defeating fraudulent claimants. Most of the mission grants were confirmed, but many others were rejected. A mournful instance of the distress caused by the remorselessness of the land thieves is that of General Sutter. Besides three leagues at the junction of the "Rio de los Plumas," or Feather river, with the Sacramento, he owned eleven leagues along the latter where Sacramento City was located. That is to say, he owned thirty-three miles of the river's length and a strip three miles in width. Being himself a generous, upright, unsuspecting man, he was swindled, defrauded, and otherwise robbed of all his possessions by sharpers and tricksters. He died poor at his home in Pennsylvania in 1883, after being dependent upon his friends and a small stipend paid him by the United States government.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CAPTAIN SUTTER-THE GOLD DISCOVERY.

Captain Sutter was formerly an officer in the Swiss guard of Charles X of France. After the revolution of 1830 in that country, he came to America and lived for a time in Missouri, emigrating to California in 1837. Soon afterwards he obtained the two grants of land from Mexico to which I have referred. His little adobe fort was built as a defense in the event of Indian troubles, but was never needed for that purpose, as he was a large employer of Indians, and always lived on the most peaceful terms with them. The fort was practically his home, where he lived and entertained his friends and guests. It stood alone, as it stands today, (well preserved), two miles from the city. General Bidwell, Sam Brannan and other pioneer "boys" who afterwards became millionaires and an honor to the State, were employed there before the discovery of gold. Fremont, Carson, Walker, a host of mountaineers and scientists, all alike found welcome and good cheer within those old adobe walls. It is a pleasant recollection that I passed this historic spot weekly for a number of years, going to and from Sacramento and sometimes partaking of its hospitality. I last visited it in September, 1900, at the time of the

State Fair. The old fort presents a newer and more imposing appearance than it did in 1850. All honor to the "native sons and daughters of the pioneers" who have thus preserved it.

It was in this little pioneer fort that the first announcement was made, on the 19th of January, 1848, that sent an echo throughout the world, and drew to California people from every part of the globe, producing in so short a time scenes of unparralleled excitement. From England, Germany, France, Russia, Spain, South America, and the Sandwich Islands came the gold hunters. In the far east, across the broad Pacific, the seal of national exclusiveness was broken and there came a peculiar people from ancient Cathay with their strange jargon, shaved crowns, and solitary cues behind. This was a race whose primeval order had never been disturbed by any other branch of the human family. They brought their kettles, rice, chop sticks, and heathen gods, and have ever since lived their life of exclusiveness and racial isolation. From Mexico came the miner, vaquero and desperado. Up from Chili and Peru came the speculator, gambler, and courtesan. Over the Rocky mountains came long lines of emigrant trains, making their tedious march over almost precipitous mountains crowned with eternal snows, and arid deserts of alkali, leaving behind them the new-made grave and the bleaching bones of famished beasts to tell the sad story of their weary journey and to mark the path for those who were to follow. The few vessels that could find sailors to take them from the coast spread the news wherever they touched. The inhabitants of unfrequented islands of the seas heard the welcome tidings of the land of gold,

Captain Sutter gave the following interesting account of how he received the news: "I was sitting one afternoon just after my siesta engaged in writing a letter to a friend in Switzerland, when I was interrupted by Mr. Marshall bursting hurriedly into my room. From the unusual agitation in his manner I imagined that something serious had occurred, and, as we involuntarily do in this part of the world, I at once glanced to see if my rifle was in its proper place. You should know that the mere appareance of Mr. Marshall at that moment in the fort was quite enough to surprise me, as he had but two days before left the place to make some alterations in the mill for sawing pine planks, which he had just run up for me some miles higher up the Americanos. When he had recovered himself a little he told me that, however great my surprise might be at his unexpected appearance, it would be much greater when I heard the intelligence he had come to bring me. 'Intelligence,' he added, 'which, if properly profited by, would put both of us in possession of unheard of wealth-millions and millions of dollars, in fact.' I frankly own when I heard this I thought something had touched Marshall's brain, when suddenly, all my misgivings were at an end by his flinging on the table a handful of scales of pure virgin gold. I was fairly thunderstruck, and asked him what all this meant, when he went on to say that according to my instructions, he had thrown the millwheel out of gear to let the whole body of the water in the dam find a passage through the tail-race which was previously too narrow to allow the water to run off in sufficient quantity, whereby the wheel was prevented from efficiently performing its work. By this

alteration the narrow channel was considerably enlarged and a mass of sand and gravel was carried off by the force of the current. Early in the morning after this took place, he (Mr. Marshall) was walking along the left bank of the stream when he perceived something which he at first took for a piece of opala clean transparent stone very common here—glittering on one of the spots laid bare by the sudden crumbling away of the bank. He paid no attention to this; but while he was giving directions to the workmen, having observed several other glittering fragments, his curiosity was so far excited that he stooped down and picked one of them up. 'Do you know,' said Mr. Marshall to me, 'I positively debated within myself two or three times whether I should take the trouble to bend my back to pick up one of these pieces and had decided not to do so when, further on, another glittering morsel caught my eye-the largest of the pieces now before you. I condescended to pick it up and to my astonishment, found that it was a thin scale of what appears to be pure gold.' He then gathered some twenty or thirty similar pieces which, on examination, convinced him that his suppositions were right. His first impression was that this gold had. been lost or been buried there by some early Indian tribe--perhaps some of those mysterious inhabitants of the West of whom we have no account, but who dwelt on this continent centuries ago and built those cities and temples, the ruins of which are scattered about these solitary wilds. On proceeding, however, to examine the neighboring soil, he discovered that it was more or less auriferous. This at once decided