Richmond palladium., 1849-04-11

rThe following is Capt. Suffers ac-
count Of the first discovery of the gold in
California:
IL was sitting one afternoon. said the
captain, '.Just after my siesta, engaged, by
the by. in writing letter 10 a relation Of
mine at Lucerne, when ! was interrupted
By Mr. Marshall-a gentleman with whom
! had freqnent business Transactions
bursting hurriedly into the room. From
the unusual agitation in his manner, |
imagined that something serious had oc-
CURED, and as we involuntarlv do in this
part Of the world, at once glanced to see
il my rifle was in its proper place. You
should know that the mere appearance Of
Mr.. Mar shall, al that moment in the fort.
was quite enough 10 surprise me. as he
had but two days before left the place 10
make some alterations in mill for saw
ing pine planks, which he had just run up
for me some miles higher up the Amer-
canos. When he had recovered iIi,nsel,
little, he told me thar however great my
surprise might be at his unexpected APP
pearance, il would be much greater when
heard the intelligence he had come to
bring me. ''lntclligence." he added.
(which if properly proGted by, would put
both Of Us in possession of unhearI OF
wea!th-millions and millions and millions
Of dollars, in fact" frankly own, when
heard this. that thought something had
touched Marshall's 5 brain, when, suddenly,
all my misgivings were pu, 10 an end by
his finging on the table handful Of scales
of pure virgin gold. was fairly thunder
struck, and asked him to explain what all
Bi /, At
according to my instructions, he h had thrown
the mill wheel out of gear, to let the whole
body Of water in the dam find passage
through the tail-race, which was previous
ly too narrow to allow the water to run off
in sufficient quantity; whereby the wheel
was prevented from efficiently performing
its work. BY this alteration, the narrow
channel was considerably enlarged and a
mass Of sand and gravel carried otrby the
force Of the torrent. Early in the morn
ing after this took place, he (Mr. Mar
shall,) was walking along the left bank Of
the stream, when he preccived something
which he at first took for piece Of opal
a clear, transparent stone, very common
here-glittering on one of the spots laid
bare by the sudden crulnbling away of the
bank. lie paid no attention 10 this but
while he was giving directions to the work
men, having observed several similar gilt
'ering fragments, his curiosity was so far
excited that he stopped down and picked
one Of them up. ..Do you know" said
Mr.. Marshall, IL positively debated within
myself two or three times whether should
lake the trouble to bend my back to pick
up one Of the pieces, and had decided on
not doing SO, when, further on, another
glittering morsel caught my eye-the
largest Of the pieces now before YOU |
to pick it up. and TO my
astonishment found that it was a thin scale
Of what appears to be pure gold. lie then
gathered some twenty or thirty similar
pieces, which, on examination. convinced
him that his suPpositions were right. His
rst impression was that this gold had
been lost or buried there by some early
Indian tribe--perhaps some ofthose mys-
criOus inhabitants ofthe west of whom we
have no account, but who dwclt on this
continent centuries ago. and built those
cities and temples, the ruins of which are
scattered about these solitary wilds. On
however, to examine the neigh /
boring soil. he discovered that it was more
Or less auriferous. This at once decided
nim. lie mounted his horse, and rode
down to me as fast as it would carry him
with the news