Captain Sutter's account of first discovery of gold
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Conga e pear 5-, Beian Ray n lercks ltue the Ditriel lat the Neer 2 t laliferni.
Capt. Sutter's account of the first
discovery of the Gold.
I was riteng One afternoon," said the Captain,
"just after my siesta, engaged, by the bye,in
writing a letter to a relation of mine at Lucern,
when I was interrupted by Mr. Maryhal a gent
le man with whom I had freguant buciness
transactions- bursting hurriedly into the
reom From the unusual agitation in his
navner /imagined that semething serious
had occured, and, as we involuntarely do in
this part of the world,Iat once glaneed to
see f my rifle was in its proper placc You
sheulsh knew that the mere appearance of M
Marshal at that moment un the Fort,was qguite
ORough to surpprise ne, as he had but two days
ieft ene piare tomake some alierations in a
mil for sawing pine planks, which he had just
Mun up for me.some miles higher up the Americ-
anos. When he had recovered himself a lztle, he
toid me that, however great my surprise mighi be
at hu unexpected reappearance, it would be much
greabrwin I heard the in telligence he had come to
bring me. 'Intelligence, he added: which if property
profuted by, woula put both of us in possession of
un heard-of-wealah-millions and millions of dallars, in
fact: I frankly own, when I heard this that I thoug ht
semething had tozched Marshall's brain, when suddataly all my
musg irings ware put at an end to by his f hing ing on the lable a
handful of scales of pure virgin g old I was fair-ly thunderstruck
and asked him to explain what all this meant, when he wenton to say, that
sccording to my iastractions, he had thrown the mill-wheel out of gear, to let the whole
bedy of the water in the dami find a passage through the tail race, which was previously
to narrow lo allew the walter to run of in sufficient quantity, whereby the wheel was prevented from
efficiently perfor ming its work By this alteration the narrow channel was considerably enlarged, añd a mas
of sand 2 gravel.carried of by bhi force of the torrent- Early in the morarng after this took placeMn Marshal
was walking along the left Bank ef the stream when he perceived something which he at first lopkk fora piace of
g-aclair transparant stone, very common here-glattering on one of the spots laid bare by the Sudden cerunb-
ling away of the bank He paid no attention be this, bub while he was ginng direetrons to the york men, having
abserved several simelar gittering fagments, his curiesity was so far eaciled, that he stoo ped dow'n &picked
on of them up. Do yoiu kaow said MrMarshal to me, I positively deba tted within tayself two or three times
whether I should take the trouble to bend my back to pick up one of the pieces and had derided on not deing
se when further on, another glittering morsel caught my ere the largest of the pieces now before yu
conadescended to pick it up, and to my astonishment found that it was'a thin scale of what appears o
be pure gold'. He then gachered some twenty or thirty pieces which on ezamination conviin ced him that
his suppoutions were right His first impression was, that this gold haad been lost or buried there, by
same early Indian tribe-perhaps some of those mjrsterious in habitants of the west, of w hom we have no
acount but who dwele on this continent centuries ago, and built those cities and tem ples, the rusins
ef which are scaltered about thes solidary wilds.On proceding, however, to examine the neighbouring
sorl, he discouered that it was more or less auriferous, This at once decided him He mouaded his
horse, and rode down to me as fast as it could carry him vith the news.
At the concluson of Mr Marshals account, and when I had convi need myself. from the specimens he
had brought with him, that it was not exagerated, Ifell as mach ezcitedas hunself. I eagerly inguired
Fhe had shown the Cold btie work people at the mill and was glad to hear that he had not ipoken be .
ing le person about t We ag reed nut lo menlion the circaastance to any one and arranged te set off
early ihe next day fpr the mill. On our arrival, just before sundown, we poket the sand about in
various places, and bejore long succeeded in collecting between us more than an ounce of gold
med up with a good deal of sand.I stayed al Mr Marshall's that night, and the next day we pfoaedeol
sme lattle dstance up the south Fork, and found that golol ezisted along the whole course, not
only un the bed of the main stream, where the had sabsided but in every little dried-up creek
ana ravine Tndeed I think it us more plentful in these latter places, for my se if, with nothing
more than a smal knife, picked out from dry gorge, a litte way up the mountain, a soliol
lp of gold wich weighed nearly an ounce ard a half.
Notwithstanding our precantions not to be observed, as soon we came back e che mill.we adticel
y the eseitement of the working people that we had been dogged about an to complet our desop-
pount ment,one ot che indians w ho had worked at the gold mne in the neighbourhood of Ta Paz
cried ont in showing to us some spectimens picked ip By him self,- Oro2Oro- 0ro!!
PORTAIT OF M MARSHAL, TAKEN
FROM NATURE AT THE TIME WHEN
HE MADE THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD
IN CALIFORMIA
VIEW OF
SUTTER'S MILL
OR PLACE WHERE
THE FIRST COLD
HAS BEEN DISCOVERED
rered R
Lith &Pub by Britton & Rey San Francisto. Cal
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too
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