Gam Saan (The Golden Mountain)
#1 of 1849
The boat ride by schooner was a long, nauseous, disease-filled trip which saw Sheng Lee lose his meals more times tha nhe cared to admit on the six-month boat ride from the Chinese port town of Shanghai to a city which a few years ago was nothing more than a sleepy hamlet- San Fransisco. But it would not stay that way for that damnable yet also beautiful metal, the "prostitute goddess" of the mineral kingdom for which empires would fight called gold had entered American history and pulled many young fortune-seekers west. They went west to Sutter's Mill and the surrounding areas, desperate for that gold. Sheng Lee knew that finding actual gold would be difficult as a year had passed but he was willing to leave China for a land where there was rumored to be a "Gam Saan", a mountain made completely out of gold. Wildly-exaggerated stories yes but these stories captured the thoughts of the Chinese fox and his countrymen coming to California by boat. And it was these stories that inspired him to become a miner.
But Sheng Lee would soon find that the prospect of getting rich quick, by its very nature brought out the worst in everyone involved. After buying an overpriced pan, sieve, and pick-ax, he found that as a newcomer on the gold fields near San Fransisco that he did not rank high on the pecking order. All the gold the fox found (and there wasn't much of it) had to be reported for violators of this arrangement could be physically tortured if they tried to steal any of the dust or nuggets they found. Fights between gangs of Irish miners, usually violent drunken dogs who had no repsect at all for the claims of the people who lived in California before the Gold Rush started were common. And to make matters worse, Sheng lee was Chinese in a place where the Chinese immigrants were treated with contempt and derision by everyone else- so much so that he was simply called "Chink-fox" by all of the other miners.
And yet here the fox stood in a new and glorious land, far removed from the static monotony of China, exchanged by a new, exciting, dangerous place called California. A crossroads of cultures and people all of whom were seeking gold- Chinese immigrants like Sheng Lee himself, Spanish-speaking Mexicans who lived in the land before the U.S. made its hasty claims, other immigrants from Central America, and playboys from Europe seeking adventure were now in this land, not to mention Americans both black and white and eevry shade of color in between. It was after one of those long and largely unrewarding days that the field surrendered none of its famed yellow-colored treasure to the miners that the fox read a note transcribed on one of the saloons promising "money to Indian-fighters" who would help secure the claims against natives who were killing some of the miners.
Now Sheng's ancestors were strong and mighty warriors who could fight both with a sword, muskets, and bare-handed- and the amount of money he would be paid as a bodyguard for these miners was fixed. In contrast, the profits brought about by mining itself was variable and subject to the whims of card sharks, prostitutes, and clothes salesmen whose very purpose was to rip off the prospectors with empty promises. (Sheng knew this after having run-ins with all three.) The "Gam Saan" would never be found because it did not exist- instead, there were unfulfilled promises of wealth.
"So are you the one responding to offers to help guard the sourdoughs in the Sierra Nevada for some money?" the coyote interviewer who was also an experienced miner himself exclaimed. though the fox barely knew English, he knew the term "money" and "protection". A test of marksmanship and physical strength which the fox passed with relative ease was all that was required. He could shoot and defend himself. Soon, they were led by ferry and then train to a small town which had just been established to handle the ruffians that not even San Fransisco itself would handle- that town was called Coloma, near the Sierra Nevada goldfield. That's where he met the love of his life- a sultry, ornery vixen just as fixed on acquiring wealth as any of the male 49ers were.
"You look nice, sir," the fox asked shyly causing the one who he was conversing with to remove the helmet, revealing long flowing locksmore typical of a woman. The discovery that he was indeed a she caused plenty of embarrassment and thankfully, they were one of only a few people in that car- the rest were all lost in their own conversations or dozing off.
"Sure, I might dress like a man but people often make that mistake," her sultry voice which could drive anyone crazy sounded " After the death of my brothers at the hands of those Injuns I had to start looking for gold and defending the sourdoughs for money. Most women from New York, I know would not be going out west for this kind of work", she said running her paws through her head-fur "but I'm not 'most women', am I?" She motioned him to join in the private car where she took off her uncomfortable overalls and slipped into a petticoat- the common undergarments for a woman of the 19th century.
"The moniker's Clarice Vulpino, in case you were wondering, and no I don't really mind where you came from or how rich your family is. I have found that people can either be good or bad, regardless where they were born. I know what you're job is and I expect protection. If you do well, I might just marry you." He did not understand half of what the vixen was saying- after all Sheng Lee knew hardly any English at all- but he could sense in that vixen, something he had not seen in anyone from California yet, someone who, if he could fulfill this one obligation truly cared for him. And the fox knew what "marriage" meant and how wealthy his new girlfriend might become if she wasn't killed in this very dangerous line of work. So in his heart, Sheng Lee decided that he would do everything in his power to protect her. And the one thing about being a bodyguard that he learned while in China was to never make a promise of protection to someone who you can't keep that promise to. And he would keep that promise.
All in all, the "Gam Saan" sadly did not exist but that mattered not to Sheng Lee. Who needed gold when you could find people with golden hearts, strong, tough, courageous men (and in Clarice's case, women) who would do anything to survive. He knew that it was these kinds of hard-working people who built great civilizations and the paradises on Earth- these were the kinds of people who would build California.