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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 7 (October 1, 1936)

“Off to California

“Off to California.

Webster was by this time a man of experience in Maori business. He had learned the native tongue, and he was well skilled in trading, and in buying kauri timber and kauri gum. He assisted his friend Dr. Campbell in Auckland in the Maori trade, and then, when the great gold-diggings rush in California created a demand for foodstuffs, he sailed as supercargo in the barque Noble, carrying a cargo of flour and potatoes for San Francisco. It was in 1850, when all the sailormen were singing: —

“There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,

“On the banks of the Sacramento.”

Life in the raw, new gold-city was lively in the extreme and often extremely perilous. Dr, Campbell was with Webster in the Noble. The two saw the great fire which swept San Francisco. They remained more than a year in California, in business, and acquired some of its teeming wealth for themselves.