their labor with Sutter and Marshall, who furnished
tools and provisions, Bigler and his associates rained
for two months, one mile below the saw-mill.^ They
stopped in the midst of their success, however, and
tearing themselves away from the fascination, they
started on June 17th in search of a suitable rendez-
vous, where all the saints might congregate prior to
beginning their last pilgrimage across the mountains.
They found such a spot the next day, near where
Placerville now stands, calling it Pleasant Valley.
Parties arrived one after aiiother, some driving loose
horses into a prepared timber corral, others swelling
the camp with wagons, cattle, and effects; and so the
gathering continued till the 3d of July, when a gen-
eral move was made. As the wagons rolled up along
the divide between the American River and the
Cosumnes on the national 4th, their cannon thundered
independence before the high Sierra. It was a strange
sight, exiles for their faith thus delighting to honor
the power that had driven them as outcasts into the
wilderness. *
. The party consisted of forty-five men and one woman, the wife of William Coory. It was by almost incredible toil that these brave men cut the way for their wagons, lifted them up the stony ascents, and let them down the steep declivities. Every step added to the danger, as heralded by the death of the three pioneers, Daniel Browett, Ezra H. Allen, and Henderson Cox, who were found killed by the Indians of the Sierra. And undaunted, though sor- rowful, and filled with many a foreboding, the survi- vors descended the eastern slope and wended their way through the thirsty desert; and there we must leave them and return to our gold-diggers.
- ' HaTing aa imderatanding with Mr Marshall to dig on shares. . .so long
as we worked on his claims or land.' Bigler ^ Diary of a Mormon, MS., 75. A Mormon writing in the Times and Transcripl sa^s: 'They undertook to make uBffive them half the gold we got for the privilese of digging on their land. l£is«waB afterwarcP reduced to one third, and in a few weeks was giTen up altogether.' Mrs Wimmer states that Sutter and Marshall claimed thirty per cent of the gold found on their grant; Brannan for a time secured ten per cent on the pretext of tithes.
