RECOLLECTIONS

OF

FOUR YEARS IN VENEZUELA.

CHAPTER I.

ARRIVAL.

THE Gold Fever of California was at its height, when reports came of the discovery of gold at Upata, in Venezuela. The journey to the latter place was thought less laborious and expensive, and several companies were formed to proceed to the gold-diggings there. These consisted principally of inexperienced and thoughtless young men, most of whom had scarcely ever travelled beyond the streets of a town, and whose previous occupations unfitted them for the exposure, fatigues, and self-denial required for a successful issue to the project.

I joined a company, and had prepared everything that was thought necessary for the outfit. I

A

purchased a double-barrelled gun, a large quantity of powder and shot, a pick-axe, cutlass, spade, a large blanket, and clothing for work, and had a dozen small bags made, to secure the gold when I got it.

About a week before our intended departure, however, I met with an old friend, M. de Montrechard, who had had considerable experience in California, and had also just arrived from Upata. This gentleman so impressed me with the utter absurdity of the project, that I endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to dissuade four of the company in whom I was personally interested. Failing to convince them I distributed my goods among them, excepting the little bags, at first, and lent them the small sum of money that I had intended taking with me. But they insisted on taking the bags also, assuring me that, although I had shown the white feather, one of the bags filled with gold, contributed by the four, should be my undeserved portion.

I went with the young men, on the morning of their departure, on board the sloop that took

them over the Parian gulf to Venezuela, each party warmly commending the other to the guidance and blessing of God. I saw on board an old gentleman, who, having made the last fruitless effort to dissuade his son, embraced him and with tears in his eyes hurried away.

It was seldom that we in Trinidad received any authentic accounts of the gold works at Upata. Sometimes a flying report was spread abroad of their entire success, and then I blamed myself for listening to my dissuasive friends. At one time I got in conversation with a man who had lately arrived from the gold-diggings. His account was that some were pretty successful; several had died from overfatigue and starvation; but that the provision dealers were rapidly becoming rich. For himself, he must say that he had collected a good quantity of gold, but it had scarcely sufficed to pay his expenses, owing to the extravagantly high prices demanded at the diggings, and on the route, for all the necessaries of life.

Six months of uncertainty as to the well-doing or existence of the young men passed away, when

one night I heard a knocking, and the sound of voices that made my heart leap. Descending, I opened the door, and my four friends entered in the following order :-two brothers, young Englishmen, were supporting a companion who had left England with them for the purpose of seeking gold; the fourth, who was a creole of Trinidad, and had left six months ago the picture of health and strength, was leaning on a long stick and limping, one knee being stiffened from a late abscess. They all looked the very ghosts of their former selves. I ran to the aid of one of those who was supporting the weakest. The effort he had made from the vessel to the house, with the weight of the other resting upon him, had completely exhausted him, and he was staggering to fall. It was well that I had then in the house meals to tempt their appetites; for they all at first refused to eat. Three of them drank several glasses of wine and then set to, almost ravenously, to eat what was placed before them. But one, he who was most ill of all, declined to drink on the plea of his pledge to a total abstinence society.

He was

The next day we found him, whom we shall call the invalid, so ill and dropsical that Doctor Saturnet was sent for: he prescribed for the three, and in his direction for their diet recommended the use of brandy. But the invalid persisted in refusing to break his pledge. told that the pledge made exceptional provision for medical and religious purposes. His answer was, that so convinced was he of the injurious nature of alcoholic drinks, that, independently of his pledge, he would have nothing to do with spirituous liquors of any kind, under any circumstances. He was from Yorkshire, a capital draughtsman, and of a peculiarly religious temperament. He could not have been older than nineteen years. Two weeks after his return we

All the gold brought over to Trinidad by my friends, valued by a goldsmith, I bought for two dollars.

The two surviving young Englishmen said that their failure and illness arose from getting to the diggings too late in the dry season. But if they had