192
CARL SMITH
nor Bigler.
The Chinese account says: "We charged him to see the Governor face to face and to tell him again the truth about us, and to endeavour, by supplicating words, to induce him to use his powerful influence in persuading the American miners to abide by the law which the legislature had passed, allowing foreigners, Chinamen as well as others, to work in the mines on the payment of a tax."
To create a favourable climate Tong A-chick took with him on his visit to the Governor "shawls of rarest pattern, rolls of silk of costliest texture, and some 70 handkerchiefs of the choicest description."
Tong A-chick reported back to his compatriots that he had been hospitably received and entertained. Indeed the Governor had requested that the Chinese present another letter stating their case. He promised to answer it by a speech or proclamation on their behalf. "When we heard this, we were much rejoiced, and believed our sorrows were nearly at an end." The rejoicing was premature.
They drafted another letter and sent it by A-chick to the Governor. His Excellency found it unacceptable and drafted a version of his own. The Chinese, however, found that "the words were not our words, and that we cannot say them with the truth of honest men, and they contradict what we have already said." Despairing of the Governor's support, they published the original letter they had sent for his approval.
In this letter they stated that the miners had been provoked to drive out Chinese from their claims by the Governor's original message against them, the unfavourable report of the Committee on Mines and Mining Interests, and the resolution passed at a public meeting at Sacramento, the state capital. All these had been circulated extensively among the miners, feeding their animosity against the Chinese.
The letter protested that the Governor had not followed the advice of the legislature, which had passed a bill levying a tax of