or have no crew to do it for them.  Some vessels continue to go to sea, with small crews, at 50 dollars per month for green hands.  Old hands are too wise for them, and prefer digging an ounce or two a-day, and drinking hock and champagne at half an ounce a-bottle, and eating bad sea bread at 1 dollar per pound.  I have seen a captain of a vessel, who, by his old contract in the port whence he sailed, was getting 60 dollars per month, paying his cook 75 dollars, and offering 100 dollars per month for a steward; his former crew, even to his mates, having gone a ‘prospecting.’  Uncle Sam’s ships suffer a little the same way, although they offer from 200 to 500 dollars for the apprehension of a deserter.  The Ohio, however, laid in the port of Monterey about a month, and lost only 20 or 30 men.  Colonel Stevenson’s regiment is disbanded, 99 out of 100 of whom have also gone ‘prospecting,’ including the colonel, who arrived in Monterey last month, from his last post, and was met by his men at the edge of the town, to escort and cheer him into the town.  The captains, etc., have bought up country carts and oxen, turned drivers, and gone to the Placer.  Our worthy governor, Colonel of the 1st Dragoons, etc., having plenty of carts, wagons, horses, and mules, with a few regulars left, has also gone, but under better advantages, for the second or third time, to see the Placer and the country, and have justice done to his countrymen or himself.  Commodore Jones, lately arrived in Monterey, supposed it to be the capital, head-quarters, etc., but found not even the Governor left.  Where head-quarters are may be uncertain, whether in Monterey, Sutter’s Fort, or in a four-mule wagon travelling over the gold region.  Now, whether headquarters are freighted with munitions of war, etc., or whether the cargo consists of blankets, shirts, etc., to clothe the suffering Indians, for the paltry consideration of gold, no one cares or knows; but the principle should be, that, if privates can or will be off making their thousands, those who are better able should not go goldless.”

The Washington Union contains a letter from Lieutenant Larkin, dated Monterey, November 16, received at the State Department, containing further confirmation of the previous despatches, public and private, and far outstripping all other news in its exciting character.  The gold was increasing in size and quality daily.  Lumps were found weighing from one to two pounds.  Several had been heard of weighing as high as 16 pounds, and one 25 pounds.  Many men, who were poor in June, were worth 30,000 dollars, by digging and trading with the Indians. 100 dollars a-day is the average amount realized daily, from July to October.  Half the diggers were sick with fevers, though not many deaths had occurred among them.  The Indians would readily give an ounce of gold for a common calico shirt; others were selling for ten dollars each in specie.  The gold region extends over a track of