The Gold Hunters (Borthwick)

John David Borthwick (1824–1892)

This is a robust, rough and tumble, first-hand account of the early California gold rush years 1851-1854 by a Scottish adventurer and artist J. D. Borthwick. The first edition, published in 1857 was called Three Years in California. Reprints have used the more descriptive title The Gold Hunters.

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If you have enjoyed Borthwick’s tale of the California gold rush, you might like this account of  Pike’s Peak :
A Gold Hunter’s Experience, by Chalkley J. Hambleton

Or this adventurous tale:

Across the Pampas & Among the Andes, by Francis Bond Head

Sir Francis Bond Head went to the Argentine in 1825 as mining supervisor for the Rio Plata Mining Association, a group of English speculators whose ill-planned and financially disastrous idea it was to send Cornish miners to re-open old gold and silver mines in the former Spanish colonies. His Rough Notes, written in a staccato style that is surprisingly fresh, show a gutsy, resourceful adventurer–riding across the Andes on mules which sank into snow above their knees at every step; clambering down 250 feet of notched sticks to inspect a silver mine; foraging bluntly for food for his men in a land of scarcity.