CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
CALIFORNIA JUST PRIOR TO THB GOLD DISCOVERT.
January, 1848.
The Valley of California — Quality of Population — ^The Later Incomers — Hispafio-American, Anglo-American, and Others-^-Settlers around San Francisco Bay— San Jos4 — ^The Peninsula — San Francisco — Across the Bay — Alameda and C>ontra Costa Valleys — ^Valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento — Sutter's Fort — Grants and Ranchos-*- About Carquines Strait — ^Napa, Sonoma^ and Santa* Rosa Valleys-^ San Rafael, Bodega, and the Northern Coast — ^Natural Wealth and Environment. 1
CHAPTER n.
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
January, 1848.
Situation of Sutter — His Need of Lumber — Search for a Mill Site in the Mountains — Culuma — James W. Marshall — The Building of a Saw- mill Determined upon — A Party Sets Forth — ^Its Personnel — Char- acter of Marshall — ^The Finding of Gold — What Marshall and his Men Thought of It — Marshall Rides to New Helvetia and Informs Sutter — The Interview — Sutter Visits the Mill — ^Attempt to Secure the Indian Title to the Land. 26
CHAPTER III.
THE SECRET ESCAPES.
February, 1848.
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Bennett Goes to Monterey — Sees Pfister at Benicia — 'There ia What will Beat Coal!' — Bennett Meets Isaac Humphrey at San Francisco— Un- successful at Monterey — Sutter's Swiss Teamster — The Boy Wimmer Tells Him of the Gold — The Mother Wimmer, to Prove her Boy not a Liar, Shows It — And the Teamster, Who is Thirsty, Shows It at the Fort — Afiairs at the Mill Proceed as Usual — Bigler*s Sunday Medi- tations— Gold Found at Live Oak Bar — Bigler Writes his Three
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