so far beyond its value. We left them to their enjoyment, and proceeded on."
Says one who visited the Stanislaus in October 1848 of some natives he saw at work in that vicinity: "On the plain we fell in with the camp of Mr Murphy, who invited us into his tent, and set before us refreshments that would have graced a scene less wild than this. His tent is pitched in the midst of a small tribe of wild Indians who gather gold for him, and receive in return provisions and blankets. He knocks down two bullocks a day to furnish them with meat. Though never before within the wake of civilization, they respect Ids person and property. This, however, is to be ascribed in part to the fact that he has married the daughter of the chief—a young woman of many personal attractions, and full of that warm wild love which makes her the Haidee of the woods. She is the queen of the tribe, and walks among them with the air of one on whom authority sits as a native grace—a charm which all feel, and of which she seems the least conscious."
In a melancholy strain, which, coming from him approaches the grotesque, Sutter thus describes his experiences in mining with the natives: "Even the Indians had no more patience to work alone, in harvesting and threshing my large wheat crcp out, as the white men had all left, and other Indians had been engaged by some white men to work for them, and they commenced to have some gold for which they were buying all kinds of articles at enormous prices in the stores; which when my Indians saw this, they wished very much to go to the mountains and dig gold. At last I consented, got a number of wagons ready, loaded them with provisions and goods of all kinds, employed a clerk, and left with about one hundred Indians, and about fifty Kanakas who had joined those I brought with me from the Islands. The first camp was about ten miles above Mormon Island, on the south fork of the American river. In
