The sudden change from the dried-up desert to a rainy region was pretty severe on us.

On our arrival at the San Joaquin River we found a camp of wealthy Mexicans who gave us a small amount of food, and seemed to want us to pass on that they might be rid of us.

I can well believe that a company of twenty-one starving men was the cause of some disquietude to them.

They gave us some hides taken from some of the cattle they had recently slain, and from these we constructed a boat and ferry rope in which we crossed the river, and then continued our journey to the mining camp on Aqua Frio, in Mariposa county.
It is very strange to think that since that time I have never met a single man of that party of twenty-one.

I had kept quite full notes of the whole trip from the state of New York to the mines, and including my early mining experience up to the year 1851.