Touched by gold fever, B.F. Bourne, first mate of the schooner John Allyne, set out from New Bedford, Massachusetts with twenty-five others for California. He was captured by native off Cape Horn, escaping after three perilous months and boarding the ship John Pringle, bound for San Francisco, at which city he arrived in February, 1850. After three days in that "mushroom city," he headed for Sacramento and the mines. Joining his brothers near Georgetown after an arduous trudge through the snow, he dug briefly for gold, but without success. Succumbing to illness, he was carried back to Sacramento and San Francisco, heading back home across the Isthmus after his recovery. There were several later edtions with varying titles, "Life Among the Giants" and "The Giants of Patagonia," which did not include the California portion.