reached them when the pioneer vessel, the California,
went to sea, which was on the 6th of October, 1848.
The Panama and the Oregon foHowed the California
at short intervals. In consequence of the gold
discovery, and the distraction in maritime affairs
growing out of it, the original project of continuing
the line to Oregon was abandoned, and San Francisco
was made the terminus.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was not the first to raise the shrill whistle of steam in these west coast waters. Organized in England in 1840, was a company for the purpose of steam navigation in the Pacific, and two steamers of 700 tons each, the Peru and the Chili, were sent under the command of William Wheelwright through the strait of Magellan to the port of Talcahuano; but this enterprise failed from improper managomem:. In 1845 a little steam schooner, whose machinery had been put in by Erics- son as a sort of experiment, was sent by P. B. Forbes from Boston round Cape of Good Hope to China, and upon the death of the captain the mate claims to have crossed thence to San Francisco. Then the Hudson's Bay Company had their steamer plying between Puget Sound and Russian America before the California, a magnificent wooden side-wheel steamer of 900 tons, entered proudly the Golden Gate.
On the 1st of December, 1848, as our history tells us, the Atlantic company despatched the steamer Falcon for Chao^res to connect with the California from Panama, northward. The passengers by the Falcon were not all of them gold-seekers, as rumors of gold discoveries prior to her departure were so faint as to have created little impression upon the public mind. Arrived at Panamd, however, they found some 1500 eager adventurers close upon their heels, all clamorous for a passage to San Francisco, each ravenous to be in at the rich harvest before the others. All anxiously awaited the arrival o
