Diary (181 p.) handbound in six sections, describing Brown's voyage from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn aboard the bark Selma with the Fremont Mining and Trading Company, of which he served as chairman of the board; and letters to family and friends, also detailing his trip. The diary focuses on daily shipboard life and problems with crew members, while the letters also include descriptions of Rio de Janeiro and Chile; San Francisco housing, population statistics, lynch law, and prices; and a squatters riot in Sacramento in 1850. Includes a printed notice (May 25, 1859) to Brown from John Ferguson, indicating that Brown was Postmaster in Petaluma. Letters include a pictorial lettersheet with view of San Francisco.

Brown was a California forty-niner and physician from Connecticut.

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