CHAPTER II.
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
Januaby, 1848.
Situation of Sutteb — His Nebd of Lumber — Seabch fob a Mill Sitb iv THE Mountains— Culuha — Jaises W. Mabshall — Thb Buildino of a Saw-mill Detebmined upon— A Pabty Sets Fobth — Its Pebsonnel — Chabactkb of Marshall — The Finding of Gold — What Mabshall AND HIS Men Thoimjht of It— Marshall Rides to New Helvetia and Informs Sctier — The Interview — Sutteb Visits the Mill — Attempt TO Sbcube the Indian Title to the Land.
John A. Sutter was the potentate of the Sacra- mento, as we have seen. He had houses and lands, flocks and herds, mills and machinery; he counted his skilled artisans by the score, and his savage retainers by the hundred. He was, moreover, a man of prog- ress. Although he had come from cultured Europe, and had established himself in an American wilderness, he had no thought of drifting into savagisni.
Among his more pressing wants at this moment was a saw-n)ill. A larger supply of lumber was needed for a multitude of purposes. Fencing was wanted. The flour-mills, then in course of construction at Brighton, would take a large quantity; the neighbors would buy some, and boards might profitably be sent to San Francisco, instead of bringing them from that direction.^ There were no good forest trees, with
^ Since 1845 Sutter had obtained lumber from the mountains, got ont by whip-saws. hidwelVn Cal. IS^IS^ MS., 226. The author of this most valu- able manuscript informs me further that Sutter had for years contemplated building a saw-mill in order to avoid the labor and cost of sawing lumber by hand in the redwoods on the coast, and bringing it round by the bay in hU
vessel. With this object he at various times seat exploring parties into the
