Encampment for the night
Symptoms of neighbours not far off
Reach the Sacramento River
Sutter's Fort
Captain Sutter
His offer of accommodation
Various matters to be seen to
A walk through the Fort
Desertion of the guard to the "diggings"
Work and whisky
Indians and their bargains
A chief's effort to look like a civilised being
Yankee traders
Indians and trappers
"Beats beaver skins"
Death to the weakest
A regular Spanish Don and his servant
Captain Sutter a Swiss Guard
His prejudice in favour of "constituted authorities."
_May 29th_.--Last night we encamped under a group of oaks, and we "knew
by the smoke that so gracefully curled" over other parts of the valley,
that there were several other camps pitched at no great distance. When
we started in the morning we fell in with a few parties moving towards
the Sacramento. A ride of a few hours brought us to the borders of that
noble river, which was here about a couple of hundred yards wide, and
we immediately made preparations for crossing it. After several mishaps
and delays, we at length succeeded in getting over in a launch. The
new town of Suttersville, numbering some ten or twelve houses, is laid
out within half a mile of the banks of the river. From here a brisk
ride over a level plain--parcelled out into fields of wheat and
pasture-grounds, dotted with hundreds upon hundreds of grazing cattle,
and here and there a loitering team--brought us to Sutter's Fort, an
extensive block of building planted on the top of a small hill which
skirts a creek running into the Americanos, near its junction with the
Rio Sacramento. A schooner and some small craft were beating up the
Americanos River towards the Fort, and alongside the landing-place
several launches were lying unshipping cargoes. As we made the spot,
we soon saw that here all was bustle and activity. Boatmen were
shouting and swearing; wagoners were whistling and hallooing and
cracking their whips at their straining horses, as these toiled along
with heavily-laden wagons to the different stores within the building;
groups of horsemen were riding to and fro, and crowds of people were
moving about on foot. It was evident that the gold mania increased in
force as we approached the now eagerly longed for El Dorado.
On inquiring of a squaw we met at the entrance of the Fort, and who
knew just sufficient English to understand our question, she pointed
out to us as Captain Sutter a very tall good-looking sort of personage,
wearing a straw hat and loose coat and trousers of striped duck, but
with features as unlike those of a Yankee as can well be imagined. I at
once introduced myself, and handed him the letter which Lieutenant
Sherman had given me. After reading it, the Captain informed me that he
was happy enough to see me, although he feared, from the great change
which a few weeks had made in this part of the world, that he could
offer me but indifferent hospitality. Every store and shed was being
crammed with bales of goods, barrels of flour, and a thousand other
things for which a demand has suddenly sprung up. The Captain's own
house was indeed just like an hotel crowded with many more visitors
than it could accommodate; still no one who came there, so the Captain
was good enough to say, recommended by his friend Sherman, should have
other than an hospitable reception. All that he could do, however, he
said, would be to place one sleeping-room at my service for myself and
such of my friends as I liked to share it with; and, leaving me to
arrange the matter with them, he went away, promising to return and
show us our quarters.
I told my companions of the Captain's offer, but they were satisfied to
rough it out of doors again to-night, and it was arranged that only
Bradley and myself should accept the sleeping accommodation offered by
Captain Sutter, as a good night's rest in comfortable quarters would be
more beneficial to our friend with the injured limb, than an outdoor
nap with a single blanket for a bed and a saddle for a pillow.
Two of our horses having cast their shoes, Malcolm and José walked them
round to the blacksmith's shop, where, after their losses were
repaired, a stock of shoes, nails, etc., were to be laid in for future
contingencies. McPhail and our Spanish friend undertook at the same
time to purchase a ten days' supply of provisions for us, and Bradley
agreed to look about the Fort and see if he could meet with another
servant. In this errand, I am sorry to say, he was not successful.
While these several commissions were executing, the Captain returned
and walked with me through the Fort. On our way he pointed out the
guard-house, the Indian soldiers attached to which had deserted to the
mines almost to a man; the woollen factory, with some thirty women
still at work; the distillery house, where the famous pisco is made;
and the blacksmiths' and wheelwrights' shops, with more work before
them than the few mechanics left will be able to get through in a
month. Yet all these men talked of starting off to the diggings in a
day or two. The Captain told me he had only been able to keep them by
greatly increased pay, and by an almost unlimited allowance of pisco
and whisky.
It was not easy to pick our way through the crowds of strange people
who were moving backwards and forwards in every direction. Carts were
passing to and fro; groups of Indians squatting on their haunches were
chattering together, and displaying to one another the flaring red and
yellow handkerchiefs, the scarlet blankets, and muskets of the most
worthless Brummagem make, for which they had been exchanging their bits
of gold, while their squaws looked on with the most perfect
indifference. I saw one chief, who had gone for thirty years with no
other covering than a rag to hide his nakedness, endeavouring to thrust
his legs into a pair of sailor's canvas trousers with very indifferent
success.
Inside the stores the bustle and noise were oven greater. Some
half-a-dozen sharp-visaged Yankees, in straw hats and loose frocks,
were driving hard bargains for dollars with the crowds of customers who
were continually pouring in to barter a portion of their stock of gold
for coffee and tobacco, breadstuff, brandy, and bowie-knives: of spades
and mattocks there were none to be had. In one corner, at a railed-off
desk, a quick-eyed old man was busily engaged, with weights and scales,
setting his own value on the lumps of golden ore or the bags of dust
which were being handed over to him, and in exchange for which he told
out the estimated quantity of dollars. Those dollars quickly returned
to the original deposit, in payment for goods bought at the other end
of the store.
Among the clouds of smoke puffed forth by some score of pipes and as
many cigarettos, there were to be seen, mingled together, Indians of
various degrees of civilisation, and corresponding styles of dress,
varying from the solitary cloth kilt to the cotton shirts and jackets
and trousers of Russia duck; with groups of trappers from as far up as
Oregon, clad in coats of buffalo hide, and with faces and hands so
brown and wrinkled that one would take their skins to be as tough as
the buffalo's, and almost as indifferent to a lump of lead. "Captain,"
said one of these gentry, shaking a bag of gold as we passed, "I guess
this beats beaver skins--eh, captain?" Another of them, who had a
savage-looking wolf-dog with him, was holding a palaver with an
Indian from the borders of the Klamath Lake; and the most friendly
understanding seemed to exist between them. "You see those two
scoundrels?" said the Captain to me. "They look and talk for all the
world like brothers; but only let either of them get the chance of a
shot at the other after scenting his trail, may be for days, across
those broad hunting-grounds, where every man they meet they look upon
as a foe, and the one that has the quickest eye and the readiest hand
will alone live to see the sun rise next day."
Threading his way amongst the crowd, I was somewhat struck by the
appearance of a Spanish Don of the old school, looking as magnificent
as a very gaudy light blue jacket with silver buttons and scarlet
trimmings, and breeches of crimson velvet, and striped silk sash, and
embroidered deer-skin shoes, and a perfumed cigaretto could make him.
He wore his slouched sombrero jauntily placed on one side, and beneath
it, of course, the everlasting black silk handkerchief, with the
corners dangling over the neck behind. Following him was his servant,
in slouched hat and spangled garters, carrying an old Spanish musket
over his shoulder, and casting somewhat timid looks at the motley
assemblage of Indians and trappers, who every now and then jostled
against him. Beyond these, there were a score or two of go-ahead
Yankees--"gentlemen traders," I suppose they called themselves--with a
few pretty Californian women, who are on their way with their husbands
to the mines. I noticed that the Captain had a word for almost every
one, and that he seemed to be held in very great respect.
Bradley informed me to-night of the origin of a scar which is just
distinguishable in Captain Sutter's face. It seems that the Captain,
who is a Swiss, was one of Charles the Tenth's guards in 1830, and that
a slight cut from the sabre of one of the youths of the Polytechnic
School had left in his visage a standing memorial of the three glorious
days. Indeed the Captain seems generally to have taken the side of the
constituted authorities, as in thy revolution of 1845 he turned out
with all his people for the Mexican Government. However, he was more
fortunate in California than in Paris, as he didn't even get his skin
scratched on this occasion.