This being my first opportunity of writing since I arrived in California, I now hasten to let you know that after a long absence from home, or even from the last settlements of the United States, I am yet numbered among the living, and have not forgot my duty to those I left behind me.

I arrived in the Sacramento Valley just six months from the time I left Missouri, having traveled over a long and weary road, accompanied by all the trials, hardships and privations that necessarily attend a journey of that kind through an enemy's country.

I left Missouri on the 10th of May last, when the Cholera was raging at every town on the river in Upper Missouri, and when I got on the plains I found that it was raging to an alarming extent also among the immigrants, and every hour in the day brought us to a fresh grave of a victim of Cholera. We buried six or eight men of our Company who died of the disease, one was of my mess.

When we arrived in the Rocky Mountains, sickness ceased its ravages among the immigrants and all seemed buoyed up by the pure air and water of the mountains.

The 19th of July brought us in full view of the snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains; the 24th we passed over the high ridge of mountains that separates the waters of the Atlantic from the Pacific Ocean. After leaving the Rockey Mountains a few days we turned somewhat south, crossing the waters of the Colorado and directed our journey by way of the Great Salt Lake where we were furnished with every kind of refreshments in the way [of] vegetables, milk, etc., by the Mormons who have quite a large settlement and city in the valley of the lake.

The Salt Lake is about 75 miles long, surrounded with a beautiful and fertile valley filled with mineral and fresh water springs many of them boiling hot, and crossed by numerous streams running down from the surrounding mountains but sinking in the earth before reaching the Lake which is a remarkable feature in the whole character of the Great Basis which is about 5 or 700 miles in diameter and seems to be independent of and cut off from the rest of the world having its own rivers, lake etc., all losing themselves in the sand within the limits of the Basin without having any connections or communication with any other part of the world. Its climate is cold and subject to great changes. It is filled with mountains and valleys between, of a sandy and barren nature, almost entirely destitute of vegetation.

We traveled up the East side of the Lake and around the north end on the dividing range of mountains that separates the waters of the Basin from the Columbia River, passing through every variety of climate and over every variety of country until we struck on the Humboldt or Marys River, where we found an abundance of grass for our animals and fuel for cooking.

We followed this river some three hundred miles and leaving it just above its sink, struck off across a desert of 75 or 100 miles in breadth, which we had to travel exclusively at night on account of the heat. After crossing this desert, having lost several of our cattle, and the others being very much jaded, we were compelled to abandon our wagon and pack our two horses and what cattle that were able, in order to make our point of destination before the rainy season set in. We were now about 400 miles from the Sacramento Valley. When we arrived at the Sierra Nevada Mountains, we were threatened strongly by the rainy season; it rained and snowed on us for two nights, we being without tent or shelter of any kind. We left the Sierra Nevada covered with snow and traveled some three hundred miles afoot, with our pack animals, through a tribe of most hostile Indians that we had yet met with, having to sleep at night with our arms by our sides and one eye upon the look out at all times, to save our scalps, which we succeeded in doing, though a good many were killed by them.

This brought us within 75 or 100 miles of the long sought for Valley of the Sacramento, though the roughest and most difficult pat of the journey seemed yet before us. At this distance from our point of destination the rain began to fall, which soon convinced us that the rainy season was already begun. It began to snow and continued to snow with cessation until it lay 3 feet deep on the ground., in consequence of which we lost every ox, all of our clothing, mining tools, and everything we had in the world except a change of shirts. Such was the condition that we landed in the Valley of the Sacramento on the 10th of Nov. 1849, a day long to be remembered. A great many families besides a number of others were caught in the same predicament. The Governor of California sent out a company of men and animals to relieve the families but most of their animals perished also, and the women were obliged to foot it through snow and water, wading the creeks which were then high, while the men packed the little children in bags on mules as you have seen turkeys carried to market, with their heads poking out, others on their backs, and brought them in.

Provisions being enormously high, our little stock of money soon became exhausted, but, by the assistance of our guns and the abundance of game, we succeeded in getting to the mine, in which we had not been deceived as to their richness, though we were not able to do much for the want of tools and on account of the rain, but by living on beef and coffee alone, which cost us 50 cents a pound, both beef and coffee, and our working every opportunity, have been able to get a set of tools and laid in the most of our winters supply of provisions and have between 1 and 200 dollars in gold dust besides, a sample of which I have enclosed in this letter to you.

Our gold washer or cradle cost us $60.00 a pick $7.00, spades from $7.00 to $10.00. Flour is worth in the mines from $150.00 to $200.00 per barrel, though it has been as high as $300.00 per bbl. Pork from 75 cents to $1.00 per pound, rice 50 cents per lb., beans 75 cents per lb., sugar and coffee 50 cents.

I am as stout and health as ever I was in my life and have no hesitation in saying that if I continue so, I shall be able to leave here in two years to make me comfortable in whatever place I may see fit to settle. An average of an ounce of good gold a day in good weather to a hand is common work and frequently three or four times as much.

The Gold is found here in scales and lumps worth from one to hundreds of dollars, the largest piece that I have found is worth 4 or 5 dollars though I have seen much larger pieces. It was found along the river and streams making into the rivers and appears to be inexhaustible. I must now conclude as I have not room to write more.

It has now been more than 12 months since I heard from home and have never received a line from one of the family except Ben since I left home which has been nearly two years. Tell Mary if she has any regard for me whatever, or ever wishes to hear from me again, to write to me.

I should be very much gratified to receive a letter from you and Ma, and learn something about Henry and his situation.

I remain
Your obedient and affectionate son
Nicholas L. Davies