L'or by Blaise Cendrars Page B

procession. Every man who could walk came up from San Francisco and the other shanty-towns on the coast. Everyone closed up his hut, his cabin, his farm or his business and made his way to Fort Sutter, then up to Coloma. In Monterey and the other towns in the South, they believed at first that the whole thing was an invention on my part to attract new settlers. The procession on the road stopped for a few days, then it began again, worse than before, as these towns also joined the march. Whole townships were emptied; my poor estates were swamped.
    'So began my miseries.
    'My mills were at a standstill. The very millstones had been stolen from me. My tanneries were deserted. Large numbers of leather hides, in the process of preparation, were going mouldy in the cellars. Raw hides rotted away. My Indians and my Kanakas ran  away with their families. They all went prospecting for gold, which they exchanged for brandy. My shepherds abandoned their flocks, my planters the plantations, the workers their many trades. My corn was rotting on the stalk; there was no one to pick the fruit in my orchards; in the byres, my finest milch-cows were mooing themselves to death. Even my loyal body of soldiers had fled. What could I do? The men came to see me, they implored me to leave with them, to go up to Coloma and search for gold. God, but it was a cruel blow to me ! I left with them. There was nothing else I could do.
    'I loaded my goods and provisions on to wagons and, accompanied by a clerk, some hundred-odd Indians and fifty Kanakas, I went up to establish my gold-prospecting camp in the mountains, on the banks of the creek that today bears my name.
    'To start with, all went very well. But soon, hordes of rough-neck profiteers swooped down on us. They set up distilleries and ingratiated themselves with my men. I struck camp and moved ever higher up the mountain, but no matter what I did, that fiendish brood of distillers followed us everywhere and I could not prevent my poor Indians and my poor, wild natives from the Islands from tasting this new delight. Soon, my men were incapable of carrying out the simplest task; they drank and gambled away their wages, or the gold they had found, and spent three-quarters of their lives dead drunk.
    'From the summit of those mountains, I could see the immense expanse of land I had brought under cultivation, now given up to looting and fire-raising. Even up there, in my solitude, I could hear the sound of pistol shots and, coming from the West, the hubbub of crowds on the march. At the far end of the bay, I could see them  building an unknown town which grew larger before my eyes and, out in the roadsteads, the sea was full of vessels.
    'I could stand it no longer.
    'I went back down to the fort, having paid off all those who had run away and who did not wish to return with me. I cancelled all the contracts, and paid all the bills.
    'I was ruined.
    'I appointed an administrator of my estate, and, without even glancing at that rabble of parasites who had now installed themselves in my home, I left for the banks of the Feather River to see if my grapes were ripe. Only those Indians whom I had brought up myself accompanied me.
    'If I had been able to follow my plans through to their conclusion, I should very soon have become the richest man in the world; as it was, the discovery of gold had ruined me.'

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NINTH CHAPTER
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    32
    On the 17th of June, 1848, General Mason, the new American Governor, leaves Monterey to go and see for himself how much truth there is in the fantastic rumours that are circulating about the gold-mines discovered in the Sacramento basin. On the 20th, he is in San Francisco. The town, recently so crowded, is now completely empty and deserted; the entire male population has gone up to the diggings.
    'On the 3rd of July,' says his report, 'we arrive at Fort Sutter. The mills are standing silent. Immense herds of beef cattle and horses have trampled down their enclosures and are