In fact I did not meet
with any one who did not speak in glowing terms of the country and
anticipate a sudden acquisition of fortune. I had already caught the
infection myself, and these new crowds and their enthusiasm increased
my excitement. The exuberance of my spirits was marvelous. The next
day I took the little steamer "Lawrence," for Vernon, which was so
heavily laden as to be only eighteen inches out of water; and the
passengers, who amounted to a large number, were requested not to move
about the deck, but to keep as quiet as possible. In three or four
hours after leaving Sacramento, the Captain suddenly cried out with
great energy, "Stop her! stop her!"; and with some difficulty the boat
escaped running into what seemed to be a solitary house standing in
a vast lake of water. I asked what place that was, and was answered,
"Vernon,"--the town where I had been advised to settle as affording a
good opening for a young lawyer. I turned to the Captain and said, I
believed I would not put out my shingle at Vernon just yet, but would
go further on. The next place we stopped at was Nicolaus, and the
following day we arrived at a place called Nye's Ranch, near the
junction of Feather and Yuba Rivers.
No sooner had the vessel struck the landing at Nye's Ranch than all
the passengers, some forty or fifty in number, as if moved by a common
impulse, started for an old adobe building, which stood upon the
bank of the river, and near which were numerous tents.
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