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the voyages of the Scandinavians, those fierce Norse- men that were the terror of all the maritime nations of northern Europe, and the first known discoverers of America, Then there were the voyages of the Portuguese round Africa, and of the Spaniards to America; there were the Dutch voyages for conquest, and the English voyages of circumnavigation ; there were voyages of discovery, commercial voyages, voy- ages for purposes of war, science, and religion, for pleasure, profit, and proselyting, but never since the sea was made has there been seen such voyaging as the trip to California during the flush times. And never shall the sea behold such sights again ; never shall tempest sport such tangled human freight, nor the soft tropical wind whisper of such confused and desultory cargoes as those which swept the main in ships from every point in search of the new golden fleece.
As compared with contemporaneous trans- Atlantic navigation, the voyage from New York to San Fran- cisco by way of the Isthmus presents entirely distinct features. It was an episode individual and peculiar ; a part, and no small part, of the great uprising and exodus of the nations; it was the grand pathway of pilgrims from all parts of the eastern world ; it was brimfull of romance and comedy, of unnumbered woes and tragedy, enlivened now and then by a dis- aster which sent a thrill throughout the civilized world. It was a briny, boisterous idyl, where courage bore along slippery passage-ways, and love lounged upon canopied decks, and sentiment in thin muslin cooed in close cabins, and vice and virtue went hand in hand as friends.
The California voyage occupied twice the time of the trans- Atlantic ; the steamers employed in the former were large, standing well out of water, and capable of carrying from 700 to 1,500 passengers, while those of the latter were lower and smaller. In the character of the passengers, those by
