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The year was 1848 and the great California emigration was still twelve months distant. The flakes of gold had already been found in the race of Sutter's mill, and the thin scattering of men, which made the population of California, had left their plows in the furrow and their ships in the cove and gone to the yellow rivers that drain the Sierra's mighty flanks.
The other is to take a boat and go up river to Sacramento and then pack across with horses." "How much is the river fare?" asked Talbot. "You have to get a sailboat. It costs about forty dollars apiece." "How long would it take?" "Four or five days." "And how long from here to Sutter's Fort by horse?" "About the same." "Depends then on whether horses are cheaper here or there."
Marshall's attention attracted by some glittering substance Finds it to be gold First imagines it to have been buried there Discovers it in great abundance Takes horse to Sutter's Fort Captain Sutter and Mr.
Proposal to convey it to the coast Short rations Indians visit the camp The invalids of the party The conveyance of the gold again discussed Suspicions began to arise Captain Sutter's receipt missing Bradley's explanation Further discussion about the gold The matter at last arranged No chance of rain. August 29th. We have led a lazy life of it these last few days.
We were doing pretty well in the diggings, but we had also fairly healthy appetites, and I am convinced that at the prices that man charged we should have no more than kept even. Williams, the storekeeper, was levying double profits, one from us, and one from the overland immigrants. Don Gaspar proposed we send out Vasquez with all the horses to restock at Sutter's Fort.
I understood, afterward, that from that time the payment of the tithes ceased, but Brannan had already collected enough money wherewith to hire Sutter's hospital, and to open a store there, in which he made more money than any merchant in California, during that summer and fall.
Of course, the horses and mules at first refused to take to the water, and it was nearly a day's work to get them across, and even then some of our animals after crossing escaped into the woods and undergrowth that lined the river, but we secured enough of them to reach Sutter's Fort, three miles back from the embcarcadero, where we encamped at the old slough, or pond, near the fort.
Once over the mountains, he hoped to gain the American settlements in the Sacramento Valley, where already Sutter's Fort had been established. The party ascended Walker River, dragging, with great difficulty, a howitzer which they had brought with them. The snows grew deeper as storm succeeded storm.
The commodore had been told to take Alta California, if possible; so, sailing to Monterey, he raised the stars and stripes there in July, 1846, and ended Mexican power forever. The American flag flew at the San Francisco Presidio two days later, and also at Sonoma, Sutter's Fort, or wherever there were Americans. The flag was greeted with cheers and delight.
In August he takes up a tract of land on the south bank of the American River, east from present Sacramento, and there establishes a trading post which he names New Helvetia, but which became better known as Sutter's Fort. The post grows to be a rallying place for American trappers and settlers.
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