpenter, cook, and washerwoman.
Among the many occupations, the most common were tailors, farmers, bakers,
and domestics. It is informative that the letters of recommendation and the
correspondence among officials did not refer to occupations. Apparently they
were a minor consideration.

THE VOYAGES OF THE LOTTERY SHIPS

The emigrants of the Lottery of the Golden Ingots fell into three broad
groups: first, elements of the Garde Mobile and some members of the Garde
Républicaine; second, criminals, dissidents, and political prisoners of various
kinds; finally, a group chosen for their poverty, their connections, and their peti-
tions, more along the lines of the original purpose of the lottery than the first
two categories. Officials grouped the ships’ passengers under these same head-
ings. Presumably the organizing principle was not to mix the military emigrants
with families. Issues of behavior and accommodation would be central here.
The first of the so-called lottery ships, the Malouin, departed from Le Havre
on October 11, 1851. It was a convoy of single men. The voyage was long—more
than seven months—often with bad weather. In many respects, the passage was
a chaotic one. This condition probably reflected both the character of the
emigrants and the trial-and-error nature of the exercise. Certainly this first
departure was a test case in planning and administrative arrangements. The
officers of the ship had great difficulty in maintaining order. As a result, the
captain disembarked sixty-one men in Rio on charges of conspiring against him
and his authority. Among those detained were eight squad chiefs or subchiefs.27
 The Last French Argonauts 227

In a letter from Rio de Janeiro addressed to the minister, M. de Lisle, a

diplomat from the embassy, described the chaos on the ship. The vessel’s
146 passengers, he began, “form the first convoy of the emigrants of the Lottery
of the Golden Ingots.” In view of the “undiscipline of the passengers,” the
captain thought it “imprudent” to continue the voyage. Indeed, he believed
there had been a plot against the security of the ship. De Lisle moved
“with haste to consult with the commander of the brig Chasseur, which by
coincidence was in the harbor.” They devised a series of measures to “restore
tranquility” on board the Malouin. The principal leaders of the uprisings were
disembarked and confined on the Chasseur. De Lisle was convinced that
this action had been necessary to prevent “an imminent collision,” and he
emphasized the serious nature of these encounters, which led him to act “so
rigorously.”28
By contrast, the voyage of the second vessel, the Alphonse-Nicolas Cézard,
was a great success. Indeed, it was a model of planning and execution. The
voyage was rapid (122 days), and the captain, M. Le Bozek, turned out to be an
ideal leader for such a challenging task. He combined the necessary skills of an
excellent ship’s commander with those of a shrewd negotiator between the
sometimes turbulent passengers and the ship’s authority. He solved the issue of
clandestine alcohol on the voyage (which led to endless behavior problems) by
the simple expedient of offering to sober passengers on landing in San Francisco
a monetary sum equal to what they would have received for selling their daily
alcohol ration. This policy did not end the periodic bouts of drunkenness on
the voyage, but it certainly reduced them. His technical skills on handling his
ship were also of the highest order. Although departing Le Havre two weeks
after the first ship, the Cézard arrived in San Francisco two months earlier. His
experiences—he also commanded the same vessel for the seventeenth and last
voyage of the lottery ships—confirm the crucial role played by the ship’s captain
in the transportation of the lingotiers.29
During the voyages of the seventeen ships, each of which lasted from approx-
imately five to seven months, significant health dangers appeared. Seasickness
was universal, and there were also cases of dysentery. An outbreak of yellow
fever on two ships killed forty-one passengers. The passengers and their clothing
were often described as dirty. Drunkenness was a serious problem. Throughout
a voyage, there was much drinking and a number of recorded drunken brawls.
Dillon wrote that the disturbances associated with the arriving lingotiers were
most often related to drunkenness.30
There was also often throughout the voyages a continuing tension and some-
times conflict between the officers and men of the military organizations and
228 California

the ship’s command. At sea, the authority of the ship’s captain was absolute. At
the same time, the emigrants accustomed to a military command structure
deferred to their own leaders and were often reluctant to take directions from
naval officers. This division was enhanced by the difficult conditions of a long
sea voyage, mixed with bad weather, boredom, and alcohol.
The common quality among this large group of French emigrants was
poverty. Even the veterans of the military forces were reduced in circumstances.
This condition explains their willingness to accept the government’s offer to
transport them halfway around the world. Perhaps in the end, it was the
continuing flow of publicity about California and gold that made the choice
California rather than a French possession closer to home. Given the endless
opportunities associated with the new El Dorado, who could refuse free passage?
The answer was not four thousand people desperate for new beginnings for a
variety of reasons. Beyond their fragile economic condition lay other character-
istics. Among the lottery emigrants, seven in eight were men. Whether diverted
from the customary lifecycle by the collapse of the rural economy in the 1840s,
the economic upheavals associated with the revolution of February 1848, or the
changing fortunes of a military career (in the case of the veterans), they found
themselves agreeable to the government’s offer of a free passage to the now
accepted golden land of California. There were some men and women
condemned before 1848 for crimes against property. Also there were those
incarcerated for more serious crimes: abandoning children, producing counter-
feit money, carrying illegal arms, and fraud of various kinds.31
The secretary general of the Prefecture of Police wrote to Patrice Dillon, the
French consul, to defend the principle and operation of the enterprise. He
observed: “We have felt that this immigration would only be useful and moral
if it included families.” He noted that the emigrants were “carefully chosen
volunteers.” It was true, he continued, that many were former members of the
Garde Mobile. Indeed, family groups and women were in a distinct minority.
And among the selected emigrants were some political suspects, criminals, and
common thugs. A leader of the fifth ship wrote it was common knowledge that
“this expedition included dangerous men that the police wanted to get rid of.”32

EUSTACHE AND HENRI MATHET AND THE VOYAGE OF THE

MAGELLAN

In 1850, driven by the same economic misery that afflicted so many of those
connected with the hemp industry, Eustache Mathet, his wife, Catherine, and
his son, Henri, left Fresnay and journeyed to Paris, where he hoped to find
 The Last French Argonauts 229

employment. Like so many others who made the same pilgrimage with the
same hope, he failed, wandering the streets of Paris unemployed. On July 30,
1851, after a series of illnesses, Catherine died, leaving him a widower. Now
propelled by poverty and the endless public celebration of the fabulous
gold discoveries in North America (the newspapers called it “la ruée vers l’or
californien”), he petitioned for free passage to the new El Dorado under the
auspices of the Lottery of the Golden Ingots. His request approved, he made
plans to depart. He would be accompanied by his son, Henri, age sixteen. The
two joined four thousand others who hoped for a reversal of their blighted
economic circumstances. In this respect the lottery was perhaps the final mani-
festation of the hopes, expectations, and optimism created by the revolution of
1848, with its promises of reform and expanded opportunities, few of which had
come to pass.33
Eustache wrote to his older brother and sister of their decision. They would
go to San Francisco free (aux frais) under the sponsorship of the Lottery of the
Golden Ingots. His long sojourn in Paris had come to nothing, and he no longer
had any hope of success there. In preparation for their departure, he and Henri
had sold everything in the household except clothes and bedding. The sixty-
four francs they received would provide them with a nest egg on landing in San
Francisco. At the very least, they hoped to have sufficient good fortune in
California to pay their debts and find themselves in a better position than they
presently enjoyed. Unfortunately, while they waited for their ship, they had to
expend a portion of their scarce capital to eat. If the delay continued much
longer, he wrote, they would arrive in San Francisco without a cent. Like so
many others, Eustache was both excited and unnerved by the prospect of the
long voyage and the El Dorado at its end: “Henri and I depart in a state of
wonder.” He closed, “We embrace you with all our hearts, and I am always your
devoted brother.”34
At the same time, Henri wrote of their plans to his aunt and uncle in Fresnay.
In six or seven days, they would leave for San Francisco, the principal city in
California. The voyage would last as much as six months. Whatever the hard-
ships at sea and the uncertainties on landing, they needed to try something
different to raise their prospects. The die was cast: “In the end, for us, it’s victory
or death.” They took heart from “two good recommendations,” and “with such
letters, it was not possible that they would not succeed.” One was from a teacher,
the second from a former army captain connected with their uncle Alexandre.
Henri had called on Madame la Contesse de Beaumont, who offered advice
but no more substantive support. He asked his uncle and aunt to write to him
in Le Havre. He closed, “Your ever devoted nephew.”35
230 California

On July 23, 1852, Eustache and Henri joined some three hundred other
single emigrants under the lingotier banner on the quay in Le Havre. From all
parts of France and representing a wide range of occupations, they were united
in their desire to change their lives for the better, to put behind them the penury
and hardships of the past, to find new lives and hopes in the land of promise,
also known as California. On the quay, they gathered with their meager baggage,
and standing next to them were relatives who had come to see them off on what
must have seemed like a voyage to the end of the world. Among the contrasts in
the waiting line, a grandfather of fifty-five with a gray beard and next to him, his
grandson, age eight. Both were part of the lingotier migration.36
The official Contrôle Nominatif began the bureaucratic routine of identi-
fying this group of single men and preparing their embarkation. There were 267
single men in Mathet’s group. They were numbered and listed with family
name, first name, place of birth, and occupation.37
The vessel Magellan had tied up at the quay, just arrived from the naval
yards at Bordeaux. As soon as they boarded the vessel, the lingotiers found them-
selves subject to the rules of the ship and its captain. Conditions were spartan;
the promised beds were really hammocks. The rules of the ship were spelled
out in detail. The passengers would rise at 6 a.m. and go to bed at 10 p.m. The
organizing principle, as noted above, would be the group of thirty-two, subdi-
vided into squads of eight. Designated leaders would apportion duties on a
rotating basis. The menu was described in these terms: breakfast was coffee and
a ration of brandy; lunch was soup, a serving of meat or fish on Friday; dinner
included wine and biscuits at discretion. The bread ration would be distributed
three times a week.38
Eustache and Henri had embarked on a voyage that would last more than
five months. As for others since the first ship had headed from a French port to
San Francisco, boredom loomed large. The monotony of shipboard life was
relieved by the sightings of other ships and the varied bird and aquatic life. The
lingotiers gambled: for money; for clothes; for a ration of coffee, wine, brandy,
or bread. Some organized lotteries. A few of the educated created courses for
the interested. Those who made the voyage agreed, in retrospect, that the
climate conditions (over which no one had control) defined both the progress
of the ship and the comfort of the passengers.39
After 111 days at sea, the lookout sighted the port of Valparaiso. A flood of
local officials descended on the ship: health officers, customs officials, naval
officers with friendly salutes, and finally, a swarm of merchants selling things.
After the usual bureaucratic delay, the Magellan tied up at the quay, and the
next day, the crew and the lingotiers went ashore. After almost four months at
 The Last French Argonauts 231

sea, the emigrants to the land of gold were ecstatic to be on land and dazzled by
the city of Valparaiso. There were women everywhere on the streets, elegant,
gracious, and friendly. They fascinated the 267 chaste single men after four
months at sea. For all of Valparaiso’s bright sunlight and stylish ladies, a military
presence dominated what seemed like a colonial town in its segregated neigh-
borhoods, ruled by brutal force, widespread prostitution, and an exploitation of
the poor. Valparaiso was only a port of call, and the Magellan and its human
cargo of single men departed after three days.40
Heading north, the Magellan was on the last leg of its long voyage. Excitement
rose as San Francisco drew closer. The passage across the Tropic of Cancer
brought insufferable heat and tropical rains. Christmas was celebrated with a
double ration of wine and meat stew. On January 1, 1853, a passenger died. The
captain presided over a brief ceremony and burial at sea. After 170 days en
route, the Magellan entered San Francisco harbor, made its way among the
hundreds of ships, and cast anchor. Soon thereafter, Eustache and Henri disem-
barked into the frantic world of gold rush California.41

THE DEBARKATION OF THE LINGOTIERS

The first of the seventeen lottery ships arrived in San Francisco on February
28, 1852; the last, fifteen months later, on May 15, 1853. When the news of the
proposed arrival of a large number of immigrants sponsored by the French
government reached the Committee of Vigilance in San Francisco, the
committee sent a delegation to the French consulate to make inquiries. The
consul, Patrice Dillon, wrote a letter to the committee stating that the French
government was sponsoring the emigration of some 4,000–5,000 laborers.
Dillon assured the committee that there were no criminals among the prospec-
tive immigrants. He affirmed “that the French government would not send nor
sanction the emigration of felons or convicted persons, and that government
agents had examined each prospective emigrant as to character before embar-
kation.” Dillon agreed to register and examine the papers of each emigrant
arriving in California. The Committee of Vigilance was satisfied. The Alta
California pronounced the future arrivals “all respectable.”42
Upon the landing of the emigrants in San Francisco, the focus of responsi-
bility shifted from the ships’ commanders to the French consul. As noted in
chapter 9, some 4,016 emigrants left Paris under the auspices of the lottery. That
3,293 landed in San Francisco showed that many had disembarked at interme-
diate stops. The large number also indicated the dimensions of Dillon’s charge.
A lottery ship arrived every month between February 1852 and March 1853.
232 California

Dillon’s labors extended through an annual mining cycle and well into the
following year. He had endless challenges with the arrival of the emigrants.
“There were many French companies connected with the California gold rush,
but it [the group of lingotiers] was by far the most sizable; it had official
patronage, and was the only company among them that succeeded in actually
landing large numbers of emigrants on the shores of California.” Dillon worked
ceaselessly on their behalf, perhaps because of their official status.43 The new
arrivals lacked food and lodging. To remedy the situation, Dillon provided
short-term assistance for many and chartered a ship to move a substantial
number to the mines in the interior. He got the French merchants to form the
French Benevolence Society to assist the needy in moving to the Feather and
Yuba Rivers diggings and to Marysville. At Dillon’s direction, his representative
H. Arnard twice visited the French mining camps and reported his findings to
Dillon. He asked for the establishment of a French vice-consul in Marysville
with the observation, “God was too high and Dillon was too far away.”44 French
miners needed official assistance closer than San Francisco.
The largest group of lottery emigrants arrived between November 1852
and March 1853. It was the rainy season. San Francisco was a sea of mud. It
was no easy task for Dillon to find housing for some two hundred new arrivals
every month. Caught between the high expectations and continuous demands
of the arrivals and the harsh conditions on the ground, Dillon was further
distressed by the end of the subsidies (however modest) provided by the French
government to assist the new arrivals. Dillon sought assistance across the range
of his wide acquaintances, including periodic notices in the Alta California.
These called the attention of the public to the new French emigrants and
touted their skills as gardeners, farmworkers, wine growers, and in the many
professions.45
These new emigrants who went to the goldfields faced great difficulties, both
external and internal. When they landed, they were often suffering from disease,
drunkenness, or injuries from fighting among themselves. Ashore, they some-
times faced harsh weather, and there were food shortages in the winter rainy
season. In the summer of 1852, three men died of heat exhaustion on the way to
the mines. Once arrived at the mining sites, they found the best claims were
already taken. By the mining season of 1852, the placers were crowded. Friction
was inevitable, increased by the high expectations of those who had traveled so
far to reach them.
In assessing the lottery emigrants and their experiences, Dillon sought a
balance. “Although these immigrants are hardly the elite, I am convinced
they will eventually do well for themselves and for the country,” he wrote.
 The Last French Argonauts 233

“At the mines, the French from the Lottery ships were not long in honorably
emulating and imitating the tireless perseverance of the Americans working
beside them. Those who did not adjust to life in the mines found a thousand
occupations in the cities.” He added, “Although their sobriety left something to
be desired, especially at the beginning, it is impossible not to recognize the
moral change that has taken place in them.” The remarkable part of this
observation was the recognition that this was a large and varied group that
needed some sort of moral reformation. Presumably the sunshine and clear air
of California, mixed with the hard labor of the placers, had performed the
necessary transformation.46
Daniel Lévy’s analysis, written in 1884, concluded that the “Society of the
Golden Ingot” was by far the most important of the many schemes to transport
French people to California. Aside from the number who went to the mines
with their passage paid, Lévy noted that a certain number found employment
in San Francisco as servants, at one hundred dollars a month, and in the valleys
as farm laborers at four dollars a day. A small number of these sponsored
emigrants were troublesome, and they inspired uneasiness on the part of the
American authorities. Count Raousset-Boulbon later recruited elements of this
group for his filibustering expedition to Sonora.47
Lévy cited a document from one of the lottery immigrants. He wrote that the
conventional wisdom characterized the lottery immigrants as a group of crimi-
nals or revolutionaries. In truth, the writer continued, these French people
were from everywhere and represented a wide panoply of occupations; in a
word, all had an occupation or a profession. Dillon went with them to Marysville,
and he paid for lodging and food on the way. They encountered a generous
hotelier, who welcomed them with “take the bottle and help yourself.” The
lingotiers slept outside. Their host prepared a nice morning meal. The account
also praised the generosity of a Canadian storekeeper named Paradis, who gave
them credit. He was “a kind man.” On the way to their destination, the emigrants
found it necessary to cross a river. As they lacked money to pay their passage on
the ferry, they left some of their tools with the boatman.48
The exotic nature of the lottery emigration, driven by the national mania
occasioned by the lottery and the heavily publicized news surrounding the final
drawing, obscured the importance and practical results of this movement of
human cargo from France to California. Some 3,300 people landed in San
Francisco over a fifteen-month period, moved by a national lottery into the
maelstrom of gold rush California. They arrived at a time when the results for
individuals in the goldfields were already in decline. The pressure of numbers
continued to rise in the face of emigration from the eastern United States,
234 California

China, Mexico, and elsewhere around the world. That the lingotiers were
supported and assisted by the French consul was a tribute to a sense of continuing
responsibility by the French government. Whatever succor they received was
surely greater than that given to associate workers by the failed California
companies. The arrival of the lingotiers wrote a dramatic coda to the French
emigration that had begun in the fall of 1849.
Part Five

FRANCE
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 14

THE FRENCH ARGONAUTS RETURN TO FRANCE

The Close of the California Adventure

The large numbers of French Argonauts who came to California in response

to the gold discoveries reflected varied groups—members of several California
companies and local companies; independent voyagers; veterans of the Garde
Mobile; and lingotiers. Few of these remained in California. Indeed, after a
wide range of experiences and mixed success and failure, most of them returned
to France. From the moment of landing in San Francisco—whether trans-
ported by one of the California companies or independently—French gold
seekers exhibited many variations in their responses to California and the gold
camps. Some returned to France as soon as they could amass the resources for
the trip. Others tried the placers and remained there for one or more seasons. A
third group worked in the placers and then left the mining sites and migrated
into the camps, towns, and city of San Francisco, sometimes in response to the
seasonal closing of the mines, sometimes in response to discouragement and
fatigue, sometimes in response to a perceived greater economic opportunity.
Whatever the cycle of return to France, early or late, the returning French
Argonauts were not greeted by the cheering crowds on the docks that had
sent them on their way. A modest celebration in the family, the village, or
the Paris neighborhood sufficed. In the experience in and correspondence
from California, most first-person accounts pay little attention to the return.
Arsène Grosjean, who wrote at length about his voyage to California and his
adventures in the mining camps with his various partners and the donkey
Trompette, concluded his account with a single brief paragraph: “The first of
August 1851 I embarked on board ‘Le Moise’ going to Peru. I visited Peru and
Chili. I landed in France the 10th of October 1851.” Thus ended an adventure

237
238 France

in gold rush California that spanned eighteen months, the last four months in
one paragraph.1
The stories of returning to France reflected the wide variety of participants
and their experiences. There was the case of an entrepreneur with a fortune of
F 100,000 who went to California to increase his fortune tenfold. According to
his own account, he survived astonishing prices, mining with “brigands and
convicts, pistols and swords, [and] savage Indians,” along with other “obstacles
of nature and the vices of civilization,” to return with his grandiose plans unsat-
isfied. “If I had carried cargoes of liquors and tools, I would have brought back
many hundreds of thousands of francs.” Instead, he invested F 100,000 in
mining, and he returned a little less rich than when he departed, with his health
damaged by several bouts of illness.2
The friends from the village of Bruley had their own stories of their final
months in the great California adventure. These final months began with two
new arrivals, Clément and Louis Bouvée, who came some five months after the
first wave. A third newcomer, Firmin Gillet, almost immediately drowned in a
mountain stream. Jean Migot wrote of the water danger that “one . . . needed to
be a good sailor in order not to be pulled under by the current of the swift
streams.” On the river named North Fork, on which they worked, he continued,
four countrymen from the department of Meurthe drowned in the same small
boat. Five weeks later, some Americans recovered Gillert’s body. Migot wrote:
“We rendered him last duties due a friend and compatriot.” He summarized the
year with reference to the high prices of food and the increasing skepticism of
the “advantages so much praised of a fairy El Dorado.”3
As 1852 opened, Migot wrote a letter summarizing his ten months in
California. He concluded his impressions and his experiences with these words:
“I am very pleased with California, for it is the best country in the world. I do
not know when I will return, perhaps in a year, perhaps ten years. As long as I
find gold, I am well pleased. I do not hope to make a fortune, but I hope, in
some time, to have enough to live comfortably in France on my rents.” He was
less enthusiastic about the prospects of new emigrants. “I would not encourage
anyone to come to California, for I assume that those who make nothing here
are more numerous than those who make something.”4
Jean Migot’s last letter was dated February 16, 1852. He had left the mines.
Perhaps the work was too hard; perhaps also he wished to turn to good account
the money that he had already made. He and his compatriot Justin Demange
became “ranchers” in Miraposa. That is, they had a farm in a California valley,
including a dwelling house and expansive meadows for grazing. On his death
the next year, he had an estate estimated at $3,000–4,000.5
 The French Argonauts Return to France 239

The final accounting for the friends from Bruley showed a sobering net
result. Among the dozen emigrants who made the voyage from Bruley, six
found only misery and death in California. Three had a modest success; three
others returned to the village with only “lost illusions.” As it turned out, the
issue of profit and loss was not the only quality of the California adventure. The
participants always had a special, honored place in the history of the village:
“They always held, in the eyes of the younger generations, a certain prestige for
having dared to undertake the dangerous expedition.”6
The same harsh results accompanied other Lorrainers who came to gold
rush California. The year 1851 produced a series of “personal disasters.” A letter
from Jules Munier-Pugin to his nephew Auguste Mathieu, student at the Lycée
de Nancy, conveyed news of the death of “our poor Édouard.” The letter
continued: “He succumbed to privations, to exhaustion far from France, far
from one’s family. His long silence is now fully explained. One no longer knows
what has become of Victor. Perhaps he is also dead. My God, spare our family
this new disaster!” A later letter confirmed that Victor had been present at
Édouard’s death, dug his grave, and buried him in the desert.7
In a letter from Nancy, Auguste Mathieu wrote to his brother Gabriel: “Uncle
Victor has returned. He has spent a day in Nancy. He has come there to melt
down his gold and then [go] to Paris in order to assay and sell it.” He had a little
more than four hundred grams, which, refined, made F 12,000. “Gadel has
returned with him, but he is gravely ill with the fever which has not left him since
Panama.” He concluded: “Uncle Victor and he have been held to ransom on the
voyage by the ship captains, who regard the Californians as mines to exploit. They
had to pay 1,000 francs for their passage, but the ship, badly managed, ran aground,
and they had to take another for a new sum of 600 francs.” Auguste Mathieu
wrote a final letter from Nancy to Gabriel. Victor was dead. He never recovered
from Édouard’s death, for which he thought himself partly responsible, for he was
the one who decided to go to America. During his absence, his parents, who
hoped to become comfortable on his return, were distressed by heavy setbacks.
He himself, far from being able to return to France to enjoy a fortune amassed
with difficulty, was forced “to work with his hands.” His conclusion spoke of the
steep price paid by one French family for the California expedition: “The sad
adventure ended in the death of two gold seekers and the ruin of three.”8
Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet returned to France in 1854. He had been gone
almost four years. He met with his brother Edmond in Edmond’s residence at
45, Rue Bonaparte in Paris. The family account called it “the return of the
prodigal child.” Léopold apparently returned with no fortune. He and his
brother must have talked long into the night about his adventures in California,
240 France

and sometime surely there intruded the subject of an accounting. Throughout

Léopold’s stay in California, Edmond had underwritten a number of requests
for money. Many of these seemed to be in pursuit of ambitious but quixotic
plans that returned few of the expected dividends. The brothers’ financial rela-
tionship was complicated by the death of both parents, freeing a portion of the
family estate for Léopold’s requests. The family was undergoing a period of
financial strain, occasioned by the loss of F 100,000 on the stock exchange.
Lands, a house, and even furniture had to be sold to make good the losses. In
October 1857, Léopold left Normandy for Poitou, where his grandparents had
an important agricultural holding. His grandfather made him a grant, “like
California,” and the new pioneer constructed a chalet. He resisted the named
“California” and instead called his new home “Ansart.”9
In finding a time when the departures represented a decline of the French
presence in California, we might consider the spring of 1853. This time marks
the arrival of the last of the lingotiers. At about this time, the number of departing
French Argonauts rose, and in parallel, the number of arrivals from France
began to fall. The year 1854 marked a flood of departures. To the usual hazards
of violence; campaigns to exterminate Indian peoples; and discrimination
against Mexicans, South Americans, and Chinese should be added continuing
hardships (and occasional discrimination) in the mines. Large numbers of
French now departed. Most returned to France, but a sizable contingent moved
to French communities elsewhere in California, especially San Jose and Los
Angeles, or to the nations of South America. To these destinations should be
added the final great filibustering expeditions of French origin and leadership
headed into Mexico.10

THE ARGONAUTS RETURN TO A DIFFERENT FRANCE

The returning French Argonauts found a France, if not new, surely different.
The years 1850 and 1851 brought great changes to the French nation, gradually
at first and with an abrupt rush at the close of 1851. Over these two years, the
strength and vitality of the republic had gradually eroded. That it did so was a
combination of internal divisions; errors in judgment; and the emergence of a
spirited, effective, and well-financed opposition. The party of “order” capital-
ized on the divisions within the republicans and the continuing economic
hardships, especially in the countryside and small villages. The benchmarks of
these changes were the first elections of the spring of 1848, which brought to the
National Assembly an enlarged presence of the parties of “order” and a reduced
republican representation (if more radical in outlook); the June Days with
 The French Argonauts Return to France 241

violence, deaths, and prisoners that were tried in the courts over the next six
months; the promulgation of the constitution in the autumn, which preserved
the expansion of the electorate; and the presidential election of December 10,
in which the expanded franchise elected Louis Napoléon Bonaparte.
The new president of the republic soon embarked on a series of national
tours to enhance his public image. He also moved to create an air of stability
that would assist in the revival of the economy. In these efforts, he was assisted
by the gradual recovery of the agricultural sector in the form of better harvests
and the continuing expansion of the railroad system. In politics, he received an
unexpected gift in the form of the ill-advised takeover of the National Assembly
by demonstrators in June 1849. President Louis Napoléon Bonaparte trans-
formed this spontaneous exercise into a domestic rebellion, and in response,
leading republicans (notably Alexandre Ledru-Rollin) fled into exile and press
censorship tightened.
Next, Louis Napoléon Bonaparte embarked on a long campaign to force the
National Assembly to modify the constitution to permit him to run for president
again. He failed. His proposed change received a majority but not the necessary
two-thirds. His response was a carefully planned and brilliantly executed coup
d’état in December 1851. In the aftermath of his seizure of power, opposition
members in the National Assembly were arrested or driven into exile. Indeed,
one of the themes of the next twenty years was the ongoing campaign to amnesty
these exiled individuals and permit them to return to France. A popular refer-
endum ratified Bonaparte’s seizure of power. Those in favor of the plebiscite
that granted him extraordinary powers: 7,437,107 (92 percent); those against:
645,211 (8 percent).11 Like the results of his first election, it was another over-
whelming mandate.
At the same time all of these changes swirled across the French landscape, it
is useful to remember that France remained a rural nation, close to the land,
the vitality of its life played out in hundreds of small villages. Here, the cycles
of life continued very much as they had been for centuries. The differences
were reflected in the economic recovery of agriculture, the decline of epidemics
(especially cholera), and accordingly a loss of interest in emigration. When
French workers in the countryside contemplated leaving their homes in search
of economic advantage, they thought of emigration to the cities. In its produc-
tion of goods, France remained a nation of small workshops and craftsmen, as
opposed to large-scale mass-produced goods. Finally, when we consider polit-
ical changes, we should bear in mind that for the largest proportion of French
families, life went on as it had for generations, except that life for most was
better than it had been the previous decade.
242 France

The coup of December 1851 and the subsequent popular referendum of

January 1852 coincided with important changes in the nature of the French
presence in California. The long-deferred drawing in the famous Lottery of the
Golden Ingots took place in November 1851, and this final explosion of public
interest was followed by the regular departure of the ships with the lottery
emigrants. The new French presence in California would be represented by the
lingotiers.
The departure of the French Argonauts from California accelerated with the
close of the mining season in November 1852. This was a moment when autumn
rains began and the miners came down from the mountains, and it was a time
when many Argonauts made the decision to return home. The messages from
the mining season of 1852 were harsh. The mines were increasingly competi-
tive. Foreign miners were more and more unwelcome. Mining was the hardest
kind of physical labor with increasingly marginal returns. Injury and illness
remained constant companions in mining camps and the smaller mining
companies.

THE FRENCH ARGONAUTS WHO STAYED

A sizable group of French people stayed in California. They fell into two
groups. The first and most readily identifiable were the new lingotier immi-
grants. They were generally poor, disoriented, and heavily dependent on the
assistance of the consul, M. Dillon. Most of them gradually came to terms with
the challenges of California, alternately assisted and pressed by Dillon. He was
sympathetic to their plight and, at the same time, anxious to wean them from
dependence on him and the government he represented.12
Eustache and Henri Mathet, two among the more than 3,200 lingotiers,
stayed. They shared common experiences with many who came under the
auspices of the Lottery of the Golden Ingots. On first landing, like other poor
arrivals, they lived in tents. When they had scraped together a nest egg, they
went to the mines. In an early letter to their mother and grandmother, they
described their lives and enumerated the necessary possessions of the mining
camps: a dog and two guns. Over their many years in California, they worked at
a wide range of occupations.13
Like so many others, Eustache and Henri Mathet were shadowy figures in
the rush to gold. They rarely wrote. Their families sometimes received word of
them from neighbors and friends. In 1859, a French Argonaut from a small
village near Fresnay encountered Henri in a San Francisco saloon, and he
related this meeting in a letter to his family. He described Henri, then
 The French Argonauts Return to France 243

twenty-two, as handsome, charming, with the appearance of being well-off, and

employed in the office of an Irishman, who had an important business in food.14
In 1860, Eustache Mathet returned to France. He moved in with his brother
François. Now fifty years old, Eustache was in a peaceful, early retirement. He
commanded invitations everywhere based on his wide range of stories about his
sojourn in California. His easy life, smooth talk, and local celebrity irritated
his brother François, who continued to think of him as idle and feckless.15
Two years later, his son Henri also reappeared. Although less extrovert in his
behavior, Henri also presented himself as the embodiment of the lore of the
American West. In six months, he was widely known as “the Sheriff.” Eventually,
after some four years, Henri took a position as a shop assistant. All the eligible
women of Fresnay regarded him as the most attractive and interesting man
around. After five years of indecision, Henri married Rosalie, the eldest of three
sisters from a prominent family. The bride was twenty-six. The marriage contract
was a detailed account of the property of the two parties. The total capital of F
3,500, now a part of the public record, seemed modest for a California adven-
turer who had presumably returned with a golden nest egg.16
Henri and Rosalie established a delicatessen. The Épicerie Mathet opened
its doors in 1881. It was enormously successful. Influential friends, superior
service, and an upscale product established its high reputation. Over the decade
of la belle époque, it benefited from a stable franc and a happy location in a
quiet region of France. Some two hundred kilometers from Paris, it was far
removed from the agitations, instabilities, and scandals of the Third Republic.
Henri Mathet abandoned the rustic pursuits of fishing and the bicycle for the
orchestra and the theater. The affairs of Henri and Rosalie prospered, along
with their five children. In the summary of his chronicler, “it was as if the
émigré of the ‘Magellan’ had never existed.” With no successor in sight, Henri
and Rosalie sold the business and retired to a large home in town. They were a
local symbol of success and modernity. Henri died in 1916, at the age of
seventy-one. Rosalie survived him for twenty-five years.17

After the departure of the returning Argonauts to France (and other destina-
tions) in 1854, as many as seven thousand remained in the French community
in San Francisco. Most of them were residents of long standing (by California
standards!) and well connected in the fabric of the city. If they had not assimi-
lated into the dominant Anglo-American presence (especially in their not
having learned English), they had learned how to maneuver in and around it.
They established a number of institutions, including a hospital and a library.
Certainly they considered themselves totally separate from the new arrivals that
244 France

had come under the auspices of the lottery, with whom they had no connection
and little sympathy. Of course, it is also true that this second group would return
to a new France more congenial to its talents than the late republic. Still, some
of them stayed in California.18
The varied experiences of those who stayed may be traced through different
individuals in their varied treks across gold rush California. In the fall of 1850,
Ernest de Massey settled in San Francisco. He had ended his wanderings,
which had carried him over much of California’s landscape in his search for
some rapid economic advantage. He also gave up his long-considered scheme
to pursue a grazing venture in the valleys. Over six months, de Massey created
a place for himself in San Francisco and in the French community by piecing
together several strands of economic opportunity. In January 1851, he described
himself as an editor, for he contributed a daily column in French for the Public
Balance, as the newspapers searched for French subscribers and French adver-
tisers; he was a commission merchant, a businessman dealing in furniture and
commodities, and, in his own words, “one of the busiest in California.” He
bought at the daily auctions in San Francisco and sold his purchases on the
open market. He clearly understood how to use and profit from the new ways of
doing business in gold rush San Francisco. He had also become an important
source of information for newly arrived French people. In 1852, his brother
Ormond de Massey joined him in San Francisco. Ernest de Massey remained
for five years. Later a book dealer, in the city directory of 1856, he appeared as a
partner in finance. He returned to his home in Passavant in 1857. He left a
lasting legacy in his detailed letters to his family.19
Jean Frédéric Chauvin spent seventeen hard years of exile in pursuit of his
California dream. He summed up the mining experience to his mother: “work,
heat, thirst, [and] brawling” in the camps. In testimony to his unhappiness and
isolation, he never spoke of others. He traded his occasional wealth for bread.
One day, in complete poverty and hunger, he killed his dog for food, but he
could not touch the meal he had prepared.20
Chauvin’s mother said of him, “Adventurous but not an adventurer, unlucky
by nature, Frédéric was a dreamer, a hunter of gold without gold.” He spent some
of his later years abroad in Mexico. At the end of seventeen years, after his haci-
enda in Mexico burned down, he came home to France. In 1866, he settled in
Chaniers, his Charente village, where he received his part of the family inheri-
tance. With these funds, he then bought a landed property near Gua. It contained
forty hectares (about one hundred acres) and was called La Brissonnerie.21
Chauvin’s landed estate bordered the property belonging to Jacques
Germain. In 1870, Jean Frédéric Chauvin married Honorine Germain,
 The French Argonauts Return to France 245

Jacques’s twenty-four-year-old daughter. On the occasion of the marriage of his

eldest daughter, Jacques Germain rose to express his anger at her union to “an
adventurer who had only known, in America, bears.” Clearly a seeker of gold
who returned after many years without gold was not an attractive spouse for a
respectable family. The echoes of the gold rush continued to reverberate within
French domestic life.22
Jean-Nicolas Perlot was among those who stayed. Perlot had the full range of
the California gold rush experiences. He spent part of a season in the placers
near Merced, but he was also among the first to leave in response to the rumors
of rich strikes elsewhere. He and his partners made the trek to Bear Valley,
where they worked a claim for modest returns until driven out by the rainy
season. They survived the winter by hunting rabbits, but they were often hungry.
Perlot and his partners returned to work a profitable claim near Coultersville.
As a result of this success (ten dollars a day each), his partners left to pursue
opportunities elsewhere. One of the interesting features of his return to
Mariposa was a reunion with his companions from one of the California compa-
nies, Fortune.
Eighteen former members of the company showed up. Perlot summarized
their stories thus: “They had found gold, and they had spent it; they had been
hungry; they had slept in the bushes two, three, and sometimes six months in a
row, without undressing, whether for lack of a bed or from fear of the Indians,
who had more chance against an undressed man. At the final reckoning, no
one had yet made a fortune, but all were still hoping to reach it.” Perlot described
the eighteen as among the lucky ones. Of the forty-five who had debarked at
Monterey, thirty-one were still alive. Three had died of natural causes; Indians
had killed two. Two others had died in firearms accidents, two had drowned
crossing rivers, and two others had perished of hardship over the winter.23
In the summer of 1854, Perlot and a group of miners from France and
Germany journeyed to the south fork of the Merced River, where they mined
with members of the Yosemite Indian tribe. His friendship for Indians was a
noteworthy exception to the behavior of most miners. Later, Perlot and his
dog were lost in the sierra for fourteen days, the last two of which he (and the
dog) had nothing to eat. Perlot mined for three years on the fringes of the
California goldfields, venturing into the Yosemite and Tuolumne Valleys.
While Perlot was at work on the construction of a flume, his partner went into
town and returned with a letter. It was the first letter Perlot had received from
his family in five years. He was overcome with emotion. In the long interval of
silence, his two brothers had married and so given up earlier plans to join him
in California.24
246 France

After mining with some success (and much back-breaking labor) in 1857,
Perlot returned to Sonora and thence to San Francisco, where he contemplated
his future. After much discussion, he and his partner, Margraff, took the steamer
to Oregon, where they intended to continue mining for gold. On landing in
Portland, they were shocked to hear that the mines were 450 miles away (they
had thought 50). They searched for employment in the countryside of great
forests. Perlot worked as a woodcutter and then as a hunter. Finally, he returned
to Portland, where he established a new occupation in the new city: profes-
sional gardener. He became known as “the French Gardener” in Portland. For
well-to-do homeowners, he cleared parts of their vacant lots and laid out a
garden with beds, paths, and trees. He spent his evenings poring over books on
horticulture. As news of his skills spread by word of mouth, his business grew.
The arrival of his brother and his family persuaded him to make a permanent
transition from gold miner to town dweller. When his friends and former ship-
mates passed through Portland and looked him up, he became aware that after
a decade in America, they were still transients, men without a place of resi-
dence or family. In spite of the periodic flooding of the Willamette River and
the occasional cold winter that froze his stock, Perlot prospered. Over ten years,
he made a permanent place for himself in the Portland community.25

The common denominator that united so many of these accounts was the
urban setting. Urban places, especially San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton,
and even Portland, became the centers of economic opportunity. There, the
French Argonauts engaged in a wide variety of economic enterprises, from
bakeries and coffee houses to banks. For some of the Argonauts, California
would be a final resting place. Albert Bénard de Russailh died in San Francisco
on July 15, 1852. He was buried two days later. With resignation and longing, he
had once posed the question: “France! God only knows if I will ever return to
her.” The answer is that he would not.26

THE LINGERING LEGAL CASES

Those who returned to France found there the lingering vestiges of the great
excitement associated with “California” and “gold.” The most prominent public
images associated with the gold mania were the endless ads for the California
companies. They appeared in papers across France, from Dieppe and Le Havre
to Paris and Marseille, from Bordeaux and La Rochelle to Strasbourg. As the
California companies proliferated to more than eighty, they represented a
mixture of idealism, local pride, entrepreneurial ambition, and fraud. Accordingly,
 The French Argonauts Return to France 247

it was inevitable that as some of the companies failed, they would become the
subjects of legal action. After all, stock in these companies had been sold to the
public under the guise of the most outrageous promises. Not even the best and
most honorably run companies could make good on such guarantees. Those
who were less scrupulous almost invited recourse to the courts. This response
was not long in appearing. At almost the same moment that the founding of new
companies and their plentiful advertising campaigns reached a steady roar, the
courts received the first legal actions against the old companies.27
By July 1849, a scant six months after they had first advertised to the public,
the California companies were in the courts. The first case involved the Société
Nationale, whose ads had filled many columns of newspapers in the first months
of 1849. The story of the efforts of the Société Nationale to organize the transport
of associate workers to California identified many of the major problems that
would confront the California companies. That this company appeared in court
so soon was unusual; the issues that became the matters of litigation would be all
too common. The company intended to transport associate workers to California
for the communal harvest of gold, to import diverse merchandise, and to return
to France with the gold harvested and profits from the other enterprises. Pursuant
to these objectives, M. Abounze, the director of the Société Nationale, sought to
charter a ship to carry workers and merchandise to California. To assist him in
the search, he engaged a M. Monnet, a shipowner from Le Havre. M. Monnet
approached M. Tinel, the owner of the three-masted Suffren, with the proposal
to place his ship at the disposition of the company. M. Tinel accepted the propo-
sition. But six weeks passed without the Société Nationale signing the formal
articles of agreement. M. Tinel now went to Paris himself to meet with the direc-
tors of the society and to sign the charter arrangement.
The directors set the departure date for April 9, 1849. They visited the Suffren
at anchor in Le Havre and found the vessel perfectly appropriate for their enter-
prise. But money to charter the ship was another issue. The company had a
capital fixed at F 400,000 (80,000 shares at 5 francs each). But only F 135,000
had been paid, and M. Tinel refused to become a shareholder (or investor) for
some F 155,000, or the remainder of the sum necessary to charter the ship.
Instead, he made arrangements to charter the Suffren to another group for a
voyage to California. Soon thereafter, a notice appeared in newspapers: “The
shipowner of the three-masted ‘Suffren’ has withdrawn his ship from the agree-
ment with the Société Nationale de la Californie, and it is no longer a party to
the charter with the businesses undersigned.”
The court found M. Abounze guilty of fraud, fined him 50 francs, and
ordered the suppression of the incriminating notices. On the issue of the civil
248 France

suit, the court fined Abounze F 1,500 in civil damages, ordered the publication
of the judgment in three papers, and further sentenced Abounze to pay costs
and to three months of confinement.28
That the California companies were the subject of so many suits was a tribute
to the large number of companies and their extravagant promises. It also
reflected the legal system itself. These legal proceedings were slow, burdened as
they were by the crowded court system and the cut-and-thrust of lawyers.
Still, there was an inexorable force about the French legal system, a sense of
glacial but inevitable reckoning. As complaints increased about the California
companies, the court dockets soon listed cases involving them. Most of these
cases involved charges of fraud. It was a compelling spectacle: the inflated
promises of the companies balanced against the willing participation on the
part of a public eager to believe the promises. In their judgments, the courts
were unsentimental.29
Cases appeared in the courts even as the second generation of California
companies advertised their wares before a gullible public (at least in part).
Among the first new cases were the proceedings against the Compagnie
Parisienne. The charge was fraud by the managers, Blanchard and Hereford.
After hearing the arguments, the court ordered the seizure of the company’s
books and papers. Legal actions continued through the fall of 1850. One of the
cases concerned the sanitary conditions on the ships of the Compagnie La
France. The court alluded to the French laws “on this important question
almost entirely neglected by the government up to this time.” It noted that both
Great Britain and the United States had “more rigorous laws” with respect to
shipowners who wish to transport passengers.30 In considering the case against
Pactole, the judges noted that a number of California companies had already
been convicted of fraud in the courts. “Today it is Pactole which is the subject
of the lawsuit. The company had given rise to a flood of fraudulent transactions
and criminal speculations.” The court sentenced five company officials to
prison terms.31
There were several other cases in the public eye. One of the most remark-
able concerned a man named Deterville, a former sidewalk singer on the
Boulevard des Champs-Élysées. According to the court, Deterville left this
“precarious position” to establish a newspaper with the title L’Aurifère. He then
“passed himself off as a veteran high-level employee of the bank of Delamarre
and Company.” His newspaper proposed an investment scheme to capture
attention even at the heights of “gold fever.” For an investment of F 200–300,
Deterville promised that all the investors would be engaged in his company (as
opposed to the minimum investment of F 1,000 in the other companies). Each
 The French Argonauts Return to France 249

share of stock at 5 francs would reap 150 francs in dividends. Further, the
purchase of a single share would give the purchaser a free ticket in the great
Lottery of the Golden Ingots, with the first prize of F 400,000. Deterville’s
prospectus continued: “The transportation of passengers would be made free by
ship to Panama, and from Panama to San Francisco by muleback. Arriving in
San Francisco, each worker would be fed [and] receive tools with the assurance
of making 500 francs a week.” In the words of the court: “It was fabulous! It was
incredible!” His prospectus was vague on details, claiming that his system was a
“secret” that could not be divulged without compromising the rights of the
shareholders. “A flood of workers of all occupations became engaged and
invested funds in the company.” Deterville promised, without the slightest
hesitation, dividends of F 500 net profit a week. The confidence of the poor
investors was so great that many sold their personal property in order to raise
the F 200–300 that Deterville required. The court concluded: “The result of
this confidence has been the disappearance of the strongbox with the director.
The police have been unsuccessful in finding him.” It was a case study of early
fraud of the most egregious kind. The court condemned Deterville to five years
in prison.32
The most dramatic development in the legal travails of the California
companies was the fall of the Californienne. Long a symbol of the California
companies, with its heavy advertising; the widely reported public departures of
its ships with associate workers; its promised (and long-deferred) dividends; and
the public presence of its founder and principal director, M. Hochgesangt, the
Californienne was soon the target of quiet legal suits. That is, they were quiet in
the sense that they never received publicity comparable to the public displays of
the company. In late 1850, the authorities descended on the Rue de Trévise, the
seat of the company, to arrest the director and to carry off the registers and
the furniture. It was only the beginning of a legal accountability that
would stretch for several years. The legal case against the company and
M. Hochgesangt received almost as much publicity as the sailings of the
company. In describing the fall of the company, some newspapers found conso-
lation that M. Hochgesangt was a Belgian (not French!) adventurer. His life-
style was described as one of “an incredible opulence.” Found guilty, he was
fined F 3,000 and sentenced to five years in prison.33
In later cases, the court considered charges of fraud against a Lyon bank. It
concluded that the case was instructive “in showing that Paris does not possess
exclusive monopoly to these frauds.” These schemes were driven, the court
continued, by the lure of the land of promise and the possession of precious
metal, “which is called the gold of California.”34 Soon thereafter, the court of
250 France

appeals considered the case of the Sacramento company. The charge was swin-
dling. At issue was a machine that the company used to promote investment in
its ventures. In the course of the legal proceedings, one of the machines was
exhibited to the audience in the courtroom. In spite of the machine, or perhaps
because of it, the defendants were all found guilty.35
Another case of California companies before the Court of Appeals involved
“a very serious affair” of two companies: Économie and Constructeur.36 The
proceedings against the former led to the conviction of two men, Bion and
Clavelle-Doisy. Both were fined and sentenced to prison, Bion for two years,
Clavelle for six months. In summarizing this roll call of legal cases, the Gazette
des Tribunaux concluded that “California is often a land of deceptions; the
many letters written from San Francisco, which the newspapers have already
published, sufficiently attest to this.” It continued: “Many of these companies
have already seen their management condemned for fraud.”37
The court cases involved only a small group of California companies. Among
the more than eighty companies, the mindset of the promoters varied across a
wide spectrum, along with their schemes. Some were sincere; others were
dishonest. All companies shared two tasks: convince investors of the soundness
of their enterprise; convince prospective emigrants to cast their lot with this
company. What united all companies was the enormous opportunity for profits.
As stock sold in response to the articles about California in the press, supple-
mented by the heavy advertising of the companies themselves, the first calls on
company funds were the salaries of the managers and directors. These groups
also had shares in the company. In a marketplace without any oversight, the
chances for misuse and fraud were everywhere. By the time the public reaction
against the companies had run its course, the heads of ten companies had fled
the country; another committed suicide. There were eight amiable liquida-
tions, with the concurrence of the law and the stockholders. As for the numbers
of associate workers conveyed to California, the final numbers added up to
somewhere between 600 and 1,000. Of the companies most heavily associated
with transporting workers, the Californienne sent some 360 and the others
much smaller numbers.38
The capitalization numbers trumpeted by the California companies in
their initial offerings reached into the hundreds of millions of francs. Only a
small portion of these sums ever reached the counting houses. The most
successful in this respect was the Californienne, with F 1,112,000; the
Compagnie Française et Américaine de San Francisco had F 525,000; eight
others had lesser amounts. The total was probably less than F 5 million, or
about $1 million. These heavily advertising and poorly performing companies
 The French Argonauts Return to France 251

(from the perspective of the investors) may have affected the attitude of French
investors toward the United States.39
The historian René Rémond observed that all the noise of their grandiose
claims did not spare the companies from the same ignominious end. The last
act was “played out in court.” Their collective public failures were an indict-
ment simultaneously of the inflation of California gold, mixed with the igno-
rance and often bad faith of the promoters, juxtaposed against the continuing
gullibility of the French investment public. Promoters and investors alike
supported investment schemes without knowing anything about the California
landscape or conditions in the goldfields. These fragile fairytales were floating
to the public on the strength of the words “gold” and “California.” And the
public responded.40
In retrospect, it is not surprising that so many of the California companies
ended up in the courts. What is astonishing is that their fantasies with outlandish
numbers survived so long. That they did so was a tribute to the magic words
“gold” and “California” and the subsequent triumph of hope over rational anal-
ysis. As the first police report covering the years 1848–1850 concluded, the
companies offered no guarantees of anything. What they presented were
dramatic promises paired with the astonishing news of California riches. Sheets
of advertising trumpeted the virtues of these financial opportunities. Eventually,
the realities of the California companies would meet the impatient expecta-
tions of shareholders. The larger number would be played out in the courts.41
In his summing up of the California companies, Pierre-Charles de Saint-
Amant began with the observation that news of California gold arrived in
France in the throes of “a disastrous revolution.” The response was rapid. Aside
from the emigration of some thirty thousand of her citizens, there was also a
price to be paid in the widespread proliferation of the California companies, a
phenomenon that he found almost as astonishing as the emigration. In the
experiences with the California companies, he wrote, all participants were
losers. Shareholders and emigrants alike were both “shamefully exploited.” The
first lost money; the second were transported into a world of hard work. Those
most responsible for these failed dreams and promises were the officers of the
California companies. They lacked the requisite information about California
to begin their operations; they lacked the financial means to continue their
operations. On the other side, among those enrolled, “the largest part of them
was persuaded that it was enough to set foot on the golden lands and to deign to
bend down to fill their pockets.” In short, “their illusions were complete.” Still,
after a hard introduction, a substantial number had profited from the experi-
ence. These successes did not compensate for the losses and deceptions visited
252 France

upon many of the emigrants. Saint-Amant concluded: “Thus, in the beginning,

the development, and the fall of all the pompous companies of Paris,” there was
much irresponsible behavior on all sides.42

The return of the French Argonauts to France was accompanied by a long

public silence. The attention of the nation and its newspaper and journal
editors lay elsewhere. The imperial court of Napoléon III was taking shape, and
the splendor of its trappings was a wonder to behold. Behind the scenes, the
individual returns provoked a lively response. Within families, there were
emotional reunions. There were also financial accountings. In pursuit of the
California dream, an adventure for wealth designed to benefit the entire family,
monies had been borrowed, properties mortgaged, and relationships between
siblings and generations changed. Many heads bent over the ledger sheets.
What had been borrowed? From whom? Who had taken funds from the estate
to make the trip? On the other side, what were the returns? What had the
Argonaut sent home? What had he brought home? As the numbers added up,
an accounting emerged. The accounting affected individual members; it surely
reflected changing dynamics within the family. Then, too, there remained the
question of the standing of the family within the community or village. How
had the California adventure, so widely publicized at the time of departure and
the periodic letters from that exotic land, affected the family’s economic and
social standing? Thus, the final accounting of the California adventure might
take weeks or even months. And the results might look different within and
outside of the family. Finally, what of those family members who had stayed in
California? Numbers had done so. How did their relationships with the family
change? As they often married and had families in this distant land, so their
presence receded from the kitchen and the fields and assumed a different form
in letters and family genealogies. These families had the brother, the uncle, the
cousin en Amérique. These would be the permanent changes wrought by the
rush to gold.
 15

THE LONG ECHOES OF THE FRENCH

“RUSH TO GOLD” IN CALIFORNIA

The French came to California in surprisingly large numbers. They came to

the goldfields; they settled in camps, in towns, and in the city of San Francisco.
They were a significant presence in commercial life. They made important
contributions in the emerging entertainment industry, especially music, theater,
and prostitution. In the years that the French established themselves in the
many different strands of life in California, the Golden State underwent aston-
ishing changes. The population grew dramatically. The proportion of women
and children increased, especially in the towns and the city of San Francisco.
Although the mining counties remained heavily male, the rest of California was
increasingly a place of families. Institutions developed in parallel to the rise in
numbers, propelled by statehood and the appearance of forms of government
and law. That Committees of Vigilance ruled San Francisco in 1851 and 1856
suggested that the transition to a stable society was still incomplete. Still, it
was under way.
The emerging imperial dimensions of the French and the gold rush involved
a blending of three streams. The first was the enlarged interest of the French
government in expansionist adventures, driven by the establishment of an
empire and the crowning of an emperor with large ambitious for his new impe-
rial domain. Next came the large numbers of French people in California,
including most recently the 3,293 French emigrants arriving on the lottery
ships. Finally, there were the ongoing activities of the Americans in Cuba, in
Nicaragua, and in Panama, propelled in part by the search of Southerners
for new slave territories, the lingering presence of the ideology of Manifest
Destiny, and the creation of the continental American nation with the treaty of

253
254 France

Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The California gold rush confirmed the pervasive
sentiment of American exceptionalism—that is, America was a nation driven to
greatness by Divine Providence and an insatiable drive to the West.

IMPERIAL ECHOES OF THE GOLD RUSH

California, the recently acquired American Southwest, and northern Mexico

were a swirling mélange of economic opportunities, shifting political alliances
and fortunes, and violence against Indian peoples and native Californians. The
gold rush cast a long shadow, for in reviving the fantasy of the El Dorados of
Peru and Mexico, it captured the imaginations and organizational skills of a
new generation of adventurers. The word “filibuster” was coming into vogue to
describe an irregular military adventure often directed against Mexico and
countries in Central America, and driving much of the interest in foreign
adventure and conquest were the images of gold that emanated from California
on a continuing basis.
The French were major players in two of the most dramatic of these enter-
prises. Both reflected French planning and French leaders, they involved
Frenchmen (many of them disappointed miners from the California goldfields),
and they paralleled the rise and expansion of the new French imperial vision
under Napoléon III. Throughout the unfolding of these various expeditions,
the sense persisted that these independent leaders acted with a degree of French
national interest in mind. Certainly, at one time or another, French officials
were involved.1
There were two separate and distinct French ventures into Mexico. The first
of these was associated with the quixotic leadership of Charles, the Marquis de
Pindray. Pindray inherited wealth and quickly spent it. He campaigned in
Algeria. His financial adventures in Paris led him to the courts, and rather than
pursue the legal issues, he fled his native land and his debts. His new destina-
tion was America. He spent two years in Massachusetts, but the reports of
California gold were much more to his liking. After a brief period in the placers,
he left the hard work and quarrels of the mining camps for San Francisco,
where he made a good living as a professional hunter.2
Even as he pursued several different opportunities in gold rush California,
Pindray was captivated by the reports of great wealth in the gold and silver
mines of Mexican Sonora. He came to see himself as the leader of an enterprise
involving these mines, and he found the raw material for his plans all around
him in the floating elements of a large French population. As noted, between
1849 and 1852, some thirty thousand French people (mostly but not exclusively
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 255

men) came to California to seek their fortunes. In the mines, they found a
degree of success, mixed with friction and much hard work. Others gravitated
to the towns and the city of San Francisco, where some found prosperity in
professions and services. However, a substantial group of these French exiles
remained outside these modest successes. So there emerged a group of unem-
ployed, frustrated, unhappy French Argonauts, ready volunteers for a filibus-
tering expedition under French command. Pindray was a charismatic leader
who offered guarantees of both glory and wealth. He preached that in the style
of ancient raiding parties, they would burn their ships on landing. Victory or
death was his cry! It was a stirring call to men who had labored in the mines, on
the streets, or on the docks with few or no results. Pindray’s call to arms and
wealth represented for many what the rush to gold in California should have
been about, and for most French Argonauts, it was not.3
Pindray recruited his armed force ostensibly to serve the needs of the
Mexican government for new settlers in the northern provinces. There were
two issues here. First, the settlers would serve as a buffer against the Apache
menace; second, none of the new settlers would be Americans. The Mexican
government had vivid memories of what had happened in Texas. To his new
armed force, Pindray offered the view that Mexico was ripe for revolution. The
ship Cumberland sailed from San Francisco in November 1851 with 88 armed
Frenchmen, and the force eventually totaled 150, most of the volunteers origi-
nally from Paris.4
Landing in Guaymas, Pindray’s troops were warmly welcomed by the local
settlers as a form of military deliverance from the Apache menace. Whatever
the Apache challenges and the attractions of the land, Pindray and his force of
armed Frenchmen had come in search of a fortune in the abandoned Spanish
gold and silver mines. Indeed, they had no intention of farming or waging war
against any Indian group. As their views diverged, the Mexican government
now turned against his infant settlement. With declining support, the colony
began to disintegrate. At this point, on June 5, 1852, Pindray committed suicide,
and the survivors returned to San Francisco.5
Pindray’s Mexican adventure attracted attention in the French press. One
account noted, “This expedition goes into Mexico, to the land of the Apaches,
a warlike and cruel people, in possession of gold mines and silver mines of
fabulous richness. This expedition, if it succeeds, will open for our commerce
an immense outlet.” But the proposed colony had a much greater national
implication—namely, as a French place (as opposed to California as an
American place) for French people. The press marked the anticipated success
of the colony with the observation, “Then the French population of California,
256 France

estimated reliably at 30,000, can leave immediately for this country, where
communications will be easier.” Pindray’s mines would become the center of a
large and permanent French colony.6
With Pindray’s death, the vision of a French colony in Mexico passed to
Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon. Pierre-Charles Saint-Amant described him
as “another Frenchman disillusioned with California, as rich in entrepreneurial
qualities [as Pindray].” Raousset-Boulbon would find his recruits among those
discouraged in the placers, in the former members of the Garde Mobile, and,
above all, in the newly transported emigrants from the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots.7
Like Pindray, Raousset-Boulbon was a man with a career of multiple failures
in France. In 1850, he took steerage passage to California, arriving on August 22,
1850. Initially, he mined without success; next, he worked on a boat on the
Sacramento River. He also hunted and fished, and he bought and sold cattle. In
a saloon, he met Pindray. Raousset-Boulbon embraced Pindray’s schemes for
the colonization of Sonora, but when Pindray recruited a force of Frenchmen
for his expedition, Raousset-Boulbon declined to join him. Perhaps he sensed
that Pindray’s plans were underresourced or premature (both of which were
probably true) or perhaps he wanted the position of leader and declined to
place himself under Pindray’s command.8
With Pindray dead, Raousset-Boulbon now made his own plans for a settle-
ment in Mexico. The French consul, Patrice Dillon, encouraged him, surely in
part with the hope that such a venture would siphon off from Dillon’s charge a
large number of fractious and troublesome individuals of French origin for
whom Dillon felt a degree of official responsibility. With Dillon’s urging,
Raousset-Boulbon visited Mexico, where he met Mexican officials and received
a degree of support for a settlement that would develop the land and provide a
buffer against the Apaches. His own focus was always on the rumored rich
mines of Sonora.9
Raousset-Boulbon now returned to San Francisco, where he recruited some
two hundred Frenchmen. He promised an expedition with wealth and glory. In
his own words, “The die is now cast. If I succeed I can hope for fortune and
fame. If I fail I shall at least end by a catastrophe worthy of me.” With the
support of both Dillon and the French ambassador in Mexico City, he set sail
for Guaymas.10 On arrival, local citizens welcomed Raousset-Boulbon and his
company, but the Mexican officials were cool. There was much miscommuni-
cation in Sonora. His negotiations with Mexican officials over the terms of his
grant dragged on to a stalemate.11 Last-minute attempts by General Blanco, in
command of a Mexican force of 1,200, to avert a clash failed. In a confrontation
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 257

with the Mexican Army, Raousset-Boulbon’s outnumbered forces won a victory

against heavy odds. He seized the town of Hermasillo, but his victorious force
was isolated and surrounded. At this moment, Raousset-Boulbon was taken ill
with dysentery. In an honorable capitulation, he surrendered his force on
November 4, 1852. The terms of the capitulation permitted the survivors to
return to San Francisco.12
Raousset-Boulbon entered San Francisco in triumph. As soon as he disem-
barked, he began planning a second expedition to Sonora. It was a complicated
undertaking that required all his personal charm and leadership ability. In view
of the failure of the first enterprise, he found it difficult to raise money. The
diplomatic issues of recruiting and mounting such an expedition from San
Francisco were numerous. His attempts to reach some kind of accord with the
Mexican government, this time in the person of Antonio López de Santa Anna,
were inconclusive. In the end, Raousset-Boulbon pressed forward, determined
to return to Sonora and force the Mexican government to honor his earlier land
grants. Behind his call for the honoring of his contracts was his determination to
seize control of the state of Sonora by force. If he could do so with the assistance
of dissident elements, well and good; if not, he would proceed on his own.13
Raousset-Boulbon departed San Francisco the second time with a force of
almost 400 armed men. At least 112 of them were lingotiers who had left the
mines of Tuolumne County to rally to his standard.14 When Raousset-Boulbon
and his force arrived in Sonora, they confronted a Mexican army under General
José María Yenez, who had been sent with orders to thwart the former’s filibus-
tering activities (for they were so regarded by the Mexican government). Yenez
tried to find a way out of the impasse by permitting Raousset-Boulbon and his
men to leave and return to San Francisco, but Raousset-Boulbon would not
accept these conditions. In the end, armed clashes took place, with mounting
casualties. Raousset-Boulbon became ill, and his military force collapsed. He
surrendered with promise of good treatment for his men, and some 313
Frenchmen became prisoners of war. They were permitted to return to San
Francisco (although some stayed on to become Mexican citizens and defend
the northern frontier). Raousset-Boulbon was tried, convicted of treason, and
shot on August 12, 1854. It was the last of the great filibustering enterprises that
drew on the French population of California and San Francisco.15
The death of Count Raousset-Boulbon ended the first great French experi-
ments in the search for an independent economic and political base in Mexico.
Pindray and Raousset-Boulbon had the same objectives. They both found
followers among the dissatisfied, idle, and disillusioned French participants in
the gold rush. This element rushed to the standard of a French leader who
258 France

promised economic advantage and adventure under the French flag. These
failures left a degree of embarrassment in their wake, but officially the French
government was not involved. In the 1860s, the French government would
become involved in the most direct kind of way in Emperor Napoléon III’s
attempt to place a member of Austria’s royal family on the throne of Mexico.
Archduke Maximillian accepted the French offer, but the enterprise came to
grief three years later. Emperor Maximillian, like Raousset-Boulbon, died in
front of a Mexican firing squad. So ended the second French imperial design in
a western hemisphere increasingly dominated by the United States.16

CALIFORNIA GOLD SURVIVES IN POPULAR FICTION

The California gold rush and the French connection to it echoed in French
life through the publication of accounts of participants and fictional recre-
ations. The latter continued to suggest that the images of California and gold
would attract a French reading public. Among the leading practitioners were
Alexandre Dumas (father) and Edmond Texier, to mention two of the most
prolific and prominent.
Like the court cases involving the California companies, the publication of
major accounts in fiction lagged behind popular images. This was even true
with respect to theatrical productions and panoramas, which depended on
current subjects to draw in a popular audience on a weekly basis. Appear they
did, however, if somewhat late. They came in several different forms. Among
the most prominent were a children’s book and two book-length pieces by
Alexandre Dumas (father), all published in the decade of the 1850s.
First came the children’s book. Hippolyte Chavannes de la Giraudière’s Les
Petits Voyageurs en Californie (1853) followed the adventures of M. Canton and
his two sons, Vincent (14) and Arthur (12), on a voyage to California, life in San
Francisco and the goldfields, and their return. In the words of the author,
“M. Canton would provide the means for the expedition and God will bless the
enterprise and the gentle sentiments of affection that unite the participants.”17
In the spring of 1849, according to the story, the father and two sons sailed
from Le Havre to New York City, where they reserved places on a steamship
going to Panama and from there, north to San Francisco. In the course of the
adventurous crossing of the isthmus, M. Canton “lectures the [boys] on constancy
and courage and patience.” And, first and foremost, they must always have “confi-
dence in le bon Dieu.”18 When their father becomes ill on the hard journey across
the isthmus, the boys assume command of the expedition. Vincent and Arthur
are equal to the challenge and make the necessary arrangements.
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 259

After a sixteen-day voyage, the steamship drops anchor in San Francisco Bay.
There, the three newly arrived French Argonauts befriend an Englishman,
M. James, who has already made one very profitable trip to the mines. He now
proposes to spend three months on the banks of the Feather River, and he
invites M. Canton and his sons to join him. M. Canton and the boys accept.
M. James describes the scene at the placers, where a thousand miners scratch
the soil of the earth and dig in the bed of the river: “It is a rage; it is a frenzy.”
He also details how the American miners establish “a provisional government
against a common enemy. The tribunals function with the rapidity of a war
council. Thanks to this code, security reappeared as if by enchantment.”19
The combined party departs for Sutterville and from there to the mines on
the Feather River. Before beginning work, “M. Canton and the boys pray to le
Seigneur to bless their work.” They soon master the use of the cradle. “The
three are called les Parisiens!” Their watchwords are “courage, activity, and
energy.” After three profitable months on the Feather River, they return to San
Francisco. M. Canton now divides his considerable wealth into three parts. He
sends one part to Europe and another to repay his friend. He spends the rest to
buy a tract of land near the Santa Cruz mission. The Cantons work for the next
year in agriculture. Eventually, they make another expedition to the placers,
where the results are as good as the first time. The account concludes, appropri-
ately, with a visit to the missions.20
Among the fictional characters who returned to France was Cadet, the main
character of J. B. J. Champagnac’s Le Jeune Voyageur. His reunion with his
grandmother and friends provided both a happy and moral conclusion to his
tale. Reestablished in the bosom of his extended family, he told them the
dramatic story of his final months in the goldfields and his return home. He
deferred his return in order to care for his ill friend, Jean le Suédois. Terminally
ill, Jean leaves Cadet his strongbox as a token of friendship and gratitude for his
faithfulness. The strongbox contains gold worth F 2 million. Cadet is stunned.
He gives some money to his comrades from the goldfields and departs.
His return voyage on a steamship from San Francisco to Le Havre is a
disaster. A lightning strike sets fire to the vessel, the flames appear everywhere,
and the passengers abandon ship. A French ship (Providence!) rescues the
passengers and crew, but Cadet’s gold rests on the bottom of the ocean. One
stroke of luck gave him a fortune; another took it away! La mère Jérôme (his
grandmother) draws the appropriate conclusions: focus on the things in life that
are more valuable than the treasures of California. Cadet agrees, but he regrets
that he could not keep the promises he made to his Paris comrades, who respond
that they are more than compensated by his safe return.21
260 France

At this moment of mutual celebration and forgiveness, Cadet receives a

letter from California, written by his friend Isaac Castola, a Jew. “You had busi-
ness with a man like this?” interrogates la mère Jérôme. Yes, replies Cadet, and
an honest man he is. Castola has heard of Cadet’s misfortune and returns to
him the half million francs that Cadet left with Castola on his departure. He
can claim the funds at a banking house in the Marais. Cadet’s fortunes are now
reversed for a third time. He decides to keep a fifth of the monies for himself
and la mère Jérôme. The rest will be given to “good works of charity” identified
by M. le Curé. In this way, the gold is “purified.” The young men of the story,
concluded the author, now married and established, “continue to march on the
road of honor and virtue.”22

Among the finest representations of the gold discoveries in popular fiction were
tales from France’s most popular writer. Alexandre Dumas (father) was the
author; the first tale was Un Gil Blas en Californie. Dumas wrote this popular
adventure in ten days—between July 11 and July 20, 1851—and rushed it into
print in 1852 for a quick profit. What emerged was a travel and adventure story
(in place of Dumas’s usual romance and drama) of a young Frenchman who
enlisted in a company bound for the goldfields. There he has numerous adven-
tures and returns, without a fortune, to France. He meets Dumas in 1851 at
Montmorency, a holiday retreat of Parisians, and delivers his journal to Dumas,
who tells the story based on the young man’s account.23
Dumas had never been to California. What he had read of the popular liter-
ature in print at the time is not certain, but the book might be seen as a summary
of the popular literature and popular images at the time, most of them derived
from newspaper accounts. His account and its commercial success reinforced
the idea that “California” and “gold” remained two words that commanded an
audience within France as late as 1852.
Dumas recounted the story of the French gold seeker, presumably taken
from his journal. It began: “I was twenty-four years old and out of work;
throughout France the single topic of conservation at this time was the gold
mines of California. On every street corner companies were being organized for
the transportation of travelers. These monopolists made ruinous promises
regarding what advantages they could offer. I was not rich enough to sit with
idle hands, but I was young enough to spend a year or more in an attempt to
amass a fortune. So I decided to risk 1,000 francs and my life—the only two
things I had wholly at my disposal.”24
Our French Argonaut joined the Société Mutuelle, described as “one of the
weakest of these organizations.” Each member contributed F 1,000 for food and
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 261

passage. Under the terms of the agreement, they would work together and share
profits. They would be lodged in wooden houses on arrival. A doctor and a
pharmacist would attend them in case of illness or injury. They elected leaders
who would rotate every three months. “This obviously was an extraordinary
opportunity—at least on paper.” On the appointed day, our narrator sailed from
Nantes with two comrades: M. Mirandole and M. Gauthier.25
The ship was the Cachalot. There were 150 passengers, including 15 women.
A mass and a banquet for the Argonauts were celebrated on the eve of depar-
ture. The sailing was attended by an outpouring of good wishes by friends, rela-
tives, and citizens of the town. His journal described “how sailors paraded
through town with flags. The entire population had assembled to see us off.” As
the ship slipped away from the quay, “handkerchiefs fluttered en masse from
the docks,” and the passengers replied with their own flurry of white. The
account concluded: “The women wept; the men perhaps wished they were
women and could weep.”26
After a long voyage, the ship arrived in San Francisco. At this point, the
narrator went to work as a porter on the docks. Of working in California, he
wrote that doctors swept the streets and lawyers washed down the decks of
vessels. “No one is ashamed of this, but shakes hands when meeting friends and
laughs.” In short, “there is no menial task.” Of the services, the most essential
were bakeries, then groceries (run by Americans), cafés chantants, or large cafes
(the Café de Paris, Café des Avengules, and Café du Sauvage). The same songs
were heard on the Champs-Élysées. Hotel proprietors were French: the Hôtel
de la Lafayette, Hôtel Lafitte, Hôtel des Deux-Mondes.27
Our narrator left for the placers on May 1, 1850. After establishing a claim,
he wrote of the mining operations at the site: “All the workers found gold,
but it was only those who were organized in large groups that accomplished
anything.” Thirty-three French miners from Paris and Bordeaux organized
themselves to dam the river at Pine Pass. This required four months of the
hardest work. “Just as they were about to reap the fruits of their sacrifice,
120 Americans who had been merely biding their time appeared and declared
that they held Pine Pass.” The Frenchmen appealed for justice, but the alcalde,
an American, sided with the Americans. The French responded by sabotaging
the American efforts.28
Back in San Francisco, our narrator opened a wine shop. Although he pros-
pered, he was wiped out by a fire. He then returned to France. Upon leaving
the mines, he offered advice to those who would come after, emphasizing “the
need for resources, good shelter, and temperate personal habits.” To this recita-
tion, he added another conviction: “In addition to gold, there are 10, 20, even
262 France

100 ways to make a fortune in San Francisco, for while the former method
appears fairly simple and easy, yet it is, on the contrary, the least reliable.”29
The narrator also described the life in San Francisco. After one lands, the
past “is utterly ignored, and any social position held in the old world vanishes
like so much mist, or, if it continues to adhere, merely tends to befog future
prospects.” He continued: “When I returned to San Francisco, the first person
I met on the docks was the son of a French nobleman, who had become a
boatman. So I felt that I, whom the revolution of 1830 had deprived of heredi-
tary rights, could stoop to accept a position as a waiter in one of the hotels.” He
predicted: “The future source of wealth in California will be agriculture and
commerce; the search for gold, like all manual labor, will nourish man, and
that is all. That is why there is so much disillusionment in store for those who
go out to San Francisco, so much discouragement among those who return.
San Francisco, and by San Francisco is meant all of new California, is just
emerging from this reign of chaos and is to the point of realizing the role for
which she was born.”30 So ended Dumas’s first account.

The most intriguing and complex of the fictional accounts of the gold rush and
California was Alexander Dumas’s second work, Le Journal de Madame
Giovanni. First published in Paris in 1856, it was a fictional account of a woman
and her husband in gold rush California that offered observations on California
and gold, on America and Americans, and the French responses.
In her excellent introduction to her English translation of this story,
Marguerite Wilbur wrote that Dumas’s interest in California reflected the
heady mix of California and gold in Paris. “Paris, in his day, teemed with trav-
elers bound for Western America. Parisian newspapers were filled with anec-
dotes of California . . . where the gold fields were rapidly making men rich
beyond belief over night. From the year 1849 on, ship after ship sailed or
steamed out of French ports crowded to capacity with zealous seekers of the
mundane wealth to be picked from California gulches, river beds, and moun-
tains. Diaries, letters, articles by gold seekers were constantly being published.
Paris, in fact, was gripped by gold fever to a greater extent than any other cosmo-
politan center in Europe.”31
For Dumas, this quixotic search for wealth in a distant land was ideally suited
to his talents of description and historical context. He began by creating an
excellent vehicle for his story in the person of an upper-class woman whose
wealth and status in society gave her access to all the important places and
persons of the day—“governors, kings, queens, consuls, and the presidents of
the places where she had journeyed.”32 The Giovannis arrived in San Francisco
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 263

harbor in February 1851. Within the great harbor, she counted six hundred
ships, “an immense forest without leaves.” The dominant feature of the city was
gold: “On all corners one only sees gold, and alone only hears the sound of
gold; it is truly the [mother’s] milk of El Dorado.” The Giovannis had arrived
with a hundred tons of merchandise. The costs for the voyage, thus far, added
up to F 65,000. A speculator immediately offered them F 2 million for the
cargo. Their captain said it was worth from three to four million landed, and
they declined to sell.33
In San Francisco, they stayed with M. and Mme. Barry. Barry was a wealthy
San Francisco wine merchant. When it was time for dinner, the Barrys ordered
a steak delivered from a nearby restaurant. While they awaited the meal, the
host and hostess searched for knives and forks. Why had the cook not made a
dinner? Because there was no cook. Indeed, there were no servants. When one
was hungry, one ate but did not occupy oneself with dinner in advance. The
accommodations were basic, even primitive. Mme. Giovanni felt fleas climbing
up her legs, and rats emerged from various corners. She concluded that
Californians had other things to think about—namely, “they had to earn gold.”
When she retired to bed, she found there were no beds. As for drapes and
covers, the Barrys still needed to buy them. However, they had F 1 million in
the house. She was depressed by the absence of “the most necessary objects.” So
this was life in California, she cried. There is no other place to live, replied M.
Barry. One is here in order to make a fortune as rapidly as possible and then to
go elsewhere to be comfortable.34
Mme. Giovanni offered a long analysis of the Americans. In the astonishing
growth of San Francisco, she wrote, it was not the hand of God but “the inde-
fatigable American entrepreneur, who does not recognize obstacles and over-
turns immense difficulties on the road to rapid progress.” Any consideration of
California and San Francisco began with the Americans. “The Americans are
the fundamental stones of the edifice,” she wrote. “It is they above all who go to
the mines.” Hard work is not a burden from which they shrink. They succeed
more than any other nationals in the extraction of gold. In the city, they are the
proprietors of all the important commerce. “They are bankers, agents, sellers of
gold, and merchants of [gold] powder. . . . It is for them all the steamers come
and go, all the trains, all the means of rapid locomotion.” The American never
rests doing nothing. The proverb “Time is money” is American. The American
is incessantly occupied with doing something. Above all else, she wrote, the
American is “a worker.”35
Mme. Giovanni then offered a description of the work ethic of the American.
She wrote, “The American never refuses, at whatever price is offered, a day of
264 France

work. If he cannot obtain five dollars for the day, he will take four, three, two,
one; it’s all the same! The Frenchman, to the contrary, refuses to work when
one does not consent to give him the sum that he has set. The Frenchman
thus risks not dining one day in three. The American thus dines, badly perhaps,
but dines always. I have been witness ten times to scenes of this nature.”
M. Giovanni offered a Frenchman a job for three dollars. He demanded five,
then four. He turned his back and walked away, giving M. Giovanni “an imper-
tinent look.” An American came forward and took the job at three: “If that is
your price.” So the American took the job and did twice as much work for three
dollars as the Frenchman would do for five.36
According to Mme. Giovanni, the French generally do not succeed in the
mines. They quarrel with the Americans; they become discouraged by hard-
ships. The Americans have always been the masters of this kind of work. The
French, arriving in San Francisco, find a variety of work—jobs as gardeners,
fishermen, hunters, messengers, porters, greengrocers, florists, small shopowners,
and croupiers in the gambling houses. There is a California proverb: “There is
no silly occupation. There are only silly people.”37
The largest group of recent arrivals from France, Mme. Giovanni continued,
were the lingotiers, the immigrants who came through the Lottery of the Golden
Ingots. When the confusion of their arrival began, it completely changed the
face of things. The continuing labors of M. Dilllon were crucial here. For some,
he found passage by packet boat to the mines; for others, he found comfortable
boardinghouses. He received them when they arrived. He went with them
when they departed.
M. Giovanni’s speculations have been a disaster. He does Mme. Giovanni
the honor to consult her about their financial situation. They must do some-
thing before returning to Europe. What shall we do, Jeanne? It’s simple, she
replies. We buy furniture and curiosities, find a store, rent it, and open a
boutique. M. Giovanni laughs at her plan. Instead, he decides to mount a
commercial expedition into the mines with a load of merchandise: clothing,
tools for miners, food, wine, and brandy—in short, supplies that are necessary
for the companies in the different placers along the banks of the Yuba River. At
the end of three weeks, he has merchandise to the value of $15,000–$20,000.38
April is the time fixed for departure. Mme. Giovanni insists on accompa-
nying M. Giovanni. He agrees. He does not want us separated, she writes. The
destination is Marysville. It is one of the depots for the provisions and the tools
necessary in the mining camps. One hundred mules are necessary to move the
merchandise. The express service employs only Americans, and they are armed
to the teeth. The dangers are great. They are carrying a valuable cargo, and the
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 265

route runs through a difficult landscape. There is a continuing danger of

ambushes by Indians.
As they cross the plains, a hidden assassin fires on the party. M. Giovanni is
wounded. Mme. Giovanni takes him to the bank of the river with a serious wound
in the shoulder. The camp burns. They sit on a rock, and the miners regard them
with veritable despair, for the Giovannis were the saviors for many of them.
“Ruined another time,” cries M. Giovanni. “California is a wretched country.”39
The miners, saying “it is necessary to render them this justice,” offer the
Giovannis their services. They bring covers for both of them. She has only her
nightgown and a shawl on her shoulders. However, in the middle of this concert
of commiseration, she hears talk of “why doesn’t he also wish to sell his claim?
It serves him right!”40
M. Giovanni suffers much from his wound in the shoulder. Finally, after
boredom, fatigue, and hardships, the Giovannis return to San Francisco. From
this catastrophe, they have rescued their lives. They have also saved some
$15,000 (or F 75,000). She wants to return to the Sandwich Islands “to find a
little repose from this abominable California.” They are delighted to leave
California, where they have suffered “a long series of misfortunes.”41
The next day, November 1, 1853, the Giovannis boarded the small sailing
vessel Lilly for the voyage. Mme. Giovanni counts eight passengers, including
two Israelites. Four of the passengers are very ill with throat problems. They
intend to winter in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). The cabins are terrible. The
passage takes only fifteen days. They pass the days as agreeably as possible. A
circle forms around her. They read French novels, and they talk of California
and the Sandwich Islands. Her eyes seek out M. Giovanni, who has escaped the
fire of the plateau and the bullets of the assassin. “I want to be sure that his hand
is in mine and he is not far away. I never want us separated. It is as if we have
been protected by Providence.”42

Dumas’s work is remarkable for the degree to which he had absorbed the details
of life in gold rush California. Whether in the city, on the trail, or in the mining
camps, he told a story that would entertain French readers steeped in the details
of the “rush to gold.” Clearly the literary California gold rush outlasted the
realities of the California mining camps. Mme. Giovanni’s descriptions of work
patterns lead to the inevitable conclusion that the mines and the principal
economic enterprises in the cities gradually come into the hands of the
Americans. The French are left with the ownership and operation of small-
scale enterprises, hotels, cafés, restaurants, and theaters that emphasize personal
services rather than impersonal large-scale management. Mme. Giovanni’s
266 France

accounts of the patterns of labor of the two groups provide ample support for
this conclusion.
However, Dumas’s fictional account is more than just a tour of gold rush
California. It is a work of sophistication and insight dominated by a woman.
Mme. Giovanni makes the important observations about this rough-and-ready
world. There are descriptions of life designed to provide contrasts with the
proper French upper-class world of comfort, servants, and deference. She
describes the varied inhabitants of gold rush California, including not only the
Americans but also other national groups. She writes in detail about the
mistreatment of black Americans and Chinese. Her fictional account of a long
visit to the French consul, M. Dillon, offers a picture of the range of French
petitioners and their problems, as well as the special challenges of the lingotiers.
Dumas was seemingly on top of the latest information about these dimensions
of the French presence in San Francisco in late 1851.
Mme. Giovanni dominates this story. She does so by the force of her pres-
ence, as well as through the power of her understanding of the people and the
situations that she encounters. Throughout, her husband is a figure in the back-
ground, on stage for most of the scenes but rarely a character with important
lines. When he solicits Mme. Giovanni’s advice on their financial condition, he
ridicules her commonsense solution. Instead he mounts a large-scale expedi-
tion to the mining camps that turns into another financial disaster. That Mme.
Giovanni loves him and is always concerned for his personal safely does not
detract from her strength as the leading figure in this long and insightful story.
In Mme. Giovanni, Dumas created the most important fictional character that
emerged from the French “rush to gold.” That this character was a woman
made the account all the more remarkable.

JEAN-NICOLAS PERLOT AND THE CONTINUING ATTRACTION

OF THE CALIFORNIA DREAM

Jean-Nicolas Perlot returned to his home in Belgium in the fall of 1867,

some twenty-three years after he had left his native village. The village was the
same, undisturbed by the passage of time; his immediate family was dramati-
cally changed, dispersed or dead. He was warmly welcomed by his uncle and
cousins, who brought him up to date on the family gossip and feuds. He set out
to visit the relatives in town and the countryside: “The visits were made correctly,
methodically, beginning with the most aged.” It was a series of full days, inter-
spersed with the obligatory coffee and cake. Immersed in family disputes and
questions of wills and beneficiaries, Perlot listened to complaints and rumors
 Long Echoes of the “Rush to Gold” 267

and tried to correct the endless misconceptions about America. When he

completed his rounds of relatives near and far, he returned to find his village in
an uproar. He described it: “Fourteen young men had resolved to expatriate
themselves to go to tempt fortune beyond the seas and were preparing to accom-
pany me [when I return] to America.” He continued of the repercussions:
“Fourteen young men of parts, that meant as many young girls condemned for
a long time, perhaps forever to celibacy: a veritable disaster in a village of twelve
hundred inhabitants—and I was the cause of it.” But Perlot was only the imme-
diate instrument. The cause was the twenty years of publicity surrounding the
California gold discoveries, given a human face with the return of this local
Argonaut. He was an exotic; more to the point, he was a success. His home in
Portland—always described in conversation as “north of California”—seemed
to promise a similar range of economic opportunities.43
When Perlot left (with a new bride) to return to Portland, the young men
accompanied them. The ceremony was a repeat of a hundred such departures
for California and America. “At five o’clock in the morning, the drum was
beating the call to arms in the village, in order, said the crier, that everybody
might be up to witness the departure of those who were going off to the other
end of the world and to shake them by the hand for the last time; he was followed
by a group of young men singing at the top of their lungs the Song of Departure
(Chant du Départ) . . . .”44 It was a scene familiar to those who had come to the
docks in Le Havre in 1849 and 1850 to wave to the eager French Argonauts in
their rush to gold.

EUSTACHE AND HENRI MATHET AND THE CONTINUING AURA

OF THE CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE

Eustache and Henri Mathet embodied the mysteries—known and

unknown—of the rush to gold. On their return, they came to represent the
public face of the Wild West. They played their parts in a community drawn
to their exotic stories. Eustache could bring forth a wide range of exotic
characters—trappers, gold miners, Indians in fantastic dress, buffalo, cowboys,
sheriffs, and Mormon polygamists. He could also expound on the landscapes,
the great peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the California desert, the fertile, well-
watered valleys, and the immense forests, home to the venerable “sequoias.” It
was a panorama of the American West to capture willing listeners from the
village and even the countryside.45
Henri’s return two years later added to the accounts of the West, California,
and the rush to gold. He played a leading role as a central character in his
268 France

drama. At the age of twenty-four, he was slim, elegant, with a determined

bearing, dressed in black, with a felt hat with a large brim, like those later found
in the illustrations of the famous Buffalo Bill. Within six months, Henri had
achieved a degree of local notoriety embodied in his nickname, “the Sheriff.”
Although less extrovert than his father, the two of them rode the legends and
mysteries of the “Wild West” to a high peak of local notoriety. Such poses and
idle stories irritated the responsible François, but no matter.46
There remained another dimension of the return of the two veteran French
Argonauts—namely, what had they brought back with them as a California nest
egg? From their initial appearance, our two characters remained resolutely
discreet on this subject. And the more discreet, the more the rumors. What
about the debts? This was the immediate issue. Later, questions emerged about
the substantial investment necessary for the Épicerie Mathet and for the
imposing house on the Rue de la République. Father, son, and family remained
determinedly unforthcoming on this item of great local interest. But to the end,
their experiences and expectations suggested in the strongest terms that veterans
of the rush to gold, especially those who had remained in California for eight
and ten years respectively, had surely returned with a substantial dividend for
the passage of their years there. This air of mystery and wealth survived the
death of Henri (1916) and attached itself to his widow, Rosalie, for another
quarter century. Thus, the legacies of the French participation in the California
gold rush survived into the twentieth century.47
 16

THE BALANCE SHEET

In 1848 on the eve of the gold discoveries in California, France was a nation
of 35 million people. From among this national population, something on the
order of 30,000 French citizens (as they were properly known after the
Revolution of 1848) went to the California goldfields. Within the economy that
developed to assist this emigration, a variety of individuals and companies bene-
fited. These included ship captains, shipowners, and ship crews; purveyors of
supplies for the voyages and in the goldfields; transportation facilities that
moved the prospective Argonauts to the ports and then the docks; and hotels
and boardinghouses along the way where the travelers stopped. Still, such
economic activity, however diverse and lasting over some thirty months,
involved only a small portion of working people in France. Among the various
emigrants, a group of well-to-do individuals, including some representatives of
the nobility, made the voyage, some driven by boredom and adventure, others
by the need to replenish family fortunes lost through excesses or miscalcula-
tions. Those of modest means found a way to make the trip to California
through negotiated financial arrangements with their families or neighbors. At
the other end of the social and economic scale, the expedition, with its imme-
diate and future costs, surely involved few working-class people, for representa-
tives of this group could not afford to make the costly voyage to El Dorado. The
exceptions were those with few or no resources who departed through the spon-
sored emigration of the Garde Mobile or the Lottery of the Golden Ingots.

THE NEWS OF GOLD

The story of the California gold discoveries and their influence on French
life began with a few news items in a world of numerous stories, domestic and

269
270 France

foreign. The Constitutionnel, in reporting President James K. Polk’s address to

Congress, noted the reference to the discovery of gold in California, recently
acquired in the war against Mexico. Six days later, the Constitutionnel repeated
the news of the gold discoveries, with the observation that American newspa-
pers were preoccupied with a single issue: “It’s California!” The Siècle, the
second large-circulation Paris daily, confined itself to the report of Polk’s speech.
Outside Paris, notices were scattered. An extract from a letter written by a naval
captain from the port of Mazatlan, dated October 26, 1848, appeared in the
Mémorial Bordelais on December 28. He reported that the Mexican port was in
“a frenzy of excitement.” The origin of this upsurge of feeling was the discovery
of “a placer of gold” near the port of San Francisco. The Journal des Débats, a
quasi-official publication, had its first notice of the California gold discoveries
on January 11, 1849. It reported that in the eastern port cities in the United States
“the fever of emigration for California continued unabated.”1
These notices of California gold joined other improbable items of news.
Strange events from around the world made their way into the Paris dailies (and
subsequently other newspapers across France), and many of them described
incidents in America. Such reports had given knowledgeable French observers
a healthy degree of skepticism concerning the American press. Furthermore,
the focus of the French press, especially in Paris, was still on the recent presi-
dential election. The many popular magazines and newspapers—several
recently established with the abolition of press censorship in the aftermath of
the Revolution of 1848—helped to publicize the events in distant California.
What followed in the aftermath of these first reports was the persistence of the
rumors, gradually making the transition to acceptance. The emerging California
companies and their grandiose promises provided endless subjects for cartoons
and caricatures, as well as pages of advertising in newspapers across the nation.
A generation later, a distant observer summarized the first heady days:
“Extraordinary emotions agitated the old world when it received news in 1848
that Colonel Sutter and his Indians had discovered, in the valleys of California,
some layers of gold almost just above ground. It was an electric spark that struck
all the imaginations.”2 In those first weeks of January 1849, the magic words of
“gold” and “California,” generally used in conjunction with one another, drove
a growing mania that would fuel dreams of wealth and adventure.

THE RESPONSES

The reaction of the French to the California gold discoveries went through
several cycles. Initially, editors across the nation dismissed California as an
 The Balance Sheet 271

American creation. There were several kinds of skepticism. One of the

most common reflected the sentiment that the very word “California” symbol-
ized fraud and deception. The innumerable schemes launched in the name
of gold rush California provided much to support this view. The humor
magazine Charivari offered a summary: “America is a true country of
deception and above all a California deception. It is a country that we should
leave to the Americans, as one leaves razors to the English and macaroni to the
Neapolitans.”3
New language reflected a rising interest. At first, editors and observers
searched for images that would convey the power of the discoveries. There were
several variations. “On all the walls of Paris, Brussels, and London shines out
the headline gold mines, in red bold type.”4 Here was the declaration of fasci-
nation that had reached the most important European capital cities. Gradually,
these dramatic descriptions achieved a degree of acceptance.
The next stage appeared with the suggestion that French people should do
more than post and read notices: they should make plans to go to California.
“California! One has been occupied, for several months, with a country situ-
ated 8,000 leagues from France. From whence sounds the refrain. Ads for ships
leaving for California are on the bottom of every newspaper.”5 Notices of depar-
tures for California had begun to appear in the newspapers. The French
people—or at least a group of them—were in motion.
Finally, California gold and the response to it seemed to suggest a promise
that cut across class, age, and perhaps even gender lines in a nation well attuned
to all these benchmarks in society. “Neither age, nor family, nor position will
arrest the enthusiasts seduced by this picture of the new land of promise.” This
account continued: “The worker, the young man at the beginning of his career,
the man established, wish equally to attempt a fortune, and thanks to the
splendid mirage of the Sacramento, the voyage to California is hardly consid-
ered a most serious undertaking, seems today something the most simple in the
world.” News of departures for Monterey or San Francisco seemed like pleasure
trips to Boston or Philadelphia.6 Here was a final piece to the puzzle of distance.
Modern technology had placed this distant golden harvest within the reach of
almost every French citizen.

THE GOLDEN YEARS

As the direction of the nation seemed more uncertain and confused in the
winter of 1848–1849, the news of gold rush California blossomed with possibili-
ties. The score of new California companies filled newspapers across the nation
272 France

with striking advertisements. “Gold” and “California” had become a part of the
French language, and soon observers and editors of all political persuasions
agreed on the presence of a new El Dorado half a world away. There followed
some thirty months of rising emigration to California.
In a nation of increasing political divisions, there were soon political inter-
pretations of “gold” and “California.” Did the sudden emergence of this new El
Dorado with its economic opportunities for all represent an extension of the
promises of the new republic established in February 1848? After all, in the eyes
of its creators and defenders, the new republic would represent a new dimen-
sion of opportunity for French people at all levels of society. Universal male
suffrage offered the most dramatic statement, but close behind was the “right to
work,” a statement that summed up the aspirations and expectations of so many
French people in the hard and confusing year of 1848. California gold would
have a worldwide reach, but much of the French response was specific rather
than universal.
France had endured—indeed was still in the throes of coming to terms
with—widespread changes in agriculture and life on the land. In a nation still
rural and centered in villages and the countryside, crops had been devastated
by two years of drought and the collapse of agricultural prices. An instinctive
response was a large-scale movement of agricultural workers into the cities.
This economic upheaval in French life intersected the political upheavals of
1848. In a France divided by debates about the revolution and its meaning, and
especially the recent spasm of violence in June, the news of California and the
opportunities associated with it would invariably come together with some
groups’ visions of a just and equitable society. In some ways, California emerged
as the symbol of a universal opportunity for all strands of society, and such a
vision was excoriated by others who saw the society of the gold rush country sink
into depths of disorder and anarchy.
The dramatic appearance of California gold in France called forth a series of
significant questions. Consider, for example, the pressing issues of the entry of
the United States into the ranks of world expansion and imperial ambitions.
The rapid American occupation of California in response to the discovery of
gold provoked questions about the future of the Pacific for the expansionist
ambitions of European nations, including France and the French. These ques-
tions made regular appearances in the popular press.
In the two and a half years that followed the first news of California gold,
some thirty thousand French people (mostly but not exclusively male)
responded to avarice, boredom, the thirst for adventure, blighted local pros-
pects, and uncomfortable domestic situations, or variations on all of the above.
 The Balance Sheet 273

These various French Argonauts were pulled, pushed, drifted, or rushed to

California. There, over some thirty months, they adjusted to the California
riddle, the mixture of opportunity and danger, hard work and leisure, isolation
and intense friendships, how to make one’s way in an alien culture with an
alien language. These arriving French went to the emerging city of San
Francisco, to the towns in the interior, to the villages, to the gold camps, and to
all the places in between. Throughout, they were always surrounded by the
Americans, whose continuing presence was their greatest challenge.
The French presence in California may be characterized in a few broad
strokes. For the most part, they lived in what we might call French communities
and neighborhoods in San Francisco and other towns and in French-speaking
camps in the placers. They did not learn English. From the time of their arrival,
they seem to have given little thought to remaining in California, but instead,
they always looked to France as the foundation of their identity, the source of
their origin, and the place of their future.
The existence of the French in California became a part of French life in
France. Accounts from French Argonauts appeared in newspapers. Fictional
narratives became part of the offerings of feuilletons in journals. Interspersed
with accounts of violence and success, the French presence had assumed a
sense of “normal” in the French use of the term. This continued presence was
notably assisted by the emergence of a second generation of California compa-
nies. Between autumn 1849 and summer 1850, grandiose promises again blan-
keted the newspapers. Finally came the great Lottery of the Golden Ingots. The
burst of publicity and the rising sense of expectations built around the large
prizes and the many tickets, driven by the words “California” and “gold,”
reached a crescendo in November 1851, with the widely publicized drawing.
This burst of popular enthusiasm marked the high point of the French fascina-
tion with California in its first version. (There would be other, later ones in the
twentieth century.) Almost immediately thereafter, the allure of the French for
California began to decline. The departure of the lottery ships marked the
cooling of an intense three-year love affair.7

THE CALIFORNIA DREAM FADES

The decline of the California excitement had its own epigrams. “It
was scarcely three years ago that one heard that Peru had come to be rediscov-
ered in a country a little bit unknown, that one called California.”8 These
were the words of an account of the varied French activities in California.
They serve as an introduction to California’s obscurity at the time, and the
274 France

informed reader would be aware of how this obscurity had been succeeded
by a national mania. Now, after three years, this fascination was drawing to
a close.
The close of the great French affaire (with the customary mixture of love and
hate) with California and the gradual retrenchment of the French had their
own internal benchmarks. The first was the drawing of the celebrated Lottery of
the Golden Ingots on November 16, 1851. This dramatic three-hour event was
the climax of the national fascination with this lottery, and the intensity of the
national temperature fell rapidly thereafter. The first of the lottery ships sailed
from Le Havre on October 11, 1851, followed by a steady stream at more or less
monthly intervals until the last of the lottery ships departed in January 1853. The
lottery ships represented a coda to the French and the gold rush. For these
emigrants had departed with the expectation of staying in California and
making a new life there for themselves and their families. Thus, the story of the
French and California gold closed on a compulsory note—a group of emigrants
sponsored by the government who left France as undesirable citizens or as
victims of economic hardship. They arrived in California to begin their new
lives with the prospect of permanent exile.
Another mark of the transition was the coup d’état of December 1851,
following closely on the drawing of the great lottery. Louis Napoléon Bonaparte
had originally come to power in the presidential election of December 1848.
Mandated under the new constitution of the new republic, the election was
intended to showcase the new power of French citizens as they exercised their
vote under the new universal (male) suffrage. Louis Napoléon Bonaparte’s
unexpected triumph wrote an end to the uncertain year of 1848, among which
the news of the gold discoveries was among the most dramatic. Three years
later, in December 1851, he engineered a coup d’état, and the popular refer-
endum of January 1852 wrote a decisive close to the experiment of the Second
Republic.
Finally, there appeared the filibustering expeditions, a dramatic expression
of French disillusion with the promises of the gold rush, mixed with determina-
tion to succeed in other ventures with the same prize. The Marquis de Pindray
and Count Gaston Raousset-Boulbon recruited portions of their armed forces
from the unhappy and idle French Argonauts left over from the excitement and
opportunities associated with the gold rush. As the dream of gold faded, it was
replaced by a search for another great opportunity, this time in Mexico under
French leadership. The Americans and California would not be part of this
dream. It would be exclusively French, a quality remarked upon and embraced
by its participants.9
 The Balance Sheet 275

THE FRENCH CONTEMPLATE THE AMERICAN CHARACTER

The intrusion of California and gold into French life was, at the same time,
the intrusion of America. On the eve of the gold discoveries, America had a
vague and generally favorable image among French people who cared to notice.
France had played a decisive role in the war to establish American indepen-
dence, and this triumph was the sweeter because it dealt a sharp setback to the
ancient English enemy. France still had vivid and unhappy memories of the
loss of its continental empire in the aftermath of the war of 1756–1763. Pierre-
Charles de Saint-Amant wrote of “the deplorable loss of Canada, sacrificed by
the shameful treaty of 1763.”10 The French response was to support the rebellion
of the American colonies in the form of loans, an army, and a navy. “Lafayette”
became a household word in America, and his friendship with George
Washington was a bedrock of relations between the two nations. After that
moment of triumph in the second Treaty of Paris in 1783, France had its own
revolution and wars. Finally concluded in 1815, there followed a prolonged
period of postwar adjustment with periodic outbursts of protest, some of them
violent. America filtered into the French consciousness through the writings of
Alexis de Tocqueville, whose celebrated account analyzed the Americans for
that segment of the French population who bothered to read him. There were
also various expeditions of exploration sent out as part of France’s steps to
counter British expansion. One of these exercises, under the leadership of
Eugène Duflot de Mofras, explored the California and Oregon coasts between
1840 and 1842.
The gold discoveries now gave a new urgency to the questions of America,
the Americans, and California. As one observer commented in 1851, France had
contributed several thousand “children” of the republic to the California excite-
ment; accordingly, it was time to find out where they were going and the sort of
people and institutions they would encounter there. And the more so if these
encounters would take place in an atmosphere of tension and friction, as was
indeed likely.11
From the outset, French observers found Americans everywhere—in
Panama, on the way to California, in the mines. They appeared in San Francisco
as laborers, merchants, doctors, and lawyers; they appeared in the gold camps
by the thousands, where they exercised control over local institutions. Yet these
institutions, by French standards, were minimal, and the force of a central
authority was marginal to the point of vanishing. Equally astonishing, the
Americans seemed quite comfortable going their own way and filling in forms
of law and a court system as needs arose.
276 France

As for the Americans in the mines, they were physically strong, hard working,
and never discouraged. They worked with a single-minded intensity. They rallied
around to protect other Americans and their claims at the expense of foreigners,
whatever the legal merits of the case might be. They were generally contemp-
tuous of all foreigners, especially those who did not speak English. At the same
time, they sometimes offered individual acts of kindness and generosity.
Mining camps aside, as the French tried to understand the American char-
acter, their initial observations were a mix of the obvious and the surprising.
One of the first attempts was a correspondent of the Moniteur Universel in the
early days of the gold rush. He wrote: “The American character, necessarily
destined to dominate in the center of this immigration, is one of particular and
admirable exceptionalism.” The writer continued: whatever the hopes and
fantasies that move the gold seekers, the American quickly returns to reality. He
does not seem to know or to heed the rejections and perils that influence others.
Perhaps this quality was “really the secret of the marvelous future of the Union.”
The Americans quickly show “their activity, their intelligence, their industry,
the national spirit, which has made for rapid prosperity in the United States.”12
This sense of the relentless quality of the American was summed up by the
Belgian J. J. F. Haine, in his comment, “The word ‘impossible,’ according to
Napoléon I, should not be in the dictionary. The Yankee carries this saying to
its extreme. Go ahead is his rallying cry.”13 Another observer added, “The
Americans also have a character that is never held back nor discouraged; if the
mountains trouble them, they level the ground; if fire demolishes their houses,
they build others around the corner.”14 Thus, the French confronted a wide
array of challenges: uncertain commercial prospects, foreign laws, and, above
all, the implacable character of their American competitors.
On the far side of the emphasis on work and ambition lay the observations
about the American attitudes toward women. Some journals commented on the
gross and revolting behavior of many Americans contrasted to the very real
politeness of Americans in their meetings and interactions with women and
wives, “who, in their homes, are infinitely freer, more respected, and more mate-
rially happy than [their counterparts] in Europe.”15 The French agreed that the
American respect for women was a universal principle of behavior in California.
Across the spectrum of the gold rush, beginning in Panama, Americans would
go out of their way to render assistance and provide protection.
Two strands of analysis emerged over the first two years of the French pres-
ence in California. The first reflected the imposing and even intimidating phys-
ical presence of the Americans. This described the American capacity for
endless hard labor, a quality perfectly suited to the mines. It also emphasized
 The Balance Sheet 277

the dogged determination of the Americans never to accept failure. The French
found this endless optimism naïve, and yet they agreed that it, too, was admi-
rably adopted for the mining exercise. Here, the lottery dimension of the return
rewarded those who continued to labor without ceasing.
In the second strand, the hostility of the Americans toward foreigners and
their propensity to violence was unnerving. Both tendencies ran parallel to the
absence of established institutions of law and a functioning court system. That
the informal arrangements that developed favored the Americans angered the
French. Yet such arrangements were only a continuation of an American tradi-
tion of intimate local government with its roots in the county court. Balanced
against these dangers of violence and the presence of Americans as competitors
were occasional acts of generosity. The Americans often came out of small
communities where assistance to those in need was a shared quality.
The Americans had established a set of unwritten rules of conduct. Patrice
Dillon, the French consul, referred to them as the California Moral Code, “a
code known and accepted by everyone.” In brief, under this code, crimes
against persons—“in an affair of vengeance or in a quarrel”—were permitted to
be settled by knife or gun. But, Dillon continued, “to touch another person’s
property, that is the greatest of heinousness.” Such a crime would provoke an
immediate response from the entire community or camp, as men would “in an
instant come out of the tents and the neighboring houses and would chase the
thief. Merchant, miner, ferryboat man, everyone would quit what he was doing
in order to dash out in pursuit, for everyone was interested in preventing the
theft, and there are neither gendarmes nor soldiers to stay on guard in the inter-
ests of the public.”16
Dillon went on to analyze with great insight the American attitude toward
civil authority. He began with an allusion to the European acceptance of such
authority. As for the Americans, the intervention of civil authority was a last
resort. They preferred to deal with “social disorders” themselves, independent of
the institutions of organized government. Dillon continued: it might be better
for France to transfer a degree of political power to the French people “[so] that
we learn to rely, like the Americans, more on ourselves and less on our govern-
ment, to moderate and restrain the impetus toward the intervention of civil
authority.” Thus, Dillon noted that the absence of a central authority—for
example, a state government in California—did not disturb the Americans as it
did the French. The Americans simply went about the business of making their
own rules, as they had done in newly settled areas for three generations.17
Gustave Aimard wrote of the American character in his fictional accounts.
In The Gold Seekers: A Tale of California, first published in 1854, he described
278 France

the American skill in founding towns. He began with the statement, “No people
equals the American in the art of founding towns.” He then went on to elabo-
rate the technique repeated across a thousand miles of empty landscape: “In a
few days, on the spot where a virgin forest full of mystery and shadow stood, they
lay out streets, build houses, light gas; and in the midst of these streets and
squares, created as if by enchantment, the forest trees are not yet dead and a few
forgotten oaks flourish with a melancholy air. It is true that many of these towns,
improvised for the exigencies of the moment, are frequently deserted as rapidly
as they were built, for the North American is the true nomadic race.”18
There was another side to this story of enterprise and energy. Aimard
continued: “The American has no home, that word so endearing to Europeans.”
The American was a constant sojourner. His home was related to the temporary
economic advantage to be found at that moment. When economic advantage
appeared elsewhere, he would immediately pack up and leave. For a larger
landholding or a more fertile farm site, he would desert his cabin and improve-
ments, turn his back on the grave site of one or more members of the family,
abandon neighbors and community, and travel west with his family in search
of something larger and better. He was never confounded or intimidated by
the challenge of a new landscape.19
Consider these qualities in relation to the California gold rush. When the
stories of wealth in California appeared, the Americans made ready to seize the
opportunity, as they had long seized natural resources for their own benefit.
But, in this case, they were joined by Europeans: “The birds of prey . . . in
Europe, rush with a loud cry toward that unknown land, where they fancied
they should find in a few days all the joys with which they had been gorged, and
which they hoped this time to satisfy.” At the end of this fantasy of wealth lay
backbreaking labor. “Unfortunately, in California, as elsewhere, the first condi-
tion of acquiring wealth is incessant, permanent, and regular labor.” This was a
quality at which the Americans excelled, and the Europeans would have to
follow suit (however reluctantly) if they hoped to compete in the goldfields.20
The Americans had their defenders. The Constitutionnel offered a perceptive
observation on the California gold rush, using the emerging Australian gold
discoveries as a point of comparison. “The search for gold has cast the foundation
of civilization in California,” the paper commented. Contrast this foundation
with the recent news from Australia. In California, the early gold seekers built
towns and then a city; in Australia, they emptied out the city of Melbourne and
built nothing. Many of the California Argonauts stayed to become colonizers; the
Australians left as soon as they had a strike. Thus, the Americans were colonizers
in the best sense of the word. The Australians were itinerant scavengers.21
 The Balance Sheet 279

Over some three years, French observers made inroads on coming to terms
with the American character. When all was said, and there was much to be said,
most of them concluded that the conditions found in gold rush California were
well matched to the qualities brought by the Americans. Those characteristics
of energy, ambition, and a highly developed work ethic were brought to bear
with the capacity of Americans to create institutions to maximize and protect
their advantages. These blending circumstances, the French concluded, were
not always fair or just, but they were inevitable. It was well for the French to
learn to adjust or retire.

THE FRENCH ASSESS THE FRENCH CHARACTER

Almost everywhere, the French character could be juxtaposed against the

American. Martial Chevalier pursued this theme in a long article in the Revue
des Deux Mondes. Published in mid-1852, it was an analysis of the French expe-
rience in California set against the context of the French character. In order to
succeed in California, he wrote, the French Argonauts needed to be able and
willing to compete with the Americans. If they competed, many opportunities
for success lay everywhere. “The emigrant who possesses some of the qualities
necessary to wrestle with the American, that is, the spirit of business united to
great ability and a rare prudence, is certain to find in California something to
occupy his activity. For him, the stay in the cities and the points of commerce
will be much more advantageous than the nomadic life of a searcher for gold.”
He continued: “As for the man experienced from his youth in an occupation
like those in the placers—to work in the fields, for example—if he is coura-
geous and persevering, he is able to see his position in California with some
confidence. The emigrant of this class ordinarily manages to gather at the end
of the day a quantity of metal that represents a value of 4 to 5 dollars at least,
which corresponds to 20 to 25 francs, while his expenses ought not to rise to
more than a quarter of that sum.” This was a favorable outcome by almost any
standard.22
Among the success stories that Chevalier cited was that of a veteran soldier
from the artillery and later a farmer in one of the departments of the Midi. After
a long and discouraging period of six months of finding scarcely enough to pay
for food, this man continued to work with the same energy, and over the next
three months, he accumulated gold to the value of $3,000—that is, F 15,000.
This was not the only such story. “Many of our compatriots today peacefully
enjoy the fruits of their work [after] the moral and physical privations that they
imposed on themselves on going to California.” He went on: “Almost all of
280 France

these latter appear to belong to that class of men of the countryside, workers,
sober and patient, not discouraged by difficulties, and who counted only on
their personal efforts to acquire, by stubborn efforts, that which destiny, which
distributed the social positions, had not to this point bestowed to their lot.” He
concluded that continuing labor in the face of difficulties would be rewarded,
but it would involve much hard work over an extended period.23
Chevalier also wrote that the French needed to work hard. He noted the
strong American work ethic that dominated the mining sites. He observed: “In
the United States, it is the liberty of work that is the law of the country. The
great liberty offered the American citizen is the liberty in the domain of work.”
He summed up his observations in a single sentence: “California [is] in the
hands of this enterprising race.”24 Within this dominating American presence
by numbers, physical strength, and character, the French had done well. They
had a substantial presence in California, a population that was “young, active,
and enterprising,” intent on exercising a strong influence on the development
of this civilization. In short, this was a great enterprise in which the French were
poised to participate. And they expected to compete.25
Some French observers went on to suggest that the French would compete
with the Americans on their own terms. In other words, they would compete
while, at the same time, they would retain those French qualities that they so
valued. Part of what emerged from the gold rush was a French vision of
California set against a backdrop of the French in France. Even as they found
much to praise in the Americans, the French found much to be happy about in
their own character and activities. Consider, for example, this characterization
of French activities in San Francisco in 1851: “The French are not rich, not
enterprising, not well thought of, because of their real inferiority next to the
Americans, because of their love of chitchat and their taste for the café life.
There is no money to be made among them.” Of course the comment did not
do justice to several dimensions of French commercial life in San Francisco.
The French community had entrepreneurs like François Pioche, who competed
with great success with the Americans because he was able to bridge the
commercial and cultural distance between the two. At the same time, almost
everywhere and on every occasion, the French defined themselves in counter-
point to the Americans. Perhaps the French preferred a longer meal and an
extended conversation over coffee. Such priorities would fall within their tradi-
tional cultural norms of the importance of such interludes for the quality of life
they enjoyed. That they would relish such moments in San Francisco as well as
Paris would be no surprise. A balance of comments suggested that the French
could compete quite well with the Americans when they chose to do so. At the
 The Balance Sheet 281

same time, on other occasions, they preferred a more leisurely approach to

business and life. The French would surely have endorsed such a variation.26
The same ideas echoed on a large canvas. One of the most obvious examples
was the issue of land and land ownership. Thus, “the French prefer honest
mediocrity: they do not wish to exchange 10 hectares of France for 300 acres of
the best soil in America.” If one noted the obvious success of cultivators in
America, as shown in the size of holdings and the rapid adaptation to commer-
cial agriculture, why did the French not follow suit? The reason was simply a
different outlook on the world. The French lived in small villages, and they
were accustomed to work on a small scale. They also liked the continuity of
generations of family life in the same setting. When the French examined their
character in the context of the American, they liked what they saw.27
In California, the French worked at their own pace and almost always in
their own communities. These communities were defined principally by
language but also by habits and cycles of work and leisure. This world mirrored
an essential part of the world they had left in France: communities defined by
stability and longevity. In both cases, a prevailing quality of the participation
was continuity, not wandering from site to site, constantly on the move in search
of a better situation. The French came from a world of extended family connec-
tions. These connections played a crucial and continuing role in their lives in
France, and for most French Argonauts, it played a similar role in their lives in
California. Thus, a French gold seeker, like Ernest de Massey, placed loyalty to
his family on the highest rung of priorities. He did so at the risk of his own
advantage.
Finally, to a small but identifiable degree, California mirrored the ambitions
of the French as reflected in hard work and production on a small scale, empha-
sizing quality workmanship in small units of production. In this respect, they
contrasted to the British and the Americans, both of whom were moving to
large-scale production and celebrating size and mass. The French still thought
in terms of the small units of labor, individuals, the family, the village. Perhaps
this helps to explain the complaints about the French organizing and working
in large groups in the mining camps. For whatever reason, the French thought
in smaller terms and rejoiced in their circumstances.28

FRENCH ARGONAUTS AND THOSE THEY LEFT BEHIND

One other dimension of the French plans and departures needs to be

addressed. Few of the prospective French Argonauts paid serious attention to
the condition of those they left behind. Some mentioned sadness at leaving
282 France

wives and children, but they said little or nothing about the condition of these
dependents or how they proposed to adjust to their long absences. Reading
between the lines of their stories, we see that two strands emerge. The first is
related to issues of social and economic class. Just as this group had sufficient
resources to make the voyage to California—some first class and many accom-
panied by goods to sell—so they had reserves to support their families in their
absence. The second conjured up the traditional male prerogative in which
men seek wealth and adventure (even danger), while families remain safely at
home, supporting them with every resource possible. One of the interesting
features of so many of these accounts was that the French Argonauts did not
seem to receive mail from home, or if they received letters, they did not
comment on them. Nor did they anywhere reflect an ongoing concern about
the condition of their families, whether related to illness, money, harvests, or
schooling. In short, they seemed cut off from their families and from France,
and apart from occasional asides, they did not seem concerned.
The French emigration to California in search of economic opportunity was
a response to a surge of gold fever that blanketed the newspapers and magazines
across the nation for thirty months. It was a movement of people that cut across
political lines and extended across large stretches of the nation. It did not offer
emigration to artisans, farmers, or small tradesmen. It is true that a few villages
contributed small groups. These were clearly the exceptions. But at whatever
level of society, the exodus for California left behind large numbers of family
members. Whether the family was in the chateau of Ernest de Massey or in the
village cottages of the men from Bruley, the rush to gold in California was not
only about those who departed with such public acclaim, but also about those
who remained behind when the shouting had died away.
Here the paradox emerged. French observers (however insightful in many
areas) had little or nothing to say about the hidden costs of the California adven-
ture. More specifically, they were generally silent on the cost to families, to
wives and children, to elderly parents, to villages and communities without the
presence and support of this exodus of able-bodied French Argonauts. Several
participants who left accounts speak of their regret and even anguish at leaving
their families. Few, if any, turned back. Of course, we may not have the accounts
of those who returned home. Back in the family and the village, their explana-
tions could be private and oral. We know only of those who soldiered on, driven
(they always argued) by duty to families to go forth and persevere in the face of
endless hardships, dangers, and disappointments.
Charles de Lambertie concluded that his resolution was severely shaken by
“the urgent letters that I received from my wife and my sister, who write to me
 The Balance Sheet 283

to cancel the purchases of the merchandise and to return; that the Paris news-
papers are filled with unpleasant news about California. These uncertainties
which float about make me sad and morose.” Still, the prospect of sadness on
departure was more than balanced by visions of triumph and rapture on return
to France. Yet another doubt surfaced on the eve of sailing. De Lambertie
wrote: “I find myself prey to the cruelest hesitation. In these retrospective
outbursts, my thought carries with the most tender emotions to my wife and to
my children, who hold me as the North Pole holds a magnetized needle. I feel
moved to pity my courage when I envision these dear objects, and when I
imagine the dangerous reefs and the perils of all kinds that I will brave, for a
moment I wish to say good-bye and embrace them again.”29
Upon rare occasions, the French Argonaut might examine his prospects,
options, and motives against a background of his family in France. His conclu-
sions might be generous and even affecting. After much introspection, de
Lambertie concluded: “I said to myself, I could be so happy in France,
surrounded by my wife and my children, with the passable fortune that I possess;
I have voluntarily condemned myself here to a veritable life as a galley slave, at
work that is the most disagreeable and the most taxing.” In the end, like so many
others, he made the appropriate male decision.30
De Lambertie’s condition was one shared by innumerable miners from the
nations of the world. Why had he given up this happy domestic situation (with
its implications of independent wealth) to pursue a golden fantasy in the cold
waters of distant mountain streams? Almost all miners, at times in their mining
experiences, contemplated this question. And, like so many others, when this
moment passed, he bade a mental adieu to his wife and returned to the shovel,
bucket, and cradle. The reasons were a mixture of the practical and of pride: “I
said to myself, without doubt, it would be most agreeable to depart for France,
to return to my country, my family and all my friends; but the money which I
had squandered on this great voyage will leave an empty place in my fortune;
and . . . I will regret having lost courage at the moment when I could restore
everything. M. Bahlie told me, in a moment where he had a fresh outbreak of
hope, let’s go forward to make our fortune; next year there will not remain great
things to glean in the placers. Let’s go, I said; my energy, come to my assistance.
Never have I had such need of your support.” So once again, de Lambertie took
up his tools and resumed his hard labors.31
Ernest de Massey has left an account of his voyage and his two years in
California that covers some four hundred pages. He goes into great detail about
his adventures and trials; the feckless behavior of his nephew, Alexandre Veron;
and the passive incompetence of his hired laborer, Pidaucet. He has nothing to
284 France

say about those he left behind, about their trials and burdens. It was true that de
Massey came from a privileged class, by comparison with many French
Argonauts. It is also true that he left behind no wife or children. And, like so
many others, he left professing his determination to redeem himself from the
financial failures of the past, to return to his family in Passavant with the family
name and his own personal fortune enhanced. That his brother would eventu-
ally join him in California spoke to his view that California remained a place of
economic opportunity.
In the framework of correspondence that underlay the California gold rush
experience, every national group had its variations. The French Argonauts felt
strongly about the obligation to send funds home. It might be thought of as part
of the contract of their departure. The historian Daniel Lévy, writing in 1884,
noted that “the French miners sent to their families, from 1850 to 1851, more
than four million francs . . . through the intermediary agency of the French
consulate. Considerable sums were also sent by other means.”32 In exchange,
the correspondents in France would provide regular news of relatives, friends,
and life in the neighborhood. Few of the surviving collections of these exchanges
give much attention to the family dimension. It is true that the designated corre-
spondents of the friends from the village of Bruley offered regular glimpses into
family life, as appropriate. This was especially true of news about those who
might be coming to join the citizens of the village already in California.
The young men from Lorraine were an exception. In his letters, Jean Migot
always showed great respect for the elders of the village. He wrote, “You cannot
know the pleasure that I feel on conversing an instant with you; when one is
thousands of leagues away, and when for some months one has not been close
to parents that one loves sincerely, one often thinks of that absence; and one has
good reason to say: the more one is separated, the more one loves.” And the
signature that adorns so many of his letters: “Your very humble and devoted
brother.”33
Migot always sent “many good wishes” to his large roster of uncles, aunts,
cousins, godfathers, and godmothers and to the in-laws of his sisters. He asked
that embraces be given to his nieces and nephews. He sent greetings to old
friends by their diminutive names. To all these greetings he added a melancholy
closing: “Speak to them often of me.” He missed them, but above all, he did not
want to be forgotten. His infrequent letters had become attempts to shore up his
fading connections with his extended family.34
The influence of gold and the impact on a personal level could be played
out in a variety of forms and situations. One of the notable conditions associated
with life in gold rush California was its anonymity. In a world of endless mobility
 The Balance Sheet 285

and transience, men were who they said they were. Whatever stories they told
were what they wanted known about themselves. Personal habits or patterns of
behavior were no longer shaped or reined in by the presence of friends, rela-
tives, neighbors, or a community. These groups had long since disappeared. So
whether men drank, gambled, caroused, or were involved in any other kind of
public display to excess became their own business. Or the business of a small,
select group of friends of like-minded anonymity.
What of the issue of marital fidelity? After all, like their American counter-
parts, these Frenchmen were generally young, living in an anonymous world,
with values turned upside down, and a long way from home. Charles de
Lambertie described an encounter with a friend. This man told him that while
in California, he had been unfaithful to his spouse. De Lambertie continued
about his own experiences: “However, I have sometimes seen a young Chilean
woman, who had some luck to triumph over my fidelity. . . . She was lovely, and
a young man accustomed to seeing French women ought to understand
beauty.” Presumably that was sufficient justification. De Lambertie recognized
that such encounters belonged to this world of temporary connections, and so
he would eventually leave “my beautiful enchantress.” He seems to have
enjoyed his time with her to the fullest and without any sense of guilt over his
wife and three children.35
The French struggled mightily to succeed in California. They dug, carried,
and washed in the goldfields. They worked at a variety of menial jobs beneath
their sense of their own station in life. They happily (or at least willingly) endured
the greatest physical hardships of poor shelter, marginal food, and digging and
washing in cold water and bright, burning sun. They spared little time for
thoughts about their families. Perhaps this was a part of their sense of the contrac-
tual arrangements, which gave them leave to disappear for years halfway around
the world in exchange for wealth that would ease the present condition of the
family for the indefinite future. Instead, the indefinite future became their exiled
sentence in California. Part of this may have fed into the feeling that it was their
masculine duty to labor under these harsh conditions and never show regret, as it
was their masculine duty never to show weakness or regret. For whatever reasons,
most French Argonauts played their assigned roles without missing a line or a
step. Unfortunately, the responses of their families remain a blank.

TOWARD A FRENCH IDENTITY

Did participation in the California gold excitement give French people a

clear (or clearer) sense of national identity? The Americans regarded all French
286 France

people as the same. Indeed, they called them the “Keskadees,” reflecting the
standard French inquiry “What did he say?” (Qu’est-ce qu’il a dit?). The French
also had a further incentive to unity in their attempts to face down the hostility
of the Americans in the mining camps. French observers, such as Étienne
Derbec, commented on the French Canadians, marveling at their adjustments
to the landscape, their warm hospitality, and their quaint French (unchanged
for two hundred years). Even the most careful correspondent tended to treat all
French under the same heading.36
Other unifying elements appeared. All French citizens (in the aftermath of
the Revolution of 1848) were supposed to apply for passports before they left the
country. Some did; others did not. The rule was not rigorously enforced, but the
presence of such a national form of identity kept the issue of national identity
in a clear form. Furthermore, French emigrants to California called constantly
on the French consul, the official representative of the French government.
Patrice Dillon was overwhelmed with his multiple responsibilities. In addition
to handling commercial disputes and resolving confrontations between French
and American miners, Dillon had to deal with endless applications to his office
for relief of various kinds. Finally, there appeared at the entrance to San
Francisco harbor the ships with the lingotiers, the French citizens sent at
government expense by lottery funds. Never had Dillon’s abilities been so
needed or challenged. He discharged his duties with great insight, even as he
appealed to his government to support in California what it had set adrift at the
changing of the tide in Le Havre. His endless labors were done on behalf of the
French national government. That this government changed form from a
republic to an empire in the course of Dillon’s service did not lessen the high
level of his services to all French citizens.
French authors who wrote accounts of the French and California and the
goldfields always assumed a kind of generic French identity based on language
and origin. Within this general identification, Parisians were distinctive. There
were occasional references to people from other places. One of the longest and
most detailed accounts dealt with a man from Lille. Most of them were honest
workers. Dumas contrasted a street urchin from Paris living by his wits with a
diligent carpenter. Both had their successes in gold rush California. Mme.
Giovanni, a later Dumas creation, criticized the working habits of the French
in always demanding a set wage. She noted that the Americans would work for
less and do twice the work.
Then, there was the case of Ernest de Massey. The most important part of his
character was his identification with his social class. Accordingly, he deter-
mined to conduct himself at all times in accordance with these principles. He
 The Balance Sheet 287

was also devoted to his family, even at the cost of his own success. In the cycles
of labor in the mines, he was forced to work for others—on one occasion the
Irish, on another the Americans. He discharged his duties as laborer with the
same standards that he would have expected from someone laboring for him.
De Massey also kept close track of political postures. Yet whatever a man’s poli-
tics, de Massey never doubted his French origins and French patriotism, nor his
sense of the virtues of French culture and life. When de Massey wrote about
variations in the Frenchmen he encountered, he spoke of social and economic
class, not national or regional identity.
Gustave Aimard caught some of the character of the French in a distant
place. “Frenchmen of honor have been seduced to come to the goldfields,” he
wrote. He continued: “French emigration, in America or elsewhere, has rarely,
or to speak more truthfully, has never succeeded.” Aimard summarized the
French experience in California in two sentences. He began with the observa-
tion that “the Frenchman is no colonizer; that is, under all circumstances, he
remains a Frenchman, and does not wish to be anything else.” He concluded:
“He ever regards himself as a traveler and not a sojourner; whatever be the posi-
tion he may achieve, his eyes are incessantly fixed on France, the only country,
in his eyes, where men can live and die happily.”37
His was a fitting epitaph to the close of the French adventure in California.
This page intentionally left blank
 NOTES

notes on currency, travel cost, and income

1. Sources: for the average daily wages and annual income, Philip T. Hoffman, California
Institute of Technology, personal communication; for average daily returns in the
goldfields, Rodman W. Paul, California Gold: The Beginning of Mining in the Far
West (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), appendix B.

chapter 1. france in 1848

1. Graham Robb, The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution
to the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007), is a wonderful introduction
to the diversity of France, mixed with the unifying themes of land and village life.
2. Roger Price, ed., 1848 in France (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), 11–24.
3. Ibid., 24–28.
4. Ibid., 28–42.
5. La Vigie de Dieppe, June 25, 1848.
6. This account draws on Price, 1848 in France, 33–42; Jill Harsin, Barricades: The War
of the Streets in Revolutionary Paris, 1830–1848 (New York: Palgrave Publishers, 2002),
chs. 3, 5, 7, and 13; and John M. Merriman, Agony of the Republic: The Repression of
the Left in Revolutionary France, 1848–1851 (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1978), ch. 1.
7. Price, 1848 in France, 77–79.
8. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “The French Consulate in California, 1843–1856,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 13 (1934): 271–76.
9. Le Siècle, December 31, 1848; Le Journal des Débats, January 12; February 8, 10, 11, 13,
1849; Le Constitutionnel, February 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 1849. Tyrwhitt-Brooks’s account
was later exposed as a forgery, the work of two men of imagination who sought to
capitalize on the market for early first-person accounts.
10. On the French presidential election of December 10, the following represent a cross
section of opinion: Le Courrier de Lyon, December 13, 16, 20, 1848; La Gazette de

289
290 Notes to Pages 20–28

France (Paris), December 12, 15, 1848; Le Mémorial Bordelais, December 12, 1848; Le
Siècle, December 4, 15, 1848; Le Constitutionnel, December 12, 13, 15, 1848. Bonaparte’s
supporters established the newspaper Le Dix Décembre to celebrate his triumph. Its
first issue appeared April 25, 1849.
11. Gilbert Chinard, “When the French Came to California: An Introductory Essay,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 22 (1943): 292. Chinard’s is an excellent intro-
duction in English. Abraham P. Nasatir’s French Activities in California: An Archival
Calendar Guide (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1945), is the most complete
account, with excerpts from important documents and a complete bibliography of
French sources. The best scholarly account is Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien:
Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999),
chs. 5–7.

chapter 2. news of the california gold discoveries spreads

across france
1. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “The French Consulate in California, 1843–1856,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 13 (1934): 62–63.
2. Erwin G. Gudde, California Gold Camps (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1975), 122, says of the “French” heading that it was “probably the most common of the
adjectives denoting nationality in the gold region toponymy.” Gudde lists forty-four
mining camps beginning with “French.”
3. Nasatir, “The French Consulate in California,” 165–66.
4. Ibid., 166.
5. Ibid., 169, 171, 173–74.
6. Ibid., 270–71.
7. Ibid., 273–74.
8. New York Herald, August 19, 1848.
9. Times (London), October 10, 18; December 14, 21, 22, 1848.
10. Le Courrier des États-Unis, June 22, 1848.
11. Ibid., July 3, 1848.
12. Ibid., November 30; December 6, 15, 18, 1848.
13. An article in L’Illustration, August 4, 1849, analyzing the most important papers of
Paris, said that the Journal des Débats and the Times of London were the most influen-
tial papers in Europe. See also Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., A French Journalist in the
California Gold Rush: The Letters of Étienne Derbec (Georgetown, CA: Talisman
Press, 1964), 192, n. 1.
14. Le Journal des Débats, November 15, 1848.
15. Le Siècle, December 23, 31, 1848.
16. Ibid., December 31, 1848.
17. Le Constitutionnel, December 25, 1848. The paper devoted little space to the gold
discoveries in January, but in early February, over six issues in its feuilleton column, it
serialized “Les Chercheurs d’Or du Sacramento,” a dramatic fictional account of the
early California gold rush days. Le Constitutionnel, February 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 1849.
 Notes to Pages 28–35 291

18. Le Journal des Débats, November 13, 1848; January 12; February 22; March 7, 1849.
19. La Presse, January 2, 5, 1849; Le Pays, January 6, 16, 27, 1849; L’Illustration, January 13,
1849. The year 1849 saw a major cholera outbreak in the eastern United States. The
disease spread up the rivers and infected a portion of those Forty-Niners who departed
overland for California in the spring of that year.
20. Le Siècle, March 26, 1849, printed a detailed account of practical advice for the pro-
spective French Forty-Niner. The source of this information was M. Lacharme, a
French civil engineer, resident for several years in Central America, who provided
“practical information of which some items are of the highest importance for immi-
grants.” Among the headings: itinerary, equipment, diseases and medications, climate
“generally healthy,” and natural dangers (snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and venom-
ous insects). And finally, the practical issue of mining itself: “With few exceptions,
gold can be obtained only through much work and knowledge.”
21. Le Mémorial de Vaucluse (Avignon), January 27, 1849.
22. L’Écho de l’Oise (Compiègne), February 9, 1849. See also Le Courrier de la Drôme et
de l’Ardèche (Valence), January 27, 1849, which noted that the thirst for gold had been
implanted in France.
23. Eugène Hatin, Histoire Générale de la Presse Française (3 vols., 1865), 2:399–400.
24. Le Moniteur Universel, January 11, 14, 27; February 2, 9, 10, 1849.
25. Ibid., February 18, 1849.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., February 25, 1849.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid., March 2, 1849. The author continued: “Everywhere in this vast landscape, in
whatever direction, gold was found throughout. . . . These riches are scarcely opened
up, and they will probably not be exhausted for several years and perhaps even for
some centuries.”
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid., March 6, 1849.
33. Ibid., April 22, 1849.
34. Le Courrier de la Moselle (Metz), January 9, 1849; La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois
(Lille), January 4, 1849.
35. Le Mémorial Bordelais, February 20; December 16, 1849; La Gazette de Flandre et
d’Artois (Lille), December 14, 1849.
36. L’Écho du Nord (Lille), February 20–27, 1849. The Écho’s feuilleton was in English,
marking a notable departure from the usual accounts.
37. Le Mémorial Bordelais, December 28, 1848.
38. Le Journal du Havre, February 16, 1849. The goldfields would have been about half the
length Carey mentioned, or 150 miles.
39. Le Mémorial Bordelais, July 18, 1849.
40. La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), December 9, 1849. On Valparaiso as a source
of commercial information, see Le Courrier de Marseille, December 5, 1849; L’Union
Bretonne (Nantes), December 5, 1849.
292 Notes to Pages 35–43

41. La Gazette du Languedoc, August 31, 1849.

42. For example, L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), December 17, 1849, with a letter containing
“interesting details about this fabulous country,” dated San Francisco Bay, September
23, 1849. Other letters from San Francisco are found in Le Mémorial Bordelais,
September 21, 1849; March 22, 1850; Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), February
9, 1850.
43. La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), April 12; February 16; December 16, 1849.

chapter 3. the french respond to the california gold discoveries

1. Arsène Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie” (manuscript, Huntington Library, San
Marino, CA), n.p.
2. Edmond Jomard, “De Paris au Sacramento,” Revue Contemporaine, no. 1 (May
1852): 575.
3. Ernest de Massey, “Voyage en Californie, 1849–50; Les Argonautes du XIXè Siècle à la
Recherche la Toison d’Or en Californie: Journal d’un Passager de ‘la Cérès’ du Havre”
(manuscript, Los Angeles Public Library), 12. De Massey added that most of the
passengers had been “victims of our political dissensions.”
4. Ibid., 13.
5. La Gazette de France, February 15, 1849.
6. L’Hermine (Nantes), February 2, 1849; L’Impartial de Bretagne (Dinan), February 23,
1849. The latter blamed the economic difficulties on the Revolution of 1848.
7. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), February 26, 1849.
8. Le Phare de la Manche (Cherbourg), February 11, 1849.
9. Le Mémorial Bordelais, February 20, 1849.
10. Boulogne Gazette, March 20, 1849. The Gazette noted that the flood of gold would
lead to a rise in commodity prices and a fall in annuities and that real estate would
increase in value “two or three times.”
11. Le Pilote de la Somme (Abbeville), February 13, 1849.
12. Ibid.
13. Le Mémorial Bordelais, March 5, 1849. See also L’Union Bretonne (Nantes), September
6, 1849.
14. L’Océan (Brest), May 12, 1849. The letter writer noted that foreigners could
appear before a magistrate and buy a certificate that would allow them to trade in the
interior.
15. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), February 22, 26, 1849.
16. Le Mémorial Bordelais, March 5, May 21, 1849.
17. La Revue du Havre, January 20, 1849. The scheduled departing ship was actually La
Meuse. See the list of scheduled departures in Le Journal du Havre, January 1, 19;
March 15, 1849.
18. Le Journal du Havre, February 9, 14, 1849.
19. Ibid., August 29, 1849.
20. Ibid., October 25, November 23, 1849. The actual gold production was $41 million in
1850, rising to $76 million in 1851.
 Notes to Pages 43–51 293

21. Ibid., December 27, 1849. The population of San Francisco at the close of 1849 was
under ten thousand.
22. Le Journal de Toulouse, February 3, 1849. This newspaper ignored the cautionary tone
of the letter and concentrated on the possibility that its official nature suggested that
the French government would move energetically to protect the interests of French
people and their access to the economic opportunities opened by the gold discoveries.
Its account concluded with the universal cry: “Auri Sacra Fames!”
23. Ibid., March 8, 9, 28, 1849.
24. Le Mémorial Bordelais, February 20, 1849.
25. Le Journal des Débats, March 7, 1849. See also Le Dix Décembre, April 25, 1849, on the
need for civil order.
26. Le Courrier d’Alsace (Colmar), March 14, February 11, 1849.
27. Le Phare de la Manche (Cherbourg), February 11, 1849.
28. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), February 26, 1849. See also similar descriptions of the absence
of authority in California in L’Écho du Midi (Montpellier), February 22, 1849;
L’Indicateur de la Champagne (Reims), July 23, 1849; Le Courrier de la Gironde
(Bordeaux), August 14, 1849; La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), April 30; May 1;
August 12, 1849.
29. Le Précurseur de l’Ouest (Angers), February 12, 1849.
30. La Foi Bretonne (Saint Brieuc), February 24, 1849.
31. On the organization of mining districts and their legal conditions, see Rodman W.
Paul, California Gold: The Beginnings of Mining in the Far West (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1947), 210–14.
32. Le Journal des Débats, April 7, 1849.
33. L’Écho du Lot (Cahors), July 25, 1849.
34. Le Messager du Nord (Lille), February 13, 1849; New York Herald, quoted in ibid.,
February 18, 1849; Le Journal du Havre, quoted in Le Siècle, April 15, 1849; California
Herald, quoted in Le Précurseur de l’Ouest (Angers), April 6, 1849
35. Le Courrier d’Alsace (Colmar), February 9, 1849.
36. Le Mémorial Bordelais, February 20, 1849; Le Siècle, March 10, 1849.
37. Le Salut Public (Lyon), February 17, 1849.
38. Le Journal de Rouen, January 15, 1849. The cry was always “On veut de l’or!”
39. Le Messager du Nord (Lille), January 18, February 13, 1849.
40. L’Illustration, February 10, 1849.
41. L’Indépendance Belge (Brussels), August 22, 31, 1849.
42. Le Rhin (Strasbourg), February 11, 1849; L’Illustration, February 10, 1849;
L’Indépendance Belge (Brussels), August 22, 31, 1849; Le Journal de Maine et Loire
(Angers), March 3, 1849.
43. Benjamin Delessert, “Les Mines d’Or de la Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes, no.
1 (1849): 470.
44. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “The French Consulate in California, 1843–1856,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 11 (1932): 199–200.
45. Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History (New York: Knopf,
1963), ch. 2.
294 Notes to Pages 51–57

46. Nasatir, “The French Consulate in California, 1843–1856” (1932): 203–207.

47. Le Journal de Toulouse, April 25, 1849. This commentator declared that the Americans
would turn out to be “the most faithful and redoubtable of allies.”
48. Le Journal d’Avranches, March 4, 1849; Le Courrier de l’Isère (Grenoble), July 19, 1849;
Le Journal de Lot-et-Garonne (Agen), February 5, 1849.
49. Gilbert Chinard wrote in this context, “Could France hesitate to participate in the
division of the booty? Was it not the patriotic duty to send to California miners who,
while making a fortune for themselves, would at the same time work for their own
country?” “When the French Came to California: An Introductory Essay,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 22 (1943): 295.
50. On the rise of the sense of American exceptionalism as represented by the doctrine
of Manifest Destiny, see Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History,
ch. 2.
51. See, for example, L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), February 22, 1849, reprinting extracts
of documents from the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, with the comment,
“The metal riches of California occupy at this moment all thoughts and turn
all heads.”
52. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), March 1, 1849. Traffic along the coast (cabotage) was reserved
exclusively for American ships. Among the suggested items for export were umbrellas,
crystal, mirrors, furniture, perfumes, and ribbons.
53. La Gazette du Midi (Marseille), December 17/18, 1849.
54. La Gazette du Languedoc (Toulouse), January 15, 1849.
55. Le Journal de Toulouse, February 3, 1849. See also March 9, 28, 1849, with their refer-
ences to the well-known Duflot de Mofras. In the account of his voyage to California,
he ended by introducing the pressing issue of how the French government would
protect its citizens and their access. The same article raised the question of the security
of such distant trading ventures, with the suggestion that commercial voyages be
delayed until a large American population had arrived as a market.
56. Delessert, “Les Mines d’Or de la Californie,” 477, 483. Delessert also analyzed the
significance of the gold strikes for the European economic system (477–78).

chapter 4. the rise of the french california companies

1. Le Précurseur de l’Ouest (Angers), January 16, 1849.
2. Le Journal des Débats, quoted in L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), February 26, 1849. The
article noted that the New York Herald listed twenty-eight American companies of a
similar nature.
3. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,
XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999), 122–24, provides an excellent overview. She
notes that in turbulent economic times, available funds constantly sought new invest-
ment opportunities (124).
4. Henry Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France, 1849–1855,” Pacific Historical
Review 21 (1956): 255.
5. Ibid., 259.
 Notes to Pages 57–64 295

6. For example, “L’Espérance,” an ad in the Mémorial Bordelais, July 18, 1849. See also
René Rémond’s analysis of the advertising campaigns in Les États-Unis devant
l’Opinion Française, 1815–1852 (Paris: Colin, 1962), 111. Cahiers de la Fondation
Nationale des Sciences Politiques.
7. Ibid., 112. For extensive extracts from the bylaws of the Californienne, see Désire
Fricot, ed., “California Unveiled: Or, Irrefutable Truths Based upon Numerous
Testimonies about That Part of the World by Trény,” California Historical Society
Quarterly 23 (1944): 61–67. This was originally published in 1850.
8. Eugène Hatin, Bibliographie Historique de la Presse Périodique Française (Paris, 1866),
507–508; Rémond, Les États-Unis devant l’Opinion Française, 113.
9. Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France,” 255, notes that twenty-two compa-
nies were founded in 1849, with the value of the shares offered of $117,820,000.
10. Ibid., 255ff., summarizes these promises.
11. See Le Moniteur Universel, September 27, 1849, on shipping houses built in Bordeaux
to California, where they would become restaurants and cafés.
12. La Gazette du Languedoc, May 1, 1849; Jan Albert Goris, ed., “A Belgian in the Gold
Rush; A Memoir by Dr. J. J. F. Haine,” California Historical Society Quarterly 37
(1958): 345.
13. La Vigie de Dieppe, January 9, 1849.
14. Ibid., January 19, 1849.
15. Ibid., March 6, 1849
16. Ibid., December 11, 1849. See also Le Courrier de la Drome et de l’Ardèche (Valence),
January 27, 1849, and its note: “M. Colette-[Quenouille], a merchant in Dieppe, has
opened a subscription to finance a bark to California for trade. It seems that the thirst
for gold has been implanted in France.”
17. La Liberté: Journal de Vaucluse (Carpentras), March 5, 1849. See also news of a local
company forming for an expedition to California with the note: “For persons who wish
to become a part, an address. . . .” L’Union Nationale (Augmon), March 14, 17, 21, 1849.
18. L’Indicateur de la Champagne (Reims), June 16, May 23, 1849. Cretenier was also the
author of a guidebook for emigrants, La Californie, advertised for sale at local book-
stores. Reims also had a branch office of the company L’Union Californienne, founded
for colonization and the exploitation of the mines in California.
19. La Gazette du Midi (Marseille), April 25, 1849.
20. Le Charentais (Angoulême), November 18, 1849; Le Courrier de l’Isère (Grenoble),
March 3, 1849.
21. Alphonse Antoine Délepine to his father, August 20, 1850, in Claudine Chalmers, ed.,
“‘ A Soul Lost in the Wilderness’: Tales of a French Argonaut,” Californians, July/
August 1988: 17. See also Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au
Chili (Paris, 1853). De Lambertie met Arago in Valparaiso. Quotations in the next
several paragraphs are also from Délepine’s letter.
22. A second account based on the Arago Company is Henry Brunnell, “Un Lillois en
Route pour la Californie,” L’Écho du Nord (Lille), March 27, 1849.
23. Le Courrier de Lyon, May 19, 1849.
24. Le Moniteur de la Californie: Journal de Lyon et des Colonies, March 18, 1849.
296 Notes to Pages 65–75

25. Ibid., March 24, 1849. The incipient Colony of Lyonville was one of the few compa-
nies to refer to the generosity of the American government in making land grants to
applicants.
26. Ibid., March 31, 1849. Here the reference point was the British Empire, which had
successfully mixed cultural uplift with great profits.
27. Ibid., March 28, April 7, 1849.
28. Ibid., April 7, 1849.
29. Ibid., April 18, 1849.
30. Ibid., April 21, 1849.
31. La Gazette des Affaires, January 13, 1849. The following week, the Gazette continued
to argue that such projects involving mines of uncertain ownership were “premature.”
January 20, 1849.
32. Ibid., February 10, 1849. The name of the ship was La Meuse.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid., February 17, 1849.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid., March 10, 1849.
37. Ibid., March 17, 1849.
38. Ibid., March 24, 1849.
39. Le Phare Commercial, April 1849.
40. Ibid., May 20, 1849.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., June 10, 1849.
43. Ibid., June 17, 1849.
44. Ibid., July 1, 1849. In a pointed closing, the paper “urged vigilance against a company
on the Boulevard Poissonnaire. The young director has made fallacious promises.”
The editor later printed retractions and apologies for an “acerbic” tone in reporting on
several companies by name, including the Californienne. In the article, the corre-
spondent claimed the company inspired no confidence. The editor hastened to dilute
the criticism, declaring that the critique was “a little too virulent.” Note that the
Californienne remained a heavy advertiser in the paper throughout.

chapter 5. the rush to gold

1. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,
XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999): 112–13. These passport applications have
become an important tool for historians in tracing the backgrounds and origins of
French Argonauts.
2. Annick Foucrier, “Comment Trouver Mille Francs? Familles et Émigration de la
Franche-Comté vers la Californie au Début de la Ruée vers l’Or (1849–1851),” in
Familles, Terre, Marchés: Logiques Économiques et Stratégies dans les Milieux Ruraux
(XVIIè–XXè Siècles), ed. Gérard Béaur, Christian Dessureault, and Joseph Goy
(Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2000), 236–47.
 Notes to Pages 76–82 297

3. Ibid., 236–41. Foucrier found that one of the lenders was a colonel in the 34th regi-
ment of light infantry.
4. Ibid., 246. As an example, thirty workers in Puy-de-Dôme signed contracts for F 1,000
before departure (246). See also Annick Foucrier, “Familles et Financement des
Départs lors de la Ruée vers l’Or en Californie: L’Exemple du Puy-de-Dôme,” in
Famille et Marché, ed. Christian Dessureault, John A. Dickinson, and Joseph Goy
(Sillery: Septentrion, 2003), 261–74.
5. Foucrier, “Comment Trouver Mille Francs?” 241.
6. Ibid., 247. Foucrier concludes that for many families “the rush to gold seems to be a
migration of rupture. A large majority of mature but single men, without wives and
without children, to make the most of the opportunities.”
7. Philip T. Hoffman, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Gilles Postel-Vinay, “History,
Geography, and the Market for Mortgage Loans in Nineteenth-Century France,” in
Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth: Geography, Institutions, and the
Knowledge Economy, ed. Dora L. Costa and Naomi R. Lamoreaux (Chicago: National
Bureau of Economic Research and University of Chicago Press, 2011), 155–76.
8. Albert Bénard de Russailh, Journal de Voyage en Californie à l’Époque de la Ruée vers
l’Or, 1850–1852 (Paris: Aubrier-Montaigne, 1980), 55. This edition has a fine intro-
duction by Sylvie Chevalley.
9. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853), 11.
10. Ibid., 14–15.
11. Michel Lamontellerie, “Quelques Notes sur un ‘Forty-Niner,’ Jean Chauvin, Dit
‘Frédéric’ ” (handwritten manuscript in possession of the author), 2.
12. Ibid., 2–3.
13. Ibid., 3.
14. Léon Manet, ed., “Un Lorrain en Californie, 1850–1854,” Le Pays Lorrain 26, no. 3
(March 1934): 131–32.
15. Ibid., 132.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 134. See also La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), March 2, 1849: “Every day
the convoys of the railroad train of Havre and Boulogne carry some Parisians who wish
to seek a fortune in California.”
20. Gabriel Richard, ed., “Trois Lorrains en Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes,
February 15, 1943: 397–99.
21. Ibid., 399–400.
22. Ibid., 401.
23. Ibid., 401–402. Richard lists nine California companies by name and briefly describes
the organization and promises of each (402–403).
24. Ernest de Massey, “Voyage en Californie, 1849–50; Les Argonautes du XIXè Siècle à la
Recherche la Toison d’Or en Californie: Journal d’un Passager de la ‘Cérès’ du Havre”
(manuscript, Los Angeles Public Library), 2, 3.
298 Notes to Pages 82–92

25. Ibid., 2.
26. Ibid., 3.
27. Ibid., 4.
28. Ibid., 2, 3.
29. Ibid., 3.
30. Letters of Honorine Ansart (mother), June 26, August 2, 1849; January 26; March 11;
May 20, 1850, in Charles Ansart du Fiesnet, “Une Vie Ratée” (mimeographed manu-
script in possession of the author).
31. Jean-Nicolas Perlot, Gold Seeker: Adventures of a Belgian Argonaut during the Gold
Rush Years (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 5–6. Perlot was a French-
speaking Belgian, and his voyage to California and his experiences there were almost
entirely in French-speaking mining camps and communities.
32. Ibid., 6–7.
33. Ibid., 7.
34. Ibid., 7–8.
35. Quoted in Le Siècle, January 14, 1850. See also La Revue du Havre, February 10, 1850.
The account that follows is drawn from the article in Le Siècle.
36. La Revue du Havre, January 14, 1850. This document was signed by duport jeune,
grassat, brizevin, gambert, the delegates of the workers leaving on the Jean Lafitte.
See also the extensive notes in Abraham P. Nasatir, French Activities in California: An
Archival Calendar Guide (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1945), 441–42.
37. Arsène Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie” (manuscript, Huntington Library, San
Marino, CA), n.p.
38. Perlot, Gold Seeker, 8.
39. See Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien, 105–12, for an excellent introduction to French
immigration to California and its rural and urban dimensions. Based on an analysis of
1,722 passengers departing from Le Havre, Foucrier notes the small proportion of
women (8.6 percent), the comparative youth of the French Argonauts (a large major-
ity between the ages of twenty and forty-one), occupations ranging from artisans (24.5
percent) to merchants and clerks (20 percent) and proprietors and rentiers (15.2 per-
cent). But in a nation that was predominantly rural, farmers (7.5 percent) were in
small numbers (112, 115–21).
40. Ibid., 111. Foucrier concludes that “California offered an alternative, a direction toward
which to move, carried in a movement of great breadth.”
41. Ibid., 118. For a sense of the diversity of France at mid-century by language, region,
economy, arts, and literature, see Graham Robb, The Discovery of France: A Historical
Geography (New York: W. W. Norton, 2007).

chapter 6. voyages and arrivals

1. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,
XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999), 127–32, is an overview of the first voyages of the
French Argonauts; Liliane Crété, La Vie Quotidienne en Californie au Temps de la
Ruée vers l’Or, 1848–1856 (Paris: Hachette, 1982), ch. 2, describes the routes.
 Notes to Pages 92–99 299

2. Alexandre André, Mon Itinéraire du Havre à San Francisco et dans l’Intérieur de la

Californie en 1849 et 1850 (Paris, 1913), 2. There is a later edition in English by
Georges Joyaux, A Frenchman at the California Trinity River Mines in 1849 (New
York: The Westerners, 1957).
3. Léon Manet, ed., “Un Lorrain en Californie, 1850–1854,” Le Pays Lorrain 26, no. 3
(March 1934): 136.
4. Ibid., 135.
5. Arsène Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie” (manuscript, Huntington Library, San
Marino, CA), n.p.
6. Ibid.
7. Doyce B. Nunis, ed., Abbé Henri J.-A. Alric: Sketches of the Journey on the Two
Oceans and to the Interior of America (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1971),
21, 22.
8. Ibid. In the dispute, the French authorities at Valparaiso sided with the discharged
passengers and billed the captain for the cost of their passage on an American ship.
9. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853), ch. 2.
10. Ernest de Massey, “Voyage en Californie, 1849–50; Les Argonautes du XIXè Siècle à la
Recherche la Toison d’Or en Californie: Journal d’un Passager de la ‘Cérès’ du Havre”
(manuscript, Los Angeles Public Library), 8.
11. Ibid., 9.
12. Ibid., 7.
13. Ibid., 12.
14. Ibid., 13.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid. De Massey described the woman in these terms: “She is not beautiful, but when
she makes herself up, she has the chic of the kept women of the 4th or 5th class. She
has a child and a number of lovers. A husband by the name of Michaud. The name of
this woman is Estelle Ivclin” (13).
17. Ibid., 7.
18. Ibid., 14. De Massey concluded: “Ah! The good notes that come from [Captain]
Messmaker.”
19. La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), May 15, 1849, noted that in the spring of 1849
there were 1,400 passengers on the Isthmus of Panama and no means of transportation
to California. As for rumors, “there is much exaggeration in what has been said relative
to California.”
20. Edmond Jomard, “De Paris au Sacramento,” Revue Contemporaine, no. 1 (May 1852):
577–80.
21. Ibid., 587.
22. Ibid., 588–89.
23. Ibid., 589.
24. Ibid., 590–92.
25. Alexandre Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” Revue des Deux Mondes 7
(1850): 694–95. Achard was one of the few to take a steamboat.
26. Le Mémorial Bordelais, June 28, 1850
300 Notes to Pages 100–108

27. Madame de Saint-Amant, Voyage en Californie, 1850 et 1851 (Paris, 1851), 1–7. See
also the introduction to excerpts of Mme. de Saint-Amant’s letters in Michel LeBris,
Quand la Californie Était Française (Paris: Le Pré aux Clercs, 1999), 142
28. Le Journal des Débats, January 4, 1850.
29. Madame de Saint-Amant, Voyage en Californie, 17–18. Her account also reproduced
her letters written from London, on board the Severn, which called at Barbados and
St. Thomas. She noted that “everything here is paid for in gold, and the natives cruelly
exploit the circumstances.”
30. Ibid., 19.
31. Ibid., 19–21.
32. Ibid., 21–22.
33. Ibid., 22–23.
34. Ibid., 23.
35. Ibid., 25.
36. Ibid., 26.
37. Jomard, “De Paris au Sacramento,” 592–93.
38. Hypolite Ferry, Description de la Nouvelle Californie: Géographie, Politique, et Morale
(Paris, 1850), 312–13.
39. L’Océan (Brest), November 3, December 22, 1849.
40. Claudine Chalmers, “L’Aventure Française à San Francisco pendant la Ruée vers
l’Or, 1848–1854,” 3 vols. (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Nice–Sophia
Antipolis, 1991), 1:175–87, is a detailed description of the arrival of the French Argonauts
in San Francisco.
41. L’Abeille Lilloise (Lille), February 24, 1850.
42. Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie.”
43. Quoted in Le Mémorial Bordelais, July 13, 1850; Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie.”
44. Gabriel Richard, ed., “Trois Lorrains en Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes, February
15, 1943: 408.
45. Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), March 21, 1850. This letter was also printed in
Le Journal du Havre, March 19, 1850.
46. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed., “A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest
de Massey,” California Historical Society Quarterly 5 (1926): 7. This is a published
translation of the second half of de Massey’s manuscript in the Los Angeles Public
Library.
47. Ibid., 8.
48. M. Delescaux, a mechanic from the Société Lyonnaise, dated San Francisco, January
29, 1850, in Le Salut Public (Lyon), April 12, 1850.
49. Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), March 21, 1850. In his letter, Montes acknowl-
edged an unnamed benefactor who would be the first person rewarded on his return
to France. Another comment on the failure of the California companies to meet their
promises is in Le Courrier de Lyon, April 12, 1850.
50. Le Mémorial Bordelais, September 6, 1850.
51. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush: The Letters
of Étienne Derbec (Georgetown, CA: Talisman Press, 1964), 79.
 Notes to Pages 109–121 301

52. Jean-Nicolas Perlot, Gold Seeker: Adventures of a Belgian Argonaut during the Gold
Rush Years (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 31–33.
53. Abraham P. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,” California Historical Society
Quarterly 33 (1954): 212.
54. Ibid., 213. Dillon observed that the American and British merchants treated business
as an intense competition, like athletes “who descend into the arena in order to give a
moral combat” (214).

chapter 7. in the mines

1. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853), 242–44.
2. Ibid., 245.
3. Jean-Nicolas Perlot, Gold Seeker: Adventures of a Belgian Argonaut during the Gold
Rush Years (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 41–44.
4. Ibid., 44–53.
5. Ibid., 95–103.
6. Ibid., 104–109.
7. Ibid., 110–20.
8. Arsène Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie” (manuscript, Huntington Library, San
Marino, CA), n.p.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 247–48.
17. Ibid., 248–49.
18. Ibid., 249–51.
19. Ibid., 255–56.
20. Ibid., 258–59.
21. Ibid., 252–53.
22. Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet to his mother, n.d., in Charles Ansart du Fiesnet, “Une Vie
Ratée,” 9–11 (mimeographed manuscript in possession of the author).
23. Ansart du Fiesnet to his mother, n.d.; in ibid., 10.
24. Ansart du Fiesnet to his mother, n.d.; in ibid., 11.
25. Ansart du Fiesnet to his brother Edmond, November 25, 1851; in ibid., 11–12.
26. Gabriel Richard, ed., “Trois Lorrains en Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes,
February 15, 1943: 407.
27. Ibid., 412–14.
28. Ibid., 415–16.
29. Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American
Nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), ch. 6. See also Jo Ann Levy,
302 Notes to Pages 121–125

They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush (Hamden, CT: Archon
Press, 1990).
30. Alexandre Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” Revue des Deux Mondes 7
(1850): 706.
31. Patrice Dillon, “La Californie dans les Derniers Mois de 1849,” Revue des Deux
Mondes 5 (1850): 200.
32. Claudine Chalmers, “Françoise, Lucienne, Rosalie: French Women-Adventurers
in the Early Days of the California Gold Rush,” California History 78 (1999):
138–45, 147–53, is a thorough discussion. The Holinski quote is from p. 142.
Chalmers notes the leading part played by Françoise de Saint-Amant in French
society in early San Francisco. She writes of Saint-Amant, “She had class, educa-
tion, an enterprising and bold spirit, and, it seems, an unquenchable passion for
adventure” (152).
33. Le Salut Public (Lyon), May 16, February 17, 1849.
34. Le Courrier d’Alsace (Colmar), June 27, 1849. The statistics on immigration into the
port of San Francisco noted the following numbers between April 12 and June 30, 1849:
110 ships, 5,677 men, 209 women. See also Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux),
September 3, 1849. On the sex ratios in the mining counties in California, see
Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 322, n. 8. For a discussion of “a cargo of women” as an
“excellent speculation,” see Le Mémorial Bordelais, June 26, 1849.
35. Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 175–76. On the French coverage, see Le Journal de Lot-et-
Garonne (Agen), May 19, August 22, 1849.
36. Le Journal de Maine et Loire (Angers), August 29, 1849; Le Courrier du Pas-de-Calais
(Arras), August 20/21, 1849; La Revue du Havre, August 30, 1849.
37. L’Abeille de la Vienne (Poitiers), October 1, 1849; L’Écho de la Frontière (Valenciennes),
September 29, 1849.
38. The article was quoted in Le Journal de Maine et Loire (Angers), November 7,
1849.
39. Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), April 26, 1852. On the customs of the Americans,
the editor noted the lottery for young women imported into California. The numbers:
100 tickets, 100 pounds sterling each. The winning number would have first choice,
the second number, second choice, and so on. The editor’s comment: “O country of
independence, of progress, and above all, of gallantry!”
40. La Chronique de Paris, April 1850: 99, 101–102. The Chronique was a royalist paper that
supported the claims of Henri de Bourbon to the French throne.
41. La Revue du Havre, June 30, 1850. In a letter written at the end of the mining season
of 1850, an Argonaut named Hartmann wrote that after sixteen months all his illusions
about California had taken flight one after the other. At the same time, he was “happy
to have come here.” L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), October 30, 1850.
42. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “A French Pessimist in California: The Correspondence of
J. Lombard, Vice-Consul of France, 1850–1852,” California Historical Society Quarterly
31 (1952): 143–45.
43. Alexandre André, Mon Itinéraire du Havre à San Francisco et dans l’Intérieur de la
Californie en 1849 et 1850 (Paris, 1913), 58.
 Notes to Pages 125–133 303

44. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 253.

45. Dillon, “La Californie dans les Derniers Mois de 1849,” 210–11.
46. Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” 706.

chapter 8. the flowering of the new california companies

1. In the face of declining public interest, the original California companies continued
to offer occasional advertisements and promotional notices. These were almost
exclusively listings of the departures of chartered ships with their cargoes of associate
workers. The company Californienne was especially active. With much fanfare, its
first expedition with associate workers set sail from Le Havre on November 27, 1849.
See Gilbert Chinard, “When the French Came to California: An Introductory Essay,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 22 (1943): 297.
2. Henry Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France, 1849–1855,” Pacific Historical
Review 21 (1956): 255. The historian René Rémond has summarized the uniformity of
the publicity in these terms: “Everyone uses abundantly the resources of printing:
brochures, prospectuses, [and] newspapers expounding their views magnify their
intentions, enlarge their results.” Les États-Unis devant l’Opinion Française, 1815–
1852 (Paris: Colin, 1962), 112. Cahiers de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences
Politiques.
3. Ibid., 112.
4. Le Messager du Nord (Lille), September 8, 1849. The real production figures were
$10 million (1849), $41 million (1850), and $76 million (1851).
5. Rémond, Les États-Unis devant l’Opinion Française, 113.
6. L’Océan (Brest), September 16, 1850. The local agent in Brest was a pharmacist.
7. Le Dix Décembre, December 28, 1849; Le Siècle, June 6, 1850.
8. Chinard, “When the French Came to California,” 308; Abraham P. Nasatir, French
Activities in California: An Archival Guide (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1945),
441–42.
9. Chinard, “When the French Came to California,” 309.
10. Ibid., 301–302.
11. Ibid., 309; Le Journal des Débats, July 1, 9; August 2, 1850.
12. Le Journal des Débats, August 14; July 2, 9, 24; September 3, 1850.
13. Le Télescope, July 28, 1850. For a detailed analysis of the advertising techniques of the
second generation of California companies, see Blumenthal, “The California Societies
in France,” 255. A good example of a newspaper to promote the interests of the
California companies is Le Californien: Journal de l’Industrie et du Commerce Français
dans l’Océan Pacifique, August 5–20, 1849.
14. “Le Comptoir Général de la Californie,” L’Océan (Brest), October 27, 1850; “Banque
Française de Californie,” Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord, September 17, 1850.
15. Chinard, “When the French Came to California,” 309.
16. Le Dix Décembre, March 22, 25, 1850; Chinard, “When the French Came to
California,” 309–10.
17. Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord, August 31, September 12, 1850.
304 Notes to Pages 134–140

18. La Gazette du Midi (Marseille), August 29, 1850; Chinard, “When the French Came
to California,” 308. The company noted that on arriving in San Francisco, workers
could not be depended upon to live up to their contracts and instead disappeared into
the gold country. Accordingly, the company canceled its emigration program and con-
centrated on shipping merchandise.
19. Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord, September 21, 1850.
20. La Chronique de Paris, April 1850, 291–92.
21. Le Siècle, September 5, 1850; Le Charivari, August 2, 1850. Among the examples of the
heavy advertising in the summer and fall of 1850, see L’Écho du Nord (Lille), April 19,
1850; Le Salut Public (Lyon), April 19; August 7; September 24; October 10, 1850; Le
Courrier de Lyon, March 13; July 30; September 10, 1850; Le National Boulonnais, May
12; June 16; August 18, 1850. Ads for the Bretonne, the Aurifère, and the Compagnie
Française are in Le Dix Décembre, March 22; April 5, 26; May 4, 23, 1850.
22. Eugène Hatin, Bibliographie Historique de la Presse Périodique Française (Paris, 1866),
507–508, lists seventeen such company papers, with at least five publishing on a regu-
lar basis.
23. L’Écho du Sacramento, November 1, 1849.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., December 1, 1849.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid., March 1, April 1, 1850. See also the listing of the California Companies of
France.
29. Ibid., April 1; June 1; July 1, 1850. Note the first meeting of the general assembly
of stockholders of the Compagnie des Mines d’Or de la Californie. The meeting of
April 17 was presided over by M. Abbé Fabre.
30. Ibid., September 1, 1850.
31. Ibid., July 1, September 1, 1850.
32. Ibid., July 1, September 1, 1850. See also “ ‘Journal of a Sea Voyage’ by One of Our
Workers through His Father,” in ibid., October 1, 1850.
33. La Chronique de Paris, April 1850, 99.
34. Ibid., 102.
35. La Gazette des Affaires, February 2; March 9, 23; April 11, 1850; Abraham P. Nasatir,
ed., A French Journalist in the Gold Rush: The Letters of Étienne Derbec (Georgetown,
CA: Talisman Press, 1964), 197, n. 17.
36. L’Illustration 7 (1849–1850): 158–60; 16 (1850): 135–38; L’Abeille Lilloise, October 17,
1850.
37. An early example is the letter from Jean Montes, widely reprinted for French readers,
dated San Francisco, December 5, 1849, in Nasatir, French Activities in California,
393–96.
38. La Gazette des Affaires, February 17; March 10, 17, 24, 1849. The criticisms included a
caricature of the continuing extravagant claims. In a new company named Misfortune,
the founders were called “the American Rummage Company”; the seat of the com-
pany was Sandville, in an alley, by a wine merchant. The social capital was F 1 trillion,
 Notes to Pages 140–146 305

with all else in like proportion. See also Messager Franco-Américain, August 1, 1850,
with a visual representation.
39. See the letters from Moerenhout to his minister in Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “The
French Consulate in California, 1843–1856” California Historical Society Quarterly 13
(1934): 355–74.
40. La Chronique de Paris, August 1850, 273–78.
41. Le Télescope, July 18, August 17, 1850.
42. Le Courrier de Lyon, February 22, 1851.
43. Ibid., April 30, 1851.
44. Ibid., May 11; July 10; October 8; November 16, 1851. In a final note to the last of the
legitimate California companies, the Compagnie des Mineurs Belges was taken over
by an English company. Ibid., December 18, 1851.
45. L’Almanach Californien, 1850; Hypolite Ferry, Description de la Nouvelle Californie:
Géographie, Politique, et Morale (Paris, 1850), 310–11. See also “La Californie et
les Sociétés Californiennes,” L’Illustration, January 24, 1851, and L’Abeille Lilloise,
January 30, 1851.

chapter 9. the lottery of the golden ingots

1. Donna Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” American History Illustrated 23
(May 1988): 34–37, 45. The official status of the lottery was reflected in two ways: two
members of the National Assembly were on the board of directors, and the prefect of
the Paris police wrote to city mayors in an official capacity, urging them to promote the
lottery in their communities.
2. Gilbert Chinard, “When the French Came to California: An Introductory Essay,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 22 (1943): 289–314.
3. Le Siècle, October 27, 1850.
4. La France Centrale (Blois), September 20, 1850.
5. Le Charivari, August 31, 1850. For early visual representations, see “Revue Comique
par Cham,” ibid., September 29, 1850.
6. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), December 25, 1850.
7. Le Mémorial Bordelais, December 25, 1850. Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord,
July 31, 1851, raised the same objections. See also a letter dated Paris, December 22,
1850, on the plans of the left to support the emigration of disaffected workers to
California so that they could “subsist there up to the point where they can form an
establishment.” The debate in the Assembly was covered in detail in L’Indicateur de
la Champagne (Reims), December 23/24, 1850. The final vote suggested that the left
may have viewed the lottery as a benefit for the working classes. See L’Écho du Midi
(Montpellier), December 26, 1850.
8. Le Siècle, October 27, 1850.
9. Le Messager Franco-Américain, September 12, 1850; La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois
(Lille), August 20/21, 1850; see also Le Courrier du Gard (Nîmes), September 26, 1850.
10. Among the most prominent newspapers in their extended coverage (ads and editorials)
throughout 1851 were Le Courrier du Pas-de-Calais (Arras), L’Impartial de Rouen,
306 Notes to Pages 147–152

L’Indicateur (Fontenay), La Sentinelle de Jura (Lons-le-Saunier), and Le Courrier du

Gard (Nîmes).
11. L’Impartial de Bretagne (Dinan), December 6, September 27, 1850. L’Argus des
Théâtres, October 16, 1850, lists the names and addresses of all the Paris outlets for
tickets.
12. L’Abeille Lilloise, January 30, 1851.
13. Le Charivari, September 16, 1850; it also commented, “The Society of Dix Décembre
favors this lottery because it will lead to the exile of four or five thousand Republicans
several thousand leagues from their country.” Ibid.
14. On the declining support for the lotteries, see ibid., September 25; December 1, 14, 27,
1850.
15. Ibid., August 31; September 16, 25, 29, 1850. The government’s censorship of political
unorthodoxy would claim Charivari as a victim. See “Condemnation of Charivari,”
ibid., May 28, 1851. For ads with specific appeals for women, see L’Océan (Brest),
July 5, 1851.
16. Le Charivari, November 5, 1850.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., February 8, 1851.
19. Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), February 16, 1851; Le Constitutionnel, February
28, 1851. See also “Le Lingot d’Or sur le Boulevard Montmartre,” L’Illustration,
February 21, 28, 1851.
20. Alexandre Dumas (son), Histoire de la Loterie depuis la Première jusqu’à la Dernière,
la Loterie des Lingots d’Or (Paris, 1851), 130. For background, see Abraham P. Nasatir,
“Alexandre Dumas fils and the Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” California Historical
Society Quarterly 33 (1954): 125–42.
21. Dumas, Histoire de la Loterie, 132.
22. Ibid., 134.
23. Ibid., 134–35.
24. Ibid., 138, 139.
25. Ibid., 140.
26. Ibid., 141.
27. Ibid., 142. The widespread publication of Dumas’s history reflected the range of inter-
est across the nation; see, for example, L’Abeille Lilloise, February 23, 1851; L’Indicateur
de la Champagne (Reims), February 22, 1851; Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux),
March 14, 1851; Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord, February 22, 1851.
28. Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 34.
29. Ibid., 35; Le Droit, September 12, 1851. See also Le National Boulonnais (Boulogne),
September 24, 1851.
30. Le Courrier du Gard (Nîmes), September 20, 27, 30, 1851. The correspondent put the
total number of tickets sold at 3 million (September 30, 1851).
31. Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 36.
32. Reprinted in Le National Boulonnais (Boulogne), September 24, 1851. At the last
moment, a large number of tickets was rumored to have been sold at the discounted
price of 25 centimes each. L’Océan (Brest), November 17, 1851.
 Notes to Pages 152–157 307

33. La Gazette des Tribunaux, September 18; October 3, 14, 1851. The text of the summons
given by M. Savalette is in Le Journal du Havre, October 2, 1851. A letter of M. Langlois
to Le Siècle defending his administration is printed in Le Journal du Havre, October 5,
1851. It turns out that M. Oudine, the director of the lottery, worked for Savalette. See
also ibid., October 6, 1851. Le Journal du Havre was a basic source for the news about
the lottery (daily coverage from October 22 to November 28, 1851, including the law-
suits), basing much of its information on the Paris newspapers, especially La Patrie.
34. Le Mémorial Bordelais, October 29, November 10, 1851, reprinted much official
correspondence.
35. On the changes of dates and preparations for the drawing, see L’Indicateur de la
Champagne (Reims), August 30; September 4, 20; October 1, 22, 1851; Le Droit,
October 24, 1851; La Gazette des Tribunaux, November 1, 1851.
36. L’Océan (Brest), November 15, 20, 1851. Both before and after the drawing, L’Océan
argued that the lottery was illegal. Others remained skeptical of California as a final
destination. See Le Messager de l’Assemblée, September 22, 1851; Le Courrier du Havre,
September 30, 1851; Le Courrier de Lyon, September 21, October 6, 1851.
37. Le Charivari, Sept 15, 1851.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., October 25, 1851.
41. Ibid., November 9, 1851.
42. Ibid., November 16, 1851.
43. Le Droit, October 25, 1851. Also see La Gazette des Tribunaux, November 1, 1851.
44. La Chronique de la Semaine, November 1, 1851; Le Courrier de Marseille,
November 19, 1851.
45. Le Constitutionnel, November 17, 1851.
46. Ibid., November 17, 1851. The commission included the senior mayors, the judge of
the first arrondissement, the judge of the commercial court, the chef de bureau in the
Ministry of Finance, the principal cashier of the Bank of France, and Monnin-Japy
himself. It was a call to validate the drawing and, by implication, the whole lottery
exercise and the government’s involvement in it.
47. Le National Boulonnais (Boulogne), November 19, 1851; Le Courrier de Marseille,
November 19, 1851.
48. Le Constitutionnel, November 17, 1851; Le Courrier de Marseille, November 19, 23,
1851.
49. Among the newspapers that covered the run-up to the drawing and the drawing itself,
the best coverage is in Le Constitutionnel, October 6, 30; November 5, 16, 17, 30, 1851;
L’Écho du Nord (Lille), September 20, 26; October 1, 6, 7, 14, 17, 22, 28, 29; November
9, 14, 17, 18, 20, 1851; La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois, June 14; July 12, 18; August 21;
September 29/30; October 8, 9; November 17/18, 1851; L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), August
1, 16; October 6, 25, 31; November 8, 10, 16, 18; December 1, 2, 1851; La Gazette des
Tribunaux, November 1, 15, 16; December 2, 1851; Le Journal du Havre, October 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 22, 24, 27, 28; November 8, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 1851.
50. Le Constitutionnel, November 17, 1851.
308 Notes to Pages 157–169

51. Le Mémorial Bordelais, November 21, 23; December 1, 1851.

52. For reflections on the lottery, see Le National Boulonnais (Boulogne), November
26, 1851.
53. La Revue du Havre, November 20, 1851; Le Charivari, September 15, 1851. Note the
special attention given to a winner in Remoulins by the Nîmes Courrier du Gard,
November 20, 1851.
54. La Patrie, November 30, 1851.
55. La Gazette des Tribunaux, March 13, 1852. See also Le Mémorial Bordelais, January 12,
1852.
56. La Patrie, November 30, 1851. Of the identified double tickets, one was for F 50,000; a
second, 25,000; and a third, 10,000.
57. La Gazette des Tribunaux, May 1, 1852. See also Le Courrier des Tribunaux (Bordeaux),
May 9, 1852. For a statistical analysis of the lottery, see Amedée Achard, La Revue du
Havre, November 16, 1851.
58. The remainder debarked at one or more of the ports of call on the voyage.

chapter 10. french stories and french images of california

1. Le Charivari, December 21, 1848; January 10, 1849. See also “La Saison des Pluies en
Californie,” La Revue Comique de la Semaine, April 15, 1849.
2. Le Journal de Maine et Loire (Angers), March 3, 1849.
3. L’Abeille Lilloise, March 4, 1849; Le Pays, January 27, 1849.
4. Le Charivari, January 29, 1849.
5. Ibid., May 14, 1849.
6. Le Caricaturiste Revue Drôle, August 15, 1849.
7. L’Abeille Lilloise, January 25, 1849. This is a literary and artistic journal, with an
emphasis on skepticism, sarcasm, and caricature, at least where the gold rush is con-
cerned.
8. Le Charivari, March 17, 1849.
9. Ibid., March 25, 1849.
10. Ibid., April 1, 1849.
11. See, for example, Le Constitutionnel, February 8–11, 13–14, 1849; Le Courrier de
Nantes, April 17, 1849, and subsequent issues.
12. L’Estafette des Modes, February 1, 1850.
13. The conversation among the characters included an extended exchange on how
much gold one expected to find in the new El Dorado. The drama followed the story
line in the original “Chercheurs d’Or du Sacramento,” which appeared in Le
Constitutionnel, February 9, 10, 11, 1849.
14. L’Événement, February 4, 1850; La Presse, January 29, 1850. The review in Le Journal
des Débats focused on the production, which it described as “badly played, badly
prepared, badly heard.” The reviewer concluded that these failures were “a pity,” for
“the author, Marc Fournier, is a man of lively imagination” who, in this production,
had “the misfortune to mingle too much fiction and truth.” Journal des Débats, January
28, 1850. See also a review in Le Siècle, January 28, 1850.
 Notes to Pages 169–177 309

15. Frontier and Midland 14 (1933–1934): 160–61, 168.

16. Le Siècle, August 12, 1850.
17. L’Événement, August 12, 1850. A fourth theatrical production in the Théâtre des
Variétés, with the title La Californie, opened on August 12, 1850. It featured “pretty
young women in scanty costumes.” A reviewer concluded that it must be very hot in
California. Le Charivari, August 12, 1850. See also another theatrical production, La
Californie, by L. N., presented in Boulogne. This was a vaudeville production in one
act and two tableaux, a total of thirty scenes. The setting for the play was San Francisco.
18. L’Écho du Nord (Lille), March 14, 1849, from Le Crédit. This story is serialized over
twenty-two issues and appeared in many papers. Edmond Texier (1816–1887) was an
important writer, editor, and journalist. In 1848, at the age of thirty-two, he became
editor of the new Le Crédit. Later, he was editor of Le Siècle and L’Illustration. He also
wrote continuously. Among his many works, he translated Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Uncle Tom’s Cabin into French (1854).
19. Edmond Texier, Impressions de Voyage: Deux Parisiens en Californie (Paris:
Poussielgue, n.d.), 2–3. Texier’s twenty-two episodes were subsequently published in
this pamphlet form of forty pages. Subsequent citations are to this pamphlet, found in
the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
20. Ibid., 12.
21. Ibid., 17.
22. Ibid., 21.
23. Ibid., 25.
24. Ibid., 30.
25. Ibid., 35.
26. Ibid., 38. A second extended fiction exercise was Henri Bruneel’s “Un Lillois en Route
pour la Californie,” which followed a Lille native to California. The main character,
Victor Toury, was a member of the Jacques Arago Company, a story that would have
resonated with readers. See L’Écho du Nord (Lille), November 27, 28, 1849.
27. J. B. J. Champagnac, Le Jeune Voyageur en Californie: Récits Instructifs et Moraux
Offrant des Détails Curieux sur Cette Région de l’Amérique et sur les Coutumes, Usages,
et Mœurs de Ses Habitants (Paris, 1852), 1–2.
28. Ibid., 22, 23, 25, 26.
29. Ibid., 97, 103, 107.
30. Le Charivari, October 30, 1851.

chapter 11. the french trade, mine, and reflect

1. Patrice Dillon, “La Californie dans les Derniers Mois de 1849,” Revue des Deux
Mondes, no. 5 (1850): 213; Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., A French Journalist in the California
Gold Rush: The Letters of Étienne Derbec (Georgetown, CA: Talisman Press, 1964),
24–26. Among the observations in the press about the high quality of French immi-
grants: “California has never opened its arms to a better class of citizens than the
emigrants of the great republic of Europe.” La Gazette du Midi (Marseille), January
26/27, 1851.
310 Notes to Pages 178–183

2. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,

XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999), chs. 6 and 7, is an excellent brief introduction
to the French in San Francisco. Only real estate, the housing market, and money lent
at interest seemed to be constantly on the upswing.
3. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 78, 80, 84. Derbec noted that
money was the most valuable of all commodities, with interest rates on loans at
20 percent a month.
4. Ibid., 90–91. Derbec concluded this letter with the heartfelt comment, “May God
protect France!” from the many trials and tribulations inflicted upon it (91).
5. Le Messager Franco-Américain, March 8, 1850.
6. Le Siècle, December 16, 1850; Le Télescope, July 18, 1850.
7. Le Journal des Débats, September 11, 1849. The article noted that commerce in the
interior of California had undergone a prodigious expansion, with ten steamboats
plying the route between San Francisco and Stockton and another ten between San
Francisco and Sacramento. See Le Mémorial Bordelais, December 8, 1851.
8. Le Messager Franco-Américain, June 20, 1850.
9. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853), 211.
Claudine Chalmers, “L’Aventure Française à San Francisco pendant la Rueé vers
l’Or, 1848–1854,” 3 vols. (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Nice–Sophia
Antipolis, 1991), 2: ch. 10, analyzes the development of the French community in San
Francisco, with special attention to the range of economic enterprises. On French
prostitution, see also Susan L. Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the
California Gold Rush (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 76–79.
10. Le Constitutionnel, April 24, 1851.
11. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 78, 79.
12. Le Mémorial Bordelais, December 19, 1851; Le Constitutionnel, August 1, 1851.
13. Le Mémorial Bordelais, July 15, 1851. This issue lists the losses of French businesses.
On the great fire of May 3–4, 1851, see also Le Constitutionnel, August 20, 27, 1851.
See also Chalmers, “L’Aventure Française à San Francisco,” 2: 365–80, on fires and
reconstruction.
14. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 85.
15. La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), July 10, 1851; Nasatir, A French Journalist in
the California Gold Rush, 29.
16. La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), March 10, 1850.
17. Charles Shinn, Mining Camps: A Study in American Frontier Government (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1884), is the standard account of the evolution of
these early mining districts, first in the lead mines in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois and
subsequently in mining camps across the West.
18. Le Journal des Débats, April 7, 1849; this letter gives an example of an early mining
district in action.
19. Alexandre André, Mon Itinéraire du Havre à San Francisco et dans l’Intérieur de la
Californie en 1849 et 1850 (Paris, 1913), 67.
20. Le Mémorial Bordelais, November 24, 1851. On the ongoing discussion of profit and
loss in gold mining, see, for example, Le Journal du Havre, November 28, 1851;
 Notes to Pages 183–195 311

February 11, 1852; L’Étoile du Peuple (Nantes), June 11, 1851. See also Derbec’s observa-
tions in Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 101, 102. Derbec saw
“the disillusionment of my companions and their departure from the mines, [their]
preferring to become porters in San Francisco or elsewhere rather than follow the
difficult occupation of mining” (102).
21. Léon Manet, ed., “Un Lorrain en Californie, 1850–1854,” Le Pays Lorrain 26, no. 5
(May 1934): 241–42.
22. L’Indépendant de la Moselle (Metz), January 10, 12, 1852.
23. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 98, 99, 100. Foucrier, Le Rêve
Californien, 132–43, is an overview of the French experiences in the mines.
24. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 103.
25. Ibid., 114–16. Derbec offered this tribute to his native land: “France is the Queen of the
world because of her civilization, her arts, her taste, and her valor. The Americans
here give a sad impression of their country: the majority are real savages; the Mexicans
are preferable to them in many respects” (103).
26. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed., “A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest
de Massey,” California Historical Society Quarterly 5 (1926): 223–24.
27. Ibid., 220, 221.
28. Ibid., 223, 226.
29. Ibid., 225–26.
30. Ibid., 232.
31. Ibid., 252, 253, 254.
32. Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet to his brother Edmond, November 25, 1851, in Charles
Ansart du Fiesnet, “Une Vie Ratée,” 11–12 (mimeographed manuscript in possession of
the author).
33. Ibid., 12.
34. Ibid., April 5, 1852, 12.
35. Ibid., June 14, 1851; June 30, 1852; 13.
36. Alexandre Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” Revue des Deux Mondes 7
(1850): 703–704.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid., 708.
39. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 100.
40. Ibid., 105, 107–108, 116. For two other useful analyses of the French mining
experiences, see Le Mémorial d’Aix, March 28, 1852; L’Indicateur (Bordeaux),
December 7, 1851.

chapter 12. the french argonauts encounter the americans

1. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “The French Consulate in California, 1843–1856,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 13 (1934): 64–65.
2. Le Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord, January 6, 1849.
3. Le Journal de Rouen, February 23, 1849.
4. La Gazette de France, February 13, 1849.
312 Notes to Pages 196–203

5. Ibid.
6. Alexandre Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” Revue des Deux Mondes 7
(1850): 708.
7. Le Trait d’Union, quoted in Le Journal de Rouen, October 24, 1849. Le Trait d’Union
was a French-language newspaper published in Mexico City.
8. L’Indépendance Belge (Brussels), October 9, 1849; L’Écho de l’Oise (Compiègne),
December 18, 1849; L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), December 17, 1849. Rumors circulated
that General Persifor Smith, the governor of California, had ordered the arrest of
foreign miners. See La Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois (Lille), July 29, 1849. These
rumors turned out to be false.
9. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), May 5, 1849.
10. La Presse, July 16, 1849; Le Mémorial Bordelais, July 18, 1849.
11. Madame de Saint-Amant, Voyage en Californie, 1850 et 1851 (Paris, 1851), 146.
12. Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” 698.
13. Patrice Dillon, “La Californie dans les Derniers Mois de 1849,” Revue des Deux
Mondes 5 (1850): 208. Dillon added that the Americans disliked the Chileans and the
Mexicans because the latter seemed to be working for companies and not directly for
themselves (208).
14. Ibid., 209.
15. Le Moniteur Universel, April 13, 1849.
16. Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American
Nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 87–88, describes the organiza-
tion and operation of the “mining district.”
17. Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” 704–705. Achard noted that the Americans
were particularly hostile toward the Mexicans, “whom they treat as a conquered race.”
For the ongoing issue of politics in the camps, see Alexandre Achard, “A French
Village in California: Murphy’s Diggings, June 1850,” Le Courrier des États-Unis,
October 17, 1850.
18. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853),
259–61.
19. Ibid., 262–63. On the conflict between the Americans and the Chileans, see Le Journal
du Havre, March 21, 1850.
20. Le Journal des Débats, August 9, 1849.
21. Benjamin Delessert, “Les Mines d’Or de la Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes, no.
1 (1849): 477, 483.
22. Ibid., 484.
23. Rodman W. Paul, California Gold: The Beginnings of Mining in the Far West
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1947), 345–48; Rohrbough, Days of Gold,
ch. 12.
24. Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 224–26.
25. Quoted in ibid., 222.
26. Le Siècle, March 25, 1849; L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), May 14, 1849; Le Moniteur de la
Californie (Lyon), March 24, 1849. On the report of the refusal of Californians to rec-
ognize Smith’s authority, see Le Mémorial Bordelais, June 11, 1849.
 Notes to Pages 204–210 313

27. Malcolm J. Rohrbough, The Trans-Appalachian Frontier: People, Societies, and

Institutions, 1775–1850 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), 205, quotes
Thomas Bolling Robertson’s description of the differences between American and
French settlements in Missouri in 1814. Robertson was a member of Congress and
future governor of Louisiana.
28. Le Mémorial Bordelais, September 25, 1850.
29. Achard, “Voyage de Paris à San Francisco,” 706.
30. Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush (Georgetown,
CA: Talisman Press, 1964), 80. The final quote is from the comment of the newspaper’s
editors on publishing the letter. Derbec’s letter was dated San Francisco, February 15,
1850, and published in Le Journal des Débats and in L’Indicateur (Bordeaux). Derbec’s
next letter (San Francisco, March 1) was less alarmist (85–87).
31. Stockton Transcript, April 27, 1850; Stockton Times, April 22; May 25; June 1, 1850.
California entered the union as the thirty-first state on September 9, 1850. On the
foreign miners’ tax, see John Walton Caughey, Gold Is the Cornerstone (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1948), 194–95.
32. Sonora Herald, May 19, 1850. The author of the letter estimated that some ten thousand
foreign miners were at work in Tuolumne County.
33. Ibid., May 22, 1850.
34. Ibid., May 31, 1850.
35. Ibid., September 7, 1850.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., August 20, 1850. The twenty-dollar payment would make the tax five dollars a
month.
38. Ibid.
39. Leonard Pitt, “The Beginnings of Nativism in California,” Pacific Historical Review 30
(1961): 28–36, describes how unofficial mobs toured the mines in the fall of 1850, in a
campaign of terror and intimidation. Many foreign miners fled, and two months later,
a second wave of expulsions reflected in part the failure of the collector to show up to
renew licenses. Hence, those who had complied with the law were now victimized by
it. Pitt also notes that the tax failed to enrich the county treasury.
40. On the French resistance to the tax, see Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., “A French Pessimist
in California: The Correspondence of J. Lombard, Vice-Consul of France, 1850–1852,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 31 (1952): 143–45. French newspapers
reacted with muted outrage, but they were far distant from the scenes of the conflict
and their information always two months late. “Exorbitant and unjust” was a favorite
description. One theme was that California citizens sympathized with the discon-
tented foreigners, but they refused to aid them in their disobedience of the law. In
this search for solidarity, the French newspapers surely overstated the case.
Nonetheless, some influential California papers were opposed. See Le Journal du
Havre, May 23, 1850.
41. Nasatir, “A French Pessimist in California,” 144.
42. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 253. Lambertie agreed that
“when reduced to reasonable proportions,” the tax encountered little opposition.
314 Notes to Pages 210–216

43. Ibid., 260–61.

44. Léon Lemonnier, La Ruée vers l’Or en Californie (Paris: Gaillimard, 1944), 362–63.
On the reaction of California papers to the repeal, see the Alta Californian, March 15,
May 2, 1851. For the French papers on the repeal, see Le Mémorial Bordelais, May 9,
1851, whose article began with the declaration that “public opinion has been strongly
pronounced against this tax.”
45. Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 228.
46. Joseph Schafer, ed., California Letters of Lucius Fairchild (Madison: State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, 1931), 99–100.
47. Quoted in Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 229.
48. Frederick Gerstaecker wrote a whimsical account of the conflict over the tax, first
published in 1857. See his Scenes of Life in California (San Francisco: John Howell,
1942). His chapter “The French Revolution” is a humorous story of a French attack on
the town of Sonora in response to a rumor that turns out to be completely false. It
explored the issues of language, national identity, and community solidarity.
49. For an early account of the persistent hostility toward foreigners in the camps, see
Charles Shinn, Mining Camps: A Study in American Frontier Government (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1884), 203–208.
50. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 259–61. The quote is
on p. 260.
51. Ibid., 261.
52. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 189.
53. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed., “A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest
de Massey,” California Historical Society Quarterly 5 (1926): 229.
54. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 259–60.
55. Rohrbough, Days of Gold, 220–29.
56. For the summary of the confrontation that emerged from the official reports of Consul
Dillon and Vice-Consul Lombard, compiled by Dillon and sent to his superior, the
minister of foreign affairs, see Abraham P. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 35 (1956): 317–18; Nasatir, A French Journalist
in the California Gold Rush, 243, n. 272.
57. Nasatir, A French Journalist in the California Gold Rush, 189–91. Derbec’s letter is
dated May 1.
58. Ibid., 190–91.
59. William Hanson to his wife, April 27, 1851; William Hanson Letters, Bancroft Library,
Berkeley, CA.
60. Alta California, April 26, 28, 29, 30, 1851. For a contemporary account by a Frenchman,
see de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili, 259–63. Among the
later accounts by the French, the most important are Daniel Lévy, Les Français en
Californie (San Francisco, 1884), ch. 3, and Lemonnier, La Ruée vers l’Or en Californie,
362–63. Lévy notes that Mokelumne Hill was the center of the Garde Mobile settle-
ment, which may help to account for their aggressive confidence and resistance.
61. Le Constitutionnel, June 25, 1851. The same issue reprinted Derbec’s letter of May 1,
1851.
 Notes to Pages 218–226 315

chapter 13. the last french argonauts

1. Daniel Lévy, Les Français en Californie (San Francisco, 1884), 71.
2. Ibid., 71.
3. Ibid., 71–73.
4. Le Moniteur Universel, January 27, 1851. Gilbert Chinard, “When the French Came to
California,” California Historical Society Quarterly 22 (1943): 312, noted the “paradoxi-
cal touch” of sending to California a contingent of some 140 men from the Garde
Mobile, who were expert in tearing down barricades, to meet other Frenchmen who
had built them—“in fact the very men who had been imperfectly subdued by the
Gardes Mobiles in 1848 and 1849.”
5. Le Journal du Havre, January 22, 28, 1851. See also La Sentinelle du Jura (Lons-le-
Saunier), January 29, 1851; Le Courrier du Gard (Nîmes), February 1, 1851.
6. Le Constitutionnel, January 26, 1851. The article noted that another six hundred
members of the Garde Mobile would follow.
7. Alta California, November 25, 26, 1850. On the pleasing prospect that the Garde
Mobile might be employed against the Indians, see ibid., December 2, 1850.
8. Joseph Schafer, ed., The California Letters of Lucius Fairchild (Madison: State
Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1931), 99–100.
9. Donna Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” American History Illustrated 23
(May 1988): 35; Chinard, “When the French Came to California,” 311–13.
10. Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 35.
11. Le Journal du Havre, November 28, 1851.
12. Le Charivari, October 3, 1851.
13. Le Mémorial Bordelais, October 3, 1851.
14. Ibid.,
15. Courtin’s letter, October 9, 1850, in “Lottery of the Gold Ingots,” Police Archives,
Paris.
16. Ibid., October 9, 1850; January 23, 1851.
17. St. Louvent letter, ibid.
18. Noquez letter; Buisson letter; ibid.
19. Michelin letter, ibid.
20. Letter to Henrieq; de Montort letter; ibid.
21. Faucher letter, ibid.
22. Chartray letter, ibid.
23. These documents are found in Box A A/443, ibid.
24. Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l’Orégon (Paris, 1854),
443.
25. On the character of the lingot emigrants, see Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien:
Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique, XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999),
124–27.
26. Le Moniteur Universel, May 28, 1853, quoted in P.-C. de Saint-Amant, Voyages en
Californie et dans l’Orégon, 445.
27. Eveth, ‘’The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 37.
316 Notes to Pages 227–238

28. De Lisle to the minister of the interior, October 13, 1851; Archives of the French Police,
reel 3, no. 3955, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
29. Claudine Chalmers, “L’Aventure Française à San Francisco pendant la Ruée vers
l’Or, 1848–1854,” 3 vols. (unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Nice–Sophia
Antipolis, 1991), 3:566–69, is an excellent analysis of the voyages of the lottery ships.
Chalmers’s Annex 1 contains a complete listing of the seventeen voyages, with ship,
captain, dates of departure and arrival, numbers of passengers, and a brief account of
the conditions of the voyage (604–605).
30. Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 37. See also an account by an American in
Alta California, May 13, 1853.
31. Chalmers, “L’Aventure Française à San Francisco,” 571–83, is an account of the arrival
of the lingotiers in San Francisco and their participation in the life of the city.
32. Quoted in Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 36–37. Lévy quotes an account
of a lingotier that describes the lottery emigrants as patriotic and with a wide variety of
occupations: “carpenters, cabinetmakers, cooks, jewelers, tailors, cobblers, and farm-
ers. There were also lawyers, store clerks, merchants, traveling salesmen, etc. In a
word, they had trades or professions.” Les Français en Californie, 77.
33. Paul Malet, Les Voiles de la Misère: Les Sarthois, et Angevins de la Ruée vers l’Or
(Turquant: Cheminements, 2000), 11, 47, 48.
34. Ibid., 41, 43.
35. Ibid., 43–46.
36. Ibid., 51–52.
37. Ibid., 52–55.
38. Ibid., 55–56.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., 60–62.
41. Ibid., 63–64, 68–71.
42. Abraham P. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,” California Historical Society
Quarterly 35 (1956): 314; Alta California, March 5, 1852.
43. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,” 314–15. L’Indicateur (Bordeaux), May 13, 1853, in
a story entitled “Le Retour de Californie,” recounts the experience of a lottery emi-
grant who immediately took passage on a ship back to France.
44. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,” 315.
45. Alta California, April 17, 1852.
46. Quoted in Eveth, “The Lottery of the Golden Ingots,” 45.
47. Lévy, Les Français en Californie, 74.
48. Lévy, “Souvenirs d’un Lingot d’Or,” in ibid., 77–79. Lévy noted that after thirty-two
years of unremitting labor, the hotel keeper died as poor as he had been on arrival in
California.

chapter 14. the french argonauts return to france

1. Arsène Grosjean, “Huit Mois en Californie” (manuscript, Huntington Library, San
Marino, CA), n.p.
 Notes to Pages 238–243 317

2. “Récit d’un Chercheur d’Or” (Cambrai, 1851).

3. Léon Manet, ed., “Un Lorrain en Californie, 1850–1854,” Le Pays Lorrain 26, no. 5
(May 1934): 243–44. The friends from Bruley followed events in France with long
delays. On February 16, 1852, after a seven-week delay, they learned the results of the
referendum of December 26, 1851, confirming popular support for the end of the
republic and the inauguration of the empire. The comment: “Poor France!” (244).
4. Ibid., 244. It was the hope of many French Argonauts to return to France with suffi-
cient gold to invest in property and live on the rents. This pattern mirrored the lives of
the well-to-do, and the realization of the hope would put to an end the cycle of endless
hard physical labor that governed the lives of so many families.
5. Ibid., 245. The editor closed with the remark that “Migot had thus succeeded in
acquiring not a fortune but a modest affluence . . . which he did not [live to] profit
from.”
6. Ibid.
7. Gabriel Richard, ed., “Trois Lorrains en Californie,” Revue des Deux Mondes, February
15, 1943:416.
8. Ibid., 417. The editor of the letters offered this conclusion: “For the men from Lorraine
who went to California between 1848 and 1852, this was the destiny of the largest part.
A few made a fortune through a profession or cattle breeding; for the rest, this was a
small number, and it was not without reason that the expression circulated in France:
the uncle in America has become synonymous with the castle in Spain” (417). See also
a long poem of some twenty verses, “Le Retour de la Californie,” published in L’Étoile
du Peuple (Nantes), December 24, 1850.
9. Charles Ansart du Fiesnet, “Une Vie Ratée,” 14–15 (mimeographed manuscript in pos-
session of the author). Edmond was now professor of history at the University of Paris.
10. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,
XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999), ch. 6. On May 13, 1853, L’Indicateur (Bordeaux)
published a lively fictional account of the return of three French Argonauts from
California. This success story—for so it was—rested on a single decision: “Wiser than
most of the immigrants, they resisted gold fever, and when they had amassed a suffi-
cient hoard to assure themselves of an honorable existence for the rest of their days . . .
they hastened to pack up and to bring their packets and to put themselves on the first
ship leaving for France.”
11. Le Mémorial Bordelais, January 2, 1852.
12. Daniel Lévy, who interviewed several of the lingotiers, portrayed them as French patri-
ots who found new lives in their new land, California. Les Français en Californie (San
Francisco, 1884), 77.
13. Paul Malet, Les Voiles de la Misère: Les Sarthois, Mayennais, et Angevins de la Ruée
vers l’Or (Turquant: Cheminements, 2000), 68–69.
14. Ibid., 74. The friend observed that Henri was “accompanied by the daughter of his
employer, a pretty redhead, whom he hopes to marry” (74).
15. Ibid., 98.
16. Ibid., 99–100.
17. Ibid., 113–26. The quote is from p. 124.
318 Notes to Pages 244–249

18. Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien, ch. 6. See also Claudine Chalmers, “L’Aventure
Française à San Francisco pendant la Ruée vers l’Or, 1848–1854,” 3 vols. (unpublished
PhD dissertation, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis, 1991), 3:724–27.
19. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed., “A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest
de Massey,” California Historical Society Quarterly 5 (1926): 5.
20. Michel Lamontellerie, “Quelques Notes sur un ‘Forty-Niner,’ Jean Chauvin, Dit
‘Frédéric’” (handwritten manuscript in possession of the author), 4.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 5. This alienation even extended to Chauvin’s own family. His later descendants
“are fervent in wiping their memory [of him]. It is not easy to enjoy the luxury of acting
differently from others!” Three generations later, on being asked about this distant
black sheep, one relative replied, “I do not know who he was . . . definitely from
another family than ours.” Ibid.
23. Jean-Nicolas Perlot, Gold Seeker: Adventures of a Belgian Agronaut during the Gold
Rush Years (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 151–57, 162–64.
24. Ibid., 181–90, 275.
25. Ibid., part VIII.
26. Albert Bénard de Russailh, Journal de Voyage en Californie à l’Époque de la Ruée vers
l’Or (Paris: Auber-Montaigne, 1980), 42. For a Frenchman who pioneered in mer-
chandise, banking, and real estate development in San Francisco, see David G. Dalin
and Charles A. Fracchia, “Forgotten Financier: François L. A. Poiche,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 53 (1974): 17–24.
27. Henry Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France, 1849–1855,” Pacific Historical
Review 21 (1956): 256. Blumenthal observes that “the failure of the California societies
was full of implications for the Second Republic. Although Frenchmen were defrauded
or disillusioned by some of their compatriots, the United States too lost as a result of these
ill fated adventures . . . deterring potential French investors in the United States” (260).
28. Le Journal de Rouen, July 13, 1849.
29. By November 1850, there were twenty-seven complaints against California companies.
See La Gazette des Tribunaux, December 5, 1849; January 19; July 6; November 30;
December 12, 1850.
30. Ibid., December 5, 1849; January 19; July 13; November 1, 1850.
31. Ibid., December 12, 1850; January 26, 1851.
32. Le Constitutionnel, January 13, 1851; La Gazette des Tribunaux, January 11, 1851.
Another kind of fraud victimized two young Frenchmen who had been promised
transportation from London to California for F 200. They were left abandoned in
London, without a word of English between them. Local authorities finally came to
their assistance. Le Constitutionnel, November 24, 1850.
33. L’Abeille Lilloise, December 5, 1850; Le Courrier des Tribunaux (Bordeaux), March 16,
1851. The Californienne sent six convoys of associate workers to California, more than
any other California company. But it made no arrangements in California to feed,
house, or provide work. Blumenthal argues that the dispersal of the arriving
immigrants and their refusal to work for the absentee investors in France doomed the
companies. Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France,” 257.
 Notes to Pages 249–256 319

34. La Gazette des Tribunaux, September 18, 1851.

35. Le Courrier des Tribunaux (Bordeaux), April 20, 1851.
36. Le Courrier de la Gironde (Bordeaux), January 13, 1851.
37. La Gazette des Tribunaux, November 30, December 12, 1850.
38. Léon Lemonnier, La Ruée vers l’Or en Californie (Paris: Gallimard, 1944), 133–45;
Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l’Orégon (Paris, 1854),
443–44. Compare these numbers, for example, with the 4,016 transported by the
Lottery of the Golden Ingots, of whom 3,293 arrived in San Francisco.
39. René Rémond, Les États-Unis devant l’Opinion Française, 1815–1852 (Paris: Colin,
1962), 113; Cahiers de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques. From the 1850s
to the end of the century, French investment in the United States was only 4 percent
of the total foreign holdings of France.
40. Ibid., 113.
41. Blumenthal, “The California Societies in France,” 251–60; Rémond, Les États-Unis
devant l’Opinion Française, 113. See the court cases in La Gazette des Tribunaux,
December 5, 1849; November 30, December 12, 1850; January 10, 11, 19, 26; February 16,
28, 1851.
42. P.-C. de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l’Orégon, 445–46.

chapter 15. the long echoes of the french “rush to gold”

in california
1. Daniel Lévy, Les Français en Californie (San Francisco, 1884), part 3.
2. Maurice Soulie, The Wolf Cub: The Great Adventures of Count Gaston Raousset-
Boulbon in California and Sonora, 1850–1854 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1927), 76,
77, 80–81.
3. Ibid., 102–104. Ernest de Massey called Pindray “one of the greatest imposters of the
century.” On de Massey’s encounter with Pindray, see Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed.,
“A Frenchman in the Gold Rush: The Journal of Ernest de Massey,” California
Historical Society Quarterly 5 (1926): 249–52.
4. Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l’Orégon (Paris,
1854), 117.
5. Joseph Allen Stout, Jr., The Liberators: Filibustering Expeditions into Mexico, 1848–
1862 (Los Angeles: Western Lore Press, 1973), 49–50, 55, 57.
6. Le Courrier de Lyon, February 2, 1852. See also P.-C. de Saint-Amant’s comments that
the success of Pindray in Mexico would give France “the germ of a strong and
powerful colony” and make up for its loss of Canada. Voyages en Californie et dans
l’Orégon, 114.
7. Ibid., 117–18.
8. Soulie, The Wolf Cub, 90–91.
9. Ibid., 125–33. Abraham P. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrick Dillon,” California Historical
Society Quarterly 35 (1956): 319–20. Nasatir notes that Dillon supported the filibuster-
ing enterprise “desiring to rid California of unemployed French nationals, who, as
foreigners, were hated for their mining activities” (319). The budget of the French
320 Notes to Pages 256–262

government in 1852 suggested the diplomatic priorities of the new empire: London (F
250,000), St. Petersburg (F 250,000), Washington (F 80,000). See Le Mémorial
Bordelais, May 26, 1852.
10. Soulie, The Wolf Cub, 132.
11. Stout, The Liberators, 66–67.
12. Soulie, The Wolf Cub, 165–77.
13. Ibid., 178–200.
14. Nasatir, “Guillaume Patrice Dillon,” 320–21.
15. Stout, The Liberators, 113–21; Soulie, The Wolf Cub, 217–46. On the French press
coverage of the second expedition, see Le Courrier de la Moselle (Metz), May 4, 1852;
Le Courrier de Lyon, July 15, December 15, 1852.
16. Charles de Lambertie, Le Drame de la Sonora (Paris, 1856); Claudine Chalmers,
“L’Aventure Française à San Francisco pendant la Ruée vers l’Or, 1848–1854” 3 vols.
(unpublished PhD dissertation, Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis, 1991), 3:677–96.
17. Hippolyte de Chavannes de la Giraudière, Les Petits Voyageurs en Californie (Tours,
1853), 9–10.
18. Ibid., 45, 46, 54–58.
19. Ibid., 97–99, 100–101.
20. Ibid., 163–64, 167–68, 171, 175–77, 179–85.
21. J. B. J. Champagnac, Le Jeune Voyageur en Californie: Récits Instructifs et Moraux
Offrant des Détails Curieux sur Cette Région de l’Amérique et sur les Coutumes, Usages,
et Mœurs de Ses Habitants (Paris, 1852), 237.
22. Ibid., 242, 243.
23. Alexandre Dumas (father), Un Gil Blas en Californie (Paris: A Cadot, 1852). Different
editions of this work appeared the same year in Brussels, Paris, and Germany.
24. Ibid., 27. Page citations are to the original French edition.
25. Ibid., 28. The preparations for the voyage were interrupted by the failure to obtain a
bank loan to charter the ship. Another friend and neighbor, Tillier of Groslay, had
joined the Société Nationale.
26. Ibid., 31. Among the items of cargo were a dozen small houses to be reassembled in
California.
27. Ibid., 61, 64, 66.
28. Ibid., 69, 79, 81. The story describes a conflict between the French and the Americans
clearly based on the incident at Mokelumne Hill (81–82).
29. Ibid., 135–36.
30. Ibid., 136, 147.
31. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur, ed., The Journal of Madame Giovanni (London: Hammond,
1944), xviii. Wilbur’s description of Mme. Giovanni: “A young woman of thirty,
medium height, slender, pale, resembling Mademoiselle Rachel; mentally, she is a
woman who is cold and grave, who occasionally laughs, but who can hold you with
a glance or a word at considerable distance” (xv). Wilbur described Dumas’s story
as “a purely feminine viewpoint.” This quality would make it unique among works of
gold rush fiction from any country.
32. Alexandre Dumas, Le Journal de Madame Giovanni (Paris, 1856), 85.
 Notes to Pages 263–271 321

33. Ibid., 87, 90.

34. Ibid., 91. The following day, the gentlemen visited a gambling parlor, and the ladies
went for a drive and witnessed a hanging.
35. Ibid., 96, 98, 99. Mme. Giovanni described how Americans transformed the land-
scape: after cutting down the forest, they immediately established a newspaper, con-
structed a steamboat, and drew up plans for a railroad.
36. Ibid., 100–101. Mme. Giovanni wrote in detail about the American mistreatment of
black Americans and Chinese (ch. 28).
37. Ibid., 103, 104, 15. In her introduction, Wilbur refers to Dumas’s account, which shows
how the mines gradually “drifted into the control of the hard-working, shrewd, and at
times utterly unscrupulous Yankees, leaving to the more temperamental Frenchmen
the ownership and management of the hotels, cafes, theatres, shops, and mercantile
houses in the embryonic cities.” Wilbur, The Journal of Madame Giovannni, xx.
38. Dumas, Le Journal de Madame Giovanni, 111. A very French dimension of the account
is the romantic attachment of the wealthy Englishman, Sir George, to Mme. Giovanni.
But Sir George, “a man with 300,000 pounds in rent, a great seigneur in England, spends
his time in San Francisco paying court to a woman who does not love him” (124).
39. Ibid., 153.
40. There is no mention of a claim up to this point, and it is a surprise to the reader. Mme.
Giovanni provides just a single word about it. Miners were often hard up (more so as
they moved into the seasons of 1851 and 1852), and in the camps, merchants would
often trade goods for a claim (or part of a claim). It is possible that M. Giovanni
obtained a claim in this way.
41. Ibid., 154. Mme. Giovanni leaves a detailed account of her visit with Mr. Dillon, the
French consul.
42. Ibid., 157. California and the gold rush were the setting of Blaise Cendrar’s novel L’Or,
a life of John Sutter. Published in 1927, the novel resurrected the frenzy of 1848 and
how it turned Sutter’s world upside down.
43. Jean-Nicolas Perlot, Gold Seeker: Adventures of a Belgian Argonaut during the Gold
Rush Years (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 392–405, 419.
44. Ibid., 425.
45. Paul Malet, Les Voiles de la Misère: Les Sarthois, Mayennais, et Angevins de la Ruée
vers l’Or (Turquant: Cheminements, 2000), 97–98.
46. Ibid., 98–99.
47. Ibid., 135–36.

chapter 16. the balance sheet

1. Le Constitutionnel, December 25, 1848; Le Siècle, December 23, 1848; Le Mémorial
Bordelais, December 28, 1848; Le Journal des Débats, January 11, 1849.
2. Stanislaus de Lapéyrouse, Misères Oubliées: Californie, 1850–1853. Aventures et
Souvenirs d’un Chercheur d’Or (Paris: Maurice Dreyfous, 1886), 1–2.
3. Le Charivari, June 3, 1849.
4. L’Abeille Lilloise, April 7, 1849.
322 Notes to Pages 271–280

5. Le Précurseur de l’Ouest (Angers), February 12, 1849; L’Abeille Lilloise, April 7, 1849.
With a “league” measured at three statute miles, the distance of twenty-four thousand
miles is greatly exaggerated.
6. L’Écho de la Frontière (Valenciennes), January 9, 1849.
7. Annick Foucrier, Le Rêve Californien: Migrants Français sur la Côte Pacifique,
XVIIIè–XXè Siècles (Paris: Belin, 1999), ch. 5, is an excellent overview of the French
response.
8. “La Californie en 1851” (Versailles, 1852).
9. Le Charivari, December 10, 1850, printed what was probably the first obituary for the
French in the California gold rush. Titled “The End of California,” it was clever—
after the style of Charivari—but its message was undermined as it appeared simultane-
ously with the upsurge of the new cycle of California companies and the rising
attention to the Lottery of the Golden Ingots.
10. Pierre-Charles de Saint-Amant, Voyages en Californie et dans l’Orégon (Paris, 1854),
114.
11. Martial Chevalier, “La Californie et l’Émigration Européenne,” Revue des Deux
Mondes, no. 15 (1852): 1015–16.
12. Le Moniteur Universel, April 13, 1849.
13. Jan Albert Goris, ed., “A Belgian in the Gold Rush; A Memoir by Dr. J. J. F. Haine,”
California Historical Society Quarterly 37 (1958): 333.
14. Le Salut Public (Lyon), August 12, 1850.
15. Le Courrier de Lyon, November 9, 1849.
16. Patrice Dillon, “La Californie dans les Derniers Mois de 1849,” Revue des Deux
Mondes, no. 5 (1850): 202–203.
17. Ibid., 203. Dillon tells the story of a young, successful French wine merchant who was
harassed by an American. The Frenchman appealed to official authority for relief.
The alcalde told him to get a pistol and forge his own justice. The young Parisian
immediately liquidated his assets and returned to France with F 60,000. And, he
assured Dillon, with “his head still on his shoulders” (ibid., 204).
18. Gustave Aimard, The Gold Seekers: A Tale of California (London, 1861), 97.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 102. On Aimard’s comments about Mexicans in the goldfields, see pp. 99 and 120.
21. Le Constitutionnel, April 10, 1852.
22. Chevalier, “La Californie et l’Émigration Européenne,” 1014.
23. Ibid., 1015.
24. Ibid., 1015–16. See also Louis Simonin, “La Californie en 1860: Ses Progrès et Sa
Transformation,” Revue des Deux Mondes 32 (1861): 556–92, which gives a summary of
the French presence in California after ten years. Simonin noted that the French
population in the camps included butchers, laundrymen, masons, and ironwork-
ers”(568). He concluded: “It is the simplicity of these formalities [with mining claims]
that has created the great Californian exploitation and brought about the work in the
placers and the mines to a degree of prosperity unknown in the old Europe” (583). Of
the Americans, he wrote that they were interested only in material things and ignored
everything cultural, intellectual, and moral.
 Notes to Pages 280–287 323

25. Chevalier, “La Californie et l’Émigration Européenne,” 1016.

26. Le Courrier de Lyon, December 26/27, 1851.
27. Le Journal du Havre, October 29, 1851. Thomas Bolling Robertson’s contrast of the
American and French villages along the Mississippi River in 1814 still resonates here.
See Malcolm J. Rohrbough, The Trans-Appalachian Frontier: Peoples, Societies, and
Institutions, 1775–1850 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009), 205. The
French preferred comfort, leisure, and permanence against the energy, ambition, and
transience of the Americans.
28. See Whitney Walton, France at the Crystal Palace: Bourgeois Taste and Artisand
Manufacture in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1992).
29. Charles de Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie et au Chili (Paris, 1853), 14–15.
30. Ibid., 251.
31. Ibid., 251–52.
32. Daniel Lévy, Les Français en Californie (San Francisco, 1884), 80.
33. Leon Manet, ed., “Un Lorrain en Californie,” Le Pays Lorrain 26, no. 5 (May 1934):
244.
34. Ibid., 244–45.
35. De Lambertie, Voyage Pittoresque en Californie and au Chili, 211–12. Also see the
account of Stanislaus de Lapéyrouse, who described his adventures with Manuelita,
“an attractive Chilienne,” during his days on shore in Chile. He concluded that he
had settled his accounts with her and departed for California. His reference on the
voyage “to an attractive stock of women more or less married” reflected his attitude
toward women. Misères Oubliées, ch. 1.
36. See, for example, Derbec’s widely published letters in Abraham P. Nasatir, ed., A
French Journalist in the California Gold Rush: The Letters of Étienne Derbec
(Georgetown, CA: Talisman Press, 1964).
37. Aimard, The Gold Seekers, 102, 110.
This page intentionally left blank
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Printed materials have full citations in the notes. These materials are not listed again here.

unpublished manuscript materials

Ansart du Fiesnet, Charles. “Une Vie Ratée: Léopold Ansart du Fiesnet, 1830–1881.”
Clermont, 1968. Ms. mimeograph copy in possession of the author.
De Massey, Ernest. “Voyage en Californie, 1849–1850, Les Argonautes du XIXè Siècle à la
Recherche la Toison d’Or en Californie.” Ms., Los Angeles Public Library.
Grosjean, Arsène. “Huit Mois en Californie.” Ms., Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Lamontellerie, Michel. “Quelques Notes sur un ‘Forty-Niner,’ Jean Chauvin, Dit
‘Frédéric.’” Ms. handwritten in possession of the author.
“Lottery of the Golden Ingots.” Mss., Police Archives, Paris.
“Lottery of the Golden Ingots” Mss., Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley, CA.

french newspapers by place (except paris)

Abbeville
Pilote de la Somme January 1849–December 1850

Agen
Journal de Lot-et-Garonne January 1849–December 1850

Ain
Écho de la République January 1848–June 1849

325
326 Bibliography

Aix
Mémorial d’Aix January–December 1849

Alais
Écho d’Alais January 1849–December 1850

Angers
Journal de Maine et Loire October 1848–December 1850
Précurseur de l’Ouest January–June 1849
Union de l’Ouest November 1849–November 1850

Angoulême
Charentais January 1849–January 1851

Annecy
Écho du Mont-Blanc 1849 (scattered)

Arras
Courrier du Pas-de-Calais November 1848–December 1851

Augmon
Union Nationale January 1849–March 1850

Avignon
Liberté, Journal d’Avignon October 1848–June 1849
Mémorial de Vaucluse October 1848–November 1849
Union Nationale November 1848–March 1850

Avranches
Journal d’Avranches 1848–1849 (scattered)

Blois
Courrier de Loir-et-Cher November 1848–January 1851
Journal de Loir-et-Cher January 1849–December 1850
 Bibliography 327

La France Centrale January 1849–December 1850

Républicain de Loir-et-Cher March 1848–February 1850

Bordeaux
Courrier de la Gironde July 1849–June 1852
Courrier des Tribunaux December 1850–December 1853
Guyenne January 1849–December 1850
Indicateur January 1849–May 1853
Mémorial Bordelaise November 1848–December 1852
Peuple Souverain February–June 1849
Tribune de la Gironde October 1848–October 1849 (end)

Boulogne
Boulogne Gazette June 1848–August 1849
Impartial October 1848–April 1850
National Boulonnais March 1849–December 1851

Bourg
Écho de la République November 1848–June 1849

Bourganeuf
Chercheur January 1849–December 1851

Brest
Océan November 1848–December 1851

Cahors
Écho du Lot November 1848–January 1850

Cambrai
Gazette de Cambrai January–December 1850

Carcassonne
Fraternité September 1848–August 1849
328 Bibliography

Carpentras
Écho de Ventoux January 1849–December 1851
Liberté: Journal de Vaucluse January–June 1849

Châlon-Sur-Saône
Patriote de Saône-et-Loire January–December 1849

Chambery
Patriote Savoisien November 1848–December 1849

Chartres
Journal de Chartres October 1848–December 1850

Château-Thierry
Écho de l’Aisne January 1851–March 1852
Réforme de l’Aisne October–December 1848; March 1849–
December 1850

Châtillon
Châtillonnais January–April 1849

Chaumont
Union de la Haute-Marne May 1849–March 1850 (end)

Cherbourg
Journal de Cherbourg January 1849–December 1850
Phare de la Manche January–November 1849

Colmar
Courrier d’Alsace November 1848–June 1849

Compiègne
Écho de l’Oise November 1848–December 1850
 Bibliography 329

Dieppe
Vigie de Dieppe May 1848–December 1851

Dijon
Citoyen January–August 1849
Courrier Républicain de la Côte-d’Or January–December 1849

Dinan
Impartial de Bretagne March 1848–January 1851

Dunkerque
Commerce du Dunkerque et du Nord January 1849–March 1852

Fonterey
Indicateur January 1849–December 1851 (scattered)

Grenoble
Courrier de l’Isère November 1848–December 1850

Havre
Courrier du Havre January–June 1850
Journal de Graveille April 1849–May 1852
Journal du Havre January 1849–December 1852
Revue du Havre January 1849–February 1852

Langes
Conciliateur March 1848–November 1848
Messager de la Haute-Marne October–December 1848 (end)

La Rochelle
Charante-Inférieure December 1848–December 1851

Lille
Abeille Lilloise November 1848–June 1851
Écho du Nord January 1849–December 1852
330 Bibliography

Gazette de Flandre et d’Artois January 1849–December 1852

Messager du Nord October 1848–November 1850

Lons-Le-Saunier
Sentinelle de Jura January 1850–December 1851

Lyon
Censeur January–December 1849
Courrier de Lyon November 1848–April 1853
Moniteur de la Californie March–May 1849
Peuple Souverain April–June 1849 (end)
Salut Public January 1849–November 1850
Tribune Lyonnais October 1848–February 1851 (end)

Marseille
Courier de Marseille July 1849–December 1851
Gazette de Provence January 1849–March 1850
Gazette du Midi November 1848–December 1851

Metz
Courrier de la Moselle January 1849–December 1852
Indépendant de la Moselle January 1850–January 1852

Meurthe
Indicateur 1849–1852 (legal notices)

Montauban
Conciliateur April–June 1849

Montpellier
Écho du Midi January 1849–December 1850

Moulins
Écho de l’Allier January 1849–December 1850
 Bibliography 331

Nantes
Courrier de Nantes January 1849–December 1851
Étoile du Peuple November 1848–June 1851
Hermine November 1848–December 1849
Union Bretonne April–December 1849

Nîmes
Courier du Gard January 1849–December 1851
Gazette du Bas-Languedoc November 1848–December 1849
Républican du Gard October 1848–July 1849

Nontron
Nontronnais December 1849–August 1850

Poitiers
L’Abeille de la Vienne November 1848–November 1850

Reims
Indicateur de la Champagne January 1849–December 1851

Rodez
Écho de l’Aveyron October 1849–May 1850

Rouen
Impartial de Rouen January 1849–December 1850
Journal de Rouen November 1848–November 1852
Mémorial de Rouen November 1848–November 1850

Saint Brieuc
Foi Bretonne September 1848–September 1850

Saint Étienne
Sentinelle Populaire January–June 1849
332 Bibliography

Saint Paul
Bien Public November 1849–November 1851

Salins
Démocrate Jurassienne January–May 1849

Strasbourg
Alsacien November 1848–May 1850
Courrier du Bas-Rein January 1850—December 1851
Démocrate du Rhin December 1848–December 1850

Tarbes
Journal de Tarbes November 1848–November 1849

Toulon
Démocrate du Var July 1849–December 1850
Sentinelle de la Marine January 1849–December 1851
Toulonnais January–December 1849

Toulouse
Gazette du Languedoc January 1849–November 1851
Indépendant July 1849–April 1850
Journal de Toulouse November 1848–June 1850

Valence
Courrier de la Drôme et de l’Ardèche January 1849–December 1850

Valenciennes
Écho de la Frontière November 1848–November 1850

Versailles
Journal de Seine-et-Oise January 1850–July 1852
 Bibliography 333

Yvetot
Abeille Cauchoise December 1849–September 1850
Écho de Mayenne October 1848–August 1851
Ruche de la Dordogne November 1848–September 1849

paris newspapers and periodicals

Almanach pour Rire 1850, 1851, 1852
Argus July–September 1850
Argus des Théâtres 1849
Aurifère March 1850–August 1851
Bien Public May–December 1848
Californie Agricole July–December 1850
Californien August 1849–September 1850
Caricaturiste Revue Drôle June 3, 1849–June 30, 1850
Charivari November 1848–December 1851
Chronique de Paris 1850, 1851, 1852
Constitutionnel December 1848–December 1851
Courrier de la Californie Vols. 1 and 2
Courrier de San-Francisco February–September 1850
Courrier Français December 1848–April 1849
Dix Décembre April 1849–May 1850
Écho de la Presse March 1849–August 1852
Écho des Feuilletons 1848, 1849, 1850
Écho du Sacramento November 1849–March 1851
Estafette des Modes 1850
Événement January 1849–March 1851
Gazette de France December 1848–June 1849
Gazette des Affaires January 1849–November 1854
Gazette des Tribunaux January 1849–December 1852
Illustration January 1848–December 1856
Journal des Débats December 1848; January–June 1849;
January–March 1850
Journal des Économistes January 1849–October 1851
Journal pour Rire 1849
Messager de la Semaine October 1849–August 1850
Messager Franco-Américain March–December 1850
Moisson d’Or July–October 1850
Moniteur Universel January 1849–January 1851
National December 1848
Nouveau Monde July 1849–August 1850
Pays January–August 1849
Phare Commercial April 1849–December 1850
334 Bibliography

Presse December 1848–June 1851

Révolution Démocratique et Sociale November–December 1848
Revue Britannique November 1848–April 1849
Revue Comique 1849
Revue des Deux Mondes 1848–1858
Siècle December 1848–July 1851
Silhouette January 1849–January 1850
Télescope July–September 1850

belgian newspapers
Brussels
Indépendance Belge July 1849–December 1849

u. s. newspapers
California
San Francisco
Alta California 1848–1851
Courrier de San Francisco 1850

Sonora
Sonora Herald 1850

Stockton
Stockton Times 1850–1851
Stockton Transcript 1850

New York
Courrier des États-Unis 1848–1849

u. k. newspapers
Times (London) 1848–1849
 INDEX

Abbeville, 39 Arago, Jacques, 62

Abounze (businessman), 69, 247–48 Arnard, H., 232
Achard, Alexandre: absence of women associate workers, 74, 75, 130, 131, 132
viewed by, 121; Americans viewed by, Australia, 1, 50, 278
196, 198, 200; Camp Murphy viewed by, automation, 132
189–90, 205, 217; departure of, 99;
randomness of mining viewed by, 126 banking, 133, 179
agriculture, 24, 241, 272, 281 banquet movement, 10–11
Aimard, Gustave, 277–78, 287 Barbados, 98
alcaldes, 49, 205 battle of Waterloo, 50
Algeria, 14, 50, 64, 144, 145, 254 Beaumont, Comtesse de, 229
Alric, Henri, 93–94 Bénard de Russailh, Albert, 77, 246
Alta California, 215, 231, 232 Beranger (prospector), 113
American Indians, 111, 120, 255; American Bion (swindler), 250
employment of, 23; attacks by, 200, 245, Blanchard (businessman), 248
265; encounters with, 112, 119; French Blanco (general), 256
employment of, 106; hostility toward, Bonaparte, Louis Napoléon, 25, 100, 102;
194, 199, 204, 240, 254; intermarriage election of, 7, 19, 241, 274; imperial
with, 121 vision of, 252, 254; Italian upheaval and,
American Revolution, 204 53; Mexican scheme of, 258
American River, 1, 22, 23, 31 Bordeaux, 33, 39
André, Alexandre, 92, 125, 183 borrowing, 76–77
Ansart du Fiesnet, Edmond, 84, 118–19, Boston, 51, 68
187–89, 239–40 Boulogne Gazette, 40
Ansart du Fiesnet, Félix-Charles, 83, 84 Boutmy (entrepreneur), 69
Ansart du Fiesnet, Léopold, 83–84, 118–19, Bouvée, Clément, 80, 238
187–89, 239–40 Bouvée, Joseph, 80
Ansart du Fiesnet, Selim, 84 Bouvée, Louis, 80, 238
Apache Indians, 255, 256 brandy, 24, 48, 59, 114, 179

335
336 Index
bread, 10, 106, 114
Bretonne company, 94, 133
Briot, Dr., 95
British Empire, 50, 51, 275
Bruley, 79–80, 92–93, 183, 238–39, 282, 284
Buisson, Arsène, 223
Burnett, Peter, 207–8
Cabet, Étienne, 15–16, 17, 161
Californienne company, 57, 86, 94, 131,
132, 249, 250
Camp Murphy, 189–90, 205, 212, 217
Canada, 50, 286
Canary Islands, 94
Cape Horn, 73, 74, 92–94, 97
Caravane Havraise, 42, 67
Carey, Henri, 34
Caricaturiste (magazine), 162, 164–65
Carraguet (petitioner), 223–24
Catholicism: in France, 7, 50; in Italy, 53;
in Mexico, 50
Cavignac, Louis-Eugène, 19
censorship, 9, 10, 26, 241, 270
Cham (pseud. of Amedée de Noé), 166–67
Champagnac, J. B. J., 173, 259–60
champagne, 179
Charivari (magazine), 27, 166; California
image reshaped by, 162, 221–22, 271;
desertions viewed by, 164; lottery and,
144–45, 147–49, 153–55
Charles X, king of the French, 8
Chartray family, 224
Château de Passavant, 82
Chauvin, Jean Frédéric, 78, 79, 244–45
Chauvin, Jean Homère, 78–79
Chauvin, Jean Lambert, 79
Chavannes de la Giraudière, Hippolyte,
258–59
Cherbourg, 33, 39
“Chercheurs d’Or du Sacramento, Les”
(Duplessis), 167
Chevalier, Martial, 189, 279–80
Chile, 122–23; merchants and prospectors
from, 1, 120, 196, 199, 202; trade with, 43
China: prospectors from, 1, 210, 234, 240;
trade with, 31, 51–52, 178
cholera, 29, 81, 98, 102, 129, 241
Chronique de la Semaine, 155
Chronique de Paris, 123–24, 137–38, 140
civil disorder, 46–47
claims, 113, 181–82, 198, 199–200, 276
class distinctions, 7–8, 96–97
Clavelle-Doisy (swindler), 250
clothing, 31, 40, 41, 48, 59
coal mining, 70
Colette-Quenouille (merchant), 60–62, 67
colonization, 50; Pacific, 52
Committee of Vigilance, 231, 253
Compagnie des Mines d’Or de la
Californie, 134, 136–37
Compagnie des Mineurs Belges, 141
Compagnie Française et Américaine de
San Francisco, 250
Compagnie la France, 248
Compagnie Parisienne, 248
Company of Ten, 112–13
Comptoir Dieppois, 60, 61
Congress of Vienna (1815), 8
Constitutionnel (newspaper), 26, 28, 155,
216, 219, 270, 278
constitution of 1848, 18–19, 44, 241
Constructeur company, 250
Cooper, James Fenimore, 146
Corsica, 145
Courrier de la Californie, 136
Courrier des États-Unis, 25–26
Courrier du Havre, 221
Courtin (petitioner), 222–23
court system, 180, 275, 277
Cretenier, Alexandre, 62
crime, 44, 45–46, 102, 106–7, 179–80,
190–91
Cuba, 253
Curet, Captain, 63
Daumier, Honoré, 174
death penalty, 12
de France, Jules, 96
 Index
de Lambertie, Charles, 111, 115–18, 179, 201,
210; affluence of, 87; American egotism
viewed by, 200, 213; dalliance of, 285;
determination of, 78; expulsion decried
by, 212; homesickness of, 282–83; ocean
voyage of, 94; pessimism of, 125
de Lamollet (entrepreneur), 96
Délepine, Alphonse Antoine, 62–63
Delessert, Benjamin, 49, 54, 189, 201–2
de Lisle (diplomat), 227
Delmas (priest), 135
Demange, Grégoire, 80
Demange, Justin, 80, 238
Demange, Stéphane, 80
de Massey, Ernest, 83, 106, 185, 187, 212,
282, 283; American egotism viewed by,
213; aristocratic background of, 38,
81–82, 87, 284; class consciousness of,
94, 95, 96–97, 286–87; diverse career of,
244; family loyalty of, 82, 186, 281;
political leanings of, 82, 95
de Massey, Ormond, 244
Demers (bishop), 224
de Montort (functionary), 224
Derbec, Étienne, 178, 184–85, 212;
clannishness viewed by, 206; failed
companies viewed by, 108, 136, 139, 141;
French Canadians viewed by, 286;
Mokelumne conflict viewed by, 214–15;
public order praised by, 179–80, 190–91
de Saint-Amant, Françoise, 100–102, 197
de Saint-Amant, Pierre-Charles, 100,
225–26, 251–52, 256
desertion, 23, 26, 29, 40, 41, 103, 164; from
American ships, 30; by American
soldiers, 46, 49; from English ships, 34;
from French ships, 44, 53; severity of, 53
Deterville (swindler), 248–49
D’Eu (petitioner), 224
Dieppe, 13–14, 39, 60
Dillon, Patrice, 109, 124, 212, 228;
American rectitude praised by, 121,
198–99; in fiction, 266; lingotiers assisted
by, 221, 231–34, 242; Mexican ventures
337
backed by, 256; Mokelumne conflict
and, 214, 215; moral code viewed by, 277;
success and failure viewed by, 125, 177;
in tax controversy, 209; workload of,
286; writings of, 189
disease, 47, 48, 97, 99
d’Oliveira, Emmanuel, 197
Droit (newspaper), 151, 153
drunkenness, 45, 48, 200, 225–26, 227, 232
Duflot de Mofras, Eugène, 43–44, 68,
69, 275
Dumas, Alexandre, fils, 149–51, 158, 189
Dumas, Alexandre, père, 25, 169, 189, 258,
260–66, 286
Dunkerque, 33, 39
Duplessis, Paul, 167
dysentery, 227
Écho du Sacramento, 134–37
Économie company, 250
education, 7, 8
elections: of April 1848, 13, 25, 240; of
December 1848, 18–19, 27, 44, 241,
270, 274
Événement, 168–69
factionalism, 18–19
Fairchild, Lucius, 210–11, 234
Farnham, Elizabeth, 122, 164
Faucher, Léon, 224
Feather River, 23, 232
Ferry, Hypolite, 103
feuilletons, 167, 170, 273
filibustering, 233, 240, 254, 255, 257,
274
financial arrangements, 76–77
firearms, 46, 187, 197, 204
fiscal reform, 12
food, 9, 49, 79; cost of, 162–63
Fortune company, 85, 108, 111, 132, 245
Fourcades, Les (Mokelumne Hill), 177,
210, 211–16, 218
Fournier, Marc, 168
fraud, 246–52
338 Index
freedom of association, 12
freedom of the press, 12, 26
French Bank of California, 133
French Benevolence Society, 232
French Canadians, 286
French Hill, 212
French Revolution, 8, 9
Gadel, Édouard, 119–20, 239
Gaillard (prospector), 86
gambling, 45, 91, 93, 104, 184
Garde Mobile, 14, 145, 217–20, 226, 228,
237, 256, 269
Garde Républicaine, 226
Gazette de France, 39
Gazette des Affaires, 27, 66–69, 72, 138,
139–40
Gazette des Tribunaux, 27, 250
Georgia, 182
Gerbe d’Or company, 132
Germain, Honorine, 244–45
Germain, Jacques, 244–45
Gil Blas on Californie, Un (Dumas, père),
260–61
Gillet, Firmin, 80, 238
Godoneche (lottery director), 159
Gold Seekers, The (Aimard), 277–78
Gosselin (entrepreneur), 96
Goujot, Nicolas, 80
Grosjean, Arsène, 37–38, 86, 93, 104,
113–15, 237–38
Guatemala, 69
Haine, J. J. F., 276
Hanson, William, 215
harvest failures, 9, 10
Hawaiian Islands, 1
Henrieq (functionary), 224
Hereford (businessman), 248
Herval (vicar), 86
hides, 23
Hochgesangt, Ch., 85–86, 249
Holinski, Alexander, 121
housing, 104, 133
Hudson’s Bay Company, 44, 68
hunting, 8
Icarian movement, 16, 161
Illustration (publication), 48, 139
immigration, 44, 52
imperial expansion, 50, 73, 201–2, 213, 222,
253, 272
Imperial Russian-American Company, 68
Indépendance Belge (newspaper), 49
India, 50
Indicateur, 145
Irish, 213
Italy, 53–54, 129
Jeune Voyageur en Californie, Le
(Champagnac), 173, 259–60
joint stock companies, 56–72
Jomard, Edmond, 38, 98–99, 102–3
Jones, Thomas ap Catesby, 30, 45
Journal de Madame Giovanni, Le (Dumas,
père), 262–66
Journal de Rouen, 195
Journal des Débats, 28, 45, 46–47, 55, 108,
139, 178, 201, 270
Journal du Havre, 85–86, 219, 221
Journal pour Rire, 27, 162
June Days, 14, 18, 45, 56, 217, 240–41
King, Thomas Butler, 214
Lafayette, marquis de, 198, 275
Laffite, Caillard, and Company, 158
Lallier (entrepreneur), 71
land ownership, 7, 281
Langlet (entrepreneur), 96
Langlois, Jean-François, 143, 151, 152,
158–59
language barrier, 59, 69, 88, 98, 107, 112,
180, 199, 200, 213
Larkin, Thomas, 34
La Rochelle, 39
Law, John, 67
leases, 76–77
 Index
Le Bozek (captain), 227
Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre, 19, 241
legal system, 180, 204, 248, 275, 277
Le Havre, 33, 39, 42, 67
LeMaître, Joseph, 83
Lévy, Daniel, 233, 284
Lille, 8, 286; rural France vs., 14–15
lingotiers, 220–34, 237, 240, 242, 286
literacy, 7, 8
loans, 76–77
Lombard (vice-consul), 124–25, 209–10
Lord, Israel, 211
Lorraine, 79–81, 119–20, 129
Los Angeles, 240
Lottery of the Golden Ingots, 3, 4, 249,
256, 264, 269; aftermath of, 157–61;
authorization of, 143–46; Charivari and,
144–45, 147–49, 153–55; drawing for,
155–57, 242, 274; Dumas’s history of,
149–51; enthusiasm for, 146–48, 170, 174,
273; favoritism and incompetence in,
151–53; ingot exhibition and, 148–49;
ships financed by, 220–34
Louis-Philippe, king of the French, 8–9;
abdication of, 11
luxury goods, 179
Lyon, 8; newspapers in, 33; radicalism in,
64; rural France vs., 14–15
Lyonville, 64–67, 72
Manifest Destiny, 18, 51, 52, 196, 199, 203,
206, 213, 253
Margraff (prospector), 246
Mariposa River, 177
Marseillaise company, 62
Marseille, 33, 39, 62
Marshall, James W., 1, 17–18, 23
Marysville, Calif., 177, 232, 233
Mason, Richard, 24, 33, 42, 203
Mathet, Catherine, 228–29
Mathet, Eustache, 228–31, 242, 243, 267–68
Mathet, François, 243, 268
Mathet, Henri, 228–31, 242–43, 267–68
Mathet, Rosalie, 243, 268
339
Mathieu, Auguste, 239
Maximilian, emperor of Mexico, 258
McDougall, John, 210
Mémorial Bordelais (newspaper), 41, 145,
152–53, 222, 270
Merced River, 177, 185, 245
Messmaker (captain), 83
Mexico: filibustering in, 233, 240, 254, 255,
257, 274; as independent republic, 50;
land ceded by, 18, 202, 270; Pindray’s
expedition to, 254–56, 274; prospectors
from, 1, 196, 199, 202, 203, 207, 208–9,
210, 234, 240; trade with, 43; war
with, 30, 52, 194, 195, 196, 206,
213, 270
Michelin (petitioner), 223–24
Migot, Jean, 80, 92–93, 183, 238, 284
Migot, Louis, 80
military government, 46, 48–49
Mines d’Or de la Californie, 62
mining districts, 182–83
Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce,
53, 59, 72, 184
Ministry of Works, 12
Mississippi bubble, 67
Moerenhout, Jacques, 16, 21–24, 54, 140,
164, 193
Mokelumne Hill (Les Fourcades), 177,
210, 211–16, 218
Mokelumne River, 111, 115, 116
Moniteur de la Californie (newspaper),
64–66
Moniteur Universel (newspaper), 29–33,
53, 218, 225–26, 276
Monnet (shipowner), 247
Monnin-Japy, Louis-Auguste, 155–56
Moniteur Universel, 218
Montes, Jean, 105, 107
mortgages, 76, 77
Moulins de Saint-Maur scandal, 69
Munier-Pugin, Édouard, 239
Munier-Pugin, Jules, 119, 120, 239
Munier-Pugin, Victor, 119, 120, 239
Murphy Camp, 189–90, 205, 212, 217
340
Nantes, 33, 39
Napoleon I, emperor of the French, 50
Napoleon III, emperor of the French.
See Bonaparte, Louis Napoléon
National Assembly, 8, 12, 240; attacks on,
9; factionalism in, 18–19; lottery debated
in, 145; opposition in, 11, 15, 241;
workshops disbanded by, 14
newspapers: advertising in, 56, 57, 72, 97,
107, 129–31, 134, 139, 146–48, 151, 165–66,
246–47; American, 18, 24, 25, 130;
American entrepreneurs viewed by,
41–42; cheerleading by, 28–29, 39–40,
55, 56–57, 130, 222; civil disorder viewed
by, 46–47; company, 134; conservative,
15; emigration discouraged by, 203;
French, 17, 24–25, 30–32, 203;
government documents in, 53; growth
of, 26; letters to, 34–35; local and
regional, 33–34; lottery winners
celebrated by, 157; physical dangers
viewed by, 47–48; skepticism of, 27, 43,
72, 139–40, 270
New York City, 51, 68, 178
New York Herald, 25
New York Mining Company, 55
Nicaragua, 43, 253
Noquez (petitioner), 223
Oregon, 178, 202, 246, 275; acquisition of,
195; prospectors from, 1, 120, 205
Oudine (lottery director), 158, 159
Pactole company, 248
Panama, 73–74, 97–99, 197–98, 203, 253,
275, 276
papacy, 53, 129
Paradis (storekeeper), 233
Paris, 8; banquet movement in, 11; Icarian
movement in, 16; prospectors from, 87,
286; rural France vs., 14–15;
unemployment in, 10, 56; workshops
in, 13
passports, 75
Index
Patrie (newspaper), 152, 158
Pays (newspaper), 29, 163
peasantry, 8, 10, 15, 16
Perlot, Jean-Nicolas, 84–85, 87, 108, 112,
245–46, 266–67
Peru, 254; merchants and prospectors
from, 1, 120, 199, 202; trade with, 43
Petit Manuel de l’Actionnaire (Philippart),
134
Petits Voyageurs en Californie, Les
(Chavannes de la Giraudière), 258–59
Phare Commercial (publication), 27, 70–72
Pidaucet, François, 82, 185, 283
Pilote de la Somme (newspaper), 40
Pindray, Charles, marquis of, 254–56, 274
Pioche, François, 280
plebiscite, 241, 242
Plumas River, 177
political parties, 13
Polk, James K., 17, 27, 28, 270
Portland, Ore., 246
Précurseur de l’Ouest (newspaper),
47–48, 55
Presse (newspaper), 26, 28–29
prostitution, 121, 179, 231, 253
Provençaux company, 112
Public Balance, 244
railroads, 7, 56, 70, 87, 129, 139, 241
Raison, Joseph, 80
Raousset-Boulbon, Gaston, 233, 256–57,
274
real estate, 133
regionalism, 7
Reims, 62
Rémond, René, 251
republicans, 9, 10; divisions among, 12, 13;
victory of, 11–12
Revolution of 1830, 8–9
Revolutions of 1848, 1, 189; dashed hopes
of, 229; divided views of, 44–45;
economic downturn and, 39, 70, 228;
in France, 7, 11, 26, 64, 209, 269,
270, 286
 Index 341

Revue des Deux Mondes, 99, 179, 189, 279 Société Française et Américaine de San
Richard, Gabriel, 80–81 Francisco, 132
rights of man, 18 Société Franco-Californienne, 68–69
right to work, 10, 12, 18, 272; workshops Société Immobilière de San Francisco, 133
and, 13 Société Lallier Columbel, 70–71
Riley, Bennett, 49 Société Lyonnaise, 106
Rio de Janeiro, 73, 94 Société Nationale, 69, 247
Rochambeau, comte de, 198 Société Nationale pour l’Exploitation des
Rouchard (emigrant), 224 Mines d’Or de la Californie, 107
Rouen, 8, 33 Société Parisienne, 63
Ruche d’Or company, 94, 133 Société pour l’Exploitation en
Russia, 8, 54, 130 Californie, 133
Sonora, 1, 21, 117, 177, 203, 205, 233, 254,
Sacramento, 110, 246 256–57
Sacramento company, 250 Sonora Herald, 207–8
St. Louvent (petitioner), 223 Stanislaus River, 206
Sandwich Islands, 120, 178 statehood, 47
San Francisco, 3–4, 35; demonstrations in, Stockton, Calif., 111, 116, 215, 246
47; economic opportunity in, 246; suffrage, 7–12, 15, 18, 19, 272, 274
emptying of, 26, 32, 164; fires in, 119, suicides, 81
180, 214, 216; French population in, 177, Sutter, John, 1, 201
243–44, 254, 273; growth of, 43, 103, 123;
housing shortages in, 104; South tallow, 23
Americans in, 199 tariffs, 44, 130
sanitation, 47, 103, 184, 191 taxes, 7, 8; on foreign miners, 206–11, 218;
San Joaquin, Calif., 205 on land, 12
San Joaquin River, 124, 206 Taylor, Bayard, 34
San Jose, Calif., 177, 240 Télescope (newspaper), 140–41
Santa Anna, Antonio López de, 257 Texas: annexation of, 30, 195, 202, 255; as
Savalette (litigant), 152 independent republic, 50; utopian
seafaring, 73–75, 82–83, 91–102 experiments in, 17
sea sickness, 91, 94, 227 Texier, Edmond, 170, 189, 258
Seven Years War, 275 Thibeau (manager), 85, 108
shipping industry, 144 Times (London), 25
Siberia, 130 Tinel (shipowner), 247
Siècle (newspaper), 26, 27, 28, 144, 145–46, Tocqueville, Alexis de, 275
270 Toison d’Or company, 80, 132
Silhouette (magazine), 27, 162 Touaillon, 69
slavery, 17 Toulon, 39
Smith, Persifor, 203 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), 18,
Société Brugnier Jeune et Cie, 71–72 52, 201, 253–54
Société de Commerce de San Francisco, Treaty of Paris (1783), 275
133–34 Trinity River, 185
Société de Jésus et de Marie, 132 Trottot, Nicolas, 80
342 Index

Tuolumne, Calif., 205, 245 Voyage to Icaria (Cabet), 15–16

“Two Parisians in California” (Texier),
170–72 Washington, George, 275
Tyrwhitt-Brooks, J., 17, 34 Waterloo, battle of, 50
Wilbur, Marguerite, 262
unemployment, 10, 13, 56 wine, 24, 41, 179
women, 77; American attitudes toward,
Valparaiso, Chile, 24, 30, 34–35, 73, 276; on expeditions, 74, 93–94; scarcity
230–31 of, 100, 120–24, 131, 164–65
Verlet, N., 80 work day, 12
Veron, Alexandre, 82, 83, 185, 186, 283 workshops, 13–14, 56
Viard, Victor, 141–42
Victor Marzieu and Company, 220 yellow fever, 227
Vigie de Dieppe (newspaper), 60 Yenez, José María, 257
vigilantism, 180 Yosemite Indians, 245
Vilatelle, Count de la, 224 Yuba River, 177, 232