Our passage up the coast was pleasant enough; we reached San Francisco; on the 15th of October, and took quarters at an hotel on Stockton Street, near Broadway.
Major Turner remained till some time in November, when he also departed for the East, leaving me and Nisbet to manage the bank.

I endeavored to make myself familiar with the business, but of course Nisbet kept the books, and gave his personal attention to the loans, discounts, and drafts, which yielded the profits.

I soon saw, however, that the three per cent.

charged as premium on bills of exchange was not all profit, but out of this had to come one and a fourth to one and a half for freight, one and a third for insurance, with some indefinite promise of a return premium; then, the cost of blanks, boxing of the bullion, etc., etc.

Indeed, I saw no margin for profit at all.