As long as I have lived in California I have never carried a weapon of defense, and never could see much danger.  I tried to follow the right trail so as to shun bad men, and never found much difficulty in doing so.  We hear much of the Vigilance Committee of early days.  It was an actual necessity of former times.  The gold fields not only attracted the good and brave, but also the worst and most lawless desperadoes of the world at large.  England’s banished convicts came here from the penal colonies of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.  They had wonderful ideas of freedom.  In their own land the stern laws and numerous constabulary had not been able to keep them from crime.  A colony of criminals did not improve in moral tone, and when the most reckless and daring of all these were turned loose in a country like California, where the machinery of laws and officers to execute them was not yet in order, these lawless “Sidney Ducks,” as they were called, felt free to rob and murder, and human life or blood was not allowed to stand between them and their desires.  Others of the same general stripe came from Mexico and Chili, and Texas and Western Missouri furnished another class almost as bad.

The Vigilance Committee of San Francisco was composed of the best men in the world.  They endured all that was heaped upon them by these lawless men, and the law of self protection forced them to organize for the swift apprehension and punishment of crime, and the preservation of their property and lives.  No one was punished unjustly, but there was no delay, and the evil-doer met his fate swiftly and surely.  Justice was strict, and the circumstances were generally unfavorable to thoughts of mercy.  I was in San Francisco the day after Casey and Cory were hung by the Vigilance Committee.  Things looked quite military.  Fort Gunny-bags seemed well protected, and no innocent man in any danger.  I was then a customer of G.W.  Badger and Lindenberger, clothiers, and was present one day in their store when some of the clerks came in from general duty, and their comrades shouldered the same guns and took their places on guard.  The Committee was so truly vigilant that these fire-bugs, robbers and cut-throats had to hide for safety.

Those who came early to this coast were, mostly, brave, venturesome, enduring fellows, who felt they could outlive any hardship and overcome all difficulties; they were of no ordinary type of character or habits.  They thought they saw success before them, and were determined to win it at almost any cost.  They had pictured in their minds the size of the “pile” that would satisfy them, and brought their buckskin bags with them, in various sizes, to hold the snug sum they hoped to win in the wonderful gold fields of the then unknown California.