Aug. 26, 1864
San Francisco
Lodge2 PDF, p. 21
T.A.W. Harper, Esq.
Dear Sir
The overland mail has been stopped by the Indians by the Indians for the last month & the remains of the mail bags are arriving here very now & then.
It is impossible to calculate whether any of my letters (in transit) reached their destination or not. My letters to you if they now reached their destination are of little consequence, yours to me may or may not be anything that can be imagined. I am consequently left to my own resources & can only give you the situation of affairs as they stand.
I have engaged with Mr. Smiley that he pay all expenses already incurred as far as $20,000 will pay them and that he then pay another $20,000 to be divided equally according to the property represented among the European & American underwriters & thus I here give him an absolute right to all the treasure lost in the “Golden Gate” that has not already been accounted for. This settlement will pay all my expenses & leave something for the underwriters but certainly very little. This matter is not yet concluded but I will see the end of it before I leave here. I came here in hopes of getting wool & if I get back without being shorn, it is as much as I expect. My impression is that the expenses will swallow up nearly every thing I can get from Smiley, and if I get back to Europe without cash to the underwriters I will have done all I expected to be able to do. After I saw the situation of affairs here, certainly not so much as I expected to be able to do when I left England otherwise I would not have come.
F.W. Lodge
Revision: 11/1/2010