Spiritual Conquest Along the Rockies CHAPTER I THE FIRST CALL OF THE WEST, OR THE LURE OF GOLD T HE rush for gold, the reaction, and the second emigrant tide westward for land, mark three successive periods in the conquest of the West. The first tide set in when gold was discovered on the Pacific Coast in 1848. The United States came into full possession of California as early as 1847 without any serious conflict in arms. It was a bloodless revolution, if not an entirely peaceful one, that placed this state under the authority and protection of the Stars and Stripes. Yerba Buena was re-christened San Francisco, when the great American seaport on the west coast was established. It had already been partly Americanized by association with trappers and a few early settlers. The possession of California was in reality decided by the results of the war over Texas in 1846. It has been truthfully said by one historian that "by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico relinquished territory which she had never been able to develop, and made way for the erection of the new America on the Pacific." (The Last American Frontier. Frederic L. Paxson.) It was not until the discovery of gold in January 1848 at Sutter's millrace, a tributary stream of the Sacramento, that sufficient inducement was offered for emigrants in large numbers to cross the plains and two great mountain ranges, or go around the Cape by sea. It took a year or more for the news to reach remote centres of population thousands of miles away. Then the news of the world was not read every morning in the daily newspapers, but had to percolate through devious and tedious methods. Therefore, it was not until 1849 that the tide of emigration set in from the far East. The water route was very costly and the land route very dangerous, but most of them chose to go by land. The emigration of the forty-niners was attended with untold suffering and sickness. Cholera broke out among the trains, ending the earthly journey of hundreds. It is difficult to give in accurate figures the number of overland emigrants, but the most conservative, place the number between forty and fifty thousand, who represented all countries and conditions of society. After this there followed in close suc cession of years, the coming of the early pioneers to Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and last but not least, Alaska. This call appealed to almost every nationality, grade and condition of humanity. The college graduate, the young merchant, the common laborer, the adventurer, the bad and the good; in fact all classes, of both low and high degree were represented among those who followed the star of empire in its westward course. Perhaps the seekers for quick fortunes and adventures constituted the larger number. They all came, all saw, but only a few conquered. Large capital was not needed in that day of early placer mining; only a courageous spirit, strong muscle, spade and pick-ax, blankets and frying pan, were the necessary equipments. An optimistic spirit, inflamed by hope, wrought miracles in the wilderness. Deserts were crossed, rivers forded, mountains scaled, life hourly jeopardized by hostile Indians, death by starvation threatened, heat of summer and cold of winter, were all experienced by the early pioneers of the West. "They felt that awful pause of blood and breath, which life endures when it confronts with death." These dangers and hardships beyond description, and many trials undreamed, and as yet untold, were endured by those who obeyed the first summons of the call to these now rapidly growing empires. This was the lure of gold. Reports of every new strike in Devil's |