Patriot, February 8, 1849
London, United Kingdom
CALIFORNIAN EMIGRATION.--While the American papers state, that the Califomian emigration mania has considerably subsided in the States, it is going a-head methodically with railway speed in England and Scotland. Last week, and the beginning of this, a barque was lying at the tail of the Bank, Greenock, bound for Valparaiso, with a cargo of goods and 150 passengers; the goods are to be landed at Valparaiso, and the passengers afterwards taken on to the gold-finding regions. The principal part of the passengers are Latter-day Saints , going out to join their Mormon brethren in California, and there engage in the grand search for gold-dust on the Sacramento River, besides other matters connected with their peculiar doctrines. The passage money by this vessel is 25L., while that to Australia, double the distance, is 16L.—Scottish Guardian.
BOUND FOR CALIFORNIA.—At Chagres a great many arrivals were expected from America of emigrants and gold searchers for California. A steamer had arrived with 250 passengers already, amongst whom were the Governor and Judges, and other authorities for this new portion of the American Union. As Chagres is in fact only a larger settlement of the Indian natives in one storied houses, built of wood or bamboos, and thatched, and with scarcely sufficient provision of the commonest kinds, such as dried fish and vegetables, with a few eggs and fowls, and a little meal dried in the sun, a great many of the poorer adventurers were very badly off for food and lodging, for the short time of two days they had been kept there when the they left Chagres; and the boatmen having received sums five or six times above the usual prices from the Governor and Judges and all parties able to give it, in their hurry to leave this unhealthy place, the canoes could not be procured for some time, at least at fair rates, by the poorer majority, and it is therefore to be feared that exposure to the sun, wretched living, and the fatigue up the river and across to Panama from Graces, which must be done on mules, taking in all two days, with canoes and riding, would render them more liable to the bad effects of the climate, and produce great mortality amongst them. The John Benson was in the offing with many passengers, also from New Orleans. The Government of New Grenada was making great exertions to put the roads into good condition, and these arrivals of passengers would no doubt eventually be of benefit, in that respect, in showing its absolute necessity, as the American spirit of enterprise is not likely to be checked by any failure at the commencement.
CALIFORNIAN GOLD--APPALLING MURDERS.—A letter has been received by a respectable mercantile firm in the city, detailing a horrible butchery already occasioned by Californian gold. A ship, called the Amelia, sailed from St. Francisco with gold, to purchase a cargo of silks in China. In crossing the Pacific Ocean, three miscreants of the crew, during a night watch, stole upon the mate, murdered, and threw him overboard; after which they successively assassinated the master, supercargo, and an English passenger named Cooke, whose wife was on board. The murderers then divided the Californian gold amongst themselves, and the remaining part of the crew, who, it would seem, were ignorant of the whole affair, till called upon to receive their share of the plunder. Soon afterwards the murderers got drunk and fell asleep, when the rest of the crew agreed to kill them and to restore the ship to her owners. Accordingly, the ship's carpenter chopped off the heads of the three murderers with his axe, and their bodies were thrown into the ocean. The ship was then taken to Honohulao, one of the Sandwich Islands, and given up to the British Consul, being navigated thither entirely by a couple of apprentice lads, who alone possessed sufficient skill for the purpose.