JOHN A. SUTTER,

AND THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.

PEOPLE often say what they would do if they should find a gold mine; evidently supposing that a man who finds a gold mine is made rich of course. But this, it appears, is not always the case. Neither the man who discovered gold in California, nor the man upon whose land it was discovered, have been benefited by it. On the contrary, the discovery ruined them both, and both are to-day poor men.

John A. Sutter, the son of Swiss parents, was born in 1803, at Baden, where he was reared and expensively educated. In early life he obtained a commission in the French army, in which he rose to the rank of captain, and remained in the service until he was thirty years of age. A number of his Swiss friends and relations, in 1833, formed a company with a view to emigration to some part of the United States suited to winegrowing; and they selected Captain Sutter to go to America and choose a location for the colony. He arrived in New York, upon this errand, in July, 1834.

Proceeding to the State of Missouri, he chose a place for the colony in a region unpopulated, if, indeed, it had been explored, and he was making preparations for the coming of his friends, when a sad mishap frustrated the enterprise. Captain Sutter brought with him a considerable capital, with which he was to begin a settlement, erect buildings, and get a piece of land under cultivation. Unfortunately, a steamboat, loaded with implements and stores, timber and other materials, for the projected establishment, was sunk in the Mississippi river, and proved a total loss. Being thus compelled to postpone the scheme of colonization, and being of an adventurous turn of mind, he made a tour in New Mexico. There he met some

hunters and trappers who had visited Upper California, and they gave him such a captivating description of that beautiful and romantic country, that he determined to go thither himself.

In March, 1838, he joined a party of the American Fur Company, and travelled with them to the Rocky Mountains; and thence, with six mounted men, he crossed the range and made his way to Fort Vancouver, in Oregon, As there was no mode of getting down the coast to California, he took passage in a vessel bound to the Sandwich Islands. At Honolulu he waited five months, during which not a single vessel sailed for San Francisco. He then accepted a situation as supercargo in a vessel which was to land stores at Sitka, an island which forms part of what was till recently Russian America, but which, I presume, will soon rejoice in another name. From Sitka the vessel proceeded along the coast, and was driven into the port of San Francisco in distress.

Captain Sutter announced his intention to remain in the country to the Mexican governor, from whom he obtained a grant of land. After many adventures and tantalizing delays, he landed a schooner-load of effects on the Sacramento river,. near the site of the present city of Sacramento, and there began to build the stockade afterwards so famous as Sutter's Fort. He was then thirty-six years of age, and had been in America five years. His colony consisted of six white men, adventurers from various parts of the world, and eight Indians. In the following year eight more white men straggled in and joined him, so that the population of the district consisted of fourteen white men, eight friendly Indians, and some hundreds of roving savages. Every season, however, brought in a few recruits.

The colony prospered. Besides cultivating the soil, Captain Sutter and his comrades sent hides to San Francisco, for exportation to the United States, and the port became a depot of furs purchased from the wandering trappers and hunters. The land granted to Captain Sutter consisted of eleven square leagues, and he named his settlement New Helvetia.

Many a worn and starving band of emigrants from the United States were relieved and entertained at Captain Sutter's. One example of this hospitality tells a terrible story of the sufferings

endured at that day in crossing the plains. A man came in one morning and reported that his comrades were some miles distant in the desert country, dying of starvation. Sutter instantly loaded a few of his best mules with provisions, and despatched them to the relief of the perishing band, under the guidance of two Indians. The starving party was so large that the supplies were insufficient. After consuming the provisions, they killed the mules and ate them; then they killed the two Indians and devoured them; and even after that, when some of their own number fell exhausted, they ate them. This is almost too much for belief. I relate it upon the authority of Mr. Edward E. Dunbar, President of the Travellers' Club of this city, who had the story from Captain Sutter himself, and who has recently published a work upon the discovery of gold in California, from which most of these particulars are derived.

The war with Mexico ended in our acquisition of California. As early as March, 1847, the flag of the United States floated over San Francisco, and troops of the United States garrisoned the town.

In 1848 Captain Sutter was the owner of eleven leagues of land, upon which he had erected various costly improvements. He had a flour-mill, supplied by a mill-race three miles long, which had cost twenty-five thousand dollars. He had expended ten thousand dollars in the erection of a saw-mill. One thousand acres of his land were verdant with young wheat. He owned eight thousand cattle, two thousand horses and mules, two thousand sheep, and one thousand hogs. Besides possessing all this property, he had been appointed alcalde of the district by Commodore Stockton, and Indian agent by General Kearney. He was monarch of all he surveyed, and was held in high respect, both by his colonists and by the United States officers stationed in the Territory. This was his position on the day gold was discovered on his land.

One of the men in his employment was James W. Marshall, a native of New Jersey, who, after long wanderings on the Pacific coast, had enlisted under Colonel Fremont, in the California battalion, from which, at the close of the war, he was honorably discharged. As he was an excellent mechanic,

he obtained employment from Captain Sutter. It was he who superintended the building of the saw-mill just mentioned, which was situated at a point forty miles east of Sutter's fort. In January, 1848, the mill being nearly complete, they had begun to saw timber, Marshall still being the superintendent. In the evening of February 2, 1848, James Marshall suddenly rode into the fort, his horse foaming, and both horse and rider spattered all over with mud. The man was laboring under wild excitement. Meeting Captain Sutter, he asked to be conducted to a room where they could converse alone. The astonished Sutter complied with his desire, and they entered a secluded apartment. Marshall closed the door, and asked Captain Sutter if he was certain they were safe from intrusion, and begged him to lock the door. The honest Sutter began to think the man was mad, and was a little alarmed at the idea of being locked in with a maniac. He assured Marshall that they were safe from interruption. Satisfied, at length, upon this point, he took from his pocket a pouch, from which he poured upon the table half a thimble-full of yellow grains of metal, with the exclamation that he thought they were gold.

ee

Where did you get it?" asked Captain Sutter.

Marshall replied, that, early that morning, the water being shut off from the mill-race, as usual, he noticed, in passing along, shining particles scattered about on the bottom. He picked up several, and, finding them to be metal, the thought had burst upon his mind that they might be gold. Having gathered about an ounce of them, he had mounted his horse and ridden forty miles to impart the momentous secret to his employer, and bring the yellow substance to some scientific

test.

Captain Sutter was at first disposed to laugh at his excited friend. Among his stores, however, he happened to have a bottle of aqua-fortis, and the action of this powerful acid upon the yellow particles at once proved them to be pure gold!

The excitement of this moment can be imagined. Marshall proposed that Captain Sutter should immediately mount and ride back with him to the saw-mill; but, as it was raining hard, the night dark, and the mill forty miles distant, Captain

Sutter preferred to wait till daylight. Marshall, however could not be restrained. He set out immediately on his return. At the dawn of day, Sutter started; and, when he was within ten miles of the saw-mill, he saw before him, coming out of some bushes, a dark object which he took to be a grisly bear, but which proved to be James Marshall!

"What are you doing here?" asked Sutter.

Marshall replied that he had been to the saw-mill, but was so impatient to see the captain, that he had walked back ten miles to meet him. They went on together to the mill, and found all the laborers picking up the shining particles from the bottom of the race. Captain Sutter did not relish the prospect. He soon satisfied himself that gold, in considerable quantities, existed in the neighborhood, but as the harvest was coming on, and some of his improvements were unfinished, he feared lest his men should leave him in the lurch, and all go to golddigging. Calling his men around him, he explained his situation, and they agreed to keep the matter a secret for six weeks, when the harvest would be gathered. But such a secret cannot be kept. A teamster, going from the mill to the fort, and wishing something to drink, went to a store and asked for a bottle of whiskey. As the teamster's credit was not high in the country, the store-keeper intimated that whiskey was a cash article. The man said he had plenty of money, and immediately showed some grains of the precious metal which he had brought from the saw-mill. The store-keeper, having satisfied himself that the yellow particles were indeed gold, supplied the whiskey, at the same time begging the man to tell where he had got it. The teamster, at first, refused to reveal the secret, but the whiskey soon unloosed his tongue, and he related the whole story.

The rush that followed is well known. All California hurried to the spot. Sutter's harvest was never gathered. His oxen, hogs, and sheep were stolen by hungry men and devoured. No hands could be procured to run the mills. His lands were squatted upon and dug over, and he wasted his remaining substance in fruitless litigation to recover it. To carry on the legal warfare he was compelled to sacrifice or mortgage the