I also found that the reports which had reached me of hostilities between Americans and foreigners, in the mining districts, were greatly exaggerated, and that, with a few individual exceptions, every thing had remained quiet and orderly. In some of the northern _placers_ a party of Americans and Europeans, urged on by political aspirants, who seem willing to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the country, in order to promote their own personal interest, have assumed the authority to order all Mexicans and South Americans from that part of the territory. Their orders were quietly submitted to by the foreigners, a portion of whom removed to the mines further south, where the American population manifested a very decided disposition to afford them protection should they be further molested. The more intelligent and thinking portion of Americans regard this measure as illegal and injudicious, and will discountenance any repetition of movements so well calculated to disturb the public tranquillity, and to create bitter and exasperated feelings, where it is evidently our policy to cultivate those of the most friendly character. Some of the English, Irish, and German emigrants, in the northern _placers_, assisted in this movement against the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Chilians, and probably exerted themselves much more than any of our own citizens to create a prejudice and excitement against the Spanish race. They were probably actuated by pecuniary interest. The great influx of people from the southern portion of this continent was diminishing the price of labor in the towns near the northern rivers, and the large number of pack animals brought from Lower California and Sonora was producing a corresponding reduction in the expenses of transportation.
For example, the price of a pack mule in some parts of the mining districts a few months ago was about $500, whereas they can now be purchased for less than $150. The cost of transportation from the principal landing on the San Joaquin River to the Sonoranian camp was $75 per hundred, whereas at the present time it is only about $7.
This has reduced the prices of provisions in the _placers_ one and two hundred per cent. Some of the merchants who had large stocks of goods in the mines, and those who were engaged in transportation at the prices formerly paid, have suffered by the change, and it is natural that they should feel incensed against that class of foreigners who have contributed most to effect it.