Marshall proposed that Sutter should return with
him to the mill that night, but the latter declined,
saying that he would be over the next day. It was
now supper- time, and still drizzling; would not the vis-
itor rest himself till morning ? No, he must be off
immediately; and without even waiting to eat, he
wrapped his sarape about him, mounted his horse, and
rode off into the rain and darkness. Sutter slept little
that night. Though he knew nothing of the magni-
tude of the affair, and did not fully realize the evils he
had presently to face, yet he felt there would soon be
enough of the fascination abroad to turn the heads of
his men, and to disarrange his plans. In a word, with
prophetic eye, as he expressed himself to me, he saw
that night the curse of the thing upon him.
On the morning of the 29th of January ^ Sutter
S resented in a condensed form. Some accounts assert that when Marshall esired the door to be locked Sutter was frightened, and looked about for his gun. The general assured me this was not the case. Neither was the mind of Marshall wrouglit into such a fever as many represent. His manner M'as hurried and excited, but he was sane enough. He was peculiar, and he wished to despatch this business and be back at the mill. Barstow, in his SkUfmerU, MS., 3, asserts that he did not rush down to the fort, but waited until he had business there. All the evidence indicates that neither Marshall nor Sutter had any idea, as yet, of the importance of the discovery. How could they have? There might not be more than a handful of gold-dust in the whole. Sierra, from any fact thus far appearing. See BidwelCa Cal\fornia 1841-8^ MS., 230; BigUrs Diary, MS., 64; Brooh* Four Months, 40-3; Par^om' Lift qf Marshail, 84-5; Hutchings* Mag., ii. 194. Gregson, SUUement, MS., 8, blacksmithing for Sutter when Marshall arrived, saw the gold in a greenish ounce vial, about half tilled. Bigler gives Marshall's own words, as repeated on his return to the mill. In every essential particular his account corresponds with that ffiven to me by Sutter.
- • The day on which Sutter followed Marshall to Coloma is questioned. In
his ReminiitcenceA, and his statement in HutchingH* Magazine, Sutter distinctly ■ays that he left for the saw-mill at seven o'clock on the morning after Mar- shall's visit to the fort; but in his Diary is written Feb. Ist, which would be the fourth day after the visit. Bigler, in his Diary, says that Sutter reached the mill on the third or fourth day after Marshall's return. Marshall shows his usual carelessness, or lack of memory, by stating that Sutter reached Coloma * about the 20th of February.' Discovery o/OoUl, in Iiut/:hlngH' Mag,, IL 201. Parsons is nearly as far wrong in saying that Sutter ' returned with Marshall to Coloma.' Life of Marshall, 86. Mrs Wimmer also says that
- Sutter came right up with Marshall. ' This is indeed partly true, as Marsliall
in his restlessness went back to meet Sutter, and of course came into camp with him. On the whole, I have determined to follow Sutter's words to me, as I know them to be as he gave them. If Sutter did not set out until Feb. Ist, then Marshall did not reach the mill until the 3lst of January, else Sut- ter's whole statement is errojieous.
