his other affairs so arranored as to enable him to with-
stand the result. The men, indeed, were not yet
prepared to relinquish good wages for the uncertain-
ties of gold-gathering.
If only the land could be secured on which this gold was scattered — for probably it did not extend far in any direction — then interloping might be prevented, mining controlled, and the discovery made profitable. It was worth trying, at all events. Mexican grants being no longer possible, Sutter began by opening negotiations with the natives, after the manner of the English colonists on the other side of the continent. Calling a council of the Culumas and some of their neighbors, the lords aboriginal of those lands, Sutter and Marshall obtained from them a three years' lease of a tract some ten or twelve miles square, on payment of some shirts, hats, handkerchiefs, flour, and other articles of no great value, the natives meanwhile to be left unmolested in their homes.^ Sutter then re- turned to New Helvetia, and the great discovery was consummated.
- RUjlerH* Diary ^ MS., 66. Marshall speaks of this as the consummation
of *an agreement we had made with this tribe of Indians in the month of September previous, to wit, that we should live with them in peace on the same land.' Discovery ofOoUl, in Hutchings* Mag., ii. 200.
