Coloma, California

“ As we advance to the north we find that a few rich places were discovered around Coloma, at Kelsey’s, Spanish Flat, Greenwood Camp, and in the vicinity of Georgetown.
Early in ’49 the country and rivers as far north as the Yuba River was examined and prospected, a few of the bars upon the latter being worked and found to be very rich.{138}
Fortunes were realized from Spanish, Murderers’, Big and Michigan Bars, where Ex-Governor Stanford had his little store in ’52, the germ from which sprang the Great Overland Railroad. ”

“ The man would indeed die rather than betray any secret of his kind countryman and master; but alas I he loved intoxication, that too treacherous felicity. Arrived at Coloma, the teamster encountered one of the Wimmer boys, who exclaimed triumphantly, "We have found gold up here." The teamster so ridiculed the idea that the mother at length became some- what nettled, and to prove her son truthful, she not only produced the stuff, but gave some to the teamster. Returned to the fort, his arduous duty done, the man must have a drink. ”

“ In the mean time the thrifty saints determined to improve the opportunity, that they might carry to their desert rest as nmch of the world's currency as possible. On the 1 1th of April, Bigler, Brown, and Itephens set out on their return to Coloma, camping 'fifteen miles above the flouring mill, on a creek. In the morning they began to search for gold and found ten dollars' worth. ”

“ The population of California increased one hundred thousand the first year after the discovery of the gold, which had accounted for the great changes which had taken place since my previous trip. I went up on the steamer Senator to Sacramento, which had become quite a city, and the next morning started for Coloma in a stage full of passengers, drawn by mules. ”

“ The scientific miner had assured us that we could make our thousand a week from almost any earth in California—we didn't quite believe him, to be sure—but now the second scientific miner, not indeed so scientific as the first, but horribly scientific for all that, advised us, by all means, not to remain at Mormon Island, but to prospect a bar he had himself visited, just below Coloma, and which he thought from its formation likely to prove unusually rich. ”

“ The climate of Colima is warm—on the coast it is hot—but the territory is generally considered healthy and fruitful in all portions. Its population is estimated at about 45,000. Cotton, sugar, tobacco and cacao are produced by its agriculturists, while on the coast large quantities of salt are made from the waters of the sea. Rich iron deposits have been recently found, and individuals have commenced developing this important source of national wealth.
The chief town of the Territory is Colima, about two leagues south of the volcano, containing between fifteen and twenty thousand inhabitants. ”

“ This characteristic seized upon a vast wilderness—the same which Daniel Webster declared, in the Senate of the United States, unworthy of membership in the sisterhood of States; and within this extensive area it builded great cities, joined its various parts with steel and iron, made great highways out of the once well-nigh impassable cattle-paths, and from an elemental existence developed a complex civilization. Nor is there to-day in all this region a greater or finer city than fair Los Angeles.
Many of us saw it grow; none of us foresaw that growth, even from decade to decade. ”

“ Colima is a small state, bordering on the Pacific next below Jalisco, with an area of 4,250 square miles, and population of 66,000 inhabitants. Flat near the coast, the land is mountainous in the interior. There are several rivers, the waters of which, after furnishing the means of irrigation, and water-power for various textile factories, flow to the sea. The climate, good in the north, is hot and subject to malaria upon the coast. The principal products of the state are agricultural; rice, corn, sugar-cane, and coffee being foremost among these. The soil is generally fertile ”

“ Georgetown, fourteen miles from Coloma, was the present end of our journey. This is a small and sombre collection of log-houses in the midst of a dark pine forest. There are few objects more pleasing and picturesque than a log-house standing by itself in an open clearing; but twenty or more of them together, in formal rows, are anything but attractive. Their dark rough walls drink up all the sunshine. They are as much out of place as an Indian or trapper in a great city, and have an air of melancholy about them, as if they pined for their native solitudes. ”

“ Colima has 35,000 or 40,000 inhabitants, and at morning or evening they are all on the streets. As our party passed along, people always civilly made room, and the better class generally bowed politely. In passing the prison, the guard invariably presented arms to me, and I found after a time, this was all owing to the fact that I wore a vest of blue cloth, with brass buttons bearing the coat of arms of the State of California, and for my own convenience I was forced to change it, and by donning a plain white vest retire to private life. ”

“ Concerning the Province of Coloman. Coloman is a province towards the east, the people of which are Idolaters and have a peculiar language, and are subject to the Great Kaan. They are a [tall and] very handsome people, though in complexion brown rather than white, and are good soldiers.{1} They have a good many towns, and a vast number of villages, among great mountains, and in strong positions.{2}
When any of them die, the bodies are burnt, and then they take the bones and put them in little chests. ”

“ The city of Colima, situated on the river of the same name, has a population of 32,000 souls, which is equal to half the number of inhabitants of the entire State. There are some French, German, and English settlers. The volcano of Colima, 11,140 feet high, lies near the city. It is snow-clad in winter, but the summer sun melts the white covering. This peak is conspicuously seen far out to sea, being only 25 miles from the coast. A wagon-road goes from Colima to Manzanillo, about 70 miles distant. The latter
The City of Colima. ”

“ Colombo is not an interesting place. It is on a level, strongly fortified, and has a lake in the rear, from which the inhabitants are nightly serenaded by huge frogs and mosquitoes, and tormented in the day by numberless flies. The European merchants, therefore, have their houses chiefly in the neighbourhood shaded by palm-trees among the cinnamon plantations. ”

“ The breakwater forms an excellent promenade except in rough weather, and is much improved for that purpose by the people who reside in the neighborhood. Having good anchorage space, sufficient depth of water, and a sheltered harbor, Colombo is now the regular port of call for the great steamship lines sailing to and from China, Japan, the Straits Settlements, Australia, and Calcutta, and is justly entitled to the name of the commercial as well as the political capital of Ceylon. ”

“ Colombo is not a prepossessing city to the eye of the traveler, the buildings being of an ancient style of architecture and built more for comfort than for show, but the market places and bazaars are well worth a visit. ”

“ Emigrants, when the phrensy of the mines has passed, will be strongly attracted to los Angeles, the capital of the southern department. It stands inland from San Pedro about eight leagues, in the bosom of a broad fertile plain, and has a population of two thousand souls. The San Gabriel pours its sparkling tide through its green borders. ”

“ The larger part of its territory is within the narrow, flat coastal plain, beyond which it rises toward the north-east into the foothills of the Sierra Madre, the higher masses of the range, including the Colima volcano, lying outside the state. It is drained by the Ameria and Coahuayana rivers and their affluents, which are largely used for irrigation. There are tidewater lagoons and morasses on the coast which accentuate its malarious character. One of the largest of these, Cuitlán, immediately south of Manzanillo, is the centre of a large salt-producing industry. ”

“ The buildings of Colombo would not suggest being in far-off Ceylon. They are composed of brick, stone, and mortar, several stories in height. The streets are clean. Colombo, however, is the rosy apple with the decayed center, as a mile from the European or business center is the Pettah, or native town, with its squalid quarters, narrow streets, ox carts, absence of sidewalks, people barefooted, and many of untidy appearance. More English is spoken in Ceylon than in India. The population of Colombo is nearly 200,000. ”

“ A WALK IN COLOMBO.
Colombo, as most of my readers will remember, is in Ceylon, that beautiful island lying to the south of India.
You would think the people very funny, seeing them for the first time. The man in the picture, who is walking with the little English girl, is a Hindu, and probably you have often seen pictures like him. Nearly all the servants and laborers in Colombo are Hindus from Madras, but the natives of the island are called Cingalese, and are very different in every way. ”

“ Eliminating its temperature, it is Paradise on earth. With it, it is Hell. Colombo is built about several small lakes whose shores are a very jungle of graceful palms and other dense tropical plants. There is a beautiful driveway along the beach which is the promenade for the wealthy of the place and, during the afternoon, one can almost imagine that he is on some fashionable European thoroughfare from the numerous grand carriages and well-groomed horses which pass. Richardson and I swept back and forth on this lengthy boulevard in our rickshaws. ”

“ The local industries include two old-fashioned cotton mills, an ice plant, corn-grinding mill, and five cigarette factories. Colima is the commercial centre for a large district, but trade has been greatly restricted by lack of transportation facilities. A railway connects with the port of Manzanillo, and the Mexican Central railway serves Colima itself. Colima was founded in 1522 by Gonzalo de Sandoval. ”

“ It is a noticeable fact that European horses cannot endure the climate of Ceylon; some which are imported from Australia manage to give satisfaction for a limited period. The breeding of these animals is not a success in the island, and the natives do not use them at all.
Colombo has a hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants, and is divided into what is known as The Fort and Black Town, the former being the portion devoted to the official quarters and the residences of the English, the latter mostly to the very humble homes of the natives. ”

“ They open and drop quickly without giving the dust time to settle upon their creamy petals. The place to see the portia in perfection is moist, humid Colombo, where the fiery blasts of the land-winds are not felt. ”

“ But the most fertile lands in California, as yet developed, lie around the missions of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz, through the long narrow valleys of San José and San Juan, along the margin of the Salinas, through the dells of San Louis Obispo, and in the vicinity of los Angeles. These, and other insular spots, may be made perfect gardens; but take California as a whole, she is not the country which agriculturists would select. Her whole mining region is barren; nature rested there with what she put beneath the soil. ”

“ The circle of engaging objects in a community, just emerging into the refinements of civilization, is never broad; but every phase in the great change going on possesses an intense individuality, and leaves its ineffaceable impression, like a ship sweeping a solitary sea, or a bird scaling a sunset cloud. California will be no more what she has been: the events of a few years have carried her through the progressive changes of a century. ”

“ As the sun goes down behind the hills beyond Chapultepec, this assemblage turns toward the city, and the Paseo is left to the seclusion of the verdant pastures which environ it.
What the citizen of the United States feels most in need of
STATUE OF COLUMBUS
when he arrives in Mexico is a place to go to,—some house, hotel, section of the city, or quarter where his fellow-countrymen most do congregate. He cannot find it here; he wanders about like a cat on a strange roof, seeking a pleasant, home-like place, but finding it not. There is no hotel here that suits him ”

“ They will go also to hear noted people because of curiosity, but they will not hear more than once a mere man unbolstered by any of these outside influences. I next gave the lecture at Columbia. Columbia, though but four miles distant, was then the rival of Sonora as the metropolis of Tuolumne County, and it was necessary to secure a Columbian indorsement before attempting to star it through the provincial cities of Jimtown, Chinese Camp, Don Pedro’s, and Pine Log. ”

“ At certain seasons of the year, many of the millionaires of the Comstock are to be found rambling in California, taking their ease in that land of sunshine and flowers. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and other places on the sea-coast are much frequented by those who are weary of the eternal sameness and the light and dry atmosphere of the mountains, and who wish to find some pleasant place in which to rest and recuperate. ”

“ Towards night we arrived at Colombo and moored two miles off the low coast, bordered with cocoa-nut trees crowned with green palms. A long greystone breakwater with a round-topped tower at the end ran out into the sea, and over it in the distance Colombo with its red-tiled houses lay half hidden in deep green vegetation. Canoes brought on board Singhalese merchants with stuffs and other products of the land. We see everywhere British flags flying. We are on English ground under the tropic sun of Ceylon. From afar we perceive Adam’s Peak, the region where Paradise was. ”