peaks disappear, their lofty tops thrust far into the murky blackness, or rise above them fringed with the encircling mist.

The ever-busy finger of time has wrought many changes. The shady groves and prismatic flowers that mantled the plains have disappeared before the axe and plow of the husbandman; the breezes that once fanned the leaves into rustling music now sweep in waving billows the golden grain; the limpid streams, filled with sporting fish, are seen no more, but in their stead are mountain torrents in winter and dry water-courses in summer; the noble growth of trees that skirted the mountain sides has given away to a fringe of stunted oaks and bushes. From the apex the view is still as grand and beautiful; the mountains rear themselves as proudly as of yore, their snowy tops brushing the clouds from the blue vault of heaven; the rivers still wind their devious courses to the awaiting sea; the sun in all its grandeur rises and declines, bathing the rocks in roseate hues, as has been his wont for ages past. Below, how great a change: where once stood the humble cot of the settler, now noble cities, busy with the hum of life, rear their lofty spires; villages, with their quiet thrift, dot the landscape; while on every hand the husbandman wins peace and plenty from the yielding earth, over which ranged the bounding antelope and the antlered elk. Through cycles the Buttes have stood mute witnesses of an ever-changing scene, and in the long ages of the future, when time has wrought still greater changes in this fair valley, they yet will stand and gaze upon the shifting scene, and in their silent aspect seem to say, "We, the hills, are alone eternal."

Cronise states that as early as 1820, "numerous hunters and trappers from the West (as it was then called in the eastern states, meaning the Missouri river country), while wandering in search of the posts on the Columbia river, found their way across the Sierra Nevada into California." He also says that a party of American trappers lived on the American river from 1822 to 1830, which fact gave to the stream the name it now bears. He is beyond question mistaken, as no Americans came overland as early as 1820, save Lewis and Clark, in 1804, the Missouri Fur Company, in 1808, and the Pacific Fur Company, in 1811, none of whom went south of the Columbia river. Indeed, the American trappers confined themselves to the eastern side of the Rocky mountains until General Ashley led a company of men into those mountain fastnesses in 1823. [See article on Fur Companies.] In 1825, the first party of Americans that ever came overland to California reached the Sacramento valley. They were a band of trappers led by Jedediah S. Smith. [See articles on Fur Companies and Discovery of Gold.] They spent the winter of 1825-6 on the American river, and this is no doubt the company of which Mr. Cronise speaks. That any company of trappers spent so long a time as he states is highly improbable, as they were too far from either a base of supplies or a market for their pelts. They could not have been in any way connected with the Hudson Bay Company, for that corporation did not penetrate into California until 1828, nor establish a headquarters here till 1833. Jedediah S. Smith must stand in history as the pioneer overland traveler to California, and his band of trappers the first Americans to set their traps in the Sacramento valley.

For the next fourteen years, trappers of the American companies and the Hudson Bay Company roamed the valley, and then there came a change-a change so marked that it may well be called the beginning of the reign of civilization in the Sacramento valley. This was no less than the settlement near the junction of the Sacramento and American rivers, of Capt. John A. Sutter. This gentleman, the most renowned of all the California pioneers, was born in Baden, Germany, February 28, 1803, so late in the day that his birth is often given as having occurred on the first of March. His parents were Swiss, and he is generally spoken of as a native of Switzerland. He entered the military academy of Berne, Switzerland, and after graduating became a lieutenant in the celebrated Swiss Guard of the French army. In 1830, he returned to Switzerland and served four years in the army of that country, reaching

the rank of captain. Imbued with republican ideas and possessed of an independent and adventuresome disposition, which his military life had served to strengthen, he bade adieu to the despotism of Europe and sailed for America, landing in New York in July, 1834. He first settled at St. Louis, Missouri, and then at West Point in the same state. For several years he engaged in the cattle trade upon the frontier, occasionally making journeys to Santa Fé. The whole frontier was crowded with trappers and mountain men who had traversed the broad west from end to end, many of whom had been to the Willamette valley, and some to California with Bonneville's company in 1833. Santa Fé was a great centre for trappers, and many who had been to California with Ewing Young in 1829 and 1833, were continually sounding the praises of the beautiful and fertile valley of the Sacramento, which had seemed so much like a paradise to them, fresh as they were from the sands of the desert and snows of the mountain.

Like seed upon rich soil fell these eulogies upon the ear of Captain Sutter, taking root in his mind and springing up into a firm resolve to make that lovely valley his future home. Early in April, 1838, he accompanied a band of trappers to the Rocky mountains, and then with six companions pushed resolutely on till he reached Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia river. He did not go direct to California, for the route thither was practically unknown, and the Bonneville party had reported it dangerous from lack of both food and water; while the Oregon route, by way of Fort Hall, was familiar to every mountain man, either by experience or reputation.

Finding no vessel there by which he could reach any port of California, he took passage on a vessel for the Sandwich Islands, hoping there to find a ship whose destination was Yerba Buena. There he gathered a number of native Kanakas under his wing, to enable him to plant a strong colony, and sailed in a brig bound for Sitka, Russian America; from which place it sailed down the coast and cast anchor off Yerba Buena, in San Francisco bay, on the second of July, 1839. More than a year of constant effort had it taken to reach the land of his choice and his future destiny. His reception was the reverse of cordial, for an order to leave the port was his only greeting. Having been allowed forty-eight hours in which to make repairs, he put to sea at the end of that time and sailed for the port of Monterey, for the purpose of interviewing the governor in regard to his colonization project. Governor Alvarado was pleased with the intentions of the old pioneer, for he saw that Sutter's settlement would be a strong defense on their frontier, where hostile Indians annoyed the Californians exceedingly, and kept them pretty well confined to the strip of land along the coast, where all their settlements were located. The San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers were on the extreme frontier, and no attempt had been made by the Californians to occupy the valley, because of the hostility to them of the native tribes. Sutter's settlement, then, was just what they desired; and Alvarado assured him that, if he would make a selection of land on the Sacramento river, and occupy it one year, he would be given a title to the tract, be invested with Mexican citizenship, and be made a civil and military authority in that department.

Sutter then retired to Yerba Buena, dispatched the brig back to the Sandwich Islands, purchased some launches, chartered a small schooner called the Isabella, and commenced the voyage through the bays and up the Sacramento river. Having penetrated as far as the mouth of Feather river, he was met by a mutiny on the part of the crew, who, not liking the appearance of the natives and the isolation from civilization a settlement in the unoccupied valley indicated, demanded that they be permitted to take the schooner back to Yerba Buena. Sutter was perplexed, and told them he would give them an answer in the morning. The order to drop down the stream which he gave the next morning was obeyed with alacrity, and no opposition was manifested even when he ascended the American river a few miles. On the south bank of this stream he disembarked his effects, erected tents for shelter, placed his three cannon in position for defense, and then called his colony around him. This was on the twelfth of August, 1839. His little party consisted of eight Kanakas, two of whom had wives, and six white

his

men, some of them mechanics, and upon whom he had placed his chief reliance both in building up settlement and in defending and preserving it from destruction by the savages. These six were the discontented ones, and to them Sutter addressed himself. He said that he had now settled himself where he proposed to stay; that if they did not desire or were afraid to remain with him and the others, they were at full liberty to return to Yerba Buena in the Isabella, which he intended to send below in the morning. With these words he left them; but what was the tumult of emotions in his heart? For nearly a year and a half had he bent every effort and directed every energy to stand where he was that night. Dangers had been encountered, hardships endured, and difficulties overcome, that he might plant the seed of civilization in this lovely valley; and now, on the threshold of his hopes, in the very door of his ambition, he was threatened with a complete annihilation of his dream by the desertion of those upon whom he had placed his chief reliance. It was a bitter thought, and the sturdy old pioneer never after referred to that moment without showing a trace of the emotion that then filled his heart. When the time came for the schooner to sail, three of the men announced their intention to remain, and the three deserters were allowed to depart with but few regrets. The place was named New Helvetia, in honor of Sutter's native land, and thus began the first settlement in this vast valley.

The trials and triumphs of that first year were many. Through dangers from without and jealousy from within, through disappointments and vexations incident to a pioneer colony, Captain Sutter's careful management brought them in safety; and the next year found him securely settled, with the negotiations on foot for acquiring a Mexican title to his land. By promptly resenting any insult, he so impressed the natives with his inclination and ability to punish them for any outrage as to deter them from stealing his stock, or interfering with his settlement in any way. Some of these difficulties with the Indians, and other incidents, are told by Dr. J. F. Morse, to whom they were related by Sutter himself. He says:"Their intercourse was at once distinguished by acts of kindness, by freedom of communication, and even by manifesting an interest in sharing some of the toils and hardships of the colonists. By this conduct, they acquired the confidence of the captain and his associates, and lulled them into a conviction of security that came near fixing their fate forever. Indeed, nothing rescued them from a wily and malignant plot of assassination but the superior instinct and vigilance of an immense bull-dog belonging to the captain, and whose claims as an integral and fortunate portion of the colony have been almost criminally overlooked.

"A few of the most daring Indians had determined, as soon as they discovered a sufficient lack of caution on the part of the whites, to steal upon them in the night with such a force as to enable them to murder the entire company at a single blow. In the daytime they were around the camp, exhibiting a kindness, a familiarity, and a general friendliness which was rapidly conciliating the good will of the colonists, and, for the time being, overruled the suspicions of the faithful bull-dog. So well did they perform their part in the maturing conspiracy, that the captain and his friends began to welcome night and sleep without the disagreeable necessity of a constant sentinelship. This was recognized with a sort of savage congeniality by the villainous conspirators. They watched its progress with the eagerness of fiends, and yet were never surprised into a betrayal of their own feelings. One precaution after another was abandoned, until little show of suspicion was evinced; and then the Indians prepared for the contemplated slaughter. Furnishing themselves with hunting-knives, procured from the southern tribes in trade, they sallied out one night, at an hour when all was silent and quiet in the camp of the colonists, and stealthfully crawled up towards the tents. All thus far was most promising to their appetite for vengeance and plunder. Every one of the tired colonists was buried in sleep, while the approaching murderers had stolen, in perfect security, to within a few feet of the intended victims; and the ringleader, in advance of the rest, was about crawling into the mouth of the old captain's tent.

Fortunately for the unsuspecting adventurers, who were upon the very verge of an awful slaughter, there was a friendly sentinel about that never slept, whose instinct was the watchword of fidelity, and whose sense of danger could be aroused where stillness reigned. Thus was it with the noble old bull-dog referred to. Close to his master's tent, concealed from view by darkness of night, he watched the movements of the murderous wretches until he could stand their impudence no longer, and then, selecting the boldest one, he pounced upon him without a bark or growl, and sinking his teeth into a protuberant angle of his body, he put the speediest possible end to the conspiracy. The air was instantly filled with the piteous yells of the ringleader, whose misery and torment, and the cause thereof, the accomplices did not stop to investigate. The camp was, of course, aroused; and whoever has observed or experienced the power of a bull-dog's grip, can appreciate the difficulty of the Indian attempting his escape. Instinct, which in this case was a sort of aposteriori argument, induced the villain to throw away his intended instrument of destruction, and, assuming a less criminal intent, get some of the captain's men to choke off the dog. In this he succeeded so well as to escape the punishment due him; and twice afterwards were similar stratagems concocted, and each time defeated through the sagacity of this noble animal. The nature of the conspiracies were revealed to the captain subsequently by his civilized and educated Indians.

"Before Captain Sutter came up the river, he purchased a number of horses and cattle from the rancho of Señor Martinez, but it was with great difficulty that he succeeded in getting his stock up to his station. The Indians were so troublesome that he had to detail almost the whole of his force from the camp, and then they could barely accomplish the undertaking. They did, however, finally get to their new home about five hundred head of cattle, fifty horses and a manada of twenty-five mares.

“Prior to the arrival of the stock, they had subsisted principally upon game-elk, deer, bear, etc.which existed in great abundance, and which probably constituted the principal subsistence of Captain Joseph Walker in the year 1833.

"After the captain had got his stock together, and after he had succeeded in getting the natives to render him some assistance, he began to lay out different and more substantial plans for the future. The site first selected he did not feel satisfied with, and accordingly changed his location from the bank of the American up to the present location of the old fort. With the Indians and his own men, he soon made enough adobes to build one good-sized house and two small ones within the grounds afterwards enclosed by the walls of the fort. His Kanakas built themselves three grass houses, such as they were in the habit of living in at the Sandwich Islands. These houses, which were subsequently burned, afforded them very comfortable quarters during their first rainy season or winter.

"At the same time that he was prosecuting these important and very commendable improvements at the fort, he was also employing a number of his friendly Indians in opening a road direct to the Sacramento where it was intersected by the American. After completing this road of communication, which required a vast deal of labor, on account of the almost impenetrable chapparel through which the road had to be cut, he named his landing-place upon the main river his Embarcadero-now the city of Sacramento."

The first company of overland emigrants reached California in 1841, among the number being Gen. John Bidwell, of Chico, and the late Capt. Charles M. Weber, of Stockton. Mr. Bidwell became secretary and general advisor to Captain Sutter, and remained with him about six years. It was after the arrival of this company that the famous fort was built, enclosing the large adobe building previously erected, the ruins of which may still be seen and are faithfully portrayed in the accompanying illustration. In 1842, Sutter made another settlement on the west bank of Feather river, which place he called Hock Farm, after a large Indian village that stood there. Here he removed a large band of cattle and horses, and