City of Dreams
#2 of 1849
In all honesty, the task of protecting the prospectors from Indian attack was just as boring as panning the rivers and mining the caves themselves looking for gold. In the unrelenting California sun, Sheng Lee the fox stood guard sunup to sundown with more than a hundred other bodyguards whose purpose was to stand on the top of a cliff overlooking the gold field and shoot at any Indians that came by. The rifles they used were typical of that time frame- inaccurate, out of date (many had seen action in the War of 1812) and impossible to reload twice in a half-minute. The sheer size of the guards, consisting of people born in countries throughout the world, was the most important advantage this group had. If one hundred riflemen were shooting at you at once, there was a good possibility that at least one of them would hit you, no matter how inaccurate the guns were. Though socialization with the prospectors was limited at best, Sheng Lee knew exactly who Clarice was and in any argument between her and another miner (no one could recognize the vixen as being female under her miner's helmet) Sheng Lee would always rule in her favor.
The work was boring as the Indians never attacked as word of the size of this group of guards had reached even their ears but Sheng Lee and the other members of the group got paid so long as they could pretend to be on guard for an Indian attack which everyone knew would never come. Any consistent payment was better than playing your luck with a pan, sieve, and a waterwheel in hopes of landing that elusive gold rock which had already broken the hearts of many Californians. For this new though admittedly boring job and the fact that he had found some others who shared his heritage, Sheng Lee was very much thankful.
Seeing as how the company of bodyguards was multi-racial and plenty of those other guards were Chinese, Sheng Lee finally found some others who spoke the language. Evidently, the fox was lucky to have chosen this job as Chinese immigrants were being waylaid and forced to work on the burgeoning railroad system which brought ever more would-be 49ers to California. The living arrangements were quite similar to slavery, an irony considering that California entered the Union as a free state. It was a great opportunity for the fox born in Shanghai to learn English, from a bulldog who had the fortune of traveling the world, including to China, where he learned the language. David Carrington was his name and becuase he might have been born on London's higher rungs, he made sure that everyone knew of his British upbringing and the increased education and status that he felt was his birthright.
"Do you know that at one point this whole scenario played itself out before in the same place?" during one of those boring California days when the sun sits at the height of the sky and never seems to move. After three arduous months of intensive study, the Chinese fox had learned enough of the language in America, it was time for a history lesson so he listened intently to the bulldog's speech on the history of America
"In the 16th century, conquerors from Spain came to this land and destroyed the cultures of the people there. They took all the treasures yet were never happy- they had come from Spain in search of cities made entirely of gold. And they searched in Sothwest America, through Mexico, and Texas, the territory now known as Arizona, and even here in California for the city made of gold. And it turned out to be only a city of dreams." David's words reminded Cheng of the Gam Saan he had been promised- a ridiculous claim for a mountain made entirely of gold was not entirely different than the Spanish obsession for golden cities, he explained in Chinese to the bulldog. A gigantic core of gold in a mountain was in retrospect, a pretty stupid and ridiculous idea. But without his gullibility he would never have made it to California.
"And the greed led to the killing of more people, of more stealing and more tears. I can't help but think that as I have fought Indians in the past, I am repeating the mistakes of Cortez, the conquistador. The natives did nothing to deserve this surge of palefaces and roundeyes and now they might lose their homes, all because of the greed for gold." But what was David Carrington or Sheng Lee to do- the canines were working for money given to them by people whose goals might have been morally bankrupt. Moral objections were obviously not on the minds of the miners and this talk might have been labeled treasonous had any of the sourdoughs known of their existence. But David the bulldog had his miners' confidence- he was the leader, he delivered the salaries straight from the leader of the miners.
"And before the discovery of gold, before Sutter's Mill was discovered to have that damned rock, this whole land belonged to Mexico, not the U.S. And rest assured, in years the Americans will become so large that Spanish will be a second language. Somewhere our grandsons will not think of the suffering that we have brought onto this land in our lust for gold and land." No one doubted the bulldog's authority or wisdom on these sayings for he knew very well from his studies in London's universities how invaders could come in and ruin a native population and destroy any evidence of their existence. And he was British, one whose country with a history of totally wiping out native populations and taking control of their land.
Some of what the bulldog David said seemed absolutely crazy- the entire language and culture changing as people flooded the area but in ways it also made perfect sense to the fox. Greed had resulted in the death of so many cultures before and it was going to destroy the people here too. And what of the Chinese immigrants', the fox reasoned would they become nothing more than the "cooley-hats" who would build California's railroads? What would be their memory in the establishment of the state of California? And most importantly as far as the fox was convinced, how would society deal with a mixed-race marriage between Sheng Lee and Clarice Vulpino?
There were many questions for Sheng Lee, for the prospectors, for all of California to answer and these answers they came up with would have long and far-reaching circumstances far beyond the years immediately after 1849. The history of the Golden State was very in Sheng Lee's paws and he would do his best to make sure that the land would be a happier place for generations of people. But what of his friends- what would they do?