News from the West Coast 1844

News from the West Coast 1844 (booklet measures 24 x 16 cm bound in gray heavy paper with blue etching of clipper ship, contains four pages, 150 copies, printed at Richmond, Virginia, 1938) Contents: Ship Vandalia, San Diego, Dec, 7, 1844. Dear John (Low) and Hannah (letter relates how the writer, John Girdler, just landed 9,000 hides will have 13,000 collected by January 1, will sail from San Diego to San Pedro, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Francisco will remain there until April. Describes life in California and has poor opinion of people there, says he has not heard from family for 15 months.) This letter was brought East by ship Barnstable, Capt. Hatch. Capt. Girdler was in San Francisco when gold was discovered and all his crew and officers deserted the ship to go to the gold fields. The owner of the original of this letter has a ring made from one of Marshall’s first nuggets found at Sutter’s Mill.