DISCOVERY OF THE GOLD PLACERS.
By the treaty concluded between the United States and Mexico, in 1847,
the territory of Upper California became the property of the United
States. Little thought the Mexican government of the value of the land
they were ceding, further than its commercial importance; and,
doubtless, little thought the buyers of the territory, that its soil
was pregnant with a wealth untold, and that its rivers flowed over
golden beds.
This territory, now belonging to the American Union, embraces an area
of 448,961 square miles. It extends along the Pacific coast, from
about the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, a distance of near
seven hundred miles, to the forty-second parallel, the southern
boundary of Oregon. On the east, it is bounded by New Mexico. During
the long period which transpired between its discovery and its cession
to the United States, this vast tract of country was frequently
visited by men of science, from all parts of the world. Repeated
examinations were made by learned and enterprising officers and
civilians; but none of them discovered the important fact, that the
mountain torrents of the Sierra Nevada were constantly pouring down
their golden sands into the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
The glittering particles twinkled beneath their feet, in the ravines
which they explored, or glistened in the watercourses which they
forded, yet they passed them by unheeded. Not a legend or tradition
was heard among the white settlers, or the aborigines, that attracted
their curiosity. A nation's ransom lay within their grasp, but,
strange to say, it escaped their notice--it flashed and sparkled all
in vain.[1]
The Russian American Company had a large establishment at Ross and
Bodega, ninety miles north of San Francisco, founded in the year 1812;
and factories were also established in the territory by the Hudson Bay
Company. Their agents and _employes_ ransacked the whole country west
of the Sierra Nevada, or Snowy Mountain, in search of game. In 1838,
Captain Sutter, formerly an officer in the Swiss Guards of Charles
X., King of France, emigrated from the state of Missouri to Upper
California, and obtained from the Mexican government a conditional
grant of thirty leagues square of land, bounded on the west by the
Sacramento river. Having purchased the stock, arms, and ammunition of
the Russian establishment, he erected a dwelling and fortification on
the left bank of the Sacramento, about fifty miles from its mouth, and
near what was termed, in allusion to the new settlers, the American
Fork. This formed the nucleus of a thriving settlement, to which
Captain Sutter gave the name of New Helvetia. It is situated at the
head of navigation for vessels on the Sacramento, in latitude 38° 33'
45" north, and longitude 121° 20' 05" west. During a residence of ten
years in the immediate vicinity of the recently discovered _placéras_,
or gold regions, Captain Sutter was neither the wiser nor the richer
for the brilliant treasures that lay scattered around him.[2]
In the year 1841, careful examinations of the Bay of San Francisco,
and of the Sacramento River and its tributaries, were made by
Lieutenant Wilkes, the commander of the Exploring Expedition; and a
party under Lieutenant Emmons, of the navy, proceeded up the valley of
the Willamette, crossed the intervening highlands, and descended the
Sacramento. In 1843-4, similar examinations were made by Captain,
afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, of the Topographical Engineers,
and in 1846, by Major Emory, of the same corps. None of these officers
made any discoveries of minerals, although they were led to
conjecture, as private individuals who had visited the country had
done, from its volcanic formation and peculiar geological features,
that they might be found to exist in considerable quantities.[3]
As is often the case, chance at length accomplished what science had
failed to do. In the winter of 1847-8, a Mr. Marshall commenced the
construction of a saw-mill for Captain Sutter, on the north branch of
the American Fork, and about fifty miles above New Helvetia, in a
region abounding with pine timber. The dam and race were completed,
but on attempting to put the mill in motion, it was ascertained that
the tail-race was too narrow to permit the water to escape with
perfect freedom. A strong current was then passed in, to wash it wider
and deeper, by which a large bed of mud and gravel was thrown up at
the foot of the race. Some days after this occurrence, Mr. Marshall
observed a number of brilliant particles on this deposit of mud, which
attracted his attention. On examining them, he became satisfied that
they were gold, and communicated the fact to Captain Sutter. It was
agreed between them, that the circumstance should not be made public
for the present; but, like the secret of Midas, it could not be
concealed. The Mormon emigrants, of whom Mr. Marshall was one, were
soon made acquainted with the discovery, and in a few weeks all
California was agitated with the startling information.
Business of every kind was neglected, and the ripened grain was left
in the fields unharvested. Nearly the whole population of Upper
California became infected with the mania, and flocked to the mines.
Whalers and merchant vessels entering the ports were abandoned by
their crews, and the American soldiers and sailors deserted in scores.
Upon the disbandment of Colonel Stevenson's regiment, most of the men
made their way to the mineral regions. Within three months after the
discovery, it was computed that there were near four thousand persons,
including Indians, who were mostly employed by the whites, engaged in
washing for gold. Various modes were adopted to separate the metal
from the sand and gravel--some making use of tin pans, others of
close-woven Indian baskets, and others still, of a rude machine called
the cradle, six or eight feet long, and mounted on rockers, with a
coarse grate, or sieve, at one end, but open at the other. The
washings were mainly confined to the low wet grounds, and the margins
of the streams--the earth being rarely disturbed more than eighteen
inches below the surface. The value of the gold dust obtained by each
man, per day, is said to have ranged from ten to fifty dollars, and
sometimes even to have far exceeded that. The natural consequence of
this state of things was, that the price of labor, and, indeed, of
every thing, rose immediately from ten to twenty fold.[4]
As may readily be conjectured, every stream and ravine in the valley
of the Sacramento was soon explored. Gold was found on every one of
its tributaries; but the richest earth was discovered near the _Rio
de los Plumas_, or Feather River,[5] and its branches, the Yuba and
Bear rivers, and on Weber's creek, a tributary of the American Fork.
Explorations were also made in the valley of the San Joaquin, which
resulted in the discovery of gold on the Cosumnes and other streams,
and in the ravines of the Coast Range, west of the valley, as far down
as Ciudad de los Angeles.
In addition to the gold mines, other important discoveries were made
in Upper California. A rich vein of quicksilver was opened at New
Almaden, near Santa Clara, which, with imperfect machinery,--the heat
by which the metal is made to exude from the rock being applied by a
very rude process,--yielded over thirty per cent. This mine--one of
the principal advantages to be derived from which will be, that the
working of the silver mines scattered through the territory must now
become profitable--is superior to those of Almaden, in Old Spain, and
second only to those of Idria, near Trieste, the richest in the world.
Lead mines were likewise discovered in the neighborhood of Sonoma, and
vast beds of iron ore near the American Fork, yielding from
eighty-five to ninety per cent. Copper, platina, tin, sulphur, zinc,
and cobalt, were discovered every where; coal was found to exist in
large quantities in the Cascade range of Oregon, of which the Sierra
Nevada is a continuation; and in the vicinity of all this mineral
wealth, there are immense quarries of marble and granite, for
building purposes.
Colonel Mason had succeeded Colonel Fremont in the post of governor of
California and military commandant. A regiment of New York troops,
under the command of Colonel Stevenson, had been ordered to California
before the conclusion of the treaty of peace, and formed the principal
part of the military force in the territory.
Colonel Mason expressed the opinion, in his official despatch, that
"there is more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers, than will pay the cost of the [late] war with Mexico a
hundred times over." Should this even prove to be an exaggeration,
there can be little reason to doubt, when we take into consideration
all the mineral resources of the country, that the territory of
California is by far the richest acquisition made by this government
since its organization.
The appearance of the mines, at the period of Governor Mason's visit,
three months after the discovery, he thus graphically describes:
"At the urgent solicitation of many gentlemen, I delayed there [at
Sutter's Fort] to participate in the first public celebration of our
national anniversary at that fort, but on the 5th resumed the journey,
and proceeded twenty-five miles up the American Fork to a point on it
now known as the Lower Mines, or Mormon Diggins. The hill-sides were
thickly strewn with canvas tents and bush arbors; a store was erected,
and several boarding shanties in operation. The day was intensely hot,
yet about two hundred men were at work in the full glare of the sun,
washing for gold--some with tin pans, some with close-woven Indian
baskets, but the greater part had a rude machine, known as the cradle.
This is on rockers, six or eight feet long, open at the foot, and at
its head has a coarse grate, or sieve; the bottom is rounded, with
small cleats nailed across. Four men are required to work this
machine; one digs the ground in the bank close by the stream; another
carries it to the cradle and empties it on the grate; a third gives a
violent rocking motion to the machine; while a fourth dashes on water
from the stream itself.
"The sieve keeps the coarse stones from entering the cradle, the
current of water washes off the earthy matter, and the gravel is
gradually carried out at the foot of the machine, leaving the gold
mixed with a heavy, fine black sand above the first cleats. The sand
and gold, mixed together, are then drawn off through auger holes into
a pan below, are dried in the sun, and afterward separated by blowing
off the sand. A party of four men thus employed at the lower mines,
averaged $100 a day. The Indians, and those who have nothing but pans
or willow baskets, gradually wash out the earth and separate the
gravel by hand, leaving nothing but the gold mixed with sand, which is
separated in the manner before described. The gold in the lower mines
is in fine bright scales, of which I send several specimens.
"From the mill [where the gold was first discovered], Mr. Marshall
guided me up the mountain on the opposite or north bank of the south
fork, where, in the bed of small streams or ravines, now dry, a great
deal of coarse gold has been found. I there saw several parties at
work, all of whom were doing very well; a great many specimens were
shown me, some as heavy as four or five ounces in weight, and I send
three pieces, labeled No. 5, presented by a Mr. Spence. You will
perceive that some of the specimens accompanying this, hold
mechanically pieces of quartz; that the surface is rough, and
evidently moulded in the crevice of a rock. This gold cannot have been
carried far by water, but must have remained near where it was first
deposited from the rock that once bound it. I inquired of many people
if they had encountered the metal in its matrix, but in every instance
they said they had not; but that the gold was invariably mixed with
washed gravel, or lodged in the crevices of other rocks. All bore
testimony that they had found gold in greater or less quantities in
the numerous small gullies or ravines that occur in that mountainous
region.
"On the 7th of July I left the mill, and crossed to a stream emptying
into the American Fork, three or four miles below the saw-mill. I
struck this stream (now known as Weber's creek) at the washings of
Sunol and Co. They had about thirty Indians employed, whom they payed
in merchandise. They were getting gold of a character similar to that
found in the main fork, and doubtless in sufficient quantities to
satisfy them. I send you a small specimen, presented by this company,
of their gold. From this point, we proceeded up the stream about eight
miles, where we found a great many people and Indians--some engaged in
the bed of the stream, and others in the small side valleys that put
into it. These latter are exceedingly rich, and two ounces were
considered an ordinary yield for a day's work. A small gutter not more
than a hundred yards long, by four feet wide and two or three feet
deep, was pointed out to me as the one where two men--William Daly and
Parry McCoon--had, a short time before, obtained $17,000 worth of
gold. Captain Weber informed me that he knew that these two men had
employed four white men and about a hundred Indians, and that, at the
end of one week's work, they paid off their party, and had left
$10,000 worth of this gold. Another small ravine was shown me, from
which had been taken upward of $12,000 worth of gold. Hundreds of
similar ravines, to all appearances, are as yet untouched. I could not
have credited these reports, had I not seen, in the abundance of the
precious metal, evidence of their truth.
"Mr. Neligh, an agent of Commodore Stockton, had been at work about
three weeks in the neighborhood, and showed me, in bags and bottles,
over $2000 worth of gold; and Mr. Lyman, a gentleman of education, and
worthy of every credit, said he had been engaged, with four others,
with a machine, on the American Fork, just below Sutter's mill; that
they worked eight days, and that his share was at the rate of fifty
dollars a day; but hearing that others were doing better at Weber's
place, they had removed there, and were then on the point of resuming
operations. I might tell of hundreds of similar instances; but, to
illustrate how plentiful the gold was in the pockets of common
laborers, I will mention a single occurrence which took place in my
presence when I was at Weber's store. This store was nothing but an
arbor of bushes, under which he had exposed for sale goods and
groceries suited to his customers. A man came in, picked up a box of
Seidlitz powders, and asked the price. Captain Weber told him it was
not for sale. The man offered an ounce of gold, but Captain Weber told
him it only cost fifty cents, and he did not wish to sell it. The man
then offered an ounce and a half, when Captain Weber _had_ to take
it. The prices of all things are high, and yet Indians, who before
hardly knew what a breech cloth was, can now afford to buy the most
gaudy dresses.
"The country on either side of Weber's creek is much broken up by
hills, and is intersected in every direction by small streams or
ravines, which contain more or less gold. Those that have been worked
are barely scratched; and although thousands of ounces have been
carried away, I do not consider that a serious impression has been
made upon the whole. Every day was developing new and richer deposits;
and the only impression seemed to be, that the metal would be found in
such abundance as seriously to depreciate in value.
"On the 8th of July, I returned to the lower mines, and on the
following day to Sutter's, where, on the 19th, I was making
preparations for a visit to the Feather, Yuba, and Bear Rivers, when I
received a letter from Commander A. R. Long, United States Navy, who
had just arrived at San Francisco from Mazatlan with a crew for the
sloop-of-war Warren, with orders to take that vessel to the squadron
at La Paz. Captain Long wrote to me that the Mexican Congress had
adjourned without ratifying the treaty of peace, that he had letters
from Commodore Jones, and that his orders were to sail with the Warren
on or before the 20th of July. In consequence of these, I determined
to return to Monterey, and accordingly arrived here on the 17th of
July. Before leaving Sutter's, I satisfied myself that gold existed in
the bed of the Feather River, in the Yuba and Bear, and in many of the
smaller streams that lie between the latter and the American Fork;
also, that it had been found in the Cosumnes to the south of the
American Fork. In each of these streams the gold is found in small
scales, whereas in the intervening mountains it occurs in coarser
lumps.
"Mr. Sinclair, whose rancho is three miles above Sutter's, on the
north side of the American, employs about fifty Indians on the north
fork, not far from its junction with the main stream. He had been
engaged about five weeks when I saw him, and up to that time his
Indians had used simply closely woven willow baskets. His net proceeds
(which I saw) were about $16,000 worth of gold. He showed me the
proceeds of his last week's work--fourteen pounds avoirdupois of
clean-washed gold.
"The principal store at Sutter's Fort, that of Brannan and Co., had
received in payment for goods $36,000 (worth of this gold) from the
1st of May to the 10th of July. Other merchants had also made
extensive sales. Large quantities of goods were daily sent forward to
the mines, as the Indians, heretofore so poor and degraded, have
suddenly become consumers of the luxuries of life. I before mentioned
that the greater part of the farmers and rancheros had abandoned their
fields to go to the mines. This is not the case with Captain Sutter,
who was carefully gathering his wheat, estimated at 40,000 bushels.
Flour is already worth at Sutter's thirty-six dollars a barrel, and
soon will be fifty. Unless large quantities of breadstuffs reach the
country, much suffering will occur; but as each man is now able to pay
a large price, it is believed the merchants will bring from Chili and
Oregon a plentiful supply for the coming winter.
"The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with
the subject, was, that upward of four thousand men were working in
the gold district, of whom more than one-half were Indians; and that
from $30,000 to $50,000 worth of gold, if not more, was daily
obtained. The entire gold district, with very few exceptions of grants
made some years ago by the Mexican authorities, is on land belonging
to the United States. It was a matter of serious reflection with me,
how I could secure to the government certain rents or fees for the
privilege of procuring this gold; but upon considering the large
extent of country, the character of the people engaged, and the small
scattered force at my command, I resolved not to interfere, but to
permit all to work freely, unless broils and crimes should call for
interference. I was surprised to hear that crime of any kind was very
unfrequent, and that no thefts or robberies had been committed in the
gold district.
"All live in tents, in bush arbors, or in the open air; and men have
frequently about their persons thousands of dollars worth of this
gold, and it was to me a matter of surprise that so peaceful and quiet
state of things should continue to exist. Conflicting claims to
particular spots of ground may cause collisions, but they will be
rare, as the extent of country is so great, and the gold so abundant,
that for the present there is room enough for all. Still the
government is entitled to rents for this land, and immediate steps
should be devised to collect them, for the longer it is delayed the
more difficult it will become. One plan I would suggest is, to send
out from the United States surveyors with high salaries, bound to
serve specified periods.
"The discovery of these vast deposits of gold has entirely changed the
character of Upper California. Its people, before engaged in
cultivating their small patches of ground, and guarding their herds
of cattle and horses, have all gone to the mines, or are on their way
thither. Laborers of every trade have left their work benches, and
tradesmen their shops. Sailors desert their ships as fast as they
arrive on the coast, and several vessels have gone to sea with hardly
enough hands to spread a sail. Two or three are now at anchor in San
Francisco with no crew on board. Many desertions, too, have taken
place from the garrisons within the influence of these mines;
twenty-six soldiers have deserted from the post of Sonoma, twenty-four
from that of San Francisco, and twenty-four from Monterey. For a few
days the evil appeared so threatening, that great danger existed that
the garrisons would leave in a body; and I refer you to my orders of
the 25th of July, to show the steps adopted to meet this contingency.
I shall spare no exertions to apprehend and punish deserters, but I
believe no time in the history of our country has presented such
temptations to desert as now exist in California.
"The danger of apprehension is small, and the prospect of high wages
certain; pay and bounties are trifles, as laboring men at the mines
can now earn in one day more than double a soldier's pay and
allowances for a month, and even the pay of a lieutenant or captain
cannot hire a servant. A carpenter or mechanic would not listen to an
offer of less than fifteen or twenty dollars a day. Could any
combination of affairs try a man's fidelity more than this? I really
think some extraordinary mark of favor should be given to those
soldiers who remain faithful to their flag throughout this tempting
crisis.
"Many private letters have gone to the United States, giving accounts
of the vast quantity of gold recently discovered, and it may be a
matter of surprise why I have made no report on this subject at an
earlier date. The reason is, that I could not bring myself to believe
the reports that I heard of the wealth of the gold district until I
visited it myself. I have no hesitation now in saying that there is
more gold in the country drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers than will pay the cost of the present war with Mexico a hundred
times over. No capital is required to obtain this gold, as the
laboring man wants nothing but his pick and shovel and tin pan, with
which to dig and wash the gravel; and many frequently pick gold out of
the crevices of the rocks with their butcher knives, in pieces of from
one to six ounces.
"Mr. Dye, a gentleman residing in Monterey, and worthy of every
credit, has just returned from Feather River. He tells me that the
company to which he belonged worked seven weeks and two days, with an
average of fifty Indians (washers,) and that their gross product was
two hundred and seventy-three pounds of gold. His share (one seventh,)
after paying all expenses, is about thirty-seven pounds, which he
brought with him and exhibited in Monterey. I see no laboring man from
the mines who does not show his two, three, or four pounds of gold. A
soldier of the artillery company returned here a few days ago from the
mines, having been absent on furlough twenty days. He made by trading
and working, during that time, $1500. During these twenty days he was
travelling ten or eleven days, leaving but a week in which he made a
sum of money greater than he receives in pay, clothes, and rations,
during a whole enlistment of five years. These statements appear
incredible, but they are true.
"Gold is also believed to exist on the eastern slope of the Sierra
Nevada; and when at the mines, I was informed by an intelligent Mormon
that it had been found near the Great Salt Lake by some of his
fraternity. Nearly all the Mormons are leaving California to go to the
Salt Lake, and this they surely would not do unless they were sure of
finding gold there in the same abundance as they now do on the
Sacramento.
"The gold 'placer' near the mission of San Fernando has long been
known, but has been little wrought for want of water. This is a spur
which puts off from the Sierra Nevada (see Fremont's map,) the same in
which the present mines occur. There is, therefore, every reason to
believe, that in the intervening spaces, of five hundred miles
(entirely unexplored) there must be many hidden and rich deposits. The
'placer' gold is now substituted as the currency of this country; in
trade it passes freely at $16 per ounce; as an article of commerce its
value is not yet fixed. The only purchase I made was of the specimen
No. 7, which I got of Mr. Neligh at $12 the ounce. That is about the
present cash value in the country, although it has been sold for less.
The great demand for goods and provisions, made by this sudden
development of wealth, has increased the amount of commerce at San
Francisco very much, and it will continue to increase."
_The Californian_, published at San Francisco on the 14th of August,
furnishes the following interesting account of the Gold Region:
"It was our intention to present our readers with a description of the
extensive gold, silver, and iron mines, recently discovered in the
Sierra Nevada, together with some other important items, for the good
of the people, but we are compelled to defer it for a future number.
Our prices current, many valuable communications, our marine journal,
and other important matters, have also been crowded out. But to enable
our distant readers to draw some idea of the extent of the gold mine,
we will confine our remarks to a few facts. The country from the Ajuba
to the San Joaquin rivers, a distance of about one hundred and twenty
miles, and from the base toward the summit of the mountains, as far as
Snow Hill, about seventy miles, has been explored, and gold found on
every part. There are now probably 3000 people, including Indians,
engaged collecting gold. The amount collected by each man who works,
ranges from $10 to $350 per day. The publisher of this paper, while on
a tour alone to the mining district, collected, with the aid of a
shovel, pick and tin pan, about twenty inches in diameter, from $44 to
$128 a day--averaging $100. The gross amount collected will probably
exceed $600,000, of which amount our merchants have received about
$250,000 worth for goods sold; all within the short space of eight
weeks. The largest piece of gold known to be found weighed four
pounds.
"Labor has ever been high in California, but previous to the discovery
of the _placera_ gold, the rates ranged from $1 to $3 per day. Since
that epoch common labor cannot be obtained, and if to be had, for no
less price than fifty cents per hour, and that the most common.
Carpenters and other mechanics have been offered $15 a day, but it has
been flatly refused. Many of our enterprising citizens were largely
engaged in building, and others wish to commence on dwellings,
warehouses, and the like, but all have had to suspend for the lack of
that all important class of community, the working men."
The following extracts from the published journal of a physician in
California, give accounts of the reception of the news of the gold
discovery in San Francisco, with its consequent effects.
"_May 8th._--Captain Fulsom called at Sweeting's to-day. He had seen a
man this morning, who reported that he had just come from a river
called the American Fork, about one hundred miles in the interior,
where he had been gold washing. Captain Fulsom saw the gold he had
with him; it was about twenty-three ounces weight, and in small
flakes. The man stated that he was eight days getting it, but Captain
Fulsom hardly believed this. He says that he saw some of this gold a
few weeks since, and thought it was only 'mica,' but good judges have
pronounced it to be genuine metal. He talks, however, of paying a
visit to the place where it is reported to come from. After he was
gone, Bradley stated that the Sacramento settlements, which Malcolm
wished to visit, were in the neighborhood of the American Fork, and
that we might go there together; he thought the distance was only one
hundred and twenty miles.
"_May 10th._--Yesterday and to-day nothing has been talked of but the
new gold 'placer,' as people call it. It seems that four other men had
accompanied the person Captain Fulsom saw yesterday, and that they had
each realized a large quantity of gold. They left the 'diggings' on
the American Fork, (which it seems is the Rio de los Americanos, a
tributary to the Sacramento) about a week ago, and stopped a day or
two at Sutter's Fort, a few miles this side of the diggings, on their
way; from there they had travelled by boat to San Francisco. The gold
they brought has been examined by the first Alcalde here and by all
the merchants in the place. Bradley showed us a lump weighing a
quarter of an ounce, which he had bought of one of the men, and for
which he gave him three dollars and a half. I have no doubt in my own
mind about its being genuine gold. Several parties, we hear, are
already made up to visit the diggings; and, according to the newspaper
here, a number of people have actually started off with shovels,
mattocks, and pans, to dig the gold themselves. It is not likely,
however, that this will be allowed, for Captain Fulsom has already
written to Colonel Mason about taking possession of the mine on behalf
of the government, it being, as he says, on public land.
"_May 17th._--This place is now in a perfect furor of excitement; all
the work-people have struck. Walking through the town to-day, I
observed that laborers were employed only upon about half-a-dozen of
the fifty new buildings which were in the course of being run up. The
majority of the mechanics at this place are making preparations for
moving off to the mines, and several hundred people of all
classes--lawyers, store-keepers, merchants, &c.,--are bitten with the
fever; in fact, there is a regular gold mania springing up. I counted
no less than eighteen houses which were closed, the owners having
left."
The mania continued to increase, and within a few months all the
principal towns were nearly emptied of their population. Gold was the
universal object, and splendid and rapid fortune the universal hope.
No occupation seemed to offer such a prospect as that of digging gold,
and, accordingly, those who were not able to bear the fatigues of such
work, or were at the head of any sort of business in the different
towns, had to pay enormous prices for the labor of subordinates who
performed the meanest services. The prices of all agricultural and
manufactured products became treble the previous rates.
Soon came the first waves of the tide of emigration that was to flood
the _placers_ of the gold region. The first influx consisted of
Mexicans of the province of Sonoma, Chilians, and some few Chinese.
These, principally took possession of the southern mines, or those on
the San Joaquin and its tributaries. Some few stopped at San
Francisco, and secured lots of ground which they knew would become
very valuable in a short time, and erected temporary stores and
dwellings. This gave the impulse to the progress of the town, and it
soon advanced rapidly in size and population. Then came the emigration
from the Atlantic States of the Union, and the whole territory felt
the progressive and enterprising spirit of the gold-seekers. The
Americans generally took possession of the mines upon the northern
tributaries of the Sacramento River; but as their numbers increased
they pushed towards the southern mines, and frequent collisions with
the foreigners were the consequence. Finally, a great number of the
latter were compelled to leave the country.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A gold _placera_ was discovered some years ago, near the mission
of San Fernando, but it was very little worked, on account of the want
of water.
[2] Farnham's Adventures in California.--Wilkes's Narrative of the
Exploring Expedition.--Fremont's Narrative.
[3] See Farnham's Adventures. Wilkes's and Fremont's Narratives, and
Emory's Report.--In 1846, Eugenio Macnamara, a Catholic priest and
Missionary, obtained a grant of a large tract of land between the San
Joaquin and the Sierra Nevada, the Cosumnes and the Tulares in the
vicinity of San Gabriel, from Pio Pico, governor of the Californias,
for the purpose of establishing upon it a large colony of Irish
Catholics; but the grant was not ratified by the Central Government,
and the project was not carried into effect. There is no evidence that
Father Macnamara was aware of the existence of gold in the valley of
the San Joaquin.
[4] Official Despatch of Colonel Mason, Commander of the 10th Military
Department, August 17, 1848.--Letters of Thomas C. Larkin, U.S. Consul
at Monterey, to the Secretary of State, June 1, and June 28, 1848.
[5] Feather River is the first considerable branch of the Sacramento
below the _Prairie Buttes_. It has a course of about forty miles, and
empties into the main river about fifteen miles above New Helvetia.
Though the Sacramento is navigable for vessels only to that place,
boats can pass up one hundred miles further.