Eldorado; Or Adventures in the Path of Empire: Comprising a Voyage to California, via Panama: Life in San Francisco and Monterey: Picture of the Gold Region, Experiences of Mexican Travel

8vo, 2 volumes, later ¾ morocco, illustrated with 8 tinted lithographic plates, 251, 247pp.Titles and frontispieces bleached, else significant foxing throughout. Bookplate on front pastedowns. Solid set overall. ‘Eldorado’ is considered one of the best contemporary accounts of the California gold rush by a highly renowned traveler. Taylor had a great eye for detail, and shares some fascinating experiences in this work. His impressions of San Francisco, which basically presents a picture of a very busy unfinished frontier town, are especially interesting. “On every side stood buildings, of all kinds, begun or half-finished, and the greater part of them mere canvas sheds.” He was much impressed by the high prices for just about everything, but also reports that this gave opportunities for some. Musicians, for example, could earn $16 a night, and he knew of a Swiss organ girl who had earned $4,000 in six months. Taylor spends a lot of time discussing the gold rush, and concludes that it isn’t the easiest job around. “If any one expects to dig treasures out of the earth, in California, without severe labor, he is woefully mistaken.” He also concludes that gold prospecting isn’t for the sickly or faint of heart, because you need to be able to survive in some difficult surroundings, and with some mighty tough characters. He mentions the “notorious Keysburg”, who murdered has companions and made them his dinner, and running across a sick man at a stream left for dead by his friends because he was too weak to go on. He also shares some insight into the simple code of frontier justice, which seems to banish you for things like petty theft, but hangs you for just about everything else. Howes T43. Eberstadt 103; 264. Streeter 2654.K7+K275