File:Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries- Volume 7, page 117, July 21-22, 1855.jpg

Transcription:

able among my fellow cabin-chums are as follows. A thin-tallish Jersey-born American, returning from nearly a years stay in England, having gone thither in some project, (appertaining either to mining of or patent medecine, with both of which he appears familiar. He has lived in Mexico, (where he has a brother located,) tells how he and some three others had, becoming cognizant of the his existence of gold in California ere the great discovery, sent a man exploring thither, who fearing to penetrate into the interior, chilled their proposed enterprise, and prevented the formation of a “company.” He has lived at the “diggings,” and knows the detail of life there, owned land, sold it, travelled hither and thither, and is altogether, a shrewd, hard, keen, conversable, self-reliant and dyspeptic individual, &mdsh; his name [Charles] Halsey. Above him, in cabin berth, couches [Henry] Stansfield, a tall, sturdy, short bearded, manly-looking Yorkshireman; blunt in speech and possessing bold common sense and education, knows much of Manchester, and is a good type of a sort of Englishman one can by no means undervalue — the man of the North. (They have their localism of character, but to my thinking ‘tis less objectionable than that of the thorough Londoner.) He has lived, and roughed it in Canada some years ago, and now returns to home Port Burwell on the northern shore of Lake Erie, where his mother and sister have some land, with intent to abide there. He may be midway twixt thirty and forty, probably nearer the former, wears a white “wide awake” hat, a rough blue coat, and in foul weather, an outer casing and leggings of oilskin. A fattish-bodied man, with unmistakeably English countenance, who owns a tavern in Canada, not far from young [William] Conworth’s destination; and who is so sick as not yet to have quitted the cabin. He halts slightly in his deliberate speech, seems sensible, and is hight