Further explorations showed that deposits of gold extended over a vast extent of country. This discovery at once changed the character of California. Its people, before engaged in cultivating small patches of ground and guarding their herds of cattle and horses, flocked to the mines, and the fever of getting suddenly rich raged among and pervaded the entire community.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated.

The manufacture of gutta-percha was commenced in this country this year. The first submarine cable, in this or any other country, insulated with gutta-percha, was laid across the Passaic and Hudson rivers for the telegraph line between Philadelphia and New York.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal, connecting Lake Michigan with the Illinois River, at La Salle, was completed in the spring.

The suspension bridge across the Ohio at Wheeling was completed. Its span was ten hundred and ten feet.

The corner-stone of the monument to General Washington, was laid at the city of Washington, on the 4th of July.

The first importation of guano into this country was made this year. One thousand pounds were received.

The first satisfactory experiment of recording time from a clock stationed at a distance was made on the 17th of November. A delicate clock was especially contrived and wires were put up for the purpose, at the expense of the United States Coast Survey, between Cincinnati and Pittsburg. a distance of four hundred miles. The clock placed in the electric circuit recorded its beats at all the offices along the line upon a graduated fillet of paper, on the plan of the Morse apparatus.

St. Louis and Brooklyn were both lighted with gas this year, for the first time.

A conflagration in Brooklyn on the 9th of September destroyed about three hundred buildings and property valued at one and one half millions of dollars. The blocks bounded by Fulton, Henry, and Orange streets, and Fulton, Sands, Wash ington, and Concord streets, were laid waste.

The Cochituate water was introduced into Boston on the 25th of October.

The phenomena at Rochester, N. Y., called "Rochester Knockings," appeared this year, which soon caused not only great excitement at that place, but was a subject of wonder and newspaper comment throughout the country. Mysterious rappings occurred in the houses of "mediums," as they were called, which appeared to answer questions put by visitors. Much excitement was manifested in several places in the country, and, many people believing the communications and the phenomena proceeded from spirits, they began to be designated as Spiritualists.

A fourth exploring expedition under John C. Fremont left the Upper Pueblo Fort, near the head of Arkansas River, on the 25th of November. The previous expeditions of Fremont

were for the benefit of the government, but this one was a private enterprise, with a principal object in view of discovering a proper highway connecting the Mississippi River with the Pacific Ocean.

A terrible catastrophe attended an excursion on the Potomac, on the 28th of February, of the United States steamer Princeton, by the explosion of a gun, the power of which was being exhibited. Mr. Upshur, the Secretary of State, and Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy, were killed, and several distinguished persons seriously injured. On the 27th of May, the steamer Clarksville, a regular packet-boat plying between New Orleans and Memphis, was destroyed by fire near Ozark Island, by which disaster thirty passengers and nearly all the crew lost their lives. On the 9th of August, a flue on the steamer Edward Bates collapsed on the Mississippi, near Hamburg, Ill., causing the death of fifty-three persons, and wounding forty others. Twenty-eight persons were killed and several wounded by the bursting of the boilers of the steamer Concordia at Plaquemine, La., on the 16th of September.

1849 On the 5th of March, Zachary Taylor, as President, and Millard Fillmore, as Vice-President, took the oaths of office.

On the 3d of March, Congress passed an act for organizing Minnesota under a Territorial government. St. Paul, containing at this time but a few log-huts, was made the seat of government.

The United States ship Preble, forming a part of the American fleet in the China seas, sailed for Japan in February to rescue sixteen American seamen, who had been shipwrecked on the coasts of some of the Japanese islands, and had there been detained and imprisoned. As the ship approached the coast of Japan, an unsuccessful attempt was made to oppose her progress, and the object of her visit was attained only after threats of violent measures if the demand were further refused.

The cholera visited America again this year. The disease prevailed at New Orleans nearly eight months, carrying off about thirty-five hundred persons. Almost every vessel which left the city had cases on board, which spread the disease over different sections of the country. The deaths from cholera in Memphis were 290; Nashville, 805; St. Louis, 4557; Chicago, 678; Buffalo, 858; Sandusky, 285; Albany, 334; Boston, 611; New York, 5071; and Philadelphia, 1022.

Information of the gold discoveries in California spread in every direction, and adventurers flocked there from all quarters; from the Pacific coast of Mexico and South America, the Sandwich Islands, and China. The American emigration commenced to arrive there by sea in July and August, and by overland in September. It was estimated there were fifteen thousand foreigners there in July. At a place called Sonorian Camp it was supposed there were ten thousand Mexicans alone. They had quite a city of booths, tents, and log-cabins, hotels, stores, and shops of all descriptions. An enclosure made of the trunks of trees, and lined with cotton-cloth, served as an am

phitheatre for bull-fights and other amusements. The foreigners resorted principally to the southern mines, the Americans to the northern. The first season the laborers averaged about one ounce of gold per day. It was estimated that during this and the preceding year gold to the value of about forty millions of dollars was collected, one half of which was taken out of the country by foreigners. The first regular banking house established in California was started at San Francisco on the 9th of January. In January, the first frame house on the banks of the Sacramento was erected at Sutter's Fort. Some few months later, the settlers at that place, removed to the site of the present city of Sacramento.

In June, Rev. Theobald Mathew, commonly called "Father Mathew," arrived in New York, whence he visited many of the important cities of the Union, and delivered lectures upon temperance to immense audiences.

Edwin Booth, the celebrated tragedian, at this time not quite sixteen years of age, made his first appearance on the stage at the Boston Museum, on the 10th of September.

The first degree of "M.D." given in the United States to a woman was received by Elizabeth Blackwell from the Medical School of Geneva, N. Y., after she had made unsuccessful applications at the schools of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.

The first newspaper in St. Paul was established there on the 28th of April, under the name of the Pioneer.

The New York Associated Press Association was formed. It was composed of the Journal of Commerce, Courier and Enquirer, Tribune, Herald, Sun, and Express.

In the month of May, occurred at New York what has been known as the Astor Place Riot. In consequence of an unfriendliness of long standing between Mr. Edwin Forrest and Macready, the celebrated English tragedian, the friends of the former actor threatened to prevent the appearance, as announced, of Mr. Macready in New York. On the night of the 7th, when he appeared as "Macbeth" at the Opera House in Astor Place, such was the confusion prevailing in all parts of the house, the manager was obliged to drop the curtain before the termination of the performance. Mr. Macready was thereupon inclined to cancel his engagement; but upon the publication of a card signed by many citizens, requesting him to continue, and promising to protect him in the discharge of his duties, he consented to perform on the evening of the 10th. On that occasion, owing to the precautions taken to preserve order in the house, he succeeded in acting his part, and at the end of the play was called out by the audience, whom he thanked for his protection and support. Outside the theatre, the friends of Forrest, after vainly endeavoring to effect an entrance, commenced an attack on the building with stones and missiles. The police being unable to restrain the mob, which was increasing in numbers and violence, and the reading of the riot act proving ineffectual, the military were called out and were

1850

obliged to discharge several volleys of musketry to quell the disturbance. Twenty-two persons were killed and thirty-six wounded. Mr. Macready escaped in disguise, and, making no further attempt to perform in New York, he soon left the country.

A fire on the 17th of May destroyed a large part of the business portion of the city of St. Louis, involving a loss, as estimated, of three millions of dollars.

In March, a flood devastated the city of New Orleans which was the most destructive that ever visited that place. Many of the streets were ten feet under water, and a large amount of merchandise was destroyed. The plantations above were overflowed, and the rush of water over the fields in some places was irresistible, carrying away everything which opposed the current, which was believed to move at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The damage sustained by planters and others was estimated at sixty millions of dollars.

On the 9th of July, President Taylor died, and Millard Fillmore succeeded him in office.

In September, Congress passed bills, after a vehement and protracted struggle upon the slavery question, for the admission of California into the Union as a State; for providing Teritorial governments for Utah and New Mexico; for the suppression of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia; and a fugitive-slave bill. The bill authorizing the admission of California into the Union recognized the constitution of that State as framed by a convention of the people which prohibited slavery within her borders. The fugitive-slave bill imposed a fine of one thousand dollars, and six months' imprisonment on any person harboring fugitive slaves, or aiding them to escape. It was estimated that there were more than twenty thousand fugitive slaves residing in the free States, a large number of whom had intermarried with free persons, and the passage of this bill struck terror upon the whole colored population and their sympathizing friends. Public meetings were held in different sections of the Northern States in condemnation of the bill. Eight days after the passage of the act, an agent armed with the power of attorney from a slave-owner in Maryland, appeared in New York in search of one James Hamiit, a husband and father, a member of the Methodist church, and a resident in the city three years. He was seized while at work, hurried into a retired room, tried in haste, delivered to the agent, handcuffed, taken away without an opportunity to bid farewell to his family, and put into prison in Baltimore. A few days afterwards, a similar scene was enacted in Philadelphia. In Detroit an attempt to arrest a fugitive excited a popular resistance, to suppress which it was necessary to invoke the aid of the military.

Congress passed an act donating the right of way and a grant of land to the States of Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama, in aid of the construction of a railroad from Chicago to Mobile. Popular interest was excited this year by an invasion of Cuba

from the American shores. An expedition of three hundred men, under the command of General Lopez, sailed from New Orleans on the 25th of April and the 2d of May, and landed at Cardenas on the 19th of May. A brief struggle ensued between the invaders and the Cuban troops, in which the latter were repulsed; an attack was then made on the governor's palace, which was plundered, a large amount of money seized, and the governor taken prisoner. The invaders had counted upon accessions to their ranks from the Spanish army and from the disaffected inhabitants. In this, however, they were entirely disappointed, and Lopez re-embarked with a few of his companions, and made his escape to New Orleans, leaving the great body of his followers behind. These were taken prisoners by the Cuban authorities, but were subsequently released upon a demand of the United States Government. Lopez was arrested upon his arrival in the United States on a charge of having violated the neutrality laws.

An expedition fitted out by the government, at the expense of Mr. Henry Grinnell of New York, sailed from that city on the 24th of May, for the arctic regions, in search of Sir John Franklin. It consisted of two ships under the command of Captain De Haven, and returned in October of the next year without accomplishing the object of the voyage.

The number of inhabitants in Williamsburg, L. I., was estimated at thirty-one thousand. The first directory was published and a gas company organized.

The cities of Nashville, Chicago, and Lowell were lighted with gas. In Chicago a Board of Trade was established.

The first establishment west of the Alleghanies for the manufacture of copper and brass was started near Pittsburg. This was the first factory in the United States projected for working American copper exclusively.

F. B. Conway made his first appearance in America, at the Broadway Theatre in New York, on the 19th of August; and at the same place, Madame Ponisi appeared in this country for the first time, on the 11th of November. On the 4th of the same month, Signorina Teresa Parodi commenced an engagement at the Astor Place Opera House, in the same city.

Jenny Lind arrived at New York on the 1st of September, amid great enthusiasm of the people, and demonstrations of welcome far exceeding any which had ever before greeted the arrival in America of any foreign songstress or actor. On the evening of her arrival she was serenaded by The New York Musical Fund Society, numbering on that occasion two hundred musicians. On the 11th she made her first appearance on the stage in America at Castle Garden, and this concert was followed by five others. The number of persons present on each occasion exceeded seven thousand. The receipts on the first night were about thirty thousand dollars, and Jenny Lind immediately bestowed ten thousand upon several of the worthiest charities of the city. During the next nine months she gave ninety-three concerts in the principal cities of the Union and