THE LAND OF GOLD. REALITY VERSUS FICTION. BY HINTON R. HELPER. BALTIMORE: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY HENRY TAYLOR, SUN IRON BUILDING. 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by HINTON R. HELPER, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of Maryland. SHERWOOD & CO., PRINTERS, BALTIMORE. TO THE HON. JOHN M. MOREHEAD, OF NORTH CAROLINA, These Pages are respectfully Dedicated, BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND AND ADMIRER, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. Previous to my departure for California, near and dear friends extracted from me a promise to communicate by letter, upon every convenient occasion, such intelligence as would give them a distinct idea of the truthfulness or falsehood of the many glowing descriptions and reputed vast wealth of California. In accordance with this promise, I collected, from the best and most reliable sources, all that I deemed worthy of record touching the past of the modern El Dorado, relying upon my own powers of observation to depicture its present condition and its future prospects. This correspondence was never intended for the public eye, for the simple reason that the matter therein is set forth in a very plain manner, with more regard to truth than elegance of diction. Indeed, how could it be otherwise? I have only described those things which came immediately under my own observation, and, beside this, I make no pretensions to extensive scholastic attainments, nor do I claim to be an adept in the art of book-making. A weary and rather unprofitable sojourn of three years in various parts of California, afforded me ample time and opportunity to become _too_ thoroughly conversant with its rottenness and its corruption, its squalor and its misery, its crime and its shame, its gold and its dross. Simply and truthfully I gave the history of my experience to friends at home, who, after my return, suggested that profit might be derived from giving these letters to the world in narrative form, and urged me so strenuously, that I at length acceded to their wishes, but not without much reluctance, being doubtful as to the reception of a book from one so incapable as myself of producing any thing more than a plain “unvarnished tale.”