THE CAPE HORN AND COÖPERATIVE THE MAN WHO COULD N'T WAIT FOR THE STEAMER. HE late summer months of 1848 were In the New England States the "gold fever" soon became epidemic. Among the young men there was a burning desire to set out for 1 The Board of Directors who were to have the practical management of the affairs of the company were Enoch Jacobs, of Chicopee, Mass.; William A. Egery, of Boston; James L. Bates, of Weymouth, California, inspired perhaps as much by an intense yearning for adventure as by dreams of wealth. To New Englanders, remote from the new El Dorado and to a large extent a maritime people, an ocean voyage presented itself as the most practicable route. Naturally enough, the formation of coöperative associations suggested itself as the most practicable method of proceeding. The first move in this direction was made by Mr. Timothy Rix, a Boston merchant. Although then past middle life, Mr. Rix was full of energy and ambition, and under his leadership was organized "The Boston and California Mining and Trading Joint Stock Company," the fortunes of which this narrative is to chronicle. A prospectus was issued, and applications for membership were invited. The shares were placed at three hundred dollars each, and the whole number of members was limited to one hundred and fifty. The first public notice calling attention to the organization brought hundreds of applications for membership. The roll was soon filled, and from the overflow new organizations were started, and in due course followed the example of the parent company. Captain Henry Smith, who had sailed for many years as commander of the vessels of Frederick Tudor, the old Boston merchant. who originated the ice trade with the West Indies and southern ports, was chosen to act in the double capacity of president of the company and commander of a ship, Mr. Rix taking the vice-presidency and the writer being. chosen as secretary.1 The company was composed of men representing every calling in mechanical and professional life. There were Mass.; John E. Dix, of Boston: Abiel Carter, of 579 graduates of New England universities, and young men whose future was yet undefined by any calling or profession. Of the whole number of the 150 members who composed the expedition, 120 had not passed their thirtieth year, 85 were twenty-five or under, 33 were twenty-one or under, while 12 were not yet "out of their teens." The ship finally selected and purchased for FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY TABER. Thomas C. Larkin the voyage was the Edward Everett, one of the "Medford built" craft for which Boston had long been celebrated. She was a fullrigged ship of about 800 tons burden. She had been built for the European trade, was comparatively new, and ranked as one of the finest ships hailing from Boston. She was spacious between decks and otherwise well adapted for the purpose. The organization of this unique expedition, and its approaching departure, was for the time being the chief topic of the day. Mr. Everett, with wise forethought and liberality, presented to the company a well-selected library of historical, biographical, and scientific works, accompanying the gift with a communication expressing the great interest which he in common with the public at large felt in the success of the company and in the part which those who composed it would take in the social and political organization of the new State which they doubtless would help to found. The Sunday before the ship sailed the members of the company attended the Ashburton Place church by special invitation to listen to a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Kirk, on the part that this first expedition from New England was expected to perform in the cause of civilization and religion on the Pacific coast. In all circles the prospective departure of the "Edward Everett Expedition," as it had now come to be known, was an event of rare interest and was the current topic of discussion and speculation. The Edward Everett swung loose from her moorings at the wharf on the evening of January 11, 1849, and dropped down the harbor to an anchorage near Fort Independence, preparatory to putting to sea on the morning tide. The harbor was filled with floating ice, and the wind swept across our decks with arctic severity. At daybreak on the morning of the 12th the ship was under way and standing out to sea before a fresh and bitterly cold northwester. I pass over the unpleasant first days of the earlier part of the voyage, when the wild wintry weather covered decks and rigging with frozen spray, and two-thirds of the ship's company were prostrated from sea-sickness. The balmier atmosphere of the Gulf Stream and at smoother sea soon brought about a happier condition of affairs. The company was organized into messes, and order took the place of the chaos that had unavoidably prevailed for the first few days. Plans were devised for social organization and recreation. The publication of a weekly newspaper, under the title of "The Barometer, or Gold Hunter's Log," was begun and faithfully kept up throughout the voyage. Press and types were wanting, but it was read from manuscript every Saturday to the assembled ship's company, and furnished one of the most prolific sources of amusement of the whole voyage. The 1st of February found us drifting through the weed-matted surface of the "Sargasso Sea," with hardly wind enough to keep the ship's sails from slatting against her spars. The run off the coast, across the Gulf Stream, and through the Atlantic down to the latitude of the Madeiras, had been a lively one. The wind had been fresh and fair enough to satisfy even the skipper himself. From 33° north latitude, down to and through "the Sargasso Sea," it was like a doldrum drift, and welcome was the change when in about 210 north the ship began to feel the influence of the northeast trades. Straight on her course, the wind on her port quarter, with everything set to her main skysail, she bowled along day after day until we were within two degrees of the equator. "Running down the trades" was indeed the very poetry of sea-going. It brought men and boys alike on deck, put them fairly on their "sea legs," and made sailors of them in good or bad |