Before we advance farther in our narrative, it may be quite as well to
say, that the adventurers of which this wild congregation was made up
were impelled to their present common centre by motives and influences
as various as the differing features of their several countenances. They
came, not only from parts of the surrounding country, but many of them
from all parts of the surrounding world; oddly and confusedly jumbled
together; the very _olla-podrida_ of moral and mental combination. They
were chiefly those to whom the ordinary operations of human trade or
labor had proved tedious or unproductive--with whom the toils, aims, and
impulses of society were deficient of interest; or, upon whom, an
inordinate desire of a sudden to acquire wealth had exercised a
sufficiently active influence to impel to the novel employment of
gold-finding--or rather gold-_seeking_, for it was not always that the
search was successful--the very name of such a pursuit carrying with it
to many no small degree of charm and persuasion.
Pages:
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109