others forestall them. Where were the diggings of these Ohioans?
Early in the spring of this year, three Mexicans had struck it rich on Vanfleet creek, a little stream near to, and running parallel with Antoine creek. Between these two streams James Williams kept a store, where the lucky miners made deposits for safe-keeping. Williams, wishing to retire, notified all persons to remove their deposits. With the rest, the Mexicans came and took away their gold, which by this time amounted to seventy-five pounds in weight. Greedy eyes watched them as they went, and murderous feet followed them.
In the last party that set out from Antoine creek in search of the Ohio diggings was James W. Marshall. They had spent over a fortnight climbing rugged mountains, and stumbling through dark ravines; their food was almost gone, and they had turned their faces homeward, when, by an abrupt bend in the aboriginal trail which they had found, they entered a cool, grassy glen. So shaded was it, and so suddenly went they into it from the sunlight, that at first they did not see the horrors it contained—here a ghastly skeleton with a round hole in the skull; there another with a bullet through the heart; yonder a third whose feet had caught in the vines as the swift messenger of death had overtaken him from behind. The carcases of four horses, their packs and saddles unremoved, were found near by. One after another of these dismal objects Marshall's observant eye took in; then after a moment's pause, while a dark cloud gathered about his brow, he said, "Boys, we have found the Ohio diggings!"
Upon the discovery of gold within the domain recently acquired, the question arose, Shall foreigners be allowed equal privileges with American citizens in abstracting the precious metal?
It should be borne in mind that both the Spanish
