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“The wind suddenly increased to a violent gale…throwing the man at the wheel down, shipping heavy seas, knocking and rolling us about as though we were but feathers.” - Enos Christman
While some 49ers decided to travel 3,000 miles to California in a covered wagon on the overland Oregon Trail and others decided to travel 7,000 miles on a ship by the way of the Panama Route, I decided to travel 15,000 miles around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. I had heard some awful stories about the other two routes, so I thought this would be the safest way to get to California. When we first got aboard the ship, the sea was relaxing and beautiful. The ship’s ports were exciting and new. What was not so exciting was the gigantic waves, horrifying winds, and freezing temperatures. Traveling aboard the cramped steamboat was not much fun since I had to spend almost eight months, jammed inside a small room. As you can imagine, sea travel is extremely boring and filled with horror stories. This man next to me suffered from a disease called scurvy. His whole mouth bled constantly and all of his teeth fell out. Another miner on the ship suffered from the dreaded disease called cholera. I am sorry to say that he died. His 5 brothers who came along with him took all his clothes and wrapped him up, and threw him overboard into the dark, stormy sea. When I finally reached the San Francisco port, I thought all my problems were over. What I didn’t know was that I had even worst problems lying ahead of me. Most of us weary travelers believed that the journey had just ended, but we soon discovered that the gold mines were 150 miles inland. Some of my fellow travelers had no money left for the rest of the journey and were stuck in San Francisco, hungry and famished for both food and success. Thank goodness, I had some money left over! While I paid only $100 for the journey, I heard of some miners paying up to $1000! But I believe the long, difficult journey will eventually be worth it because when I finish mining California gold, I will return home rich. Remember me in your prayers. Your devoted brother Click here to
find out all about overland traveling.
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