Apparently the Californian of that day was thoroughly imbued with the saying of the Cyclops, "The wise know nothing worth worshipping but wealth." The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was incorporated in 1847, to sail from New York to New Orleans and Chagres, and from Panama to such Pacific port as the Secretary of the Navy might designate. Later, when the existence of gold in her mines made California the cynosure of all eyes, San Francisco was decided upon as the western terminus of the route. On October 6, 1848, the "California," the first vessel of this line, steamed out of New York harbor, with but a small number of passengers. As this ship was intended for use on the Pacific coast alone, she was obliged to take the tedious and perilous route through the Strait of Magellan to reach her destination. Arriving at Panama, she found the Isthmus apparently turned into pandemonium. The one time dingy, sleepy city of Panama appeared to have fallen entirely into the hands of the gold-seekers. Cholera had broken out with terrible malignity on the banks of the Chagres. The panic-stricken travellers were fleeing from the disease, some trying to reach the land of their desire by an old trail, others were trying to make some progress in boats called "longos," poled by naked negroes. The mass of the worn, weary, eager wayfarers, however, were waiting as best they might, for that vision of hope and comfort, the "steamer." At last she reached them, with accommodations for about one hundred. She was mobbed by the frantic men, and at last when she left port, over four hundred of them had embarked upon her, many a man braving that adventurous voyage, with only a coil of rope or a plank for a bed. Steerage tickets for the trip are said to have cost one thousand dollars, or over. After spending four months in her passage, the "California" steamed into the Bay of San Francisco, February 29, 1849, a day never to be forgotten at the Golden Gate! The town was crowded with miners wintering there; the ships in the harbor were gay with bunting; the guns of the Pacific Squadron boomed out a salute to the new-comers. Bands of music played, handkerchiefs waved, and men cheered in their enthusiasm, as the first steamship of a regular line entered the Golden Gate, in pursuit of the treasures of the "Golden Age." That ship bore to California the new military commander, General Persifor F. Smith. So high ran the fever for treasure, that before the passengers had fairly left the steamer, she was deserted by all belonging to her, save one engineer, and she was consequently unable to start on her return trip.