He went to his companions and showed it to them, and
they collected some three ounces of it, flaky and in
grains, the largest piece not quite so large as a pea,
and from that down to less than a pin-head in size.
Half of this he put in his pouch, and two days later
mounted his horse and rode over to the fort."
The events which happened at Coloma in January 1848 are described by four persons who were actually present. These are Bigler, Marshall, and Wimmer and his wife. Of these Bigler has hitherto given nothing to the public except a brief letter published in the San FrancUco Builetiti, Dec. 31, 1870. To me, however, he kindly presented an abstract of the diary which he kept at the time, with elaborations and comments, and which I esteem as one of the most valuable original manuscripts in my poseession. The version given in this diary I have mainly followed in the text, as the most complete and accurate account. The others wrote from memory, long after the event; and it is to be feared too often from a memory distorted by a desire to exalt their respective claims to an important share in the discovery. Bat Bigler has no claims of this kind to support. He was not present when the first parti- cles were discovered, nor when the first piece was picked up in the raoe; hence of these incidents he says little, confining himself mostly to what he saw with his own eyes. Marshall claims to have been alone when he made the discovery. It is on this point that the orimnal authorities disagree. Bigler says Marshall went down the race alone. Mrs Wimmer and her husband de- clare that the latter was with Marshall, and saw the gold at the same moment, though both allow that Marshall was the first to stoop and pick it up. Later Mrs Wimmer is allowed to claim the first discovery for her cnildren) who show their findings to their father, he informing Marshall, or at least enlightening him as to the nature of the metal. Marshall tells his own story in a com- munication signed by him and published in llutchings' Mag., ii. 199-201, and less fully in a letter to C. K. Pickett, dated Jan. 28, 1856, in JIiUeU*s Hand- Book of Alining, 12; Wiggins* Rem,, MS., 17-18; and in various brief accounts given to newspapers and interviewers. Parsons* Life o/MarsIiaU is based on mformation obtained directly from the discoverer, and must ever constitute a leading authority on the subject. P. L. Wimmer furnished a brief account oC the discovery to tlie Coloma Argus in 1855, which is reprinted in HittelVt Mining, 13. Mrs Wimmer s version, the result of an interview with Mary P. Winslow, was first printed in the 8. F, Bulkiin, Dec. 19, 1874, though the substance of a previous interview with another person in 1852 is given in the Oilroy Advocate, April 24, 1875. Another claas of authorities, as important as the foregoing, is composed of those who were the first to hear of the <li8- covery, and appeared on the ground immediately afterward. Foremost among these is Sutter. This veteran has at various times given accounts of the event to a number of persons, the best perhaps being those printed by J. Tyrwhitt Brooks in his Four Months among tfie (Jold-finaers, 40-71, in the Oilroy A dxH>' cafe ot Apr. 24, 1875, and in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 17, 1875, the latter taken from tlio Lancaxter Examiner. Sutter's most complete printed narra- tive appears, however, in Mulchings* Mag., ii. 194-8. But more important than any of these, l^ecause more detailed and prepared with greater care, is the version contained in the manuscript entitled Sutter's Personal ReminxB" cences, wlucli I personally obtained from his lips. The same maybe seid of those given in the manuscripts of John Bidwell, Cai\fomia I84I-S, and of Gregson, Jlvitorical Statement, both of whom were at New Helvetia when the news first reached there, and at once visited Coloma. Provoked by an article in the Oregon linlletin, with not very flattering reflections, Samuel Brannan ma<ie a statement in the Cnlutoga Tribune, which changed matters in no important particalar. To attempt to give a list of all who have touched upon
