This chapter is tagged (labeled) with: 

Ch. 9: The Americans

Ch. 9: The Americans Page of 145 Ch. 9: The Americans Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
THE AMERICANS
83
and indigestible bread; but it was an economical bread—for we ate less of it. At the placers, wheat cost from fifty-five sous to three francs the pound.
On Monday morning we decided to try another hole. We moved on to a point called Yaqui, adjoining the placers where we had been working. There we found five or six miners already in ahead of us. Having been lured by some dazzling bits of gold that had been found there, we dug a hole. For the first four feet we found a grey soil, resembling a volcanic product more than the usual type of soil. Aware that such soil carried no gold-dust we concluded not to give it a washing. Below this grey soil appeared a reddish substance and the operation of washing now began.
After taking in approximately eight piastres in gold, Tillier un­expectedly found a nugget that must have weighed four ounces. This made about 345 francs that we had discovered in one lump. By way of celebrating, we now indulged in a bottle of Saint Julian wine at a cost of five piastres. This was on May twenty-fourth. Our labors were for the first time meeting with success.
But on the morning of May twenty-seventh, just as we were starting off to work, we saw circulars tacked upon the trees. These announced that, starting from the twenty-seventh, no foreigners could dig except upon payment to the American government of a tax of twenty piastres for each man working a claim.*
This gave us food for thought; the miner now gambled not only his time and labor, but he also had to risk a comparatively large sum of money. Our hole was already quite extensive, and would soon touch neighboring diggings. We would have to pay sixty piastres to keep it, or sixty piastres before digging another hole. About ten o'clock, while debating what course to pursue, we saw a group of armed Americans who had come to collect the tax. We refused to pay. This refusal was the signal for war. We had less than 120 or 130 Frenchmen in all.
However, all the Mexicans at the mines joined forces with us, saying that they too owned the soil as well as the Americans. Since they had about 4,000 men all told, these added to the other recruits would have made quite an imposing army. The Americans on the other hand
* The State legislature had placed a prohibitive tax of twenty dollars a month on all foreigners engaged in mining in California. Thousands were now forced to abandon their claims.
Ch. 9: The Americans Page of 145 Ch. 9: The Americans
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page