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Page: of 281
16 JANUARY 21, 1872 GRASS VALLEY UNION
SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 1872
LETTER FROM CAL. CLARKE.
We give place to the following letter (not written for publication) from Cal. R. Clarke to Mr.
Findley. Cal. went down to Grenada [sic] to superintend the works of an English Mining Company.
The latter will interest the general reader and will be satisfactory to the many friends of the writer
who live in this county. Cal. Clarke’s address in Honda, New Granada, South America, care of James
H. Jenney. The letter to Mr. Thomas Findley is dated Santa Ana, Nov. 22d, 1871, and is as follows:
FRIEND TOM:—I was taken sick a few days after I left San Francisco. When I arrived at
Santa Maria I was 22 pounds lighter than when I left California. I was not sick enough at
any time to be confined to my bed until the 19th of last month [October 1871], when I was
taken with a diarrhoea and inflammation of the stomach, which came very near ending my
days—but a good constitution and the timely arrival of an old German doctor saved me. I
have now been out of bed seven days. My sickness occurred in Honda. As soon as I was able
to sit on a horse I left there and came here in the mountains where I have a better climate,
which I feel has done me good. I am now improving, but still very weak and nervous.
The doctor tells me it will take me six weeks or two months yet to regain my strength. In
this climate a man does not recover as rapidly as he does in the bracing atmosphere of
California. I weigh 31 pounds less than I did when I left California. Old residents tell me
that all foreigners go through a spell of sickness before they become acclimatized, some it
kills, others recover. If you recover thoroughly you can consider yourself (with proper care)
as safe for two or three years.
I have not been able to see enough to satisfy me that it is rich in all kinds of mineral,
but the people, the climate, the government, all are as a bar to the development of the
mines, and in my opinion it will be many years before the actual wealth and resources of
the country are known. It is not the country now for either a prospector or a poor man to
come to for several reasons, two of which are enough to give: first, wages here are too low,
from 20 to 40 cents per day for laborers, and mechanics can get nothing to do; prospect
they can’t, because the mines are all private property, and can only be got by purchase.
Even if the mines were opened to location, I would not advise a friend to come here, for
several reasons, the principal one being the unhealthy climate, and fear that I might advise
him to come to his death. Here I am deprived of almost everything that I had at home. I
have not had a drink of water colder than rain water since I have been here. I occasionally
see butter, but I can’t eat it; there are but few places where they use milk—plenty of cows,
but the people are too lazy to milk them. All kinds of Northern fruits are almost entirely
unknown. The beef is butchered in such a manner that it hardly looks fit for a dog; and then
the cooking is miserable, and the victuals we have to eat generally would not be allowed on
a decent table in California.
The foreigners live better, who have families, but it takes a long time to become
accustomed to plantains and other such things that are used here in place of the vegetables
we have at home. I don’t think I shall fully regain my weight and strength while I remain
in the country—the climate won't permit it. Everything brought here, whether man, beast,
plants of flowers, lose in strength, taste and fragrance. Cattle, horses, hogs and dogs
degenerate, in a few years, to regular “runts.” Roses lose their fragrance, and so men (white
men, I mean,) lose flesh and strength.
I don’t know how long I shall remain here, but as I am in the employ of a good company, I
shall stay as long as I can serve them to advantage. I am satisfied they have a fine mine, and