[Autograph Letter, Signed, from Forty-Niner Henry Passe to Milton James, Describing His Experiences During the Early Months of the Gold Rush and the Potential for Trade Goods in California]

Sacramento City: March 26, 1850. Very good.. [4]pp., on a single folded folio sheet. Original mailing folds, minor foxing, short closed tear along fold line of second leaf, small remnant of wax seal on last page. An incredibly informative manuscript letter written by Henry Passe (or perhaps Pape or Pope), a hopeful prospector during the early months of the California Gold Rush, writing about mining and trade goods in "this far off land." Passe arrived at the gold mines in October 1849, and immediately took ill for three months. After his recovery, he reports on the early haulings from the "dry diggins" at the mines, "not to be as good as the Rivers," which were not terribly fruitful, between six and ten dollars a day. Passe then encapsulates the whole spirit of the Gold Rush in a few sentences: "It is very difficult setting average on mining; it is just as low as 4 & high as $10 a day; there is one thing that stimulates all, there is a chance of one's striking a rich hole from which he can take out two to ten thousand, and thinking they may be the lucky ones is in the minds of all, and keeps up the fever much higher than it would otherwise be."

Passe also relates his opinion of the prospects for California to provide resources for a population, and its true advantages: "My idea of it is this, that it can never be an agricultural country; that is, not as we understand the term in the East; it can raise its own Cattle, some of the lighter kinds of fruit, as Grapes, Peaches &c, but will be deficient in the staple commodities of life; the country is too dry, there are no brooks and streams as with us at home, nothing but the large streams and those but few; on the banks of these and in the sea it seems to me is the only chance to Farm; in Mineral productions lies its wealth; Gold is the chief one; there is plenty of it too; on the east side of the Sacramento Valley, as soon as you get to the Hills, the soil is all impregnated with it, but so scattered it don't pay very well for digging, except the beds of Rivers & ravines." Passe also comments on the potential quantity of gold in California: "...it was said before we came out, there should be Gold enough for fifty years to come, I don't think it much stretched at that; although not in the quantities some supposed; Land sells high here, Lots 20 by 160 ft are sold from 3 to $6000, but the fashion is to squat on a lot if one wants to build. We don't think squatters has any legal claim to it...."

Passe then details his work as a tradesman of various goods, for which he reports making $14 a day. He advises his correspondent that "if you should conclude to send out goods I should be happy to sell them for you." Passe then takes the last portion of the second page and the entire third page to communicate a long list of about sixty products and the prices he is achieving for them in California; these include beef, pork, mackerel, lard, butter, salt, molasses, vinegar, sugar, coffee, tea, lime juice, lemon syrup, wine, shovels, picks, pots, pans, pails, lumber, flannel shirts, denim, and so forth. Passe closes by noting the volatility of the market for goods in California, and mentioning that "the best qualities sell the best, these miners are the most independent class of people on Earth; they get money fast and are bound to have the best of every thing." He then gives further instructions for shipping goods to San Francisco and closes with a shorter though still substantial list of about a dozen products he feels "will be in good demand." A wonderfully-detailed letter from a Forty-Niner writing in early 1850 about his early experiences during the Gold Rush. (Inventory #: 4297)