Eyewitness accounts of Western settlers

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm#

This particular website is of great importance when analysing the voyage Western settlers embarked upon in order to gain prosperity and a better standard of living during the 1800's. This eyewitness account focusses on a man named James Marshall and the Gold Rush in 1849.

In January 1848, James Wilson Marshall discovered Gold while constructing a saw mill along the American River northeast of present day Sacramento. The discovery was reported in the San Francisco newspapers in March but called little stir as most did not believe the account.

“(We) proceeded up the river in canoes rowed by the natives , and enjoyed the scenery and howling of the monkeys & chattering of parrots very much. We pitched our tents at Gorgona & most of out party stayed there several weeks . S.Miller & myself went onto Panama to look out for a chance to get up to San Francisco. Of our ill success you have probably been informed & consequently of our long stay there, & of the deaths in our party. Yes, here Mr Crooker, J. Miller & L. Alden yielded up their breath to God who gave it.
After many delays & vexations, we at length took passage on a German ship & set sail again on our journey to the Eldorado of the West. We went south nearly to the Equator, then turned west, the weather was warm, the winds light & contrary for our course. Our ship was a slow sailor & consequently our passage was long and tedious.....
On the 85th day out we hove in sight of an object that grealtly attracted our attention & ere long the green hills of San Francisco bay began to show their highest points, & soon we were gliding smoothly along between them, down the bay, & when the order came to let go anchor, we brought up directly in front of the City amidst a fleet of vessels, of all kinds and sizes.”

When looking through this passage we can immediatley see a resembelance between America values and ideologies and the interpretation of a new found land, with which Marshall states as being “a journey to the Eldorado of the West”. The definition of Eldorado is “an imagingary place of wealth and opportunity; sought in South America by 16th-century explorers”, yet as we can see is still evidently present and set within the minds of these explorers in finding a somewhat perfect and free land for growth and industy, hence increasing profits.