ern line of the State, to meet any road extending from the Valley of the Mississippi to that line. The power of taxing the products of the mines, he thinks, will be exercised in a few years, if not relinquished in this way, in answer to the demand of the controlling population of her other districts. A source of future difficulty, if not judiciously guarded, is pointed out in the collision between the two interests of surface and vein mining. No clashing has yet occurred of serious importance, but when surface miners have exhausted the richer deposits on the flats, they will find profitable work on the slopes up to the very ledges of the quartz veins, and when the hights come to be generally occupied by the vein miners, fresh parties will trace out and occupy locations on the same veins in the flats. It will be indispensable to the vein miners, also, to occupy the stream beds for dams, and the flats for settlements. It is apparent, therefore, as our author states, that it would be as difficult a task to our legislators, Federal or State, to disentangle the two departments by arbitrary lines, as to regulate railroad travel by assigning one rate of speed for the locomotive and another for the tender. Both must be placed under one regulation, and if laid off in sections, they must be marked out by parallel lines, and all within the same limits, whether deposits or veins, or wood or water, must be subject solely and exclusively to the occupant. The question is difficult, but must be solved; for until some efficient system is provided, California is doomed to remain in the condition she has thus far occupied. That effected, and the greater portion of all who come within her borders, instead of carrying away her treasures to enrich other countries and places, will settle down as permanent citizens, and devote themselves to unlock the vast resources, and develop the mighty prosperity which are waiting to be realized. We come now, in the seventh chapter, to the agricultural lands of California. The matter embodied in this chapter equals in interest that of the foregoing divisions. The amount of arable land is such that no inquiry, based on fear of want, need be raised during the present century. As to quality, the greater part of the soil along the valleys of the rivers is richer than anything known in any sections of corresponding extent, and perhaps in any lands whatever in other parts of the United States. The instances detailed, and well attested of the remarkable productiveness of that region, we cannot find room to repeat. Mr. Werth estimates that the general average product of fifty millions of acres of the surface of California, under ordinary American cultivation, may be assumed at very moderately at three hundred bushels of potatoes, fifty bushels (in suitable locations) of corn, forty bushels of wheat, fifty bushels of barley, and sixty bushels of oats, to The latter grain is indigenous to the soil, and furnishes a superabundant provision of food, in autumn and early winter, to the millions of cattle and horses, and the countless herds of elk and deer and antelopes that roam over an almost undisturbed domain. the acre. Of animal precocity and fruitfulness in California, Mr. Werth says:-Heifers, as a common rule, bring forth at two years old, and sheep multiply their kind twice in each year, very frequently thrice in fifteen months, and bringing, much oftener than in our old States, two at a birth. Our own race is not above this powerful influence; for we have the published authority of the Rev. Walter Colton for the fact that "it is no uncommon sight to find from fourteen to eighteen children at the same table, with their mother at their head;" and he gives instances of twenty-two! and "twenty-eight, with others, probably, yet to come!" of none other than a land of health and plenty, could these things be true. This outdoes the tales of even Irish fecundity; and if it is so, California ought not long to want the citizens, of whose non-existence our author so much complains, as a very small stock should afford an abundant population in a comparatively brief period. But it might be fair to ask why have not the Spaniards and Indians generally propagated in that region at something like this rate, or if they have, what has become of them all? How is it, that the Yankee invaders found only a sparse population of only about 12,000, of all races, complexions, kinds, and degrees? But Mr. Werth insists that his picture is not exaggerated, and he appeals to the testimony of thousands, who will confirm every word he has uttered. He declares there is no other place with such a climate, a soil so generousnature so bountiful-institutions so free, so reliable, so imperishable; and has no apprehensions that her valleys will remain long unpopulated and untilled, when the truth is fairly placed before the world. The last chapter, the ninth, is on the Commerce of California, which is treated in a brief space, as having better means of introduction to the public attention than the other matters considered. But while the subject is before us, we deem it necessary to the completeness of the picture to give some view of its growth and prospects, from such data as have come within our notice. Prior to the possession of California by the United States, and the start of San Francisco as a commercial city, the Republic of Chili-the only one of the nations of Spanish descent on the continent that has preserved anything like a proper appreciation of order and systematic industry-engrossed nearly the whole trade of the western coast of the American continent. Her capital, Valparaiso, was the great entrepôt of this Commerce, the supplies of the manufactures of Europe, and the luxuries of Asia, being thence distributed to the Pacific coast and islands. This commercial importance had been secured by a wise policy, encouraging foreign merchants to settle or establish branches of their business there, a system of bonding and warehousing foreign goods to facilitate the completion of assorted cargoes, and other measures, which have overcome some natural disabilities, that of a somewhat exposed harbor being among them. The imports and exports of Chili during the years 1849, 1830, and 1851, were as follows: Exports 11,592,452 Foreign merchandise re-exported. $1,033,817 1,179,227 12,771,679 15,884,972 12,146,391 The following statement shows with what countries this Commerce was carried on, and the importance of the trade with each country, in 1849: Countries. Imports. Peru.. 1,286,172 859,743 Bolivia.. Mexico.. 128,053 4,407 Central America. 118,834 13,407 New Grenada... 118,834 23,327 Ecuador..... 140,620 44,508 Polynesian Isles. Spanish America and Pacific Islands Total Pacific trade...... The Commerce with European countries was as follows:- England.. France... Germany $4,431,075 $4,295,359 1,079,942 676,755 846,448 677,798 The latter sum constitutes above three-fourths of the whole export. Of the exports of agricultural products, the amount shipped to California in several years was, in 1848 $250,193; 1849 $1,835,460; 1850 $2,448,868. Showing who feeds California and draws away her wealth, while she is neglecting her own luxurious valleys to wash over the glittering sands of the flats. " In all the markets of this Chilian trade, California has equal access, and has far greater resources, when developed, to found a Commerce upon. What she has already done, in comparison with Chili, will be seen in the statements following. The point in this connection to which we wish to call especial attention, is the trade with China. In this important and highly interesting branch. of her traffic, California has made remarkable strides, and is destined to achieve in it no insignificant part of all her future commercial greatness,. however magnificent may be that result. The import of last year from China is stated at about eight hundred thousand dollars, having reached an extent nearly four times as large as that of Chili with the same empire. California is fast becoming the factor of the Pacific South American nations in this Chinese trade, an office which Chili has heretofore held exclusively to herself. The amount of dutiable goods imported into San Francisco from China, and re-exported, without paying duty, during the several quarters of the year commencing October 1, 1850, and ending September 30, 1851, was as follows: For the quarter from 1st October to 31st December, 1850.. $2,992 2,950 19,579 31,000 Total for the year. $56,521 The extent to which this Commerce with China may be pushed is indefinite. The whole Western America is within the grasp of California, and will soon be made subsidiary to its development. On the Pacific she has no rival-Chili is already long distanced. When the great Pacific Railway is opened, San Francisco will become the entrepôt of that trade for the whole United States, and will be the medium of at least a portion of European incourse with the Celestials. But it is not with China only, but other portions of Asia-with the Indies, with all the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, and, when the penetrating spirit of the age shall undermine her thick walls of timid exclusiveness, with Japan-that our Pacific empire is to sustain its commercial relations. The importance of this trade is hardly to be over-estimated. It has been coveted by every nation that ever aspired to commercial greatness, and has an historic fame, as the nursery of empire that runs back into the very streams of unexplored tradition, and gleams in the tales of Oriental genius. Tyre, the first emporium of this trade, was made by it the richest and proudest city of the world. Nebuchadnezzar razed her to her foundations, and it at once restored her to her former pre-eminence. Balbec, Palmyra, Alexandria, Constantinople, Genoa, Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam, have each successively risen to the pinnacle of commercial grandeur, and almost exclusively upon the wealth derived from the East. A great part of the supremacy of London has been drawn from the same source. We come in last to enjoy this life-inspiring traffic, and are doubtless to reap a richer harvest than them all, in the deluge of spices and aromatics, silks and fine cottons, precious stones, porcelains, and teas. We shall have what no nation has had before, at least to make available, what has been the principal agency of carrying it on, and is the best medium for the purpose--abundance of gold and silver. Of these metals, Jacobs estimates India and China have received from Europe since the 15th century $2,100,000,000. The "beginning of the end" is already seen in the first results of our late visitations to those regions. The British trade has declined in that quarter, while ours has rapidly advanced. Our fast clippers, built since the commencement of the California era, have entered into successful competition with the English ships for the English carrying trade from Borneo and other Archipelagean islands, and the effect is already seen in the diminution of the number of English ships loaded, and the regular substitution of American ships in their place. The Commerce of the United States, not including California, in the Pacific Ocean, for the year ending 30th June, 1850, is stated for the different countries and islands as follows: The books containing the value of the imports from the different ports of the Pacific into San Francisco, in 1850, were destroyed in the fire of May, 1851, but the value of exports from Chili to California, during the last six months of that year, was $1,542,366, about equal to the imports of all the rest of the United States from Chili, for the full year, and the Picayune estimates the imports from Chili into San Francisco, for the year, were above half the amount of all the imports of the rest of the United States from the Pacific, excluding tea. The whole importation into San Francisco, for the year, of dutiable goods for consumption, is estimated at $8,500,000, and the total importation at about $10,000,000, showing the Commerce of San Francisco, at that time, equal to that of all the rest of the United States with countries on the Pacific, and nearly double in other articles than tea. The following statement presents a view of the total Commerce of California for fifteen month, from January 1, 1851, to March 14, 1852: Cleared from New York for California...... Total..... Tons. Vessels. 84 73,357 400 138,417 590 148,474 The value of the 84 vessels cleared from New York in this period is estimated at.... The number of steamers engaged in the carrying trade via the Isthmus of Panama and Nicaragua is 32, the value of which is estimated at. Value of tonnage engaged directly between New York and San Francisco..... $3,000,000 9,400,000 Estimated vale of shipping from foreign and other Atlantic ports..... $12,400,000 5,737,820 Total value..... $18,137,820 The estimated value of the exports from the Atlantic ports of the United States, as computed by an intelligent New York merchant, will reach, for the year 1851, about.. $81,000,000 The cost of merchandise from foreign ports during that period, it is presumed would reach, or even exceed. 30,009,000 Total value of merchandise from all parts...... $61,000,000 Below is a statement of the Commerce of all the Atlantic States whose exports or imports exceed a million of dollars, for the financial year ending June 30, 1851 As to the exports of California, we will only restate what has been before affirmed in this Magazine, that those of San Francisco exceed in value the exports of the port of New York, and to California must therefore be conceded the rank of the first exporting State-and in regard to imports, it will be seen, that she is second only to New York. |