I began to wonder if all the people in California were like these, bad and wicked.
Here we learned that Gold Lake was not as rich as reported, so we concluded to take the road and go to Coloma, the place where gold was first found on the American River.
We camped at Coloma all night.

Mr.Bradford got his mule shod and paid sixteen dollars, or in the mining phrase, an ounce of gold dust.

I visited the small town and found that the only lively business place in it was a large gambling house, and I saw money (gold dust) liberally used--sometimes hundreds of dollars bet on a single card.

When a few hundred or thousand were lost more would be brought on.

The purse would be set in the center of the table and the owners would take perhaps twenty silver dollars or checks, and when they were lost the deposited purse would be handed to the barkeeper, the amount weighed out and the purse returned.