One night he got betting against the game of Faro,
lost, and I suppose got over excited, and in trying
to recover his losses, lost every thing, including
$30,000. Of course it was not known that he ever
gambled or he would not have been trusted with the
money. As soon as it was known it created great
excitement and indignation, that so sacred a fund should
have been wasted in that way. He fled, and the
Mayor offered $3,000 reward for his apprehension.
It seems he had escaped on a vessel to the Sandwich
Islands, and had no money, and got in debt there and
could not leave there as long as he owed any thing,
according to their laws, and he was in despair, until
one day fortune smiled upon him. Accidentally
he came across a California paper in which was the
$3,000 reward offered by the Mayor of San Francisco
for his arrest, and this was his opportunity and he
seized it at once. Then hope dawned upon him.
He found a vessel about to sail for San Francisco.
He took the paper and showed it to the captain and
told him if he would advance the money so he could
pay his debts, he would return with him to San Francisco
and he could surrender him and they would divide the
reward. The captain accepted his offer and delivered
him up upon his arrival at San Francisco, and got
the reward. Two or three months had elapsed since
his departure, and that was more time than so many
years in any other country, and all excitement about
it had subsided, and I think it was called a breach
of trust, and I have no recollection that he was punished
in any other way.
MY BLANKET MAN.
When he wrote me that he had traded the blankets for
flour, and had gone to the Yuba river with the flour,
I knew that it was a lie, and that he was a rascal,
and I found that blankets had been in great demand,
at a high price, and likewise learned that he had
been connected with a forgery in New York city, but
that his brother was a respectable merchant there,
so for the time I gave up my $800 as lost. What
was my surprise after six weeks at my hotel (which
was an expensive one), to see my man at the tea table.
I greeted him most cordially and asked no questions
about the blankets, but talked to him about the brig
I owned and had running to Stockton; that I had been
looking for him to come back; there was such a splendid
chance for us to make purchases in San Francisco,
and for him to take them up on my vessel and sell them
out in the Southern gold mines, near that place; that
what we had lost on the blankets we could more than
make up on the first venture, and that there would
be big money in that kind of a speculation. We
spent the evening together most cordially. The
next morning I detained him in conversation until
about the time for the Miners’ Bank to open,
then we went out together. When we got opposite
the bank I took out my watch and said to him, that
I did not think it was so late. I said I had a
note of $800 due there that morning; I asked him if
