Before the letter I last wrote you had left Bear Valley (6th inst) two gentlemen arrived from San Francisco, with the purpose of securing debts due from the Company: one representing the Bank of Cala, the other our commercial agents. They both treated me with the greatest possible consideration & confidence; and the Bank agent, after having secured the sheriff ready to act before he saw me, consented to suspend all proceedings until I could go to S.F. & communicate with the company, unless in the meantime circumstances should occur compelling him to act—as proceedings of other parties in the same direction. I have learned here that our small checks have been protested, and I am afraid it is all up, but have telegraphed the Bank that if they can prevent alarm & violent proceedings, I think I can serve all the California creditors. This I shall do if possible. Our assets, discreetly used, will cover all California indebtedness—keep the hands employed & supported thro’ the winter & pay them off in full. If they get alarmed, however, I don’t know what consequences to anticipate. We owe them $40,000 (for wages) and they will naturally be very angry and possibly take the law into their own hands. Since I began writing; I find that the fact of the protests is getting reported at Stockton & creating some excitement.

We collected $4000 in rough bullion (bars) on the evening the news reached me, which I immediately gave myself a bill of sale of—also executed a Bill of sale for some instruments which with the bullion will make up about the value of my year’s salary.

We shall have a few grievous confidential debts—trust money &c.—but I think I shall be able to provide for them all, unless there is a panic and everything is knocked to splinters.

Of course you see that either the Bank has been acting in a most unjustifiable manner, or else I have been most shabbily treated by the Company. I am inclined to think that the Bank has been unnecessarily frightened and acted precipitately.

The Agent of the Bank—Col Fry—after some study of our condition expressed a highly favorable opinion of the management of the [293]Estate, and the Cashier wrote me that I could depend on the confidence, respect & friendship of the Trustees of the Bank, personally, to any extent.

Fry agreed with me, that if there was no interruption of work, our assets personal would cover our California liabilities, (including $60,000 to the Bank) by more than $100,000.

I wrote you that my year’s expenditure had been $140,000 short of the amount I proposed to use in my last January report. The amount short was mainly what was saved by the abandonment of certain mines. My accounts are not yet all in, & complete, & I cannot say how much I have exceeded my estimates of expenditure on the work accomplished. There are explorative works which I estimated would be finished before this & which are not, but as far as I can now judge, these have cost, on an average, pro rata of progress, but little if any more than I estimated. There was no important error in my estimates, except in the estimates of yield, which I gave with abundant saving clauses. The gold was not in the mines as the experts whom I was advised by the Trustees to employ, led me to hope that it might be.