Autograph letter signed by D. Colby, esquire. Volcano, California, 15 & 18 November 1857. 4 pages, 4to. Modern pencil annotations and embossment to recto. WITH pressed leaves referenced in letter. 

This letter, written by D. Colby, principally details the state of mail steamers in San Francisco. Notably, Colby references the sinking of the S.S. Central America in September 1857, writing: “The sad calamity of the Central America makes us all tremble with fear for the safety of our mail steamers if they are a day or two behind their usual time as is the case with this one that was due at San Francisco last Friday. The sad affair of that ill fated steamer has caused one of the greatest excitements ever known in this country & I see that it is the same in the Atlantic States.” Colby states that he and his wife, Josephine, even knew a couple who were aboard the Central America that “was among the lost.” 

The S.S. Central America was a steamer carrying 578 people and more than two tons of gold dust, nuggets, coins, and ingots bound from California to New York. It left San Francisco on 20 August 1857, traveled down the Pacific Coast to the Panama Canal, and made it to just east of Florida before being caught in a hurricane on 10 September 1857. The ship was then lost at sea off the coast of the Carolinas on 12 September 1857. 

In 1988, a team of scientists and explorers uncovered the Central America and found thousands of gold coins, ingots, bars, bricks, and nuggets. 

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] 

Some light staining and folds.