The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-04-21

CAPT. Suffers ACCOUNT OF THE GOLD Dis
covERY.-The following account of the original
gold discovery of California, which took place on
Capt Suffers land, is from an authentic work by
Or. J. T. Brooks, an Englishman, who passed some
months in the gold region: =.
l was sitting one afternoon, said the Captain,
just after my siesta, engaged, by the by, in writing
a letter to relation of mine at Lucerne, when
was interrupted by Mr.. Marshall gentleman
with whom had frequent business transactions-
bursting hurriedly into the room. From the unu-
sua agitation IN his manner, ina gined that some-
thing serious had occurred, and we Involuntary
do in this part of the world, at once glanced to
see if my rifle was in its proper place. You should
know thai the mere appearance of Mr.. Marshall at
that moment in the Fort was quite enough to sur
prise me, as he had but two days before left the
place to make some alterations in mill for saving
pine panks which he had just run up for me, some
miles higher up the Amerlcanos When he had
recovered himself a little, he told me that, how
ever great my surprise might be at his unexpected
temperance, it would be much greater when
heard the intelligence he had come to bring me.
Intelligence" he added, (which if properly pro-
flied by, would put us both in possession Of I'M
heard-of wealth-milons and millions of dollars.
In fact" / frankly own, when heard this, that
thought something had touched MarshallFs brain,
when suddenly all my misgivings were put an end
TO by his fnging on the table handful of scales
of pure virgin gold. l was fairly ihunderstruck,
and asked him to explain what all this meant, when
he went to say that, according to my instruction.
he had thrown the mll-whee out of gear, to let the
whole body of the water in the dam find passage
through the tail-race, which was previously 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 mass of sand and gravel carried off by The
force CT the current. &xN
Early in the morning after this took place, he
(Mr. MarshalD was walking along the left bank of
the stream, when he perceived something which he
at first took for piece of opa-a clear transparent
stone, very common here-glistening on one of the
spots laid bare by the crumbling away of the bank
He paid attention to this: but while he was CIV
ing directions to the woskmen, having observed
several similar gttering fragments, his curiosity
far excited, that he stopped down and picked
one of them up. Do you know, said Mr.. Marshall
to me, positively debated within myself two or
three times, whether l should take the trouble to
bend my back to pick up one of the pieces, and had
decided not doing SO, when, further on, another
glittering morsel caught my eye-the largest of the
pieces now before you. condescended to pick it
up, and to my astonshment found that it was a
thin scale of what appears to be pure gold. He
then gathered some twenty or thirty similar pieces,
which, on examination, convinced him that his
suggestions were right His first impression was,
that this gold had been lost buried there by some
Indian ttibe-perhaps some of those mysterious in
habtans of the West, of whom we have no ac-
count, but who dwelt on this continent centuries
ago, and built those cities and temples. the ruins of
which are scattered about these solitary wds.
On proceeding however, TO examine the neighbor-
ing soil, he discovered that it more or less
rtterous. This at Once decided him. He mounted
MS morse, and rode down to me fast as it would
carry him with the news. =