until a messenger can go to Panama and return-this at the least. The Panama mail contains many letters not prepaid; these are issued here by the post office for the New Granadian charge simply. It also contains letters for the coast of South America, for forwarding which, in the British mail, provision should be made. In view of the entire field, I deem a confidential agent here, with ample powers, as indispensable to the efficiency of the service. I would not ad vise a separate mail agent on board the steamers; this would be objectionable in many points of view: it would require a large expenditure in the first place, unnecessarily; and there would almost invariably arise a jealousy of feeling between him and the officers of the ship, productive constantly of unpleasant results, and ever working to the disadvantage of the service. I would strongly recommend, therefore, the appointment of the captains of the steamships as mail agents, with a small salary to compensate them for the additional trouble the supervision of the mails would give them-say five hundred dollars per annum. This would identify them with the mail service, and they (who have controlling power on board the steamers) would feel an interest and pride in the efficiency of that service: and I am entirely satisfied that the department would save annually more than their salaries in the prevention of frauds of various kinds, and in the increased correspondence arising from offering facilities to passengers and others to mail letters. I recommend, then 1st. A resident agent in Panama, fully empowered to superintend the mail service on the isthmus. 2d. Let the contract for the transportation from Chagres to Panama be as heretofore; and if the great increase of service demanded since the bid was made require additional compensation, let it be given. The natives cannot be trusted for the promptness necessary to this service. 3d. Appoint the captains of the mail steamers on both oceans mail agents, duly sworn, with powers and duties similar to the travelling route agents on the railroads of the States. 4th. Give instructions that the steamers carry no mailable matter not in the mails. 5th. Fix the day of departure, on either side of the isthmus, at the first of each month. We will try to bring the California steamers to Panama by the 20th, and start them regularly on the first of the succeeding month. We must aim at regularity, or have confusion worse confounded in the entire line, and a constant recurrence of such misadventures as the last failure in connecting. 6th. Let the letters be put in leather pouches and labelled "correspondence," or "letters;" and the newspapers in unsealed canvass bags, labelled "newspapers." 7th. Let the steamer agents be directed to collect the small letter bags into a large canvass bag, and to mark it accordingly. 8th. I suggest that steps be taken immediately to terminate the present "postal convention." Our mails should pass free, as the service is not rendered for which the payment provided for in the present convention was a "consideration." 9th. I suggest that you direct the various postmasters to receive letters for ports in South America, charging postage in advance to Panama, and from Panama to those ports twenty-five cents extra-a total of fifty-five cents on the single letter, prepaid in all cases. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. T. P. ALLEN, Special Agent California and Oregon. Hon. JACOB COLLAMER. Second report received at the department from Mr. Allen. MAIL AGENCY OFFICE, San Francisco, June 23, 1849 SIR: Having been delayed in Panama in the discharge of duties pertaining to my office, and by illness, I did not arrive at this place until the 13th instant, and on the 15th resumed the duties of my office, surperseding Messrs. Voorhies and Bronson, leaving the latter, however, in office as assistant. (He has since returned to the States.) I have, until this date, been engaged in establishing my office in this place, and collecting such information, from the various sources accessible to me, as might guide me in extending the proper facilities of the mail system to the people of California. There exists at present a very general spirit of dissatisfaction among all classes of people here with the absence of these facilities; and I shall feel it an imperative duty, acting under the advice of the governor and of Hon. T. B. King, to extend to the various parts of the Territories the benefits of the service. The unexampled productiveness of the mining districts has greatly enhanced the price of labor, and, as a consequence, of rents and of real estate generally. While the laborer can realize an ounce of gold per day (on the average) in the mines, he cannot be hired here for a great deal less; and while carpenters get $18 per day, and service of every kind is in proportion, the cost of living must be very great. Boarding and lodging rates at about $25 per week, and all expenses are proportionably high. I know gentlemen who pay $200 per month (more than my entire income) for their cooks; and one man gets, as I have been well assured, $6,000 per annum for driving a wagon for one firm, with the privilege reserved of hauling for other houses when not engaged in the service of his employers; and ordinary clerks are receiving $300 to $500 per month. You will readily perceive, therefore, that the expenses of the department here must greatly exceed those of the department at home for similar services; and it can scarcely be expected that the income arising from postages here will meet the necessary expenditures of the department, conducted however economically. You may rest assured that I will not permit unnecessary expenditures, and that in extending the system into the interior I will conduct everything on the most economical plan, Each mail from the East has, for the last two months, brought about six thousand letters. Considering the great number of emigrants now "en route" from the States, the ensuing mails may be expected to bring a greatly increased number; so that I think we may safely estimate an average of ten thousand letters per month, which will yield an income of nearly $50,000 per annum-say $40,000 as nett income, applicable to current expenses; while the amount of service that seems absolutely indispensable cannot be procured for less than $80,000 to $100,000 per annum. It will be necessary to make special provision for the post office in this place, as the duties of the office will occupy the postmaster's entire time, not permitting him to engage in any other business, while his entire commissions will not pay the rent of his office. I would suggest for your consideration the propriety of purchasing, or erecting, a permanent building for the post office, &c., in this town, or wherever the distributing office for the Territory is to be permanently located. True economy would certainly demand some such course, to save the enormous rents to which the department is now liable. In order that you may be well advised of the state of things here, I would respectfully refer you to the reports of General Riley, and other officers of the government, to be found on file in the proper offices, and to H. D. Cooke, esq., to whom I have committed my despatches, that he might give you information of the state of affairs here more fully than I can do in this report. Mr. Cooke has been in this Territory several years, and is every way reliable. I shall leave this place on Monday, the 25th instant, for the purpose of examining at what places the establishment of a post office may be necessary, and at the conclusion of that tour I shall have the honor of reporting to you the result of the exploration. Since my arrival here I have had opportunity of communicating with some of the first citizens of Oregon, and have, acting on information derived from them, established post offices at Portland, Oregon city, and Salem, on the Willamette river, and appointed postmasters at those several points. As the postmaster of Astoria has absented himself for a long period from his office, (is now in this Territory at the mines,) I have removed him, and appointed General John Adair, of Astoria, in his place. So soon as I receive the acceptance of these several officers, I will formally communicate their appointments to you, that their commissions may issue. I transmit herewith a report from my predecessor, which I have caused to be placed on record in this office, and have the honor to remain, Very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. T. P. ALLEN, Special Agent California and Oregon. Hon. JACOB COLLAMER. Third report received at the department from Mr. Ailen. AGENCY OFFICE, San Francisco, August 2, 1849. DEAR SIR: I have been so constantly engaged in the "out-door" duties of my office, that I have been unable to prepare an official report in time for this steamer-shall doubtless be able to prepare one in time for the next. Enclosed you have a notice designed to inform the public of the locality of post offices. At present, nearly all the letters arriving remain in this office many weeks before being called for. I have advertised for proposals for carrying the mail to these several offices, and will endeavor to get the lines in operation "on regular contracts" by the first of October. The last mail brought near eighteen thousand letters. If correspondence increases in anything like this ratio, the receipts will more than cover all liabilities for transportation, &c., unless, as at present, a large portion of the letters come prepaid. The extraordinary state of things here will render instructions for the support of this office necessary, as no responsible man can be found to take the office for the emoluments accruing under the present laws. I crave instructions that will enable me to make this office effective, and to transport the mail into the interior so far as may seem necessary, and on such other points as may seem to you proper. I have not heard from Mr. Moore since informed by the prints that he had left New York for Chagres. . I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JACOB COLLAMER. R. T. P. ALLEN, Special Agent California and Oregon. Fourth report received at the department from Mr. Allen. MAIL AGENCY OFFICE, SIR: As indicated in my report of the 23d of June, I left this place on the 25th of that month for the purpose of selecting proper sites for the post offices in the interior. A pleasant sail of four hours in San Francisco and San Pablo bays brought me to Benicia, a mapped town on the straits of Karquinez, containing now about forty houses, where I landed and took horses for the Upper Sacramento. Benicia is selected for a post office, with a view to the supply of the army and naval depot established there, and of the valleys of Mopa and Sonoma-the latter having been selected as the headquarters of the Pacific division by Major General Smith. From Benicia I travelled along the base of the hills on the North Suisun bay, crossing several small but beautiful valleys, a distance of seventy-five miles, to Vernon, at the mouth of Feather river. This village is established for the commercial supply of the mining districts of Bear creek, and Juba and Feather rivers-its location being doubtless well chosen for the object in view. I selected it as being, among existing points on the river, best adapted for the postal supply of the regions named. After a day's delay at this point, I passed up Feather river, through a most beautiful country, twenty miles, to Sutter's upper farm, on the west bank of the river. The country bordering the Feather river is by far the most fertile and most beautiful I have seen in California. Crossing Feather river at Sutter's, I crossed the barren, arid plains twenty miles to the foot of the hills-visited the lower mines of the Juba, and, finding no grass for our animals, passed immediately to the crossing of Bear creek at Johnson's ranch, a distance of fifteen miles. At this point, being fifteen miles from the mouth of Feather river, it is in contemplation, I believe, to establish a military station. Passing thence the same day twenty-five miles further, we encamped at the "dry diggings" of the North Fork of American river, and the next day, visiting the mouth of the North Fork, in the vicinity of Mormon island, passed down the American river to Sacramento city, at its mouth, encamping one night on the road. This is a thriving town, rapidly building up, and promises well to be a place of much importance. Here I established a post office for the sup ply of the vicinity, and of the mining district of the American and its branches. From Sacramento city I passed through the plain lying to the east of the Sacramento and Joaquin rivers to Stockton, another thriving town, located on a slough about three miles from the latter river, and sixty miles from Sacramento city. We crossed in this space several beautiful streams marked on the map; and, locating a post office at Stockton for the supply of the district watered by the branches of the Joaquin, I returned by water to San Francisco. The entire region passed over in this journey, with the exception of narrow strips bordering the Sacramento and its upper and western tributaries, is not at all adapted to agriculture, and but ill so to grazing, and is only valuable for its mineral resources. The entire valley of the Joaquin, and of the lower Sacramento, doubtless formed, at no very distant epoch, a lake, of which Suisun bay, still rapidly filling up, is the remnant. Since my return from Stockton, I have remained so far as possible in this place, being unwilling to leave the office here for any considerable length of time, pending the arrival of Mr. Moore, and being mostly occupied in the duties pertaining to the establishment of post offices, appointment of postmasters, formation of temporary contracts, inviting bids for permanent ones, &c. Finding myself thus fully occupied in the upper portion of the Territory, I despatched J. Ross Brown, esq., with a commission as temporary special agent, and instructions to proceed southward as far as San Diego, establishing post offices at San José, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, San Diego, and such other points on the main southern route as might appear to him necessary. I shall be able, from present indications, to provide the necessary mail service for the Territory on much more reasonable terms than I had supposed possible; and, should we be able to get the letters out of the offices, the revenue will be amply sufficient for the service. Soon after my arrival at this place, John W. Geary, esq., the then incumbent in office here, tendered his resignation; and, there being presented to me an eminent (whig) gentleman of Tennessee, as willing to accept the office temporarily, who was every way suitable to the post, I accepted his resignation, and gave the gentleman alluded to (W. P. Bryan, esq.) a letter of temporary appointment, to continue in force until the arrival of Mr. Moore, taking from him bonds in the sum of $5,000. I have established post offices at the following points, viz: Benicia, supplied weekly by water from San Francisco. Sacramento city, supplied weekly by water from San Francisco. And have appointed the following named gentlemen postmasters at the several points indicated, viz: |