<P> By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of gold - seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent . The largest group of forty - niners in 1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes (the name "forty - niner" was derived from the year 1849). Many from the East Coast negotiated a crossing of the Appalachian Mountains, taking to riverboats in Pennsylvania, poling the keelboats to Missouri River wagon train assembly ports, and then travelling in a wagon train along the California Trail . Many others came by way of the Isthmus of Panama and the steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company . Australians and New Zealanders picked up the news from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with "gold fever", boarded ships for California . </P> <P> Forty - niners came from Latin America, particularly from the Mexican mining districts near Sonora and Chile . Gold - seekers and merchants from Asia, primarily from China, began arriving in 1849, at first in modest numbers to Gum San ("Gold Mountain"), the name given to California in Chinese . The first immigrants from Europe, reeling from the effects of the Revolutions of 1848 and with a longer distance to travel, began arriving in late 1849, mostly from France, with some Germans, Italians, and Britons . </P> <P> It is estimated that approximately 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849--about half by land and half by sea . Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries . By 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold - seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world . The largest group continued to be Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, Australians French, and Latin Americans, together with many smaller groups of miners, such as African Americans, Filipinos, Basques and Turks . </P> <P> People from small villages in the hills near Genova, Italy were among the first to settle permanently in the Sierra Nevada foothills; they brought with them traditional agricultural skills, developed to survive cold winters . A modest number of miners of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000) had come from the Southern States, the Caribbean and Brazil . </P>

How many miners were in the california gold rush