Autograph Letter Signed. San Diego, April 2, 1851. 3pp.+stampless address leaf. To his father John Williams, Boston. 

Written by a “very homesick” and lonely young Bostonian, seeking his fortune, as entrepreneur rather than miner, in the unthriving village of San Diego 8 months after California statehood. Business was moribund and the only excitement was the daily arrival of a side-wheel steamboat from San Francisco that fired a cannon as it entered the Bay. As fresh water had to be hauled in from the river miles away, Williams had invested in an Artesian Well which was then being dug (It would soon fail). Living on the beach, near an old waterfront wharf, he rode almost daily up Presidio Hill to “Old Town”, where a small Hispanic community remained on the site of a former Spanish and Mexican fort; there he found “excellent society” but could not socialize with the pretty ladies because he spoke little Spanish. He had hopes that a gold discovery 60 miles to the south might give the town economy a boost; failing that, he eagerly expected to be back in New England by fall.

+The San Diego described by Williams was a seaport town of only 500 Hispanic and Yankee inhabitants in the Spanish “Old Town” of Mexican days and the ill-fated “New Town” speculation of California pioneer William Heath Davis. It was a time of “fluctuating hopes and fortunes”. Commerce was at a standstill, an English-language newspaper had not yet begun publication, a native Indian uprising was brewing. In general, the future did not look bright. As Williams wrote : “I am still here on the beach, living a very quiet life, there being little or no business doing, nobody seems to have any money and goods of all kinds are low, the only excitement being when a St[eame]r. arrives.” He had made a good profit selling coal to a steamboat, but the Artesian Well project in which he had invested, “is down to a depth of 250 ft.  and no water yet. I am afraid it will prove a failure. It is a very expensive work and even if water is obtained at 300 ft. it will cost about $5000…” (At 650 feet, it was abandoned). As for his financial prospects. “….I make a good, honest and respectable living, conduct myself I hope as I should do and am happier than I have been in [northern] California” but if nothing “profitable happens”, he would come home by fall. “…I keep a horse and wagon and 3 or 4 times a week ride up to town, about 5 miles distant…and see the ladies. There is some excellent society here but they are all Spanish and as I don’t get a great deal of practice, I get along very slowly…” The most interesting news -  “60 miles to the southward of San Diego, they have discovered some gold mines…if they amount to much, will increase the trade here very much…”